# Great(?) movie you just didn't think was great. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 29, 2011, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-you-just-didnt-think-was-great/583664 "2011-05-29T15:22:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-you-just-didnt-think-was-great/583664/101 "2011-05-31T20:14:07Z")
American Beauty. Stories about the unfulfilling emptiness of American middle class suburban life had already been well established as hackneyed and unnecessary in literature, yet they made a movie exploring this theme and everyone raved about it. ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-you-just-didnt-think-was-great/583664/102 "2011-05-31T20:19:20Z")
> [@markm](#): > > Nah, I didn’t miss anything in the movie. It was the whole execution of the end that ruined it for me. It was just too pat and planned. It was so over the top that a simple willful suspension of belief couldn’t save it. I actually sort of enjoyed the movie up until the end. It wasn’t one I would’ve gone back and rewatched, but I could’ve walked out of thinking, “That was interesting.” But the way the ending was pulled off totally ruined it for me. Fair enough, I honestly haven’t seen it since I was a teenager and it was fairly new so I don’t know how I would react to it now. At the time I felt that the over the top nature of the scene was the point, particularly since (if I remember right) the whole scenario is set up as a suicide intervention for Michael Douglas’s character. Anyway, I shouldn’t be defending movies in this thread. Anyone want to talk about how \*\*Momento \*\*doesn’t make a lick of sense, and “works” entirely because of its gimmick of being shown backwards? Or I could bring up **Donnie Darko** , which was a total waste of my time. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-you-just-didnt-think-was-great/583664/103 "2011-05-31T20:20:27Z")
> [@MOIDALIZE](#): > > American Beauty. > > Stories about the unfulfilling emptiness of American middle class suburban life had already been well established as hackneyed and unnecessary in literature, yet they made a movie exploring this theme and everyone raved about it. Had they? When I worked in a bookstore, “Revolutionary Road”, “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit” and books on the theme by John Updike and Sinclair Lewis were all considered classics. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-you-just-didnt-think-was-great/583664/104 "2011-05-31T20:24:42Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > Had they? When I worked in a bookstore, “Revolutionary Road”, “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit” and books on the theme by John Updike and Sinclair Lewis were all considered classics. I was thinking more along the lines of Don DeLillo. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-you-just-didnt-think-was-great/583664/105 "2011-05-31T20:25:04Z")
For me, it’s _Reservoir Dogs_. I’m in a gang that’s just killed several cops and yet I’m going to stand around and spout pretentitous dialogue for 40 minutes. Uh-uh. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-you-just-didnt-think-was-great/583664/106 "2011-05-31T20:53:35Z")
> [@NAF1138](#): > > Anyone want to talk about how \*\*Momento \*\*doesn’t make a lick of sense, and “works” entirely because of its gimmick of being shown backwards? What doesn’t make sense? The scenes alternate from the beginning and end till the two plots join in the middle and reveal the secret. You want to talk about not making sense, this is the [PLOT](http://www.freeweb.hu/neuwanstein/primer_timeline.html) to Primer. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-you-just-didnt-think-was-great/583664/107 "2011-05-31T22:24:43Z")
“Hey, three squares, a weight room, a movie every Saturday, coulda been worse.” “What movie?” “Last week it was… _Glitter_. I guess it couldn’t have been worse.” ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-you-just-didnt-think-was-great/583664/108 "2011-06-01T01:56:41Z")
The major plot twist was RIDICULOUS! Couldn’t wait for the movie to end. (movie ending on cable right now) ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-you-just-didnt-think-was-great/583664/109 "2011-06-01T18:36:14Z")
Barry Lyndon – Painfully long, beautifully shot, overacted by actors attempting to underact (or is it underacted by actors attempting to overact?), rambling. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-you-just-didnt-think-was-great/583664/110 "2011-06-01T19:24:14Z")
I can get into David Mamet, but **House Of Games** was horrendous. The plot would have maybe shocked a 12 year old. The acting…with Mamet you know you’re getting stylized dialog, and I can accept that to a point, but good gravy Lindsey Crouse was so bad at reciting those lines that it made my teeth hurt. Putting her in scene after scene with Joe Mantegna and Mike Nussbaum was just cruel. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movie-you-just-didnt-think-was-great/583664.md?page=5)