In recent years, the Oscars have shunned films that are really different and original in favor of those that are more formulaic. The worst abuses that I can think of are Being John Malkovich and Pleasantville.
Also, any such list would have to include all of the great Disney animated films except for Neauty and the Beast.
American Psycho (2000)
At least Christian Bale could have been nominated for Best Actor!
Terry Gilliam’s Brazil wasn’t nominated, was it?
Politics.
Tarantino’s Resevoir Dogs
Unbelievably, Hoop Dreams wasn’t even nominated for Best Documentary.
Monkeybone.
THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, for crying out loud!
Fight Club
Miller’s Crossing.
And I’ll agree that The Royal Tenenbaums should have been nominated.
Yondan, your loathing of The Untouchables borders on the irrational. The movie is part of our cultural lexicon. (The baseball bat scene? Classic.) Then there’s the nice little homage to Battleship Potemkin. That’s worth some points as well.
Granted, Costner is a bit wooden (he always is), but hey, so was Gary Cooper. Would you exclude High Noon for that reason?
Except for Costner, the entire cast turned in exceptional performances.
And I don’t understand your complaint about the storyline. I thought it was a nicely-done and entertaining narrative (though not historically accurate, of course).
What’s your beef? Do you really think it shouldn’t even have been nominated for best picture? Do you really think that Moonstruck, Broadcast News and Fatal Attraction, all of which were nominated that year, were better pictures?
Wow. After researching that last post, I am drawn to the conclusion that 1987 was really an off year for the Academy. Check out the films from 1987 that didn’t get nominated for best picture:[ul][li]Full Metal Jacket[]Good Morning Vietnam[]Au Revoir, Les Enfants[]Radio Days[]Wall Street[]Empire of the Sun[]Raising Arizona[]House of Games[]The Untouchables[/ul][/li]
And yet, Moonstruck, Broadcast News, Fatal Attraction and Hope and Glory got nominated? Yeesh!
Honey, I Blew Everybody
Meet Black Joe
Position Impossible
Raiders of the Lost Arse
Wet Dream on Elm Street
There’s Something Inside Mary
Free Willy
Inspect Her Gadget
Screw the Right Thing
Studley Do-Right
Forrest Hump
Pulp Friction
Romancing the Bone
Snow White and the Seven Sailors
Shving Ryan’s Privates
Buffy the Vampire Layer
Tennage Mutant Ninja Dildoes
Rambone
Monty Python and the Holey Girl
E-three: The Extra Testicle
The Joy Suck Club
Schindler’s Fist
::shudder::Fatal Attraction nominated for Best Picture!!! We might need to check that film again for subliminal advertising directed at academy members.
Couldn’t they have done a “Milli-Vanilli” --retracted that nomination and replace it with a more deserving movie? Nearly anything would do.
Trainspotting.
SPIDER-MAN!!! 
It won’t be released until May 2002, but I know that no one will even consider it for best picture. 
Amelie
Now THAT’S positive thinking . .
Does Once Upon a Time in the West belong on the list?
How about The Exorcist?
(I’m too lazy to look up whether they were nominated or not!)
Someone suggested Cleopatra. I haven’t seen that, but it comes up constantly in lists of expensive Hollywood bombs.
“Someone suggested Cleopatra. I haven’t seen that, but it comes up constantly in lists of expensive Hollywood bombs.”
—Now, now. It may not have been Theda Bara’s BEST picture, but the cinematography and costumes were amazing! True, though, Under Two Flags and Salome are more satisfying than Cleopatra for the Bara fan.
[What’s that? Legomancer wasn’t referring to Theda Bara’s 1917 Cleopatra? Oh, well, I suppose the Helen Gardner and Claudette Colbert versions were okay, too . . . ]
(Once again) Eve, you slay me.
I am going to go out on a limb and assume that Legomancer may be referring to the 1963 version of Cleopatra. That movie was nominated for best picture, but lost to Tom Jones.
Oh, and among the movies not nominated in 1963:[ul][]Hud[]The Birds[]Dr. No[]8 1/2Jason & the Argonauts[/ul]