# Most hated and most favorite movie themes
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** movies
**Created:** [May 23, 2021, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733 "2021-05-23T10:05:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Uniqueorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uniqueorn)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/61 "2021-05-25T18:25:28Z")
Bad: Movies of musicals, e.g. Cats, Evita, Les Mis. I love musicals and want to watch professional singers/dancers, not actors who are also singers/dancers. This does not apply if it is an original musical movie (e.g. Hairspray, Grease, LIttle Shop of Horrors).
Good: Intelligent onversation, intelligent people. intelligent plots.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/62 "2021-05-25T18:38:02Z")
> [@Uniqueorn](#):
>
> This does not apply if it is an original musical movie (e.g. Hairspray, Grease, LIttle Shop of Horrors).
??
All of these were stage musicals before being made into movies. None of them were original musical movies first (although there were original non-musical movies of **Hairspray** and **Little Shop of Horrors** before the stage musicals appeared).
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### Author:  [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/63 "2021-05-25T18:48:39Z")
I’m a sucker for good dystopian movies. Terminator, Mad Max, Day After Tomorrow, etc.
Movies where the underdog has their day can make me misty. Most Pixar movies are some form of this. Midnight in Paris and Stardust fit the bill.
I dislike stupid slap-stick comedy movies. Sometimes they work but rarely do.
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### Author:  [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/64 "2021-05-25T19:40:24Z")
> [@Uniqueorn](#):
>
> Good: Intelligent conversation, intelligent people. intelligent plots.
Yes, why is this so hard to do?
P.S. I corrected your typo…I hope this is not considered illegal editing of a comment.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/65 "2021-05-25T19:53:44Z")
‘Big’ is a body swap movie and quite good. The only one that’s any good. Hey, did you know there was an alternate ending to that movie?
Instead of changing back to himself as a boy the Tom Hanks character watches ‘14 Going on 30’ on TV.
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### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/66 "2021-05-25T20:25:28Z")
And then ZOLTAR shows up at his thirteenth birthday party, and turns him into Mark Ruffalo!
(That’s the only ending in my timeline… it sucks here, man. But at least Nelson Muntz didn’t die in prison here.)
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/67 "2021-05-25T20:36:43Z")
I really enjoy movies about professionals doing professional shit. From _Apollo 13_ to _Steve Jobs_ to _Margin Call_ to _Michael Clayton_ to _Moneyball_, films which focus on people doing their jobs are a personal favorite.
Hated: films where the goal is to be creative in how people are hurt/tortured/killed. _Saw_ is an obvious example, as are 80s slasher flicks. Just not interested.
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/68 "2021-05-25T20:37:13Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> ‘Big’ is a body swap movie and quite good. The only one that’s any good.
_Big_, and that one episode of _Justice League Unlimited_ where Lex Luthor and the Flash swap minds.
“At least I can learn the Flash’s secret identity!”
(Removes mask and looks in mirror)
“… I have no idea who this is.”
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### Author:  [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/69 "2021-05-25T20:50:39Z")
Favorite theme: Somebody decides to do a very, very bad thing that’s going to fix all their problems, and promises themselves that they’ll go back to being a good (or at least not-so-bad) person afterward. It never works out that way. The bad thing doesn’t go as expected, and the aftermath leads to more bad things.
Most hated theme: Fish-out-of-water character lands in an uptight little town, and teaches the straightlaced townspeople about tolerance and/or how to loosen up and have fun. In the process, the town bully gets a comeuppance.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/70 "2021-05-25T20:51:57Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> ‘Big’ is a body swap movie and quite good. The only one that’s any good.
There was an episode of _The Avengers_ (no, the other _Avengers_) where Steed and Mrs. Peel get their bodies swapped with two quite common enemy agents. Watching Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg act lower class was awesome.
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### Author:  [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/71 "2021-05-25T20:52:38Z")
> [@JohnT](#):
>
> I really enjoy movies about professionals doing professional shit. From _Apollo 13_ to _Steve Jobs_ to _Margin Call_ to _Michael Clayton_ to _Moneyball_ , films which focus on people doing their jobs are a personal favorite.
>
> Hated: films where the goal is to be creative in how people are hurt/tortured/killed. _Saw_ is an obvious example, as are 80s slasher flicks. Just not interested.
100% to both!
P.S. _Michael Clayton_ is a big favorite of mine. I’ve seen it at least four times, and if it’s playing (on a non-commercial channel) I always stop for it – one of a very few that includes _Secrets and Lies_ and _Joy Luck Club_.
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### Author:  [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/72 "2021-05-25T20:55:02Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#):
>
> There was an episode of _The Avengers_ (no, the other _Avengers_ ) where Steed and Mrs. Peel get their bodies swapped with two quite common enemy agents. Watching Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg act lower class was awesome.
I remember that one…one of my favs.
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### Author:  [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/73 "2021-05-25T21:52:13Z")
> [@JohnT](#):
>
> Hated: films where the goal is to be creative in how people are hurt/tortured/killed. _Saw_ is an obvious example, as are 80s slasher flicks. Just not interested.
Ooo, yeah, that’s a good one. I gave up on Game of Thrones for that reason.
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### Author:  [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2021, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/74 "2021-05-25T22:19:09Z")
> [@erysichthon](#):
>
> Most hated theme: Fish-out-of-water character lands in an uptight little town, and teaches the straightlaced townspeople about tolerance and/or how to loosen up and have fun. In the process, the town bully gets a comeuppance.
I hate that theme’s photo-negative: successful professional from the big city visits small town, learns how pretentious and overworked they are compared to plain small-town Real Amurrican values, and decides to quit their job and live in the small town. Extra hate points if the successful professional grew up in the small town and chose to leave it for the big city.
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### Author:  [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2021, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/75 "2021-05-26T13:37:12Z")
There are two themes I really don’t like.
One is (and it’s kind of hard to articulate exactly) the movie where the protagonist or villain has such a complicated and cunning plot that they’ve apparently predicted everyone’s actions several moves out, as if people and things are that predictable and it’s a game of chess or something.
The other is the whole “scrappy underdog gets thrown a bone because he’s pathetic” theme, but spun as “scrappy underdog triumphs despite adversity”. The movie _Rudy_ is the poster child for this. Somehow they spun some runty loser plugging away at Notre Dame despite being too small, slow and stupid to actually make the team, and then the coaches throwing him a pitiful bone in garbage time, as some sort of triumph over adversity. It wasn’t. They let him play because he was the collegiate equivalent of the special needs kid they let score a touchdown in garbage time. It’s all the more wretched because he WASN’T special needs, just some chump who was too stupid to realize when he was out of his league. I suppose the takeaway is _“Even if you’re totally outclassed and out of your depth, maybe someone will feel sorry for you and let you play one play when it doesn’t’ count for anything at all.”_ The guy should be embarrassed to have had that story get out, not proud of it.
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2021, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/76 "2021-05-26T14:20:26Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> Instead of having someone born into greatness, please give me someone who has chosen through ahrd work and ingenuity to achieve greatness.
As long as you don’t go full Ayn Rand. You never go full Ayn Rand.
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### Author:  [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2021, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/77 "2021-05-26T14:40:18Z")
> [@bump](#):
>
> One is (and it’s kind of hard to articulate exactly) the movie where the protagonist or villain has such a complicated and cunning plot that they’ve apparently predicted everyone’s actions several moves out, as if people and things are that predictable and it’s a game of chess or something.
I loved Heath Ledger’s Joker portrayal, but the Joker’s extremely complicated plot to bring down Gotham City in ‘The Dark Knight’ is a perfect example of this. For someone who claimed to embrace chaos, he was actually a real planner.
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2021, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/78 "2021-05-26T14:45:21Z")
> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> As long as you don’t go full Ayn Rand. You never go full Ayn Rand.
For a novel which preaches self-reliance, most of the protagonists were, in fact, heirs and heiress’s. Of the five main characters only 2 were self-made (Rearden and Galt), and in Hank Rearden’s case, it is never explored how he acquired the capital to begin operations.
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2021, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/79 "2021-05-26T15:02:17Z")
Other disliked theme/memes:
Cop partners who are polar opposites in personality/ethnicity who irritate the crap out of each other and everyone else, but solve the crime while committing mayhem that would IRL get them thrown off the force and/or imprisoned. Bonus negative points for having a squad captain who is completely useless except for throwing screaming tantrums.
Movies where the plot centers around hostages who are in terrible peril while the good guys natter and bumble around.
All in all, I’d rather see a tacky Giant Insect movie.\*
- _Day Of The Whiteflies_: Genetically modified crops spawn a super-race of these plant pests with 6-foot wingspans, each exuding gallons of sticky goo, entrapping livestock, humans and Interstate traffic.
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2021, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-hated-and-most-favorite-movie-themes/942733/80 "2021-05-26T15:10:37Z")
> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> As long as you don’t go full Ayn Rand. You never go full Ayn Rand
If I ever go full Ayn Rand, I’ve been replaced by a doppleganger. No, I’m thinking more _Un Lun Dun_.
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