Critically Hated Movies That Actually Won Oscars

There really isn't any objective way to determine a movie's worth — or any art, for that matter — but the Academy Awards come close. The ceremony is a great way to showcase some of the very best in cinematic excellence over the past year, showcasing acclaimed hits as well as some of the less mainstream movies that audiences may not have had the opportunity to see. 

Even the Oscars make mistakes sometimes, however — and over the years, more than a few critically eviscerated movies have won Academy Awards. Here are some of our favorites.

Benicio del Toro is no stranger to playing weird, hairy hermits, but his starring turn in the 2010 remake of The Wolfman had some big shoes to fill considering the long shadow left by the original. Still, del Toro seemed like the absolute perfect vessel to channel the man-turned-monster.

Unfortunately, the film fell flat critically, as the languid pacing and light horror weren't enough to connect. The movie did have one very strong quality going for it, though: makeup and creature design by Rick Baker, who's probably your favorite makeup artist even if you didn't know you had one. The man's filmography is like a greatest hits of genre movies, including Hellboy, Men in Black, Videodrome, An American Werewolf in London, and even Star Wars. Considering Baker's pedigree, it's almost unsurprising that The Wolfman managed to score a (well-deserved) win at the Academy Awards for Best Makeup — it's just a shame his work wasn't seen by more people in a better film.

There aren't many actors gifted enough to convey the deep sincerity and anxious energy of Robin Williams. Even in lesser movies, he shined with his mile-a-minute speech pattern and gentle sadness. Speaking of lesser movies, here's What Dreams May Come — yet while critics were mixed on the overall quality of the movie, nearly everyone was in agreement that the movie looked fantastic.

They're not wrong, either. The afterlife shown in the movie is almost garish in its Amazon forest excess, blues and purples flashing by like a proto-Avatar. In stark contrast to the muddy setting on Earth, what comes next genuinely looks otherworldly. By the time the movie's setting switches to Hell, the color is drained out of the film to spectacular effect, all of which was enough to clinch What Dreams May Come an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. That honor may have been the most lasting impact left by this otherwise largely forgotten film.

Flashdance isn't the best movie with "Flash" in the title (that would be Flash Gordon) or the best movie with "Dance" in the title (that would be Dirty Dancing), but you could generously call it the best movie with "Flashdance" in the title. The story follows a steel mill worker (Jennifer Beals) who moonlights as an exotic dancer with dreams of becoming a ballerina. Flashdance was a massive hit at the box office and on the pop charts, but earned absolutely vicious reviews that complained of the poor storytelling, bizarre character beats, and overall waste of Beals' acting talent.

Despite the poor critical reception, Flashdance picked up no fewer than four Oscar nominations, two of them on the strength of the film's bestselling soundtrack. The title track, "Flashdance ... What a Feeling," ended up winning Best Original Song — continuing singer Irene Cara's streak of being associated with Oscar-winning movies that benefited from hit singles and cool choreography.

It's extremely rare to find a Best Picture winner that was critically reviled. Even movies that are retroactively considered to be terrible, like Crash, still manage to eke out a respectable "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The Greatest Show on Earth is a rare exception — a Best Picture winner so critically disdained that it's hard to understand how the Academy went so wrong.

Directed by Cecil DeMille, who you might recall as the genius filmmaker behind Cleopatra and The Ten Commandments, the movie indulged his epic tendencies in the worst ways, succumbing to sweeping melodrama and narrative bloat without ever coming close to living up to its title. That didn't stop The Greatest Show on Earth from sauntering off with Academy Awards for both Best Picture and Best Writing, but as the critical consensus makes clear, this is one picture that may have coasted on its director's larger-than-life reputation.

All things considered, King Kong's had a pretty good run of it at the box office. The 1933 original is a cornerstone classic of modern cinema, Peter Jackson's 2005 remake did well with critics while making a mint, and 2017's Kong: Skull Island brought the big guy into Legendary's Monsterverse in blockbuster style. But we tend to forget the Dino de Laurentiis-produced 1976 Kong remake, and for good reason: Starring Jessica Lange and a young Jeff Bridges, the film tried to reinvent the story for a new generation, but only succeeded at making audiences miss the original.

Critics found it tiresome, but the titular giant monkey managed to grab another kind of blonde beauty in the form of an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. Perhaps emboldened by their success, Laurentiis' production company enlisted '76 Kong director John Guillermin for a sequel, King Kong Lives, ten years later. Oscar voters (and audiences) weren't nearly as impressed.