Question:
Having just reviewed A Beautiful Mind (http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/index.cgi?page=Review&id=1024&story=3547) for DVD Times, I'm convinced out of the fifty Best Picture Oscar winners of the last fifty years it's the worst. Remember, I've seen Braveheart and Shakespeare In Love.
Also, I won't have anything said against Rocky (http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/index.cgi?page=Review&id=46) ! Before you all start! ;)
People still consider the Oscars to be meaningful and reliable...? Christ.
Surely it's not as bad as Titanic?!
Thought James Horner contributed an excellent score on this one myself.
I think it's a much better film then Gladiator... :shocker:
There will never be a worse best pic winner than Titanic imho.
BRAVEHEART is quite possibly the worst film I ever seen let alone the worst one to win Best Picture at the Oscars.
If it weren't for the half-decent score it would be an utter failure on all levels !!!
Cue Mike & his trademark bashing of Doctor Zhivago & Lawrence Of Arabia ;)
Originally posted by RDNZL
Cue Mike & his trademark bashing of Doctor Zhivago & Lawrence Of Arabia ;)
Alas, Doctor Zhivago (http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/index.cgi?page=Review&id=410&story=2450) lost the 1965 Oscar to The Sound Of Music.
Titanic, Braveheart and now A Beautiful Mind..hmmm I wonder how much the great James Horner added to all of them..
A Beautiful Mind is definately up there with the worst film to win an Oscar, but nothing can and ever will beat Titanic.
Originally posted by Raphph
Alas, Doctor Zhivago (http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/index.cgi?page=Review&id=410&story=2450) lost the 1965 Oscar to The Sound Of Music.
OK OK .... but as soon as I bash BRAVEHEART it immediately makes me think Mike's loathing for these flicks for some reason :D
Originally posted by Dan Druff
Titanic, Braveheart and now A Beautiful Mind..hmmm I wonder how much the great James Horner added to all of them..
In the case of the first 2 named his scores are only good thing about either of them :D
Can't comment on the latter as I have no intention of ever watching it ;)
If you look at the past lists (http://www.oscar.com/legacy/pastwin/picture1.html), I would say an awful lot of Best Picture winners are as far away from my personal favourites as can be.
In the last 30 years I'd only choose The Silence of the Lambs, Amadeus, One Flew Over The Cookoo's Nest, The Godfather, and The French Connection as personal favs.
I thought 'Beautiful Mind' was a truely dreadful film but it's not quite a tedious as 'Kramer Vs Krammer' which i believe won best picture in the late 70's.
Loads and loads of awful choices (and that's only going back to the 60s). Mediocre films at best, and most of the them are total garbage.
<b>Lawrence of Arabia</b> ( thanks RDNZL)
<b>Midnight Cowboy
Oliver !
Kramer Vs Kramer
Ordinary People
Chariots Of Fire
Gandhi
Out Of <i>Arfrikar</i>
The Last Emperor
Rain Man
Driving Miss Daisy
Plays With Camera
Schindler's Oscar Guarantee
Forrest Gump
Braveheart
Titanic
Shakespeare In Love
A Beautiful Mind</b>
Absolute trash the lot of them. Give me a Herschel Gordon Lewis movie over these any day of the week.
The only good films to win Best Picture since 1980 have been <b>Amadeus, Platoon, The Silence of The Lambs, Unforgiven</b> and <b>The English Patient</b> - and even the last of those is arguable. I can tolerate <b>Terms Of Endearment</b> but it's upmarket Soap with some good dialogue and hardly a great movie. <b>Gladiator</b> isn't much cop either but it's not a disaster.
I'd have to disagree with Midnight Cowboy but the rest are pretty crappy.
Originally posted by Mike
<b>
Plays With Camera
</b>
:lol:
I still think that Driving Miss Daisy is the worst Oscar winner I have ever seen. Absolute drivel.
Titanic and Plays with Himself...oops, Camera (thanks Mike) are very close to tie for second.
Looking at Mike's list, the Academy love their "epics", don't they? Long running time guarantees nomination (except Heat).
What actually is wrong with Braveheart apart from the fact that it is a film that takes some pleasure in Brit bashing making out that we were a thoroughly horrible lot with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Personally Braveheart is one of my favourite films of all time with some absolutely superb battle sequences and a very good story overall plus of course James Horner's terrific score. Titanic I like as well and I think a lot of people have just jumped on the bandwagon to slag it off. Okay the romance story is a load of hokum but the actual sinking of the great ship makes for some terrific entertainment as we will those on board to save themselves. Seems to me that once someone gets some success other people are jealous of them and take any opportunity to slag them off.
I agree with darkAvenger - I really liked Braveheart, and find it puzzling that there's so much venom on this thread sprayed in its direction... Although the 'british bashing' point baffles me, any historian will tell you that the Brits slaughtered & pilaged aplenty during their colonisation perods of history...
Regarding A beautiful Mind, I absolutley agree - COMPLETE UTTER TOSS - I picked up the VCD from Coolashop, and it was knocked off before the 2nd disc - TOTAL *****.
Never mind the fact that Fellowship was in the short list...
Its been said that the Oscars aren't really a true testamony to the great films of the year, and the fact that ABM won best picture concretes this to the bottom of the nearest lake.
Since 1980, only the following films deserved such Oscar acclaim…
Titanic
The English Patient
Schindler’s List
Silence of The Lambs
Rain Man
And of course, Amadeus
Some are just as guilty of being Oscar-friendly manipulation movies (a comment often targeted at Schindler’s List – there is no more of it in List than, say, Platoon, and List is infinitely superior in other ways). Still good films, but shouldn’t have even been nominated, and insult the year they came from…
Platoon
Unforgiven
Terms of Endearment
Braveheart
Quite good, but come on…
Shakespeare In Love
Gladiator
These make A Beautiful Mind look like the unique collaboration between Milos Forman and Stanley Kubrick, with a script from Alan Moore. The Last Emperor is a bigger Oscar advert than anything Lasse Hallstrom ever made.
Ordinary People
Chariots of Fire
Ghandi
Out of Africa
The Last Emperor
Driving Miss Daisy
Dances With Wolves
Forrest Gump
American Beauty
Originally posted by McD
Since 1980, only the following films deserved such Oscar acclaim…
Titanic
The English Patient
Schindler’s List
Silence of The Lambs
Rain Man
And of course, Amadeus
Some are just as guilty of being Oscar-friendly manipulation movies (a comment often targeted at Schindler’s List – there is no more of it in List than, say Platoon, and List is infinitely superior in other ways). Still good films, but shouldn’t have even been nominated, and insult the year the came from…
Platoon
Unforgiven
Terms of Endearment
Braveheart
Quite good, but come on…
Shakespeare In Love
Gladiator
These make A Beautiful Mind look like the unique collaboration between Milos Forman and Stanley Kubrick, with a script from Alan Moore. The Last Emperor is a bigger Oscar advert than anything Lasse Hallstrom ever made.
Ordinary People
Chariots of Fire
Ghandi
Out of Africa
The Last Emperor
Driving Miss Daisy
Dances With Wolves
Forrest Gump
American Beauty
I would personally put Unforgiven way above any of your 'deserved' titles. (only Amadeus I reckon is a great film from your top titles)
An absolutely fantastic film and one of the last true great westerns with fantstic performances by near enough everyone involved.
While ABM is not bad at all, it is just a non-remarkable true life yarn, which is very average. I am staggered it won best pic above LotR, but I am truly baffled how Ron Howard took Best Director ahead of Peter Jackson. Obviously, I don't know what diredting is!
Originally posted by mr_woo
An absolutely fantastic film and one of the last true great westerns with fantstic performances by near enough everyone involved.
Not Richard Harris. Not Morgan Freeman.
Full marks to Hackman (even if he did steal Jack Lemmon's Oscar) and Eastwood was.... Eastwood! I quite liked the little theme tune which I believe CLint wrote himself, but the film should never have been an Oscar winner. (I haven't seen it since it's theatrical release though)
I will concede though, that as much as I think Rain Man is a fabulous piece of work, it shouldn't have won that year. Here come two words for you, Mr Woo.... Midnight Run!
Originally posted by McD
I will concede though, that as much as I think Rain Man is a fabulous piece of work, it shouldn't have won that year. Here come two words for you, Mr Woo.... Midnight Run!
How dare you mention some sort of comedy buddy movie in an oscars thread.... ;)
Totally agree though, on a pure enjoyment level Midnight Run should have won an oscar - it's probably the best buddy movie EVER! (IMO of course :) ) Plus Grodins performance is so hilariously deadpan I think he would make even Bill Murray blush. :lol:
A Beautiful Mind is my 2nd fav film of all time,next to shawshank.I cant belive their is so much hostility against it,these days if you tell a decent story with a happy ending its pap and made for tv rubbish,this was not the case 40 years ago,when films like BEAUTIFUL MIND were praised all the time,i think its a disgrace now that a film is only a good film if their are guns,murder and elfs in it,i think it has a lot to do with society as conservatism is dying.I think the biggest joke of the oscars was Washington winning over Crowe,you want to talk about oscars and politics and it losing face,he only won it cause he was black.Spike Lee voted for Washingon and Berry as his oscar picks,thats racist he picked them cause they were black and everyone know's it,if a white guy picked crowe because of his color their would be outcry but its ok for the bastion of social commentries and discrimination lee to do it.(he didnt pick smith,because smith picked mann over him to do Ali,another peice of evidence about Lee trademark bitterness and bulls*it
P.S I thought it portrayed mental illness(schzioph.....) very well,seeing ive known some one in my family with it,perhaps if uhad experianced how bad dillusions can be,some of you would not call it "tosh" or "crap"
Originally posted by Kif
People still consider the Oscars to be meaningful and reliable...? Christ.
What he said, we usually have this argument near the oscars the whole concept is wrong and the true winner never wins. But me saying this is wrong because it is the opinion of the academy and if the people within its view is manipluted by how many adverts they see/or what was last on at the cinema/how much money they were paid. It is still there view. I must admit I enjoyed a Beautiful Mind at the cinema but I wouldn't want to own it and I agree it should not have won the best oscar. But I would have a hard time splitting my vote Between Gosford Park/The Fellowship of The Ring and/Artficial Intelligiance(and that wasn't even up which I was very disappointed about, even tho there seems to be some hatred of it!)
Originally posted by CookieMonster
A Beautiful Mind is my 2nd fav film of all time,next to shawshank.I cant belive their is so much hostility against it,these days if you tell a decent story with a happy ending its pap and made for tv rubbish,this was not the case 40 years ago,when films like BEAUTIFUL MIND were praised all the time,i think its a disgrace now that a film is only a good film if their are guns,murder and elfs in it,i think it has a lot to do with society as conservatism is dying.I think the biggest joke of the oscars was Washington winning over Crowe,you want to talk about oscars and politics and it losing face,he only won it cause he was black.Spike Lee voted for Washingon and Berry as his oscar picks,thats racist he picked them cause they were black and everyone know's it,if a white guy picked crowe because of his color their would be outcry but its ok for the bastion of social commentries and discrimination lee to do it.(he didnt pick smith,because smith picked mann over him to do Ali,another peice of evidence about Lee trademark bitterness and bulls*it
P.S I thought it portrayed mental illness(schzioph.....) very well,seeing ive known some one in my family with it,perhaps if uhad experianced how bad dillusions can be,some of you would not call it "tosh" or "crap"
The reason I can't stand A Beautiful Mind is that it is so obviously a film made with the oscars in mind, especially shown by the fact that Ron Howard directed it. (a man who seems to love these sentimental type films)
The performances are fine, I just have a real problem with them sugar coating over the facts - I don't want to see some sentimental piece of garbage get some oscars. I would rather have seen a film like Lord Of The Rings win simply because Jackson never made it thinking 'Oh I can get an oscar for this!' as he had been working on it for so long trying to persuade people to take up the project. He only managed to get LOTR made as New Line decided to take a risk which has obviously paid off.
A Beautiful Mind was very likely set up as a potential 'oscar worthy' film from the early script stage, shown by the fact that is has more sugar than a Cadburys chocolate factory.
Beautiful Mind was typical run of the mill boring rubbish from Howard but better paced and edited than his usual efforts. Howard just doesn't have the talent to be special.
LOTR was also unoriginal but it was amazingly put together and a massive effort was needed from Jackson to make it look and feel as good as it did.
Schindler's List has to be the worst "Best Picture" ever .
Is it even physically possible to make a worse movie than that ?
ABM is NOT a good depiction of people with mental health problems. AMB presents mental health problems as fun even glamorous. If you want to see a film about the reality of mental health problems then see Spider when it goes on general release.
Scott
Originally posted by SShaw
ABM is NOT a good depiction of people with mental health problems. AMB presents mental health problems as fun even glamorous. If you want to see a film about the reality of mental health problems then see Spider when it goes on general release.
Scott
This is from a review on the IMDB.
<i>Summary: A movie with a difference - It's realistic.
I went along to the movies not really wanting to see this movie, thinking it was a 'girly' movie, one which had more technical skill rather than a storyline. I was surprised more than anything I could imagine.
I have seen a lot of movies in my time, but this movie just took me by storm. Its uniqueness, ironically enough because it was based on a real life situation was a refreshing change from the usual Hollywood blockbuster. This movie provided a brilliant (pardon the pun) insight into many aspects of a genius at work.
This movie touched me on many levels. The psychology of the movie was intriguing, the mathematical philosophies was actually realistic from my own experience, and the icing on the cake making the movie stand out was surprisingly the humanistic side of Love. While love is a common basis in most movies, the interaction of this theme with other aspects of the plot was planned phenomenlly.
As for the cast, I have never noticed the actual difference in skill between many actors/actresses before. I like Mel Gibson, Tom Cruise etc, but I wouldn't be able to pinpoint a classic actor's performance. But Russell Crowe in this film showed me what it was like to act in a way where I was in awe of his skill in playing this character, especially when considering the extreme difference from characters in his other movies such as the Gladiator and The Insider. Russell Crowe was one of the big reasons this movie was so brilliant. Added to that the stellar performances of Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris and Adam Goldberg, and this made for the 'perfect' movie.
A Beautiful Mind was by far the most original, intelligent and entertaining movie I have ever seen. And this from a movie I didn't expect big things from. Kudos to Ron Howard, the cast and the crew of this movie. It was truly worthy of the Oscar, and Russell Crowe was definately the most deserving of this production team to miss out on the highest accolade. Perhaps politics played a bigger part than I previously would have thought.</I>
The "It's Realistic" tag made me laugh out loud. :D
SSHAW How does it paint mental health problems as fun??
-When Alicia smashes her bathroom mirror because John cannot communicate with her?
-When John has to go through the painful shock treatment?
-When the baby is nearly Killed cause john cannot tell reality from fiction
Im sorry but apart from the odd joke about his condition ie is he their im not good with new people(at the end),it does not paint it as glam that is the dumbest thing ive ever heard,cannot you point out some area's were the movie show's mental illness as fun?
And as for those people who claim the movie was made with OSCAR intention,S.LIST by Spielberg was done exactly the same way in my opinion,the words of "a black and white epic depicting the horrors and bravey of the holocaust" which sums up S.LIST is possible the most oscaresque storyline ever,he knew he would get an oscar for it.And no on ever moans about S.LIST! like they have about B.MIND
Oy - it has my mate Anthony Rapp in it
(err - but I couldn't bear to even go see the film, to be honest)
Could anything possibly be worse than Shakespeare in Love aka Benny (Hill) does the Bard?
Originally posted by SvenL
Schindler's List has to be the worst "Best Picture" ever .
Go SvenL...
...from Germany!
Originally posted by SvenL
Is it even physically possible to make a worse movie than that ?
Spielberg himself manages it about once a year. Have you seen Amistad? Bloody hell!
Originally posted by SShaw
ABM is NOT a good depiction of people with mental health problems. AMB presents mental health problems as fun even glamorous. If you want to see a film about the reality of mental health problems then see Spider when it goes on general release.
Scott
As a piece of film-making, I thought it was rather weak, but I think you're being rather harsh on it with your comment above. Firstly, I don't think its primary aim was to be a depiction of people with mental health problems, but rather of one exceptionally clever man who develops a mental health problem, and partially overcomes it-Nash's story is hardly one you'd choose if your purpose was primarily to depict mental illness in general.
Having said that, I thought it handled many of the issues involved with psychotic illness rather well. From non-compliance with medication due to sexual side-effects, to showing what having no insight into being ill might be like (by denying the audience this insight initially), to trying to understand why people with schizophrenia may appear threatening, even to their families. The only thing that struck a major false note was his simultaneous auditory and visual hallucinations-but this was used as a handy cinematic device, and therefore forgivable, if not accurate. The sugar-coated pill one had to swallow to watch the film is another matter entirely.......
Dances With Wolves :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Nuff said.
i think its a disgrace now that a film is only a good film if their are guns,murder and elfs in it,
And what more do you want ?!
Nothing to offer particlularly other than that I have a deep fondness for 'The English Patient', supposedly tricky to film but faithful to the novel in many respects and smartly cast. Seems to have been largely forgotten these days, which is a shame but heartening to see no-one hates it. And not an elf in sight.
IMHO A Beautiful Mind is a good film - nothing more. A definite '3 out of 5' I think. I enjoying it but have no great desire to buy the DVD or even see it again.
In contrast to some other posts previously I think the film did deserve an Oscar, but not any of those it actually received. I found Crowe's performance amazing and can't even understand how anyone could compare it with Washington in Training Day, let alone proclaim Washington's to be superior.
In no way, never, ever, did Beautiful Mind deserve the 'Best Picture' and 'Best Director' Oscars, especially against what I though was easily the best film of last year, The Fellowship of the Ring.
Originally posted by Paul2
The only thing that struck a major false note was his simultaneous auditory and visual hallucinations-but this was used as a handy cinematic device, and therefore forgivable, if not accurate.
Are you saying that none of the nutbags out there 'imagine' (little Ronnie reference there) they both 'see' and 'talk to' someone who aint there at the same time? Didn't know that.
But is John Nash a special case in this instance? Not only is he gone-down-the-road wacko, but he's also a genius. And most importantly, and beautifully hinted at by Howard without telling us in subtitles, he's also involved in some mega-serious steroid abuse!
did i just see american beauty on a list of "not deserving an oscar" :confused:
and all the titanic bashing!! I quite liked titanic...maybe it's just the familiarity of sitting through it while my sister watches it for the 1000th time or something...the only problem i have with it was that it took best picture away from the much more deserving LA Confidential...
Have to agree with you tanc, although I do like Titanic I do think that LA Confidential was far more deserving of winning the Oscar than James Cameron's film was. I was trying to think what films Titanic was up against that year and as soon as I saw your post I just had to agree.
Have to agree with you tanc, although I do like Titanic I do think that LA Confidential was far more deserving of winning the Oscar than James Cameron's film was. I was trying to think what films Titanic was up against that year and as soon as I saw your post I just had to agree.
Have to agree with you tanc, although I do like Titanic I do think that LA Confidential was far more deserving of winning the Oscar than James Cameron's film was. I was trying to think what films Titanic was up against that year and as soon as I saw your post I just had to agree.
Originally posted by DarkAvenger
What actually is wrong with Braveheart apart from the fact that it is a film that takes some pleasure in Brit bashing
ahem, English bashing.
its slip ups like that that helps feed the anti-english sentiment of the film (which i love btw)
I stand corrected: English Bashing. Looks like I made a triple post, server was playing up a bit so did not know what was going on.
Also, I won't have anything said against Rocky (http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/index.cgi?page=Review&id=46) ! Before you all start! ;)
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People still consider the Oscars to be meaningful and reliable...? Christ.
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Surely it's not as bad as Titanic?!
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Thought James Horner contributed an excellent score on this one myself.
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I think it's a much better film then Gladiator... :shocker:
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There will never be a worse best pic winner than Titanic imho.
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BRAVEHEART is quite possibly the worst film I ever seen let alone the worst one to win Best Picture at the Oscars.
If it weren't for the half-decent score it would be an utter failure on all levels !!!
Cue Mike & his trademark bashing of Doctor Zhivago & Lawrence Of Arabia ;)
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Originally posted by RDNZL
Cue Mike & his trademark bashing of Doctor Zhivago & Lawrence Of Arabia ;)
Alas, Doctor Zhivago (http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/index.cgi?page=Review&id=410&story=2450) lost the 1965 Oscar to The Sound Of Music.
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Titanic, Braveheart and now A Beautiful Mind..hmmm I wonder how much the great James Horner added to all of them..
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A Beautiful Mind is definately up there with the worst film to win an Oscar, but nothing can and ever will beat Titanic.
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Originally posted by Raphph
Alas, Doctor Zhivago (http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/index.cgi?page=Review&id=410&story=2450) lost the 1965 Oscar to The Sound Of Music.
OK OK .... but as soon as I bash BRAVEHEART it immediately makes me think Mike's loathing for these flicks for some reason :D
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Originally posted by Dan Druff
Titanic, Braveheart and now A Beautiful Mind..hmmm I wonder how much the great James Horner added to all of them..
In the case of the first 2 named his scores are only good thing about either of them :D
Can't comment on the latter as I have no intention of ever watching it ;)
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If you look at the past lists (http://www.oscar.com/legacy/pastwin/picture1.html), I would say an awful lot of Best Picture winners are as far away from my personal favourites as can be.
In the last 30 years I'd only choose The Silence of the Lambs, Amadeus, One Flew Over The Cookoo's Nest, The Godfather, and The French Connection as personal favs.
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I thought 'Beautiful Mind' was a truely dreadful film but it's not quite a tedious as 'Kramer Vs Krammer' which i believe won best picture in the late 70's.
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Loads and loads of awful choices (and that's only going back to the 60s). Mediocre films at best, and most of the them are total garbage.
<b>Lawrence of Arabia</b> ( thanks RDNZL)
<b>Midnight Cowboy
Oliver !
Kramer Vs Kramer
Ordinary People
Chariots Of Fire
Gandhi
Out Of <i>Arfrikar</i>
The Last Emperor
Rain Man
Driving Miss Daisy
Plays With Camera
Schindler's Oscar Guarantee
Forrest Gump
Braveheart
Titanic
Shakespeare In Love
A Beautiful Mind</b>
Absolute trash the lot of them. Give me a Herschel Gordon Lewis movie over these any day of the week.
The only good films to win Best Picture since 1980 have been <b>Amadeus, Platoon, The Silence of The Lambs, Unforgiven</b> and <b>The English Patient</b> - and even the last of those is arguable. I can tolerate <b>Terms Of Endearment</b> but it's upmarket Soap with some good dialogue and hardly a great movie. <b>Gladiator</b> isn't much cop either but it's not a disaster.
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I'd have to disagree with Midnight Cowboy but the rest are pretty crappy.
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Originally posted by Mike
<b>
Plays With Camera
</b>
:lol:
I still think that Driving Miss Daisy is the worst Oscar winner I have ever seen. Absolute drivel.
Titanic and Plays with Himself...oops, Camera (thanks Mike) are very close to tie for second.
Looking at Mike's list, the Academy love their "epics", don't they? Long running time guarantees nomination (except Heat).
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What actually is wrong with Braveheart apart from the fact that it is a film that takes some pleasure in Brit bashing making out that we were a thoroughly horrible lot with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Personally Braveheart is one of my favourite films of all time with some absolutely superb battle sequences and a very good story overall plus of course James Horner's terrific score. Titanic I like as well and I think a lot of people have just jumped on the bandwagon to slag it off. Okay the romance story is a load of hokum but the actual sinking of the great ship makes for some terrific entertainment as we will those on board to save themselves. Seems to me that once someone gets some success other people are jealous of them and take any opportunity to slag them off.
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I agree with darkAvenger - I really liked Braveheart, and find it puzzling that there's so much venom on this thread sprayed in its direction... Although the 'british bashing' point baffles me, any historian will tell you that the Brits slaughtered & pilaged aplenty during their colonisation perods of history...
Regarding A beautiful Mind, I absolutley agree - COMPLETE UTTER TOSS - I picked up the VCD from Coolashop, and it was knocked off before the 2nd disc - TOTAL *****.
Never mind the fact that Fellowship was in the short list...
Its been said that the Oscars aren't really a true testamony to the great films of the year, and the fact that ABM won best picture concretes this to the bottom of the nearest lake.
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Since 1980, only the following films deserved such Oscar acclaim…
Titanic
The English Patient
Schindler’s List
Silence of The Lambs
Rain Man
And of course, Amadeus
Some are just as guilty of being Oscar-friendly manipulation movies (a comment often targeted at Schindler’s List – there is no more of it in List than, say, Platoon, and List is infinitely superior in other ways). Still good films, but shouldn’t have even been nominated, and insult the year they came from…
Platoon
Unforgiven
Terms of Endearment
Braveheart
Quite good, but come on…
Shakespeare In Love
Gladiator
These make A Beautiful Mind look like the unique collaboration between Milos Forman and Stanley Kubrick, with a script from Alan Moore. The Last Emperor is a bigger Oscar advert than anything Lasse Hallstrom ever made.
Ordinary People
Chariots of Fire
Ghandi
Out of Africa
The Last Emperor
Driving Miss Daisy
Dances With Wolves
Forrest Gump
American Beauty
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Originally posted by McD
Since 1980, only the following films deserved such Oscar acclaim…
Titanic
The English Patient
Schindler’s List
Silence of The Lambs
Rain Man
And of course, Amadeus
Some are just as guilty of being Oscar-friendly manipulation movies (a comment often targeted at Schindler’s List – there is no more of it in List than, say Platoon, and List is infinitely superior in other ways). Still good films, but shouldn’t have even been nominated, and insult the year the came from…
Platoon
Unforgiven
Terms of Endearment
Braveheart
Quite good, but come on…
Shakespeare In Love
Gladiator
These make A Beautiful Mind look like the unique collaboration between Milos Forman and Stanley Kubrick, with a script from Alan Moore. The Last Emperor is a bigger Oscar advert than anything Lasse Hallstrom ever made.
Ordinary People
Chariots of Fire
Ghandi
Out of Africa
The Last Emperor
Driving Miss Daisy
Dances With Wolves
Forrest Gump
American Beauty
I would personally put Unforgiven way above any of your 'deserved' titles. (only Amadeus I reckon is a great film from your top titles)
An absolutely fantastic film and one of the last true great westerns with fantstic performances by near enough everyone involved.
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While ABM is not bad at all, it is just a non-remarkable true life yarn, which is very average. I am staggered it won best pic above LotR, but I am truly baffled how Ron Howard took Best Director ahead of Peter Jackson. Obviously, I don't know what diredting is!
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Originally posted by mr_woo
An absolutely fantastic film and one of the last true great westerns with fantstic performances by near enough everyone involved.
Not Richard Harris. Not Morgan Freeman.
Full marks to Hackman (even if he did steal Jack Lemmon's Oscar) and Eastwood was.... Eastwood! I quite liked the little theme tune which I believe CLint wrote himself, but the film should never have been an Oscar winner. (I haven't seen it since it's theatrical release though)
I will concede though, that as much as I think Rain Man is a fabulous piece of work, it shouldn't have won that year. Here come two words for you, Mr Woo.... Midnight Run!
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Originally posted by McD
I will concede though, that as much as I think Rain Man is a fabulous piece of work, it shouldn't have won that year. Here come two words for you, Mr Woo.... Midnight Run!
How dare you mention some sort of comedy buddy movie in an oscars thread.... ;)
Totally agree though, on a pure enjoyment level Midnight Run should have won an oscar - it's probably the best buddy movie EVER! (IMO of course :) ) Plus Grodins performance is so hilariously deadpan I think he would make even Bill Murray blush. :lol:
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A Beautiful Mind is my 2nd fav film of all time,next to shawshank.I cant belive their is so much hostility against it,these days if you tell a decent story with a happy ending its pap and made for tv rubbish,this was not the case 40 years ago,when films like BEAUTIFUL MIND were praised all the time,i think its a disgrace now that a film is only a good film if their are guns,murder and elfs in it,i think it has a lot to do with society as conservatism is dying.I think the biggest joke of the oscars was Washington winning over Crowe,you want to talk about oscars and politics and it losing face,he only won it cause he was black.Spike Lee voted for Washingon and Berry as his oscar picks,thats racist he picked them cause they were black and everyone know's it,if a white guy picked crowe because of his color their would be outcry but its ok for the bastion of social commentries and discrimination lee to do it.(he didnt pick smith,because smith picked mann over him to do Ali,another peice of evidence about Lee trademark bitterness and bulls*it
P.S I thought it portrayed mental illness(schzioph.....) very well,seeing ive known some one in my family with it,perhaps if uhad experianced how bad dillusions can be,some of you would not call it "tosh" or "crap"
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Originally posted by Kif
People still consider the Oscars to be meaningful and reliable...? Christ.
What he said, we usually have this argument near the oscars the whole concept is wrong and the true winner never wins. But me saying this is wrong because it is the opinion of the academy and if the people within its view is manipluted by how many adverts they see/or what was last on at the cinema/how much money they were paid. It is still there view. I must admit I enjoyed a Beautiful Mind at the cinema but I wouldn't want to own it and I agree it should not have won the best oscar. But I would have a hard time splitting my vote Between Gosford Park/The Fellowship of The Ring and/Artficial Intelligiance(and that wasn't even up which I was very disappointed about, even tho there seems to be some hatred of it!)
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Originally posted by CookieMonster
A Beautiful Mind is my 2nd fav film of all time,next to shawshank.I cant belive their is so much hostility against it,these days if you tell a decent story with a happy ending its pap and made for tv rubbish,this was not the case 40 years ago,when films like BEAUTIFUL MIND were praised all the time,i think its a disgrace now that a film is only a good film if their are guns,murder and elfs in it,i think it has a lot to do with society as conservatism is dying.I think the biggest joke of the oscars was Washington winning over Crowe,you want to talk about oscars and politics and it losing face,he only won it cause he was black.Spike Lee voted for Washingon and Berry as his oscar picks,thats racist he picked them cause they were black and everyone know's it,if a white guy picked crowe because of his color their would be outcry but its ok for the bastion of social commentries and discrimination lee to do it.(he didnt pick smith,because smith picked mann over him to do Ali,another peice of evidence about Lee trademark bitterness and bulls*it
P.S I thought it portrayed mental illness(schzioph.....) very well,seeing ive known some one in my family with it,perhaps if uhad experianced how bad dillusions can be,some of you would not call it "tosh" or "crap"
The reason I can't stand A Beautiful Mind is that it is so obviously a film made with the oscars in mind, especially shown by the fact that Ron Howard directed it. (a man who seems to love these sentimental type films)
The performances are fine, I just have a real problem with them sugar coating over the facts - I don't want to see some sentimental piece of garbage get some oscars. I would rather have seen a film like Lord Of The Rings win simply because Jackson never made it thinking 'Oh I can get an oscar for this!' as he had been working on it for so long trying to persuade people to take up the project. He only managed to get LOTR made as New Line decided to take a risk which has obviously paid off.
A Beautiful Mind was very likely set up as a potential 'oscar worthy' film from the early script stage, shown by the fact that is has more sugar than a Cadburys chocolate factory.
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Beautiful Mind was typical run of the mill boring rubbish from Howard but better paced and edited than his usual efforts. Howard just doesn't have the talent to be special.
LOTR was also unoriginal but it was amazingly put together and a massive effort was needed from Jackson to make it look and feel as good as it did.
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Schindler's List has to be the worst "Best Picture" ever .
Is it even physically possible to make a worse movie than that ?
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ABM is NOT a good depiction of people with mental health problems. AMB presents mental health problems as fun even glamorous. If you want to see a film about the reality of mental health problems then see Spider when it goes on general release.
Scott
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Originally posted by SShaw
ABM is NOT a good depiction of people with mental health problems. AMB presents mental health problems as fun even glamorous. If you want to see a film about the reality of mental health problems then see Spider when it goes on general release.
Scott
This is from a review on the IMDB.
<i>Summary: A movie with a difference - It's realistic.
I went along to the movies not really wanting to see this movie, thinking it was a 'girly' movie, one which had more technical skill rather than a storyline. I was surprised more than anything I could imagine.
I have seen a lot of movies in my time, but this movie just took me by storm. Its uniqueness, ironically enough because it was based on a real life situation was a refreshing change from the usual Hollywood blockbuster. This movie provided a brilliant (pardon the pun) insight into many aspects of a genius at work.
This movie touched me on many levels. The psychology of the movie was intriguing, the mathematical philosophies was actually realistic from my own experience, and the icing on the cake making the movie stand out was surprisingly the humanistic side of Love. While love is a common basis in most movies, the interaction of this theme with other aspects of the plot was planned phenomenlly.
As for the cast, I have never noticed the actual difference in skill between many actors/actresses before. I like Mel Gibson, Tom Cruise etc, but I wouldn't be able to pinpoint a classic actor's performance. But Russell Crowe in this film showed me what it was like to act in a way where I was in awe of his skill in playing this character, especially when considering the extreme difference from characters in his other movies such as the Gladiator and The Insider. Russell Crowe was one of the big reasons this movie was so brilliant. Added to that the stellar performances of Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris and Adam Goldberg, and this made for the 'perfect' movie.
A Beautiful Mind was by far the most original, intelligent and entertaining movie I have ever seen. And this from a movie I didn't expect big things from. Kudos to Ron Howard, the cast and the crew of this movie. It was truly worthy of the Oscar, and Russell Crowe was definately the most deserving of this production team to miss out on the highest accolade. Perhaps politics played a bigger part than I previously would have thought.</I>
The "It's Realistic" tag made me laugh out loud. :D
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SSHAW How does it paint mental health problems as fun??
-When Alicia smashes her bathroom mirror because John cannot communicate with her?
-When John has to go through the painful shock treatment?
-When the baby is nearly Killed cause john cannot tell reality from fiction
Im sorry but apart from the odd joke about his condition ie is he their im not good with new people(at the end),it does not paint it as glam that is the dumbest thing ive ever heard,cannot you point out some area's were the movie show's mental illness as fun?
And as for those people who claim the movie was made with OSCAR intention,S.LIST by Spielberg was done exactly the same way in my opinion,the words of "a black and white epic depicting the horrors and bravey of the holocaust" which sums up S.LIST is possible the most oscaresque storyline ever,he knew he would get an oscar for it.And no on ever moans about S.LIST! like they have about B.MIND
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Oy - it has my mate Anthony Rapp in it
(err - but I couldn't bear to even go see the film, to be honest)
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Could anything possibly be worse than Shakespeare in Love aka Benny (Hill) does the Bard?
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Originally posted by SvenL
Schindler's List has to be the worst "Best Picture" ever .
Go SvenL...
...from Germany!
Originally posted by SvenL
Is it even physically possible to make a worse movie than that ?
Spielberg himself manages it about once a year. Have you seen Amistad? Bloody hell!
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Originally posted by SShaw
ABM is NOT a good depiction of people with mental health problems. AMB presents mental health problems as fun even glamorous. If you want to see a film about the reality of mental health problems then see Spider when it goes on general release.
Scott
As a piece of film-making, I thought it was rather weak, but I think you're being rather harsh on it with your comment above. Firstly, I don't think its primary aim was to be a depiction of people with mental health problems, but rather of one exceptionally clever man who develops a mental health problem, and partially overcomes it-Nash's story is hardly one you'd choose if your purpose was primarily to depict mental illness in general.
Having said that, I thought it handled many of the issues involved with psychotic illness rather well. From non-compliance with medication due to sexual side-effects, to showing what having no insight into being ill might be like (by denying the audience this insight initially), to trying to understand why people with schizophrenia may appear threatening, even to their families. The only thing that struck a major false note was his simultaneous auditory and visual hallucinations-but this was used as a handy cinematic device, and therefore forgivable, if not accurate. The sugar-coated pill one had to swallow to watch the film is another matter entirely.......
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Dances With Wolves :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Nuff said.
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i think its a disgrace now that a film is only a good film if their are guns,murder and elfs in it,
And what more do you want ?!
Nothing to offer particlularly other than that I have a deep fondness for 'The English Patient', supposedly tricky to film but faithful to the novel in many respects and smartly cast. Seems to have been largely forgotten these days, which is a shame but heartening to see no-one hates it. And not an elf in sight.
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IMHO A Beautiful Mind is a good film - nothing more. A definite '3 out of 5' I think. I enjoying it but have no great desire to buy the DVD or even see it again.
In contrast to some other posts previously I think the film did deserve an Oscar, but not any of those it actually received. I found Crowe's performance amazing and can't even understand how anyone could compare it with Washington in Training Day, let alone proclaim Washington's to be superior.
In no way, never, ever, did Beautiful Mind deserve the 'Best Picture' and 'Best Director' Oscars, especially against what I though was easily the best film of last year, The Fellowship of the Ring.
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Originally posted by Paul2
The only thing that struck a major false note was his simultaneous auditory and visual hallucinations-but this was used as a handy cinematic device, and therefore forgivable, if not accurate.
Are you saying that none of the nutbags out there 'imagine' (little Ronnie reference there) they both 'see' and 'talk to' someone who aint there at the same time? Didn't know that.
But is John Nash a special case in this instance? Not only is he gone-down-the-road wacko, but he's also a genius. And most importantly, and beautifully hinted at by Howard without telling us in subtitles, he's also involved in some mega-serious steroid abuse!
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did i just see american beauty on a list of "not deserving an oscar" :confused:
and all the titanic bashing!! I quite liked titanic...maybe it's just the familiarity of sitting through it while my sister watches it for the 1000th time or something...the only problem i have with it was that it took best picture away from the much more deserving LA Confidential...
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Have to agree with you tanc, although I do like Titanic I do think that LA Confidential was far more deserving of winning the Oscar than James Cameron's film was. I was trying to think what films Titanic was up against that year and as soon as I saw your post I just had to agree.
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Have to agree with you tanc, although I do like Titanic I do think that LA Confidential was far more deserving of winning the Oscar than James Cameron's film was. I was trying to think what films Titanic was up against that year and as soon as I saw your post I just had to agree.
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Have to agree with you tanc, although I do like Titanic I do think that LA Confidential was far more deserving of winning the Oscar than James Cameron's film was. I was trying to think what films Titanic was up against that year and as soon as I saw your post I just had to agree.
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Originally posted by DarkAvenger
What actually is wrong with Braveheart apart from the fact that it is a film that takes some pleasure in Brit bashing
ahem, English bashing.
its slip ups like that that helps feed the anti-english sentiment of the film (which i love btw)
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I stand corrected: English Bashing. Looks like I made a triple post, server was playing up a bit so did not know what was going on.
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