What is the most overrated movie of all time?

[Trivea]

for me it would be any of the three stooges movies. i get physical comedy but the films are just redoing the same thing time and time again and they have dated badly

Agreed. The Three Stooges were a rip-off of the Marx Brothers and I still maintain that the vaudevillian~30's-era comedy is funnier today than anything the Stooges did.

OT: Of current generation movies, Napoleon Dynamite. I mean, seriously, there is nothing funny about that movie. However, of the years and years and years of cinematic development, I have two.

1) Citizen Kane. I get that it's a classic, and yes, it's a good movie, but I don't see what about it makes it stand head and shoulders above Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, any of the classic Hitchcock movies, Harvey, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, To Kill a Mockingbird... what is it about Citizen Kane that makes it the must-see classic movie according to film critics?

2) Night of the Living Dead. Even for the era ('68, I believe?), the effects were terribad, the dialogue was painful, and none of the characters were even remotely likeable so you didn't care when any of them died. And maybe it would have been scary in its day, but it definitely didn't stand the test of time and it's more funny than scary or even gross now.

 

[AwesomeHatMan]

The Avengers gets the hype it gets because it took what would otherwise have been a group of stand alone movie franchises (the same way that Nolan's Batman and Superman Returns (well superman was SUPPOSED to be a franchise) are a part of the same world but have no continuity, and said, you know what screw that... We are going to make this a living breathing world that plays out across various main characters, main villains and main stories, and the Avengers was good... Now was it Citizen Kane? No, it didn't invent some new revolutionary movie making technique, but it did demonstrate that a film that combines a bunch of main characters from other films to create an ensemble cast, can in fact succeed on a level much higher than Freddie vs Jason or AvP.

To be honest the actual movie of the Avengers isn't that great but the idea of the films so far is amazing. Not the movies themselves, but them as a collective. Now I'm a fan of comics in a weird way... the sort that has never owned a comic in their life but watches all the animated tv shows and movies and reading through major plot summaries on Wikipedia. As far as I know the Avengers were not the well known in the general public and they are now known by everyone. I believe, or much rather hope, it is a modern Citizen Kane that redefines cinema because the idea of continuity is so cool. The Avengers has almost caught up to Bond which is insane. They really invested in this and now they have a franchise almost as big as James Bond and are already bigger than Star Wars. That is so surreal to me. I hope this really encourages others (cough DC cough Justice League plz) or even others not in the superhero genre to have a large continuity and really invest themselves in what they do because it makes so much money for them and fans love them. I hope with all my heart it is the new Citizen Kane not by changing cinematography but changing something much more important, which films get made.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Let's just call every popular movie overrated right now and call it a thread, okay?

Well then... Every movie that has ever been loved or appreciated by anyone or anything is the most disgusting overrated piece of garbage ever spawned.

There.

This. Statistically, every movie ever made has probably been considered overrated by at least one person. To be honest, the thread isn't about finding the most overrated movie out there, it's pretty much about listing whatever movie you like the least or hate the most, depending on how strong your feelings are.

So, ignoring the rather facile wording of the original topic, the movie I liked the least has to be Match Point, by Woody Allen. To be fair, I don't get how this guy is viewed as one of the United States' best "auteur" filmmakers, when all the movies he ends up producing tend to focus on an expy of himself that tries to work through its insecurities while courting women. That's coming from a guy who's seen "When Harry Met Sally", "Crimes and Misdemeanours", "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, "Match Point" and a few more.

I still don't like the guy. It's mostly a case of being stuck with parents and friends who snag everything off of the video store's "Comedy" aisle.

Oh, yeah. Woody Allen makes comedies, alright. Comedies in the sense that seeing his overambitious and naive protagonists unravel is supposed to be tragically comic.

I don't have any patience for this kind of stuff. If I want to laugh, I'll find ways to laugh. If I want to contemplate the unfairness and complexity of life, I'll crack open Nietzsche or Plato's Republic.

Woody Allen (to me, at the very least) produces navel-gazing tripe.

 

[Boogie Knight]

Other people stole my thunder, but I have to wonder how someone can get nitpicky about this and that in the Dark Knight yet seem to be just fine with the core concept of a trust fund baby with a tragic past teaming up with Morgan Freeman as Black Q and Michael Cain as Classy British Snarker to solve the issues of rampant street crime and institutional corruption by beating up petty hoodlums with his bare fists and fancy toys... and ninja skillz... going head to head with an anonymous lunatic dressed like a hobo clown.

I used to bristle when things I dislike get hyped and celebrated as great accomplishments, but as I've gotten older I've learned the healing power of not giving a damn. I like what I like, I dislike what I dislike, I don't need validation from people I never met nor do I particularly care when something I loathe is popular because bland, inoffensive things are the definition of mainstream.

 

[Rawberry101]

This is in reply to a few people posting about Stanley Kubrick and his films. I chose not to snip because there is a lot of stuff that's already been covered. Fox12 brought up that Kubrick did a poor job adapting novels into films, and by some definitions that is completely true. From what I've read and seen, which I'd consider a fair amount, Kubrick intentionally chose not to do true adaptations. He used the stories as a form to fill with his own ideas and themes. So yes you are completely correct when you say The Shining is a bad adaptation of the book, Stephen King agrees. Just consider that it wasn't Kubrick's intention to do the film the way King would have wanted.

So if you go to watch a film of his thinking it will be a faithful adaptation you will be disappointed, which I guess happened. Sorry man, yes he ignores the themes of the book, but there are other hidden messages separate from that if you care to watch them again through a different mindset. I can understand thinking these films are bad because you think they are unfaithful adaptations, and you'd be correct. However, to say they are overrated because they don't fit what you WANTED it to be instead of what it IS is a bit unfair. Just some food for thought.

Posters Johnny Novgorod and Casual Shinji brought in some good responses as well. If you can I'd check them out.

Edited for bad grammar :/

 

[Vegosiux]

Pretty much every "blockbuster" with it's accompanying hype and flashiness. I might be getting cynical, but I'm firmly in the "seen it all" territory here. Even if I might actually like some of the high profile stuff, I still find it overrated...

 

[Theflyingass]

Other people stole my thunder, but I have to wonder how someone can get nitpicky about this and that in the Dark Knight yet seem to be just fine with the core concept of a trust fund baby with a tragic past teaming up with Morgan Freeman as Black Q and Michael Cain as Classy British Snarker to solve the issues of rampant street crime and institutional corruption by beating up petty hoodlums with his bare fists and fancy toys... and ninja skillz... going head to head with an anonymous lunatic dressed like a hobo clown.

I used to bristle when things I dislike get hyped and celebrated as great accomplishments, but as I've gotten older I've learned the healing power of not giving a damn. I like what I like, I dislike what I dislike, I don't need validation from people I never met nor do I particularly care when something I loathe is popular because bland, inoffensive things are the definition of mainstream.

They've had 74 years to get used to it.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

Casablanca. I love me a Bogart movie (Key Largo, Big Sleep, African Queen, To Have and Have Not), but Casablanca makes me want to take a nap at my every attempt at watching it. There's nothing really "wrong" with the movie, it's just the steady pacing, the slow jazz music, the smoke filled bar, the flashbacks, just.... *yawn." I need to lie down just thinking about it.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Citizen Kane.

Yes, I said it. It's boring. I haven't seen it in years and have never wanted to, since. Not a fan in the slightest.

This. I don't care if it had revolutionary shots. I care about whether or not it was entertaining or at least had a good story.

 

[WittyInfidel]

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

It's getting to be that time of year where that movie starts to crawl out of the closet and flash its pale bits on various media screens. I just don't like the movie. The plot was ridiculous, the music annoying, and the character acting just atrocious. How it's managed to gain such a cult following is beyond me. But when I mention it to anybody around me, it elects rounds of giggles and singing in off-key.

Please make it stop!

 

[hazabaza1]

the Eagles could've totally flown the Fellowship into Mordor (fuck that "they're a proud race" argument, they did it all the time in The Hobbit).

How about the excuse that they're carrying what is basically a magnet for "evil glowing death light that fucks up your psyche and turns you mentally insane if looked upon for too long" really high in the sky and carrying the ring like that is essentially a death sentence?

[sub][sub]just sayin'[/sub][/sub]

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Woof. The bile in this thread is actually kind of embarrassing to read. A lot of wannabe film critics in here.

I dunno, how do you qualify as "overrated"? Critically overrated? Popularly overrated? Cult overrated? What metric are we to use to determine whether or not something is "overrated"? Undeserving Academy Award winners? Blockbusters that have aged badly? What?

There are popular films that I dislike, but I don't think I'd ever call them "overrated". That implies that my rating of them is the correct one, and their popularity must be ascribed to some kind of error in judgement on the part of the masses. It's so poncy.

However, in the spirit of the thread, I shall play along. Most overrated film of all time on the Escapist is Scott Pilgrim. It's rubbish, and if you liked it that means you like rubbish.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

the Eagles could've totally flown the Fellowship into Mordor (fuck that "they're a proud race" argument, they did it all the time in The Hobbit).

How about the excuse that they're carrying what is basically a magnet for "evil glowing death light that fucks up your psyche and turns you mentally insane if looked upon for too long" really high in the sky and carrying the ring like that is essentially a death sentence?

[sub][sub]just sayin'[/sub][/sub]

I doubt they had much of a psyche to corrupt. Frodo made it to Mordor (barely), I'm sure they could've made it just fine in half that time. He'd still be carrying it anyway, it's not like they're giving it to the eagles. So they would've still needed a distraction to smuggle in the Ring, fair enough. But walking aaaaaaaall the way wasn't the best plan they could've gone with.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

*Reads comments*

This is all I can see.

I wouldn't really know what I consider to be incredibly over-rated, really.

I would suppose general oscar bait is over-rated, most especially so The Artist, A Beautiful Mind, The King's Speech, just to name a few.

 

[TheScottishFella]

The Godfather. I'm sorry, it's just so crushingly dull and boring. I eventually just gave up on the film.

 

[hazabaza1]

the Eagles could've totally flown the Fellowship into Mordor (fuck that "they're a proud race" argument, they did it all the time in The Hobbit).

How about the excuse that they're carrying what is basically a magnet for "evil glowing death light that fucks up your psyche and turns you mentally insane if looked upon for too long" really high in the sky and carrying the ring like that is essentially a death sentence?

[sub][sub]just sayin'[/sub][/sub]

I doubt they had much of a psyche to corrupt. Frodo made it to Mordor (barely), I'm sure they could've made it just fine in half that time. He'd still be carrying it anyway, it's not like they're giving it to the eagles. So they would've still needed a distraction to smuggle in the Ring, fair enough. But walking aaaaaaaall the way wasn't the best plan they could've gone with.

Yeah and walking all that way with a distraction Frodo got looked at for like 5 seconds and nearly gave in. The eagles would be in the wide open air with no cover and that Sauron light is a big fucker. Chances are it could shine on the eagle carrying whoever has the ring and the ring bearer. Both of them would be mind raped by the time they entered Mordor.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

the Eagles could've totally flown the Fellowship into Mordor (fuck that "they're a proud race" argument, they did it all the time in The Hobbit).

How about the excuse that they're carrying what is basically a magnet for "evil glowing death light that fucks up your psyche and turns you mentally insane if looked upon for too long" really high in the sky and carrying the ring like that is essentially a death sentence?

[sub][sub]just sayin'[/sub][/sub]

I doubt they had much of a psyche to corrupt. Frodo made it to Mordor (barely), I'm sure they could've made it just fine in half that time. He'd still be carrying it anyway, it's not like they're giving it to the eagles. So they would've still needed a distraction to smuggle in the Ring, fair enough. But walking aaaaaaaall the way wasn't the best plan they could've gone with.

Yeah and walking all that way with a distraction Frodo got looked at for like 5 seconds and nearly gave in. The eagles would be in the wide open air with no cover and that Sauron light is a big fucker. Chances are it could shine on the eagle carrying whoever has the ring and the ring bearer. Both of them would be mind raped by the time they entered Mordor.

"Sauron light"? Are we talking about proper book Sauron or lighthouse movie Sauron?

 

[Hagi]

For me, Schindler's List.

Mainly because of the portrayal of Schindler. In the movies he's basically put down as some sort of half god. Capable of seducing any woman and charming any German officer. Rich, handsome, dedicated to saving everyone from the Nazi regime. Which really makes the movie rather dull and boring. Of course he's going to save everyone, he's basically portrayed as Superman. Of course he's going to do the right thing, he's the perfect guy everyone in the audience is imagining they'd be and act as.

And then in the credits they tell me about a man who couldn't keep any of his businesses afloat. Who couldn't manage his marriage to his wife. Who seemed to be a troubled man but still managed to save a lot of people and do a lot of good. I'd have loved to see a movie about that guy, would probably have been interesting. Instead I got a movie about a god among mere men who, naturally, did some good and saved a few people.

 

[hazabaza1]

the Eagles could've totally flown the Fellowship into Mordor (fuck that "they're a proud race" argument, they did it all the time in The Hobbit).

How about the excuse that they're carrying what is basically a magnet for "evil glowing death light that fucks up your psyche and turns you mentally insane if looked upon for too long" really high in the sky and carrying the ring like that is essentially a death sentence?

[sub][sub]just sayin'[/sub][/sub]

I doubt they had much of a psyche to corrupt. Frodo made it to Mordor (barely), I'm sure they could've made it just fine in half that time. He'd still be carrying it anyway, it's not like they're giving it to the eagles. So they would've still needed a distraction to smuggle in the Ring, fair enough. But walking aaaaaaaall the way wasn't the best plan they could've gone with.

Yeah and walking all that way with a distraction Frodo got looked at for like 5 seconds and nearly gave in. The eagles would be in the wide open air with no cover and that Sauron light is a big fucker. Chances are it could shine on the eagle carrying whoever has the ring and the ring bearer. Both of them would be mind raped by the time they entered Mordor.

"Sauron light"? Are we talking about proper book Sauron or lighthouse movie Sauron?

Movie.
This is a thread about movies after all, I didn't think we were bringing in things that happens in books to talk about movie logic.

 

[Gearhead mk2]

Blade Runner. The pacing was way too slow and long, the main theme of what makes us human was under explored, the ending cuts off without giving any hints to the question of who's real and who's a robot, and NOTHING IS EVER EXPLAINED.