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We all make mistakes. From leisure suits in the ‘70s, to “hypercolor” clothing in the ‘80s, to rat tail haircuts anytime, we Americans are notorious for making choices that seemed like good ideas at the time. Despite our less-than-stellar judgment, we tend to demand more of our finest institutions. In particular, we expect our most prestigious award-givers to choose the right winners. Is that too much to ask? Take the Academy Awards (please!). Today, we thought it might be fun to go back through history and point out the most obvious mistakes in the history of the Oscars. Focusing on past recipients of the three major awards (Best Picture, Actor and Actress), we’ll identify the times when Oscar really fell down on the job. And, sad to say, it’s happened more than once.

Fifty years after its release, “Chinatown” (1974) endures as a stunningly effective tribute to the Bogart private eye classics and the best noir entries of the ‘40s and ‘50s. Directed by the gifted Roman Polanski, an iconic performance by Jack Nicholson as private eye J.J. “Jake” Gittes beats at the heart of this film. The rest of the cast is equally stellar, however, with Faye Dunaway as twitchy, mysterious femme fatale Evelyn Mulwray, and powerhouse director John Huston playing her domineering, power hungry (and worse) father, Noah Cross. Even Polanski makes a cameo as a knife-wielding thug.   And let’s not forget Robert Towne’s sterling screenplay, peppered with smart, snappy dialogue that gives even Raymond Chandler a run for his money. In fact, out of eleven Oscar nods for the movie (including Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director), only Towne went home with a statuette for his stinging, perfectly structured script. So I suppose, after fifty years, you think you know everything about this tale of water theft and sisters, I mean daughters! No, sisters!… but I’ll just let vile water baron Noah Cross tell you… “You may think you know what you're dealing with, but believe me, you don't.”

It isn’t Christmas without cookie-making, candy canes and chocolate Santas. But what we forget is that all that sugar puts kids on fast forward. To counter the ill effects of too many frosted things and to captivate spun-out minds, we've put together a list of can’t-miss movies for kids that grownups can enjoy too.

Here’s a bold statement: Giving your children the chance to watch classic films can be just as vital as anything they learn in school. 

It’s nearly impossible to discuss a truly great movie without mentioning its musical score. Can you  honestly ponder the Spielberg classic “Jaws” (1975) without hearing those relentless, alternating two notes (played on a tuba!) that announce the killer shark’s arrival? Or think of “Rocky” (1976) without remembering how Bill Conti’s soaring trumpet theme made your heart race? 

They say the customer is always right — but not always right away. For instance, sometimes it takes a while for movie audiences to recognize just how special a film really is. When it premieres, there’s a barely audible thud, and very little box office.  The culprit could be poor distribution, half-hearted promotion, a storyline slightly ahead of its time, the ire of some influential critic with digestive trouble, or any combination of the above. A surprising number of now-classic films either just broke even, or actually lost money on initial release. Here are 10 classics from my list that fall into this category. 

How do you make a legendary film in a few weeks’ time, all with a budget that would make even the most miserly studio head giddily twirl his mustache? Ask Sidney Lumet. Unquestionably, “12 Angry Men” (1957) is one of the finest films of the 1950s, with three Oscar nominations to its credit; but even so, the project had a skin-tight budget, (only $350,000 - a paltry sum for a film, even then). This forced first-time feature director Lumet to bob and weave to finish on-time and on-cost. So how did he pull it off? This tense film follows the contentious deliberations of twelve men, packed into a sweltering jury room, as they decide the fate of a youth accused of murdering his father. Lumet made the most of the confining premise by filming 93 of the 96 minutes on the same cramped 16 x 24 foot set. Even this solo venue was a cheap collection of sticks that Henry Fonda (AKA Juror 8) famously complained “looked like shit”, comparing it unfavorably to the lavish Hitchcock soundstages he’d just stepped off of when filming “The Wrong Man.”