Titanic

Take a painful walk down memory lane as we offer you the Worst. Oscars. Ever.

By Sean Nelson
Special to MSN Movies

I don't have to tell you that the voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences don't always get it right. In the past 20 years, in fact,... more they've been so screwball, off-the-charts wrong about so many awards that you could be forgiven for wondering whether they even read the ballots before they mark them up and mail them. Presuming, of course, they can read in the first place -- but that's another article. Friends, it's Oscar time, and that can only mean one thing: an agonizing night cringing in front of the TV set begging and screaming for something -- ANYTHING -- actually good to win. Sometimes it happens. Remember that one time when Frances McDormand took home a Best Actress statue for "Fargo"? Yes, that was nice. Now contrast that against the dozens of disappointments resulting from Oscars going to "Titanic," "Crash" and "Dances With Wolves" -- films that stormed the gates with their mediocre (at best!) melodrama and mealymouthed liberal guilt only to be rewarded with all the gold their producers could carry. It's almost enough to make you stop watching. Almost. Instead, you can watch the ceremony Feb. 24 and wince as "Juno" trounces "No Country for Old Men." In the meantime, consider this humble list of the academy's most egregious offenses against cinematic reason. (Lionsgate Films/Dreamworks)