# most overrated movie
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-movie/623133
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 26, 2012, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-movie/623133 "2012-05-26T02:26:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 7
### Author:  [@Rampant\_Coypu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rampant_Coypu)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-movie/623133/121 "2012-05-28T06:48:36Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#):
>
> _Lost In Translation_
>
> (This comes from someone whose favorite movie of all time is _Caddyshack_ and who thinks that Bill Murray is one of the best comedic actors in the past 50 years)
I hope like hell you have seen _Rushmore_. This was the movie Murray should have got the Best Supporting Actor nomination for and it is the best movie ever set in Texas. I was friends with the directors mom and know well the actress who played Max’s teacher at Grover Cleavland HS. She’s a real teacher at Lamar HS in Houston.
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### Author:  [@Rampant\_Coypu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rampant_Coypu)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-movie/623133/122 "2012-05-28T06:52:54Z")
> [@Quimby](#):
>
> I know this is just me but I never thought Caddyshack was all that.
I think it’s the most horrible move people ever liked
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### Author:  [@Rampant\_Coypu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rampant_Coypu)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-movie/623133/123 "2012-05-28T07:04:08Z")
I gotta say **ET** is the worst movie that ever became a hit. **GWTW** needs to be consigned to the flames, and I say this as a Southerner with kin who fought in The War (on both sides). Get over it y’all, we lost and were a bunch of dumbasses to begin with.
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### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-movie/623133/124 "2012-05-28T07:29:42Z")
> [@Svejk\_1](#):
>
> No they’re not - I was born after the movies come out and did not watch them until I was in my later teens, and they still worked for me. Just because you don’t like them for some reason does not mean that everybody who does like them just does not accurately remember the movies.
I think the series was clearly aimed at the youth market. The first one was actually a great movie for a number of reasons. It opened the door for big budget Sci-Fi movies and it was entertaining in a campy way. It did not appear to take itself seriously. What followed was bad followed by “please God, make it stop”.
I still remember seeing the first one and made the effort to see it in a full screen theater. This was back in the day when the trend was to downsize theater screen size. It had considerable “WOW” factor with great special effects and sound. It should be referred to anytime someone thinks a movie would benefit from 3D.
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### Author:  [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-movie/623133/125 "2012-05-28T07:30:30Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#):
>
> It’s actually a story about how liberals are really just a bunch of douchebags.
But they really can be; they are worse than fundamental Christians.
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### Author:  [@omni-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omni-not)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-movie/623133/126 "2012-05-28T16:44:42Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#):
>
> **Synecdoche, New York**
>
> Couldn’t wait to see it. Then, couldn’t wait for it to end.
> mmm
Wow. And I thought I was… abnormal, or something. Usually **LOVE** Philip Seymour Hoffman. I simply couldn’t finish the damn thing…
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### Author:  [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-movie/623133/127 "2012-05-28T17:10:03Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#):
>
> _Forrest Gump_ isn’t a comedy, it’s a tragedy. All of those extraordinary moments, which would bring joy, or awe, or some sort of meaning to anybody’s life are, in a sense, wasted on somebody who is fundamentally unable to appreciate them.
>
> Watch it with that in mind and see if you like it any better.
Its also a love story, and in my mind, not a bad one, at all.
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### Author:  [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-movie/623133/128 "2012-05-28T17:29:04Z")
_The Kids Are All Right_ The twist was **ridiculous**!
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### Author:  [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-movie/623133/129 "2012-05-28T17:33:46Z")
> [@etv78](#):
>
> _The Kids Are All Right_ The twist was **ridiculous**!
I didn’t like that movie at all.
But I DID liked **Synecdoche, New York** , though it’s too depressing to watch again. How is it “overrated”? [Synecdoche, New York | Rotten Tomatoes](http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/synecdoche_new_york/)
69% is “fresh” but not great.
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### Author:  [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2012, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-movie/623133/130 "2012-05-28T20:29:19Z")
I thought _Forrest Gump_ was moronic, offensive and vomit-inducing, but I don’t think anyone argues that it’s some great piece of intellectual art. (Please tell me they don’t.) Most overrated for me has to be _The Remains of the Day_. Maybe I’m just a lowbrow barbarian, but honest to God, here is that movie:
Anthony Hopkins wears 1930s costume and a pained look.
Emma Thompson wears 1930s costume and a pained look.
They wander around a large house, occasionally exchanging deeply meaningful glances and snippets of dialogue about, I don’t know, hand towels.
Repeat for over two hours.
The End.
And yet this was hyped as THE most profound, most intense, most thought-provoking and blah blah blah movie ever. Yes, the acting was great, but so what? There was no movie there.
Or, again, maybe I’m just a barbarian who wasn’t up to its lofty standards.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2012, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-movie/623133/131 "2012-05-29T00:12:44Z")
> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> **The Usual Suspects** just didn’t do it for me.
How dare you.
My own two pence; _The Hurt Locker_. Everyone raved about this, but I struggled to stay awake. Seriously the most boring film I’ve ever seen. The most interesting character and best actor in it gets blown up in the first five minutes. Then the rest of them just kind of wander around aimlessly for the rest of the movie, defusing the odd bomb, meeting some random British guys who are unceremoniously gunned down, diffuse some more bombs, zzz. Call me old fashioned, but I like films to have some kind of plot.
“War is a drug”, yeah, sounds very profound until you think about it for 0.2 nanoseconds. How many vets do you know who can’t wait to get back into war for the rush? Yeah, that’s what I thought. What a load of shite. And it won an bloody Oscar!
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### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2012, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-movie/623133/132 "2012-05-29T02:07:33Z")
> [@MyFootsZZZ](#):
>
> I didn’t like that movie at all.
>
> But I DID liked **Synecdoche, New York** , though it’s too depressing to watch again. How is it “overrated”? [Synecdoche, New York | Rotten Tomatoes](http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/synecdoche_new_york/)
> 69% is “fresh” but not great.
Fair question.
I guess, to be more accurate, I should call it the film that disappointed me most. I went in with very high expectations based on a few reviews by my most trusted critics (along with my once-held conviction that Philip Seymour Hoffman could do no wrong).
So, I basically overrated it myself before I even saw it.
mmm
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### Author:  [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2012, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-movie/623133/133 "2012-05-29T03:06:16Z")
[QUOTE=Quimby]
I know this is just me but I never thought Caddyshack was all that.
[/QUOTE]
> [@Rampant\_Coypu](#):
>
> I think it’s the most horrible move people ever liked
Most people have a favorable opinion of **Caddyshack** based on its memorable comic bits and funny lines. What most people overlook–or forget–is that there are a lot of dead spots between the comic bits and funny lines.
It’s definitely a movie that’s gotten a good reputation despite the fact that its production was an Exhibit “A” example of executive meddling. Screenwriter Doug Kenney wrote the film as basically a coming-of-age story with some outrageous comedy mixed in. The focus was going to be on the kids with the roles played by Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, and Rodney Dangerfield to be nothing more than short cameo appearances. However, by the time producer Jon Peters and the studio intervened, the coming-of-age elements were mostly chucked in favor of more broad comedy (in particular, Murray’s ongoing war the the gopher). As a result, the movie is rather sloppily paced and plotted to say the least.
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### Author:  [@rhysf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhysf)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2012, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-movie/623133/134 "2012-05-29T04:09:34Z")
The Andrei Tarkovsky film _Stalker_. 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and supposedly one of the greatest science fiction films ever made, its plot boils down to “four people go for a walk and come back.”
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### Author:  [@gunnergoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gunnergoz)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2012, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-movie/623133/135 "2012-05-29T06:50:55Z")
Anything by Quentin Tarantino. His films always seem to come out accompanied by all sorts of adoring “ooh’s” and “aah’s” from critics and fans, but I have yet to see one that did not leave me wondering if this was not how a kid who’s just been felt up by his dirty old man uncle must feel like. There is something disturbingly wrong with how he manages to manipulate sentiment and pervert it into a thing unclean and/or unhealthy.
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### Author:  [@SunSandSuffering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunSandSuffering)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2012, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-movie/623133/136 "2012-05-29T11:57:37Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#):
>
> How dare you.
>
> My own two pence; _The Hurt Locker_. Everyone raved about this, but I struggled to stay awake. Seriously the most boring film I’ve ever seen. The most interesting character and best actor in it gets blown up in the first five minutes. Then the rest of them just kind of wander around aimlessly for the rest of the movie, defusing the odd bomb, meeting some random British guys who are unceremoniously gunned down, diffuse some more bombs, zzz. Call me old fashioned, but I like films to have some kind of plot.
>
> “War is a drug”, yeah, sounds very profound until you think about it for 0.2 nanoseconds. How many vets do you know who can’t wait to get back into war for the rush? Yeah, that’s what I thought. What a load of shite. And it won an bloody Oscar!
…and it featured utterly unwatchable shakey-cam-snap-zoom all the damn time. Totally unwatchable.
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### Author:  [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2012, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-movie/623133/137 "2012-05-29T12:02:05Z")
Fargo.
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### Author:  [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2012, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-movie/623133/138 "2012-05-29T12:28:05Z")
_2001: A Space Odyssey_. There’s a good movie in there: the parts that have to do with Dave fighting against HAL on the spaceship.
Everything else is just SO BORING. It came across to me as a plotless excuse to show off visual effects.
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2012, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-movie/623133/139 "2012-05-29T12:39:49Z")
_2001_ is long, plodding, and certainly can be boring to most, but it’s certainly not all about visual effects. There’s a lot of subtext and superb cinematography.
Could it have been something more like its sequel, _2010: The Odyssey Continues,_ sure. But We would’ve lost out on one of the greatest film achievements in science fiction, let alone history.
And shame on you people for dissing on _Pulp Fiction._ Shame! 😉
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2012, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-movie/623133/140 "2012-05-29T12:49:15Z")
I loved **Goodfellas** the first time I saw it. It didn’t need its “quotability” to “make” it. It was a wonderfully shot and assembled film, from a compelling story.
I’ll agree about _Inception_ (I thought _Matrix_ and other VR movies had already done it, better) and _Avatar_ (great special effects and 3D work, I have to admit, but it seemed surprisingly simple-minded and sentimental for a film from the director of _Terminator_ and _Aliens_. And it has the same plot as _Ferngully_, fer cryin’ out loud!) and _Cadushack_ (the popularity of which I’ve never understiood).
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