10. Titanic: If you’re a teenage girl, I understand – Leo is soooo dreamy (retch). But if not, you have no excuse. Utterly ludicrous interpretation of a tragic event. Exploitative in the extreme. Yes, during the sinking of the Titanic, I’m sure that people went hunting each other with pistols. The dialogue is some of the worst ever penned. And she throws the diamond into the sea at the end? My God, old woman, there are millions starving and you throw a priceless jewel into the ocean? Selfish hag.
9. Some Like It Hot: Not a terrible movie, just not a great one. Still unsure why this is considered one of the great comedies of all time. I love Billy Wilder, but this isn’t his best comedy, or even among his top ten movies (see The Apartment, The Fortune Cookie, Stalag 17, the underrated Ace in the Hole, Witness for the Prosecution, Ball of Fire, Sabrina, Love in the Afternoon, Sunset Blvd. and Ninotchka all rank above it). And what the hell does the last line even mean?
8. Chinatown: A good movie, but is it really the best script of all time?
7. 2001: A Space Odyssey: 45 minutes of greatness, almost two hours of poop, including half an hour of monkeys hitting each other with sticks. Oh yeah, and there’s a monolith.
6. The Usual Suspects: When I finished this movie, I wanted to punch somebody. Here’s the deal with twist endings: you have to give the audience clues, and the twist must not invalidate the entire movie. The Usual Suspects broke both these rules. First, the clues were not available the entire movie – only when they show you the board, the mug, etc. do you realize he’s been making up the story. That’s called cheating. Second, the twist invalidates the entire movie – what’s true and what’s false? Which parts, if any, are real? If I’ve just been watching a two hour shaggy dog story, what’s the point? Movies with great twists: Planet of the Apes, The Sting, The Prestige, Eastern Promises. Movies with overrated twists: The Sixth Sense, Fight Club.
5. Pulp Fiction: See my comments about Tarantino here. Pulp Fiction is typical Tarantino – moments of brilliance submerged in a sea of triviality. If Tarantino could ever figure out how to write non-episodically, he’d be incredible. I just don’t see that happening anytime soon.
4. Fargo: The Coen Brothers have become more palatable as they’ve aged. No Country For Old Men was bleak but good, and True Grit was well-directed if hackneyed. The critics’ obsession with Fargo, however, is odd. The movie isn’t short on plot, but it’s also quite repellant.
3. American Beauty: Obnoxious beyond belief. The critics loved it because it ripped suburbia, made heterosexuality out to be a mental defect, and scoffed at traditional American values. The movie trashes everything from the military to marriage. That alone wouldn’t make it overrated. What makes it overrated is its over-the-top plotting, thoroughgoing nastiness, and contempt for anything resembling likability. The kind of movie where you want to wash your brain out after watching.
2. Raging Bull: Time for my rip of Scorcese. He picks out the most horrible characters imaginable, then asks us to follow them for hours on end. There is nothing to like about Jake LaMotta. Nothing. He’s abhorrent, the people who surround him are abhorrent. Why should I care what happens to him? The same is true of GoodFellas and Taxi Driver. This lack of sympathetic characters makes watching a Scorcese movie a lot like watching a fishtank – aesthetically interesting for a while, but certainly not immersive in the way film can be at its best.
1. The Graduate: This is not a great film. This is not even a good film. Benjamin Braddock is a whiny bitch of a human being. His parents, who are portrayed as yuppie boors unable to see Benjamin’s inner depths, don’t do anything to earn the scorn of the fimmakers, yet they do just that because they’re over 30. The end of the movie is perhaps the worst of all time, the beginning of a minor staring-out-the-window-of-a-bus trend. So life is uncertain. People have known that since Creation. Get over it.
According to Conservative Ben Shapiro, on my favorite Conservative Film News Site
Not really, I fucking hate this movie news site. It’s Fox News, but from a film perspective. Just read his reasoning. I do agree on Titanic though. Highly overrated. Here is another example, this is the title of an article made by the websites editor: ‘Battle Los Angeles’ #1 Overseas: Will Hollywood Still Tell Us Pro-American Hurts Foreign Box Office?’
Don’t waste your money on Battle: LA by the way.
Favorite This!
Titanic was fine. But I don’t think I paid to see it twice like some friends did.
Some like it hot. Don’t remember seeing it.
Chinatown. Same.
2001. Despite the slow opening, and zero explanation of just what the hell was happening, it blew me away. Not overrated IMHO.
Usual Suspects. Can’t claim to have seen it.
Pulp Fiction. Massively entertaining, not overrated IMHO.
Fargo. Didn’t see it.
American Beauty. Great acting. The story, not so much.
Raging Bull. I watched it, and it was OK. Overrated, yep!
The Graduate. I did watch it a long time ago. Never did understand what was so great about it.
And when I say I didn’t see it, I didn’t see in the theater or anywhere else.
Damn it, I missed the comment about Battle: LA. I highly enjoyed it. I suspect it was better than I am Number Four. HP7(II) will blow most of the rest off the map anyway.
I enjoyed it too
Disagree with all except Titanic and Raging Bull.
Marge Gunderson is the greatest cinematic construct known to man.
Titanic – Great cinematography. Sucky everything else.
Some like it hot – Never seen it.
Cinatown – Never seen it.
2001 – I have yet to master my streanghts to see it until the end. I’m gonna get high one day and watch it.
Usual Suspects – Yest to see it whole – I have a friend obsessed with it, so I’ll try watching it.
Pulp Fiction – I can’t count the times I’ve seen it. There is nothing boring in that movie. It’s al fun fun fun.
Fargo – Never seen it.
American Beauty – Watched more than a half an hour of it. Boring as hell. Hey! Nudity!
Raging Bull – Didn’t watch it all. Boring and needlessly black and white. (Or I didn’t get the point)
The Graduate – On my to see list.
BLA – Haven’t/Will.
You must see Chinatown and Fargo!!! Especially as a fellow film aficionado.
I’ll watch them, promise.
Titanic – Ok, but it was really two different movies smashed into one. == Overrated
Some like it hot – Also ok, had some silly funny moments. =/= Overrated
Chinatown – Love Jack Nicholson but overdone. == Overrated
2001: Space Odyssey – First saw it when I was a kid, enjoyed it then. == Overrated
Usual Suspects – Loved it. =/= Overrated
Pulp Fiction – Loved it. =/= Overrated
Fargo – Loved parts of it, bored by some of it. == Maybe Overrated
American Beauty – I did like it, but really frikken pretentious. == Overrated
Raging Bull – Art film that doesn’t work. Booooooring! == Overrated
The Graduate – Enjoyed it, but I never watch it when it’s on. == Overrated
I must agree with their analysis of 2001.
The Graduate and Pulp Fiction are great films, what are you on about, Anne Bancroft was amazing in it, Dustin Hoffman’s good and the music is great, it’s a fun movie
agreed on Pulp Fiction but I actually don’t agree on your point about the usual suspect I swear to you the first time I saw the film I saw the twist coming in crime films it is always the least suspected person that turns out to be the criminal
THE GRADUATE WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU
I AM GLAD YOU ARE ON THE INTERNET BECAUSE IF I WOULD SEE YOU ON THE STREET YOU WOULD BE ON THE FLOOR, RAGIN BULL, AMAZING
However i do agree with you on Titanic and usual suspects. so i if i then were to see you on the streets i would just tell you how much you are wrong.
consider your life spared
Have to disagree with you on a few – The reason Titanic was so raved about was that everyone was expecting it to be the biggest bomb of all time – the reason why it did so well was that NO-ONE was expecting it to turn out good, much less decent. Basically you had to have been there to understand.
2001 is pretentious as heck, but I’d much rather take a movie that FORCES me to think over one that dumbs me down.
Your Usual Suspects critique was ridiculous and says more about YOUR character than the movie itself: The twist WAS supposed to be a surprise; when the movie came out you were NOT supposed to even know there was a twist in the first place! And WHAT EXACTLY IS WRONG WITH A SHAGGY DOG TALE? Some of the BEST stories are shaggy dog tales themselves!
Tarantino’s writing is episodic because he reads a lot of novels. It’s also good for character development. If more directors wrote like Quentin, we’d have better movies. I bet this ‘critic’ has never read a novel in his life. Perhaps this critic needs to do some reading before he bashes someone for spurious reasons.
But the best is his critique of American Beauty – AB was supposed to be a SATIRE – it ripped everybody fairly and equally – and his talking points – ‘scoffed at traditional American values’ – what? The same traditional values that enabled white settlers to kill so many native Americans? ‘The movie trashes everything from the military to marriage.’ Uummm, yes it’s supposed to as it’s a black comedy. Speaking of ‘trashing military and marriage’ how many innocent ciilians dided for all those non-existant weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? And don’t HALF of all marriages in the US end in divorce?
His criticism of Scorcese is relevant – but by that token, The Godfather should be overrated as well as there are no likeable characters in that either!
I Do agree on The Graduate, Some Like It Hot and Chinatown are overrated though.
P.S. Where are the REALLY overrated films? Like Out of Africa, Silence Of The Lambs and Michael Bay’s entire career?
I love Fargo and Chinatown. most overrated movie ever made was Batman in 1989.
Titanic is underrated; I have never seen such a great movie get so much hate.
Pulp Giction is definitely overrated; it’s a gimmicky film that people only like because of one scene with Samuel L Jackson.
Then there are movies which aren’t on your list like Bladerunner, which is touted as being some great masterful work; but it’s merits that it’s praised on aren’t even on the level of most 80’s Star Trek movies or Starwars Return of the Jedi.
It’s always sad when you see lists like this that start off ok, but then the author says something like “Fight Club had an overrated twist”, which destroys the credibility of the entire list.