Out of Africa (1985)

Out of Africa (1985)

[7] In colonial Kenya, a Danish baroness has an ongoing affair with a big game hunter. On one hand, Sydney Pollacks' Oscar-winning best picture is long and subdued. But on the other hand, it does a great job transporting you to another time…
Cimarron (1931)

Cimarron (1931)

[5] This early Oscar-winning best picture is uneven at best. Richard Dix makes for a hammy lead, while Irene Dunne is stuck playing his harpy of a wife. The film follows the two as they move west to Oklahoma at the end…
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)

Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)

[6] Paul Newman headlines this Robert Wise biopic about real-life boxing champ Rocky Graziano. Ernest Lehman's smart, well-paced script sees Rocky through several youthful indiscretions that threaten to ruin him just as the lightweight championship comes within reach. Though he had appeared…
Julius Caesar (1953)

Julius Caesar (1953)

[5] Marlon Brando is terrific as Marc Antony in the centerpiece scene, rallying Rome to condemn Caesar's assassins. The supporting cast, sets, Miklos Rozsa's score, and the cast of thousands are impressive. But I'll be damned if this movie didn't have me…
Barry Lyndon (1975)

Barry Lyndon (1975)

[5] Beautifully shot and slavish to Kubrick's singular, intentionally off-putting vision, Barry Lyndon follows the circuitous rise and fall of an unscrupulous man through love and war, as he swindles his way into aristocracy and sews the seeds of his own ultimate…
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

[9] George Miller has stopped making talking pig and dancing penguin movies (Babe, Happy Feet) long enough to give us another installment in his seminal apocalyptic Mad Max series. The result is probably one of the greatest non-stop action movies ever made.…
Around the World in 80 Days (1956)

Around the World in 80 Days (1956)

[4] Around the World in 80 Days is a three-hour-long, episodic adventure that's high on spectacle and low on story or character. I wager it played better to a 1950s audience interested in seeing a cliche-ridden "It's a Small World"-like pastiche of…
Gigi (1958)

Gigi (1958)

[3] What a shitty Best Picture winner Gigi is. It's a musical about an unhappy playboy (Louis Jourdan) and an unhappy debutante (Leslie Caron) who fall in love, but then out of love, and back in love, and out, and finally in…
Cavalcade (1933)

Cavalcade (1933)

[4] The third-ever Academy Award for 'Best Picture' went to this somewhat clunky, melodramatic story spanning three decades in the lives of two British families -- one upstairs aristocrats, the other downstairs servants. It may have been one of the most popular…
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

[6] Just as Robert Zemeckis had to make Forrest Gump and Tim Burton had to make Big Fish, so did David Fincher have to make The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. All three directors are known for their visual and/or technical prowess,…