Top 5: You’re Right – I’m Wrong
by John NolteFriday was a list of films you were wrong about. Here are five I am wrong about. As a matter of fact, I’m so sure I’m wrong in not liking them, they each sit in my DVD collection and have been viewed frequently in the hopes that a repeat viewing will finally reveal what all the fuss is about.
But, no. Not yet. Can’t stand any one of them. What am I doing wrong?
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2001: A Space Odyssey – Some compare this to watching paint dry, but that’s unfair because when paint dries SOMETHING ACTUALLY HAPPENS.
Kubrick was a genius and his intentional stripping of humanity from many of his later films may have been the point, but not always an appealing one. A film without humanity is nothing more than a cinematic coffee table book, something to flip through with your attention at half-mast during a conversation about your day at the office. “The Killing,” “Lolita,” “A Clockwork Orange,” “Paths of Glory,” and “Spartacus…” those are Kubrick’s true masterworks.
“2001” they should loop at Gitmo.
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Raging Bull (1980) -Technically, “Raging Bull” has a lot going for it, but the ugliness is relentless to the point where you become numb to it. A character study should study a character worthy of your time. De Niro’s Jake La Motta just isn’t interesting. For the whole film we watch the same character act the same way. The situations change, but little else.
After 45-minutes, I get it – I get it – I get it…
Many believe “Raging Bull” wuz robbed for Best Picture by Robert Redford’s “Ordinary People.” Personally, I’d rather watch “Ordinary People” while kneeling on marbles, and my opinion of Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed” is even lower.
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Vertigo (1958) – A better title might have been “Tedious.” To be fair to Hitchcock, the problem could be as simple as casting. My affection for the Golden Age is deep, but not blind, and Kim Novak wasn’t a very appealing actress. Her “Vertigo” character(s) are blah and her make-up atrocious. Therefore, the James Stewart character’s obsession with her makes little sense, which in turn keeps me at an emotional distance. Change nothing else, but put Deborah Kerr in the Novak role and my opinion might change completely. An obsession with Kerr I can relate to.
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Anything By Wes Anderson without the Word “Rushmore” in the Title – “Rushmore” is a flat out masterpiece, the rest not so much. Sure, “Bottle Rocket” is okay in that subdued indie kinda way we all feel we’re supposed to like, but Anderson’s films have slowly degraded since, starting with “The Royal Tenenbaums.” There’s no denying he’s a talented filmmaker with a unique voice, and it may just be that I hate “quirky” with the heat of a thousand suns, but the genius of “Rushmore” was the affection we felt for Jason Schwartzman’s irrepressible Max Fischer. Everything Anderson’s done since has jettisoned characters you feel something for in favor of a sterile, off-beat tone.
No thanks.
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Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001 ) – Huge fan of part 2, kinda dig part 3, but the first one is just too episodic for my taste.
We’ve all got a few of these films we dislike that might get us kicked off the cool kids’ table.
Fess up.
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195 Comments
Paths of Glory, ahhh, the West Wing of its day. Too obvious.
I couldn’t sit through “The Dark Knight”. Once I saw Heath Ledger’s makeup, that was it. I tried to sit through it for the sake of my teenagers, who kept telling me it was the “best movie ever!”
Yawn.
Alec Baldwin notwithstanding, I could watch “The Hunt for Red October” every day and never get bored.
Oh man are you gonna get it for the Lord Of The Rings thing…lol.
*Juke backs out of room slowly*
Glad to see that somebody else feels the same way about Scorsese.
You’re wrong about 2001 and LOTR. I watch those on loop all the time. 2001 is the only Kubrick that’s good and it’s mind-blowingly great.
I use these snob DVDs as coasters:
Dr. Strangelove, Annie Hall, Mystic River, Requiem for a Dream and Monster’s Ball.
My first thought was The Departed – but you tossed it in under Raging Bull. I love Jack, but his mob boss was ridiculous.
How about Scorsese’s Cape Fear. Are there or are there not cartoon sound effects during the final fight scene?
“Pulp Fiction” – I hear tell it’s good. I can’t get through it. Not even half of it. It’s annoying and stupid. And really really loud.
“The Godfather” series – Ugh. Boring, tiresome, etc, etc. It’s the best movie EVA, but I can’t get it.
“Lord of the Rings” – I’ll agree with it. Never been a Tolkien fan so these masterpieces are beyond me.
“Saving Private Ryan” – The first 1/2 hour is pretty amazing, but after that, it’s icky and preachy.
“Munich” – I hear tell it’s an amazing tale of the consequences of terrorism. I found it boring as hell and a crappy whiny tale of the consequences of FIGHTING terrorism with a bunch of crying pretty boys who are stupid. YMMV, I suppose.
Gran.Torino.
I agree totally with Vertigo. I’ve never gotten involved in watching that movie….just doesn’t work for me. I agree with the Kim Novak problem, but for me even Stewart is a problem….that strange look of terror (fear?paranoia?gastrointestinal distress?) that he flashes at times is just horrible.
I love Hitchcock, even the “bad” Hitchcocks, but never had any affection for Vertigo. In my humble opinion, one of the most overrated of all time.
2001 is one of those movies where the degree to which I love it far outstrips the degree to which I feel I *ought* to like it. It’s dry, it’s not exactly thrilling, and in fact not a whole lot actually happens throughout the course of the story. But 2001 is one of the very few movies that will grab me if I stumble across it on the TV: no matter how far into the movie I am when I decide to watch it “for just a few minutes,” invariably I end up watching to the very end. I can’t explain it.
TITANIC UGH UGH BLECCHH!
I’ve had a weird history with 2001, starting with when I saw it as a 7-9-year-old on a little B&W TV and was so frightened by the ending, I couldn’t sleep and had to miss school the next day. Starting in high school in the early-Eighties, when they did a theatrical re-release, and in roughly at seven-year intervals afterward, I’d revisit it to see if it still sucks and invariably, it does. Most recently, I got about halfway thru the mission to Jupiter segment on HD DVD before deciding I needed to be working on my videogame backlog.
“Dawn of Man”? Awesome. Trip to the space station and moon? Boring music video for an “Introduction to Strauss” CD. HAL segment? Very cool. “Jupiter and Beyond”? Ummmmm, I don’t take drugs, so this part is like listening to hippies describe their trips; more annoying that entertaining.
-2001: Space Odessy – Had some very good moments but mostly boring;
-Lord of the Rings – Boooooooooooooooring…and if I didn’t read the book, I wouldn’t have know what was going on;
-Raging Bull – Not a DeNiro fan;
-Vertigo – Was okay but I didn’t like the ending.
IMO, all movies that were made post-1960s are self-indulgent and overrated, with a few exceptions.
John, about 2001:
Did you read the novel by Arthur C. Clarke? Kubrick worked closely with Clarke on the story, and as I understand it, the novel and the shooting script were developed at the same time. The basic theme was based on a short story by Clarke called The Sentinel, which was first published in the 50’s.
The novel is quite readable and contains a lot more detail than the movie.
I was eight when the movie was in theaters and I remember all the adults were talking about it. Our parents went to see it without the kids. When they came back, the consensus was, “It was interesting but hard to follow and a lot of talk, and nobody understood the ending.” I wanted to see it badly, but it didn’t happen.
In 1971 I got hold of the novel and it blew me away. I must have read it ten times, but alas, the movie never came on TV. Finally, in 1975, my buddie and I played hookie to go to a Star Trek convention in Manhattan, and they showed it in the evening in one of the meeting rooms. We loved it (but we were dateless geeks).
If anyone is interested in this stuff, in 1972 I got hold of another paperback, “The Making of 2001″ that went into the details of Clarke and Kubricks collaborations, as well as the special effects (no CGI – real cutting edge stuff for the time). Remember, this was BEFORE Star Wars. Up until 1966 and Fantastic Voyage, sci-fi movies were considered pure B-grade stuff, nothing that would ever attract major talent. Fantastic Voyage and, two years later, 2001 and Planet of the Apes, were trailblazers because they showed that SF could hold its own as serious cinema.
During the 1970-74 era, there were several attempts to make more realistic space movies, this time making them “more human” than 2001 – a good example being Silent Running (Bruce Dern). They all tanked.
Did you not include ‘Crash’ because a lot of people don’t like it? Same for ‘Departed’?
Mine are:
Amelie
Casablanca
Dark Night
Revolutionary Road
Benjamin’s Buttons
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
My brother, who has a completely different taste in films than I, also loathes “2001″ and also worries it means there’s something wrong with him. To remedy our 2001 inadequecy, we decided that a big screen screening would finally help us to realize its greatness and set us back in good stead with the movie gods.
So… last year, there was a screening here in Los Angeles presented by no less than that man who separates real Americans from non-Americans himself — Mr. Tom Hanks.
It was decided I would get the tickets, and I got the wrong tickets.
With open minds, my brother and I showed up for the screening early, grabbed the best seats, and waited in anticipation as the theatre filled to capacity.
The lights dimmed.
The theatre hushed.
Tom Hanks walked out and … took a seat on the stage.
Then three other people walked out and … took a seat on the stage.
Then, in the neardiest, dullest, mind-numbingest way imaginable, the four of them talked about the making of “2001.”
Clips were shown. Power point presentations were presented.
It was like watching home movies of people you don’t like.
After an hour of this (and more than a few bewildered exchange of looks) my brother and I finally figured out that I had bought tickets to THE MAKING OF 2001 and had missed the previous week’s screening entirely.
I hate “2001.”
Out of Africa: Zzzzzzzzz
The English Patient: A group of fairly unlikable characters get what they deserve.
Titanic: Have never been able to get past the first half hour.
Dances with Wolves: Self indulgent, revisionist crap.
You are spot on with 2001. Love SciFi but Kubrick left me cold with this one.
Mr. Nolte,
Yesterday you were a genius. Tomorrow, again, you will be a genius. I don’t know what happened to you today.
Life Aquatic is awesome. Tenenbaums awesome +5.
I (huge LOtR fan) walked out of Fellowship of the Ring, you’re right on that one (in case you were wondering).
2001: A Space Odyssey is about space, space is boring what’s so hard to figure out?
As far as space movies go, Armageddon blew chunks. Gravity on, gravity off, gravity part way on….whatever…
–A Streetcar Named Desire – Utter crap.
–Citizen Kane – More like citizen yaaaawwwwwwwnnn.
–Singin’ In The Rain – I love musicals, but I just don’t get this one.
–Star Wars (A New Hope) – This is one of my favorite movies of all time, but honestly watching it as “just another movie” instead of as *STAR WARS*. C’mon….silly story, crappy acting and occasional fake English accents.
–Chinatown – I wanted to kill myself.
–The Grapes of Wrath – Leftist propaganda, I never had sympathy for the protagonists.
–Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner – Spoiled, self-centered rich girl teaching her parents a lesson about what horrible people they are.
–Anything with Jane Fonda
I have to say I don’t like CASABLANCA. I hate the ending. I feel like I’m supposed to like it, but I didn’t.
Okay, since we are looking at classics, Gone With the Wind; maybe, with someone other than Lesley Howard, I could almost believe not wanting Gable, but…..and overlong.
Citizen Kane, too; guess it was revoluntary at the time, and perhaps its is all of the poor imitators that I have seen….but I’m not soured on It’s A Wonderful Life, and it appears that every sitcom steals that theme.
Hard for me to say regarding modern films since I don’t go….love the Harry Potter books, and am thankful that the books spark an interst in the movies. Young friends who read the books after seeing the movies prefer to books;though the gay Dumbledore was awkward and reeked of PC.
Ya gotta be a hard SF fanatic to love 2001 (and by “hard” SF I mean SF that stays within the bounds of science, with some license permitted. Star Trek is hard SF, Star Wars is not. More than half of the paperbacks in the SF section at Barnes & Noble are fantasy, not SF.
It also helps to be a space fanatic. When I was a kid, I loved everything about space. I remember breathlessly watching a Gemini launch on TV on a rainy morning in 1965. Apollo 11, forgeddaboutit.
But if someone is not into SF and not into space, I can easily see how 2001 would be a 2 1/2 hour bore. My brother and his sons are into sports. To me, a football or basketball game is like watching paint dry. I can relate.
Paths of Glory kicked ass. Kirk Douglas is a huge Communist sympathizer but i still love him.
It’s about the art.
There’s Something About Mary
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Casino
Kill Bill No. 1 and No. 2
I just watched The Dark Knight and just don’t get the appeal, seems entirely void to me. But the academy seems to like it so I must be missing something, right? If anyone can tell me what I’m missing, I’d appreciate it.
I can’t watch John Wayne. He comes across as cryto-homosexual as the “Like A Rock” truck commercials.
I can’t watch Nicolas Cage; he so singularly unappealing and talentless. How did he win an Oscar?
Anything by Tarantino is unwatchable nonsense; am I missing his genius?
Anything by Kevin Smith is unwatchable tedium; what am I missing?
I’d rather watch Showgirls twice than sit through the Leaving Las Vegas trailer.
Dances With Wolves: I laughed and laughed in the theater, folks were not amused.
Raising Arizona and The Big Lebowski: the only two Cohen bros. movies that I don’t like. They’re so horribly bad, I can’t believe the Cohen’s made them.
The Shawshank Redemption: everyone I know thinks this movie is so great, but it just sucks.
Shine, The Piano, Sling Blade, As Good as it Gets, The Green Mile, A Beautiful Mind, Gladiator: it’s almost like academy awards are for overall suckiness!?
The one that really confuses me is Lost in Translation—this movie has nothing except Bill Murray & he seems to be sleepwalking… what the heck?
Your point about Vertigo is really brought home by watching next to Rear Window. Grace Kelly’s Lisa Fremont in Rear Window is the ultimate female. Vertigo is about climbing stairs, I think…
I haven’t seen 2001 since high school. I remember enjoying the random space station bits and the HAL bit, but being bored out of my skull at the rest. I actually enjoyed 2010 quite a bit more. Or, you could just watch Event Horizon, which is essentially the HAL bit turned into a horror flick (the ship’s design even resembles that of HAL’s ship)
I had two main problems with Fellowship (other than the obvious exclusion of Tom Bombadil). The first was that, to me, the most endearing parts of the book was the friendship and camaraderie between the Hobbits during the initial stages of the journey. This was completely left out of the flick. The second was that I could pretty much lose everything after Moria. I fall asleep every gorram time (waking only briefly during Galadriel’s spaz attack).
Oh, and as a sidenote, a local newscaster here in Buffalo a few months ago was caught with a mic on when his co-anchor asked him what No Country for Old Men was about. He replied “Some guy with no expression blows everything up.”
ET
(Maybe if EVERYBODY in the world hadn’t told me how GREAT this movie was before I went to see it I might have liked it better. But I thought it was boring and couldn’t wait for it to end.)
Although taste is relative, I’m scratching my head at seeing repeated references to Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Dr. Strangelove, The Godfather, and yes, Pulp Fiction. The first two are – arguably, of course – the two greatest American films ever made. Casablanca is as close to perfection as movies get, and if one is to dwell on the political, it has one of the most patriotic endings in film history (a man sacrificing his own desires during wartime for the good of the country). Kane is Kane – it’s not liberal snobbery that makes it the most influential film ever made, it is – to be overly simplistic -how it completely changed how films are shot, narratives forwarded and stories told. Dr. Strangelove, well, for Slim Pickens’ performance alone, is grand, a Kubrick film that even people who don’t like Kubrick can enjoy. The Godfather? Seriously?
As a movie nut and a person who loves the feeling of a classic in the theater, I can easily say that, without exception, I have never been in an audience that was as electrified as the one in Colorado Springs the night Pulp Fiction premiered. It wasn’t an accident that there has been no film made in the past quarter-century that has been as imitated as much as Pulp Fiction, and although QT bashing is a hobby for many, it’s not an accident that QT’s writing is – still – the most imitated in Hollywood.
As for overrated films that are provably bad, I would add there is the king, and all others should pay tribute:
Titanic
It’s not a prestige film per se, but I hate E.T. I was routing for the scientists to dissect him at the end of the film.
I can’t watch The Usual Suspects without falling asleep. You just need to watch the last 15 minutes or so to really get it.
I was completely unimpressed by No Country for Old Men…at the end I was like “whaaat?”
The thing with LOTR is you have to view it as one big film – all 12 hours of it. Get plenty of snacks and take your phone of the hook, it’s totally worth it, and it’s become a forth of July tradition for me over the past couple of years.
I agree with you on 2001 – watching grass grow would have been more exciting. I kinda with HAL had been aboe to complete his self appointed mission and put an end to this suffering!
Now, I’ve been a Tolkien fan since I was 9, so mine is NOT an unbiased opinion, but I think “Fellowship of the Ring” was the best of the three. It’s loaded with lots of nods to previous adaptations — at least two shots are taken DIRECTLY from Bakshi’s animated version — and a Peter Jackson cameo.
Gotta “second” whomever said “Leaving Las Vegas.” GAG! Couldn’t relate to either character, couldn’t care less what happened to them. Would add anything by Woody Allen (not funny), James Cameron (way too pretentious), the Coen Brothers (huh?), Stanley Kubrick (too disturbing), and somebody else that I can’t remember.
I don’t go to the movies very often. I rent them from Netflix. I would have to agree with “Vertigo,” but I really do like “Casablanca.” The one I couldn’t stand recently was “Wall-E.” It was stupid from the beginning, and I took my grandchildren to see it. What a waste! I haven’t seen any of the LOTR movies, only two of “Star Wars.” Even renting from Netflix I often turn off the movies after about five minutes, and return them unseen. I don’t understand why the movie makers can’t make movies that I like. Sex and violence is all the rage, I guess, but I prefer a good story.
Titanic was a titanic bore. Boat sails. Boat hits iceberg. Boat sinks. Lennie DeCrappio and Wynona Blanchett or Kate Cate or whatever the Hell her name was are running around like chickens with their heads cut off while Celine Dion is “singing” some song that sounds like two tom cats in a burlap sack going at it.
The Color Purple – I so hated that movie…hated it UGH!
Empire of the Sun – will it ever end?
Artificial Intelligence – eeew.
E.T. – I remember thinking something was dead inside of me for not liking this movie
Now I’m reaching waaaay back … LOVE STORY. I was really young when it came out but I know I hated it and I wanted the girl to die already.
Now I ask, am I wrong?
2001: could have been the greatest SF movie ever if it hadn’t been based on an over-intellectual short story with no characters. Even if Kubrick had limited his choice to Clarke, he could have adapted Childhood’s End or one of a dozen more entertaining Clarke stories. Bradbury has spoken of sitting in a theater with a stopwatch and counting whole 6 minute sections in which nothing happens and nothing contributes to the story. And if they had decided to adapt something by Heinlein…
I could not get my godson and his brother to watch their parents’ DVD’s of the other LOTR movies, not with all my raving about the great battles in them. The found the first one so boring, and frankly all I can remember of the first movie is a special effects fireworks display and a few creepy scenes of the black riders.
John,
I love 2001 and have watched it several times, suffering through the slow bits for the feeling of mental weightlessness and always looking forward to the next remarkable set piece. Maybe I just like the design and get drawn in… I never took psychotropics, so to me feels like the smell of colors, or something…
let’s see…I wrote my thesis in philosophy on three tragedies, on being Raging Bull. So you’re really stupid on that one, Mr. film expert guy.
Vertigo – never seen it
I’m WITH you on the Wes Anderson stuff. It always feels like the rich kids got together during break to make an art project while everyone else was working. He’s talented and casts well and the crew is great…but I just never care or get taken anywhere special…but I’m itter that he and Will.i.am seem to have collected all the best tweeds in the country.
he first lord of the rings didn’t have the CGI down yet, and that made it very tough to watch. Plus, if you missed out on the dungeons&Dragons reading group in middle school, apparently you had no idea who the hell anyone was, so you felt stupid for most of the film. then all your friends tell you to watch it again… which is when the CGIstatic starts to fry your brain…. arg.
it was all about the Ents, or whatever the Trees were. is that in the first one? Oh, and Rudy is Rudy is Rudy. I’m sorry, god bless the gut for working, but let’s be real. 3 films and a billion dollars in budget and marketing…he’s still rudy at the end going for the gold.
Mr Blifil is actually John Nolte’s sockpuppet, right? Delivering comic relief just because, right? Gotta be…
Bonnie and Clyde – influential, but hateful
Clockwork Orange – unbearable
Maltese Falcon – I can never follow what those chatty people are saying, but it has great shots of crown moulding framing the principals.
On Vertigo, I saw it at the drive-in with my family in the late fifties when I was about 10. I didn’t sleep at all that night. It was scary but wonderfully so. It was easy to accept the characters of Stewart and Novak as glamorous, easy to be swept along with his obsession. The eye at the beginning, the dream sequence, the nun coming out of the dark – these were strange and disturbing images. It will always be a formative picture for me even if seems slow for today’s tastes.
Frankly, I’m ready for the Apatow, Sandler, Ferrell Oeuvres to be over.
Let me say this. A while ago I watched 2001 in full-def, on a 50-inch plasma, surround sound, with the room lights out, start-to-finish. When it was over, I felt as thought I had BEEN SOMEPLACE. EXPERIENCED something. Attended an “event.” The next day, some of the scenes swam in my head and would not go away.
Which “modern” sci-fi CGI-fest can evoke the same feelings in me? None.
I thought the Life Aquatic was great, but I was also coming off a head cold. I may never watch another Wes Anderson movie after the Darjeeling Limited, though. No Country for Old Men was bafflingly terrible, and There Will Be Blood was pointless drivel. Crash was, well you know, and during Leaving Las Vegas my wife and I were saying “just die already” at the screen.
Moulin Rouge is one of the few movies I’ve ever stopped watching. Mamma Mia is the UK’s biggest movie ever and Meryl Street is so hammy and awful in it she should have one of her Oscars revoked.
I don’t see any scenario where I watch ‘The Reader’ or ‘Revolutionary Road’, and I thought the Dark Knight was just okay. The bigger snub was leaving Wall-E off the Best Picture list but in the end, who cares what the Academy thinks about anything?
Wall-E
GREAT film!!! Loved it. Didn’t give a rats ass about the environmental message. I just love little Wall-E and his collection of junk.
1) Wild Strawberries – Pretty much all of Igmar Bergman’s work except Shame bores me. I know it’s me.
2) l’ Avventura – I loved Antonioni’s Blow-Up, but was so very pointless.
3) Jules et Jim – I love a lot of Truffaut’s work, but I’ve never made it all the way through this one.
4) Breathless (1960) – I liked the Richard Gere version better and it was pretty bad.
5) Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo – the great Dirty Harry and John Nolte say this is a great film, but I just don’t see it.
I am so glad to see that I’m not the only person who can’t take Tarantino. They do feel like they are written by 13-year-olds.
I never saw Fight Club, but I read the book. If it wasn’t required for a college class at the time, I would have burned it. Ugh, ugh, ugh.
And yes, anything with Leonardo DiCaprio – except Catch Me If You Can, which was surprisingly not annoying.
Totally agree with you about 2001 and Raging Bull.
And speaking of DeNiro, New York New York was damn near impossible to stay awake all the way through. Although, I must admit, it was amazing that Robert DeNiro actually learned to play the sax for that part.
Pray tell, WHAT is it that makes every film critic from here to kingdom come name Citizen Kane as the greatest movie of all time? I DON’T GET IT. At all.
The Sorrow and the Pity? I fell asleep. (felt VERY guilty about that)
One old much-celebrated B/W classic that I did like was The Philadelphia Story. Smart writing, great acting. Hits the bull’s-eye on everything.
Guess I’m crazy, but I love Tenenbaums and have seen it probably five or six times—but can’t stand anything else by Wes Anderson!
“American Beauty” – I walked out of this one midway and never looked back. I don’t care if it had an allegedly “terrific” ending. I couldn’t get through the boring beginning and middle.
I didn’t hate “2001″, but I also did not understand why people thought it was so great. I figured maybe it was more impressive when it came out in 1968.
As for Wes Anderson, I have to disagree with you on “The Royal Tenenbaums”. That movie was funny.
Halleujah, someone else who hated Lost In Translation. I rented it with my husband back in the dark ages of the VCR. The tape was stopped about 2/3’s through the movie I thought to myself oh well they didn’t rewind it. We watched and kept waiting for it to be THE BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR. That didn’t happen,finally about an hour and a half in and at exactly the place it was when we took it out of the box,we gave up and watched COPS for the rest of the night. I have always assumed I was just too stupid to get it. But I don’t think that’s true. I think nobody else got it either but they didn’t want to admit it. So everybody just acted like it was the greatest movie since Rushmore.
are you sure you’re at the cool kids’ table ?
[...] Random Feed wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptby John Nolte Friday was a list of films you were wrong about. Here are five I am wrong about. As a matter of fact, I’m so sure I’m wrong in not liking them, they each sit in my DVD collection and have been viewed frequently in the hopes that a repeat viewing will finally reveal what all the fuss is about.But, no. Not yet. Can’t stand any one of them. What am I doing wrong?-2001: A Space Odyssey – Some compare this to watching paint dry, but that’s unfair because w [...]
Donnie Darko and Napolean Dynamite. I’ve never had any movies as built up as these two pieces of life-wasting crap. I really, really don’t understand how so many people can find them “life-changing”. Four hours i’ll never get back…
Jane Campion’s The Piano. Dear GOD what a terrible movie!! Boring, pointless and stupid as can be. Here’s a piano with the surf washing over it on one shot and in the next one it’s all better and in tune no less.
And Harvey Keitel – please for the sake of humanity, put some clothes on.
Titanic. Sink the f—ing boat already and die!
“The Exorcist” has got to be the most overrated movie of all time. It’s about as scary as dryer lint.
Overrated films now, huh? This one will be tough, since I try to avoid overrated films.
1. The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford- Well acted and well filmed, but too long and too much verbal narration (THIS would get me kicked off the cool kids’ table; at least THIS kids’ table).
2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974 version)- Not as scary as has been described. Has its moments, but it’s more repulsive than anything else.
3. Born On The Fourth Of July- The story just isn’t worth watching, no matter how well-acted it is by Tom Cruise as Ron Kovic, or how well filmed it is.
4. Easy Rider- Eye candy for hippies (do I need to elaborate?).
5. Most any musical you can think of- Some of them are good, but on the whole, I’m no fan of the musical genre. Yes, personal bias toward the genre is driving my opinion. The exceptions would be The Sound Of Music, White Christmas & The Pirate.
Will Collier, are you crazy? With The Exorcist, scary and hideous describe it so well!
And to anybody who thinks Spartacus, The Dark Knight & The Maltese Falcon are overrated, you guys are raving lunatics!
[...] with him 100% on that first one. And I like a lot of other Kubrick [...]
By the way, Mr. Nolte, I have a brief critique of your list, so here it is:
With 2001, Raging Bull and anything by Wes Anderson (except for some of The Royal Tenebaums), I haven’t seen them. With The Royal Tenebaums, I haven’t seen enough of it to form an opinion.
As for Vertigo, it’s been long enough since watching it the last time that I’d rather see it again before deciding now on whether or not it’s overrated.
As for The Lord Of The Rings, you couldn’t be more wrong. Fellowship Of The Ring never struck me as episodic, Two Towers is a great middle chapter for this trilogy (which I know you’ll agree), and Return Of The King is an inspirational film worthy of winning all 11 of its Oscar nominations.
I think “Casablanca” and “Citizen Kane” are considered classics because of their impact on the way movies were made. Same for “Vertigo”.
I, too, don’t get the appeal of what Hollywood thinks is humor these days. To me, it’s all juvenile. Although I have to say Adam Sandler did a passable job in “Bedtime Stories”, one of the few Hollywood movies that I didn’t detect an overt agenda-driven message.
“Wall-E” – it was all I could do not to walk out. My kid loved it, but he’s a kid. He doesn’t see the liberal “we hate Wal-Mart and corporate America” stamped over everything. I couldn’t stand the blatant environazi message.
“Titanic” – hated it, although it was worth the ticket price to see the ship sink. My feeling has always been, that if you tell a story from an historic event, tell me something that REALLY HAPPENED! Don’t give me this “rich guy bad, poor homeless guy hero” Socialist crap.
I still measure every movie I see against the worst of all time – “The Unsinkable Shecky Moskowitz” – released on DVD as “Overboard”. So many f-bombs in the first five minutes, we walked out. (We were there because “Batman” was sold out.)
I’ve seen bits and pieces of “Pulp Fiction” and I keep telling myself I should watch it just to see what all the hype was about, but I just haven’t been able to do it yet.
I think Hollywood stopped caring about the crucial STORY part of movies a long time ago. To them, it’s all marketing and merchandise now. Remakes only serve one purpose – to help these baby boomers re-capture their youth and help them ignore the fact that they’re getting old.
I (for one) am glad I sat through 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Had I not, the SCTV version (which I loved) wouldn’t have been nearly as funny.
Is this supposed to be a movie site? Hard to tell with the trashing you see of all these excellent movies. The Godfather like a boring tv movie? Unbelievable.
1) Mystic River. Horribly over-acted. Should have been Movie of the Week on the Lifetime Movie Channel instead of a feature film.
2) Bull Durham. I loves me some baseball. I hates me some skanky Sarandon. She ruins the entire film.
3) Wizard of Oz. I just don’t get it. It’s crappy fantasy in a meaningless story with vapid characters. The books are great, tho.
4) ET. Walked out of this when I was a kid. Sickly sweet in that vapid sentimental style that Mr. Spielberg does so terribly. The movie just has no soul.
5) Saving Private Ryan. See number 4. No soul. Weak characters. Tom Hanks cries.
6) The English Patient. Sound and fury signifying nothing.
7) The Departed. Another lauded movie I don’t get. Just a bunch of technically proficient scenes cobbled together into an incoherent story with incoherent actors portraying characters I couldn’t care less about.
9) Wall-E. Yawn. There must be something wrong with me, but I honestly couldn’t have cared less about that annoying robot. It’s a ROBOT. Just run out of power already. Unplug it. Drain the batteries. Just make it STOP.
10) Rainman. Dustin Hoffman’s most overrated performance, demonstrated by the fact that everyone I knew went around acting JUST like Rainman after it came out. It’s not hard to pretend to be retarded.
11) Forrest Gump. Another movie about nothing. Whimsy. Ovverated acting job be Mr. Hankes (see number 10). A movie I try to forget Gary Sinese was in.
2001 – Overrated, but still worth watching just to say you did…
Raging Bull – Eh… kinda liked it. Can see why others wouldn’t…
Vertigo – Watched it because I was taunted with, “You HAVEN’T SEEN Vertigo?!?” and stopped watching halfway through. Ugh! (*insert “raspberry” sound here*)
But, WHY OH WHY hasn’t anyone mentioned that mindless piece of dreck known as Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven”?!? I rented it because it won the Oscar(R), only to seriously consider asking for my money back. What a waste of time and cellulose.
Mr. Nolte you are absolutely right about 2001. Nothing happens and there is no humanity to it. One thing you didn’t mention, however is how wrong it’s been about the future. Space travel is not common, we have no base on the moon, we are no where near a computer to match HAL, no aliens have contacted us, etc. Watch Solaris…no not the Clooney one, the original. Despite cheap FX, it is ever bit as beautiful to watch as 2001 and even more so in many places and it is all about humanity. Much, much better.
Vertigo is a little overrated, but still very good despite Kim Novak’s acting.
You gotta add Tenenbaums to Rushmore as the only worthy Anderson films. yes, Tenenbaums is in the same “sterile, off-beat” mode as the others, but its so well done…and it has Gene Hackman. Nuff said.
I agree Scorsese is wildly overrated with the exception of Goodfellas. That The Departed and Color of Money are the only Scorcese movies that I actually think are any good at all. (The later two are overrated, but still enjoyable.) I’ve never really thought of it before, but yeah, Scorcese DOES suck. Gangs, Bull, Bringing out the Dead, Casino, Tempation, King of Comedy, Taxi Driver, Aviator…all stink or are wildly, wildly overrated…kinda like his buddy DeNiro…but that’s another post.
LOTR I is the weakest of the trilogy, but that’s like saying Roger Daltrey was the weakest link in The Who…technically it’s true, they each are the weakest, but, damn, if that’s the weakest link, that’s pretty amazing.
My picks:
American Beauty (walked out feeling sick)
Lost In Translation (Seinfeld without the humor)
Raising Arizona (not funny)
There’s Something About Mary (no, there isn’t)
Paul Blart Mall Cop (the suspension of belief can only go so far)
Another movie on my list of “popular, but over-rated movies” is “Boyz in the Hood. Exactly how many times is necessary to use the f-word to convey that street thugs are street thugs? I got that in the first ten times or so and there was no message in this piece of garbage other that street thugs are violent and profane. Of course, the leftists loved it for its “gritty” quality (as long as those types of people don’t invade their heavily fortified McMansion neighborhoods). I go to movies to escape and be entertained, not wallow in the filth of the drug and crime culture.
2001 did not stand the test of time. In it’s day, it was amazing. For the first time, the special effects department were actually able to make a film about space look like it was actually filmed in space. (This was before Star Wars, remember.) So they spent an inordinate amount of time, lingering on those effects. I’m reminded of Thomas Edison, who reportedly sat and stared at the first lightbulb for 36 hours straight.
As for Raging Bull: DeNiro gained 50 pounds for the role. Hollywood is always amazed when a star GAINS weight for a role. From Charlize Theron to Morgan Spurlock, putting on weight is considered a heroic act in the Kingdom of Anorexia.
A Room with a View
Out of Africa
The Bridges of Madison County
What do all three films have in common? They were Looooong, boring, and pointless and boasted all star casts. I suggest we send these to Gitmo while we can and force the inmates to watch them continually. I guarantee we will get more out of them then waterboarding and we will return them to their respective countries so mentally damaged that they will be useless to the terrorists.
Lost in Translation, Little Miss Sunshine, and Juno all won Oscars for original screenplay and they are all unbelievably overrated. Shouldn’t comedies be, I don’t know, funny?
You are not wrong about 2001. I read the book and liked it, but while I was reading, I was thinking, “There is no way that this could be made into a good movie.” And I was right, but I had to see it for myself to realize just how right I was. I made my boyfriend go see the movie with me, and I’m still trying to make it up to him.
You are very wrong on Fellowship of the Ring. That movie was perfect. The casting was good, the right things were cut, and the music leaves me crying every time.
The only one that you make my “The world is right, I’m wrong” list that hasn’t been mentioned here is “American Graffiti.” I don’t think it’s overrated, enough people whose opinions I respect tell me that it is good, but I just don’t get it. I find my mind wandering after the first ten minutes or so, and it never gets my attention back. I eventually came to the conclusion that you had to be alive at that time to appreciate it and moved on with my life.
Four out five is not bad. Need to leave Fellowship of the Ring off the list but other than that it was an agreeable list. In regards to Dark Knight, my teenagers told me how great the movie so many times that by the time I saw it I was underwhelmed. In my opinion, Iron Man was the more enjoyable of the two movies. To each their own. Finally, the Two Towers extended version made that movie far more watchable.
The most outrageously overrated movies are,(in no particular order):
The Maltese Falcon (A gobful of “who cares?”)
Star Wars (Have tried 3 times to watch this, and fell asleep each time.)
Crash (Telling it like it isn’t. Racism Hollywood style.)
8 1/2 (Better than a jarful of Ambien.)
Anything by Ingmar Bergman.
Most underrated/ignored flat out classic: Barry Lyndon
Okay, I have to say that I REALLY liked “Lost in Translation”. It is one of my favorite movies, along with … don’t hit me … “Four Weddings and A Funeral”. *ducking the popcorn thrown at me*.
Maybe because I’ve been to Asia and felt the same way Bill & Scarlett do … so out of place.
Plus, Bill Murray’s one-liners, esp during the scene where he’s being photographed with the whiskey, still make me laugh out loud.
(I like FWAAF because I remember coming out of the theatre laughing and thinking I hadn’t enjoyed a movie in such a long time.)
Ok, hit me.
Every year, there’s so many Oscar-nominated and Oscar-winning films that just plain suck; conversely, there’s plenty of great films that get no recognition at all.
Take a look at last couple years’ films:
Atonement: could not have sucked more.
No Country: Another racist portrayal.
There will be Blood: Another gore-filled portrayal of the old west
Letters from Iwo Jima: Should have beaten the pants off of all the others, especially “The Departed”
2006’s films were even worse. Two homosexual movies, 2 racist movies, and a black and white commie propaganda film.
For the movies mentioned here:
2001: Okay, I liked it, but the last part was completely WTF. It was a good movie until all the weird psychedelic stuff started, then it was like an acid trip.
Raging Bull: I got the point of the movie, but only after someone told me what it was supposed to be. Most of Scorsese’s stuff is at best okay, and not great, although Casino and Goodfellas are 2 of the best gangster/mafia movies ever made.
Vertigo: I agree that it’s not one of Hitchcock’s best, as was The Birds or Psycho, but overall not a bad movie.
I actually liked Life Aquatic, when looked at as a spoof of nature films, documentary productions, and those “Super Science” cartoons that we watched as kids. To me, it was like a live action “Venture Brothers” on the water.
The whole LOTR movie trilogy should be taken together, and not broken up. Peter Jackson took a little extra time to try and develop the characters in LOTR:FOTR because of the sheer size of the books. Remember, that all 3 books put together are about 5″ thick in paperback. You can’t get the whole book put on film, lest the movie run 6 hours or more.
The first film that comes to mind for me in a category like this is American Beauty. I see it’s already mentioned a couple of times. I thought Annette Bening’s open house scene was fantastic, but other than that I wanted my money and time back. Here’s hoping Sam Mendes won’t be so patronizing with Middlemarch.
Total agreement on 2001. I think the reason it’s so highly regarded is that everyone who saw it in 1968 was stoned out of their minds.
However, I will NOT stand for this heresy about my beloved Vertigo. ;0
The biggest problem with Fellowship is that it’s almost all setup. You know you’re not getting anything like a real ending, because there are 6 hours of movie yet to come! Return of the King was very good, but Two Towers is the one that should’ve won Best Picture.
Agreed on Godfather, Scorsese, etc. Once you get past Jimmy Cagney, gangster movies bore me.
The Matrix. Yes, the first one. It sucks so hard, and no, the ground-breaking special effects were not enough to redeem its over-hyped, unoriginal story and completely vapid characters. Great example of a film that takes itself WAY too seriously. I BUSTED UP laughing in the second film, and I was at a preview showing, so I nearly got myself lynched by the rabid crowd. Didn’t bother with the third.
*leaves cool-kids’ table with head held high*
E.T. was the first film that came to mind that I’m supposed to love, but actually loathed. Looks like I have lots of company.
Sleeper came on cable a while back. I think I’m supposed to love anything by Woody Allen, but this film is just stupid beyond belief.
I don’t much care for chick flicks in general. So it’s probably pointless to list all the ones that are supposed to be great that I dislike.
I actually kind of like 2001. Yes, the ending is a bad LSD trip. The trick to enjoying a number of semi-great movies is to know when to turn them off.
The Old Man took me to the SF opening of 2001 (still have the booklet somewheres…) back in ‘68. What I remember most: The amazing (for 1968) graphics, and the Old Man’s snarky comment when Dave climbs into the pod to go rescue his buddy – “Not really the place to forget your hat, pal” (and how true that proved).
for what it’s worth…
Totally agree on 2001, the whole movie is best seen on fast forward. The pseudo-philosophical ending was pure torture. 2010, was considerably better, if still a bit too preachy. Very cool of them to get the Dave Bowman and HAL actors to reprise the roles.
Have to partially disagree on LOTR. For the record: I do not care if anyone dislikes the movies or books, can’t please all the people all the time. I am a fan of the books and enjoyed the movies. There were things I didn’t like in the movies, but they are not the same faults most other people see.
I agree that the first movie was choppy and episodic, but that is because of the source material. The first book was the longest of the three and had the least action. It also meandered into different subplots along the way, some of which were wisely excluded from the movie. That makes it very hard from which to make a movie yet remain faithful to the spirit of the writing, and I give Jackson a lot of credit for the job he did.
What I really like about the first movie has to be taken in context with the whole trilogy. It is the beginning of the tale of three kids from a rural town who thought the world ended at the river’s edge, but become the pivotal soldiers in the final Good vs. Evil showdown. I think it did a good job of portraying the end of their innocence.
That is an important part of the story to me. Most of us in the US have grown up like they did. Most of the big battles and horrors were either long ago or far away, and we live in relative comfort and safety. Rarely do we really understand the sacrifice made by many to keep the Evil at bay unless we somehow get caught up in the fight ourselves.
-rsg
Synopsis of “2001″ as i recall it: monkeys get angry, two hours of waltzes, baby floats in space.
But attacking Vertigo? Great movie in every way, including Novak. Kerr would have been a joke in this role- too upper class by far.
Totally agree with Lord of the Rings and Vertigo. I’m agnostic on Raging Bull. I’m a fan of both Rushmore and Royal Tennenbaums, but agree with your overall premise that Wes Anderson’s unbridled genius needs a bridle. Don’t agree with you on 2001. One of my all time favorites. Still, your column was a fun read. Glad to see other people scratch their heads on Lord of the Rings and Vertigo.
Pirates 1, 2, 3. Pure torture.
I’m pilin’ on!
MYSTIC RIVER- Classic Hollywood take on what life is like for the working class: unrelentingly bleak and miserable.
LOTR 1- Frodo’s in trouble! No wait, he’s okay. Frodo’s in trouble! No, wait, he’s okay.
THERE WILL BE BLOOD- Sole redeeming quality: Gave fratboys something to quote besides Scarface.
And from my personal “Feh” list…
EYES WIDE SHUT- Since when do rich guys have to dress up in cloaks and drive out to someone’s country house just to have sex with models?
[...] Someone I’ve heard of added an interesting post today on Big Hollywood Blog Archive Top 5: Youre Right – Im WrongHere’s a small readingPulp Fiction: seems like it was written by a 12 year old (lots of swearing, smoking, and âoh then we can do this, lets put this in, ooooooh then we can do this too, hold on I have another ideaâ¦!) … [...]
At least drying paint does something? What a perfect analogy for 2001 a snooze odysey.
No country for old men? Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, over? Quite possibly the biggest waste of my time this side of Eyes wide shut.
Oh no, rememberance of all the putrid films I’ve ever sat through are starting to invade my conciousness,,,make it stop,,,make it stop!
My brother calls Fellowship of the Ring ‘a two-hour set-up.’ That’s probably accurate. But I love it anyway. Even if only for the Cave Troll fight…
Love “2001″ and “Vertigo”. “Vertigo” for no other reason than to show what a truly magnificent city San Francisco used to be. And Novak’s rear in that gray suit, walking away from the camera is true beauty we don’t see with today’s twigs passing as actresses. Deborah Kerr-you’re kidding, right?
S.C., I didn’t “get” The Dark Knight, but I thought Two Face was the most interesting part of it—aside from Maggie Gyllenhaal, who is fascinating to look at… Batman himself bothers me, every time I see Christian Bale, I think “damn, that’s a close shave” and flash back to American Psycho. From what I saw, there’s a truly great cable TV series inside of The Dark Knight.
Speaking of Gyllenhaals, Donnie Darko is a good example of how a director can misunderstand his own art. The Director’s Cut destroys all of the ambiguity and weirdness that made the original theatrical version good. Plus Maggie Gyllenhaal is fascinating to look at.
Another stinker: The Bicycle Thief
With most of Wes Anderson’s movies, I noticed it’s usually a love/hate thing.
I pretty much love all of Wes’ films, but I have yet to see “Rushmore”.
Most people think his movies are pretentious, and that only “indie” people like them*, but I enjoy them alot. Especially “The Darjeeling Limited”, that movie has the best cinematography out of any Wes Anderson movie.
*I am not an “indie” person, frankly I hate the use of that term, because if an “indie” film gets great recognition (which most, if not all, good independant movies get) people consider it “mainstream”
Brokeback Mountain – Just flat nasty. I grew up with cowboys, do you know how they smell?
To truly appreciate “2001 A Space Odyssey” you need to have seen it in a theater, in 1968.
Not enough space to list the movies I dislike.
2001 is the only movie I’ve ever watched that actually gave me an honest-to-God headache. I LOATHE this movie, and it I always list it number one if asked for movies I hate.
Others include:
English Patient: I’m with Elaine from Seinfeld on this one–Just Die Already!
Dances with Wolves: I remember watching them advertise it for the first time on television–”with never-before-seen footage”. Are you kidding me? 4 hours wasn’t enough for people? Endless.
The Big Lebowski–never a big Jeff Bridges fan, this one did me in. The fact that my brother-in-law patterns his life after TBL is another story.
There Will Be Blood–most recently viewed hated movie. What a bunch of unlikable characters! We kept thinking that this was one that you needed to have read the book to get anything out of it.
I grew up with cowboys, do you know how they smell?
With their noses?
(ba-da-BUMP!)
Napolean Dynamite is the biggest waste of time out there, yet people talk about it like is comedic gold. It isn’t even iron pyrite.
I am pretty sure they are showing “A Clockwork Orange” on a continuous loop in hell.
Agree with Blake (above me). Napoleon Dynamite was utter rubbish.
I am gonna say it here: Casablanca… eh. Nicole Kidman a good actress? Not so much. Kevin Costner and Keanu Reeves play the same character in every film they have been in. Themselves.
Deep breath in. Deep breath out. I am done.
I love Scorsese. I love “Raging Bull”. But it is vastly overrated. Though visually quite stunning, it only manages to hit one dramatic note. Over and over again. Everyone calls it the best movie of the 80s, but I have yet to hear a cogent reason why, aside from the fact that the 80s set the bar pretty low.
Aside from the monkey sequence, “2001″ has always been on my most hated list. Slow, boring, and, I think, intentionally meaningless.
Because I don’t waste time hating movies with no artistic ambition (reall,y what’s the point of hating Adam Sandler. That’s like hating children’s books), other films from my most hated list include “The Wild Bunch,” “Apocalypse Now,” and anything by Oliver Stone. I also can’t figure out the appeal of “The Searchers”.
I consider myself well-educated, but after reading this list, I’d understand if you didn’t believe me. Here goes my list of movies I think are unimaginably overrated:
1) Moonstruck
Oh gawd. Oh please dear gawd. Shut off the damn projector.
2) Citizen Kane
A Sled. An f’ing sled.
3) Mallrats/Dogma/Anything by Kevin Smith
Humorless black holes, these Smith flicks. Yeah, it’s my generation. And for that, I’m sorry.
4) Out of Africa
Took a date to this when I was 17. The move lasted longer than our relationship.
5) “Harry Potter and the X of Y”
The most unwatchable movie franchise in the history of our solar system. I truly just don’t get how anyone can spend time staring at this collection of images and sounds so utterly pointless and boring. Christian Fundamentalists have nothing to fear from the impressions these crappers may have on children, other than possibly driving them to seek refuge in booze.
When hospitalized for a week, I got so bored I wrote down my favorite one hundred movies on a legal pad.
Anything not on that list is subject to a smell test.
Out of Africa — I hated this movie. Like watching paint dry while listening to someone scrape their nails on a blackboard.
So American Beauty did have competition for the worst best picture.
2001 is a movie to be experienced, not watched. You either get it, or you don’t. It was designed to make mankind look inward and reflect on the symbiosis of man and machine. Being “unlocked” in your consciousness along with a peaceful, quiet environment helps immensely. Watching 2001 with your buddies drinking beer is a guaranteed flop. This is a solo voyage in my opinion.
I saw 2001 at my HS movie night in 1977…I might have understood it better if I was stoned like half the audience.
Glengarry Glen Ross…after the sales meeting in the first 5 minutes, this movie dissolves into the a soul-sucking display of cinematic misery. Could life possibly be more depressing? The reason they never show this movie on television is because suicide rates go up whenever its aired.
Citizen Kane…its “greatness” truly eludes me. I know that every “expert” list includes Kane in their top 10, usually top 1-5, but I don’t get it.
Titanic…I remember a T-shirt of the time “The ship sinks; Leo dies. Get over it!”
Citizen Kane is by far the most over rated movie. The plot drags on and on and the "moral" of the story is predictable. The only reason I watched the entire movie was to find out what or who "rosebud" was.
Out of Africa is pretty terrible too. Not sure why the whole hair washing thing is considered so romantic by so many women. But hey, to each her own.
I also think Monty Python and the Holy Grail is tedious to watch. Hearing people quote is hilarious to me but the actual movie put me to sleep. Go figure.
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