On a friend's site we have been trying to identify a new class of movies. "What are the worst movies that were supposed to be good? These can be overhyped, overpraised, overdone or over the top. But they have to have succeeded or reached some level of critical acclaim." They can be a waste of the budget or a waste of a good talent. The point is that you will be able to tell in your gut that it belongs on the list. While Cabin Boy is considered a bad movie, it does not belong on the list because nobody ever had any expectations for this Chris Elliott vehicle.
I didn't come up with all the movies on this list. I don't agree with all the movies on this list. I am sure you won't either. For example, I liked The Royal Tenenbaums, Blair Witch, The Player, and surprisingly Titanic. I wouldn't have included those on my own list, but I can understand why people would put them on the list.
In no particular order:
Showgirls
The Royal Tenenbaums
Independence Day
Deep Impact
Wild Wild West
Ghost World
A.I.
Blair Witch Project
Jackie Brown
Jurassic Park
The Lost World
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Men In Black II
3000 Miles to Graceland
The Player
The Last Action Hero
Contact
Meet Joe Black
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Eyes Wide Shut
Gangs of New York
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Any Given Sunday
Dazed and Confused
Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Moulin Rouge
Tomb Raider
The Madness of King George
Every Woody Allen movie since Sleeper
Titanic
Out of Africa
Now go ahead and add some movies, defend some movies I will compile a list when we are done.
.jpg?t=20130517094513)
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Dew
I can't believe Moulin Rouge made the list and Scary Movie Garbage, I mean three did not!
2 - Craig Lyndall
I have never seen Scary Movie 3. Was it really that bad? I heard it was funny.
3 - TDavid
Titanic and Jurassic Park (the first one anyway) do not belong on this list.
4 - Tom Johnson
The Royal Tenenbaums
Ghost World
Contact
The Player
These are not disappointing movies. I can see why some people who didn't pay attention to the reviews and trailers might think these are disappointing, but that's not the fault of the movie. These are low-key movies that should make you think. I think most people went to see Contact thinking it was some alien-invasion action flick, when it was really just, at heart, about finding faith and hope.
A.I. is a perfect example of what constitutes "truly disappointing" to me. It had a great concept, and even the story was good . . . until they passed up what should have been the real ending and tacked on a cutesy little storybook ending, and even accompanied it with narration. People left the theater when they pulled that crap.
I think some criteria for what made each particular movie so disappointing should be included. I mean, it's a given that The Last Action Hero sucked. But it can't possibly be in the same way The Royal Tennenbaums does. I'd like to know why each of these movies is disappointing - and what "disappointing" means, in this case.
That said, I demand that Armageddon and Saving Silverman be added. Those were two horrible pieces of shit.
5 - Craig Lyndall
Armageddon fine, but Saving Silverman doesn't belong on the list. It is true that Saving Silverman was awful, but who actually had expectations for it. If it was never hyped up, then it can't really be overrated.
The thing is that I liked the Royal Tenenbaums, but it doesn't really surprise me that a lot of people were disappointed in it. That being said, Ghost World is usually the kind of movie that I like, but that movie had no flow. It had reasonable character development and there were some decent performances, but overall the movie did not work.
6 - BRICKLAYER
Bridges of Madison County-This movie promotes adultery. It disgusts me!
The English Patient-This movie encourages wives to force their husbands to sit through it on a saturday night, instead of watching Monster Garage. It disgusts me!
7 - Dew
A.I. I would have to agree was very disappointing.
Yes, Craig Scary Movie Three was horrible and I use horrible in the sense that there is no word conceivably worse than 'horrible' to describe this movie.
What was horrible about it? Pick a scene any scene. The race jokes were lame, the spoof on 8mile was hard to sit through and the opening (spoof on dumb blondes) was predictable and stupid even for blondes (no offense). I did not find anything entertaining about this movie at all. Can you sense that I am little upset I actually spent my own money to see this?
8 - Justin
I'm sure Scary Movie 3 was terrible. I wouldn't know, I avoided it like the plague, but it's a parody comedy, never intended to be "good." It's bad by design.
Movies that are bad by accident, like "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," now those are worth making fun of.
9 - cjones
I actually loved Contact and Any Given Sunday. What you need up there is The Minority Report. That was one of the dumbest most hyped movies I have ever seen. I also liked Bridges Over Madison County and I dont see it as promoting adultery although that is the situation. I see it as showing a woman who never had an opportunity to experience love, fun and fulfillment at the same time - actually getting a chance to do exactly that, even though it was temporary. He husband was nothing more than an extension of his tractor and a boring, corn husking, ex vet who never really knew what he had in his wife. She was so grateful of his integrity and responsibility she wouldnt leave him, regardless of her unhappiness. Anyway, thats my take on the film...
10 - duane
Independence Day has clearly earned its place on the list, being the piece o' shit that it is.
Jurassic Park was excellent. C'mon. Titanic? Oh, please. It was terrific. Blair Witch exceeded all expectations for a low-budget production, so should be taken off the list.
Might add these, but then again...
American Beauty (Oscar class? Highly overrated)
A Beautiful Mind (ditto)
The Right Stuff (this movie just pisses me off -- and I really like Tom Wolfe)
Bonfire of the Vanities (speaking of Tom Wolfe)
Exorcist II (The Heretic) (what a letdown after the original)
The Matrix (it's just me, I realize)
All the Star Wars movies since The Empire Strikes Back
11 - Craig Lyndall
Ok, I cannot agree with American Beauty. I thought that movie was amazing and eerily funny. The war between Kevin Spacey and his wife is just incredible.
I didn't see Titanic until it came out on video. Honestly, it was a good movie, but nowhere near as good as it was made out to be by so many people. I say the same thing about My Big Fat Greek Wedding because it was like "The Great Movie" from last year that everyone was talking about. A bigger piece of shit I haven't often seen. The jokes weren't funny, I didn't find what's her name who is now retired, very likable, and it had that idiot from N'Sync in it. Which idiot you ask? I don't know, but he sucked as well.
12 - Eric Olsen
In a remarkable display of no-fucking-way, I either liked or have never seen every single movie on this list. Okay, the parts of A.I. were much better than the sum, but I think the reviews have actually underrated it. And how can you not like a big, bloated, abusrd pile of shit like Independence Day? I mean come on.
13 - Chris Arabia
showgirls--everybody agreed it was one of the worst movies ever that didnt come out of chatsworth, so to speak.
i think the list qualifications are too vague. is a sucky movie that all says sucks really overrated?
i'd say shakespeare in love was the most overrated movie of all time because it beat such a great film for the award.
14 - Craig Lyndall
Of course the qualifications are vague. There is no meter unless you are willing to take a specific critic as the measuring stick.
Shakespeare in Love is a pretty good pick, although Ben Affleck movies, even ones where he had a cameo, are almost immune from this list, as he is the greatest young actor of our time.
:-) (Or maybe he isn't.)
15 - Rodney Welch
American Beauty was terrible: a hollow yammering fake of a movie that had nothing to say about life in suburbia, and an extremely snide, smug way of not saying it. It was nothing but a collection of platitudes. It was the kind of movie educated liberals could look at and find confirmation for every muddle-headed notion they ever had about the middle class. It was dishonest, too; when the blonde girl at the end announces she's a virgin I felt like throwing up my hands. At times it was just stupid, such as that wet dream of Kevin Spacey's with the girl in a tub of rose petals -- only art directors have dreams like that. And don't get me started on the performances, especially Annette Bening's, which was a case study in histrionics.
16 - Mark Saleski
i liked American Beauty 'cause it confirmed my muddle-headed liberal notions about the middle class.
17 - Dew
'look closer and see the beauty'
18 - Tom Johnson
Duane, what offended you so about The Right Stuff? Personally, I loved it - but I haven't seen it for a long, long time, so I reserve the right to change my mind on that.
I'd like to add to this list Adaptation. Damn, did I walk out of that theater disappointed. I thought it was great until the third act. And YES, I get what was going on (I won't spoil it for those that haven't suffered, I mean 'seen' it yet) but I think it was still a cheap move. Everyone involved in that movie was far too clever and intelligent to resort to something so painfully obvious. I don't find anything clever about doing something so obvious and easy. If they were going to go that route they should have hammed the whole thing up to a level where it was completely ridiculous, and let the audience really enjoy the cliches. As it was, the ending fell far short of funny, and wasn't even ironic if that's what they were shooting for. It was just lame.
19 - Rodney Welch
I don't understand why you take pains to say that Cabin Boy is considered too bad to list and then you go and include Showgirls -- a movie that was neither expected to be good or was said to be good by, so far as I know, anyone. Cabin Boy was no masterpiece, but it did have some funny moments in it.
Ghost World is easily one of the best films I've seen in the past few years, one of the few that get anywhere near the heart of adiolescence. I loved its look, its wit, its style, and Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi could not have been better cast.
The whole idea of a list of overrated movies isn't all that fun unless you really go for the big cinematic guns -- just as this list did with classic rock. When you get right down to it, almost every movie is overrated -- it's a charge no movie has ever escaped, unless it was absolute dreck.
20 - Eric Olsen
I think we can all agree American Beauty was one of the most polarizing movies in recent times. I don't actually think it was about anything other than style, and that style can make life - even the most desiccated soulless suburban existence - worth living.
21 - Rodney Welch
If you really want a movie that goes American Beauty several steps better -- and digs deep into the heart of 1990s America -- check out Robert Altman's masterpiece Short Cuts.
22 - Dew
Would it be fair to add sequels? If so throw Lion King 2 in the pot.
23 - Craig Lyndall
My thing with Cabin Boy is that it is Cabin Boy.
Showgirls on the other hand was directed by Paul Verhoeven who has a bit of a record as a filmmaker. We kind of have expectations for certain people that we don't have from Chris Elliott.
24 - Joe
I think Gigli was pretty overrated.
25 - Mark Saleski
...Short Cuts... i think i read that book. the only thing i remember about it was the bored couple who decided to try smoking crack...hmmm, now i've gotta go home and find it.