MOST OVER-PRAISED MOVIES of the last 25 years (1981-2006)
Nov 03 '06
The Bottom Line I slaughter some of the over-praised sacred cows and give some reasons why.
It’s time for me to slaughter some sacred cows that have been over-praised by a growing cult audience for far too long. Many of these movies divide audiences and are not seen as universally accepted great movies—although a few have been so grossly over-praised for so long, they make it to the top of best loved movie lists all the time.
A lot of these movies ARE worth seeing and some are even above average movies you may want to own and watch more than once—but they still fall far short of deserving all of the praise and accolades they have received.
Several listed here are derivative of other better movies that people need to go back and take a look at before they start proclaiming a movie a masterpiece. In some cases there are excellent movies that cover the same or similar ground as what is being overly-praised, but the better movies are not as well known.
Most of these movies are above average and though I’m cutting some down to size, if you happen to really like it—that’s okay. In some cases I dare you to see some of the movies I suggest and then see your fave movie again.
10. Requiem for a Dream
I really don’t mind style over substance movies, but when folks decide certain films are very important and meaningful and then throw around the m word as in masterpiece and start calling films GREAT, it’s time to stop the party. This movie is a ‘just say no’ mix of creative and sometimes silly far-out ideas and dressed up cliché’s. Ellen Burstyn and the monster fridge are kind of neat, other aspects are less so. My full on review is here:
http://www1.epinions.com/content_268804853380
9. Videodrome:
Here’s a daring taboo breaking movie that gets more credit than it deserves. I like many things in the movie, but ultimately it is a failure and you have to make so many allowances and read so much more into the movie than is actually there, I have found a spot for it on my over-praised list. Details right here: http://www.epinions.com/content_273451290244
8. The Game
&
7. Memento :
Two gimmick movies that are botched exercises in style. The Game has an interesting premise, but it wants to be a mainstream movie so bad it throws out logic and makes the main character do ‘stupid’ things in order for it to work. At one point the main character played by Michael Douglas could and should make one phone call fairly early on which would have tipped him off to what is going on or forced the filmmakers to have written an additional scene or two that might have improved the movie. Instead, like so many mediocre b-movies, a character does illogical and dumb things to further a questionable premise and artificial problem that keeps the film going. And oh.. that ending? You buy that? Really?
Memento is all style and it sets up a ridiculous artificial far-fetched premise. The movie does create it’s own rules and universe and is fairly consistent. It would have made a good half hour Twilight zone, maybe even an hour. It’s dragged out and far too artificial to be embraced by so many as a great film. A lot of people found the movie very annoying. If you want to see a strange movie that creates its own rules but for me works from start to finish without pledging allegiance to a completely false artificial premise watch David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. It is infinitely superior to this over-praised film.
6. Magnolia
Oh the pain and agony that is this 3 hour and 15 minute movie. It features one of Tom Cruise’s best performances (he plays a completely jerky egotist with a penis size obsession and only has a couple of scenes). Actually there are several excellent performances in the movie, but most of the writing is overly melodramatic. Several great performances in the movie Robards, Hoffman, Macy, but it’s a mess. The movie tries to be a Robert Altman film and fails. It also features scenes where thousands of frogs drop from the heavens… because biblical plagues are like awesome, dude.!!! I can understand how people can like parts of this movie but how anyone can embrace all of it, I’ll never understand. Great Amie Mann soundtrack.
5. Almost Famous
The movie was hyped as a very close to the truth autobiographical tale of Cameron ‘Jerry McGuire, Fast Times at Ridgemont High)Crowe’s rise to fame as a Rolling Stone music writer when he was just a teenager. There’s some funny lines and enjoyable performances. Should have been a good movie but the Cop out ending, overly homogenized and packaged cleaned up P.C. version of Almost Cameron's life on the rock and roll road is often forced, phony, full of itself AND with gag inducing whimsy too. A 3 star movie that is rated nearly 5 stars by far too many people. Read my intentionally long review right here: http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-7BB1-14AB319A-39CEF785-prod3
4. Natural Born Killers
Yes, I know it’s a movie that divides people and you can’t say that even a majority of critics and movie-goers embraced it and held it up high, but far too many people INSIST this is a daring brilliant movie. First off it’s not particularly original. A good movie that covers the same territory as this one is called Man Bites Dog, see that movie before you start praising N B K. a similiarly themed movie that is better and less pretentious is called; Series 7: The Contenders . These two flicks deserve to be better known than they Stone’s everything but the kitchen sink messy stink-lo-rama of a movie. The best idea and scene in the movie is how a horrific childhood is shown as a sit-com with Rodney Dangerfield. A truly tasteless idea is showing movies of Nazi concentration camps on the hotel television screen—just as something to throw in there. The movie will likely give you a migraine. For good Oliver Stone movies check out:: Platoon, and Salvador. Praise those instead.
3. The English Patient
Oh how I despise this insipid tear-jerker of a movie that features a cast of wonderful actors, but realism and logic comes and go and we are left with a movie that insists it is romantic and important, but for me, I would rather sit through LOVE STORY with Ali McGraw and Ryan O’Neal again and repeat it’s Mantra: Love is never having to say you are Sorry or live in a cave with…..an English Patient..
2. Shawshank Redemption
It is NOT a terrible movie, but it is on this list because so many people insist it is a great movie. In fact it tops lists as one of the best movies every made. It’s an above average movie with some very likeable charismatic performances and I like it, but putting it up on a pedestal like it has been gives it a much deserved spot on my most over-praised movies of all time list. It’s an audience pleasing melodramatic movie that features cliché’s that have been appearing in prison movies since the 1930s. (Check out Big House (1930) and one of Spencer Tracy’s earliest movies: Up the River 1930 or his 20,000 Years in Sing Sing from 1932 : Everything old can be made to seem to be new again, but it doesn’t make it GREAT.
Most Grossly Over-Praised Movie of the Modern era?
1. Blade Runner :
Oh no. You’re kidding. How could I!!! Surely I can’t be serious in putting this movie on this list and daring to call it the most over-praised movie of all time.
First: the original theatrical version of this movie included the absolutely insipid and poorly written voice-over so that Harrison Ford becomes an update of Humphrey Bogart’s Sam Spade or Phillip Marlow character from Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep. This was done because in a few test screenings, the audience was confused regarding some of the plot points in the movie. That’s right, Director Scott gave in and instead of trusting the audience he condescended to the masses—who incidentally were not interested in seeing a dark pessimistic movie set in the near future. It was a box office failure and deserved to be. Second: Several years later he got rid of the voice over narration and did a longer cut which he hyped as being much better than the theatrical film and then a few years later he decided he didn’t like his directors cut and did a second directors cut of the movie !!!!
So which version of the movie is everyone falling all over themselves saying is brilliant anyway? The 113 minute original U.S. Version? The 117 minutes more violent European Version? the 1992 116 minute directors cut without the voice over and awful ending? The rarely seen 2000/2001 Ridley Scott re-do ?
The look of the film is perhaps brilliant. The set and production design and some of the special effects are superb. The parts of the stories that used ideas directly from Phillip K. Dick are always very good. But too much of the film is set up like an action horror film. Some of these scenes look great and are even exciting, but they are the stuff of fun visceral action and horror movies.
The movie found a large enthusiastic cult audience on video. They over-looked what was mediocre about the movie and embraced the good parts. Then director Scott re-cut the movie and threw out the narration and the awful corny ending. It WAS an improvement. More people decided this movie was indeed a masterpiece at that point (Scott actually announced he was unhappy with his directors re-cut and fought the producers to try and re-do the movie again—but they did not officially let him do this).
The truth is, they had a great technical team creating a superb look for this movie and they blew it by trying to turn Phillip K. Dick’s short story: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep into a futuristic action horror movie. Director Ridley Scott claimed he did not read the short story. Lots of good parts, but not a good movie and Waaaaay too many people insist it’s a masterpiece.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
ChrisJarmick
|
 - Top 50 |
|
Member: Chris Jarmick
Location: Seattle
Reviews written: 573
Trusted by: 176 members
About Me:
With or-w/o hat,writing quality reviews,encouraging-others-to-do likewise-since-the-'50's.
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.