Do the People's Choice Awards Really Have Worse Taste Than the Oscars?

2004

Academy Award: Million Dollar Baby

People's Choice Award: Fahrenheit 9/11

Really? The People's Choice Awards chose Fahrenheit 9/11 as the best film of the year? That's actually kind of amazing just on it's own for a number of reasons. Say what you want about the political message of Michael Moore's takedown of the Bush Administration: The People, in this case, made the far more provocative pick.

Winner: The People

2003

Academy Award: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

People's Choice Award: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Now, the original Pirates is a great film, but not better than any of the Lord of the Rings films. As we see below, though, The People's Choice Awards were ahead of the game in honoring The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Winner: The Academy

2002

Academy Award: Chicago

People's Choice Award: Spider-Man and Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (tie)

This is confusing considering that Fellowship was released in 2001. Even if they meant The Two Towers -- or if we ignore LOTR all together -- I would still take the first Spider-Man over Chicago. (To this day, Chicago is the only Broadway musical that I've ever walked out of during intermission. Granted, I have yet to see Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Perhaps my feelings on this year will reverse once I do.)

Winner: The People

2001

Academy Award: A Beautiful Mind

People's Choice Award: Shrek

I think as a society we forget how good the original Shrek really is -- if, as a society, we can forget that this movie starts with a song from Smash Mouth. On the other end of the spectrum, when is the last time you popped in your copy of A Beautiful Mind? Score another one for The People.

Winner: The People

2000

Academy Award: Gladiator

People's Choice: Award: The Green Mile

Both of these films were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture (though, The Green Mile came out in 1999 and won for 2000, for some reason). I never understood why Gladiator won Best Picture; it's a fine action movie, but Best Picture? Then again, its competition was Chocolat, Erin Brockovich, Traffic and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. That's probably why The People were smart enough to just say, "Screw it," and pick a film from the year before. Unfortunately since Gladiator was actually released in the year that we are discussing the Academy gets the nod by default.

Winner: The Academy

1999

Academy Award: American Beauty

People's Choice Award: The Sixth Sense

Other than Crash, I think American Beauty may be the worst film to ever win an Academy Award for Best Picture. So, yeah, I would be on board with pretty much anything chosen in place of that movie. To be fair, no matter how terrible M. Night Shyamalan has become in recent years, The Sixth Sense was a truly unique film for its time and is very deserving of an Academy Award. (It was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar.)

Winner: The People

Final Score

The Academy: 5

The People: 6

Um, what was that you were saying about the People's Choice being a joke?

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