Gone with the Wind.
It drags on way too long and the main protagonist is a horrible person with whom I could never sympathize.
Currently reading Who Murdered Chaucer : A Medieval Mystery by Terry Jones (and others). I’m going to have to go back and re-read the Tales when I’m done. Who knew they were so controvertial?
Another vote for Citizen Kane. Yes, Orson Welles did a great job considering his age and inexperience, but the best movie ever? Not even close.
No, it would be like saying in 500 years that the Red Sox were the best team ever because we still had a record of their existence. That something’s been around a long time doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s well-written. Hell, the Bible has been around for thousands of years and parts of it are some of the most crap writing imagniable.
So yeah, add The Bible (and probably most other sacred texts) to the “overrated” list.
Porshce 911: Stupid basic layout, overpriced, terrifying handling.
The movie Giant.
Three and a half hour long worthless fuckin soap opera.
The Sixth Sense. Most overrated film ever.
Well, I’ll say it. I think football is a completely stupid sport. A bunch of big burly guys who touch the ball all the goddamn time and have the balls to call it football. However I never voice this opinion in public! :eek:
I agree with Gone with the Wind. I hate Rhett.
I have problems with the books of LOTR too, though I generally like them. But they are way too long-winded.
My own additions:
Great Expectations. A shitty book in which nothing happens…and then some more nothing happens.
Old Man and the Sea. WHY?
The Maltese Falcon. Hated it!
Prolly lots more, I’ll come back.
Most of what the Beatles put out. Jazz, pretty much all of it.
That needed to be said. I found it to be decent, but I’m clueless over why it’s so popular. Mostly it’s just long.
The Rolling Stones. I have never understood why people worship them so… they’re alright, but musically they’re pretty repetitive & uninteresting.
I’ve been a science fiction fan for most of my life, and I know that many SF fans are wild about the Russian film Solaris. I’ve tried to like this movie, but I just can’t.
The first time I watched it I fell asleep, and the second time I watched it I wished I’d fallen asleep, because that might have been a more entertaining experience. The remake, which wasn’t great, seemed to me more enjoyable than the original film. I feel guilty about not liking Solaris, but I just don’t get into it.
I’ll second this, and add that I find Stanislas Lem annoying, and I’m not terrifically impressed by his book (which is still better than BOTH film versions)
No – something actually does happen in GE. If you want to read a book in which nothing happens – but which takes painfully long not to happen, and in sentences that span entire pages, read Henry James. The Beast in the Jungle. Don’t be fooled by the title.
I opened this thread specifically to give that answer. Good to find a kindred spirit!
OK, I’ll paint myself as an idiot to those in academia and LitCrit, but I think *Finnegan’s Wake * is overrated. I’m an educated guy…I’ve read (and enjoyed!) Ulysses, and I take pride in my ability to solve wordplay and be amused by it, but I can’t get past page 25 of this friggin’ book. The worst part is that, the older it gets, the puns will have less relevance, become more obtuse, and people will claim it as an eternal darling of literature.
Jane Eyre. I was assigned this book three different times in school (middle school, High School, and university), and I have never made it past page 90 r so without passing out from boredom. Yuk.
Radiohead. Can’t get my ears around why this is supposed to be the pinnacle of recent music. Whiny to the extreme! Aerosmith also are tedious and shlocky.
I’m sure there are more. I’ll get there.
-Cem
For each decade starting with the 50’s there’s one artist who has a couple decent songs due to such overwhelming musical output that no one can miss hearing their few decent songs:
50’s: Elvis
60’s: Rolling Stones
70’s: Aerosmith
80’s: U2
90’s: Pearl Jam
In the 2000’s no one artist is overplayed enough over a significant amount of time to build up this has-a-couple-good-songs-by-throwing-darts-at-a-tapedeck reputation in my mind.
I’m noticing a pattern 
I must have missed the meeting where it was decided that Aerosmith were anything other than schlocky trash.
Well, if it’s overplayed and it’s not good, chances are it’s overrated by someone, if only program managers.
There’s a difference between things that we think are highly overrated and things that we think are crap, by the way. I myself am guilty of conflating the two.
Some of the things in this thread are good, but not wonderful.
Serenity was the biggest one in this category for me. After two years or whatever of hearing Firefly and Serenity fans rave about it and tell me how it was the greatest sci-fi flick ever I finally gave in and watched it. It was good, but I found it didn’t really do a great job of translating to someone who had never watched Firefly wht the flaming f&*# it was all about.
I think the Beatles put out good, light, entertaining music that appeals to the masses. I am one of the masses. I don’t think they’re worthy of the acclaim they get, but they’re not bad.
Most classic sitcoms are completely dull if you’ve never built any nostalgic attachment to them. “Cheers”, “Murphy Brown”, “M.A.S.H.”, “Brady Bunch”, “Bewitched”, “Good Times”, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”… Yeah, there are a handful of true classics - “I Love Lucy”, “All in the Family”, and some episodes of “Leave it to Beaver” are still watchable, but most of the even most remembered are still completely throwaway (I think “Seinfeld” might stand the test of time, though).