They picked __ for Oscar but should have picked __

2010 Winner: The Hurt Locker

Assessment for Best Picture: Poor Choice
Reason: Hurt Locker had little storyline or plot.

Better Choices:
Avatar
Star Trek

2009 Winner: Slumdog Millionaire

Assessment for Best Picture: Good Choice
Reasons:
- engaging story
- well acted
- nice change from standard Hollywood fare

2008 Winner: No Country for Old Men

Assessment for Best Picture: So-so Choice
Reasons:
- plus: well acted
- minus: story seemed excessively violent
- plot was so-so

Better Choice:
Michael Clayton

2007 Winner: The Departed

Assessment for Best Picture: Good Choice

Reasons:
- well acted
- interesting story line
- apart from Letters from Iwo Jima, little serious competition

2006 Winner: Crash

Sorry, this is the only year that didn't see enough films to comment on the quality of the choice.

2005 Winner: Million Dollar Baby

Assessment for Best Picture: So-so

Reasons:
- minus: After reading about brain injuries, I'm personally not pleased that a second gender has started to bash the head of an opponent.
- plus: story was well told

Alternate Choice:
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

2004 Winner: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Assessment for Best Picture: So-so

Reasons:
- minus: the whole Rings series was too long for me
- plus: beautiful scenery and good acting

Better Choices:
- Mystic River
- Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

2003 Winner: Chicago

Assessment for Best Picture: So-so

Better Choice:
- Catch Me If You Can

2002 Winner: A Beautiful Mind

Assessment for Best Picture: So-so

Reasons:
- I soured on this movie when I realized how much of it was contrived. He was separated from his wife for 7 years in the 1960s. He didn't make that Nobel acceptance speech.

It was a weak year for movies, though because I'm still not sure any movie deserved to be "best" in 2001.

2001 Winner: Gladiator

Assessment for Best Picture: Good Choice

Reasons:
- well acted
- interesting story line and portrayal of Rome

2000 Winner: American Beauty

Assessment for Best Picture: So-so

Reasons:
- it was a good movie but up against tough competition this year
- minus: a little too touchy-feely for my liking

Better Choices:
- The Green Mile
- The Sixth Sense

1999 Winner: Shakespeare in Love

Assessment for Best Picture: So-so

Reasons:
- plus: Gwyneth is mesmerizing in this film
- minus: story isn't that good or interesting

Better Choice:
- Saving Private Ryan (by a long way)

1998 Winner: Titanic

Assessment for Best Picture: Poor Choice

Reason:
- heavily overrated romance

Better Choices (a long list so just the best):
- Good Will Hunting
- As Good as it Gets

1997 Winner: The English Patient

Assessment for Best Picture: So-so
Reason:
- excessively long love story

Better Choices:
- Shine
- Koyla (a Czech film)

1996 Winner: Braveheart

Assessment for Best Picture: Good Choice

Reason:
- interesting story, well told

1995 Winner: Forrest Gump

Assessment for Best Picture: So-so Choice
Reason:
- plus: reasonably entertaining film
- minus: too many faked scenes
- minus: silly story with millions that couldn't help falling into his lap

Better Choice:
- The Shawshank Redemption

1994 Winner: Schindler's List

Assessment for Best Picture: Good Choice
Reason:
- great story of a little known episode 50 years earlier
- good acting

1993 Winner: Unforgiven

Assessment for Best Picture: So-so
Reason:
- not Clint Eastwood's best film (Good, Bad & Ugly is a much better western). Had the feeling of awarding an Oscar for the accumulation of past unacknowledged work.

Alternative (in a year without really strong competition):
- Scent of a Woman

1992 Winner: The Silence of the Lambs

Assessment for Best Picture: Great Choice
Reason:
- chilling tale
- the villain is the most compelling one on screen ever

1991 Winner: Dances with Wolves

Assessment for Best Picture: Good Choice
Reason:
- great scenery
- well told story
- nice change in the telling for a western

1990 Winner: Driving Miss Daisy

Assessment for Best Picture: Poor Choice
Reason:
- was the selection committee kidding? A chauffeur driving an old lady around is the best film even in a slow year?

Better Choices:
- Dead Poet's Society
- My Left Foot

1989 Winner: Rain Man

Assessment for Best Picture: Good Choice
Reason:
- who would have thought that Tom Cruise could put in a good performance like this? Beside Hoffman, they tell the tale so well.

1988 Winner: The Last Emperor

Assessment for Best Picture: So-so Choice
Reason:
- The basic story is just not that compelling which makes the long film drag on.

Better Choices:
- Wall Street
- Good Morning, Vietnam

1987 Winner: Platoon

Assessment for Best Picture: Poor Choice
Reason:
- just a bunch of guys bumping around Nam. Story suddenly ends. WTF?

Better Choice:
- Hannah and Her Sisters (although comedies aren't selected for Best Picture)

1986 Winner: Out of Africa

Assessment for Best Picture: So-so Choice
Reason:
- the movie drags on and on .. with so little happening. Wake up! It's finally done and we can leave the theater.

Better Choice:
- Witness

1985 Winner: Amadeus

Assessment for Best Picture: Great Choice
Reason:
- great music (I actually gained some appreciation for opera)
- compelling story (even though it's fictional)

Equally Good Choice (in a very strong year):
- The Killing Fields