The most overrated movies ever? Let the debate begin!
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.…
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— go to most recent comments26 - Craig Lyndall
Hey Joe, I would like to insult you and your blog now for no apparent reason. Let me just include a link.
(I liked your post on Things New Bloggers Should Know)
27 - Rodney Welch
Verhoeven made some arty films in Germany. Here in the Land of Milk and Honey he made RoboCop and Basic Instinct. By the time he got around to shooting Showgirls, no one expected anything but Elizabeth Berkeley's tits.
28 - Tom Johnson
Oooh oohh! Alien Resurrection - that was crap. Come on - Ripley is cloned from a drop of blood and somehow retains the memories she had before dying in Alien3? Not that Alien3 was a masterpiece either, but compared to Resurrection . . . man, that was some good stuff.
Well, maybe nobody expected that to be good either. I hoped, I guess.
29 - Olivia
Oh please add Dances with Wolves. What an amazing piece of self-indulgent drivel.
30 - Mark Saleski
most polarizing movie? easy.
that will be American Beauty II starring Natalie Maines.
31 - Mac Diva
I've always thought Independence Day is really overrated. After screening V recently I am even more sure of that. Parts of it are lifted directly from V
32 - JR
I thought "The Deer Hunter" was vastly overrated.
33 - Rodney Welch
The Deer Hunter was equally hated and panned when it came out. Personally I liked it, despite its flaws.
34 - Rodney Welch
Don't you mean it was equally loved and hated, dumbass?
Yes I do.
35 - Dew
Did anyone ever really think Gigli was going to be anything other than poop?
36 - duane
Tom, re your post #18 question: my opinion concerning The Right Stuff is not very objective. I liked the cast, and it was well produced. I just have this thing --- almost a complex --- about the way scientists and engineers are portrayed by Hollywood. I get similarly pissed off by Independence Day (see the secret underground lab sequence). I should just get over it.
But Independence Day is disappointing in a few ways:
(1) the inexcusable misuse of Judd Hirsch
(2) failure to convey a sense of fear and hopelessness
(3) exaggerated Top Gun dialogue from guys who are about to do battle with ultra-high tech aliens ("kick the tahrs and lot some fahrs" -- something like that). I want to see some fear in the eyes of people who are about to get themselves turned into plasma spray. Just think of Aliens -- yeah.
(4) aliens capable of interstellar space travel being outsmarted by Jeff Goldblum and his laptop
(5) the Randy Quaid character. Yes, I am proud to be a citizen of a country composed of loveable dolts.
(6) aliens capable of interstellar space travel engaging in dogfights a la Star Wars -- we don't even do that now, I mean, in the real world
(7) a very non-presidential president
(8) aliens capable of interstellar space travel really needing a reason to wipe out the Earth
(9) all that money they spent on this cartoon
I know, it's just a movie. Why not make a plausible thought-provoking movie with all that money? There are hundreds of good sci-fi stories just waiting to get made. You can add a few explosions and Ashton Krutcher to bring in the teens, and there you go. I thought they might try to make something like Childhood's End (A. Clarke) but they needed a bunch of stereotypical bullshit to sell those tickets.
37 - Dew
Ohh for some reason duane's bashing of ID made me come to my realization of the MOST overrated movie - The Remake of Planet of the Apes. Pee-Ewww!
38 - Tom Johnson
Duane, thanks - that makes sense. It's been so long I can hardly remember how the scientists/engineers were portrayed, but I'll have to check it out again soon.
I never got much more out of ID4 other than it was just a modern-day overly patriotic war movie - kind of a parody of them, really. It was fun, but stupid, and I definitely don't ever need to see it again.
To me, what makes a disappointing movie is one that I don't ever care to see again. ID4 counts. Ghost World does not. I'd happily see it again - hell, I own the DVD! Sure, it didn't quite live up to what I'd hoped it would be, but it was pretty satisfying because the characters were well developed and intelligent. And it had some hilarious scenes in it. Adaptation? Don't care if I ever see that again.
Good sci-fi - 2001: A Space Odyssey. Silent Running. I even found Capricorn One really compelling when I was younger. There's not much good sci-fi anymore, sadly.
39 - Rodney Welch
Tom -- I'm with you on Adaptation for the same reasons.
40 - JR
But Duane,
"Our Germans are better than their Germans"
Oops, wrong thread...
41 - duane
This is really getting off the original topic that Craig posted, but what really made the space program work was the design engineers (and I'm not an engineer, by the way), not the astronauts. As brave as they were to volunteer to be "spam in a can," it's fairly easy to do compared to having to respond to JFK's push for a Moon landing within 10 years, before we had even achieved a manned orbital flight. The whole movie is a distortion of an otherwise interesting slice of American history, Germans and all.
42 - Tom Johnson
That's true, Duane - something that is easily overlooked. Wolffe focused on the bravery of the men who climbed into these dangerous machines instead of the men who struggled to get them to not blow up under them. The HBO series (I forget the name, sorry) did actually follow the lives of some of the engineers in some episodes, rather than the astronauts. Very interesting stuff - those guys suffered a great deal for the hours and stress they endured.
43 - visualsimplicity
I think overrated doesn't necessarily mean a disappointing movie to you. Overrated would probably be a movie that seems to have a prevailing attitude "out there" somewhere that it was a great movie, etc... but is actually bad. So Gigli would not be an overrated movie, since no one actually "overrated" it, it was bad, period (although I've never seen it). On the other end of the spectrum, Titanic (I've never actually seen this either and refuse to to this very day), may have been good, but was it really highest-grossing-movie-ever good? Titanic would be fitting to be declared an overrated movie then if you think the latter. It's clearly subjective, and that's my own view of what an overrated movie should be.
Anyway, I second the motion on A Beautiful Mind. Frankly, I think a lot of Russell Crowe movies are overrated simply because everyone thinks, "oscar worthy" for any role he plays in. That leads me to my 2nd pick for overrated, The Gladiator. Yeah it was alright for an action flick, but was it really deserving of all those oscars?
44 - visualsimplicity
I would like to defend ID4 for no apparent reason.
Comment #36
I think you're looking at the movie in a different context. The movie was meant to be a fun movie, not a serious movie. In that sense, ID4 was a fun movie and following that, I wouldn't consider it overrated due to it's expectations.
Now Wild Wild West was a disappointment, but I wouldn't say it was overrated since I can't really recall anyone ever saying Wild Wild West was good. Bad Boys 2 on the other hand (which the masses seemed to like) was overrated. The movie was so drawn out and boring, that 2 hours into the movie, the plot hadn't even moved an inch yet.
45 - Dew
Thought of another one - Men in Black II.
46 - mike hollihan
Just a couple of comments on points above:
1. Speaking of Robert Altman, try to track down "OC and Stiggs." The source material is from Chris Miller of the National Lampoon. He cocreated and cowrote Animal House, so that give you an idea of his humor. OC was similarly comic, but very, very darkly so. Altman managed to make a movie that was, to me, singularly *unfunny*; astonishingly so for a director of his supposed caliber and reputation. It's like a blueprint for a funny movie. You can see where the laughs ought to go, but they sure ain't there. You'll be amazed at how flatfooted Altman is.
2. Kevin Smith once told the story of meeting Jon Peters when he was contracted to write a new Superman movie. Peters impressed Smith as being unusually dim and disconnected from reality. At one point he suggested a new villain for Smith to write for Superman, to make the movie bigger: an enormous mechanical spider! Smith noted that a year or so later, he went to a Peters-produced film and sure enough, there was the villain that Peters had suggested. The movie? Wild, Wild West! I think the story is on the "Evening with Kevin Smith" DVD.
47 - emily
Some of these movies, especially the more quiet, introspective ones need to be seen more than once to be appreciated. I enjoyed Ghost World after seeing it a second time and Eyes Wide Shut, like any Stanley Kubrick film, needs to be seen at least three times. Showgirls was one of the all time great awful movies. It's just so bad it's funny. To avoid disapointment, forget the movie theater and get HBO or Starz. There are so many movies that are critically panned that are actually good and vice versa. All these posts prove that everyone has different opinions of good and bad and a lot of it is based on life experience, education, personality. Unless you have your clone go see a movie for you and review it you can't trust anyone else's opinion on whether you'll like it or not.
48 - Rodney Welch
The idea of seeing Eyes Wide Shut "at least three times" is horrifying -- actually, if you just see it halfway through you realize that he took a wrong turn; some people, of course, will realize this fact much quicker.
49 - Chan S.
My Own Private Idaho
All of the "The Oscar goes to pretty-boy-mediocre-actor-turned-director" flicks:
Reds
Out of Africa
Dances with Wolves
Braveheart
Unforgiven (although I think this one's borderline)
50 - Jason
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
This movie was so boring I fell asleep both times I tried to watch it. Endless talking in that overly dramatic way about "We must prepare for war........". Boring dream sequences & love story crap & characters you can't keep track of & don't want to anyway. Frodo is not exactly the greatest character ever invented either - at least not the one played by Elijah Wood. And Viggio Mortenson (?spelling) - what's so great about him???? And Orlando Bloom really sucks. Movies need to have different things going on to make it interesting, not just one long battle preparation.
51 - patrick durney
I am amazed The Big Lebowski wasnt on the list the most boring pretentious drivel I have ever seen. I Would get more laughs at a funeral.
52 - ozort
Citizen Kane...
Grease...
Gone with the Wind...
The Godfather..
E.T....
Top Gun...
The Graduate...
Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail...
Sixth Sense...
Not that they were BAD, but just overrated.
53 - RJ Elliott
Showgirls - bad, but then pretty much everyone agreed it was bad, so it can't be considered "overrated"
The Royal Tenenbaums - horrible movie that lots of critics adored - overrated
Independence Day - great film
Deep Impact - decent film, but horrible acting from Téa Leoni
Wild Wild West - decent...but then again I think I saw this stoned...so maybe I can't be a fair judge...
Ghost World - ???
A.I. - didn't see
Blair Witch Project - i thought it was good
Jackie Brown - not "bad" but definitely overrated
Jurassic Park - this was a classic
The Lost World - didn't see
O Brother, Where Art Thou? - still haven't seen this, but the soundtrack is pretty cool!
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - never saw it
Men In Black II - wasn't impressed enough with the first installment to see the sequel...
3000 Miles to Graceland - awful movie, but it was universally panned, so it can't be considered "overrated"
The Player - didn't see
The Last Action Hero - pretty damn bad...
Contact - great film!
Meet Joe Black - never saw it, but I heard it was horrid
The Talented Mr. Ripley - see above...
Eyes Wide Shut - THE WORST MOVIE EVER MADE!!!
Gangs of New York - watchable, but overrated
My Big Fat Greek Wedding - humorous...
Any Given Sunday - only saw parts of it
Dazed and Confused - overrated
Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones - Episodes I, II, and III were all disappointments, if you ask me...
Moulin Rouge - didn't see it, but i'm sure it was garbage...
Tomb Raider - didn't waste my time with this one...
The Madness of King George - never saw it
Every Woody Allen movie since Sleeper - how about just changing that to "every Woody Allen movie"???
Titanic - no, this was a good flick
Out of Africa - never saw it
54 - RJ Elliott
American Beauty (Oscar class? Highly overrated) - agreed!
A Beautiful Mind (ditto) - agreed!
The Right Stuff (this movie just pisses me off -- and I really like Tom Wolfe) - never saw it
Bonfire of the Vanities (speaking of Tom Wolfe) - only saw a little bit of it...
Exorcist II (The Heretic) (what a letdown after the original) - never saw it, and have no interest...
The Matrix (it's just me, I realize) - the sequels were bad, but the original was cool
All the Star Wars movies since The Empire Strikes Back - I liked RoTJ, but fair enough...
55 - RJ Elliott
And "The Big Lebowski" was dreck as well...
56 - Katie McNeill
I loved 'Meet Joe Black' there was nothing wrong with that movie.
57 - SHARK
a few sorta recent Sharkian pet peeves:
Pulp Fiction -- WAY WAY overrated [along with everything QT has ever done]
Million Dollar Baby -- overrated piece of shit
Ray - ditto + laughable cartoony cliche
=====
BTW: one can't consider a film overrated [ie. Showgirls] if it's universally accepted as one of the worst movies ever made -- but yall would know that ...if you weren't motards.
58 - Ty
Delete from your list:
Showgirls (believe me, nobody liked it! Hard to call it overrated)
Blair Witch Project ( great film)
Episode II (again, hard to call a film nobody liked overrated)
Madness of King George (great movie!)
ADD:
Million Dollar Baby (this movie sucks big time, and pulls a bait and switch!!!!)
Snakes on a plane (For those who liked it)
English Patient (See above comment)
SW: Episode III (overrated because it was better than I and II, which is not saying a lot. It still majorly sucked but it is overrated when discusses)
Citizen Kane (overrated because it used unique film techniques, and should be studied in film class, but it's BO-RING)
Brokeback Mountain (only got extra hype because straight guys were playing gay lovers, yeah, you know I'm right!)
Crash by Paul Haggis (decent movie, but overrated because it dealt with stereotypes)
The other Crash movie, the NC-17 James Spader movie, is just unwatchable.
59 - RJ Elliott
How about "War Of The Worlds" with Tom Cruise?
60 - paco
I agree with the guy that said Quentin Tarantino's overrated, since he just has ripped of a lot of stuff from other more obscure movies(kill bill ripped off stuff from sex and fury).
Also ass:
Requiem for a dream
nightmare before christmas(teen goths overhype it mostly)
donnie darko(see above)
eternal sunshine of a spotless mind
lost in translation
61 - Jonathan
Titanic is NOT overrated. I loved that film.
62 - Martin Gifford
American Beauty is slick in many ways, but the story and the characters and the theme are appalling.
I'm not sure if it's a satire about the middle class or an art film about seeing the beauty in everything. Either way, the example given is too unrealistic - a Hollywood liberal view of middle-class America.
If it's a satire, then make the the characters somehow believeable, otherwise you are satirising your own projected stereotypes.
If it's about the beauty in everything, then using the examples of a wind-blown plastic bag and a guy with his brains blown out is aiming pretty damned low!
A general comment: Isn't it fascinating to see some people hating very popular films and other people loving very unpopular films? People are different!
63 - Sam
You forgot "RENT"
64 - helena handbasket
titanic sucks the fat end of an erect donkey but its pretty fucking cool when everyone falls into the sea at the end. I like the way the bodies slam into the ship and bounce off. It could have been a bit more violent though. Not blood and guts flying everywhere cause that may seem to over the top and ditatch us from whats going on, but some more death and terror would me nice. Maybe someone playing golf while all the chaos is going on around them.
65 - Ryan Bowen
So why is Blade Runner not on this list?
66 - pinknoise
because it's brilliant, and at the time nobody hyped it up.
67 - wtf
Add Juno and Napoleon Dynamite NOW!!!
68 - dune
I thought all the star wars movies were awesome! Including the prequels.
ID4 was cheesy, but fun to watch.
Crouching Tiger Hidden dragon- that's an interesting one. You have the chick's backstory, (which would have been fine had it been shown either in increments throughout the movie, (like in Highlander 1) or at the beginning of the movie. Not in the middle. My god, that segment wen on for ever!
Blair witch was good. I only wished they hadn't made the lousy sequel.
Ghost world and every movie directed by Terry Zwighoff sucked! That guy shouldn't even clean toilets in a movie theater, much less direct movies.
Most overrated film left off this list, City of Angels. If it hadn't been for Family man, Ghost Ridder, and National Treasures, his career would have been over since that movie. (Advice to the women reading this. If you want a way to break up with your boyfriend, and you don't want the drama, invite him to your house and rent this flick and make him watch it. He will drop you like a bad habit, and you will be free to date other people.)
69 - bliffle
Ever?
This list seems to omit bad movies made before about 1980. There were a lot of overrated clunkers made before 1980, but I suppose most people are as ignorant of the bad ones as they are of the good ones, which makes it a pity.
Here's my list:
"The Seventh Seal" - a portentous and pretentious allegory about Death. Groan. It's enough to make a movie fan swear off Bergman forever, mores the pity, since he made so many good films. Better to see something like "Naked Night", "A Lesson In Love", "Summer With Monika", etc.
"Through A Glass Darkly" - another Bergman dud, good only for encouraging the viewer to commit suicide. This will push you over the edge. Better to see "Wild Strawberries", which should draw you back from the precipice.
I could go on and on, and maybe I will, later, but I need an antidote for this dismal stuff.
70 - bliffle
I'm baaaack!
Just in time to spoil your day with a Very Bad American Movie:
"Magnificent Seven" - a horrible, utterly corny, hollywood remake of Kurasawas "Seven Samurai", which was an excellent movie. Total cliche. Too bad that the movie spoiled an excellent music score by Elmer Bernstein (the west-Coast Bernstein). Too bad that the ignominy was completed by the hack performance of the score by the movie orchestra! If you want a thrill, get the Erich Kunzel performance of the score with the Cincinatti Pops Orchestra! Wow! Do they make that music pop! All familiar tunes that will shoot you out of your chair cheering! Get it!
The antidote for bad movies is a couple of Antonini movies I reprised this week: "Il Grido" (1957) and "Zabriskie point" (1970). "Il Grido" is a terribly sad movie about the first Modern Postwar Man, wandering aimlessly trying to find his place as husband, lover, father, and worker. "Zabriskie Point" is pictorially beautiful in it's spare Death Valley landscapes and desert pastel colors, and tells the story of the last of the 60s culture as it submerges beneath the indifference of LA life. the famous ending presages "Carrie" and, I am told, "Fight Club". It's reminiscent of Nathaniel West's "Day of the Locusts", but more movie mode.
71 - jj
CRASH
72 - Kane
My own list:
The Matrix trilogy
Star Wars movies
Spielberg movies
Titanic
Casablanca
Forrest Gump
Fight Club
The Godfather trilogy
73 - Kane
Oops, I forgot, add Braveheart too!
74 - Cindy Collins Smith
Doesn't a movie need to be pretty universally highly rated before it can be considered OVERrated?
If so, then what is The Exorcist II doing on this list? I thought that everybody thought it was a piece of garbage.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - a great film (even if the Mandarin is horrible) - definitely does not belong on this list.
Independence Day is fun and a decent movie, but it's definitely overrated.
Titanic - totally belongs on the list. The sinking is awesome. The plot is ludicrous. We call it the "most terrible great movie ever made."
I agree with the commenter who adds Magnificent Seven. Bad redo of Kurosawa, no matter how much I loved it as a kid.
Disagree with commenter who added Requiem for a Dream. One of the best films about addiction ever.
BTW, it's kind of hard to say this is a list of the most highly overrated movies EVER when it doesn't include much of anything made before 1990.
I have friends who would include 2001: A Space Odyssey. (I wouldn't. I think it's brilliant. But I have friends who would put it on the list).
I would add The Mummy with Boris Karloff. It's supposed to be the cream of 1930s Universal horror, but I find it deadly dull.
Anyway, there are a lot of other movies from earlier eras that should be included.
75 - bliffle
"No Country For Old Men" was terrible. Bad script, bad story, bad sets. then they cheapened it with all the modern Hollywood cost-savings techniques to make it all on a soundstage without extras.
"Crouching tiger.." was poor.