Five that are Seriously Overrated...

Raiders of the Lost Ark.
It's not the Holy Grail of cinema; it's a fun film to see occasionally (if that often). But worthy of cult status?



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Raiders of the Lost Ark.
It's not the Holy Grail of cinema; it's a fun film to see occasionally (if that often). But worthy of cult status?

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Are you poking one of your vintage walking sticks into a hornets' nest?

Just revisiting an old thread..

I watched Crash last night. I would include this film in the "overrated" category. There is no denying this is a drama. The material is heavy with a capital "H"! I am not sure if this is a good thing but I felt every minute of the 122 in this film.

The acting was well done. Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, and Terence Howard stand out in my mind. It was refreshing to see so many well known faces in one film. The bad side of a large cast is not being able to develop any character depth due to the multiple character stories. Certain directors can do it but Haggis could not.

Good performances could not hide what I felt was a forced storyline. The message is simple and delivered quickly in the film. Everyone is racist yet we all have good in us. I am not sure if I believe this but the realization was truly an Oprah Winfrey moment.
12-15 racist Los Angeles residents' lives intersect in a 24-48 hour period. A good cop does a bad thing to help someone. A bad cop does a good thing. A white politician uses race to look good in office. His wife is carjacked and hates everyone. Two young black men are are criminals. One will only rob white people while his partner will rob anyone. I think you get the picture and can probably write these characters as well as writer/director Paul Haggis. What the writer did was make a very safe film yet received tremendous accolades from critics! How amazing is that?!

I also seriously disliked Haggis' other hit "Million Dollar Baby". My compaint about simplistic characters hold very true for that film as well. Two much better films the deal with race are Bamboozled and American History X. Both films comment on race and identity by focusing on smaller groups of people and telling a better story.

Marc Chevalier said:

Raiders of the Lost Ark.
It's not the Holy Grail of cinema; it's a fun film to see occasionally (if that often). But worthy of cult status? .

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Oh man. Marc, you better stay away from Club Obi Wan!...KC

Club who? Club what?

I don't go there.

Harry Lime said:

2) Dances With Wolves
4) Forrest Gump
5) Titanic (James Cameron version)

Your picks?

Harry Lime

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Overrated:

5. Dances with Wolves
4. Forrest Gump
3. Titanic
2. Capote
1. Saving Private Ryan

Underrated:

5. Niagara Niagara (Bob Gosse)
4. Limbo, City of Hope (John Sayles)
3. Artificial Intelligence: AI (Spielberg)
2. Simple Men, Trust, The Unbelievable Truth (Hal Hartley)
1. Secrets and Lies, Vera Drake, Life is Sweet (Mike Leigh)

Overrated: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Underrated: The Man Who Would Be King

Overrated: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

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Couldn't disagree more.


Underrated: Fat City

Why haven't more Ladies of the Lounge responded to this thread? Too much testosterone?

Overrated:
Any Batman film.
Any film with Will Ferrell.
Jerry McGuire
Good Will Hunting
Any Jim Carrey film.

Underrated:
The Man Who Would Be King (I'm with Marc on this one)
Breaker Morant
Zulu
Burke and Wills
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

I'm also going to toss in actors who weren't even nominated for an Academy Award for one of their best performances. Underrated

Donald Sutherland in Ordinary People
Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday in Tombstone

The wizard of OZ
any Godfather movie, in the words of Peter Griffin "it insists upon itself"
Willie wonka and the chocolate factory
Top Gun
Iron Eagle

Baron Kurtz said:

Passion of Christ. Nicely filmed, and acted okay. 2 hours of a man being whipped and tortured ain't my idea of fun. Let's say you'd never heard anything about Jesus before; what would you know about his message having left the moviehouse? Not much. I do't think revelling in Jesus' pain is the way to promote the man. It was as if Gibson enjoys and worships the pain rather than the man himself. Pasolini covered the topic in a much better way, in my opinion.

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Nothing with the level of hype that film caught could possibly have lived up to it. I thought it was interesting and it certainly did hammer home the point about how incredibly brutal the torture and execution of Christ was, which I think is articially valid as most folks while they know the basic story aren't really aware just how shocking crucifixtion actually was. The focus of the film was all on that very end stage of Christ's life, though yes I agree that it would have been nice to have something of his life and teaching in there. I'm undecided on the ending of the film... it seemed a bit trite the way the resurrection was depicted, though equally I wouldn't have preferred an ending which cut off with his death. The definitive "Christ" movie is yet to be made. I do think that the film has been unfairly criticised due to reported anti-semitic comments made by Gibson's father, and which Gibson reportedly failed to condemn, but that's a whole nother can o' worms.

Romeo and Juliet (the di Caprio one). Garbage. Badly acted. A crude destruction of a fine play in effort to drag it kicking and screaming into a shoot-em-up format.

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See, i rather liked that. I loathed what they did with Mercutio - a complete and total misreading of the character, I always considered him a suave ladies man a la David Tennant's take on Casanova with just a dash of Jarvis Cocker. The gay transvestite approach really didn't work for me - turned him into the sideshow comic relief too much, belittled the character (whom Shakespeare is believed to have offed as he was in danger of dominating the play and overshadowing Romeo originally) by making him a standing joke rather than what he should have been, i.e. the sort of man Romeo aspires to be, for good or ill. One thing they did do very well, though, was show that this was a story NOT about true love, but teenage infatuation. 99% of people who take on Romeo and Juliet totally miss that point.

MudInYerEye said:

also...
ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW

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Ohhhhhh! They's fightin' words!! :rage:



lol

I personally rather like the film itself - it's a very clever parody of the sorts of sci fi and horror movies it takes off. When you're used to the stage show (which a lot of folks over here much prefer - it's mainstream, pretty much, while the film is a cult thing - I know the reverse is true in the US), it is unbelievably slow in pacing, though a lot of it is matched ot its targets - c/f the pacing of the churchyard scene to the opening scene in Night of the Living Dead. Really, though, it would be an almost unknown picture nowadays, similar to Phantom of the Paradise, for instance, with a much smaller following had not the audience participation and shadow casting end of the fan cult happened - those of course are the real joy of a cinema screening, and it isn't quite the same experience watching it otherwise. There are many flaws in the film itself (continuity, sound editing... etc), though for me that's part of its charm.

Otherwise..... pretty much anything is overrated these days - any one of these huge blockbusters that are cranked out. Soem films I've seen that I was very underwhelmed by:

Get Shorty - huge buzz about it, actually a very dull little film that is nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is

The Star Wars "Special" Editions- forget the prequels, Star Wars died the day Greedo shot first.

I agree on Forest Gump - could never quite figure out though whether it was trite "isn't america great, anyone can make it - hand on heart, salute the flag!" or "it's all just big dumb luck whether you make anything of yourself - isn't it ironic that this guy who wasn't bright at all makes it and ends up worshipped as a hero." Either way, it was a bit tedious - essentially the same gag over and over. And the big deal over "box of chocolates" was ultimately flawed - I've never bought a box of chocloates that didn't have an inlay card telling you exactly what everything was.

Pretty Woman - or anything else pretty much with Richard Gere in it, for that matter. Ghastly man.

Notting Hill..... a little bit overrated (as anything British that is successful always is), but OTOH, I thought it was very funny, great characters and generally pretty entertaining. Some lovely cinematography round West London - I especially enjoyed the scene of Grant walking through the market as the seasons changed, and how they represented that. Very nice. But IMO they sold it out with a naff, easy ending. It would have been infinitely more satisfying had the camera cut from the press conference scene to them dancing at a wedding - then panning back to reveal that he has just married someone else and she is there as a guest.

Eh well.

I saw The Blues Brothers a few months ago and wondered how America went bananas over such a nonsensical, badly acted movie. There were several good musical performances, but nothing you couldn't have heard on oldies radio then. [huh]

I think The Departed is highly overrated. All my friends loved it but I just didn't. It was way too long and I just found myself constantly eyeing my watch waiting for the credits.

Paisley said:

I saw The Blues Brothers a few months ago and wondered how America went bananas over such a nonsensical, badly acted movie. There were several good musical performances, but nothing you couldn't have heard on oldies radio then. [huh]

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You will find very few movies with worse acting. The music numbers were often good, but neither is that the main calling of that movie. The draw of the Blues Bros is its iconic value, its completely distinct and weighted lines of dialogue, its existence as a tribute to a certain flavor of life. And Cab Calloway. I whole-heartedly accuse you of missing the point.

otterhound said:

To Have and Have Not - other than learning the right way to whistle, not much of a story there. And does anyone else think that Dolores Moran looks better than Lauren Bacall in that movie?

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Completely agree. On all points. Although, I didn't like the book either, hah. Worsened by the fact that Key Largo shares some similar plot points, has a way better cast and is a superior film.

I'm still waiting for someone to admit that Lauren Bacall should never have been on the big screen!

Ok, I'll take a crack at this. Let's see....

Anything with Will Ferrell or Adam Sandler in it is way overrated.

All those Julia Stiles "Shakespeare" remakes (O, 10 Things I Hate About You)

Hope Floats, I really, REALLY, REALLY hated that movie.

Shakespeare in Love (she got an Oscar for that?)

Grease. ('nuff said)

Well, I finally watched Citizen Kane the other day. I think it's overrated. I still don't like Orson Welles very much. I've seen more of his work (as opposed to my earlier post), so I think I can be justified in saying so now.

Harry Lime said:

In the spirit of congenial film discussion, what are five films that you consider seriously overrated for whatever reasons? I will list five I feel that way about and will do so with the qualifier IT IS ONLY MY OPINION. If you like said films I am happy for you. I'm only saying I DON'T. If we do this right it will be fun.

So, with that, please begin taking back praise and adulation for (drum roll please):

1) Star Wars
2) Dances With Wolves
3) Philadelphia
4) Forrest Gump
5) Titanic (James Cameron version)

Again, only my opinion. I realize the box office proved all were popular. On my scale they are all simply overrated.

Your picks?

Harry Lime

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I disagree on Star Wars that movie CHANGED the business the last three may not be great but that one changed the way movies were made. to me it is up there with the Jazz Singer [first film with at least a portion as a talky ] the first color movie did the same.

as for over-hyped I expect to be entertained not PREACHED at so most of the "in" movies will make my list

jasmynskyes said:

Shakespeare in Love (she got an Oscar for that?)

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No, she got the Oscar for Mrs Brown, IMO - the Academy felt bad that she'd missed out, maybe regretted not giving her it that year, so the next year she got it instead, only nominally for Shakespeare in Love. Overrated, yes. A fun little film for those with a soupcon (scuse spellin') of literary history (I especially enjoyed the Marlowe references), but not the best film ever made, flawed by a dreadful misinterpretation of Rome and Juliet, and her performance in that was basically phoned in. It seems absurd to be she got the billing she did in the promo for her all of eight minutes appearance, let alone the Oscar. But then it was ever thus with the Oscars, all politics. The other thing about SoL... feel free to write me off as a dreadful prude, but I really didn't feel the need to see Gwynneth Paltrow's nipples..... what did that add to it, exactly?

jasmynskyes said:

Shakespeare in Love (she got an Oscar for that?)

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As I watched this movie, I thought, Is this ever going to end? Blech!