Oscars: Every Best Picture Winner Ever Ranked From Worst To Best

70. A Beautiful Mind (2001)

Arguably the weakest of 2002's Best Picture contenders - sitting at the bottom of the pack with Moulin Rouge! - Ron Howard's drama about American mathematician John Nash is fatally weakened by its blatant historical inaccuracy, which only makes its Oscar triumph that much more baffling.

Accepted on its own terms, A Beautiful Mind is a solid jaunt, and the performances from Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly and Ed Harris are splendid, but for a movie that won the Big One, it's oddly anaemic at times, and pretty much exactly what people are talking about when they speak of Ron Howard's work derisively (especially in light of him helming a Star Wars movie).

Plus, the film won a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for one of Hollywood's biggest hacks, Akiva Goldsman, which is reason enough to rank it low-ish on this list.