Five that are Seriously Overrated...

[Harry Lime]

5 more...

Scent of a Woman
Terms of Endearment
Ordinary People
Life is Beautiful
Terminator 2

And 5 more...

Erin Brokovich
Dodgeball
The Passion of the Christ
Sexy Beast
Driving Miss Daisy

And 5 more...

Ghostbusters
Mission Impossible 1 and 2
Moonstruck
Working Girl
Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Pitt/Jolie version)

 

[Quigley Brown]

Reservoir Dogs
Braveheart
any Harry Potter
any Matrix
A Beautiful Mind
Blair Witch Project
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

 

[jamespowers]

I'll have to respectfully disagree on The Passion of the Christ but Erin Brockovich, yep you hit it right ont hat one big time.

 

[Harry Lime]

Reservoir Dogs
Braveheart
any Harry Potter
any Matrix
A Beautiful Mind
Blair Witch Project
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Oh, this kills me...I so wish I'd have entered "Braveheart." I'm with you.

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

I am willing to agree on "Casablanca." It is a good movie, it is not the be-all-end-all movie of all time or even of the 1940s.

 

[The Wolf]

My thoughts on previously mentioned

I think over-rated is the key word.
I enjoyed "Forrest Gump" a lot. Then people started saying things like, "It gave me respect for retarded people.", "Kids should be forced to watch this in school.", etc.
I enjoyed "Dances with Wolves" except they used two different wolves for his companion and nobody seems to notice. The down side is Costner seemed to think all his movies should be three hours long after that. Also it's funny that modern westerns (including "The Last Samurai") need to include the cavalry man talking about how great the indians are and how screwed up their own people are. It seems anachronistic. He did it even more in "Kevin Costner: Prince of Thieves". Robin Hood says women can fight as well as men, you can't push your religion on someone else and I forget what else. I might agree with the principles but I don't see Robin saying them.

When I first saw "Airplane" I was not impressed because I had too many people raving about how great it was. I saw a gain a year later and enjoyed it.
Now, I can't complain about anyone's taste in movies I loved "Hudson Hawk" and "Jake Speed". If people say they don't like them I understand but it doesn't take away my enjoyment.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[Senator Jack]

Boy, you guys have certainly seen a lot of movies that were made past '75. (pretty much my cut off point)

I did sit through Forest Gump once, and I have to say it was one of the worst pictures I've ever seen. I hate that crap of making jokes about the past, with the viewer thinking he's smart for knowing the outcome just because he's in the present. ('I invested in an apple orchard' and it turns out to be apple computers and everyone laughs. There's nothing evenly mildly amusing about that.) That picture was the cinematic equivalent of Billy Joel's 'We didn't start the fire.'

But I guess even Billy Wilder was guilty of that kind of nonsense. There are those jokes in 'Some Like it Hot' about the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn and the stock market crashing, and I cringe every time I sit through that otherwise wonderful film.

I've always thought 'To Have and To Have Not' a bit overrated. Nothing really happens, does it? And why do Bogart and Bacall fall in love? Just because there's no one else around? Don't get me wrong - it's a watchable film - but not brilliant.

As for Fellini, I thought 'La Dolce Vita' overrated. At best it's a series of vignettes. 8 1/2 I actually like. The later stuff like Satyricon I find unwatchable.

Harry's listing of 'Dodgeball', which I didn't see, reminds me of 'Something About Mary', which, unfortunately, I did. Don't know how this picture got to be so wildly popular, and since I'm listing it as overrated, I might as well include such overrated films as:

Battle for the Planet of the Apes

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

The Terror of Tiny Town

Smokey Is the Bandit Part III

Clue: The Movie

The Maltese Bippy


(Actually I haven't seeen The Maltese Bippy since it came out in '69. I remember seeing it at Radio City on a double feature with 'Grand Prix'. Don't know why this picture sticks in my head. (Sammy Davis Jr. as a werewolf? vampire? Anyone recall?) I'd like to see it again sometime but it's never been released on tape or dvd.)

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[Zach R.]

Terror of Tiny Town? I thought that movie was only well known for being just plain horrible? I don't think you can over-rate the pure crappiness of a movie, can you?

 

[Senator Jack]

Point made. That's what I thought about Dodgeball

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Many, many Hitchcock films, especially the execrable REBECCA (1940). Were it not for George Sanders, it would be unwatchable. (Nice cinematography, though.)

 

[jake_fink]

Senator Jack said:
Re: Forest Gump:
That picture was the cinematic equivalent of Billy Joel's 'We didn't start the fire.

Ha! That's funny, man!

My picks are almost all accounted for already. All the Star Wars movies, the Star Trek movies and the interminable Lord of the Rings movies, especially the last one, the one I now call Brokeback Frodo. (That dweebly little hairfoot hobbit sherpa is on the overrated series 24 at the moment. And I thought weeping endlessly for Mr. Frodo on the lava-licked edge of Mount McDoom was surefire career suicide. What the heck do I know) Someone should tell Peter Jackson, and George Lucas, that in show biz, you should always leave them wanting more. Not wanting to die. I guess I don't like movies that come in series and try to create mythologies.

Hey, waitafreakinminit, the Lord of the Rings movies haven't made it yet!

Batman is now fondly remembered because compared to Batman and Robin it seems good. But it wasn't.

The fact that Braveheart won an oscar beggars the imagination. It won FIVE!?!?!

This could get me killed. The Big Sleep has some fine moments, but it's so hung up on the star "chemistry" of the leads that it ends up making no sense what-so-ever. It's no Maltese Falcon.

Gone With the Wind is really very hard to watch. (Frankly, I don't... yeah yeah yeah.)

If you count all the SW ST LotR movies separately that makes more than five. Does that make me an incorrigable crab-ass?

The sad fact is, I could probably name a dozen more. Somebody stick me back under my bridge.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

PULP FICTION. I give credit to Tarantino for his clever references to Arthurian grail legends. Still, the film collapsed under its own pretentiousness.

 

[Sefton]

Scarface (The Al Pacino version). I'll admit that this movie is entertaining. But for me the entertainment is the comedy...it plays like a satire.

Gone with the Wind. Beautiful looking and a remarkable technical achievements but one time sitting through it is enough for me.

Sin City. I understand why CGI is used to make it look like the graphic novel but after about 10 minutes I start to long to see something that wasn't shot against a blue screen or composed on a computer. The story is like crib notes from real and better film noir of the past without any of the feeling. Good actors wasted here.

The Matrix. Not a bad film but certainly deserving of the honor of most overrated. To call Keanu Reeves wooden is to do a disservice to wood...

And lastly...the winner,or should I say loser is:

Star Wars. I know that there was a big can of worms opened up about this on another thread so I won't stir it up again. I don't have anything against anyone who likes (or loves) this film. Lots of people do. I just think that the writing is awful. Lucas writes dialog that even a great actor like Alec Guinness couldn't redeem. (It's a good thing I don't use my real name here. One of my sisters has worked for George Lucas for years....)

(All above opinions stated are strictly the authors and may not be worth a can of beans to anyone else. )

 

[Mycroft]

Zoolander
Meet the Parents
Dodgeball
Kill Bill Vol. 2
The Ring
Lord of the Rings (all of them)
Harry Potter

 

[Lion]

Have to agree with LotR. Jackson did horrible things to that story. Still havent been able to bring myself to watch the last one yet. Rented once, but just couldn't do it. Jackson should be flogged just for what he did to Strider.

I agree with "The Maltese Falcon" as well. Don't get me wrong, I love the movie. Its just that Bogart was horribly miscast as Spade. Too short, too lightly built and the wrong face. Having an actor of Bogart's size play Spade drasticly changed the feel of some of the scenes. I don't think anyone in thier right mind would refer to Bogart as a "shaved bear".

"The Thin Man". William Powell & Myrna Loy were amazing. Perfect casting. The way the story was butchered makes me cringe just thinking about it.

"Bambi". In my opinon, pretty much any Disney animated movie. I picked "Bambi" because its one of the most loved. Disney's humanization of animals has done a lot of harm to both animals and people. Its helped create nut jobs like Timothy Treadwell (sp?). Animals are not people. They do not have human motivations. Thinking otherwise just causes grief.

Can't think of a fith at the moment. Bed calling too strongly.

Leo

 

[Novella]

The Third Man - I don't really understand the big praise for Orson Welles. Of course I haven't seen many of his movies (like Citizen Kane) so I shouldn't really be making a judgement, but from what I've read and watched I think he's over hyped.

Casablanca - I love this film, I love Humphrey Bogart and I love Ingrid Bergman. But I'm tired of hearing about this movie. Anyone watch the AFI 100 greatest quotes? This movie is quotable but come on, give some other movies a chance to be on the list!

Gone with the Wind - Entertaining movie, landmark movie, but over praised.

That's all I can think of right now, but I'm sure there are more.

 

[Feraud]

The Third Man - I don't really understand the big praise for Orson Welles. Of course I haven't seen many of his movies (like Citizen Kane) so I shouldn't really be making a judgement, but from what I've read and watched I think he's over hyped.

Whether or not the hype for for Orson Welles is deserved, The Third Man is not his production nor as hyped as it should be! This film is directed by Carol Reed based on a Graham Greene tale. The superbly crafted drama is rarely mentioned in the "best of" lists by the general population. It is usually the film buffs who talk of it.

The sentiment of the majority is what makes a film hyped or not. It is not the opinion of a film buff of niche group of fans. It is 'talking-head' critics who coin the phrase "a classic" that the general public repeats ad nauseum. Imho, Titanic, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, etc. are examples of this. These are the "must see New Classics" that reviewers tell everyone they must see in order to be "in the know".

 

[Harry Lime]

The Third Man - I don't really understand the big praise for Orson Welles. Of course I haven't seen many of his movies (like Citizen Kane) so I shouldn't really be making a judgement, but from what I've read and watched I think he's over hyped.

You're entitled to your opinions. I love The Third Man but not everyone does (or has to). I think maybe you should actually watch a man's body of work before deciding he's not "all that," however. If you had only watched "Jack" you may not understand the big deal about Francis Ford Coppola either.

Harry Lime

 

[Feraud]

Lust for Gold & Secrets of the Incas.

These two films have elements that probably inspired Raiders of the Lost Ark.

 

[Paisley]

Sleepless in Seattle and its inspiration, An Affair to Remember. Especially the latter.