Top 5

Top 5 Overrated Movies

1. The Shawshank Redemption

2. The Usual Suspects

3. Amelie

4. Forrest Gump

5. Braveheart

I enjoy all of these to some degree (especially Braveheart, which is deeply un-good in some ways)...but let's be honest...these aren't great films.

Who disagrees with me?

I was prompted to post this by the Most Overrated Movies group.

Re:Top 5 Overrated Movies

SkyPilot:

 

3. Amelie

 

Boooooooooo!!!

I love this one and everything else by Juenet. The rest of the list I can't disagree with but mine would look more like:

1. Platoon - Hamburger Hill was better........... trust me.

2. Goodfellas/Casino/Taxi Driver - I didn't really get into a Scorsese film until The Departed. These others were OK, but that's about it. If it weren't for Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese would be the most overrated director.

3. Shakespeare In Love - this was when I stopped watching or caring about the Oscars

4. Gladiator - see No. 3 - And I actually liked Black Hawk Down better for a Ridley Scott film.

5. Shawshank Redemption - This one was clever but c'mon. No. 1 on IMDB's top 250 list is just ridiculous.

Re:Top 5 Overrated Movies

leeroy711:

SkyPilot:

3. Amelie

Boooooooooo!!!

I love this one and everything else by Juenet. The rest of the list I can't disagree with but mine would look more like:

1. Platoon - Hamburger Hill was better........... trust me.

2. Goodfellas/Casino/Taxi Driver - I didn't really get into a Scorsese film until The Departed. These others were OK, but that's about it. If it weren't for Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese would be the most overrated director.

Of the three Jeunet films I've seen, I've liked Amelie the least. My favorite by him is Delicatessen.

I'll have to see Hamburger Hill. I think part of why I like Platoon so much is that I watched it with my dad when I was 13. I wonder if love of the film is a coming-of-age, nostalgia thing for a lot of dudes?  Like someone insisting Little Monsters is great, but they haven't seen it in sixteen years.

Wow, Scorsese the 2nd-most overrated director ever! I agree that Goodfellas and Casino are just good gangster movies at best, and The Departed knocks the lining out of 'em both.

On the other hand, even though I don't love Taxi Driver--and I don't even particularly enjoy it--when I've watched it (twice), I've had this sensation that something new was happening. Like the "You talkin' to me scene," the date with Cybil Shepherd, the meal with Jodie Foster--there's something there for me, something raw and real and scary. 

Re:Top 5 Overrated Movies

SkyPilot:

1. The Shawshank Redemption

2. The Usual Suspects

3. Amelie

4. Forrest Gump

5. Braveheart

 

I enjoy all of these to some degree (especially Braveheart, which is deeply un-good in some ways)...but let's be honest...these aren't great films.

Who disagrees with me?

I was prompted to post this by the Most Overrated Movies group.

Booo on all except Braveheart.  Sheesh, SkyPilot, you nearly made me faint. 

But, as with the OverRated group, I have to ask how we define overrated?  Amelie and The Shawshank Redemption have had slow momentum getting to any type of "overrated" status, if they can truly be called that (I never called Shawshank "great," but it's a good movie, and Amelie is loads of charming and French, what do you want?).  Forrest Gump you could argue, since it won Best Picture, but I feel this movie is sorely misunderstood and, in some ways, completely underrated by the naysayers.  And The Usual Suspects may not hold up to repeat viewings once the viewer knows the ending, and may not have the best acting ensemble outside of Kevin Spacey, but the movie's brilliant because of Kev's performance and the truly original twisty plot.

Re:Top 5 Overrated Movies

leeroy711:

SkyPilot:

 

3. Amelie

 

Boooooooooo!!!

I love this one and everything else by Juenet. The rest of the list I can't disagree with but mine would look more like:

 

1. Platoon - Hamburger Hill was better........... trust me.

2. Goodfellas/Casino/Taxi Driver - I didn't really get into a Scorsese film until The Departed. These others were OK, but that's about it. If it weren't for Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese would be the most overrated director.

3. Shakespeare In Love - this was when I stopped watching or caring about the Oscars

4. Gladiator - see No. 3 - And I actually liked Black Hawk Down better for a Ridley Scott film.

5. Shawshank Redemption - This one was clever but c'mon. No. 1 on IMDB's top 250 list is just ridiculous.

leeroy, I think you are harsh on Scorsese, and he didn't only make those three flicks prior to the Departed.  In the land of overrated for Scorsese, I submit Gangs of New York and The Aviator.  I hate them, and they were nominated a million times for a million awards (and were some in the long line of Scorsese's no-Oscar curse).

Though, I totally agree with Gladiator (also doesn't hold up to repeat viewings) and Shakespeare in Love.  I was hot when the latter won Best Picture thanks to the alpha-campaignig of the Weinsteins.  Saving Private Ryan is a much better film, and I personally and generally prefer romances to war movies any day, but come on.

And now I see why Shawshank might be considered overrated  Ok, I concede on that point, but I'm with leeroy on Amelie.

Re:Top 5 Overrated Movies

SkyPilot:

 

Of the three Juenet films I've seen, I've liked Amelie the least. My favorite by him is Delicatessen.

I'll have to see Hamburger Hill. I think part of why I like Platoon so much is that I watched it with my dad when I was 13. I wonder if love of the film is a coming-of-age, nostalgia thing for a lot of dudes?  Like someone insisting Little Monsters is great, but they haven't seen it in sixteen years.

I think you're on to something there. I can definately attribute the beginning of my love affair with the Coen Bros. films to when my Dad took me to see Fargo in the theater.

SkyPilot:

Wow, Scorsese the 2nd-most overrated director ever! I agree that Goodfellas and Casino are just good gangster movies at best, and The Departed knocks the lining out of 'em both.

On the other hand, even though I don't love Taxi Driver--and I don't even particularly enjoy it--when I've watched it (twice), I've had this sensation that something new was happening. Like the "You talkin' to me scene," the date with Cybil Shepherd, the meal with Jodie Foster--there's something there for me, something raw and real and scary. 

All the Scorsese films I mentioned have one thing in common: I felt the pacing was way too slow and they build up to an ending that is very unsatisfying. In fact, now that I think about it, Gangs of New York was pretty much the same experience for me. If a film's going to be that long winded, it should do a better job of wowing you to complete the story in the end.

I will say that The Departed was obviously his best work, and it took me about a year and a half to finally decide that I should watch it.

Re:Top 5 Overrated Movies

pippin06:

leeroy, I think you are harsh on Scorsese, and he didn't only make those three flicks prior to the Departed.  In the land of overrated for Scorsese, I submit Gangs of New York and The Aviator.  I hate them, and they were nominated a million times for a million awards (and were some in the long line of Scorsese's no-Oscar curse).

 

I referred to those three because they are all on IMDB's top 250 list and I just don't see why. And I think I'm still pissed at him because in 1999 I actually spent good money to see Bringing Out The Dead in the theaters. Great directors don't make movies like that.

On a side note: I think the very following week, at the same theater, I paid the same good money to see Eye of the Beholder......................... That was a bad month.

Re:Top 5 Overrated Movies

SkyPilot:

leeroy711:

SkyPilot:

3. Amelie

Boooooooooo!!!

I love this one and everything else by Juenet. The rest of the list I can't disagree with but mine would look more like:

1. Platoon - Hamburger Hill was better........... trust me.

2. Goodfellas/Casino/Taxi Driver - I didn't really get into a Scorsese film until The Departed. These others were OK, but that's about it. If it weren't for Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese would be the most overrated director.

Of the three Juenet films I've seen, I've liked Amelie the least. My favorite by him is Delicatessen.

I luke Jeunet too, and Delicatessen is also my favorite.  And I do think Amelie is a good movie, but the reason why I would agree that it is overrated is because every person who would normally never seen a foreign film ends up seeing Amelie somehow and and declares it their favorite foreign movie.  If you look at the structure, it's really a foreign movie designed for American sensibilities in what they think a good foreign movie should be.

Re:Top 5 Overrated Movies

leeroy711:

I referred to those three because they are all on IMDB's top 250 list and I just don't see why. And I think I'm still pissed at him because in 1999 I actually spent good money to see Bringing Out The Dead in the theaters. Great directors don't make movies like that.

OOOOOOOH, I only wish I had gone to see Bringing Out The Dead at the theater on that one fateful day instead of going ot see Happy, Texas instead!!!

...sorry long story

Top 5 overrated movies: Why do I have to be a drag?

I was just talking with porcupine and I realized something really important about my original list, which is:

1. The Shawshank Redemption

2. The Usual Suspects

3. Amelie

4. Forrest Gump

5. Braveheart

I'm critiquing the overrating of the films, more than I'm critiquing these films themselves.

What the heck does that mean? It means I've heard so many Americans say these are the best films ever that I can't ignore it anymore. I've heard so many Americans say these are exceptional films that I start wondering if that says something about America, or at least the people I know.

The Shawshank Redemption and The Usual Suspects ultimately get off easy with me. I think they're pretty good films, but I put them at the top because I don't understand why these particular flicks are infinitely more popular than other films. Any ideas?

And wow, Braveheart. How many of you have heard William Wallace portrayed as the pinnacle of integrity? I'm not saying Wallace is all bad, but I'm interested in looking closely at the heroes that cultures venerate. I think that in general a hero's values reflect the values of the culture (why else would the character become a hero?).

My beef with Amelie--a pretty good movie--has more to do with a particular kind of overrating I mentioned earlier in this discussion. In other words, I dislike Amelie's ending, but I dislike the ending with a passion only because I've heard Amelie called a great love story.  When I look at the film through the 'love story' lens, I don't like what I see. I'm not sure about my motivations for this, but when I feel like I'm supposed to celebrate the romantic relationship of two characters, and I'm not convinced the relationship has anything beyond warm fuzzies...I get unnerved. I don't think Amelie says nothing about relationships. How are relationships portrayed in it?

Dang, I can be such a drag sometimes! I think I want to talk about some under-rated movies next.