So the Oscars are a week away, and naturally the topic around this time people always bring up is what movie this year is going to get snubbed in one way or another. People like to look back on previous winners and bitch about how some movies deserved to win over others and all that. It seems like almost every year, the Academy fucks up and gives the award to the wrong movie. Just curious what some of you think, as well as some movies you believe are justifiably worthy of Best Picture.

I'll start off with the movies I feel are complete bullshit winners. Look no further than 1980's Ordinary People. What a disappointing movie when compared to the other movies that came out that year, especially Raging Bull, which I still believe is Scorsese's masterpiece. Also The Elephant Man lost of this dung heap. Not even Donald Sutherland could save this movie from being really mediocre. It's certainly not the worst movie to win Best Picture (that would go to The Deer Hunter), it's certainly a glaring example of favoritism on behalf of the Academy.

The very next year, yet another boring stupid movie wins; Chariots of Fire. I'm not the kind of person who gets easily bored with movies, but Jesus H. Christ this movie felt like 4 hours. I don't feel that the Academy played favoritism here, but I guess they wanted a shitty period piece to win. What's bullshit is that it won over fucking Raiders of the Lost Ark. Sure, it's an action movie...but come on, it was a lot more than that and it truly holds the test of time, unlike Chariots. To add insult to injury, John fuckin' Williams also lost to Chariots for Best Original Score.

The Academy sure does love Robert Redford movie vehicles, because they decided to award 1985's Out of Africa with the win. That would be good if there weren't two other superior movies in The Color Purple and Witness, which should have won. And Prizzi's Honor shouldn't have even been fucking nominated! I'm not going to go on about this one, since it is boring, but seriously...fuck you Robert Redford!

1996...The English Patient. Let's see, Fargo, Shine, Jerry Maguire, Slingblade, The People vs. Larry Flynt, and The Rock were all better than this movie. You all know it.

Of course everyone knows about Titanic and how much money it got and all the awards, all the acclaim, all the effect, "I'm the king of the world!", yadda yadda...well it wasn't a terrible movie, but it certainly didn't deserve to win over LA Confidential, which was one of the few movies that literally did have me on the edge of my seat the entire time I watched it. As Good as it Gets is a pretty good movie as well, but I don't know if it holds up as much.

There was a lot of controversy over the movie Crash winning in 2005. When I watched this movie, I didn't see what the controversy was, unless you count it as this movie sucking hardcore. What a miserable waste of time, as if I need a movie without a message trying to give me a message. I haven't seen any of the other nominees outside of Munich, and that was a helluva lot better than this.

Just my personal opinion, but I felt that There Will Be Blood should've won over No Country for Old Men in 2007. I liked both movies, but TWBB was just a better quality flick...Paul Thomas Anderson always delivers, while the Coen Bros. deliver about 50% of the time.

And just last year, one of the most disappointing movies as far as hype goes won. Now before I go on, The Hurt Locker wasn't bad, it was just very very vanilla. Nothing stood out in my mind that made me feel the movie was vastly superior to any others. The story was generic, the characters were uninteresting cookie cutter douchebags and overall I think this movie tried to play on your basic war sympathy. Like I said, the movie wasn't bad...it just left me with wanting something more, something that Inglourious Basterds fulfilled. It was a well written movie that had characters we could care about and a story that was poignant and a lot of themes that seemed to come out of a comic book, yet didn't display itself as such. Up was another great movie that I felt was better, although the very idea that District 9 got nominated makes me sick.

As for some movies that won but everyone bitches that they shouldn't have, well I'll start with the most obvious...Forrest Gump. I don't get the hate for this movie, in fact it seems to come from a lot of Pulp Fiction fan boys who deem PF as the greatest movie of all time. Granted, it was a good movie, and I would say I would rather watch it over Gump, but that doesn't mean that Gump is necessarily a bad or even unworthy movie. It's too close to call in my mind, because I really like the themes in both movies and felt they both told a really good story. The Shawshank Redemption is another really good movie that deserves recognition...so you have 3 of the best movies I've ever seen that came out in 1994, so at least to me, I feel it could have gone either way. At least Quiz Show didn't win. Fuck you Robert Redford!

I guess the other glaring example that everyone complains about is 1990's Dances With Wolves. Just like Pulp Fiction, when it comes down to it, I'd probably watch Goodfellas over DWW, but it doesn't make it a superior movie. I think that Dances With Wolves is one of the few movies that told a basic story in such an epic way. It was one of the few westerns since A Man Called Horse that focused the story on the natives instead of the white civilization. Both films hold up very well today, and it's a toss up to which one is better. I guess my minor complaint against Goodfellas is that Scorsese summarizes Henry Hill's life too much, as well as change some crucial plot for convenience, but again...it's a movie, not a huge deal. And again, it comes back to me that Scorsese's real winner will always be Raging Bull.

A few other movies that shouldn't have won but there wasn't much of an option as far as other nominees or that I don't have much reason to say otherwise;

1961: West Side Story (there wasn't much else...The Hustler...maybe?)

1964: My Fair Lady (Dr. Strangelove, even though I haven't seen My Fair Lady in it's entirety...you don't argue with Kubrick)

1968: Oliver! (not much better as far as choices go but this wasn't a bad movie)

1971: The French Connection (maybe it's just because I wasn't alive but I never saw the big deal with French Connection, in fact the highly acclaimed chase scenes weren't that good, there were better sequences in Bullitt, plus the fact that A Clockwork Orange lost to this...ugh)

1976: Rocky (yeeeah...Taxi Driver probably should've won...Scorsese gets snubbed a lot)

1977: Annie Hall (I didn't hate this movie, but it's probably one of my lesser favorite Woody Allen movies, plus I hate to sound like a fan boy and say Star Wars deserved it)

1978: The Deer Hunter (bland year for movies all around)

1986: Platoon (not a bad movie, but I don't know about Best Picture...the fact that Blue Velvet wasn't even nominated is ridiculous)

1992: Unforgiven (I almost want to make a case that Scent of a Woman was a better movie, but it doesn't matter...Clint Eastwood would shoot me dead)

1998: Shakespeare in Love (haven't seen it, but it looks absolutely ridiculous compared to Saving Private Ryan)

2001: Gladiator (mediocre year, I guess I could make the argument for Traffic but I really don't care that much)

2003: LOTR: Return of the King (even though I didn't like any of them, if you're going to give any of these movies Best Picture, it should have have been Fellowship)

2006: The Departed (The Prestige should have been nominated)

Anyways...just thought I'd get some of your opinions.

No, The Deer Hunter won in 1978, which was a very bland year for movies all around. I think Deer Hunter would have worked better with a better director, the acting was superb, the writing was decent, but the directing and editing was intolerable to me. If you want to watch a good Michael Cimino movie, watch Thunderbolt and Lightfoot.

Gee...thanks

I hate to be a Nolan mark, but The Prestige was the only movie I literally almost stood up and applauded for. For how basic "the trick" was, it had you guessing the entire movie.

Me and my friend still debate if they were natural twins or they used Tesla's machine. I believe the former.

The Prestige-96-100
The Illusionist-78-100

And guys...it's all opinion...no one is right. Except me.