I am stuck in a hotel room in Sofia flipping through TV chanels when the movie Dad goes past. Vaguely remembering this movie, I looked it up. TV Guide gives this 1 star (out of 5). They also mention that it was nominated for an Oscar for Best Makeup. Which makes me wonder the subject question. I’m not sure Dad would ‘win’ given that Rotten Tomatoes comes out at 60% fresh (with only 8 reviews—although they don’t link to the TV Guide one).
The rules: [ul]It can be any Oscar category (although a ‘Best Picture’ (in whatever category) or an acting Oscar would certainly count for more than makeup, costumes or sound/music).
[li]Only published reviews, no ‘I really think it sucked so…’ (unless you are a published reviewer)[/li][li]We pay especial note of anything Opal sez[/ul][/li]
So what ‘wins’?
Leonard Maltion’s guide calls Thank God It’s Friday (1978) the worst movie ever to win an Oscar (for the song “Last Dance”), and gives it a “BOMB” rating.
Marooned won best special effects for 1970 and was nominated for best cinematography and best sound. It was a real stinker. I seem to recall it was featured on *Mystery Science Theater 3000 * at one time or another.
The lowest rated “Best Picture” Oscar winners in Leonard Maltin’s guide all receive **1/2 stars (of four): Wings (1927), The Broadway Melody (1929), and Cimarron (1931).
If you’re hunting for bad movies among Oscar nominees, back in the 1930s and 1940s, some categories allowed a nomination from each Hollywood studio, so low-budget pictures like * King of the Zombies* competed against Citizen Kane in the Best Score category.
I saw Marooned both on its original release in 1970, and not too long ago. I liked it both times, and found it suspensful and very well crafted. I was very surprised that it was picked for MST3000.
Matter of taste, I guess. I realize it was supposed to be a realistic drama set in space and not science fiction, but the pace of the story was so glacial I simply couldn’t stay awake both times that I tried to watch.it.
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth got a best visual effect nomination. The film has a 4.4 rating on the IMDB.
The Greatest Show on Earth is usually considered the worst Best Picture winner. While some (e.g., The English Patient) have people who hate them, and others (e.g., The Broadway Melody) have dated badly, Greatest Show was considered no more than mediocre when it came out, and its win is due to respect for its producer/director Cecil B. Demille.
I’m in the ‘it was a decent movie but not Oscar material’ camp–it’s just made worse by the fact that there were better movies (Traffic, for example) nominated that year.
I do think Joaquin Phoenix got robbed for Best Supporting Actor that year, though.
We recognize, I hope, a certain unfairness implicit (but probably not intended) in the OP, namely that the perceived overall quality of a film is not necessarily commensurate with the quality of select aspects of it that may have received Academy Award nominations.
In other words, a poorly written, directed, and/or acted film may have stunning cinematography, brilliant special effects, and/or a magnificent score. The fact that they happened to be stuck working on a crappy film shouldn’t lessen our respect for the skilled crew members who did their best, but didn’t have the power to turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse.
That said, although this isn’t exactly to the point of the OP, my nominee for least deserved Oscar has long been Marisa Tomei’s Supporting Actress award for My Cousin Vinny. She was up against four British* actresses who could (and did) act rings around her: Miranda Richardson (for Damage), Joan Plowright (for Enchanted April), Vanessa Redgrave (for Howards End), and Judy Davis (for Husbands and Wives). And although Marisa played a completely unchallenging role, of no particular depth, exactly like dozens she’s played before and since, the Academy gave her the award. Go figure.
Okay, I know that Judy Davis is Australian, not actually British.
I can figure how it happened. Tomei was the only American in the bunch and all the foreign nominees canceled each other out. The same thing happened in the 1997 Best Actress race.
Were Moore’s dreck Fahrenheit 9/11 or his earlier self-righteous guff Columbine nominated. If so, they can fight it out. Unless, the emetic Roger and Me got a nod. In that case you got a three-way tie.