Are There Any Highly Regarded Films Whose Popularity You Cannot Fathom?
Over on the Main Feed, the great James Delingpole evokes J.R.R Tolkien.
Now, I have to admit that I have never read any part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and my attempt to read The Hobbit was aborted. Perhaps I would have found them wonderful and inspiring. But the films left me entirely unmoved and bored.
This got me to thinking about other movies, highly regarded by critics and audiences, whose popularity I simply cannot understand. One of these is Dead Poets Society (Rottentomatoes.com audience rating of 90%). Another is Natural Born Killers (RT audience rating of 80%), which I would probably put at the top of my all-time-worst list.
What titles would you put on a list of popular films whose reputations leave you scratching your head? Don't be embarrassed; we're non-judgmental here.
UPDATE:
Crow's Nest said, "None that I don't 'get' in the sense of failing to understand. But how about some that I can't understand WHY they are so highly rated as they are..."
That is, in fact, what I meant when I (originally) said, "...films that you just don't 'get'": Movies that don't "grab" you in the same way they seem to grab the vast majority of viewers. I have edited the title and body of my post to be more clear.
UPDATE 2:
The opposite question is posed here.
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Jul '11
Re: Are There Any Highly Regarded Films Whose Popularity You Cannot Fathom?
flownover
Daaaaiiisssssssssssyyyyyyyyyyy, ddddddddaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiissssssssyyyyyyyyy........
why would you think that the CIA alone had anything to do with that ? NASA had to be involved too ! · Dec 28 at 12:43pm
Book was better.
I have a yellow lab named Daisy and sing that way to her all the time. Daaaiiiiiisy. She seems happy to hear it though but she seems happy about nearly everything.
May '10
Re: Are There Any Highly Regarded Films Whose Popularity You Cannot Fathom?
I didn't mind it. But the King was a devoted Christian man and that part of his life was ignored entirely.
Feb '11
Re: Are There Any Highly Regarded Films Whose Popularity You Cannot Fathom?
Any movie were being loud is more important than the story line.
A few war movies get around this, but not many.
Kubrick's "Paths of Glory" manages to put the story first, the fighting second.
Certainly all the Lord of the Ring movies fit into this class. I went with others and all I could say at the end was that was sure loud!
Nov '10
Re: Are There Any Highly Regarded Films Whose Popularity You Cannot Fathom?
I don't like movies where I am supposed to root for the protagonist when he/she is some kind of felon or whose behavior is loathsome and selfish. There are some popular movies in which this is the case: My Best Friend's Wedding, for one. Entrapment (not sure how popular this was.)
May '11
Re: Are There Any Highly Regarded Films Whose Popularity You Cannot Fathom?
Raging Bull. Save the Tiger. Anything directed by Jean Renoir.
Re: Are There Any Highly Regarded Films Whose Popularity You Cannot Fathom?
I hated Love, Actually with a consuming passion, but lots of people go all swoony at the very mention of it. Go figure.
May '10
Re: Are There Any Highly Regarded Films Whose Popularity You Cannot Fathom?
Troy Senik: I'm still convinced that the ending of "2001: A Space Odyssey" was a botched CIA experiment. · Dec 28 at 12:14pm
I'd rather be watching cricket or grass growing than that movie.
May '10
Re: Are There Any Highly Regarded Films Whose Popularity You Cannot Fathom?
kylez:
The Departed only won Best Picture because it was directed by Scorcese. It is an ugly, pointless, boring rip off of a film from Hong Kong.
· Dec 28 at 12:44pm
I love Infernal Affairs too much to go near this one.
Jun '10
Re: Are There Any Highly Regarded Films Whose Popularity You Cannot Fathom?
Matt Damon was excellent in the new "True Grit".
Jun '10
Re: Are There Any Highly Regarded Films Whose Popularity You Cannot Fathom?
Hated it, too.
And how about the Oscar winner, "American Beauty" ? No reason that it was ever considered for an Oscar much less win one.
May '11
Re: Are There Any Highly Regarded Films Whose Popularity You Cannot Fathom?
I'm starting to have a distaste for movies about the civil rights struggle where there's always one white person who leads a group black people in fighting for civil rights and social justice. The most recent example is "The Help," It promotes a liberal stereotype that black people need an enlightened "white knight" to lead them to freedom. It's also a manipulative tactic for white audiences to indentify with the hero and feel better about themselves that they would not have acted like racist ogres. Of course all the black people are extremly noble and all southern white people are horrible. Never much room for subtelty in these movies.
Aug '11
Re: Are There Any Highly Regarded Films Whose Popularity You Cannot Fathom?
Anyone mention "The Road?" Unwatchable.
Jan '11
Re: Are There Any Highly Regarded Films Whose Popularity You Cannot Fathom?
Any Oliver Stone film.
Jan '11
Re: Are There Any Highly Regarded Films Whose Popularity You Cannot Fathom?
The ending of "2001: A Space Odyssey" was an extended trip through alien star gates made in the days before CGI or any other affordable way of showing such a spectacle. 2001 still sets the bar for the most realistic depiction of space travel, which of course makes it terribly boring to most of today's audiences, but unfortunately, because about 1/3 of the movie had no dialog, you really had to read the book to understand what's going on. It was still exceptionally groundbreaking in it's day.
I tend to be a sucker for animation and action, but any film that revels in blood and gore (such as Kill Bill) is a complete turn-off for me no matter how "artistic" it is.
Feb '11
Re: Are There Any Highly Regarded Films Whose Popularity You Cannot Fathom?
I watched it. I liked it. Although "liked" is perhaps not the correct word for what I felt. It was awful, unspeakable, and yet shot through with Hope.
Aug '10
Re: Are There Any Highly Regarded Films Whose Popularity You Cannot Fathom?
Thanks, now I have another reason not to see this.
Re: Are There Any Highly Regarded Films Whose Popularity You Cannot Fathom?
flownover
Thanks, now I have another reason not to see this. · Dec 28 at 6:49pm
Judith, please speak with Diane about this. I think it's one of her favorite movies. I saw a preview for it the other night and couldn't keep from groaning. Then again, romantic comedies in general aren't my cup of tea.
Jun '11
Re: Are There Any Highly Regarded Films Whose Popularity You Cannot Fathom?
Avatar - I actually paid good money to watch this in an IMAX theater. Bad plot, worse dialog - and "Unobtanium".
Dances With Wolves - same plot as Avatar and Mrs. O'Shea got me to the theater to see that one back in the day.
I just finished watching The Adjustment Bureau. Fortunately, I was at home and could complain out loud during most of it. Hats? Doors? Angels? The Chairman of the Board?
Sep '10
Re: Are There Any Highly Regarded Films Whose Popularity You Cannot Fathom?
(Quick Count; please excuse minor errors). As of quote #95, - 1.The Rings Trilogy/TITANIC tie with the most negatives. - 2. All Woody Allen, Piano, American Beauty, Pulp Fiction, Departed, English Patient, Citizen Kane.
Maybe we should look at why these movies are overrated and what do they have in common.
I feel like the "Rings", TITANIC, All Harry Potter anything are basically juveniles fighting back against stupid or elitist adults. They are probably big OWS favorites.
The others their to me (although I love Pulp Fiction & American Beauty) are a celebration of the angst of seriously flawed individuals. Just because they are portrayed as the most capable or the best looking, they are really just the wishful reflections of narcissistic directors/ producers (Tarantino, Ball, Jackson etc.)
Alec Baldwin is the poster boy for the "I Wish that I was as Cool, Tough, Funny, Sexy and Smart as I Appear in Movies". Example - "Glengarry Glen Ross"
Just like Obama, maybe we just can't stand people pretending to be something they're not. Also, Kevin Costner is no renaissance man no matter how often he says otherwise & Matt Damon is not a genius.
Jul '10
Re: Are There Any Highly Regarded Films Whose Popularity You Cannot Fathom?
I raise eyebrows usually when I say I can't stand watching Saving Private Ryan. Utter post-modern, Spielberg junk. When Tom Hanks says something along the lines of "If I could only do one decent thing in this war..." Because vanquishing Nazi tyranny isn't?
As Mark Steyn so epically skewered it, the message is the opposite of Casablanca, (my favorite movie). It's me and my wants that are what matters, and this messy impersonal war is the thing that doesn't amount to a hill of beans.