Slumdog millionaire
Now this film really made me angry, one of my biggest gripes with films is when the internal logic of the film universe is repeatedly broken by the film. I was seriously offended by the realistic depiction of harrowing poverty at the beginning being contrasted with the totally unrealistic fairy tale story that the rest of the film was – I had similar objections to Miracle in Milan but I think it works an awful lot better in that film and it has a charm to it, this film had no charm. And the Bollywood section over the end credits I thought was absolutely ridiculous and pushed me from disliking to actually hating.
Crash
Oh my, I rarely get as angry at a film as I did watching this. Now I am a Communist, I utterly detest racism in all it’s manifestations – I just found this film to be the most patronizing, self congratulatory waste of time I have seen. I have never seen a bigger example of Preaching to the Converted – if you enjoy this film you’re not going to be a racist, if you go to watch this film your probably not a racist, so what is the point of it. And if the point of it is to say that we are all racist in someway shape or form, then F*** you Crash I don’t believe that for a second.
Requiem For a Dream
This is another film that left me incredibly angry – as has been said by others, it’s over-the-top-ness in showing what drugs are doing to this people, coupled with the ridiculous special effects, flashy cinematography and absolutely detestable characters utterly detached me from the film. I didn’t care for the ridiculous cartoons he paints his characters as a single bit, so as the film progressed I was just left with the feeling that this film hates it’s characters, is willing to show them in the most obscene of light – for what purpose? To tell us addiction is bad – well done Aranofsky that’s an incredibly important point that none of us had realised before… Style utterly caved in the head of substance.
Aguirre: The Wrath of God
I think I need to watch this one again, before I hold myself to any one view. But based on the first time I saw this I just didn’t understand it at all. Kinski’s character starts of just as mad as he ends up – so I didn’t see any really progression, I just found this fairly boring watching them travel to the place it’s obvious they wont arrive at from the get go. Just a bit awkward to get invested in it I found – I haven’t had much luck with Herzog to be honest.
Apocalypse Now
Kinda the same as Aguirre, same film really too – again I need to watch this one again too but on first viewing I was just bored, which I know is a pretty bland criticism.
Clockwork Orange
I morally didn’t get this film, at the end where we realise the brainwashing has not worked, that he sees the world in the same perverse way – are we meant to cheer for him? I don’t get it. I hated him. I seriously don’t like having to look at such graphic rape scenes unless I think there is some sort of reason for it – which I didn’t really see. I don’t understand the point, Kubrick saying that evil people cannot be changed and that it’s painted in such a black and white way – just seems empty to me.
The Dark Knight
I must be seeing a totally different film from everyone else here, cause the one I saw was deeply embedded in the ideology of Fascism; The defense of the torture of prisoners, defense of police state crushing of any remaining privacy (which comes across as a blatant defense of the Patriot Act, CCTV etc in the real world), the defense of the status quo, of lying to the population to defend corrupt officials etc I could go on. Ignoring the incredibly dodgey politics one is left with what? The only redeeming feature of this film is the stunning performance by Ledger – Batman/Bruce Wayne, Harvey Dent/Two-Face completely get blown of the screen in comparison. Bale’s Batman voice is obviously a total mess (great directing their Mr Nolan), his Bruce Wayne is totally detestable, I didn’t like anything about him and any believability that the billionaire Bruce Wayne has any real motive to be batman is not there. Two Face was a totally tacked on character I thought who was totally uninteresting, there is nothing redeeming about Harvey Dent’s character – he already is two face, he’s utterly ridiculous – the Animated TV Series did much better in engaging you with the motives that allowed his character to become what he became. Past the characters we have the story, which is pretty threadbare if you ask me, the whole moral choice thing just didn’t work at all – the bit with the love interest and harvey dent, did you actually care at all who Batman chose to save? I didn’t, the love interest seemed totally tacked on. The Boats thing at the end, was totally unbelievable and just way too much. Past that the Batman fighting action, which is always the most uninteresting bit for me even failed, all the choppy kinetic action camera work just annoys me. Oh and (however much I hate Tim Burton) the art design in this batman was pretty unmemorable, unlike Burton’s Gotham.
Chasing Amy
Just god-awful, this film isn’t worth my time, unfunny, annoying and this films homophobic message is just ridiculous. I know everyone who likes it claims it isn’t homophobic but a lesbian going for Ben Afleck, come on!
Scarface
This is just bland really, Montana is totally hated throughout and there are all these weird choices De Palma made which I don’t get at all, like the Push it to the Limit montage, it’s hilarious and does not fit at all in a serious gangster film.
Weekend
what a incredibly pretentious utterly pointless nihilistic exercise. It isn’t Funny, it isn’t clever, it’s just aggravating.
I hated all of these films, and I seriously don’t understand how many are considered the best ever made. Ranting over haha
All the people saying how pointless this exercise is, sharing opinions on films one thinks are considered better than they actually are is fun. If opinions seem totally pointless to you, I don’t know why you are in this forum for. People should write why the mentioned films annoy them though. It interests me to know how people react differently to films, if someone lists a film I happen to love I’d like to know why they think it overrated like.
Hurt Locker is good but not a worth of winning Oscar.
Besides Slumdog Millionaire, I would say Lost in Translation is one of the most overrated Oscar darlings of the last decade.
Lost in Translation didn’t win much, and Murray got shafted. Penn was redeemed for his loss to Spacey.
Lost in Translation is only overrated if you ignore the fact that people who hate it are way more vocal about their hate for it than the people who like it are about their love for it.
“Penn was redeemed for his loss to Spacey.”
Crowe was better than both of them in The Insider, and continued the long and rich history of people winning Oscars for lesser performances to make up for not winning for superior performances the next year, for Gladiator. Penn was damn good in Sweet and Lowdown, though.
I’m back. I forgot one…
The Shining: When Jack Nicloson goes insane, how can you tell?
Some opinions are better than others. There are those who hold Legally Blonde as great cinema, and then there are others.
The Graduate
I hardly liked any of the characters, and there were only occasional moments of good comedy. This works better as a poignant drama than a comedy—yet I love Wes Anderson, and he derives a good deal from Graduate. I feel like The Graduate doesn’t get the tone right, while Anderson did splendiferously well in mixing comedy and drama and finding proper tone with Rushmore, Tenenbaums, Life Aquatic, and Fantastic Mr. Fox. Also, his characters are so likable and relatable. Hoffman was relatable but not much likable.
raider of the lost ark
dead poets society
Haggis’ Crash
8 1/2 and LA DOLCE VITA. Yeah, I just did that!!
Gasp!
@Allan You grilled a few films that I love but I like the insight. I will certainly re-watch Dark Knight again with a different eye. Didn’t see all that first. But as for A Clockwork Orange, I offer this:
“I morally didn’t get this film, at the end where we realise the brainwashing has not worked, that he sees the world in the same perverse way – are we meant to cheer for him? I don’t get it. I hated him. I seriously don’t like having to look at such graphic rape scenes unless I think there is some sort of reason for it – which I didn’t really see. I don’t understand the point, Kubrick saying that evil people cannot be changed and that it’s painted in such a black and white way – just seems empty to me.”
Well in a way I believe you are supposed to feel that way. Kubrick seems to be tricking you into rooting for Alex. If you hated him, good, you are a normal human being. If you liked the fact that he goes back to his devious ways please see a doctor. Another thing to keep in mind is that the original book had a final chapter that was not released until a while later in which Alex stops his crazy behavior and longs for a normal life with a wife and kids. Kubrick did not know about this chapter and that’s why we have the ‘empty’ ending. Also note that the final shot of Alex having sex with a girl seems to be consensual as they are both laughing and smiling.
I think the main theme is not necessarily that evil people cannot be change but that ‘good’ must be genuine and not conditioned or forced. People should have free will no matter if that will is to help or sadly rape.
Saving Private Ryan
Rules of the Game
Do the Right Thing
The Searchers – I just didn’t see anything really special about this film, at least not enough to warrant the praise it receives. Maybe the location photography.
Eraserhead – One of the few films that I recall ever actively hating. Maybe it was just my state of mind at the time. I would maybe watch it again and reevaluate it.
Platform – I just don’t get it. Barely anything really happens in this film.
I may end up posting individual threads about these because maybe I just missed some special element of each of them.
American Beauty
8 1/2
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Citizen Kane
Tokyo Story
There are differences among the choices. Tokyo Story is a masterpiece, but I don’t get it why it’s considered Ozu’s best film. It is only in that sense that I consider it “over”-rated.
American Beauty, on the other hand, is just a bad film.
The Exorcist
Superman The Movie
This board = the home for the pretentious.
Fellini’s ‘Eight and Half’ is an achievement that captured the power of cinema to enter into the core of human existence. If people in future watch this movie bcoz we are “overrating” it , then ,let us do it.
Rain Man
Crash
Slumdog Millionaire
2001: A Space Odyssey
Rear Window
Nosferatu
The Shawshank Redemption
Forrest Gump
I won’t even mention Avatar.
Clockwork Orange was hard to sit thru on my last watch and not cause of the violence
more because of the general tedium
Can’t believe i forgot “Cinema Paradiso”. Incredibly overrated.
I very very rarely find movies of a high reputation to disappoint me, and after racking my brain these are the only two I could come up with:
Scarface (De Palma)
Now, I didn’t think this was a bad film at all, I just didn’t really think it was a great one. I thought that Pachino was amazing at times, but he occasionally went over the deep end and just hammed it up. My main problem with it thought was Oliver Stone’s script. The story itself was all fine and good, but there wasn’t a single character in the film that I cared for or underwent any sort of development that I could pick up (Tony starts off as a dick, becomes a bigger dick, and then stays a dick). I will admit that there were a handful of great scenes (Tony yelling in the resteraunt, Tony’s sister’s breakdown, and one or two more), but I find it crazy that this gets more recognition then Pachino and De Palma’s other collaboration, the much better Carlito’s Way.
Notorious (Hitchcock)
I still need to get through this one, cause when I tried to watch it I only got about a third of the way in before turning it off. I’m a big Hitchcock fan (the fuzzy Universal box is one of my prized possessions), but I just could not find anything special about this movie. It was dreadfully slow, had uninteresting characters, the acting was nothing special, and lacked any of the usual Hitchcock flair to at least keep my eyes entertained. I do plan on trying again, cause I don’t like giving up on films, but man. I just don’t get it.
Shawshank Redemption. Why? There is absolutely nothing original nor unique about the film.
Is it well-crafted and directed? In terms of Hollywood, evocative, story-driven filmmaking, yes, it is. Immensely well-made.
Does it contribute to the history of cinema and art? No.
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
THE HURT LOCKER
No-one is allowed to criticize CITIZEN KANE.
But, y’know what? After the sharp camera angles and clever montages? IThe story is a snorefest.
Besides its iconic imagery, CASABLANCA actually has a mixed-up and confusing plot, whose denouement is very deus ex machina.
gonzostreet
Step 1.
Look at IMDB’s top 250 list to identify films to what you perceive is “overrated”.
Step 2.
Look at your your own list of favorites to see [mis]matches.
Step 3.
Realize the meaninglessness of this thread.
Addendum:
Discussing subjective opinions on a rational basis over what is “overrated” is silly, like old ladies bickering over bingo.