The reason I went with the poster instead of the usual still is because of the tagline. “The Whole World Loves Tom Jones!” Really? I don’t.

Tom Jones (Albert Finney in his younger years) is a bit of a bastard. And he makes out with a lot of women but he’s also in love with this one girl named Sophie and their parents don’t want them to be together. But he proves everyone wrong by.. going out with a bunch of women. That’ll show them.

Honestly, this movie isn’t horrible, but if somebody told me that this movie won Best Picture at the most prestigious awards ceremony in film history, i’d tell them to quit drinking. I mean, Hannah Montana: The Movie would make more sense as a Best Picture winner than this does! So, what’s wrong with it?

First of all, the whole film had a ton of TV static that made it feel more like something out of the early 30’s than the early 60’s. To be fair, maybe I just got a really-beat down DVD, but that doesn’t excuse why none of the characters are likable, least of all Tom himself. The story is just shot awkwardly, with not only very suggested sex but heavy amounts of drinking, mean characters, and a particularly gory hunt scene. It feels like Thernardier from Les Mis directed this, it’s so unpleasant.

Also, despite an established fourth wall, there’s a scene near the end where a character just turns around and tells us some information. And then walks away like nothing happened. Did the director of this movie even take film 101? The movie itself tells a simple enough story, and it did get a chuckle out of me at one point, but for the most part, I was just overwhelmed by the movie’s weakness.

Honestly, I wanted to give this movie lower, but it wasn’t necessarily that bad. I mean, it’s not really cringe worthy. I probably wouldn’t be so hard on it if it didn’t win. But seriously, I’d skip this one.

**1/2

Next one is My Fair Lady. As I’ve said before, I love musicals, so chance’s are, i’ll enjoy it. But it beat out Mary Poppins for the Oscar, so get ready for one biased review.