Catch up with the idea behind this series here.
2003 belonged to “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” as it won every single award it was up for, tying the all time record haul of 11 trophies. Few could argue that Peter Jackson had accomplished something unique with the execution of this trilogy, but in my humble opinion, this is the most boring and bloated Best Picture winner since “Around the World in 80 Days.”
Throw in the fact that Tim Robbins in “Mystic River” and Renee Zellweger in “Cold Mountain” are both embarrassingly bad performances and you can start to realize why Oscar and I have agreed to go our separate ways. At least “City of God” nabbed a few nominations, causing a stir in an otherwise sterile race.
Clint Eastwood completed his transformation back into Oscar darling in 2004 with a Best Picture triumph for “Million Dollar Baby,” which also scooped up awards for Director, Actress and Supporting Actor, dooming Martin Scorsese to another year in the loser’s bracket.
Billy Crystal hosted in 2003, mistakenly thinking that constant jokes about New Zealand were going to be entertaining. At least we had this though.
Chris Rock took the reigns in 2004 and may have not won over Sean Penn, but I thought his bit interviewing moviegoers at the Magic Johnson theater about Oscar contenders was amazing. Anyway, hope you all watched “Pootie Tang” this week and are ready for some new suggestions.