Badmovies.org Forum

I was recently talking to a fellow film fan and this topic came up.  Films that are universally loved by critics and audiences, but you can't see the appeal.  I think the film for me would be Dazed and Confused.  I've yet to meet a person from any walk of life that has disliked this film.  They all found it fun and fresh where I found it boring and routine.  I've given the film a second chance and I still find it dull.  Another one would be Lord of the Rings.  I agree that it was nice to look at, but I was bored senseless by the endless chase scenes and lack of any type of character or story development.  But then again, it's just me, but that's the point.

M. Night Shyamalan is, to me, a "been there at the right moment" type deal. Decent director, but his movies lack real suspense. Sixth Sense and Unbreakable were predictable (good, but predictable).

As for other movies, add in your usual case of Hollywood blockbusters that I hate.

Hard to say.  I dislike a lot of movies that a lot of people like, but in the 'movie crowd' I travel, there is similar sentiment.  So which 'everyone' do you mean? :)

I don't like The Matrix.  I think it's one of the dumbest, most poorly written and plotted movies I've ever seen.

                        Both "Dazed And Confused" and "Pulp Fiction" put me into an immediate coma,once the mere mention,or film clip from one of those two movies begins to come around.
                       As far as it goes for me,both "Lord Of The Rings",and any M. Night Shylaman film easily blows both of those films away.

The Blair Witch Project.. I heard such good things about it, my roommate said he saw it four times in the theatre, and when I saw it the whole theatre talked throughout it.  I actually enjoyed it and then I tried to watch it when it came on TV and that's when I realized that the only thing that made it watchable for me was the fact that the people talked throughout it.  That movie bores the living daylight out of me.

Both THE MATRIX, BRAVEHEART, THE PATRIOT, and TRAFFIC. Everybody likes these films, but I don't. BRAVEHEART was a bore, THE PATRIOT was an unintentional joke, THE MATRIX was plotless as well as pointless, and the only good scenes in TRAFFIC were the Mexican scenes.

I have no problem that people like these flicks and they are intitled to their opinion. But when I say I don't like these films all of a sudden I am being questioned harshly about my sense of taste in film, etc. It just makes me wonder how do these people get on with their lives if somebody doesn't like their favorite film. I know people who didn't like BRAINDEAD, but it doesn't bother me. I get on with my life.

Also, I recently saw WINDTALKERS. One thing is for sure, those critics were certainly a bunch of windtalkers. John Woo at his worst, and that is not saying much. For a film titled WINDTALKERS, you would think it's about the Indians cracking the Japanese code in WW2. Nope, it's all about white-caucason Nicholas Cage and him having a problem with his life for 2 hours. Just boring. I should have just kept my money in my pocket!

Just thought of another 3, Saving Private Ryan, The Insider and Minority Report.  However, unlike the previous 2 I have found one person for each who agrees with me, thus proving I'm not stark raving mad.

Dude, Minority Report was EXCELLENT definitely one of spielburg's best!! Anyways, I agree with M. Night, I just dont see it, his movies are all vaguely good...... vaguely. I also dont understand the rage for Moulin Rouge, they couldnt even write their own songs? Someone explain, and honestly, I didnt like any of the New Star Wars, has anyone liked them?

"One thing is for sure, those critics were certainly a bunch of windtalkers."

Critics hated WINDTALKERS. Audiences hated WINDTALKERS. It bombed.

THE PATRIOT flopped too.

Well, I really enjoyed Episode II. The "romance" scenes were pathetic, but the whole film was a great inprovement over Episode I and I had lots of fun with certain passages.

About me, I can't understand why people say films like "Traffic" (schematic and idiotic), "The insider" (too long and uncompelling, with this and the elaborate aesthetics I felt I was entering Ridley Scott territory, and that's not a compliment) or "Shreck" are that great. While everybody went mad about "Shreck" it just left me cold, and I think it is an overrated movie. There's much more fun and intelligence in, for instance,  "Porco Rosso", right now my favourite anime film. To think most people I know still haven't even heard of it...

Some for me were Dirty Dancing, Footloose, MIB2, The Doors, and Natural Born Killers
I just don't get the appeal of any of these films

I just like to pretend that the Star Wars prequels never happened, unless Episode Three proves otherwise (doubt it).  Here's a hint:  If you have to justify why you like it (Haydn Christenssen is actually a really good actor in other movies...) when you really only liked it out of loyalty, it ain't a good movie.

I also think that Braveheart, Office Space, and Schindler's List are way overrated.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Boredom.

Nathan

I don't like Crouching Tiger either....


Also, Dead Alive.

Their were some good reviews of WINDTALKERS and I have run into some people who said good things about it. So, even if it did bombed some people/critics still liked it (but that is not saying much).

Either way, WINDTALKERS still stank.

BUCKAROO BANZAI -- I never figured out the appeal of this film.  I fall asleep every time I try to watch it.

Brock wrote:
> I also think that Braveheart, Office Space, and Schindler's List are way overrated.

office space is a lot better once you spend some time in a cubicle.  i actually have a "milton" clone sitting next to me right now.

finally someone who agrees with me the Matrix sucks!

i can't stand the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Tim Curry's hairy ass in lingerie and musical numbers-NO THANKS!

I'd throw Out of Africa in the barrel.  I think it did fine at the box office, won the Oscar, and got praised by critics.  I got dragged to it by my family (mom & sis loved the book).  Let's see, rich Danish woman moves to colonial Africa, has problems with her farm (gee, name me a farmer who doesn't) and whines because her hubby has an affair.  So she goes after Robert Redford.  Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Also, anything by Roman Polanski.  I did like Bitter Moon for its intensity, but I can't understand why the critics love him.

Another movie that I just did not get was Secrets and Lies.  Every time I tried to sit through it I wound up sleep before the daughter ever got to the house to talk to the mother.

Also A Clockwork Orange made me mad.  I waited up one night until 4 in the morning to watch it because my VCR was on the fritz and I heard it was such a good movie but after watching it and seeeing Malcolm McDowell naked I had a few problems with it.  it was just disturbing and not really good to me.

Oh and Natural Born Killers was disappointing

I agree on the matrix as well, I fell asleep when I went to it in the theater, everyone said it was good so when the video came out I rented it and found I didn't miss much by sleeping

I used to like Tom Hanks when he made comedies, but I can't stand any of his latest films, like Sleepless, You've Got Mail (AKA Sleepless II), Castaway etc.

Also add to that list any 2+ hour british drama with a cast full of people with titles where absolutely nothing happens.

you're right. like i've told a million people before 'if you ever seen any hong-kong action film from the earyl 90's, wire choreography period, you've already seen the matrix, only done 10 times better.'

I've never even seen The Matrix.  I just never got around to seeing it in the theater, and haven't been interested enough to check it out on video.

What's with all the Matrix bashing? Anywhoo-

Dazed And Confused- Critics were drooling all over it, I rented it and found it a boring piece of crap.

The Exorcist- This is supposed to be scary. It's not.

Moulin Rouge- This is the most visually striking film of the year if you enjoy seeing a midget John Leguizamo bounce around in the most nauseating editing ever.

2001- Dum...Dum...Dum...BOR-RING!!!!

I didn't like MOULIN ROUGE enough to watch all of it.  Who knows, it might have turned out really good, but I gave up on it after about half an hour.  

I think THE EXORCIST is scarier to people who believe that kind of stuff is real.  
All I know is, I've had nightmares about the possessed Regan McNeil for years now.

Dances With Wolves.  It had pretty scenery and THAT'S ALL.  The rest of it -- like his other post-1990 movies - was a Kevin Costner ego trip and a poor poor take off on better movies like "A Man Called Horse."  His cinematographer - not his directing - won that oscar for him.  Unbelievably poor.

Also Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.  For all the immense amount of hype behind that film it all boiled down to being a karate movie, and not a very exciting one at that.  Like Dances With Wolves, it was a lot of pretty scenery and pretty actors and zero in the way of substance.  I didn't dislike it as much as Dances With Wolves, but relative to the inordinate hype surrounding it, it was terrible.

Finally Minority Report.  I actually LIKED Minority Report, but the topic of the thread made me think about how I saw it and how all the people I know and all the critics I read saw it.  I thought it was an imaginative though somewhat overlong sci-fi flick (a good thing) that was saddled with a megastar where a lesser-known would have fared better as well as a really really Hollywood ending.  All in all, a B-minus and worth the price of admission.  But the incredible praise heaped on it still has me scratching my head.  And since someone mentioned the Matrix, I could say all the same things -- I liked it but the overly positive public and critical acclaim baffled me.

This goes back a ways but I thought "Terms of Endearment" was the most cynically manipulative piece of poo I ever saw.  I actually got angry at it!  I couldn't (and still don't) understand the lavish praise it garnered when people should have been throwing rocks at the screen.

The "Star Wars" prequels are the most overhyped worthless sacks of celluloid ever put over on an undemanding public.  No virtue whatsoever.  None.  Not even worth discussing.  Lucas doesn't even have enough sense to be ashamed.

I'm sure there's more but I seem to have blocked them out of my mind....

Oh, "Dead Poets Society" was pure drippy, manipulative emotional dreck.  I hate it when movies set out to "change" people and go out of their way to try and make you cry.

Agreed!  And I'm a rank sentimentalist -- I get all choked every time when King Kong dies.  

But there's something about movies that are so cynically blatantly manipulative that just p**ses me off...

I can't stand the movie Hackers. It gets praised in almost every review and supposedly it had real hackers as technical consultants. Apparently they were consulting on the scenery since none of the computer scenes in that movie even resemble reality. To me it seems more like it was written by someone who'd never used a computer before, only been told about them. "It has writing on the screen-thingy? I guess it's probably really big so that it's easy to read!"

Ah, the elusive appeal of the watermelon...

Nathan

Hutch,

We need to talk.

Starsky

     I would name a couple.  The first is Apocalyspe Now.  Probably the most unrealistic Nam movie ever made.  If you ever run into a Nam Vet who tells you that is how it was; he is either lying or he was stoned out of his gourd the whole time he was there.  I have a friend who is a Nam Vet.  He told me that amoung the many other things about the movie that bugged him where all the bright lights.  One of the main goals of a fighting unit, at virtually all times, is to be as invisable as possible.  At night you don't even light up a ciggerette unless you are under cover.  A burning ember can give away the location of your whole group.  Keep that in mind the next time you watch that movie and view all the brightly colored lights.   You might as well put up big signs that say "Here we are!  If you want to shoot at us then aim right here!"  The other one is JFK.  I have not seen this piece of Oliver Stoned crap.  Nor do I ever intend to waste 3 hours of my life doing so.  The movie is riddled with inaccuracys.  One reasearcher was able to list over a hundred.  Unfortanetly it is,from what I hear, a effective piece of propaganda. It has caused many people to buy into a set of theorys,most of which fall apart with even a little bit of crittical research.  If the movie were as poorly made as its premise was thought out it could easily join the many other gems on this sight. Incidently, Oliver Stoned could not find any weapon that emitted a white puff of smoke when fired.  So in the movie he had a sideman blow white smoke out of a billow when the actor took a shot.  A fitting metafore for the whole movie if you asked me..

I don't think they were exactly going for realism with Apocalypse Now.  Still, it is certainly valid to feel that it is over-rated given the massive acclaim it received.  I think it was a pretty ingenius movie, but I find it hard to watch the whole thing in one sitting - especially since my copy is the Redux version with like FORTY minutes of extra footage.  

Did you know Colleen Camp was one of the Playboy bunnies?  I realized it when I saw an extended scene with her in it.  By virtue of her NAME she should have been a B-Movie Queen.

>The first is Apocalyspe Now. Probably the most unrealistic Nam movie ever >made.

 When AN came out, it looked cool. When it came to cable, I watched it and didn't understand any of it.

Take away that scene where they shot the security guards with the 18 billion guns, and you've got nothing

At the risk of committing a cardinal sin, I would have to say EIGHT LEGGED FREAKS. I didn't dislike the movie, but I didn't think it was the great b-movie so many others have declared it to be.

Other than that, I don't see why Kevin Smith is so popular. Lots of profanity, some drug use, and an endless supply of self conscious pop culture references. Aside from CHASING AMY, that's basically the plot of every last one of his films.

I love The Matrix. I won't try to change your minds, because I can't, but I'll explain why I and so many others enjoy it-

It's the first good, credible "cyberpunk" film. It has an interesting Phillip K. Dick-type sci-fi story and dark, stylized visuals.

It's a well-directed action movie. It reminds me of Die Hard or Raiders Of The Lost Ark in its editing and build-up at the end. Imagine Michael Bay or Tony Scott making The Matrix. Scary thought.

Yes, there is a lot of better kung-fu action out there, but the chop sockey here is still fun, and it helped bring more mainstream moviegoers into Hong Kong filmmaking.          

The special effects, sound, cinematography and music are all top-notch. It's a well-made movie.