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, 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)