Overrated movies

[accies1874]

@BigFatTabbyDave I'm not quoting your entire post but your thoughts on Fargo are almost identical to mine on The Big Lebowski. Seen it twice, liked it better the second without thinking it was great, but understand that the weirdness attracts people. I love Fargo. 

For whatever reason, earlier Coens stuff like Blood Simple and Miller's Crossing don't do it for me (I accept that's on me rather than them), and I actually prefer some of their 20th century comedies to the dramatic stuff, but their 21st century dramas are largely amazing. That said, I don't think there's a single one of their films that I haven't preferred the second time so I might need to revisit some. 

[YER SISTERS YER MAW]

I've always felt The Godfather Part 1 and 2 to be a bit overrated. Not saying they are bad films, just a bit boring in parts.

[BFTD]

19 minutes ago, accies1874 said:

@BigFatTabbyDave I'm not quoting your entire post but your thoughts on Fargo are almost identical to mine on The Big Lebowski. Seen it twice, liked it better the second without thinking it was great, but understand that the weirdness attracts people. I love Fargo. 

For whatever reason, earlier Coens stuff like Blood Simple and Miller's Crossing don't do it for me (I accept that's on me rather than them), and I actually prefer some of their 20th century comedies to the dramatic stuff, but their 21st century dramas are largely amazing. That said, I don't think there's a single one of their films that I haven't preferred the second time so I might need to revisit some. 

Weird, isn't it? I saw Lebowski at a midnight showing and was thoroughly mystified by the whole thing; I was still waiting for the film to start by the time it got to the end. It confused me enough that I watched it again on DVD later and it started to click. Fargo at least has a more traditional plot, but it wasn't quite odd enough for me, I guess.

Different directors, but I can thoroughly recommend Welcome to Collinwood in the genre of weirdness that doesn't pan out how cinema has trained you to expect.

Edit: I only just realised that was the first film by the Russo Brothers, of Marvel fame (amongst other things).

Edited June 6, 2020 by BigFatTabbyDave

[tongue_tied_danny]

40 minutes ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

Long, rambling, opinionated list of films. Very tedious. Probably best skipped.

  Hide contents

12 - Forrest Gump. The Americans love nothing more than a good bit of navel-gazing, and that's all this is; just a film for boomers to reminisce about events that happened during their lifetime. Fairly tedious for anyone who wasn't there, man.

18 - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. It's OK, but I do not get why it's such a classic. Strikes me as more the kind of film that would have been pretty much forgotten about by now, and occasionally unearthed as a forgotten Nicholson vehicle.

32. - It's a Wonderful Life. Clearly I have a heart of stone. Never has a film more needed a nihilistic ending.

40 - Gladiator. Generic Hollywood period action film; slightly above-average. Standard forgettable popcorn fare. Hammy performances by all involved. Shocked when this started receiving Oscar buzz, and even more amazed when it won so many.

58 - Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Really enjoyed this film, but why on Earth it's ended up one of the top 250 of all time, I do not know.

93 - American Beauty. I assume this must have been popular with miserable middle-aged men who also wanted to bang their children's friends. Some folk get terribly pretentious about this one and read all sorts into it, which it invites without doing anything to deserve the attention. Also a part of the huge genre of films that include the word "American" in the title for no reason other than to reassure xenophobes that there's nothing foreign here, no sir. Seriously, does any other country do this?

100 - Full Metal Jacket. Built its reputation on the opening half, which is excellent, but you'd be as well turning it off after boot camp is finished. Not even the infamous Vietnamese prostitute can save it from there on in.

191 - Harry Potter (the last one). Lolwut? Not even the best of those films, and none of them got beyond half-decent. That being here screams of fanboys.

192 - Shutter Island. Shocked that a Scorcese film could be so bland and generic. Hilariously derivative, transparent plot. Standard non-performance from DiCaprio. Really surprised this isn't hanging around the 6/10 mark.

211 - Fargo. Seen it a couple of times, liked it better the second time, still didn't see it as being all that great. Happy to accept being wrong on this one, though, as I love The Big Lebowski and figure the attraction is the weirdness, but it does little for me.

214 - Jurassic Park. Everything up to and including the T-Rex attacking the kids in the car is great. Completely turns to shit thereafter; classic example of Spielberg being caught between his love of action-horror and schmaltzy kiddie dreck.

248 - Aladdin. No, f**k off, standard Disney shite. Take away a restrained Robin Williams and there's nothing here for adults. Watch one of his stand-up shows instead. The Lion King can f**k off too, thinking about it.

Honorable mention: The Piano. Holly Hunter gets fingered by Harvey Keitel while young Anna Paquin plays on the beach. That's yer lot. Massive disparity between the genders on this one. I'd never have guessed ol' Harvey could inspire such fantasies.

Films I need to watch again, as I think I just didn't get it and might change my opinion second time round: V for vandetta, Chinatown, The Seventh Seal, The Princess Bride, Blade Runner.

 

An interesting list, but what's the dealio with that numbering system?

[BFTD]

13 minutes ago, tongue_tied_danny said:

An interesting list, but what's the dealio with that numbering system?

That’s just their ranking on the IMDB.

edit: forgot to mention that, sorry.

Edited June 6, 2020 by BigFatTabbyDave

[D.A.F.C]

Aliens is a bit overrated I agree.

The original film was a horror and aliens was just a gore fest with hardly any depth.
It has some great moments but its certainly carried by the success of the first film.
Prefer alien 3 in some ways.

Star wars original was excellent, empire strikes back was the best of the lot. ROTJ was just a remake of the first then it's been downhill since.
Most of the hype was around kids being locked into the toys and the great characters from the films.

Agree about fight club it's trying to be clever but seems disjointed and pointless.

[Bert Raccoon]

I know it seems to be something of a sacred cow if you were born in the 80s but I'm not a big fan of The Goonies.

[tongue_tied_danny]

Have we had Blade Runner yet?

I've tried to like it, I want to like it. I love the visuals and the general ambience, but the plot is just so boring.

Edited June 6, 2020 by tongue_tied_danny

[Wardy]

5 minutes ago, tongue_tied_danny said:

Have we had Blade Runner yet?

I've tried to like it, I want to like it. I love the visuals and the general ambience, but the plot is just so boring.

Blade Runner is my favourite film, but I totally understand people when they say things like you’ve just said. The thing is, if it had more heavy action in it, it would cheapen the amazing things about it, again as you say like the ambience and the visuals. Don’t get me wrong there are some brilliant action films from the 80s but don’t think Blade Runner would have benefitted from having more action. That is if that what you mean by making it less boring? 
 

It’s a film that’s not short by any matter of means, but every time I watch it (The remastered is by far the best version of it)  the time flies in. 

[TheScarf]

I absolutely love American Beauty. It looks stunning visually, brilliantly acted, and the twist at the end is pretty good.

[The Golden God]

Mad Max: Fury Road is just a 2 hour chase scene, there’s no story at all and people only like it cause it’s got cool effects and explosions etc. I stand by it being awful.

[BFTD]

16 hours ago, Wardy said:

Blade Runner is my favourite film, but I totally understand people when they say things like you’ve just said. The thing is, if it had more heavy action in it, it would cheapen the amazing things about it, again as you say like the ambience and the visuals. Don’t get me wrong there are some brilliant action films from the 80s but don’t think Blade Runner would have benefitted from having more action. That is if that what you mean by making it less boring? 
 

It’s a film that’s not short by any matter of means, but every time I watch it (The remastered is by far the best version of it)  the time flies in. 

If someone had, say, something called The Final Cut on Blu-Ray, would this be the best version to watch?

14 hours ago, TheScarf said:

I absolutely love American Beauty. It looks stunning visually, brilliantly acted, and the twist at the end is pretty good.

There was a twist at the end?

Are you sure you weren't watching Se7en?

[Wardy]

5 minutes ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

If someone had, say, something called The Final Cut on Blu-Ray, would this be the best version to watch?

There was a twist at the end?

Are you sure you weren't watching Se7en?

Aye the final cut is the one I’m meaning. The definitive version I’d say. 

[BFTD]

4 minutes ago, Wardy said:

Aye the final cut is the one I’m meaning. The definitive version I’d say. 

Grand. Will give it another go at some point.

[Flybhoy]

Anything with Jack Black in it, w****r.

[TheScarf]

5 hours ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

There was a twist at the end?

Are you sure you weren't watching Se7en?

Lester gets papped in the head at the end. Ok, maybe not a twist as such, but it’s unexpected.

[BFTD]

1 minute ago, TheScarf said:

Lester gets papped in the head at the end. Ok, maybe not a twist as such, but it’s unexpected.

Spoilers, FFS.

I'd forgotten that they pulled the whole, "and I've been a ghost this whole time, woooo!" ending that gets knocked out of you in primary school  

Had also forgotten about Lester's "you don't get to tell me what to do ever again" speech, which was absolutely a fantasy inserted by some bitter divorcee on the Dreamworks board. Hopefully they didn't turn the weans against him/her.

[D.A.F.C]

In reverse I thought that the Blair witch project was superb and I didn’t get the criticism. Found it genuinely terrifying and I think it was the first ‘found footage’ film as well. It can’t be bad if it inspired a whole genre.

[Twinkle]

While my mrs has it on the movie channel just now, id like to point out that Top Gun is utter horseshit

[RandomGuy.]

On 06/06/2020 at 14:35, BigFatTabbyDave said:

Seems like most of the plot in the those films was entirely made up by Peter Jackson and co, which makes me think that maybe Tolkien was a shit writer.

Ive seen your white writing but you do see this opinion a lot.

I think the main issue is Tolkien never intended his books to be made into a film, and he seemed to write them under the impression his audience would already know the lore around it all, so there are gaps you're meant to fill in yourself with that knowledge (for example the fight with the giant spider to many would just be a fight with a giant spider, when he intended it to be a massive moment due to that characters background, which isnt explained in LOTR as you're already meant to know).

Hollywood isnt really the best at trying to encourage people to read books, so they either leave the gaps in, ignore them entirely, or make up some bollocks to fill the gap in.