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I remember being so disappointed in Gone with the Wind when I first saw it. I'll still watch it, but only for the fabulous Leslie Howard.
Silence of the Lambs left me thinking: "So what?"
All my friends raved about Sideways, but I turned it off about a third of the way through; the characters were annoying, and Sandra Oh can't act her way out of a paper bag.
The Piano also bored me to tears.
I'm not a fan of musicals at all, so I'll toss 99.9 percent of them in as well, except for The Sound of Music and some old Busby Berkley movies.
This seems to be a running theme in this thread, and other ones like it that we've had in this forum.
That and "overrated" and "boring."
I don't mean to be a hijacker, but to enlarge on the "supposed to like" theme, it almost seems to me that calling a movie "overrated" implies that everyone else is wrong.
Of course there are a lot of so-so movies, and the the ones that don't tank do well because of superb marketing, and/or they somehow push all the right buttons with the public.
Still other movies do moderately well because they are actually well made, and push all the right buttons with the critics.
Then there are the movies that do well and get good buzz because they succeed in both of those categories, and the people who disdain them simply don't get it. (The way I "don't get" the superhero stuff.)
Nothing wrong with disliking a movie (I dislike plenty of them!) it's just that it seems silly to call something overrated in order to validate your personal opinion.
But maybe I am the only one who feels this way, and I just don't get it.
a fair point. but notice, that when people start being honest with themselves and others, a certain few movies seem to come up a fair number of times in this thread.
This seems to be a running theme in this thread, and other ones like it that we've had in this forum.
That and "overrated" and "boring."
I don't mean to be a hijacker, but to enlarge on the "supposed to like" theme, it almost seems to me that calling a movie "overrated" implies that everyone else is wrong.
Of course there are a lot of so-so movies, and the the ones that don't tank do well because of superb marketing, and/or they somehow push all the right buttons with the public.
Still other movies do moderately well because they are actually well made, and push all the right buttons with the critics.
Then there are the movies that do well and get good buzz because they succeed in both of those categories, and the people who disdain them simply don't get it. (The way I "don't get" the superhero stuff.)
Nothing wrong with disliking a movie (I dislike plenty of them!) it's just that it seems silly to call something overrated in order to validate your personal opinion.
But maybe I am the only one who feels this way, and I just don't get it.
The thing is some movies receive so much attention and huge publicity that they are constantly praised in the media; with tons of positive reviews. When you finally get to see it; your left unimpressed.
The thing is some movies receive so much attention and huge publicity that they are constantly praised in the media; with tons of positive reviews. When you finally get to see it; your left unimpressed.
The more pervasive the marketing campaign, the warier I am.
I guess at my age I simply do not allow myself be manipulated as much as I used to; my own preferences, word of mouth and a couple of reviewers I respect make up most of my criteria. I hardly ever watch TV so I rarely see movies advertised.
I'm not underwhelmed very often because I choose carefully and/or wait for the rental dvd.
Other than that, I am the classic mainstream Joe Six-Pack movie-goer:
I really don't know anything about film-making. I just like movies.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Linson
a fair point. but notice, that when people start being honest with themselves and others, a certain few movies seem to come up a fair number of times in this thread.
Many posters are only too happy to share their contempt, especially if the topic is couched in language which presents them as knowing better than the general public.
Also, some films age very well stylistically, others don't; the passage of time itself can dull the impact of a movie. Younger people have probably seen parodies or remakes of a film before they even see the real deal.
In this thread, we see some films that people often like to hate on: The bloated LOTR, The violent Godfathers, the unrelentingly tragic The Pianist, the wretchedly written Titanic, and Shakespeare in Love (personally I enjoyed this cleverly written comedy quite a bit, but between the inside jokes and Paltrow, SIL can be off-putting for many.)
I am actually surprised that more people did not list The English Patient, it is commonly listed as a movie people loathe (especially after Elaine dumped on it in Seinfeld). Like LOTR, it was too long, but critics mostly liked it and I did too--it is one of the few movies that I actually preferred to the book.
This thread is a tribute to thinking for one's self, I respect that.
I personally don't think "not living up to the hype" is a valid (or honest) reason to dislike a movie, but that's just me--and often I manage to find redemption in these underwhelming movies.
I thought Napoleon Dynamite was a one-trick pony, but it was fun to talk about the next day.
Regardless, I celebrate diversity of opinion. One person's cartoonish, manipulative weepie is another's meaningful, transformative masterpiece. There are always going to be box office successes which are critical failures.
Ingmar Bergman on Citizen Kane:
“Orson Welles for me is just a hoax. It's empty. It's not interesting. It's dead. Citizen Kane (1941), which I have a copy of, is all the critics' darling, always at the top of every poll taken, but I think it's a total bore. Above all, the performances are worthless. The amount of respect that movie's got is absolutely unbelievable.â€
You know I really like Citizen Kane. Maybe it's been overrated, but any film that tops as many polls as it has is going to feel overrated. It's a good example of a classic American tragedy IMO. It's understandable that Bergman, a Swede, would not find it doing much for him as American culture is somewhat different on things like this. (And Swedish writers are sometimes rather knee-jerk in intentionally not understanding Americans or American capitalism)
I'm not sure Citizen Kane is the best movie ever, but I think it might be the best movie of the 1940s. Fantasia has parts that are very good, but it's more of an anthology movie and I think some segments don't work quite so well. Grapes of Wrath is maybe competitive with CK. Also there are some classics of that decade I've missed.
Star Wars, Star Trek, Star Anything--it's all the same
The Matrix
E.T.
all those Disney cartoon movies that come out every other day
Harry Potter and the Whatever of the Whatever
You know I really like Citizen Kane. Maybe it's been overrated, but any film that tops as many polls as it has is going to feel overrated. It's a good example of a classic American tragedy IMO. It's understandable that Bergman, a Swede, would not find it doing much for him as American culture is somewhat different on things like this..
I like CK too.
Truthfully, except for The Seventh Seal, I never could quite get into most melancholy Bergman films.
Six Degrees of Seperation
The Matrix
The English Patient
The Piano (Holly Hunter)
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