Movies that you never "got"?

[Trevor]

I never saw what the big deal was with the Blair Witch.  Buncha' people that can't hold a camera steady wandering around lost in the woods acting afraid. 

You can put the blame for that on the South African born producer Robin Cowie 😳😉😉😉

[RCMerchant]

Not a movie but I never "got" MST3K. This kind of making fun of bad movies didn't work for me. It's like watching a children's show aimed at adults?
I understand it has its place in American pop culture, but it's just too silly and annoying for my inner man child.

I agree. Most of the 'Bad' films they mock are some of my favorite films of all time!

[zombie no.one]

I never saw what the big deal was with the Blair Witch.  Buncha' people that can't hold a camera steady wandering around lost in the woods acting afraid. 

Amazing word-of-mouth campaign, and found footage horror was a new concept when it came out. (Some gullible) people actually believed that they were watching real footage at the time. But as a movie, agreed, it's not that great. As a marketing ploy, it was genius.

agreed. it was a perfect storm of the internet being enough of a thing that a massive buzz could be generated which sucked people in, but not enough of a thing that it could be easily debunked. (however I'm pretty sure that at no point did I believe it was real  )

as for the film I think it's a solid one-watch... I have had zero desire to ever sit through it again.

Not a movie but I never "got" MST3K. This kind of making fun of bad movies didn't work for me. It's like watching a children's show aimed at adults?
I understand it has its place in American pop culture, but it's just too silly and annoying for my inner man child.

I think I just don't like people talking over films I'm watching (although there's a handful of commentary tracks I do love). agreed though, the MST3K schtick is a very specific style of humour. you get it or you don't.

[Trevor]

The only Rifftrax I never liked was the one done for KILL AND KILL AGAIN: riffing a movie stops being funny when (a) the movie you're riffing was funny in the first place and (b) you know most of the people who worked on the movie.

[HappyGilmore]

The Big Lebowski. Never watched it when it first came out. Recently sat down and gave it a shot and it just did nothing for me.

Predator. I can see a bit why it has fans, but I've never felt the need to watch it again, or it's sequels.

[claws]

agreed though, the MST3K schtick is a very specific style of humour. you get it or you don't.

Pretty sure the theme song was intentionally "bad" but it is also one of, if not the most annoying theme song for a TV show I have ever heard.

[HappyGilmore]

Not a movie but I never "got" MST3K. This kind of making fun of bad movies didn't work for me. It's like watching a children's show aimed at adults?
I understand it has its place in American pop culture, but it's just too silly and annoying for my inner man child.

I get why some people might not dig it. I watched it a bunch as a kid in middle school and high school.

[M.10rda]

Here's some no one's mentioned:
The most celebrated films of Robert Altman!

SHORT CUTS - Almost complete B.S., the first worst three and a half hours of cinema I'd endured as a teenager, totally worthless beyond a beautiful late career supporting performance from Jack Lemmon (he's in about 20 of the 200 minutes).

THE PLAYER - Saw it and was grossly disappointed by it even before hating SHORT CUTS - had read Michael Tolkin's book a couple years earlier, had loved it, and still do - Altman had no grasp whatsoever on the subtle and bittersweet tone of the book and just made it a cheap nasty comedy, bleh.

M*A*S*H - WTF, this really made his reputation and it spawned a fifteen-plus year franchise, you watch it and think it's a home movie edited in camera. Donald Sutherland hated working on it and Altman tried to get him fired, which says a ton about Altman's judgment. Sutherland and others claimed Altman only cared about the football scene and nothing else, but even watching that makes one think they've seen more carefully choreographed and photographed camcorder footage of little league football games.

GOSFORD PARK - By 2003, no one in the Academy voting pool had ever seen a Merchant/Ivory film (...many of which had won Oscars...) or an Agatha Christie mystery and they fell for this crap?

IMAGES - Okay, I don't actually hate this one but I've seen every dissociative identity thriller ever made and this is easily one of the weakest and most overrated.

.......There are Altman films I find value in, but many of those (McCABE & MRS. MILLER, KANSAS CITY) also feel like he walked on the set, threw his coat on top of the boom-mic, yelled "Action!" then left for the nearest OTB and let the actors keep vamping until the camera rolled out, then he came back hours later and whatever was in the mag, that's the take that went in the final cut. Compared to, say, Kubrick, I would rank Altman not as a virtuoso or master but more as a very very very lucky amateur. Most MST3K films are directed w/ more care than SHORT CUTS!

[Archivist]

The work of this glorified plagiarist fanboy:

I am so with you on this. I find most of his movies to be overwrought and rambling, with the exception of Kill Bill Vol 1 and 2.

Movies I didn't get:

Titanic and Avatar. Titanic felt so predictable, as did Avatar. Avatar was even worse, with its derivative plotline, heavy handed ideology, villains so one dimensional they should be in Flatland, and beats so predictable I was in the cinema saying out loud, 'he's going to get the dragon now,' 'he's going to open his eyes now'. God, what a waste of money.

The Descendants (2015) with George Clooney had the worst plotline with people constantly making stupid decision after stupid decision. Not to mention the hideous ukelele soundtrack. The only movie I've ever wanted to walk out of.

[zombie no.one]

had read Michael Tolkin's book a couple years earlier, had loved it, and still do - Altman had no grasp whatsoever on the subtle and bittersweet tone of the book and just made it a cheap nasty comedy, bleh.

on that note, AMERICAN PSYCHO... I read the book before the film came out and what's funny is I distinctly remember thinking multiple times throughout reading it, "please never let anyone try and make a film out of this"... not even Scorcese, or Coen brothers.

it actually took me until about 10 years ago to muster up the [whatever the word is] to watch the film, and it is like the polar opposite of how I interpreted the book. it couldn't have been more 'wrong', IMO

my main gripe is that the satire in the book is intensely deadpan, and I did not get any jokey vibes from Patrick Bateman as a character... in the film he is borderline a clown, and the whole thing looks like it's almost trying to be a musical / outlandish stage production!

[Trevor]

Although it isn't a bad movie and has some truly nasty shocks, I have never understood the acclaim that Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING gets. The book has everything the movie hasn't e.g. a slow build up to terror, a desperate recovering alcoholic anxious to provide for his family, emotion and quite a bit of unexpected humor.

[M.10rda]

AMERICAN PSYCHO... I read the book before the film came out and what's funny is I distinctly remember thinking multiple times throughout reading it, "please never let anyone try and make a film out of this"... not even Scorcese, or Coen brothers.

it actually took me until about 10 years ago to muster up the [whatever the word is] to watch the film, and it is like the polar opposite of how I interpreted the book. it couldn't have been more 'wrong', IMO

my main gripe is that the satire in the book is intensely deadpan, and I did not get any jokey vibes from Patrick Bateman as a character... in the film he is borderline a clown, and the whole thing looks like it's almost trying to be a musical / outlandish stage production!

You said it all, brother!

My thoughts on the AMERICAN PSYCHO adaptation are very similar to my thoughts on the PLAYER adaptation, and are also very close to your opinions.

I think Christian Bale gave a fabulous performance as Patrick Bateman - but unfortunately it's not the Patrick Bateman from the book, and Mary Herron really misinterprets or outright ignores the most integral themes of the book, preferring to focus on the most superficial commentary on consumerism et al.

I also agree with you that the tone of the film is altogether incorrectt. There's tons of humor in the book, but Bateman is rarely conscious of the absurdity of his dialogue and thoughts - which is what makes it Satire -  and more importantly, no one else in the book is ever remotely aware of the outrageous quality of Bateman's thoughts or the implications of his speech - which is what makes it Tragedy. I think the film captures these dimensions entirely inadequately.

But, alas, I think you and I are in the minority w/ this opinion...

[zombie no.one]

I think we may be, as it seems like the entire personna of 'Patrick Bateman' that's in the public consciousness (and which has become a kind of meme) is clearly the movie version, not the book version.

and yeah I should also point out that if I'd never read the book I might've enjoyed the movie more than I did... almost impossible to 'un-pill' yourself from a book when viewing the adaptation though.

(while we're here I'll nominate AMERICAN PSYCHO 2 for most wtf sequel of the noughties... it's dumb but I actually liked it)

[Trevor]

I have also never gotten the hype and acclaim that DISTRICT 9 has gotten over the years.

Another one is Clint Eastwood's INVICTUS: huge acclaim for a film which is a blatant and wholly inaccurate Hollywoodization of the events of the 1995 Rugby World Cup - the post-apartheid event which united South Africans in their support of the Springbok rugby team.

The most glaring of the inaccuracies is the fact that the Boeing low pass over flight of the Ellis Park stadium by Captain Laurie Kay - never done in South Africa before - is presented in the movie as a spur-of-the-moment thing and not something that was planned months in advance.

Here is footage of the real event:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_7QjbNxdqc