Koob’s Worst Best Pics

Here’s Koob’s worst four Best Picture winners. Believe it or not, I’ve only seen one of them. It was Shakespeare in Love. I liked it, but it wasn’t great. Winner pics coming later this afternoon. Of course all three guys hated the same film. I’ll post it a little later today as well.
Ordinary People. Not a terrible movie and it was actually very well acted.  Timothy Hutton won a deserving Best Supporting Actor Oscar and Mary Tyler Moore and Donald Sutherland were both great as his parents.  It’s more on this list because it beat out Raging Bull which is a far superior movie.
Driving Miss Daisy – This was a pretty weak year for Best Picture noms.  Once again, not a terrible movie, and very well acted, but pretty cliche and forgettable when all is said and done.
Shakespeare in Love – A pretty forgettable romantic comedy with some good acting performances and some genuinely funny moments, but this was probably the biggest Oscar robbery of all time when this movie won Best Picture over Saving Private Ryan.
Million Dollar Baby. This might come as a surprise to some people, but I just did not like this movie at all.  I thought it was a pretty good underdog story with the gritty Hillary Swank convincing the crotchety Clint Eastwood to become her boxing trainer up until the last third of the movie which I don’t want to spoil in case you haven’t seen it, but it just seemed to be one of those plot twists that was manipulative just for the sake of being manipulative and making people cry.  At least this movie finally got Morgan Freeman a much deserved Oscar.

Junior’s Worst Best Pics

On Monday, Junior gave us his best Best Picture movies. Today we’re getting his worst. Junior was kind enough to not only post his worst Best Pics, but also provide a film that was nominated that year that should have won. The only ones I’ve seen are Crash and Last Emperor. Crash I commented about on Mike’s, and Last Emperor, I saw it a while ago and don’t really remember much about it. So obviously I didn’t think it was very good.

THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH.
Betty Hutton really grates on the nerves. Typical back-stage drama boredom with a circus theme. Embarrassing.

Better Choices: High Noon or The Quiet Man

THE LAST EMPEROR. Overlong and tedious. And it won everything it was nominated for…go figure. This was one of those films that the Academy honors to feel good about itself. High honors for high art. Yawn!!

Better Choices: Broadcast News or Fatal Attraction

CRASH. Even Jack Nicholson was surprised when he opened the envelope to announce the winner. The Academy is not brave enough to award a movie with a major gay theme. Crash was about self-involved Los Angelinos acting like idiots…..hey, wait a minute……..

Better Choices: Brokeback Mountain or Good Night, and Good Luck

The Worst of the Best:

OLIVER! Kids. English kids. Orphaned English kids. Dancing orphaned English kids. Singing and dancing orphaned English kids. Overblown production numbers. Bad English accents from authentic English performers. Cloying. Sickening attempts at pathos. Unsuccessful attempts at comedy. Well, it was 1968 and the Academy was definitely on a bad LSD trip when they awarded this piece of tripe.

Better Choices: The Lion in Winter or Romeo and Juliet

The Worst Best Picture Winners, According to Mike Minion

You already saw what Mike thought were the best Best Pictures ever. Now it’s time for his worst. There is one film that all three of our reviewers thought was one of the 5 worst. I’ll save that as one final post. There are two more that both Junior and Mike agree on. Junior’s reviews coming tommorrow. Here are films Mike loves to hate. His reviews are first. My two cents is 2nd.

GONE WITH THE WIND. I can’t think of a protagonist in any movie I loathe more than Scarlett O’Hara. She’d be a perfect guest for a special episode of the Dr. Phil show. If she could swear, Jerry Springer. But how can you have a movie about a love story when no SANE person could possibly fall in love with the romantic lead? In the history of cinema, no character ever made a better final choice than Rhett Butler. Oh yeah, it’s racist and stupid too.
JGT’s Take: Got it for a Christmas present a couple of years ago, but still haven’t seen it. Pretty sure I’ll hate it if I ever watch it. Not my kind of film.

OLIVER! Take one of Dickens bleakest novels (which weren’t a batch a sunshine and daisies to start) and turn the staving, exploited orphans into dancing, singing, smiling, lovable urchins. Who’s f***ing brilliant idea was that? But, it was 1968 and the whole country was stoned, so what the hell. P.S. Exclamation point? Really?
JGT’s Take. Never seen it. Never will. Hate almost all musicals.

CRASH. I can accept a lot of improbable things when I see a movie; after all, that’s part of the fun. But the plot of Crash goes way past improbable into the realm of “you’ve GOT to be kidding”. Not only that, but a better-acted, funnier, more-realistic, and well-scripted version of this piece of junk was made in 1991: Grand Canyon. Maybe they thought no one would notice. Who knows? Plus, it was a coward’s choice: Brokeback Mountain was one of the other nominees, and Good Night, and Good Luck hit too close to home.
JGT’s Take. I thought this movie was good. Maybe not Best Picture good, but I rather enjoyed it. I thought Matt Dillon was great and so was Terrence Howard. This movie and American Beauty have both been savaged by people, but I’ll take either one over Gladiator and The Departed, which both had flashes of brilliance but absolutely mind numbingly stupid endings. I have seen a lot of Best Pictures that were worse than Crash. That said, I did like Good Night, and Good Luck better.

FORREST GUMP. Now, I don’t really think this is a bad movie. It’s just that I think that it was the worst of the nominees, and I can’t understand how it won. The other films nominated in 1994? Four Weddings and a Funeral, Pulp Fiction, Quiz Show, and The Shawshank Redemption. Not only were the other nominees better, but Jenny is a close second to Scarlett O’Hara in the “Who’s the most unlovable love interest” race. If Forrest only had 5 more points of IQ, he’d have dumped her ass when she played Blowing in the Wind naked and wondered why no one was interested in her music.

JGT’s Take. Yes and no. Forrest Gump is actually a very good movie, but not nearly as good as Shawshank Redemption. It is obviously not one of the worst 5 films to win Best Pic, but perhaps one of the worst 5 choices to win.

The Spring Invitational Has Begun!

That’s right folks, it officially began last night at the Westbury and will continue tonight! Teams earn 5 points for a win, 3 points for a 2nd place finish, and 1 point for 3rd. Team can also earn points for physical challenges. The first one has just been posted! After a couple of months, the Top 20 teams receive an invite to play in the Big Spring Event. The first couple of these were a load of fun, so get your best team together and come on out to quizzo! I’ll reveal the locale for the Big Spring Event next week.

TONIGHT: Four different places to earn points, including a couple where you’ve got a great shot. We start at O’neals at 8 p.m. Been kind of quiet the last couple of weeks, so this is a great place to get a win. $3.50 margaritas and a $50 GC for first place. I then move to City Tap House at 10:15 p.m. They will be having a Mardi Gras party in the bar area, so we are gonna be playing in the back room. We’ve done it a couple of times and it actually went pretty well. I have a feeling that getting through the bar is going to be a nightmare, but remember if you walk around the side outdoors you can enter into the back room, or at least the back of the bar area, so you won’t have to deal with that craziness.

Keep in mind also that Koob and Kristy will be hosting their POP! Quiz tonight at the Raven, and yes the winner of that can earn points in the JGTSpI. That begins at 8 p.m. and Kristy has promised a rather risque 50/50 round.

In Manayunk, Mike returns to the Terrace Taproom. Action starts at 8 p.m. He’s gonna be doing his Oscars quiz tonight, so be sure to study. I actually pulled a few out when I played last night by studying beforehand. Hope to see ya tonight!

The Best Best Picture Winners of All-Time, According to Junior

Junior and Mike Minion agreed on two films, meaning there were three films that he loved that did not make Mike’s Top 5. I have not seen any of these three films, but I do have Mutiny on the Bounty on DVR and plan on watching it in the next week. I will review it after watching. Interesting to note that both Mike and Junior had Marlon Brando Best Actor films included. Here are Junior’s picks:

IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT.A Best Picture doesn’t have to be a sweeping epic to be worthy of accolades. This was a fun movie with a great script and lots of memorable scenes. I like movies from the ’30s that take place in contemporary times which are just as much escapist fare now as they were then. This solidified Frank Capra’s reputation and moved him along to a long and successful career.

MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY. Two consecutive Best Actor winners (1933’s Charles Laughton in ‘The Private Life of Henry VIII’ and 1934’s Clark Gable in ‘It Happened One Night’) team up for the best screen version of “Mutiny on the Bounty”. Laughton and Gable played magnificently against each other. All of the production values were great and holds up remarkably well after 76 years.

ON THE WATERFRONT. Very authentic look at the rough lives of dock workers and their corrupt boss and one guy’s turmoil as he is torn between his loyalties. Terrific work by Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, Karl Malden, Lee. J. Cobb and Eva Marie Saint, all of whom were nominated for Oscars (Brando and Saint won). Brando gives his famous ‘I coulda been a contender’ speech in this film. The music score supports the film perfectly.

The Best Best Picture Films Ever, According to Mike Minion

You may have read Mike and Junior’s shared Oscar favorites last week. They both thought that Casablanca and Rocky deserved to be in the Top 5 Best Picture winners of all time. The three below are three of Mike’s Top 5 favorites. Keep in mind, Mike will be hosting an Oscar quiz tonight at the Westbury at 9 p.m.

THE GODFATHER. Greed, love, duplicity, murder, ambition, and cannolis: this film has it all. Great quotes, a wonderful roman a clef (which ties into another Best Picture winner: see footnote below**), and a stellar performance by Al Pacino in his first big role combine to make this a nearly perfect film.

JGT’s Take: No argument here. Brilliant film. That said, I think I like part II a little bit better (it also won Best Pic.)

PATTON: The opposite of Rocky, this film is big in every way. In an era full of larger-than-life characters, Patton was the largest. George C. Scott captures the essence of the man beautifully (check out You-Tube for some of Patton’s real-life speeches) and makes him accessible and more human at the same time. One of the greatest performances ever. Fun fact: Scott won, but declined to accept the Ocsar for Best Actor.

JGT’s Take: Embarrassed to say this: never seen it. I know. I know. Trust me, it’s on the short list.

GIGI: I can’t come up with any rational reason why I like this movie, so I’m not gonna try. More to the point, I’m not sure I want to know. It’s a corny musical (which generally annoys me) with a terrible social message (which REALLY annoys me) and worst of all, it’s set in France (which… well, you get the point). But for some reason, I really, really like this movie. Sue me.

JGT’s Take: Not embarrassed to say, I’ve never seen this. Mike encouraged me to DVR it, which I did. Will I actually ever sit down and watch it, or will it perpetually take up 7% of my DVR space? Only time will tell.

**It has been suggested that the character of Johnny Fontane was based on Frank Sinatra. The role he asks his Godfather to help him get is the fictional version of Maggio in From Here to Eternity, which won an Oscar for Best Picture and several others, including a Best Supporting Actor for Sinatra. This is much clearer in the book than the movie, but it’s hard not to make the connection in either case.