The Snubby Awards: 2004 Oscars

It's that time again: The Snubby Awards!  For those of you who don't know, the Snubby Awards take a look at all of the Best Picture nominees from a given year and determine if the best film won or if one was snubbed.  If that's the case, they win the coveted Snubby Award!

This time we'll be taking a look at the 2004 Oscars, which was a mostly solid selection of films including two masterpieces.  The nominees were: Lost in Translation, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Mystic River and Seabiscuit with the winner being The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.  Did The Return of the King deserve to win or did another movie get snubbed?  Let's find out!

#5. Lost in Translation

This was the only nominee that I didn't care for.  It focuses on two Americans who find themselves staying at the same hotel in Tokyo and the relationship they form.  They are played by Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson.  I was really interested in seeing this, but I found in disappointing.  It's a very slow film and doesn't have much in the way of plot.  It's really just about these two character.  Murray does a good job, but I found Johansson's mostly pretentious.  I'm not the biggest fan of slow films, but the ones I do like have to have fully engaging characters and that isn't the case here.  Plus I don't think some of the humor and the depiction of Tokyo has aged the best and I know it was even controversial at the time.  I wouldn't say this is is a bad movie, but it wasn't very interesting and I was mostly bored.  

 5/10: Meh 

#4. Seabiscuit

Seabiscuit is a mostly standard and generic biopic, but it's well made.  Watching all of these Best Picture nominees over the years has made me really sick of biopics.  They may be my least favorite genre now.  I liked Seabiscuit even if there were stretches that were a little dull and it isn't completely accurate.  What helps is that Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, and William H. Macy are do excellent jobs.  It's fun seeing Cooper play a totally likable character.  The horse races themselves are genuinely thrilling and painful to watch at times.

 8/10: Really Good 

#3. Mystic River

The story of three childhood friends who faced an extremely traumatic experience together whose lives are brought back together as adults via a new tragedy.  Mystic River is fantastic for the first 99% of the movie.  Sean Penn and Tim Robbins give wonderful performances and absolutely earned their Oscar wins.  Mystic River is extremely compelling with lots of interesting characters pulling in different directions.  It's a really well done mystery and character study, up until the last three minutes.  If the movie had ended with Penn's character drunkenly walking down the street, it would amazing, but the last two scenes, one with Penn's character and his wife, and another at a parade, really stumble and bring down the ending.  They just don't match the rest of the film and seem to come out of nowhere.  Everything before that is fantastic though.

 9/10: Great 

And now for the final 2 films in no particular order.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

The Return of the King is the best movie in the best film trilogy of all time.  It's an utterly epic conclusion and works on every level.  It has some of the best war action ever captured on film, with Théoden's charge being my favorite scene in cinematic history.  We also have my all time favorite movie character in Gollum.  The music, the visuals, the grand scope of the story, everything perfectly fires on all cylinders to wrap up this story.  Some may say that the ending goes on for too long, and it is long, but I think it's all necessary and helps the story.

 10/10: Amazing 

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Master and Commander is like a more grounded version of Pirates of the Caribbean.  I wasn't expecting for it to take place almost entirely on a ship, but it was a pleasant surprise that made the stakes higher because any damage that happened to the ship could mean life or death.  It's a thrilling and clever story with amazing performances from Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany.  And the amputation scene is absolutely brutal.

 10/10: Amazing 

And the Snubby Award goes to...!

No one!  The Academy got it right this time.  The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King deservedly won Best Picture.  It's also my favorite Best Picture winner at the time of writing this piece.  I feel bad for Master and Commander.  Had it been any almost any other year, it should have won.  Alas.  Since The Return of the King won Best Picture, no Snubby shall be given out.

Next time we'll be looking at the 2003 Oscars.  Did Chicago deserve to win or did another movie get snubbed?  Stay tuned!