# Movies that were overrated garbo **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 5, 2020, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-overrated-garbo/917319 "2020-08-05T11:19:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-overrated-garbo/917319/21 "2020-08-05T16:02:43Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > As far as the character being the Joker, every time you get an origin story for The Joker, … it’s _always_ a lie. To me, literally and figuratively, the Joker exists _because_ Batman exists. He literally exists in a meta-sense, because without super villains, comic superheroes look a little silly. But within the Batman universe, the Joker exists as both a balance to Batman, and as a motivation. If the Joker didn’t arrive in Gotham, Batman would have had to invent him. Without the Joker, Batman’s life would have no meaning. Perhaps the universe created the Joker, in a manner similar to the creation of Anakin Skywalker. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-overrated-garbo/917319/22 "2020-08-05T16:09:56Z")
_Adaptation_ sucked. I “got” it, but it sucked. It was poorly thought out, poorly planned and poorly executed. Everything about it, including the basic premise, sucked. ETA: I agree completely that _Thelma & Louise_ sucked. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-overrated-garbo/917319/23 "2020-08-05T16:12:20Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > Hitchcock’s _Vertigo_ . > > Hailed as a work of genius, but when I finally got round to watching it, I found it very dated, slow, with a silly plot that didn’t make any sense, and characters that were not believable. > > I’m sure the camerawork was good. Love the hypnotic music and wild graphics during beginning credits though. On a technical level, a superb film. On a visceral level, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-overrated-garbo/917319/24 "2020-08-05T16:25:36Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > _Starship Troopers._ Mostly more silly than bad, but becomes so because people who don’t understand satire in the slightest think it’s somehow satire – an interpretation that Paul Verhoeven specifically rejected. > > Verhoeven was trying to show how people become fascists without realizing it. I don’t think he succeeded, but that certainly fits what’s on the screen. Huh. That’s definitely not how I understood Verhoeven’s motives, and [he sure doesn’t sound here like he rejects the satirical interpretation](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/jan/22/how-we-made-starship-troopers-paul-verhoeven-nazis-leni-riefenstahl): > [@Verhoeven](#): > > Robert Heinlein’s [original 1959 science-fiction novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers) was militaristic, if not fascistic. So I decided to make a movie about fascists who aren’t aware of their fascism. . . . [T]his was about American politics. As a European it seemed to me that certain aspects of US society could become fascistic: the refusal to limit the amount of arms; the number of executions in Texas when George W Bush was governor. > … > I borrowed from Triumph of the Will in the parody propaganda reel that opens the film, too. I was using Riefenstahl to point out, or so I thought, that these heroes and heroines were straight out of Nazi propaganda. > … > There was so much regime change at Columbia Pictures at the time that we slipped through the net. When the executives finally saw it, they said: “Their flag – it’s a Nazi flag!” I said, “No … it’s completely different colours.” You kind of sneer at people who don’t understand satire, and I’ve got some pretty bad impostor syndrome sometimes, so I actually went and looked up some baseline “satire” definitions: > [@](#): > > the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. A movie that uses irony, exaggeration and ridicule to expose the stupidity of contemporary American politics is about as textbook an example of satire as you can come up with. You might not think it works, but saying it’s not satire is objectively wrong. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-overrated-garbo/917319/25 "2020-08-05T16:39:56Z")
Read what he said: > So I decided to make a movie about fascists who aren’t aware of their fascism. . . . [T]his was about American politics. As a European it seemed to me that certain aspects of US society could become fascistic: the refusal to limit the amount of arms; the number of executions in Texas when George W Bush was governor." Note he did not say, “I was satirizing American society.” He said “certain aspects of US society could become fascisistic.” Not exactly an original observation, but a legitimate one. Then he said that the propaganda real was a parody. That’s fine. But the movie is not. Going to the definition: > the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. The movie showed no humor whatsoever, no irony, no exaggeration (other than the parody newsreel), and ridiculed nothing, nor did it portray anyone as being stupid (not the characters, anyway. The story was stupid, but just being stupid is not parody). ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-overrated-garbo/917319/26 "2020-08-05T16:58:15Z")
_Forrest Gump_ was crap. So was _Private Ryan._ Sorry, Tom. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-overrated-garbo/917319/27 "2020-08-05T17:09:00Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > _The Usual Suspects_ is an entertaining film, but it is not the be-all and end-all of the mystery genre. I am glad I saw it before I heard all of the hype. I would have been severely disappointed. Agreed. I’ve been tempted to re-watch in case I missed something, but not enough to actually do it. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-overrated-garbo/917319/28 "2020-08-05T17:10:27Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > Hitchcock’s _Vertigo_. > > Hailed as a work of genius, but when I finally got round to watching it, I found it very dated, slow, with a silly plot that didn’t make any sense, and characters that were not believable. > > I’m sure the camerawork was good It was a lot less dated 60 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-overrated-garbo/917319/29 "2020-08-05T17:20:30Z")
There are a lot of categories here: **Most Overrated By The General Public** The highest rated movie on IMDB is “The Shawshank Redemption.” It’s a really good movie, but it’s not one of the five hundred best movies of all time. **Most Overrated By The Academy** “Return of the King” by a mile. Nominated in eleven categories and won them all; may have deserved two or three. Arguably the worst movie to ever win Best Picture. **Most Overrated By Snooty Critics and Film Connoisseurs** Nobody thought much about “The Searchers” when it came out, but a few years later a few French critics decided it was a work of genius and it’s just snowballed since then. It is not a great movie. I was stunned when I got around to watching it. **Most Overrated By Run Of The Mill Critics And Reviewers** Rotten Tomatoes has a lot of movies with perfect scores, but combining score with total reviews, they consider their best rated movie ever to be Black Panther. Black Panther isn’t even the best Marvel movie with a black protagonist. It’s just another Marvel movie and most of them are paint-by-numbers fast food movies. **Overall Winner** The Irishman is not a good movie. It just isn’t. It didn’t quite outrank any of the movies above in terms of being highly rated by that specific category, but it’s near the top in all of them, and is a much worse movie than anything named above. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-overrated-garbo/917319/30 "2020-08-05T17:40:55Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > While I wouldn’t call them “garbo”, for me, it’s most anything by Speilberg. He has a certain…sensibility that shows up in this films. His films all are smaltzy in the same way. > > Sure, he can make a dramatic scene, a stunning visual. ( The Mothership’s appearance in CE3K, for example). But they are in service of a weak story. He can’t seem to make a complete “film”. He has no artistic vision. I completely agree. I personally feel _Lincoln_ is the worst example of this. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-overrated-garbo/917319/31 "2020-08-05T17:50:17Z")
Blazing Saddles wasn’t funny, just stupid. I walked out of it when it came out. In fact The Producers is the only Mel Brooks movie that’s worth watching. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-overrated-garbo/917319/32 "2020-08-05T18:20:19Z")
According to a guy I know the movie Joker isn’t “The” Joker , but the guy who gave “The” Joker the idea for his supervillian persona. Then again, like the other post in this thread says maybe all the origins are lies. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-overrated-garbo/917319/33 "2020-08-05T18:32:08Z")
True. But somehow many women love it as a “bonding” film? I nominate _Sucker Punch_([Sucker Punch (2011 film) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucker_Punch_(2011_film)))\* which would depress a hyena. Also, more or less every film Zack has made. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-overrated-garbo/917319/34 "2020-08-05T18:33:27Z")
I dont think _Starship Troopers_ is overrated. 😝 But I agree Alien is overrated. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-overrated-garbo/917319/35 "2020-08-05T18:53:08Z")
I could put it in the top 500, but never in the top half of that. Fantastic film, deserved more. RotK is \*\*\*\*\*. the 1956 film? Yeah, a great film, no doubt, but the “greatest Western of all time”? ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-overrated-garbo/917319/36 "2020-08-05T19:20:58Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > “Monsters Ball” totally sucked as far as I was concerned, but it got Halle an Oscar despite the fact that she did better work in better movies. I “enjoyed” the film (never really want to see it again but thinks it’s pretty damned good) but for the love of god, Halle Berry was, indeed, garbo in it. To this day I don’t really like her style but her acting in that, was, to me, so poor as to be embarassing. Giving her the award was a PC move (and I’m okay with it if it opened up roles for minorities). ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-overrated-garbo/917319/37 "2020-08-05T19:23:50Z")
I found that it veered into unintentional comedy, because so many terrible things happened to those two people that it just became ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-overrated-garbo/917319/38 "2020-08-05T19:26:19Z")
I thought I was the only person who didn’t think “Blazing Saddles” was funny, but then again, I never saw it until the past decade or so. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-overrated-garbo/917319/39 "2020-08-05T19:29:21Z")
Hilarious until near the end, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-overrated-garbo/917319/40 "2020-08-05T19:32:48Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I nominate _Sucker Punch_ I think a movie has to be well regarded before it can count as overrated. Even the few people I know who liked Sucker Punch call it a guilty pleasure or say “Yeah, it’s fucking terrible but so stylish” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-overrated-garbo/917319.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-overrated-garbo/917319.md?page=3)