Titanic. I hated Titanic, and although only a small group of people flip me shit for not liking it, the shit they flip is heavy.
The Deerhunter. I’m surprised I’ve seen so many Wes Anderson and David Lynch films and very few Deerhunters, that film is awful and WAY overrated.
Boondock Saints. I’m not surprised to see so many people including this crap, but I am surprised that anyone would flip me shit for not liking it.
Big Fish. I prayed for an earthquake or a power-outage while watching this, anything to give me an excuse to leave early.
Black and White. FAIL
Boiler Room. I still don’t understand why anyone likes this
Erin Brockovich. Nobody has ever criticized me for finding this film to be meaningless fluff, but I’m expecting to catch some shit at some point.
Ghost and Dirty Dancing. I know nobody here would flip me shit for this but I thought I’d include it because some people – don’t ask me why – actually think these are decent films.
Ghostdog: the way of the samurai. I like Jarmusch, but this movie just doesn’t work on any level.
MPD psycho and about half of Miike’s catalog (although I love the other half)
The Naked City. SNORE
The Sixth Sense. AND ESPECIALLY ANYTHING ELSE BY M. NIGHT SHAMALAHN, mostly because he’s a hack but also because all of his movies are ALL godawful pieces of self-indulgent shit
Saw. because it was torture (to watch)
Strange Days. This one is like Boondock saints IMO
The Ten Commandments. This one I like more than anything else that I included on this list, but I still think it’s overrated and I would prefer not to watch it ever again.
Traffic. This movie was popular because????
Vanilla Sky. not only because it’s a remake of a better film, but because it took a slightly-above-mediocre idea, pumped a ton of money into it, and the end result is a flaccid piece of pop trash.
What dreams may come. Only one person ever flipped me shit for not liking this, but I felt like including it because of how awful it actually is.
TRAINING DAY. I bolded that one because it should have never been released. In fact the screenplay should have been burned and the writer executed before that swill ever made it to celluloid; Training Day’s existence is proof alone that there is no God :-(
Last House on the Left. Firstly, Wes Craven is kind of a shit director to begin with. I don’t like how people describe this film as “first of it’s kind” when it’s a blatantly rip off Berman’s Virgin Spring.
The Last Metro. and I catch shit for not being a very big fan of Truffaut.
And God created Woman. Boring, plus Bridget Bardot is OVERRATED
Blood for Dracula or Flesh for Frankenstein. Paul Morrissey = meh
Jules and Jim. Meh
Kill!. not too great, give me Yojibo or Fistful of Dollars any-day (or that other one even)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Overrated
The Dark Knight
Anything By Kevin Smith
Goodfellas (not really remarkable other than being a predecessor to the Sopranos)
No country for Old men
Boondock Saints – After watching this film, it’s not hard to figure out why Troy Duffy never got a film gig again. It’s obvious it was written by a gay bartender with an anger management problem.
Children of Men: Everyone says how great the action sequences are and how original it was. Well, I’ve seen James Cameron do FAAAAAR better, and as far as the storyline, I have two words (and a letter) to say to that: Phillip K. Dick.
Irreversible. Yeah, bad stuff happens to people who don’t deserve it, no shit, that’s something it takes about two seconds for anyone with a brain to realize. I admit I like the way it was filmed, and I like that very last part of it that has the Beethoven playing over it, and the concept of going backwards was interesting. Still, I don’t need to see a 10-minute rape scene, or endless queasy scenes of lots of guys jacking off, or that guy getting his face bashed in with a fire extinguisher. Or at least, I’d rather not have those be the complete focus of the film. It’s really seemed to be focused on pure sensationalism that gets off on how far it can go rather than saying anything that moves beyond a really elementary point about people being bad and events getting out of control. There’s just something, beyond even the violence and everything else, that I really loathe about this film.
Funny Games. I want to punch Haneke in the face after seeing that (though I like Cache). Any film that focuses on thwarting viewer expectations at the expense of saying anything interesting or insightful is not a film I have any interest in seeing.
Right on to anyone who said The Dark Knight. fuck that film. It’s a crassly designed and marketed blockbuster with a couple really good performances, that’s it. Any sort of point this film has is buried under its constant ADD-ish need to always have something happening in the plot.
Boondock Saints was dumb aside from Willem Dafoe. I don’t appreciate the idea that mass killing of “bad” people is justified. It’s such a unrealistic portrait of the universe.
Lars and the Real Girl was a boring and unmemorable feel-good “quirky” indie movie. The same applies to Little Miss Sunshine for me, though that was at least a bit more interesting.
Weekend by Godard I did not like. I appreciate parts of it and the idea of it, but I don’t appreciate it when I feel that films are veering off into lazy nihilism. Please give me something beyond “I am the director and I just fucked with you, haha!” I like Breathless and other bits of Godard I’ve seen, though, so I’m going to give him more of a chance.
Lord of the Rings Trilogy was very watchable and everything, but I’ve never been much of a fan of the story in general.
I have mixed feelings about Boogie Nights by P.T. Anderson. I loved the cast and the way it was filmed, but didn’t like how it went on and on and on and time it spends on different characters meeting different fates was kind of strange to me. Maybe I just didn’t relate to it or connect with the people in it very much.
Chinatown is a movie I really, really like. And the ending is really memorable, and I can’t imagine how else it would end, but I still don’t like it. Maybe it’s because I don’t necessarily think that’s the final word? Maybe I just don’t like it when something tries to say “bad stuff happens to people who don’t deserve it” and then just leaves it at that. Life is more complex than that.
Also, on the subject of Polanski (strange because I’m a huge fan of some of his other films), Knife in the Water did basically nothing for me.
There are others, I’m sure. I try to give a lot of different films a chance, but I often surprise and confuse people by my visceral reactions of disliking something.
300
Tropic Thunder
Yes Man
I Am Legend
The Pursuit of Happyness
Anything by Robert Altman (for consistently muddy cinematography and scripts straight out of First Draft Theater)
The Piano (if The Piano was a bear trap and I was a grizzly, I’d chew my own leg off to escape it)
Anything by Herschell Gordon Lewis (the most overrated Grade-Z director of all time; he even fails at being unintentionally funny)
Easy Rider (I guess I hadda be there; I’m glad I wasn’t)
Anything with Meryl Streep in it (yes, she’s plenty talented; she just rubs me the wrong way)
The Big Chill (narcissistic introspection — it’s better with friends!)
Evil Dead 2, The Departed, Wizard of Oz, Any disney movie, Rocky, any speilberg movie, Juno, 300, the marx brothers films (It’s not they aren’t funny, Groucho is Hilarious, but the films are just so damn incoherent, why even bother to have a plot if it isn’t strong.) Deerhunter.
Though I recognize that it is a good film, I just can’t love ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. I live in the South, where EVERYONE loves ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, so I have been berated for this a few times. I think part of my problem is that nearly everyone I know considers it one of the greatest books they’ve read / films they’ve seen, which drives me insane, since I believe it is a good, not great book / film. However, my main reason for disliking it is that I feel like it is just a comforting way for us to approach the harsh reality of our racist past. It sort of allows us to tell ourselves that not everyone was racist, and that if we had been around, we would have been enlightened Atticus Finches.
Also, I am so glad that someone mentioned ‘City Lights’. A little cloying and sappy, sure, but I enjoyed it right up until the very end. When I should have been moved by that final shot, I was just annoyed that Chaplin did that trying-to-be-endearing-and-lovable-but-really-just-unattractive-and-kind-of-creepy face he does. Oof.
…basically all of the stupid movies that my husband loves. Beerfest, etc. If he were to answer this question, it would be a list of all of the films that I love.
Can’t really think of anything. I catch a lot of shit for LIKING The Color Purple. I know its the opposite of your question, but it’s similar right?
Most annoying: Napolean Dynamite
Most “but everyone loves this film!”: Spiderman 1 – 17
Most “gets under my skin”: PT Anderson’s work
Most overrated “it’s soo emotional” “yeah, but it’s really badly directed!”: Schindler’s List & Saving Private Ryan
2001: A Space Odyssey
And I always feel bad whenever my friends talk about any Kubrick films. I just don’t seem to like him. I feel so guilty about it. :/
For me its Hero.
I find its a classic example of people judging film by different standards based upon its country of origin. I’m not saying analysis should have a certain universal protocol, but I couldn’t help feeling that the selling point of this and subsequent films to follow was its exaggerated orientalism and sense of exoticism. Its only saving grace was Christopher Doyle, but he has never failed to surprise.
And Paya, you need to bust out the ganja and give 2001 another shot…
paya, i wish i had your problem – i get shit from my friends for liking 2001. i wanna meet your friends!
The Princess Bride. I’ve re-watched it to see if maybe I just was missing something, but still do not find it that great.
Jules and Jim … I just didn’t like it.
and, well, pretty much everything by P.T. Anderson… actually, no, EVERYTHING by P.T. Anderson.
@Crap Monster
I agree with you regarding Hero. I recently watched it because a friend recommended how great Doyle’s work was and he did do a good job but the movie itself was a bore!
Others:
Three Kings
Fight Club
I Heart Huckabess
Hiroshima Mon Amor
The Terminal
The Aviator
Amelie – I really just hate Jeunet’s style as a whole
Cast Away
The Fountain
Match Point
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE – that movie was awful! So boring!!
I could go on forever with this list. I’m really surprised how many people responded to this thread listing some really good movies – The Dark Knight, No Country For Old Men, Chinatown, Children of Men, Schindler’s List? I guess it just goes to show you that no film is universally liked.
Any Fincher film, specially Seven. The man has become this era’s Kubrick- people worship him. They should try to watch Panic Room
I hhhhhAAATED The English Patient. I would rather smell laundry piles.
Brokeback Mountain bored the shit out of me. Good performances, though.
Doubt. I thought I liked it but then I had second thoughts.
Lord of the Rings. I can’t keep the characters straight, in large part because somewhere around 30 minutes in, regardless of which movie in the trilogy it is, my brain starts organizing its stamp collection or something; next thing I know, I’m left blinking and wondering where those three hours went and why I can’t have them back.
I also hated that Miranda July movie where the guy lights himself on fire at the beginning, but I haven’t yet met anyone who can blame me.
300, Tropic Thunder, Scarface, I am Legend. And I still get second glances from people when I say that Citizen Kane isn’t Welles’ best film and/or not in my list of one of the greatest films of all time.
Pulp Fiction
I caught a little shit (not too much, I admit) on this site the other day for not liking “The Big Sleep”. The title describes the movie for me.
The Departed
Pursuit of Happiness
Munich
Lord of the rings trilogy
The collected works of Trunk Shot Tarantino.
Punch Drunk Love
The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (what a bone!)
any of those classic Hollywood flicks… Casablanca, Gone With the Wind, Citizen Kane…. you know… all the ones that you just have to love.
more modern stuff… Boondock Saints, Dark Knight, Napoleon Dynamite (but I loved Nacho Libre), anything by Tim Burton…
I can’t really get into any of Godard’s films. Not that I haven’t tried, I know why he is so influential but his films just aren’t engaging to me. His movies have all the elements that I like films but for some reason they don’t calculate into something that I like.
Heather
ONCE snore