Okay so we all have some movies that we have seen that the critics and/or our friends raved about yet once we saw them we either hated them or just didn’t get what all the hype was about. I do NOT want this thread to be incendiary, but I would like to hear what popular movies over the years that you hated or were just sorely disappointed in.
I will even start with mine:
Animal House (not nearly as funny as I’d heard that it was)
Silence Of The Lambs (a weak main villain and a very unrealistic ending)
Sideways (a pretentious thieving snob & a lecherous past his prime cheater are the heroes in this alleged coming of age story for middle aged men)
The Sixth Sense (yeah that twist was stolen from “Dead & Buried” which made it more believable).
Fight Club (another unbelievable twist)
Citizen Kane (the “GREATEST American movie EVER MADE?”)
Okay I’m sure that I’ve skewered some sacred cows here so let’s hear from the rest of you.
Animal House could have been made as a PG or even PG-13 film, and been just as funny. The humor tended to be unnecessarily gross. That said, it did have it’s moments. I loved the epilogue scenes.
Senator and Mrs. John Blutarsky
And Citizen Kane was good, but not “the greatest American film”
But it’s pistols at dawn for dissing Silence of the Lambs sir! Anthony Hopkin’s performance in that scared the crap out of me, even though I KNEW it was fictional. I think the performances, for the most part, were stunning and it deserved the awards it got.
@Baker: The problem was not Anthony Hopkins who did deserve the accolades that he received from his performance. The problem was the script and the ending. Realistically Buffalo Bill would have blown Jodie Foster away, and while Hannibal Lecter may have been frightening, Buffalo Bill was not, imo.
As with all movies you have to take them in context with the time they were shot. The were no movies like Citizen Cane before it was made. After it was made the techniques were used by everyone. It is the most revolutionary film in history. If it was made today it wouldn’t be anything special. It was not made today.
@Sitnam: I forgot about “Some Like It Hot” but I remember my high school english teacher saying that he loved it because it was “farce…pure farce.” Yeah okay but it wasn’t funny, at least I didn’t think so.
Okay so the title of my thread could have been better, but I think you all pretty well know what I’m referring to.
And yeah Seanette: I fully expect several posters here to like some of the movies that I mentioned because they were “critically acclaimed” by so many so no, that doesn’t bother me that you liked three of the movies that I listed. That being said, other than Citizen Kane what films do You believe are “overrated” (Yes MY term)?
Pulp Fiction. I thought it was appalling, and yes, I know I am all alone. (though I did like the story about the watch.)
Fargo. It just left me with a bad taste in my mouth, I don’t think it was funny at all.
In a lesser vein, A Walk To Remember, a dull tearjerker barely one step up from a Lifetime for Wimmen sobfest. I know two women who I have actually observed crying at the end, poor things. I remain unmoved. And bored.
I didn’t say I liked any of the ones I do because of critical opinion (in fact, it’s been my experience that the more critics gush and fawn on a movie, the less likely I am to find it at all entertaining). My “I like this” was based on “I enjoyed watching it”.
I’ll second mention of “Titanic” by another poster. I’m not sure why DiCaprio is considered some sort of sex-appeal god (doesn’t do it for me, neither does Brad Pitt), and it really irritated me that with all the real, interesting people who were on that ship, Cameron made the viewer endure three hours of totally fictional adolescents in heat (I don’t care what the characters’ calendar ages were, they didn’t act like adults).
I’m one of those people who rebels at over-hype of a movie, especially if it’s in a genre (such as historical drama) that doesn’t really interest me to begin with. I start feeling like the hype is being rammed down my throat. There are some movies (e.g., “A Beautiful Mind”) I still have an aversion to because of the hype. Give me a few more years for all that to calm down and I might watch it.
I’d say that both Vertigo and The Searchers are overrated. Not that they are bad films, but they are not even close to the respective directors’ best. Their critical acclaim is due to a lot of critics projecting things about them that really aren’t there.
I don’t think Fargo was meant to be a comedy, either, but I remember reviewers highly amused by the “dark comedy” and the funny mid-Western accents. I suppose the setting was a novelty in movie land, not featuring the usual Italians in New York or Hispanics in Los Angeles .
I’m glad you brought up A Beautiful Mind, starring the attractive Russell Crowe as a brilliant mathematician and professor, married to a beautiful long-suffering spouse. He just happens to be a paranoid schizophrenic, but perhaps it’s a very mild form, enabling him to go on to academic glory and accolades. (IRL I am related to a paranoid schizophrenic, who is almost a drooling vegetable weighing 400 lbs., couldn’t make it through one whole day as a dishwasher in a diner, lives in a group home with people just like him, and his own beautiful long-suffering spouse lit out decades ago.)
Gladiator - horrible direction and editing Brokeback Mountain - sure, it was better than Crash, but that’s not saying much James Bond movies - I know they’re not all beloved, even by big fans of the franchise, but even the “good” ones tend to leave me disappointed.
