Oscars: Right Actor, Wrong Movie

Great actors deserve kudos for their performances, and that's what the Oscars are for. But there has been a disturbing trend of actors getting awards for movies that don't really have stand-out roles for them or for which they didn't really give stellar performances. Here are just a few such cases of wrong Oscars.

Tom Hanks. Wrong, Oscar for Philadelphia. Of course Tom did a great job in this role, and it was a film that needed to get some recognition. But was it Hanks' ability as an actor that convinced viewers he was indeed a man dying of AIDS? Wrong, it was more likely the makeup (for which it didn't win). The win the next year for Forrest Gump does help make up for Philadelphia, but then that left him in the cold for his great solo work in Cast Away. Were they really going to give Tom Hanks 3 Oscars in 7 years? It really looks like the Philadelphia award was the "he's a really good actor but he'll probably never do another serious film so we'd better give him the Oscar now" award.

Cuba Gooding, Jr. Wrong, Oscar for Jerry Maguire. Really? This was a tough role for a professional actor to play? Cuba added a new dimension to the character? Wrong. He's had tons of better, deeper, more interesting roles, including his role in Instinct. Now that work deserved an Oscar. This was a well-rounded character with emotion and background that was easy to believe with his portrayal. It was a much bigger job for an actor than the role in Jerry Maguire, and Cuba did it very well.

Al Pacino. Wrong, Oscar for Scent of a Woman. Lots of people questioned this choice. Not that Pacino didn't deserve an Oscar, but this just seems a bizarre choice. It's not like nobody else was nominated, either: both Denzel Washington for Malcolm X and Robert Downey Jr. for Chaplain were up for the Best Actor Oscar this year, both having turned in stellar performances. This just seems to be one of those "we better give him one now since we passed him up before" kinds of wrong Oscars. Take your pick of his earlier works for something Oscar-worthy. How about Dog Day Afternoon, The Godfather II, Scarface?

Robin Williams. Wrong, Oscar for Good Will Hunting. He was good in Good Will Hunting, yes, but was that performance the same caliber as the one in Dead Poets Society or Awakenings? His Will character reacted to Matt Damon's character well, but his Awakenings character did more than react. Robin Williams believable as a bookworm who doesn't like the company of people. That says it all right there.

This trend of giving the right actors the wrong Oscars seems to be relatively new. There are fewer and fewer such incidents as the years go back. And it brings us back to the question, what is an Oscar for? Is it supposed to represent a specific outstanding work, like so many of us believe, or is it possible for it to be given for a body of work, even a personality? We'll just have to wait and see if more wrong Best Actor Oscars are given out.