The Completely Overrated Film Thread

[Adam D]

First topic message reminder :

I might have done this before but its been spawned by a comment made by Serial Dave on another thread.

This thread is dedicated to the films that are seemingly universally loved but you just either don't get or think are just awful.

So my three opening nominations for the most overrated films ever are:

I dont like lamp:

I will vote for someone else:

C'mon Dude:

[superflyweight]

Mad Max Fury Road - it's only all right and I managed a nap of around 20 minutes during it.

Have seen all kinds of ridiculous chat about how it should be winning awards.

[Hulking_up]

American Sniper. The bloke isn't even a sniper.

wut?
You haven't even seen the film have you? At least google Chris Kyle.

[Mind the windows Tino.]

American Sniper.  The bloke isn't even a sniper.

wut?
You haven't even seen the film have you?  At least google Chris Kyle.

He isn't a sniper. Ask Hammersmith Harrier. He'll tell you.

[seanmichaels]

Apocalypse Now is rubbish. Not enough fighting, war films should be about blowing up sh!t

[Galted]

Apocalypse Now is rubbish. Not enough fighting, war films should be about blowing up sh!t

Worrying sharing a film-related opinion with michaels but it is rubbish.  Not sure a war film needs lots of fighting, Jarhead was pretty good for example, but Apocalypse Now is crap.

[SecretFly]

Apocalypse Now is crap?

Dear Lord, Rockin' Roll is well and truly dead. Not enough Narrative 'ARCS' I guess for the soap'n'boxset generation????
Where was the back story on Kurtz's on-again, off-again relationship with his half sister who never could get on with their alcoholic father innit???? Too right - not enough context backstory!

Anyway, a truly over-rated movie AND actor - Daniel Day Lewis and Lincoln. I seem to have a wonderful radar for avoiding crap that passes for Greatness at the time of making. I only saw Lincoln for the first time on TV last week.

Mumbling, muttering junk. Spielberg spent more time waiting for the lighting man to get Daniel's shadowy contours right than he spent telling Daniel to stop being so painfully pious about a man who didn't know he was so famous yet. Stop being so tight-assed about every character you portray, Daniel. They ain't all Hamlet.

Hal Holbrook, Sally Field and James Spader act Day-Lewis off the stage - Spader being a real delight.

[Guest]

Star Wars VII - apparently not being as sh!t as the previous three films is somehow justification for w*nking our collective selves silly.

WTF has Carrie Fisher done to her face, she's unrecognizable, at least Ford and Hamill had the decency to age, if not actually gracefully...watching Ford running away from Stormtroopers was cringeworthy. The young black lad was a bit of a fish out of water, found him as annoying as Michael B Jordan in Creed and wanted him to get shot, or kidnapped. Kylo Ren was ok until he took his mask of and then it look and sounded like Napoleon Dynamite and Kick-Ass had had a baby together which, along with the annoying EMO-esque "I've got Daddy issues" was enough to put me off. Oh and Andy Serkis does his Golem thing....AGAIN! Boooooring!!!!!!

On the plus side, Daisy Ridley was very good...and Chewbacca hasn't aged a day!!!

[SecretFly]

I second Dave's tally on Star Trek V11!  Never in the entire Galaxy was so much money pumped into so many cardboard sets and they still managed to look like Blue Peter painted cardboard sets.  Congratulations, that took some doing.  The cardboard BOXES too that passed for certain space ships (and landers!!!) - it was laughable.  
"We need a craft that will take Princess Leia to the surface of the planet - anybody got ideas?"
"How about a shoebox with sticky back plastic doors??"

[Galted]

Apocalypse Now is crap?

Dear Lord, Rockin' Roll is well and truly dead.  Not enough Narrative 'ARCS' I guess for the soap'n'boxset generation????
Where was the back story on Kurtz's on-again, off-again relationship with his half sister who never could get on with their alcoholic father innit????  Too right - not enough context backstory!

Nope, according to michaels there wasn't enough blowing things up.

According to me it's a glorified music video that takes itself too seriously.

[Rowley]

I don't mind Apocalypse Now but it is not quite as glorious as many would have you believe. The pacing is disjointed, the best scenes come about an hour into the film with the helicopter attack and Robert Duvall stealing the film. Brando replacing acting with mumbling in the last hour or so, which is a good half hour longer than it needs to be.

Both of the first Godfathers pee all over it with regard to Coppola films, and if I was to be honest The Conversation does as well.

[Galted]

I don't mind Apocalypse Now but it is not quite as glorious as many would have you believe. The pacing is disjointed, the best scenes come about an hour into the film with the helicopter attack and Robert Duvall stealing the film. Brando replacing acting with mumbling in the last hour or so, which is a good half hour longer than it needs to be.

Both of the first Godfathers pee all over it with regard to Coppola films, and if I was to be honest The Conversation does as well.

Agree quite heftily with the last line. The Conversation is quite a gem but then so is everything with Jon Cazale. Have to admit I quite enjoy Apocalypse Now as well, it's just not really a movie.

[SecretFly]

Godfathers.... not quite as glorious as many would have you believe - glorified cheese-wire demonstration videos that took themselves too seriously.  Brando replacing acting with cotton mouth mumbling and Robert Duvall stealing the films as the only non-frowning, non-Italian sane idiot in the over-acted, overly-plotted, overly Pacinoised psycho-circus.

BTW, Apocalypse Now didn't take itself too seriously.  Most of the cast and crew were always too high to even know any of them were on the same planet much less that they were making a serious movie.  
High, whacky and mad 1970s art....just like the real Vietnam War was for many veterans who smoked too much and experienced the horrors of a hot and steamy war whilst high as kites.  

It's true, it couldn't be made now.  Too many fans would want a new Franchise where Kurtz would be found alive and would have become good, and would be fighting the good fight against North Korea with the guidance of his father in Krypton and a little helping hand from a jive-talking Tony Stark, who has been exiled from Gotham City by SpiderBatMan and his sidekick WonderBra

[Guest]

Apocalypse Now Redux was even worse. That scene where they're dining with the French family...WTF? Best thing about Apocalypse Now is knowing Martin Sheen had a mental breakdown and heart attack and that he seriously hurt himself punching that mirror.

Actually, the best thing about Apocalypse Now is knowing that I don't ever have to watch it again if I don't have to

[SecretFly]

Dave, Dave...................... we have a job on. Don Corleone says we gotta drive to Chicago to talk with a guy who ain't paying his dues, you know what I mean. We have to motivate him a little.......................

.......................em, let's take your car................... you sit up front...................... I'll sit behind you....

[Guest]

It insists upon itself Lois, it insists upon itself.

[Adam D]

The big lebowski
Barton fink

[Galted]

The big lebowski
Barton fink

Give him the suitcase in a skip treatment, DAVE. But cut some of his favourite fingers off first.

[SecretFly]

Citizen Kane....

that actually has to be the most overrated movie of all time, given that it constantly is mentioned as being the Greatest. It's not the Greatest by a long shot so I guess it's the most over-rated.

[guildfordbat]

Righty ho, three films from down the years that are much admired but not really by me.

1. Citizen Kane (1941)
Orson Welles' film is often now cited as a masterpiece and the greatest of all time but less than captivating and a bit pretentious in my book. Lost out at that year's Oscars as best picture to the worthy but never brilliant How Green Was My Valley - think that remains a fair judgment on Citizen Kane although that decision is held in contempt by many film experts.

...

SecretFly - yep. I gave Citizen Kane a shout early doors.

[SecretFly]

Sorry about that repeat, guildford. Glad there are a few of us

I actually love a lot of Orson's stuff...often edging so close to surreal but when I finally got around to seeing Citizen Kane, I realised my instincts were right again in holding off for quite a while in actually bothering to look at it.

[dyrewolfe]

My nominations are:

Spaceballs:
I remember finding it quite amusing as a kid, but the overly-literal schoolboy humour hasn't aged well...at all.

Paranormal:
Got lots of hype and advertising, but turned out to be a giant steaming turd of a borefest - you only needed to watch the last 20 minutes or so to understand what the entire film was about. You can lump Insidious and other similar films in with this one.

The Bourne Legacy:
A very weak attempt at stretching out the franchise. Couldn't bring myself to care about any of the characters. I thought the first three were quite watchable.

Cloverfield:
Ugh! Just...awful. Annoying, whiny, self-absorbed characters who were still more concerned about their various relationship issues even in midst of an alien invasion. I actually wanted them all to die horribly. Similar feelings about Skyline. Actually thought Battle: Los Angeles was pretty good though.

The A Team:
Sad really - this one should have been a favourite of mine. It had the right ingredients - a good cast, a decent story, but for me it was only ever okay. Think it focused too much on the action / stunts and not enough on the characters. Maybe growing up with the original TV series gave me too many preconceptions / prejudices?

Star Trek:
For me all the good stuff happens in the first half of the film, where you see all the characters and how they end up serving together on the Enterprise. All that guff about an angry time-travelling Romulan miner has to be one of the worse ST plots committed to film. Actually, while I'm at it, the original movie sucked pretty badly as well - way too much time given over to dodgy visual effects and strange noises...only to have them discover an ancient space probe at the end.

300:
Not much good to say about this one. Everything about it was just overblown and too in-your-face for my liking. I like historical epics to have at least a bit of subtlety and intelligence. Only good to watch if you're drunk or having a guy's night in or something. Great for internet memes though...

[Galted]

Cloverfield:
Ugh! Just...awful. Annoying, whiny, self-absorbed characters who were still more concerned about their various relationship issues even in midst of an alien invasion. I actually wanted them all to die horribly. Similar feelings about Skyline. Actually thought Battle: Los Angeles was pretty good though.

I thought Cloverfield was brilliant.  You're right when you say that the characters are annoying, whiny and self-absorbed but that's how rich and good-looking twenty-somethings are.  As for wanting them to die horribly, they did.  F*ck them.

[Guest]

Managed about 30 minutes of that film before nausea took over. Found it incredible that in this modern age of filming every single f*cking thing that happens and uploading it to wherever the f*ck this pointless sh!t goes, in the midst of what appears to be an attack by monsters/aliens, the camera isn't focused on them and HELD STILL (you c*nt)

For over-rated b*ll*cks you still can't beat "The Blair Witch Project" though

[Rowley]

The Hurt Locker, everyone raved about it at the time but with a few years distance it must surely rank as the worst winner of the best picture Oscar ever. There is no film there, a few well executed, tense scenes, a decent performance by Renner and that is it, no storyline, no apparent point being made, nothing. Baffling the praise and awards lavished on it.

[SecretFly]

It was a female director!

They gotta keep handing those Oscars to a different assortment of folks each and every year or else the endless talkshows and Entertainment Bloggers got nothing to talk about. They certainly don't want to be having to talk about boring movies for three months. They need their 'angles'.

Next year it's thankfully back to Jewish directors with glasses. One of them is contracted to get it then. And the year after, an albino lesbian must walk away with the award.

[Galted]

Managed about 30 minutes of that film before nausea took over. Found it incredible that in this modern age of filming every single f*cking thing that happens and uploading it to wherever the f*ck this pointless sh!t goes, in the midst of what appears to be an attack by monsters/aliens, the camera isn't focused on them and HELD STILL (you c*nt)

For over-rated b*ll*cks you still can't beat "The Blair Witch Project" though

The Blair Witch Project was actually a fairly good film.  It was massively overhyped though, with The Sun doing an especially good job of ruining it by bleating on about how it was the scariest film ever and f*cking that up by telling you that you didn't see the witch, which a - give it a label it could never live up to and b - killed the fear factor.
I f*cking hate The Sun.

ps - spoiler alert

[Hero]

After the scorn thrown on the reboot of late I went back and watched the originals with my kids the other day, I have to say Ghostbusters wasn't as great as I remember.

[hampo17]

After the scorn thrown on the reboot of late I went back and watched the originals with my kids the other day, I have to say Ghostbusters wasn't as great as I remember.

Shut your mouth

[Guest]

Managed about 30 minutes of that film before nausea took over. Found it incredible that in this modern age of filming every single f*cking thing that happens and uploading it to wherever the f*ck this pointless sh!t goes, in the midst of what appears to be an attack by monsters/aliens, the camera isn't focused on them and HELD STILL (you c*nt)

For over-rated b*ll*cks you still can't beat "The Blair Witch Project" though

The Blair Witch Project was actually a fairly good film.  It was massively overhyped though, with The Sun doing an especially good job of ruining it by bleating on about how it was the scariest film ever and f*cking that up by telling you that you didn't see the witch, which a - give it a label it could never live up to and b - killed the fear factor.
I f*cking hate The Sun.

ps - spoiler alert

Galted is being deliberately contrary (or perhaps just a c*nt) and it's due, in large part, to his bitterness at not being smart enough to recognize the brilliance of "The Big Lebowski".

[S.o.F]

Galted is out of his element.

[Guest]

He's like a child who wanders into the middle of a conversation... he has no frame of reference...

Shut the f*ck up, Galted!

[S.o.F]

[Galted]

God damn you SerialDAVE! You f*ckin' a*shole! Everything's a f*ckin' travesty with you, man! And what was all that sh*t about Blair Witch Project? What the F*CK, has anything got to do with Blair Witch Project? What the f*ck are you talking about?

[Guest]

F*ck it Galted, let's go shopping for Wolfskin products!

[Galted]

F*ck it Galted, let's go shopping for Wolfskin products!

Yeah. Some Wolfskin products will really tie this thread together. Man.

[lostinwales]

Revenant.

It really does have its moments, and the whole bear attack thing is simply amazing. Then it gets terribly terribly repetitive and boring. The whole subplot about treatment of the natives and the environment is also handled badly as well as being factually inaccurate. As was time of year, attacking style of the natives and lots of other details. Lets not forget the two shot pistols either. The main thing that stuck in my mind was the phrase 'and then it got worse'.

The real story is truly amazing, but then the story of a guy crawling 200 miles with a broken femur probably doesn't make for such a great film.

[Guest]

Got to say Wolf of Wall Street wasn't all too great in my eyes. By no means a bad movie, just not quite up to the hype it received.

[Mr Bounce]

I'm going controversial with this one: I think that the Godfather Part 2 is very much overrated. It is praised as being the best sequel ever yet is essential 2 films in one. The parts with De Niro as the young Don Vito are truly brilliant. I felt that practically everything else was downright dull and boring. I actually thought that Al Pacino barely bothered in his role - the pacing was all over the place and aside from a few action-packed moments, it really ain't all that. And it's about an hour too long.

Don't get me wrong - it is a good film, but it is a long way from being a great one in my eyes.

[Rowley]

I'm not sure I will ever speak to you again bounce.

[SecretFly]

ET.

Best thing about it - Drew Barrymore.
Worst thing about it - I sometimes feel Spielberg tries too hard to be seen as a 'serious' director.  His touch in his 'serious' works can be too heavy handed and overloaded with dark, morose and depressing motifs and moods.  
ET was the first Spielberg directed film where I detected this strange overly grim mood and at the time I remember not liking it because I felt it was overdone.  He's repeated it many times since whenever he feels the need to prove a point that he's deeper than Jaws and darker than Raiders and more serious than Jurassic Park.

Lighten up Steven, your best work is still Jaws and I'd love you to try getting back to there (moodwise) sometime before your career is over.

[lostinwales]

I'm going controversial with this one: I think that the Godfather Part 2 is very much overrated. It is praised as being the best sequel ever yet is essential 2 films in one. The parts with De Niro as the young Don Vito are truly brilliant. I felt that practically everything else was downright dull and boring. I actually thought that Al Pacino barely bothered in his role - the pacing was all over the place and aside from a few action-packed moments, it really ain't all that. And it's about an hour too long.

Don't get me wrong - it is a good film, but it is a long way from being a great one in my eyes.

Compared to Godfather part 3 it is a masterpiece though. Thank whoever that Sofia Coppola worked out that she'd be a lot better behind a camera than in front of one.

[Guest]

I'm going controversial with this one: I think that the Godfather Part 2 is very much overrated. It is praised as being the best sequel ever yet is essential 2 films in one. The parts with De Niro as the young Don Vito are truly brilliant. I felt that practically everything else was downright dull and boring. I actually thought that Al Pacino barely bothered in his role - the pacing was all over the place and aside from a few action-packed moments, it really ain't all that. And it's about an hour too long.

Don't get me wrong - it is a good film, but it is a long way from being a great one in my eyes.

Compared to Godfather part 3 it is a masterpiece though. Thank whoever that Sofia Coppola worked out that she'd be a lot better behind a camera than in front of one.

The Virgin Suicides, directed by Sofia Coppola...very definitely "meh!"

[Galted]

I'm going controversial with this one: I think that the Godfather Part 2 is very much overrated. It is praised as being the best sequel ever yet is essential 2 films in one. The parts with De Niro as the young Don Vito are truly brilliant. I felt that practically everything else was downright dull and boring. I actually thought that Al Pacino barely bothered in his role - the pacing was all over the place and aside from a few action-packed moments, it really ain't all that. And it's about an hour too long.

Don't get me wrong - it is a good film, but it is a long way from being a great one in my eyes.

Compared to Godfather part 3 it is a masterpiece though. Thank whoever that Sofia Coppola worked out that she'd be a lot better behind a camera than in front of one.

The Virgin Suicides, directed by Sofia Coppola...very definitely "meh!"

Wouldn't have minded stumbling in on those corpses if they were still relatively warm.

[lostinwales]

I'm going controversial with this one: I think that the Godfather Part 2 is very much overrated. It is praised as being the best sequel ever yet is essential 2 films in one. The parts with De Niro as the young Don Vito are truly brilliant. I felt that practically everything else was downright dull and boring. I actually thought that Al Pacino barely bothered in his role - the pacing was all over the place and aside from a few action-packed moments, it really ain't all that. And it's about an hour too long.

Don't get me wrong - it is a good film, but it is a long way from being a great one in my eyes.

Compared to Godfather part 3 it is a masterpiece though. Thank whoever that Sofia Coppola worked out that she'd be a lot better behind a camera than in front of one.

The Virgin Suicides, directed by Sofia Coppola...very definitely "meh!"

Well Lost in Translation was pretty good. Not seen Virgin Suicides but can't possibly be as bad as she was in Godfather pt III

[Guest]

I'm going controversial with this one: I think that the Godfather Part 2 is very much overrated. It is praised as being the best sequel ever yet is essential 2 films in one. The parts with De Niro as the young Don Vito are truly brilliant. I felt that practically everything else was downright dull and boring. I actually thought that Al Pacino barely bothered in his role - the pacing was all over the place and aside from a few action-packed moments, it really ain't all that. And it's about an hour too long.

Don't get me wrong - it is a good film, but it is a long way from being a great one in my eyes.

Compared to Godfather part 3 it is a masterpiece though. Thank whoever that Sofia Coppola worked out that she'd be a lot better behind a camera than in front of one.

The Virgin Suicides, directed by Sofia Coppola...very definitely "meh!"

Well Lost in Translation was pretty good. Not seen Virgin Suicides but can't possibly be as bad as she was in Godfather pt III

I actually like Lost in Translation (Scarlett helped obviously) and I'm no fan of Bill Murray but the film itself is OK. Virgin Suicides is just tedious yet nowhere near as boring as "Mona Lisa Smile" that I had to endure one evening. My ex used to work at the National Media Museum and all her friends were "proper" film buffs whereas she just went to the Cinema a bit. We'd all get together and I'd have to sit and listen to then droning on about the relative merits of some sh!t or other and occasionally they'd watch a movie and dissect it afterwards.

Pretentious c*ckwombles, the lot of 'em! Imagine, Hammers or Galted (or Rowley on one of his J*zz tirades) but worse

[SecretFly]

Is it coz you can't understand the cyclical resonances of dislocated subconscious passivity in directorial sub-containment mind-adjusted inferences to sub-dialectic female-centric non-linear displacement mood dynamics in the latest Ghostbusters movie, Dave?

[Guest]

Is it coz you can't understand the cyclical resonances of dislocated subconscious passivity in directorial sub-containment mind-adjusted inferences to sub-dialectic female-centric non-linear displacement mood dynamics in the latest Ghostbusters movie, Dave?

Exactly...and no-one got their knockers out!

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