I see a lot of that up here with the Seattle hipster crowd. I’m always tempted to try and sell them a “Proud member of the Anarchist Society” t-shirt, but I digress.
I imagine that is the case for a lot of things. I saw Titanic, thought meh, and went on my way. I was astounded at the sensation it caused. OTOH Forrest Gump is getting some smack down here:
**gigi ** Forrest Gump and any references to it should be destroyed…
I watched it and enjoyed it. It wouldn’t make my top ten and I don’t think it deserved all the Oscars™ it won, but I don’t harbor any ill will about it either.
I don’t know why the IMDb doesn’t put a month (or 6 month) moratorium on a movie making their top list. Batman will surely fall (just watched, and yes it is the best superhero film but I found the pacing a bit uneven).
If they are going to issue a moratorium it should be at least 3 years. It will get a similar bump when it hits DVD and then again on HBO and finally on broadcast tv.
I was bored silly. At any point after the first 2 hours, it could have simply stopped, and not left anything hanging plotwise. And franklly, it should have. There’s 3.5 hours I’ll never get back :mad:
No movies there (of the ones I’ve seen) that I actually hated, with the possible exception of Gone With the Wind because every time I try to watch it, all the shrieking drives me from the room.
IF we’re actually answering what the OP asked and just citing movies we hated in the top 250, I don’t see a single one I hated.
There are some that obviously are silly choices to be in the top 250 - Leon/The Professional the 39th best movie ever? Really? - but there’s nothing absolutely terrible there. There aren’t any Pauly Shore movies.
Several years ago I made a point to watch the entire IMDb Top 250. Its still ongoing because I procrastinate and am easily distracted. But I have seen the majority. I have discovered many gems I probably wouldn’t have watched otherwise. Some movies I don’t particularly care for, but I can see why others would like it and why it is so highly rated. One movie that left me cold is Once Upon a Time in the West. I don’t see why it is so amazing. I don’t necessarily hate it. I rarely hate anything. I am missing why this is a great or even very good movie.
I’ve been following the IMDb Top 250 since before most people knew it existed and I don’t ever recall seeing Titanic on it. It certainly wasn’t ever very high. It’s only got a 7.2 now and since it’s an older movie it’s not a big mover. By contrast, the #250 movie has an 8.0. That’s a huge difference.
There are lots I don’t think were all that great (“Ratatouille” is a rare Pixar disappointment), quite a few I liked but regard as highly overrated (“The Shawshank Redemption” is the second greatest film ever? Give me a break!). But only a few that I truly HATE.
The few that I think just flat out sucked are:
Fight Club
The Great Dictator
V For Vendetta
Casino (Scorsese at his bloated worst)
Harold and Maude
Funny you should say that because that’s the only Scorsese movie I like. That and the montage from Raging Bull. I know I’m waaaay in the minority here so I won’t even try to argue. I don’t have any disrespect for the man but I just do not generally care for his films at all.
Seriously? That was in the top 10 for freakin’ evah. Back in the day I was never into the alt.rec forums but imdb proper certainly existed before both Amazon and Titanic.
After a bit of timeline clicking around I will admit, however (looking through age-degraded glasses), that the mere existence of Titanic on the top 250 list back at the turn of this century seems to indicate that I never took the imdb seriously as an indicator of “good film”.
There is no data for '98 and ‘99, but I am 90% sure it was never in the Top 250 and 99.9999% sure it was never in the top 10 - at least not "for freakin’ evah" (it probably enjoyed a spike for a few weeks like most popular movies do, but this movie did not have lasting acclaim from fans or critics.)
(In fact, in the archived page above, it has a 7.2 - the exact same score it has today. Hard to believe it had a near-9 needed for the top 10 and then suddenly dropped almost 2 full points and froze for close to a decade.)
Lest we forget… the IMDB is a valuable tool. When I used to write puzzles and trivia games, it was a wonderful reference site.
BUT… never take the scores given to movies on the IMDB as reflective of broad public tastes. The demographics of IMDB regulars is not in any way representative of the population as a whole.
What’s the throwaway line used by critics? “If you like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing you’d like.”
Remember that line when you see a horrible movie with a score of 8.6 or higher. SOME movies draw ONLY the type of people inclined to like them. Others draw huge crowds from very diverse backgrounds. The former are always going to score extremely high, while the latter are always going to have huge numbers of detractors.
To put it crudely, MOST Americans are not going to see “Saw V,” and would hate it if they did. The ONLY people who go to see it are going to be predisposed to love it. Hence, it’s likely to get a very high score, because the people who’d loathe it will never bother to see it. But a mainstream blockbuster, like “Titanic,” is going to draw all kinds of people, including a few million who hate it.
Hence, “Saw V” will have very, very few people giving it a rating of “1,” while “Titanic” will get plenty of low marks.
So, NEVER take IMDB ratings as a true reflection of what’s widely popular. All a high score on the IMDB indicates is that a film is popular with the type of person inclined to hang out on the IMDB.
Donnie Darko - Yeah, I got it but it is still bad.
Ratatouille - Flat jokes and predictable, boring story.
Letters from Iwo Jima - Maybe I’m just burnt out from all things WWII, but this one is IMO one of Eastwood’s lesser movies.
The Searchers - I like old classics, cowboy movies and the duke but this one is too hyped. Boring and rambling, I couldn’t even finish it.
I haven’t seen a lot of these, but those I have seen I’ve generally liked. I have a pretty good sense of what I like though, so there’s a bunch of films on there I probably wouldn’t have cared for, but I knew better than to watch them. With the following exceptions:
44 The Departed - I kind of got the feeling that if I had watched the original I would have liked it better and that this probably wasn’t adapted well. The acting was fine but the story went nowhere. All the dramatic tension surrounding the two moles and trying to bring down Jack Nicholson kind of ended randomly and without any climax.
238 Young Frankenstein - I could kind of see how in it’s day this would have been a laugh riot, but the humor just doesn’t age well.
I get that there are a lot of Tolkien fanboys out there but the entire trilogy does not belong in the top 31 of best movies ever made. And Dark Knight getting the top spot?