Did Not Deserve Oscar

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Haven't seen Bob Hoskin's performance yet, and I know very well the academy has been known for handing the award to actors or directors who have been long overdue when in fact, the other nominees did a better work. But as of now, I'll say Paul Newman's performance was so good, I almost wanna call it phenomenal. He rightfully deserved his award.

He stole every scene in my opinion. Tom Cruise was very impressive as well; he often gets criticized, but compare him to any modern actor who are the age Tom was back then - Cruise was very talented and starred in many good films in his day. No actor now, in his 20's or early 30's is as good as Tom was back then.

Back to Newman however, I loved his performance because it felt so real and natural. Sadly, and yes, I'll even mention the past three best actor Oscar winners; all of them did a great job, but you can tell they were acting compare to the work Newman gave here. You don't get actors like that no more where you forget they're acting and feel as if you are really watching someone's life.

The emotions Paul displays came naturally to him. I hadn't seen the original before I saw this, but his performance was spot on on someone his age who had retire, but deeply missed doing what he loved. It felt genuine; I got the impression that Newman actually spent all these years missing pool. A very nuanced performance from Paul Newman. The "I'm Back" at the end was enough for me.

Oh, and the film is very underrated. I take this Scorsese film over any film he made in the 2000's (except "The Departed"), where all of them starred annoying and unconvincing DiCaprio.

Agree completely.

Ironically Paul Newman was somewhat the Tom Cruise of his day: A pretty boy, but also a damn fine actor who was in many "blockbuster" movies of his day, and thus like Cruise never really got the acting credit he deserved from the old-school acting establishment...until as you say, his "lifetime achievement Oscar", aka the Best Actor for Color of Money.

Newman easily could and should have won for The Verdict, but Hollyweird does like it's sweeping period movies, and unfortuantely Newman was up against Ghandi that year.

And you just watch....somewhere down the line, the same thing will happen to Cruise. He will eventually win his Best Actor Oscar, for a movie he is real good but not great in, but sentiment will finally come back on his side after a number of years from now.

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Newman's performance is fine, but as mentioned in the thread, there are several films throughout the latter half of his career of which both his performance and the films themselves are both superior.

Unfortunately, Oscar loves to shower long overdue affection upon artists in their golden years, which is technically an insult to the artist and a tacit admission of Academy incompetence, voter ignorance, and a malfunctioning process doomed to recycle the same mistakes every year. Next year they'll give Angela Lansbury Best Actress for Mr. Poppin's Penguins 2.

As a stand alone, The Color of Money is a perfectly good film. As a sequel to The Hustler, it's disappointing. Its biggest strength is the superb craftsmanship, particularly the direction, cinematography, production design, and editing, all of which outshine the acting and the screenplay. These are also the elements of the film that best complement The Hustler in terms of a sequel.

The core problem is that the story in Tevis' book is all but ignored in Scorcese's film. As such, its further development of the Felsen character and the ensuing arc is extremely different from what takes place in the novel. Minnesota Fats is in the book, if that tells you anything. This isn't an unforgivable crime, but it at least explains the problem with the screenplay, which was quite obviously rewritten on spec and subject to studio demands. Predictable comments during development likely included "new character for Eddie to mentor", "hot young actor", "Gleason's too old now", "10 or 12 pop songs", etc.

it was a sympathy award for newman. just like connery in the untouchables!

I agree, should have not even been nominated

However he so much deserved the oscar for the hustler if this was a make up oscar so what?