# Over-rated Movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 3, 2012, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-rated-movies/633573 "2012-09-03T20:05:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-rated-movies/633573/41 "2012-09-04T06:27:10Z")
I saw Caddyshack for the first time as an adult. Maybe you have to be a pre-teen or teen to think it’s a good movie. Or a funny one. I don’t think I laughed once. The two-second completely random topless flash near the end didn’t redeem it at all, it just made everything more pointless. There were some promising scenes, but the whole movie felt like a 5 minute gag that was pasted onto other 5 minute gags in an attempt to make a film. Crash (2004) was utter shit. Boring, preachy, pretentious. The soundtrack is nice though. I have no idea how this pile won anything. ---
**Author:** ![SecretaryofEvil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@SecretaryofEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecretaryofEvil)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-rated-movies/633573/42 "2012-09-04T06:29:27Z")
> [@Tarwater](#): > > The amount of praise _The Shawshank Redemption_ receives staggers me. I’m going to agree with this one. I like the film. It’s a good film. But the fact that it consistently ranks at the top of lists of the best movies ever surprises me. I just don’t see what makes Shawshank stand out from a host of other good movies. I thought it was a well done film, but nothing really special. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-rated-movies/633573/43 "2012-09-04T06:57:34Z")
Any Batman movie. I haven’t seen the animated ones. Those are probably good. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-rated-movies/633573/44 "2012-09-04T09:05:31Z")
Maeglin writes: \> I’ve never seen the movie but I am a researcher in one of the fields John Nash \> revolutionized. He is a paranoid schizophrenic and spent decades in and out of \> psychiatric hospitals into which he was involuntarily committed. He has had \> enormous mental health struggles. And he also proved some of the most \> fundamental mathematical results of my discipline when he was in fucking grad \> school. I cannot overstate just how important his contributions are. \> \> I know Nash quibbled with some factual issues in his biography and the film on \> which it was based, but in broad outline, it is quite true. Yes, vaguely in broad outline it comes close, but pretty much every detail is utterly wrong. Have you read the book _A Beautiful Mind_ by Sylvia Nasar on which it’s based? There are enormous changes, many of which I would describe as typical attempts to fit his life into standard Hollywood patterns. It would another thread to explain many of the changes. We’ve already done several such threads on the SDMB. I don’t see any reason to derail this thread just to discuss one movie. ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-rated-movies/633573/45 "2012-09-04T09:11:51Z")
I agree with Some Like it Hot. I really enjoyed One,Two,Three and The Apartment by Wilder but this one just didn’t do it for me. I didn’t care for Tootsie either so perhaps it’s just that I don’t find cross-dressing comedies particularly funny. Three films that are considered Towering Masterpieces by many critics which didn’t impress me: Vertigo The Searchers 2001 ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-rated-movies/633573/46 "2012-09-04T09:28:01Z")
I absolutely hated Aliens even though most people thought it was as good if not better than Alien. (Saw it very recently, all 4 of them back to back more or less). ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-rated-movies/633573/47 "2012-09-04T10:53:44Z")
I saw 2001 recently on video. It’s a great movie to see and then talk about all night in a coffee shop, but it’s not a great movie. 2001 needs serious editing. The same Kubrick who made a jump cut that covers 4 million years could not trim 1 minute from any of a half-dozen long dull sequences? Ugh. Many of the scenes are iconic, but still not a great flick. On the gripping hand, my daughter thought the model-based traveling matte special effects looked better than CGI. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-rated-movies/633573/48 "2012-09-04T12:36:31Z")
> [@SecretaryofEvil](#): > > > [@Tarwater](#): > > > > The amount of praise _The Shawshank Redemption_ receives staggers me. > > I’m going to agree with this one. I like the film. It’s a good film. But the fact that it consistently ranks at the top of lists of the best movies ever surprises me. I just don’t see what makes Shawshank stand out from a host of other good movies. I thought it was a well done film, but nothing really special. I mentioned that movie earlier in this thread. > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I think that The Shawshank Redemption isn’t nearly as great as many seem to think. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-rated-movies/633573/49 "2012-09-04T13:11:25Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Maeglin writes: > > \> I’ve never seen the movie but I am a researcher in one of the fields John Nash > \> revolutionized. He is a paranoid schizophrenic and spent decades in and out of > \> psychiatric hospitals into which he was involuntarily committed. He has had > \> enormous mental health struggles. And he also proved some of the most > \> fundamental mathematical results of my discipline when he was in fucking grad > \> school. I cannot overstate just how important his contributions are. > \> > \> I know Nash quibbled with some factual issues in his biography and the film on > \> which it was based, but in broad outline, it is quite true. > > Yes, vaguely in broad outline it comes close, but pretty much every detail is utterly wrong. Have you read the book _A Beautiful Mind_ by Sylvia Nasar on which it’s based? There are enormous changes, many of which I would describe as typical attempts to fit his life into standard Hollywood patterns. It would another thread to explain many of the changes. We’ve already done several such threads on the SDMB. I don’t see any reason to derail this thread just to discuss one movie. +1 on this. I’ve mentioned that I actually teach the film in a college course on wildly misleading film versions of history. My primary objection (which I agree we should take to a different thread if you want to dispute this point) is that the theme of the movie (as explicitly stated in “Nash”'s non-existent Nobel speech) is “Love,” and how specifically Alicia Nash’s steadfast love saved Nash, not the medication or the counseling, or medicial science in general --just steadfast love of one loving spouse to another. Which would have been great, if the actual Alicia hadn’t divorced the poor bastard, or he if he hadn’t been arrested for having gay sex in a men’s public toilet, or fathered children with the women he cheated on Alicia with. Ron Howard will spend eternities in Hell for misleading people like this, assuming that film directors don’t just go to Hell automatically. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-rated-movies/633573/50 "2012-09-04T13:22:20Z")
> [@Sleel](#): > > The two-second completely random topless flash near the end didn’t redeem it at all, it just made everything more pointless. I thought it had two points. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-rated-movies/633573/51 "2012-09-04T13:25:20Z")
For me: _Caddyshack_ – I’ve never understood the love for this film _Avatar_ – I’ve never fely like buying this on DVD. The visuals are GREAT, but the plot, though straightforward, is too damned obvious and wish-fulfilling and a rip-off of the cartoon _Ferngully_, fer cryin’ out loud. _Gaslight_ – I have to admit that this one has never worked for me at all. Even given the context and the time, I always felt that Ingrid Bergman’s character was a wimp. She should’ve at least walked out on Charles Boyer. She really shoulda bashed his head in. The comeuppance at the end is pretty weak. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-rated-movies/633573/52 "2012-09-04T13:31:55Z")
_Wag the Dog_ - It was about a president staging a phony war in a movie studio to distract voters from his shortcomings. It was completely unrealistic, DESPITE coming out about the same time the whole Clinton-Lewinsky thing was happening. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-rated-movies/633573/53 "2012-09-04T13:43:10Z")
Avatar. Not the last Airbender, the other one. Bleh. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-rated-movies/633573/54 "2012-09-04T14:02:22Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > To get some culture I once watched all of [AFI’s 100 greatest movies](http://www.afi.com/100years/movies.aspx) over a particularly cold and lonely winter. > > Notably overrated: > SOME LIKE IT HOT > TAXI DRIVER > TOOTSIE > EASY RIDER > > And it takes plenty of film scholar pretension to list many of the silent movies so highly. I certainly agree on Easy Rider (and I partially agree with Taxi Driver and Tootsie), and I’d add Midnight Cowboy and The Graduate from the AFI list. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-rated-movies/633573/55 "2012-09-04T14:05:22Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > Huh? There’s only two silent movies on that list! And I don’t think much pretension is required to enjoy “The Gold Rush.” (“Birth of a Nation” I have not seen in its entirety.) > > For me, “Avatar” was jaw-droppingly bad. I’ve never felt more bewilderingly at odds with mass critical and popular opinion of a movie. I didn’t like “Avatar” either (my husband did). Granted, the visuals ARE quite impressive, but that doesn’t come anywhere near making up for cardboard-cutout “characters” or a cliche-storm plot slamming the viewer in the face with the “humans are evil vermin” anvil. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-rated-movies/633573/56 "2012-09-04T14:06:24Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > I was very disappointed with _The Princess Bride_. Nice enough homage to old films, but all I could think was, “my friends who loved this movie must have never seen the Errol Flynn originals, or they would know this was just a pale imitation.” I thought it was supposed to be a parody of such movies, and did pretty well at it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-rated-movies/633573/57 "2012-09-04T14:20:24Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Maeglin writes: > > Yes, vaguely in broad outline it comes close, but pretty much every detail is utterly wrong. Have you read the book _A Beautiful Mind_ by Sylvia Nasar on which it’s based? There are enormous changes, many of which I would describe as typical attempts to fit his life into standard Hollywood patterns. It would another thread to explain many of the changes. We’ve already done several such threads on the SDMB. I don’t see any reason to derail this thread just to discuss one movie. Then don’t derail the thread. **salinqmind** was skeptical that a paranoid schizophrenic could be such an important academic. As a result he/she (?) couldn’t even buy into the premise of the film. This skepticism is unmerited. That’s all I am saying here. ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-rated-movies/633573/58 "2012-09-04T15:18:32Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Oh, and **Alien** of course. Stupid, stupid film. Over- and under-rating movies is entirely subjective, YMMV, usual disclaimers apply, BUT calling Alien a “stupid, stupid film” speaks volumes more about you than the movie itself 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Greekfreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@Greekfreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greekfreak)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-rated-movies/633573/59 "2012-09-04T15:48:35Z")
Overrated: 2001: A Space Odyssey Pulp Fiction Anything by the Coen Brothers Ditto Christopher Nolan movies Tender Mercies Godfather II It’s A Wonderful Life Underrated: JFK Strawberry And Chocolate The Devils Rocky III White Heat Gosford Park Spoorloos By the way, Shawshank Redemption deserves all the recognition it gets and then some. ---
**Author:** ![Coustralee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Coustralee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coustralee)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-rated-movies/633573/60 "2012-09-04T15:56:55Z")
pulp fiction - yes its stylistic… no i didnt like the “style” bladerunner - looks good, but not a lot of depth moneyball - started off ok… but became less interesting and i found it very annoying. as i said to someone recently, my new policy is to only watch movies that other people think suck, im not having a good strke rate lately finding decent things. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-rated-movies/633573.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-rated-movies/633573.md?page=4)