After last week’s Confessional, where we rallied support for underrated movies (I need to see The Ref, apparently), let’s toss around the titles we think are overrated.
Last night, I had dinner with the friend I dragged to see Billy Bob Thornton’s The Astronaut Farmer — after it made EW’s own Must List — and we spent another 20 minutes complaining about it. Spoiler alert: If you haven’t seen the film and intend to, stop reading now, and proceed to posting your own picks for over-hyped flicks. Time for me to vent…
Problem No. 1: The launch of the rocket played like a dream sequence. Maybe that was supposed to be the point, but when I realized it wasn’t one, I was angry. Audibly angry. Why would a man who was smart enough to build said rocket be stupid enough to risk injuring his family as the force of lift-off blows out the windows of their home?
Problem No. 2: So the wife (Virginia Madsen) has no idea that her husband is hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt — or that her own father, who lives with them, has the funds to help them out? Really?
Your turn. Which movie’s success (or even semi-success) do you resent?
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Let’s get controversial!
IMHO, American Beauty stands as one of the most overrated movies in history. Shallow characters who are unrelatable: a poor schlep of a man who throws his life away, a schmucky neighbor kid who thinks filming plastic bags is cool, gay neighbors who love to jog together in their attempts to look as stereotypical as possible, and a cheatin’ housewife who refers to her uncharming lover as “the king”.
I hated the entire set of characters and thought the movie was pure drivel. Even the pot smoking scenes were lame and cliche (BTW:the pot wasn’t priced appropriately kind bud in any market, sorry), and the ending left me wondering what all the hype was about.
I also thought Babel was for shite. What was up with the naked Japanese girl anyway?
The Matrix. All of them. They were confusing and non-sensical. And Keanu Reeves CANNOT act. So why don’t we add to the list: Anything Keanu Reeves is in.
Shrek will always be the most overrated film I’ve ever watched, even though everyone else can’t stop glowing about how ‘revolutionary and hilarious’ it is. Honestly, fairy tale satire didn’t feel that original to me, nor was it really that amusing either (I chuckled only once the entire film). Even the previews made it look stupid, so I’m honestly pleased the film followed my earlier convictions. Shrek is more or less the reason I started hating many CG films when the traditional 2D animation started losing steam. Emperor’s New Groove and Lilo and Stitch were far funnier and clever than Shrek, but didn’t get the attention they deserved.
Gladiator hands down is the most oveerrated movie. The fighting scenes were horribly filmed (except the black chick archers) Joaquin Phoenix was hamming it up in every scene and Russel Crowe put me to sleep. I liked this movie better when it was called Spartacus and starred Kirk Douglas. Gladiator sucked.
apocalypse now. i find it to be totally unwatchable, but every guy i know wets themselves over it. I cannot stand that movie.
No argument from me re: American Beauty. I can’t stand the smug condenscension about suburbia. Others: The English Patient, a film so boring I almost fell asleep typing the title; Crash, which strains at the seams to be important but reminds me of a bad Clifford Odets play; and just about any Oliver Stone movie.
Babel was pretty overrated…not bad just over-hyped. The same can be said for Million Dollar Baby and Mystic River. They were good movies but they didn’t live up to my expectations.
Gone With the Wind was the biggest pile of crap. I wasted four hours of my life on that?
Casablanca…that was not a love story and certainly not one of the greatest love stories ever. Crap.
agreed on “Shrek.” But for me, “Little Miss Sunshine” was incredibly overrated. It was so heavy handed and unfunny and un-charming. So self-congratulatory in that way that many indies seem to be. The acting was ok but the writing and direction were awful. Also, “As Good as it Gets.” I’m still fuming over Nicholson’s Oscar win when the award should’ve gone to Robert Duvall for the brilliant “The Apostle.”
Forrest Gump, oh how I hate that movie. I actually walked out of the theater. And since then I have forced myself to sit through it, thinking there must be something redeemable about it, but no, there isn’t. Jurassic Park, I can still remember the dissapointment when walking out of the theater. Granted I was a kid when I saw it, but I loved the book so much better and the special effects were not that amazing. And Borat, which I saw quite recently on DVD, and while amusing, was not the seminal work of brilliant comedy the hype had made it out to be. If you watched all of the shows (both UK and US, which I had) the schtick was not new and was just a recyclying of past bits he did better before, strung together with the narrative of the story. Granted if you had never run across his brand of humor before I could see how it could be shocking and funny, but even then, it really was not particularly hilarious. Nor was it very insightful into the american psyche as said some reviews.
Okay, this is going to anger a lot of people, but I pick THE GODFATHER as the most overrated film of all time. I’ve watched it three times, but I still don’t see why so many people consider it to be the greatest film of all time. It could be due to my lack of interest in all things Mafia-related, but I don’t feel that the film comes close to achieving the greatness of the best films of Hitchcock, Fellini, Truffaut, Kurosawa, Welles, Hawks, Wilder, Altman, Kubrick, Ford, and others.
This is fun. I agree, I hated every frame of Forest Gump for the anti-intellectual swill that it was. I thought Shrek was okay, but so many of the references were current I doubt anyone will be able to make heads or tail of it in twenty years.
As for my picks? I recently saw Children of Men and thought it was just okay. I think it was trying really hard to be great. Too hard. I thought the last twenty minutes of The Departed ruined what could have been fantastic.
ditto on crash. its to important films about race what garden state is to the indie film…if you know what i mean. best film of the year? gimme a break.
Crash.. Hands down THE stupidest, most OVERRATED movie ever made. Paul Haggis shooting his load over and over again while beating you on the head with a bat, screaming “Rascism is BAD!! Rascism is BAD!!” is NOT my idea of a movie that deserves to see the light of day. Yet, every idiot who hates to think and be challenged just put that piece of crap on a pedestal over other MORE DESERVING films, like “Good Night, and Good Luck” and “A History of Violence”.
Hands down, SIDEWAYS, my god that was just an above average independent film!
Totally agree with the post that mentioned the English Patient. Such a loooooong and boring plot about a bunch of self-serving characters who I couldn’t bring myself to care about. Also on my list: Quiz Show and The Good Shepherd. Both of these movies were strongly recommended by critics but to me they were examples of bad film editing and horrible plot structure.
i hated when harry met sally when i first saw it…i can watch it now, but still i just don’t get the appeal.
Titanic. First the romance between Kate and Leo (can’t remember the movie names) was over done. In real life their accents would have been so different they wouldn’t have understood each other. Then the boat took forever to sink. I actually spent the last hour of the film watching my watch. The people I was with were crying and I was praying for it to end
Crash is by far the runaway winner for this – I can’t imagine a more cliched, trite movie. It’s a case of story being used as a blunt-force instrument in order to beat into the audience’s head that (oooooh) Racism is bad. We get it, Mr. Haggis, we get it…
Has to be “Something About Mary”. It seems that all the funny gags were in the trailer. Throw in Ben Stiller as most overated movie star.
Wow – Everyone already mentioned my picks :
Forrest Gump – Great message – “just sit out life and let things happen to you without taking action.” Hated this!
English Patient – just plain boring
Little Miss Sunshine – not half as cutting-edge as it pretends. Lots of Oscar worthy work overlooked for this drivel.
I have to say, Titanic is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. To this day, I am still PO’d that this steaming pile of (insert favorite fecal slang here) beat the far superior LA Confidential for Best Picture. Every time EW’s own Lisa Schwartzbaum gushes over this trash, I throw-up a little. I’ve heard better dialogue on “Bones”.
I also have to agree with the poster that mentioned Crash…terrible. Also, what the f*** is the deal with Moulin Rouge? People can actually make it through that “film” without getting nauseous? I don’t get it.
Brokeback Mountain was so depressing and long and the acting was awful. Heath Ledger seems to have trouble with the english language on its own, who thought adding a cowboy twang would make it better? If the two main characters would have been two no name actors, no one would have seen the movie. It was just so “revolutionary” to have two popular manly actors play the parts. Glad it didnt win best picture.
Add my name to the list of “American Beauty” haters. This movie was on TV over the weekend, and since there was nothing else on worth watching, I decided to sit through it. A ballet of eye-rolls soon followed. I had forgotten how pretentious this movie was, with its feeble attempts to be high-brow and profound. When the kid started talking about how he sometimes just couldn’t take how beautiful life was and that he thought his heart would cave in, I couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculousness of the whole thing. What does that mean anyway? You can only appreciate life if you videotape a dead bird? Please. This is the guy who also “jokingly” offered to kill his girlfriend’s father. A father, may I add, who came very close to committing statutory rape because he’s apparently “over it all.” Drugs, adultery, extortion, abuse, murder…oh yeah…thanks for that lovely display of What It All Means. All of the Oscar hype this movie got is perplexing.
Happy Feet was overrated – even though I didn’t love it, I thought Cars was a better film and deserved the win; however, it was the year of caring about the planet. Agree completely on The English Patient. Brokeback Mountain was horrendously boring with some good performances. Little Miss Sunshine was overrated – cute but not SOO cute.
Happy Feet was overrated – even though I didn’t love it, I thought Cars was a better film and deserved the win; however, it was the year of caring about the planet. Agree completely on The English Patient. Brokeback Mountain was horrendously boring with some good performances. Little Miss Sunshine was overrated – cute but not SOO cute.
These postings really show how much personal preference plays into this question, I agree with Bable but disagree strongly with children of men, but with the exception of *shudder**gasp* gone with the wind, most examples seem to be in the last 10 years, if we are going for most over rated of all time Im going to have to say From here to Eternity, Im pretty sure the title refers to how long it feels like you are watching it
Jerry McGuire. Am I the only person who didn’t believe that his character was really in love with Renee Zellweger? If I had been her, I would have laughed in his face.
Titanic. It’s bloated, stuffy and pretentious. The love plot wasn’t needed to humanize the story. Leonardo DiCaprio is not God’s Friggin’ Gift.
Anything staring Ben Stiller or Jim Carey. Neither of those men are remotely funny to me.
And I’ll probably be burned at the stake for this one, but I abhor Top Gun. It’s predictable, unfunny and wooden. Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis have no discernable chemistry. Plus, there is Val Kilmer which, for me, automatically makes just about any movie unwatchable.
I finally saw “2001″ when I was in my mid-20s and was totally bored. Yawn.
And I missed the “underrated” post! Damn. I would have had to contribute “Zero Effect,” one of my favorite movies that no one seems to love but me.