10 Movies That Were Shameless “Oscar Bait”

Oscar season is well and truly upon us – you can tell because cinemas are knee-deep in challenging, issue-based movies and film critics are in the throes of a meltdown. Most of the time, the movies in contention during awards season are decent, and the winners are usually worthy, but goodness me, we’ve seen some truly tragic cases of Oscar bait over the years – movies that seemed purpose-built to triumph at the Academy Awards. You can smell the desperation coming from these 10 recent tailor-made Oscar hopefuls…

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‘Diana’ (2013)

Frankly we’re surprised it took this long to get a Princess Di movie off the ground, but as soon as 'Diana’ was announced – with the original, even more Oscar-baity title, 'Caught In Flight’ – it was obvious that this one was gunning for a gold guy. Unfortunately, the only nomination it scored was Worst Actress at the Razzies, but Naomi Watts didn’t even win that, losing out (somehow) to Tyler Perry. Diana became a laughing stock: earnest and stuffy, it painted the Princess of Wales as a lovesick puppy and took the tabloid route of recreating the last days of the People’s Princess until it felt like a cheap and nasty soap opera. Sample dialogue: “So hearts can’t actually be broken?” Never forget.

'Seven Pounds’ (2008)

Also known as the film that ended Will Smith’s winning streak. 'Seven Pounds’ ended Smith’s run of eight consecutive $100 million box-office barnstormers, and with good reason: it’s a big, cheesy slice of overly-sentimental, maudlin tosh about fate and redemption and jellyfish. Oscar nominations = zero. Apparently being known as 'Mr Box Office’ wasn’t enough for Smith, who has switched up his Big Willy Style to focus more on Oscar-baiting dramas in recent years, which explains this week’s release of the underwhelming American football medical drama, 'Concussion’, which – if we may borrow some NFL terminology – is also more of a fumble than a touchdown.

The films of director Clint Eastwood, 2006-2014

Clint Eastwood is a fantastic director. A fantastic director. Just look at the movies he made between 1971 and 2004 – his career is literred with classics like 'Play Misty For Me’, 'Unforgiven’, 'Mystic River’ and 'Million Dollar Baby’. When that last movie picked up Best Picture in 2005, however, it sent Clint’s career into a tailspin – each new movie he made seemed more desperate to be recognised at the Oscars than the last. 'Flags Of Our Fathers’ and companion piece 'Letters From Iwo Jima’ were shameless flag-wavers; 'J. Edgar’ was a biopic painted in shades of brown; rugby movie 'Invictus’ was skidmarks in sports shorts; 'Hereafter’ was a disaster movie in every sense except the one intended. ‘American Sniper’ was the film that finally got Clint back on track.

'Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close’ (2011)

If you want your movie in contention come awards season, there’s a guaranteed way of entering the conversation, and it only takes two numbers to do it: 9/11. Truly, 9/11 movies are the new Holocaust movies: there’s no quicker way to elbow yourself to the front of the crowd than featuring or revolving around the events of September 11th. The most surprising thing about this saccharine drama starring Tom Hanks was that it was the rare example of Oscar bait that hooked the Academy link and sinker: somehow – not even the filmmakers know how – it landed a Best Picture nomination in 2012. It subsequently went on to have the longest Best Picture odds in Oscar history and then vanished without trace.

'Australia’ (2008)

Kidman! Jackman! Luhrmann! Oh man. 'Australia’ had all the makings of an Oscar-winning epic: a period piece directed by an Academy darling, starring the hottest stars on the planet, a film so confident in its own brilliance it stuck with its definitive, single-word title, like it was the last word on the continent. Audiences, however, stayed away in droves after critics tore into Baz’s stodgy World War II flop, rightly critical of the fact that nobody really gave two hoots what was happening Down Under during the Blitz. The only Oscar nomination 'Australia’ received was Best Costume Design, which is the equivalent of complimenting the Elephant Man on his nice shoes.

'All The King’s Men’ (2006)

Here’s a special shot-out to Sean Penn, who rarely sees to go a year without lending his name to a clumpy, over-long, Oscar bait snoozefest. This Steven Zaillian potboiler, about a Southern governor corrupted by power, is among his worst offenders: self-important, grandiose and bland, it is one of the least satisfying ways one can spend 128 minutes. See also: 'This Must Be The Place’ (Sean dresses up like a Goth), 'Fair Game’ (Sean does a political thriller that chugs along at a snail’s pace) and his section of the otherwise effervescent Terrence Malick drama 'The Tree Of Life’ – even Penn famously didn’t know what he was doing. Expect his El Chapo biopic to bore Oscar voters to tears in 2018.

'Men, Women & Children’ (2014)

Jason Reitman, what happened to you? His debut was the sparky comedy 'Thank You For Smoking’, which he followed up with the Oscar-nominated 'Juno’, which was then followed by the Oscar-nominated 'Up In The Air.’ Then the rot set in. 'Young Adult’ was passable but passionless. 'Labor Day’ had a preoccupation with peach pies for some reason. And 2014’s 'Men, Women & Children’ was a dire echo of his former work, akin to a PSA about the dangers of using computers that felt at least 10 years out of date. Wasting a cast including Judy Greer, Jennifer Garner and an only-serious-once-in-a-blue-moon Adam Sandler should be a criminal offence. The punishment would be watching this movie.

'The Lovely Bones’ (2009)

Coming straight off the back of the heavily-decorated 'Lord Of The Rings’ trilogy and his passion project 'King Kong’, Peter Jackson must have thought he could do no wrong, and choosing to adapt the best-selling Alice Sebold novel must have seemed like a no-brainer. What the hell happened? Oscar turned its nose up at this particularly fragrant contender, shutting it out of all categories except for Stanley Tucci for Best Supporting Actor. It’s difficult to pin-point the most odious thing about it, but you could feel in your own bones that it was trying too hard to be a movie that the Academy should recognise, without being one they actually would.

'The Soloist’ (2009)

There are few sights in modern cinema that turn viewers off more than Robert Downey Jr being sincere – the motor-mouthed 'Iron Man’ star made his comeback by being whip-smart and super-cool, so the actor’s continued insistence on appearing in sludgy, trudgy movies like this are a source of bafflement. On paper, Joe Wright’s 'The Soloist’ hit all the right beats – a feel-good story about a homeless guy (Jamie Foxx) who was actually a musical genius – but on film the movie hit more than a few bum notes. Breathtakingly patronising with Downey Jr monumentally miscast, it’s little wonder 'The Soloist’ was completely shut out of the Oscars.

'Serena’ (2014)

Here it is, the most blatant attempt at Oscar bait that Hollywood has ever seen. Take two hot-as-lava stars in Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, set in Depression-era North Carolina, add some stuff about a mis-managed timber empire and… no, wait, come back, did we mention it has Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper in it? Like in Oscar-winners 'American Hustle’ and 'Silver Linings Playbook’? No? Forget it then. From the subject matter to the cast right down to the font on the poster, 'Serena’ feels like it was built to appeal to Oscar voters, but it forgot to actually be interesting or exciting or good in the process.

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