Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

I don't think the acting in the film is bad. The only actor I can't really stand in the film is Orlando Bloom. In conveying Tolkien's characters, everyone does a fantastic job, especially Ian McKellen.

ksrymy wrote:I absolutely cannot fathom how anyone could ever vote for Jackson in either this or the 2003 poll. The acting in the series was terrible, and the entire movie is the work of the special effects crew.

Bad acting doesn't necesarilly mean it's badly directed, which I think the LOTR series isn't. And the special effects crew is directed by the director of the film.

Eric wrote:A promise: If David Lynch doesn't win or at the very least place in this poll (behind Robert Altman, though I think the two Altman films that followed were far more expertly directed than Gosford Park), I will leave this board and never look back.

Congratulations, you are popular enough here that so far no one has voted for Ron Howard just to spite you.

Eric wrote:10. Freddy Got Fingered

Okay, this I gotta hear...

I absolutely cannot fathom how anyone could ever vote for Jackson in either this or the 2003 poll. The acting in the series was terrible, and the entire movie is the work of the special effects crew.

My picks
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Best Picture
1. Mulholland Dr.
2. Gosford Park
3. In the Bedroom
4. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
5. Moulin Rouge!

6. Spirited Away

Best Director
1. David Lynch, Mulholland Dr.
2. Robert Altman, Gosford Park
3. Todd Field, In the Bedroom
4. Joel Coen, The Man Who Wasn't There
5. Baz Luhrmann, Moulin Rouge!

6. Steven Spielberg, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence

A promise: If David Lynch doesn't win or at the very least place in this poll (behind Robert Altman, though I think the two Altman films that followed were far more expertly directed than Gosford Park), I will leave this board and never look back. As for best picture, I don't much have a horse in that race. I voted for Moulin Rouge!, though -- a film I absolutely hated in the moment (and, especially, during my brief stint at Goldderby) but have come around on after reading some passionate defenses from Zach C., Kent Jones and other people not prone to saying things like "kick up your heels."

01. A.I. Artificial Intelligence
02. Mulholland Dr.
03. Pulse
04. Wet Hot American Summer
05. Late Marriage
06. Spirited Away
07. Remembrance of Things to Come
08. Domestic Violence
09. Fat Girl
10. Freddy Got Fingered

I love the Lord of the Rings franchise and cannot say any film for the next three years was truly better than these films. On equal footing perhaps, but never better. There are some excellent movies released next year and the year after, but this was such a meh year, I can't conjure up many memories of it from this lackluster list of nominees.

A Beautiful Mind, from a simple manipulative standpoint, is one of the worst Best Picture winners. It's tonally inconsistent and emotionally vacant in a way that it makes people feel like they've seen a great film as a result, especially if they think somehow that Ron Howard is an unrecognized master. He's a journeyman director who's had a very small number of quality films, but whose best won't be around for a few more years (Frost/Nixon). That being said, when compared with films like Cavalcade and Braveheart, it doesn't seem so bad, but it ranks at 83 on my list of 85 worst Best Picture winners.

Voted for LOTR and Jackson. For me it’s the best film of the franchise.

I absolutely loathe A Beautiful Mind. Worst best picture winner of all time in my book.

Moulin Rouge is like a bad Disney film with a terrible screenplay.

Black Hawk Down is Ridley Scott best directed movie and is my choice for the second best movie of the year.

Another crap year.

My favorite film of the year was David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, although I still have no idea what it was really about, nor do I think Lynch himself really knows - but it's a brilliant piece of film-making right up there with Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet, but it apparently wasn't the Academy's idea of a good time. They only nominated it for one Oscar. Fortunately that one nomination was for Lynch so I can at least vote for him for that.

Beyond that, I liked Gosford Park; In the Bedroom; A.I.: Artificial Intelligence; Memento; In the Mood for Love and a lot. I liked The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings with reservations. My reservations were regarding the film's length. It just went on and on and on then on some more only to followed by two sequels that went on and on and on and then on some more.

I didn't like A Beautiful Mind much beyond Russell Crowe's performance and Jennifer Connolly's to an extent, but the storyline was confusing and factually wrong though that didn't bother me as much as some. It was mostly Ed Harris' typically loud performance that annoyed me the most.

It took a lot of suspension of disbelief to accept Nicole Kidman and Jim Broadbent singing "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" and "Like a Virgin" respectively in the 1899 Paris of Moulin Rouge!, but those were the best parts of Baz Luhrrman's fantastical modernization of La Boheme.

Let's just say I was not a fan of Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down either, and leave it at that.

My votes go to Gosford Park and Lynch.