ROTTEN TOMATOES: RT's Best of the Best Pictures Countdown, Now Updated With No Country for Old Men! Comments

RT's Best of the Best Pictures Countdown, Now Updated With No Country for Old Men!

by Sara Schieron | February 26, 2008

Summary

So where does this put the Coens in the history of the Academy's Best Picture Winners? The Tomatometer knows: check out our newly updated Best of the Best Pictures countdown, cataloguing every last movie to have taken home the prestigious award. Back to Article

(1-27 of 27 posts) | Reply

Bardego writes:
on Feb 26 2008 04:55 PM

It just makes me so happy that Crash, A Beautiful Mind, and Forrest Gump are among the bottom ten.

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highdough writes:
on Feb 26 2008 05:15 PM

If there have been 80 Academy Awards, then why are there 81 movies?

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Alex Vo writes:
on Feb 26 2008 05:27 PM

The first Academy Awards split the award between Best Production/Picture (Wings) and Artistic Quality of Production (Sunrise).

The decision to include both movies in our list has been somewhat controversial, but I think they're good for posterity.

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CoUcH ToMaToE DoUgIe writes:
on Feb 26 2008 06:39 PM

Wow, looking at this list always makes me think and it get me

mad but in the end having the right number one is all i need to be happy:)

and Bardego, I agree with you on Crash but beautiful mind and forst gump are

masterpieces that should be fully respected and obviously should be much

higher on the list. in my opinion , just within the top 50 sounds exactly

right. Overall, though i think a good debate would be which movie on this

list upsets you the most? if anyone's intersted I'll start: i believe having

Shakespear in love at 35 is way too high. hell, they put it infront of rocky

and i have feeling people won't be remembering that movie 30 years from now.

And also, what is everyone's reaction for "No country of Old Men" being

ranked at the very high spot of 27? I am not sure i completely agree with

that placing? so, r.t. community- your thoughts??

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Pilgermann writes:
on Feb 26 2008 06:51 PM

Three that standout that never deserved best picture awards: GLADIATOR (although I do like it), CHICAGO, and especially AMERICAN BEAUTY.

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Siler_117 writes:
on Feb 26 2008 08:08 PM

In reply to this comment (#1604957)
I do agree about American Beauty and Gladiator, loved Gladiator and liked American Beauty, but Chicago deserved the win that year..it takes more talent to sing and act than just act...which is why i was disappointed when Depp lost this year. Daniel Day Lewis comes out with one movie every four or five years, and gets nominated for a large chunk of them...kinda gets old. lets hope now the academy will start recognizing the younger actors that are up and coming, such as Ryan Gosling, and not just nominate them, but give them the recognition they deserve. but i regress, chicago was good and deserved the best picture win.

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ajmk123 writes:
on Feb 26 2008 10:03 PM

Are you kidding me? Gladiator completely deserved the award. You have no idea what you are talking about. Chicago should be last on the list and Crash should be right in front of it. Never talk again

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Floor Man writes:
on Feb 26 2008 10:41 PM

In reply to this comment (#1604799)
It just makes me so unhappy that Crash, A Beautiful Mind, and Forrest Gump are among the bottom ten.

Oh, and I might add that I'm clearly in the ridiculously small minority who thought No Country for Old Men was a very well-made film and liked it, but didn't understand why it won Best Picture. And entering the list at #27? Really? It's all a mystery to me, even after everyone has seemingly explained the reasons for its win.... Great, but not spectacular. (Same with Gladiator. I just don't understand.)

:|

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zooman writes:
on Feb 26 2008 10:47 PM

the list is not about the best best, its about the best following certain guidelines, and its just a formula, so it pretty much tells you which OSCAR WINNERS could be said were best reviewed in average by a certain number of specific critics. Anyway, I think No Country completely deserves it, an impressive masterpiece that should only grow with time. I like many don't think Gladiator should be there, and I really don't think Crash should be either, but that was the Academy... I dont think either that Shakespeare in Love should rank so high. I have no problem with Chicago (an example of how to bring broadway to movies at what so many after have so failed) and a beautiful mind being there, given the last one is at the bottom. But again, this is not about the actual best movies, it is about a specific measurement for a specific chart...

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vader_of_vjun writes:
on Feb 26 2008 11:20 PM

Go All About Eve. That film's a juggernaut of greatness.

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Floor Man writes:
on Feb 27 2008 01:09 AM

In reply to this comment (#1605242)
You're right...I temporarily forgot about the whole RT Bayesian formula jazz. ;)

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Sploich writes:
on Feb 27 2008 05:31 AM

I've seen 51/80 so far, so I figure I'll post my list for those who want to read it (nobody):
From Best to Worst of What I've Seen:

American Beauty, Forrest Gump, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus, A Beautiful Mind, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Gladiator, Kramer vs. Kramer, Gigi, It Happened One Night, The Lord of the Rings, Ordinary People, The Lost Weekend, Rebecca, Wings, Platoon, The Sting, Terms of Endearment, No Country for Old Men, Annie Hall, The English Patient, Schindler's List, Rain Man, Chicago, The Silence of the Lambs, Titanic, An American in Paris, West Side Story, All About Eve, Unforgiven, The Godfather, The Broadway Melody, Driving Miss Daisy, My Fair Lady, Casablanca, Million Dollar Baby, The Best Years of Our Lives, Around the World in Eighty Days, Cimarron, Grand Hotel, The Last Emperor, The Life of Emile Zola, Braveheart, The French Connetion, Mutiny on the Bounty, Shakespeare in Love, The Deer Hunter, The Departed, Crash, Midnight Cowboy

Just 29 to go!

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Bigbrother writes:
on Feb 27 2008 05:40 AM

I love how for many of the older films they use the excuse they're "Cliched" for the reasons they're marked down. These films were made in the 30's and 40's PERHAPS the reason their plots have become cliched is because they were so good. Combine that with excuses like this brilliant movie was too long and you lose all credability.

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Bigbrother writes:
on Feb 27 2008 05:44 AM

Braveheart should have been much higher as well. Say what you want about Mel Gibson, but that SOB knows story structure :).

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dahluzz writes:
on Feb 27 2008 10:45 AM

a sachel filled with TWO millions bucks, Sara Schieron. duh.

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dahluzz writes:
on Feb 27 2008 11:06 AM

oh and by the by CRASH SUCKED. it should never have been nominated and the best picture win threatened to discredit the oscars in my view. if either 'no country' or 'there will be blood' hadn't won this year, i would have all but given up hope.

think about it, crash came out in frickin april or something. how did people even remember it come voting time? it was ridiculous. just beating you over the head with every racial trope and cinematic cliche in the book.

and of course, hollywood voted for it because it was set in L.A. and I bet a lot of industry folk had sympathy for all of the failing actors whose careers it helped keep afloat (see Sandra Bullock, Brendan Frasier, Matt Dillon, Lorenz Tate, Tony Danza, Thandie Newton).

These are all B and C list actors who were on the skids before crash. then they got a second chance in a movie about redemption. a wide range of actors formed an ensemble cast in a film about the power of community and togetherness, right? jesus, gimme a break. what's lame is that this thought process likely occurred in the minds of voters.

so while oscar managed to redeem itself this year (even though P.T. anderson deserved to win for director), I will still take any opportunity to bemoan the wholly undue praise given to crash. crash sucked.

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lilheclou writes:
on Feb 27 2008 11:28 AM

why so much hate on crash that was a good movie

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ajmk123 writes:
on Feb 27 2008 01:01 PM

Gladiator should be higher.

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Sploich writes:
on Feb 27 2008 03:29 PM

In reply to this comment (#1605816)
Crash was full of bad clich�s, less-than-fair acting and a worthless, very poorly written message. I don't have a problem with people liking it, but I do have a problem with people saying it was good. "Enjoyment" and "quality" are two things that should be kept separate. In other words, don't say "good," say "enjoyable."

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zooman writes:
on Feb 27 2008 07:14 PM

I kind of agree with you about Crash (I wouldnt say though it was the actors who made it more important, there have been many cases with similar type of actors coming together for something similar but to little effect)and I totally aree with Sploich.

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zooman writes:
on Feb 27 2008 07:25 PM

I personally loved this year in the Oscars, for one of the first times, but there was something that bothered me about the whole award season, though I know many wont fully agree.

I think Ratatouille should have been considered for major awards like directing especially, but also for movie. Think about it, what Brad Bird did was amazing, not only by creating a clever finely scripted screenplay, but bringing so many elements together: story, individual characters with individual goals (not all sharing the hero's goals), comedy, action, sense, perfect rhythm throughout so that it never bores children or adults, makmeaning and transcendence, decisions regarding timing and camera work, making the clever script work, and all it takes to make such a flawless, deceivingly simple but actually quite complex movie where there are so elements to take care of.

I don't know, I LOVED Juno and appreciate Atonement a lot and also their filmmakers, but if you ask these filmmakers, I'd say they'd be more intimidated by the achievement of first the Coens and Anderson, but also of Bird, than these three would be of them.

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dahluzz writes:
on Feb 28 2008 06:52 AM

In reply to this comment (#1606453)
i'm right there with you. the animated category forced bird to go with a sure thing, knowing that ratatouille likely wouldn't have been recognized as a potential best picture. it's lame. for me, the best picture race should have shaped up like so:

1. no country for old men
2. there will be blood
3. ratatouille (instead of juno, which i still enjoyed)
4. zodiac (nearly flawless, never felt overlong and more epic than atonement)
5. 3:10 to yuma (the dark horse instead of michael clayton, with two of the year's finest performances from bale and crowe.)

now i know this is old news and has been rehashed quite a bit, but i never actually offered a legit best picture list, so now that the dust has settled, i'm weighing in with what may be the last word on the subject since this story is now a couple days old and no one cares any more.

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Bigbrother writes:
on Feb 29 2008 09:29 AM

I guess I am the only one who didn't care for Ratatoille.

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zooman writes:
on Feb 29 2008 08:47 PM

ha, yeah, I guess it's old news and few care right anymore, but although I found the nominations alright with that main issue about them (and as I had said LOVE Juno), I would actually prefer your list, I couldn't agree more with it (though I havent seen clayton or 3:10, but from all Ive heard from both, your approach about them makes sense.

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lucid-dream writes:
on Mar 19 2008 08:08 PM

Zodiac? Really? I mean, I like the movie and all, but it just seemed that they went on...and on...and on. It was good, but didn't feel like best picture material to me.

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Noah.Meyer writes:
on Mar 23 2008 08:00 PM

i think.... ive never seen it ::O

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Noah.Meyer writes:
on Mar 23 2008 08:02 PM

i think.... ive never seen it ::O

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