Friday Fun list: Most overrated movies
 

I am tired of arguing over important things like the direction of this country. I would rather argue over pointless things like the most overrated movies out there. The best thing about this list is that for every movie listed--there will be someone for whom that is the greatest movie ever.

My contribution--Caddyshack. Now before you ban me from the board as a heritic, let me explain. I don't think that this was a horrible movie. And it had some funny lines and scenes--made even more impressive when you realize that a lot of it was improvised.

But I just don't get the cult that has grown around this movie. It's not that I think that it's a bad movie. I think that it's an OK movie with some good parts. It, however, is talked about like one of the greatest movies ever. I don't think that it is. Hence, overrated.

Thoughts? Other Movies?

For me, every Hitchcock movie. They lack any subtext and really don't leave anything with you at the end to think about. The fact that he is considered one of the greatest directors ever is a crime, IMO.

Titanic.

Lost in Translation

To me, it really was lost.

Gladiator.

The Matrix, especially the second two. These movies threaten to collapse under the load of bombastic praise and overdone hype they receive, IMO.

The first two movies that immediately popped into my head were The Big Lebowski and Gladiator. Lost in Translation was the third. Glad to see there are others who agree on at least 2 of the 3.


{Confession - I only made it through about 30 minutes of The Big L before turning it off, and only about an hour of Lost in Translation, so forgive me the part that makes either of these movies any good is at the end.}

Seconded. Best Picture my ass.

I've got to go with Unbreakable, not so much that it was overrated, as much as it was overhyped... Its hard though, I mostly watch movies that I like, and it is a small percentage, but I might agree with Caddyshack as well. It left me... wanting. Major League, IMHO is much much funnier.

Wow. :eek: I'll just say I disagree.

Of the ones I have watched lately, probably A Beautiful Mind.

The Blair Witch Project was really overrated. I'd also have to say that any Oliver Stone flick as well. I just can't stand them.

Disagreement. I believe Unbreakable to be a prime example of bang-to-buck ratio. If I were smarter, maybe I would have figured it out earlier, but I didn't, so I was blissful in my ignorance. :)

Blasphemy! I spit on your golf shoes.

Agreed. I hated that movie. 5 snaps down.

Maybe I just didn't care too much about the plot line, but like I said in my post, its hard to find a movie I'm disappointed with. Well, cept for Titanic, but what guy, who likes girls, wasn't disappointed with that piles of crap? If it weren't for Kate Winslett's beautiful breasts... {Sigh} Can someone hand me some kleenex?

Unbreakable is one of my three favorite movies. I have to agree that A Beautiful Mind was over-rated. My original contribuition to this thread: Bladerunner.

(actually Im mostly kidding. Its not my type of movie at all, but I do recognize it is a very well done movie and well ahead of its time.)

Okay, fine, I'll recant Unbreakable and put up Pretty Woman, or Ghost, or Dirty (F'n) Dancing

I'm down with all 3 of those being over-rated.

Layup.

You can do better.

Mystic River

It was an okay story with good acting...but, for me, the final two scenes took away any closure the movie had and invalidated the prior two hours.

Citizen Kane = best ever? You've got to be kidding me.

Spider Man = Of the comic book flicks it was one of the better ones, but that's a grossly overdone and worn out genre.

Unbreakable was disappointing to me as well.

The Replacements? Any Given Sunday? Is that a 15 footer at least?

Fight Club: I have fallen asleep three times attempting to watch this movie. And I love Edward Norton, Rounders is one of my favorite movies of all time.

A Clockwork Orange: Maybe this is one of those movies that was ground breaking at the time or maybe I just have a simple mind, but it is just wierd not great. And you can't tell me that I don't understand Kubrick movies is the reason I don't get it because I have enjoyed everything from Dr. Strangelove to Full Metal Jacket to even Eyes Wide Shut and obviously 2001. I just don't get a clockwork orange.

There was a reason Lost in Translation was independant film orginally. Very artsy and subtle. I really enjoyed it but it is NOT mainstream.

I never thought of Unbreakable as rated high by anyone so how can it be overrated? Average movie IMO.

Blazing Saddles was overrated based on the cult following. Funny parts but not my favorite Mel Brooks movie.

The Killing Fields. The only reason the Cambodian guy won best supporting actor for this movie was because he was the only one who could actually act, so he looked that much better.

I'd put Pearl Harbor ahead of Titanic, but for all the same reasons.

Sorry, I liked Gladiator.

Oh, and for those of you who hate Titanic, you must play Kung Fu Chaos on the Xbox. They have an excellent Titanic level. Well, everybody with an Xbox should play Kung Fu Chaos: my vote for most underrated video game.

Blasphemer! That movie is only second to The Quest for the Holy Grail in "number of times I've watched the movie and was still laughing hard at most of the jokes". Although it was much better with the extra Mongo scenes that seem to have been lost sometime in the last two decades...

I knew I would catch hell for that comment. :) To be or not to be and spaceballls are my Mel Brook favorites. :)

Doesn't a movie have to be rated? Perhaps we shouldn't include Pearl Harbor.

Shrek... I know its for kids, but it gets love for everyone... all it is an hour and a half of fart jokes.

Got to agree here...

What's wrong with fart jokes?

Pretty Woman. Ugh! What dreck!
Citizen Kane. it was ok, but not great by any stretch.
American Beauty. Did not seem to be that good a flick.
and Finally
Fargo and Raising Arizona A lot of folks keep saying that these are their best film. NO WAY

The Dark Crystal

Had good memories as a kid, rewatched it and boy, was I dissapointed. Maybe it is just a kids movie, but I thought I remembered that it was rated high.

Broadcast News was the most unwatchable piece of garbage ever. And as a bonus, the ending sucked donkey balls. Finding Nemo was the first Albert Brooks movie I've seen since I got stuck watching that waste of film - and that's only because I didn't have to see him, I only had to listen to his voice. James L. Brooks should be ashamed of himself.

And not to pile on William Hurt, but The Accidental Tourist was a shitty movie, too.

On the other hand, for some reason I really enjoyed Lost In Translation. It stuck with me for a few days after seeing it, which I can't say about too many movies (other than the comedies whose lines I've memorized).

Castaway ... More like GO AWAY! .. (Rimshot)

Frankly I am not a big Tom Hanks fan, but I thought Castaway was pretty lame. I dunno, it just didn't do it for me.

The Burbs was a far superior film.

Speaking of cult followings, how anyone can look at more than 30 seconds of Rocky Horror Picture Show I have no idea. And don't give me that crap about audience participation. That just makes it worse.

I enjoy Tim Curry. That is why I've seen it a bunch of times. :) Sometimes something is so bad it is good..... :D

Lost in Translation - boring. Very boring. It was "lost in translation" for me.

The English Patient - Me and Elaine Bennes from Seinfeld HATE this flick. DIE ALREADY! DIE! DIE! DIE!

Shakespeare in Love - Beat Saving Private Ryan for the Academy Award? Blasphemy!

Good Will Hunting - Decent flick, but it was like watching Ms. Doubtfire as a schoolteacher.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - I never did see what all the fuss was about.

Master and Commander: The Other Side of the World - I was stupid enough to buy this on DVD. I've watched it twice...it's dull. There's not much in it. It's more like Master and Commander of the Mill Pond.

To come to the defense on some of the ones named above...

The Blair Witch Project - It's a wonderful film ONLY if you understand the Internet marketing that went behind it. "That it was real footage that was found of 3 real missing kids." In that context, it's a wonderful movie. And for $8k (what it cost to make it), what do you expect?

Gladiator - heavy handed at times, but overall very well done. Even if you don't like it, it's still a decent action flick.

Titanic - for some reason, people think it's trendy to put this movie down. It's a great movie on many levels - 2 hours of girl flick followed by an hour of guy action flick. It's not the Best of All Time, but it is an entertaining, well-done, well-acted movie.

A Clockwork Orange - Wow. It's stylish, freaky and ironic with a social message. One of my favorites from my teenage years.

Unbreakable - I don't remember this movie being overhyped. If anything, most reviewers said it was a letdown from The Sixth Sense. I thought it was a good (not great), entertaining movie. It's the worst of the trilogy - but it's still decent.

Top Gun

Pulp Fiction - was just OK to me. Not bad by any stretch, but just OK. I still don't get all the hype. So it was a non-linear story...no biggie.

Natural Born Killers - ugh, how I hate this movie. Why did this piece of crap get so much hype when it was out.

It's talked about like it's one of the greatest movies ever because of all the memorable quotes. If you play golf, you're going to hear at least a handful of Caddyshack quotes everytime you play.

I agree about Gladiator. Opening fight scene was great, I'm thinking it's a Roman Braveheart, then a snooze fest with a dopey ending.

Pulp Fiction

Any Taratino movie. They all suck ass

the last several (or 10?) James Bond flicks.....

Lord of the Rings movies
James Bond movies

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

I dunno. Many of these movies listed really aren't that popular. Caddyshack was a great example an I guess, Titanic was big for a while but now it's "that movie that was really overrated" in backlash-esque fashion. Lost In Translation won't be remembered in 10 years except by the biggest of art house geeks and even Gladiator, was big at the time, but when was the last time anyone talked about it? Pulp Fiction or Spider Man, those are movies that people have built huge followings around (due mainly to subsequent Tarantino movies and Spiderman sequels).

SI

I'll third the motion of Crouching Tiger

swap everybody who said Pulp Fiction :P

and I'll submit Natural Born Killers, horrible flick as far as I was concerned.

My top 2:

Matrix (all 3)
Bull Durham

plus...

Any Taratino movie
Any Bogart movie
Any art house, indie movie

I have to agree with Easy Mac on Pearl Habor. I really don't think anyone rated that movie high enough to become overrated.

Bite thy tongue, Balrog breath.

My new thought into this thread: Remember the Titans. I enjoyed the movie, and thought it was pretty well done, but I've seen lots of people put the movie in the top 5s of sports movies and I just can't agree. As big of a fan of Denzel as I am, I just can't find anything in the movie that stands out, it just seems solid from begining to end and thats it.

Others mentioned:
Clockwork Orange: Count me among the Kubrick fans that do not like this movie. I think A.I. (which unlike some, I believe it actually makes for a Kubrick vision) is the polar opposite, the Kubrick film that is underappreciated by the masses and many critics.
Beautiful mind: Crowes performance is good, but overrated. The film itself is good but nothing stellar.

Lost in Translation is one of my favorite movies of all time, but its not for everyone. If it doesn't click with you, its hard to get a feel on and watch.

I had a similiar experience with Adaptation. I liked Being John M. and loved Eternal Sunshine, but Adaptation never clicked with me beyond being able to see a few great acting performances. I couldn't even get past an hour of Adaptation.

Pulp Fiction. Definitely. Never saw the appeal.

Ah, and tigercat reminded me...Training Day and Monster's Ball. While I think Denzel and Halle have had Emmy contending performances, these 2 were not them. Overrated movies or not, they were not Emmy winning performances. Source of good Dave Chappelle scripts, though....

6th Sense
Matrix
Titanic (fell asleep watching this one)
Bull Durham

I will go with Lost in Translation as well.

Although I do now understand Japanese Porn. Untill I watched Lost in Translation I could not figure out why every clip of Japanese porn just seemed to be one rape scene after another. Now, I understand that to the Japanese, Rape is a huge turn-on. Hire a prostitue in Japan and you will have to have sex with her as she is yelling, screaming , and crying. I don't get it, but hey what ever floats your boat.

Agreed here. Actually, I would expand the list to include anything by Kubrick. It takes a man with rare talent for boring to make Nicole Kidman naked boring. This guy had it.

Damn. Got through the first page and a half without Pulp Fiction being mentioned. Then the landslide began. What a piece of shit movie. One of about 2 movies that I've ever walked out on. Horrid worthless piece of shit. I don't understand Tarantino's popularity at all.

And Gladiator was just a third-rate imitation of Braveheart that was inferior in every way to Gibson's flick.

Agree with your second paragraph wholeheartedly.

But, then again, Pulp Fiction is my favorite non star wars movie, so you lose points there.

I think she had to be some degree of boring or not as appealing as she could be. The options of sex outside of Cruise's household had to look appealing, as the movie is pretty much through his eyes. You don't want the audience thinking, whats wrong with that man, hes got Nicole Kidman at home! Who cares if she said some displeasing things, go back home and hit THAT!

Its like the opening scene, you start with Kidman getting naked, but theres something so clinical about it, like shes posing for a statue or shes one of her Dr husband's patients getting undressed.

Eyes wide shut can be a really neat movie to think about and ponder about. To think about relationships and the meaning of sex in and out of relationships. If sex is suppose to have inherit danger and mystery and what happens when you cross the line of too much or too little of either.

Its a shame theres lots of people look at it as some kind of softcore skin flick.

I just finished watching the trilogy on DVD last weekend. I just can't comprehend how a guy who made three great movies like that could be the same guy who produced the worthless and utterly un-entertaining prequels. The originals were quick moving, funny, and had all sorts of surprises. And then we get Jar Jar in the prequels? It just doesn't make sense... :confused: