I know it's very polite on internet message boards to act like there are no standards or experts, and that subjectivity is the only way to judge a film, but sometimes subjectivity can be wrong and although you may not personally like a piece of art you need to be able to appreciate its qualities. I know this whole topic is subjective, but some of these should not be up for debate as to whether they are good or bad.
The two I take exception with are Citizen Kane and Vertigo. I don't even know where to start and whether it's worth it, but I can't understand how someone couldn't fathom the mixed opinions of lesser works like Crash or the Lord of the Rings trilogy ( I guess some people love overlong, CGI-overkilled films that are long on scope and short on character), but not see enough of value in certified masterpieces like these two by Orson and Alfred at their peak. Plus, Kane had the exceptional camerawork of Gregg Toland (that alone is worth the price of admission) and they both had the amazing orchestration of Bernard Herrmann that is much superior to Howard Shore's sappy and repetitive score for LOTR.
Anyway, that is my rant and I hope it's not too rude but this is my list:
1.) LOTR trilogy - I seriously believe that once CGI becomes a laughable, obvious device like the rear projection in car-driving scenes in older movies these overpopular geek films will be seen for what they are. Shallow, overlong, and badly paced films that were marketed at the right time to reach a very receptive audience. I really feel that there are a lot of scenes where I am watching an actor read lines off a cue card in front of a green screen. I read the books in my childhood, I "get" the genre, but I feel like half the cast sucks and Peter Jackson is a hack. Just my opinion, but there are plenty like me out here and there is far from a positive consensus on these three.
2. Chasing Amy - really any Kevin Smith movie fits in here for me, but this one seems so overwritten and pretentious in its own slacker/hipster way. The best actors in the world (which Affleck, Lee, and Joey Lauren Adams are clearly not) would have a hard time making that dialogue believable. I think Smith loves the sound of his own words on screen and writes accordingly. Wouldn't watch this again.
3. The Boondock Saints - I really don't know if this is popular everywhere or just in certain regions, but this was recommended to me by everyone and their brother. I had loads of well-intentioned, deluded souls say " Oh, you love Goodfellas, well you will really, really love The Boondock Saints". Well, I really, really hated The Boondock Saints and I think it was Willem Dafoe's worst moment. Very bizarre choices.
4. Happiness - I know that a lot of people think Todd Solondz is brilliant, but I think his movies are mean-spririted, tasteless jokes. Maybe it's because I have children, but I don't find anything funny or tragic for the abuser about pedophilia, I find it repulsive. And can we finally stop on-screen ejaculation in mainstream movies? Just because you can show something on film doesn't mean you should. This and The Squid and The Whale just ruined the rest of the movie with those scenes.
5. Spider-man & Spider-man II - OK, "hate" is way too strong a word for these because there are plenty of films I rate lower than these, but I would never want to see either of these again. I like Sam Raimi's lower budgeted films, but these are way too popular - I got really tired of hearing how they represented the best superhero movies ever. I like the genre when the directors catch some of the wonder and magic of superheros and Raimi missed it. Some of it has to do with casting Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst (neither of whom I think are good actors or even embody the characteristics of Peter Parker and Mary Jane), but a lot of it is because of the non-magical CGI scenes. See Superman & Superman II for examples of great casting and a sense of wonder.
Some of the above opinions I agree with are Godard's boring, pretentious films, Chungking Express, Titanic, Crash and Million Dollar Baby ( their success means Paul Haggis is going to continue to produce obvious, clumsily written, political diatribes), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ( video geek gets to wow people with his bag of tricks and forgets to make a coherent movie), and Ocean's Eleven press junkets. I actually enjoy the first two movies but I absolutely hated the onslaught of publicity these movies got with the stars looking smug and talking (too much) about how they were all best buds and how fun every day of shooting was - with Sir George being such a funny prankster. Get over yourselves, Hollywood actors!