9 Films Designed To Win Oscars That Failed Miserably

When Randy Newman finally won an Academy Award for Best Song, he said that no one has ever made consistently great films with the exception of Australian Peter Weir. Weir began his career in his native country with small, art-house films like The Cars That Ate Paris and Picnic At Hanging Rock, but his work across the continent saw work like Fearless, Witness, Dead Poet's Society and The Truman Show.

When Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World was released, fans of the director's work were excited. It was a high seas adventure, based upon Patrick O'Malley's Aubrey-Maturin novels. The filmmaker had proven his ability to gorgeous landscapes, and an open-air, historical war drama about the Napoleonic wars seemed to be the perfect setting.

And though Master and Commander managed to snag nominations for Best Picture and Director, its chances were beyond slim. There's no question it's gorgeous to look at, and as Roger Ebert said at the time, it captures the very nature of an epic without ever losing sight of the humanity that drives the story.

The sad truth is that it's also somewhat of a bore. Coming in at just under two and a half hours, the epic scale and grand production design is all there, but ultimately very little of consequence happens. It hurts to say it, but a Pirates of the Carribean film manages to be more entertaining. And, much like that Disney dreck, it ends on a cliffhanger. Unlike that Disney dreck, however, audiences didn't seem to care to see another.