The Worst Best Picture Nominees of the 21st Century

With “Being the Ricardos” standing a good chance of getting Best Picture recognition, one has to wonder if it will be the worst nominated Oscar film of the 21st Century.

As it currently stands, ‘Ricardos’ has a paltry 60 on Metacritic and a 68% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes — not to mention audiences haven’t been too keen on it either, a 6.6 on IMDB is skimp stuff.

What other Best Picture nominees have come close to these low numbers?

Well, the two obvious titles that kept popping in my head were 2011’s 9/11 weeper “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” (a 45% on rotten Tomatoes and 46 on Metacritic) and “Bohemian Rhapsody” (60% on Rotten Tomatoes and 49 on Metacritic).

Tom Hooper’s “Les Miserables” did not deserve its nomination in 2012 either and critics were definitely not on board that train (63 on Metacritic, 70% on Rotten Tomatoes).

“The Blind Side” is another obvious one with its 53 on Metacritic. It even ended up garnering Sandra Bullock a a Best Actress trophy. The film, much like “Bohemian Rhapsody” was a box-office juggernaut and that’s what primarily drove its Oscar odds upwards.

Its not that rare to have a mediocre film like “Being the Ricardos” making it into a Best Picture lineup, it happens, but one particular detail I did notice was how, despite the middling reviews, all the films that have been mentioned did strike a major chord with American audiences: ‘Bohemian’ has a 7.9 on IMDB, ‘Extremely Loud’ 7, Les Miserables 7.6, and The Blind Side 7.6.

“Being the Ricardos” hasn’t struck a similar chord, the audience reviews have been fairly weak. I can only imagine its PGA nod yesterday having, mostly, to do with Aaron Sorkin being this beloved figure within the industry and his film a total Hollywood jerkoff fest for the white-male-baby booming contingent of Academy voters (and there are a lot of them). Nostalgia sells, and ‘Ricardos’ is to that demographic what a Marvel movie might be to say the 18-29 male demo.