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

48. Argo (2012)

It's fair to say that some Best Picture winners stand the test of time and others quickly cool with audiences. Argo, though a highly entertaining historical thriller, would fall into the latter camp.

Wildly heralded as the height of Ben Affleck's directorial prowess on release - and in fairness, his Best Director snub was a bit baffling - Argo is a cute mix of period thriller and Hollywood satire, such that it's easy to see why the navel-gazers among the Academy sprung for it so feverishly.

It unfortunately plays fast and loose with the truth and is a little too safe at times, but the ensemble cast crackles - especially John Goodman and Alan Arkin - and it's efficiently suspenseful when it needs to be, even as it throws veracity to the wind.