Categories: FilmOpinion

Ten Tremendous Oscar Bait Failures

Just in time for the 89th annual Oscars ceremony Sunday, Feb. 26, let us look back on ten films that failed to get the attention from the Academy they believed they deserved. Three of our top picks just came out last year, and two of them star Will Smith. Here they are, in no particular order:

All the King’s Men (2006)

  • Domestic Total Gross: $7,221,458
  • Production Budget: $55 million
  • Rotten Tomatoes: 11%
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ruq0GPvloVc[/embedyt]

 

Schindler’s List scribe Steve Zaillian wrote and directed this remake of a 1949 Best Picture winner, inspired by Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel about the rise and fall of a corrupt politician. How could this not score a home run? Critics cited a weakly conceived narrative and a lack of political insight as why. All of this talent, including Sean Penn, could not attract the Academy’s attention again.

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Jason Wiese

Jason has been writing since his hands developed the strength to pick up a crayon. Growing up with the original dream to be a filmmaker, by the end of his high school career, he instead decided to pursue the next best thing: film criticism. Jason graduated from Lindenwood University in 2016 with a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism. He currently writes movie reviews for Review St. Louis, Newstime and the Lincoln County Journal - as well as product descriptions for etrailer.com.

View Comments

  • I would argue against this being included in the list, not for any actual quality, but because Lawrence did get the Best Actress nomination. So in that sense, the Oscar-baiting did not fail.

    • True, but considering Russell had been on a roll getting multiple nominations and a few wins for several films in a row, I imagine Lawrence's sole Best Actress nomination must have been a sore and unexpected disappointment for him. That is why I considered "Joy" a failure

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