Most overrated movies?

[Paisley]

I enjoyed Raiders of the Lost Ark as a kid. But as an adult, I kept thinking, "Why don't they just...?" I guess I'm trying to say some of the adventure and difficulty seemed contrived.

 

[2jakes]

I enjoyed Raiders of the Lost Ark as a kid. But as an adult, I kept thinking, "Why don't they just...?" I guess I'm trying to say some of the adventure and difficulty seemed contrived.

I'm still a kid at heart.
I can't help it just like others can't help seeing things in adult ways!

 

[Paisley]

I like bathroom humor and railing against one's parents as much as any 12-year-old. Loved The Interview and the scene in The Green Hornet where they cut the head off the statue of the guy's dad.

 

[Fading Fast]

I saw it once, a long time ago, and it struck a bit close to home -- I saw it around the same time that the Red Sox were in the midst of a series of greasy sex scandals swirling around Wade Boggs, so my impressions were that it probably could have been a good bit gamier than it actually was without fully capturing the sleaziness of the millieu. The late '80s were not, in my memory, a good time to be a baseball fan.

I have never been a Ken Burns fan -- with very few exceptions I find his stuff far too precious for words. But I do give him credit for giving Buck O'Neill a long-deserved day in the sun.

My idea of a great baseball movie would be a biographical drama about the life of Hilda Chester. In a few more years I'll be just the right age and weight to play the role myself. GO WAN YA BUMS EATCHA HEART OUT

Somewhere out there will be the great baseball movie. I would've thought you or 2Jakes would have liked "Bull Durham -" at moments, it captures baseball and summer very well. Also, '51's "Angles in the Outfield" was fun if silly.

And heck, at least baseball has had some good ones, football movies are further behind.

 

[2jakes]

Somewhere out there will be the great baseball movie. I would've thought you or 2Jakes would have liked "Bull Durham -" at moments, it captures baseball and summer very well. Also, '51's "Angles in the Outfield" was fun if silly.

And heck, at least baseball has had some good ones, football movies are further behind.

You mean to sit there and tell me you haven't seen Father O'Brien
as coach for Notre Dame's Four Horsemen????
Shame on you laddie!

 

[LizzieMaine]

As for football movies, "Paper Lion" is hilarious. Alan Alda as George Plimpton, and you can take it from there.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Lizzie, funny, I saw "The Natural" with my dad and can hear him saying - "Redford's too old for the part" (which might have been his only comment on the movie and all or almost all the words he said to me from when we left the house 'till we got home)

2Jakes, I agree, the beauty in "The Natural" is the beauty of it followed by its fantasy and slightly noirish feel. Also, loved the Burn's "Baseball" doc as well - faults and all, it is amazing. After all the hype, I felt meh about "A League of Their Own" at the time, but have enjoyed it more since seeing it recently.

Neither of you enjoyed "Bull Durham?"

I liked The Natural very much, and I agree that the cinematography is outstanding. I can overlook Redford's age, and one of my favorite movie lines of all time is "I shoulda been a farmer". The story gets a little sappy though. Bull Durham is also a favorite, as it captures both the hilariously mundane dialogue and the raunchy sense of humor of 18-22 year old males with too much free time on their hands.

But Eight Men Out is in a class by itself as far as story and acting. It also helps that the actual baseball playing is one of the most believable in any baseball movie. Charlie Sheen, for all his other issues, is actually a pretty good ball player, and D. B. Sweeney was good enough to play D1 college baseball. It's actually believable.

 

[Fading Fast]

I liked The Natural very much, and I agree that the cinematography is outstanding. I can overlook Redford's age, and one of my favorite movie lines of all time is "I shoulda been a farmer". The story gets a little sappy though. Bull Durham is also a favorite, as it captures both the hilariously mundane dialogue and the raunchy sense of humor of 18-22 year old males with too much free time on their hands.

But Eight Men Out is in a class by itself as far as story and acting. It also helps that the actual baseball playing is one of the most believable in any baseball movie. Charlie Sheen, for all his other issues, is actually a pretty good ball player, and D. B. Sweeney was good enough to play D1 college baseball. It's actually believable.

Somehow, EMO didn't really work for me. I appreciate it - but found it plodding and, at times, confusing (hey, I might not be smart enough to follow it). While it's great if the baseball played in a movie is closer to the real thing, the story, characters and feel trump that for me and EMO just doesn't sing to me and, as noted, I thought it was long but tangled.

"Bull Durham" is not a great movie, maybe not even good, but it does have its really good moments and, IMHO, captures "The Boys of Summer" feel here and there. Based on your comments, I'll check EMO next time it pops up.

 

[HudsonHawk]

As for football movies, it starts and ends with North Dallas Forty, for me. Friday Night Lights is also good, and pretty accurate.

 

[Fading Fast]

I liked the movie "Friday Night Lights," but in a rarity, thought the TV series was better.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Somehow, EMO didn't really work for me. I appreciate it - but found it plodding and, at times, confusing (hey, I might not be smart enough to follow it). While it's great if the baseball played in a movie is closer to the real thing, the story, characters and feel trump that for me and EMO just doesn't sing to me and, as noted, I thought it was long but tangled.

"Bull Durham" is not a great movie, maybe not even good, but it does have it really good moments and, IMHO, captures "The Boys of Summer" feel here and there. Based on your comments, I'll check EMO next time it pops up.

Bull Durham was great because it's accurate in the sense that most young minor league players are just goofballs. I know many of those guys, and it really hit home for me. I also liked that I played on the field there in Durham where they shot the movie, and drank at the bar where Nuke and Crash fight (Mitch's Tavern, which is actually in Raleigh).

 

[Fading Fast]

"We are Marshall," for all its hokum, is a fun "little" football movie. And, darn it, showed me that Matthew McConaughey can really act.

 

[scottyrocks]

For as good or bad Bull Durham may or may not be, I can't really enjoy anything with Costner in it.

 

[Fading Fast]

For as good or bad Bull Durham may or may not be, I can't really enjoy anything with Costner in it.

It pre- "Waterworld" Costner which was okay.

 

[HudsonHawk]

It pre- "Waterworld" Costner which was okay.

Agreed. No Way Out is pretty good too.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

In 1969, on leave from the Army, I went to New Orleans to visit with my family who were vacationing there. My father's business associate was a local political wheel and got us tickets for a New Orleans Saints game. It was the only time I ever went to a pro football game. Before the game proper, two teams came out and ran through the same maneuver several times, always ending with a guy lying very still on the field. People were muttering about what the hell was going on? Someone produced a transistor radio and tuned it to the broadcast. It turned out that, without telling anybody, they were filming a scene from a movie that was later released as NUMBER ONE and the guy on the ground was Charlton Heston. So I can claim I co-starred with Charleton Heston, along with several thousand other people in the stadium that day. Didn't even get paid scale, though. I still resent that.

 

[Fading Fast]

Agreed. No Way Out is pretty good too.

Heresy it may be, but it is one of the few (maybe, the only) remake of a GE Era movie that is better than the original - "The Big Clock -" and this from a serious Ray Milland fan.

 

[3fingers]

For as good or bad Bull Durham may or may not be, I can't really enjoy anything with Costner in it.

I feel the same way about Susan Sarandon.

 

[2jakes]

1966. Castle A.F.B.
Getting ready to go overseas I had some spare time and went to the base theater.
This was the only film playing. Filmed in
black & white. I had heard of Capote
but was not familiar with this story but
I like "film noirs" so I went in.

Without a doubt this has to rank as the most depressing film I have ever seen.

The visuals and acting are excellent. but it's not something I would have on my list of watching again.
I realize that part of the reason was also where I was and what was happening in the world at the time.
In the 28 years as a news journalist, having talked with many people
on death row. I cannot get excited or enjoy watching these films.
Same with Schindler's List.

 

[MikeKardec]

Same with Schindler's List

I'm middling on the entirety of Schindler's list. Schindler's ultimate 'I could have saved one more' semi breakdown in the end undercut so much of the film. When his factory workers give him the letter containing their signatures (the final list) to help him surrender successfully, well ... that's the climax. Don't go ruining it with all that schmaltz.

That said, the nightclub sequence in the beginning that ends with "That's Oscar Schindler!" is a primer on great film making. SHOW don't tell. A work of art. The opposite of John Ford, Spielberg always ended up with better parts than wholes.