Is it just me or do most movies seem to have far more hype attached to them than what they actually deserve? Classic examples include “Jurassic Park” (Spoiler: The Dinosaur did it) and Titanic (Spoiler: The Iceberg did it).
Very few of the movies I have seen that have this major outer coating of hype to work through are actually truly deserving of this said hype.
On this note, the last movie I saw where hype = reality was Shrek. If only they could come up with movies where hype > reality.
oops… that should be reality > hype.
damn, damn, damn, DAMN!
Surely the last movie where reality > hype was ‘Birth Of A Nation’.
See, I’d disagree there, because although I liked Shrek okay enough, it was hyped as this total slam on the fairy tale formula, which it wasn’t. Nor was it the slam on the Beauty and the Beast that people claimed it was. It was a pretty straightforward good guy gets the princess movie. And it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t what people were saying about it.
Definitely agree with JP.
Pulp Fiction is hailed as the best movie of the nineties, and damned if it isn’t. Love that movie.
How about movies that should’ve gotten more hype, but didn’t? The Iron Giant would be a classic example.
Star Wars definitely deserved its hype. I remember when Time Magazine did a huge cover story before the movie came out, and I rolled my eyes and said, “Geez, some big sci fi pic is getting all this publicity.”
After I had seen it three times in its premier week, I realized that the hype was more than justified.
Didn’t see “Almost Famous” in the theatres despite the hype. Now I own a copy. Darling movie.
Still waiting for “Memento” to come out on video. Heard it was awesome.
I’ll second Pulp Fiction. Definately worth the hype. Also, though the hype was of a different sort and was more confined to a specific group of the film-going public, I thought Dogma was worth the hype. Of course, if you weren’t already a Kevin Smith fan, you probably didn’t notice any hype at all for that one.
I just remembered another one. Apocalypse Now: Redux. I just saw it last week and I must say that as much as I loved the original cut, I thought the new version was even better
Movies that surprised me by being better than I thought they’d be:
**Star Wars
The Terminator
RoboCop
The Matrix**
I notice they’re all SF. I guess my expectations are so low that when something good comes out, I’m surprised.
I thought that any movie that received the hype that Pulp Fiction couldn’t possibly be that good.
I didn’t see it in the theatres and didn’t even rent it until a while after it came out on video.
It was very deserving of the hype it received and I wished that I hadn’t waited so long to see it. Fortunately, that was when I lived in the cave and no-one spoiled anything in the movie for me.
Can we do this retroactively? In other words, pick the great movie first and then consider/inquire about its hype?
Let’s say Goodfellas (1991). I don’t remember the hype for it. Does anyone else?
Regarding GoodFellas, it seems to me that it did not come with any ridiculous amount of hype. True, I wasn’t old enough to watch it in theaters at the time it came out (1991, if I recall), but I don’t remember hearing a huge amount of buzz.
Interesting that it now battles The Godfather as the best mafia movie ever made.
I listened to the hype on Pulp Fiction for two years before I rented it…
and fell asleep during it. ick.
Same with Fargo. Try saying some lines from it WITHOUT the Minnesota accent. Not so funny anymore eh?
I thought the hype for X Men was appropriate. I looked forward to that movie for YEARS, I tell you, and it didn’t disappoint.
jarbaby
Memento absolutely deserves its hype. I’ve seen it four times in the cinema, and I see new stuff every time. Roger Ebert’s offhanded “ehh, it was okay” of the film ranks as one of his more significant recent misfires. Usually he’s more perceptive than that.
And I have high, high hopes that Lord of the Rings will live up to the hype. They’ve just released the official poster; check it out.
Goodfellas had about the same amount of hype as any Martin Scorsese flick–an article in the New York Times, and that was about it.
Seems to me that people are using “hype” to mean “studio publicity” and “critical acclaim” and “good word of mouth” interchangably.
FARGO, for example, has about one bazillionth the amount of studio publicity of (say) WILD WILD WEST. All of FARGO’s “hype” was critical acclaim and word of mouth.
I think Batman lived up to it’s hype.
I saw a preview screening in a packed theater and we all loved it. They even had a guy in a Batman costume walking around during the movie.
