Bye Instant Watch: Sinatra, Flashdancers, and Spielberg's Worst
Wednesday, March 23, 2016 at 4:30PM It's your last chance to watch the following multiple Oscar nominated titles for free on Netflix or Amazon Prime. There are more films leaving than these but you know The Film Experience isn't good copying and pasting press releases and calling it a day. It would make our lives SO much easier but it's just not how we do. This is for you Oscar completists -- you know who you are. As is our habit, we've freeze framed the titles at random and just shared whichever image came up.
Got any feelings about these pictures? Or will you by midnight on March 31st? Do you think they deserved their wins and/or nominations?
10 OSCAR TITLES LEAVING NETFLIX AT THE END OF THE MONTH
* indicates Oscar win in the category
African violet. I can't tell you how difficult that was to come by.
Amistad (1997)
Oscar Nods: Supporting (Anthony Hopkins), Cinematography, Costumes, Score.
Shameful Confession: I've never seen this. I think it's my most significant gap in 1990s Oscar viewing.
You can so sing and dance. Anybody can!
Anchors Aweigh (1945)
Fun that the scene above has echoes 62 years later in Ratatouille, right?
Oscar Nods: Picture, Actor (Gene Kelly), Cinematography, Original Song "I Fall in Love Too Easily", Score*. It remains baffling that this was Gene Kelly's sole Oscar nomination. (He was giving an Honorory Award in the 50s though for his quadruple threat versality: singer/actor/dancer/director).
Please don't send me back to India!
Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
That's Shirley Maclaine pretending to be an Indian princess. #MoviesSoWhite.
Oscar Weirdness: Picture*, Adapted Screenplay*, Cinematography*, Editing*, Score*, Director, Art Direction, Costume Design. 1956 is in contention for the strangest Oscar year. Voters had Giant and The King and I and Written on the Wind and La Strada and Forbidden Planet and Friendly Persuasion and The Ten Commandments and Seven Samurai and Somebody Up There Likes Me and Umberto D RIGHT THERE. They all had nominations in various categories and yet THIS movie was the big winner?
🎵 I'm goin' on a manhunt, turn it around
Women have been hunted, now they're huntin' around
Flashdance (1983)
OMG I had totally forgotten about Cynthia Rhodes. She was the Hot Dancer / Bad Girl of 80s musicals. She's also in Dirty Dancing and Staying Alive.
Oscar Nods: Cinematography, Editing, Original Song "Maniac" and Original Song* "Flashdance... What a Feeling"
Hey, that's some rock you got there. Did you buy that yourself George?
High Society (1956)
Grace isn't having this catty business from Bing Crosby. She yanks her hand away.
Oscar Nods: Score, Original Song "True Love"
[SCREAMING]
Hook (1991)
This is one of my most hated movies. Oscar felt differently giving it a lot of Most=Best nominations but at least it can't be called an "Oscar winning picture"
Oscar Weirdness: Art Direction, Costume Design, Visual FX, Makeup, Original Song "When You're Alone"
What is this?
Hotel Rwanda (2004)
I imagine our youngest readers are maybe asking that same question right now about this contraption they're looking at. That's what's called a "VCR" youngsters. It changed the world. Before that you had to actually go to movie theaters if you wanted to see something. *gasp!*. Movies would play for months on end if people liked them because once they were gone you might never see them again.
Trivia: Those are Joaquin Phoenix's fingers putting the tape in. This was his last supporting role before he became exclusively a leading man, however weird of a leading man he may be.
Oscar Noms: Original Screenplay, Best Actor (Don Cheadle), Best Supporting Actress (SOPHIE OKONEDO)
Yeah, he's a cute little fella, isn't he?
Pal Joey (1957)
Oscar Noms: Art Direction, Costume Design, Sound, Editing
I do dote on her.
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
That voice is offscreen so it's like they're reading our minds about Keira Knightley.
Oscar Noms: Best Actress (Keira Knightley), Art Direction, Costume Design, Score
How long are you gonna let your brother disgrace us?
Some Came Running (1958)
Oscar Noms: Actress (Shirley Maclaine), Actor (Arthur Kennedy), Supporting Actress (Martha Hyer), Costume Design, Original Song "To Love and Be Loved"
Quandary: I tend to like Vincente Minnelli pictures and this one has ardent fans. So why don't I like it at all? Maybe it's because Shirley Maclaine is barely in it despite a lead nomination and she's definitely the best part.
Oscar Titles leaving Amazon Prime at end of month: Amelie (2001), American Graffiti (1973), The Aviator (2004), Braveheart (1995), The Cider House Rules (1999), City of God (2003), The Crying Game (1992), Elizabeth (1998), Finding Neverland (2004), Frida (2004), Good Will Hunting (1997), Gosford Park (2001), The Graduate (1967), The Grifters (1991), High Noon (1952), In the Bedroom (2001), In the Name of the Father (1993), Little Women (1994), The Madness of King George (1994), My Left Foot (1989), Out of Africa (1985), Pulp Fiction (1994), Shakespeare in Love (1998), Shane (1953)
Reader Comments (22)
Amistad is a handsome looking film but I thought it was ponderous.
Around the World in 80 Days-WORST BEST PICTURE WINNER EVER!!!! Star spotting only goes so far and in this one it's not remotely far enough.
Initially I found Some Came Running slow and rather stiff until the last half hour but I've rewatched a few times now and it's grown on me each time until I like it quite a bit now. Perhaps its one of those films that needs repeat viewings. I agree Shirley's nomination in lead is crazy, the inverse of what happens now when she's clearly supporting. The weird thing is I think if she had been nominated there she stood a good chance of winning.
I just watched Hotel Rwanda for the first time. It's good as social commentary goes (it definitely makes its case that it was deplorable that the world cared so little about what was happening in Rwanda) but sort of mediocre as a film. Since it was disappearing, I also rewatched High Society for the nth time - it's not a great movie and the gender politics are somewhat upsetting but I love it anyway. And those costumes!
I've never seen Pal Joey but I hope to catch it before the end of the month - even moreso now that I know there's a cute little dog in it.
Amistad is the worst of Spielberg's historical prestige pics. You're not missing anything.
@ Nat - SOPHIE OKONEDO in all caps, that is correct. Well done, Sir, you get a cookie. Better yet, Tony Award Winner SOPHIE OKONEDO, working her away up to her EGOT. Hope the Queen wises up soon and makes her Dame SOPHIE OKONEDO.
@joel6 - Worst than Cimarron, you think so? ATWI80D at least is wacky fun. Cimarron is just dull and insifferable.
@/3rtful - I am not a big fan of Amiatad either, but I think Djimon Hounsou is pretty great in it. He has so much presence and star presence, it is a shame he doesn't have a career to do his magnetism justice.
*presence and star power
Lol, I should def proof read before submitting a comment! xD
You know, for a long time. I always thought Hook was the worst thing Spielberg had done. That was until..... ugh.... Crystal Skull.
Why watch HIGH SOCIETY when you could watch THE PHILADELPHIA STORY I have *no* idea.
I love that FLASHDANCE got editing and cinematography nominations.
Flashdance is perfect for Hit Me with Your Best Shot.
I've seen it between 24 and 36 times.
Nathaniel, that is Crosby not Sinatra!
I think 1956 is the year with the longest Best Picture nominees. GIANT and 10 COMMANDMENTS are both 200+ minutes, ATWI80D is over 3 hours, and KING & I and FRIENDLY PERSUASION are both 130+ minutes.
@Carmen Sandiego - Cimarron is by far the worst Best Picture winner for me. And I've seen 'em all!
Cavalcade is worse than ATWIED, too. Trust me.
And I love Gene Kelly's scene with Jerry the Mouse in Anchors Aweigh. I'm good with that nomination, even if it wasn't his best work.
Paul -- GAH. of course it is. I was thinking about Sinatra because of Pal Joey and Anchors Aweigh. My bad. fixed.
Cash & Carmen & Joel -- there is a lot of competition for Worst Best Picture. But yeah, Cimarron, Cavalcade, and Around the World are all up there.
Also "down there"? Gigi and Gentleman's Agreement.
I'll stand up (although not wholeheartedly) for "Around the World in Eighty Days". For what it is (a star-stuffed spectacular) and the time it was released in (the 1950s... a time when, in order to compete with TV, movies resorted to grand spectacle in exotic locales... how could they resist a movie that took place in several exotic locales?), it's good honest fun.
But yeah, "Giant" should've won that one easily.
Watched a lot of the free '50s flicks over the Christmas holidays...and yeah, a lot of the "classics" and popular hits of the time don't always age well...
I didn't bother to watch "Around the World..." but understand its popularity at the time, when travelogues and all-star casts were still a novelty.
About "Some Came Running": I've always enjoyed Shirley Maclaine in small doses, especially when she's doing her "brassy" schtick. And Martha Hyer, the classic '50s starlet slash pod person! I love it when she tells Sinatra, "You have a very exciting talent!" Uh, yes...Ava certainly agreed! But I like the guys, Frank and Dean, because they were naturalistic for the era. Plus, I'm a sucker for '50s life in small town melodramas.
I only have very sketchy memories of Amistad, outside of a great and utterly wasted supporting cast (Hawthorne, Firth, Ejoifor) however I do seem to remember a bizarre scene where we watch Hopkins doze off in the House, and a Family Guy esque cutaway of Anna Paquin trampolining on a bed. It's like Spielberg filmed a load of scenes and then patched a film together.
Hotel Rwanda is well worth a rewatch (looking forward to seeing whether Terry George can bring the same emotional intensity to the Aremian Genocide later this year in The Promise), however I wonder if Shooting Dogs, which took a much more brutal and damning approach to the conflict and the impotent UN, would have had the exposure it deserved if HR hadn't preceded it.
Just had a peak at Jennifer Beals IMDB page. She never really took off after Flashdance did she? A few cool projects here and there, but there's a lot of rubbish.
I ADORE Kelly, but she's no Tracy Lord Hepburn
The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) IS the worst best pic winner. Around the world in 80 days is 2nd....The King & I or Giant shld've won best pic
Gawd--I hate HIGH SOCIETY so much. One would think Kelly could pull off Tracy Lord as she played a version of that in Catch a Thief, but no, no, and no. Plus, as much as I love musicals, I am not a fan of Bing Crosby.
Along the same lines, IMO all of the musicals that won Best Picture except for The Sound of Music, were among the worst of all BP winners. Especially The Greatest Show on Earth. Not quite a musical, but I also didn't love Going My Way (another Bing pic and BP winner).
@Nat or whoever knows, could someone please explain the Sophie Okonedo joke? I keep hearing her name written/said in a funny way in posts and podcasts (especially with Nick Davis) but don't know what it's about.
In 2014 I finally watched all the remaining Best Pic Oscar winners and I will agree that Around the World is one of the very worst: it's right down there with Crash & The Greatest Show on Earth (and The Great Ziegfield, ugh). It has aged quite poorly.
I fear I will go to my grave defending Around the World in Eighty Days - and the Academy's decision to award it Best Picture.
I really enjoy it every time I watch it. David Niven is perfection. Cantinflas (counter-intuitive casting) is perfection too. My only quibble is that the bullfight drags a bit in terms of pacing. Other than that, I think it's a great telling of the story. As an adaptation of the novel, it's really clever.
And don't forget, it won EVERY Best Picture award that year - Golden Globe, National Board of Review, New York Film Critics. So it wasn't just the Academy making that choice - it was everyone's best film. I wasn't around in 1956, but I can imagine it had the sort of impact that, oh, Titanic or Avatar had when they came out. Only it's more enjoyable than either of those.
It has easy-going charm in abundance, and I wish more movies had it or knew what it was.