# What's your most overrated movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 1, 2003, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-overrated-movie/216272 "2003-12-01T15:42:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Raymond\_Luxury\_Yacht](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raymond_luxury_yacht/32/4099_2.png) [@Raymond\_Luxury\_Yacht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raymond_Luxury_Yacht)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-overrated-movie/216272/61 "2003-12-02T07:26:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pepperlandgirl \* > \*\*Jesus Christ people, take a philosophy course. \*\* Don’t Jesus Christ people take theology courses? ducks to avoid rotten tomato ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-overrated-movie/216272/62 "2003-12-02T09:17:04Z")
Movies I find overrated: **Gattaca** **Alien** **Aliens** **Highlander** I also tried to watch **Blade Runner** once, but couldn’t remotely get into it. ---
**Author:** ![Astra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@Astra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astra)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-overrated-movie/216272/63 "2003-12-02T09:22:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by cmkeller \* > \*\*Gone With the Wind for me. This is supposedly a classic, but all I saw was four hours of a manipulative, stuck-up bitch put herself and her obsession with social class above anything else in the world in importance. \*\* Exactly what I would have said. I saw it in a theater a few years ago during the rerelease, and while I can appreciate it for the groundbreaking filmmaking epic it was, Scarlett O’Hara has to be the most unsympathetic “heroine” I have ever seen. “As Good As It Gets” is my other choice. I’ve been told others found it hilarious, I just found it weird and boring. I used to be a Jack Nicholson fan, but now he seems to play nothing but “Creepy Old Guy” roles. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-overrated-movie/216272/64 "2003-12-02T10:50:36Z")
I fourth or fifth **Magnolia**. While many of the individual characters were interesting, and I’m a fan of John C. Reilly and Julianne Moore, I couldn’t help but feel I was watching Todd Solondz’s Happiness Lite. Same way I felt about **American Beauty** , which was still a refreshing change from the usual dreck but felt like Blue Velvet for the masses. Good Will Hunting. Well. The fact that it was even considered by the Academy… Right up there with My Cousin Vinny, I guess. Yeah, it’s got some cute (though slightly abusive) boys in it, but between it and Titanic, I’d say a group of pre-teen girls has secretly taken over the Oscars. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-overrated-movie/216272/65 "2003-12-02T14:50:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by I Love Me, Vol. I \* > \*\*. . .Most Spielberg films (but not Saving Private Ryan or Schindler’s List… not the best films ever, but not really overrated) \*\* Hmm. How can Swindler’s Lisp not be overrated, UNLESS it’s the best film ever? Isn’t that the schtick? Richard Dreyfuss at the Oscars: “This film isn’t just _about_ history; this film _is_ history.” Me: “Ack, barf.” ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-overrated-movie/216272/66 "2003-12-02T16:03:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pepperlandgirl \* (concerning _Shakespeare in Love_ > \*\*Heh, it’s funny you say that. One of the smartest men I have ever met (and one of the leading scholars on Shakespeare) thinks it’s the worse film ever made. I won’t go into all of his reasons, but it’s fun to make him rant about it. \*\* That reminded me of something one of the smartest women I have ever met (my thesis supervisor, heh!) said concerning _Shakespeare in Love_ and _Elizabeth_, which appeared in England at about the same time. She thought that _Elizabeth_, for all its pretentions to historical accuracy, actually offended her more than _Shakespeare…_, because the latter movie wasn’t trying to be serious, whereas _Elizabeth_ was. I remember her, too, ranting about historical inaccuracies in _Elizabeth_. (I can’t recall what they were now…I suppose I’ll have to e-mail her. But many of them involved the “rivalry” between Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots.) I can see what she’s trying to get at. I can appreciate a film that plays fast and loose with the facts, like Charles Laughton’s _Henry VIII_, a lot more than a deadly-serious historical pic that still manages to get most things wrong. I don’t think _Shakespeare in Love_ was Oscar-worthy (then again, how many recent Oscar-winners have been?), but at the very least it did try to hint early on in the film that it was going to be tongue-in-cheek. The Bard getting psychoanalyzed? Surely your prof must have cottoned on that the film was going to be a spoof at that point. Now, if you want to talk about an Oscar-winning film from the 90’s that was deadly serious about “historical accuracy” but still managed to muck up everything, try _Titanic_ on for size. Yeech! ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-overrated-movie/216272/67 "2003-12-02T16:43:55Z")
_Gone With the Wind_: I know Scarlett is supposed to be a whiny self-absorbed ninny, but I could not sympathize with her character at all and that ruined the movie for me. What did Rhett see in her? I think Vivian Leigh was far better in _A Streetcar Named Desire_. _The Princess Bride_: Yeah, it has many funny parts and it’s cute but I’m not terribly excited about this movie. It probably didn’t help that I saw it the first time a year ago after hearing the hype about it for years and years. Personally, I feel William Goldman has written far better movies. I also agree with those that said _Shrek_. I found it hilarious the first time I saw it because it was different. But I came to dislike it more and more as the hype surrounded it. The turning point came when the Academy made a whole new award for Best Animated Feature simply because of this movie. If they felt the need to make this catagory, they could have done it with better animatied movies in the past. ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-overrated-movie/216272/68 "2003-12-02T17:59:49Z")
Punch Drunk Love. It has an 80% positive rating at Rotten Tomatoes, but it was so slow moving that the first 45 minutes felt more like three hours had passed. The rest went faster, since I didn’t bother watching any more. ---
**Author:** ![Wilhemina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/db5fbb/32.png) [@Wilhemina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wilhemina)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-overrated-movie/216272/69 "2003-12-02T18:17:42Z")
Eyes Wide Shut. This was the biggest, longest, most pointless piece of horse dookie I’ve ever had to endure watching. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-overrated-movie/216272/70 "2003-12-02T18:43:10Z")
_Ghost_. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-overrated-movie/216272/71 "2003-12-02T19:05:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Iacob\_Matthew \* > \*\* > > (Metropolis got press? I never heard anything about it except that it was a remake of a remake of a … at least five, maybe 8 iterations, back from 1926. I saw the '26 version, too, a beat-you-over-the-head-with-values-and-symbolism Christian, unavoidably luddite film that looked like a high-budget from the late 50’s. If it had color and words were spoken instead of popping up on flashcards, it could have passed for late 90’s. > Beautiful, but only slightly less mindless. You can read a lot into it if you like, though.) \*\* The anime film \* Metropolis \* doesn’t have anything to do with Fritz Lang’s silent film of the same title. Lang does beat you over the head with his message, but then films in the silent era were seldom noted for their subtlety, and that was pretty much the way films were made back then. I agree that the story doesn’t really make much sense, but the stream of images is brilliant and mesmerizing, somewhat like Kubrick’s \* 2001. \* Lang’s \* Metropolis \* is one of my favorite flicks, particularly Moroder’s jazzed up, modernized version, and I don’t generally care for silent films. The original Stars Wars trilogy is entertaining when you first see it but doesn’t bear up under repeated viewing. I am utterly baffled why it has become a quasi-religious cult. Kubrick’s \* Clockwork Orange \* is a “not bad, just okay” film that was wildly overpraised by the critics when it was first released. Apparently everybody in elite film circles wanted to be in on the latest greatest thing and got carried away. You’d have thought it was the greatest movie of all time judging by nothing but the reviews. - Pulp Fiction: \* freakin’ unwatchable. Some well directed scenes strung together with some not-so-well directed scenes, none of which coalesce into a coherent story. Even if there had been an intelligible plot, many scenes go on much, much too long, which would have destroyed the pacing. Just another case of the desire to be hip and on the cutting edge depriving people of common sense (much like \* Clockwork Orange \* ). - Independence Day: \* Lots of fun during a first viewing if you’re very careful not to actually think about it. Like Star Wars, it doesn’t bear up to repeated viewing very well. You end up with a “what in the world did I ever see in that?” feeling. Much overpraised by critics. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-overrated-movie/216272/72 "2003-12-02T19:49:48Z")
Glad to see _Saving Private Ryan_ get so much mention. The only time in living memory that I felt the Academy got it right was when it picked the innovative and brilliant _Shakespeare in Love_ over this festering pack of regurgitated cliches. Well, okay, it wasn’t all that bad, but it completely blew it’s wad on Omaha Beach. The rest of the film was strictly mediocre. Nothing in there that hadn’t been done by John Wayne forty years earlier. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-overrated-movie/216272/73 "2003-12-02T20:11:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Miller \* > \*\*Glad to see _Saving Private Ryan_ get so much mention. The only time in living memory that I felt the Academy got it right was when it picked the innovative and brilliant _Shakespeare in Love_ over this festering pack of regurgitated cliches. > \*\* No, actually the Academy got it wrong as usual that year. Saving Private Ryan was and continues to be the best war movie ever made. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-overrated-movie/216272/74 "2003-12-02T20:28:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RikWriter \* > \*\*No, actually the Academy got it wrong as usual that year. Saving Private Ryan was and continues to be the best war movie ever made. \*\* And _Shakespeare in Love_ is better than any war movie I’ve ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-overrated-movie/216272/75 "2003-12-02T20:36:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rabid Child \* > I also agree with those that said _Shrek_. I found it hilarious the first time I saw it because it was different. But I came to dislike it more and more as the hype surrounded it. The turning point came when the Academy made a whole new award for Best Animated Feature simply because of this movie. If they felt the need to make this catagory, they could have done it with better animatied movies in the past. To be fair, the Academy didn’t create the “best animated movie” award specifically for **Shrek** – it just happened to be eligible the first year that it was on the ballot. But you’re right that it didn’t deserve the Oscar; **Monsters Inc.** was the better movie by far. **Shrek** was, to be fair, a fun movie, but it was fun because it was frivolous and trendy; the movie didn’t have an emotional center (unlike the afformentioned **Monsters Inc.** ), and **Shrek’s** supposed theme of tolerance was undercut by all the “Lord Farquad is shot” jokes. _Prediction:_ In ten years, the people who loved **Shrek** will be wincing at how dated it is. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-overrated-movie/216272/76 "2003-12-02T20:38:58Z")
Er, “Lord Farquad is _short_”. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-overrated-movie/216272/77 "2003-12-02T20:42:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RickJay \* > \*\*I would have to vote for “The Shawshank Redemption.” I really don’t see why the movie is so beloved. It’s okay, but cliched, looks kind of cheap at times, and there’s a lot of missteps. \*\* How could I have forgotten this? I agree completely. It’s not _bad_, it’s just not all that great. The novella, OTOH, is quite good. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-overrated-movie/216272/78 "2003-12-02T20:42:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Miller \* > \*\*And _Shakespeare in Love_ is better than any war movie I’ve ever seen. \*\* Fair enough. If you dislike war movies, that’s your prerogative. However, I wouldn’t say The Godfather was overrated simply because I very much dislike mob movies. It’s just not my thing. ---
**Author:** ![Indygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@Indygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indygrrl)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-overrated-movie/216272/79 "2003-12-02T20:53:35Z")
Jerry Maguire–IMO, the worst movie ever. Also… Benny and Joon–the only movie I’ve ever walked out of the theater on. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-overrated-movie/216272/80 "2003-12-02T21:01:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RikWriter \* > \*\*Fair enough. If you dislike war movies, that’s your prerogative. However, I wouldn’t say The Godfather was overrated simply because I very much dislike mob movies. It’s just not my thing. \*\* I never said I disliked war movies. I love war movies. Some of my favorite movies are war movies. _Shakespeare in Love_ is still better than all of 'em. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-overrated-movie/216272.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-most-overrated-movie/216272.md?page=5)