Definitely Crash – not because I preferred Brokeback Mountain (haven’t seen it), but because I thought it was simply a bad movie (in fact, the only best picture winner I’ve seen that I would classify as such). The review in the Times put it well: “Mr. Haggis is eager to show the complexities of his many characters, which means that each one will show exactly two sides.” Exactly. Heavy-handed metaphor mixed with insultingly fake ambiguity. Painful to watch.
Looking at the poll, as much as I liked The Departed and No Country for Old Men, it was kinda an underwhelming decade for Best Picture winners, no?
Crash for being simplistic heavy-handed blatant guilt assuagement, a complete waste of time that even some very fine actors pulling their best teary-grief-faces couldn’t salvage.
Beautiful Mind for being a Ron Howard paint by numbers direction, combined with an Acadamy-bait misunderstood asshole with disability overcomes challenges. About as artistically challenging as a rice cake dipped in ketchup.
I didn’t mind Crash and thought Brokeback was highly overrated, so I was satisfied with that win (although I liked Munich better than both).
My vote went to Gladiator. Okay, it was a weak field that year - but seriously? I nearly turned that movie off half way through. I would have preffered any of the other nominees to win.
I voted for Crash, but I didn’t hate it. It was good. Just not Oscar great. I actually thought that was a weak year, as Brokeback was well shot, but boring as hell.
Overall, looking at the list, this decade was not that bad. Not a lot of great films, but some really decent entries.
The Dark Knight was the decade’s best film, and it failed to receive a nomination!
I voted for The Departed. In my opinion it should not have won because it’s just an inferior copy of a better existing movie. It’s like giving the Best Picture Oscar to the Star Wars Special Edition.
I agree with what Sir T-Cups said about RotK, that it seems like another example of the Oscars’ Circle of Ineptitude.
The others I either haven’t seen or haven’t seen what they were competing with.
No Country is overrated, and was almost my choice. However, it had an all world acting performance that will keep it relevant. There Will Be Blood gets the same description, but was boring.
Wow! All of those movies, excepting Moulin Rouge, are far, far better films than A Beautiful Mind.
Nevertheless I voted for Crash. That anyone would consider it to be even a good film, much less the best film leaves me speechless. I’m not a big fan of most of the films on the list. I’ll only rewatch Gladiator, LOTR, and NCFOM; the only one I own on DVD is LOTR. But I recognize considerable dramatic value and talent in all the films except Crash, which is trash.
Chicago - not only is it a bad movie but it beat out four deserving movies, which include the best of the Lord of the Rings movies (an opinion I’ve come to recently) and a movie filled with some of the best acting of the decade (The Hours).
Crash - this was a pretty weak year, overall. It’s a worse movie than Chicago but I’d be pretty annoyed if any of the others won except maybe good night, and good luck.
A Beautiful Mind - Boring standard Ron Howard movie. I also think Gosford Park should’ve won this year. It happens to be a favorite of mine.
There are other years (most of them with the exception of No Country for Old Men) in which a movie I deem the best doesn’t win (Traffic for instance) but in most cases at least I enjoyed the movie that won at least on some level.
What do people dislike about Chicago? Is it the Zellwegger factor? I wouldn’t call it a “Great” movie, but I thought it was funny and enjoyable, with great music.
