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Add "Dances With Wolves" to the list. Woefully inaccurate from start to finish from a historical standpoint. Revisionism at it's worst.
Over the years, I've come to the conclusion that if Costner is involved in the production side of a movie, it's going to be at least 45 minutes too long. If he's just an actor, the movie will be okay, but as soon as he steps behind the camera he's going to drag the movie out to a painful point. Just check out any of the following:
Dances with Wolves The Postman Waterworld Wyatt Earp Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves The Bodyguard Open Range
Every one of those movies was stretched out at least 45 minutes too long. In the case of Waterworld, it was 134 minutes and 30 seconds too long (there was a 30 second shot of the catamaran in front of the moon that was pretty cool).
The Godfather - all of them. Not terrible but not among the greatest movies of all time.
Rocky - all of them
Weird I'm saying this, because I like this film but Taxi Driver probably doesn't deserve the critical praise it's got. De Niro and Foster were great but the story felt a bit, I don't know, lacking in substance. Interesting Lennard Maltin panned the film.
All the King's Men
The Bicycle Thief - Not one of the 'greatest foreign films ever'.
The Seven Samurai - Three and a half hours of some guys wearing armour bantering in Japanese without much fighting.
Love Story - Highly overrated
I actually agree with Star Wars: A New Hope. I used to be a big SW fan but part IV is actually rather weak.
Lord of the Rings but I found the books dreadfully boring as well
Amelie - I found it a bit boring
I don't know if they're rated highly but most comedies starring Seth Rogan, Michael Cera, Jonah Hill etc.
Most films with Brad Pitt in them. He doesn't pick very good films.
Australia - Ugh
Dawn of the Dead
Wizard of Oz
Dude, seriously? I think someone needs to check your pulse, you might be already dead.
There’s no denying that Avatar was a grand achievement…in special effects. But much like a stellar light show at a concert by an otherwise ****ty band, CGI isn’t enough to compensate for a three-hour borefest of a movie. At it’s heart, that’s what Avatar is.
Sure, there’s some pretty epic battle scenes near the end, but they weren’t enough to make up for the dull, two-hour love story that leads up to them. We’ve seen that movie before, it was called Titanic. And, honestly, even that bathroom break-friendly period piece was easier to sit through, Celine Dion theme song and all. How this ever got nominated for Best Picture will forever remain a mystery to us.
9. Pulp Fiction
Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction is a lot like Nirvana’s Nevermind. At the time, it shook the world and seemed like a revolution. Now, it’s just an average work that speaks more to the overwhelming less-than-averageness of everything it was competing against.
Pulp Fiction today plays like a disjointed series of tales forced to uneasily tie together at some point, with a whole bunch of shock and gore thrown in for the sake of shock and gore alone. Just as Nirvana would eventually make a real masterpiece a few years later (1993′s In Utero), Tarantino has done much better work. But, just like Nirvana and Nevermind, this is the one he’ll always be most remembered for, and that’s a shame.
8. Raiders of the Lost Ark
Award nominations can sometimes be a good indicator of the quality of a movie, but they can also be a good indicator of an overrated movie. Take Raiders of the Lost Ark, for example. In 1982, the film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It won four awards, in the following categories:
Best Sound
Best Film Editing
Best Visual Effects
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration
Much like Avatar, this wasn’t a film propelled to classic status on the strength of the story. It was just a technological marvel by 1982 standards that had the added bonus of Harrison Ford’s off-the-charts charisma on board to carry an otherwise unremarkable script to the promised land.
7. Inception
Once again, a classic example of style over substance. Inception was gorgeous to look at, but we’re still trying to figure out exactly what it was that we watched. Did the central drama in the movie really revolve around Leonardo DiCaprio trying to get back to the United States to be reunited with his kids? We’re no scientists, but hasn’t the technology that would allow old man Caine to bring his kids TO HIM been invented already? You don’t need Juno to erect a dream maze to solve that problem. Book a flight and call it day.
6. Lord of the Rings (All of Them)
Sometimes, the book is better than the movie. Scratch that, the book is almost ALWAYS better than the movie. And any Tolkien geek worth his weight in virginity will attest to the fact that the Lord of the Rings trilogy translates far better on paper than it does on the big screen.
We understand that it had to happen, but did it have to happen in such a pretentious way? Yeah, probably. We’re just glad it’s all over now.
5. Fargo
First of all, aside from the first ten minutes or so, this movie doesn’t even take place in Fargo. But that’s just a minor complaint on our part. Our real gripe is that, while it was a slightly entertaining story, the plot of Fargo is a wholly unbelievable one. Masking the hack story telling in quirky Nordic accents was a nice touch, but at the end of the day, this movie should have been called Hey, Look, People From Minnesota Are Funny!
4. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Jack Nicholson playing a crazy person? No. This is Jack Nicholson playing Jack Nicholson, just like he does in every movie. It’s considered one of his greatest roles because it’s one of his first roles that people remember. He’s been doing the same thing ever since, it’s just that, when this turd of a movie was released, it was fresh and interesting. When viewed in the context of all of his other identical performances, it’s just another hammy Nicholson character. Big deal.
3. On the Waterfront
Talk about a movie in need of a gritty reboot. Cinema snobs would likely cry bloody murder at the thought, but if any movie could benefit from being retooled to appeal to the sensibilities of the moder moviegoer, it’s On the Waterfront. Kill the black and white, ratchet up the violence and sit back and enjoy the benefits of a great story finally receiving the visual treatment it deserves.
2 . LA Confidential
Look, we love graphic violence as much as the next man, but it’s no reason to fawn over a movie like it’s the second coming of Deer Hunter. This movie succeeds by deftly inserting brutal scenes of murder and assault at just the right moment to make you forget that, without them, you’d be bored to tears. And it also made Russell Crowe a household name, a sin beyond forgiveness.
1. Star Wars (All of Them)
Sorry nerds, your beloved Star Wars may have rocked the world in the 70s and 80s. But it’s 2011, and this **** has not aged well. We understand it’s tantamount to treason to say it, but we’d rather watch the damn prequels at this point. At least Jar Jar Binks looked kind of real with the added benefit of modern technology. That’s more than we can say for Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian.
Since you squandered all that bandwidth repeating the entire list with all its comments (for which you are not to blame), could you find enough words to explain whether you think
A) it is a terrible list of good movies that are wrongly called overrated, or
B) it is a good list of terrible movies that are rightly called overrated.
10. Avatar
9. Pulp Fiction
8. Raiders of the Lost Ark
7. Inception
6. Lord of the Rings (All of Them)
5. Fargo
4. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
3. On the Waterfront
2 . LA Confidential
1. Star Wars (All of Them)
.
Agree, agree, you're out of your mind, agree, agree, disagree, agree, agree, agree, you're out of your mind.
Indiana Jones wasn't just about movie making. It was about creating a character that people just fell in love with. Regardless of your opinion, Star Wars obviously has held its appeal for over 30 years now.
Other overrated movies:
The Matrix - long on premise, short on delivery...and the actors were horrible
Hangover - really? wtf? American Pie was a waaaayyyy better movie in that genre
Black Swan - what a total waste of time; and Natalie Portman didn't even bother to act in it...she just clenched herself tense the entire movie
I gotta say, enough with the hate on Avatar. I guess its the in thing for all the cool kids to hate on big ticket blockbusters/James Cameron films but wow, how could you not see it coming. I bet if I try hard enough I can find some story or plot similarities to just about everything. However I don't care. Sometimes I just want to see what my big screen 3D TV and surround sound system can do and movies like Avatar are made for it.
To me, overrated - if you want to pick on a man more so then movies, is Spielburg. Super 8 most recently left me shocked at how mediocre it was AI from a long time ago. Super8 was at least mildy entertaining, but the alien and the payoff where a let down. AI was just an hour and a half too long and then it got really weird and silly at the end.
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