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mediocre movies, with notable
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| overrated movies |
| posted by: publius |
11:59 7.30.10 |
i think this is a pretty good list:
http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20406056,00.html
granted, it could be greatly expanded, but a few comments:
1. the way we were
i can't stand barbra streisand in any form, so despite not having see this movie i agree
2. love story
i never got all the hoo-hah with ally mcgraw...
3. the sound of music
i wholeheartedly agree. i've understood the fascination. though i did go to college with one of the von trapp kids and he was a really good guy.
4. his girl friday
looking at this still is enough to make think i wouldn't like this movie
5. lawrence of arabia
never seen it...no strong feeling one way or the other
6. an affair to remember
no opinion
7. the english patient
i actually quite like this movie. part of that has to do with what was going on in my life when i saw it, but i've seen it once or twice since it came out and it holds up for me. make sure to read the book though. the book is much better.
8. 2001: a space odyssey
this should not be on this list. 2001 is seminal and if you're complaint about it is that "i'm bored" then shut the fuck up and go watch the latest ashton kutcher horror show.
9. forrest gump
possibly the most over-rated movie of all time. i HATE HATE HATE forrest gump more than any other movie. EVER. partially because it's bad. but even more so because it released the same year as pulp fiction and the best picture oscar went to forrest gump. shitsucking academy.
the only letter to the editor i have ever written was to the missoulian in missoula montana. it was a borderline rant about forrest gump winning best picture. they printed it, but unfortunately i lost the clipping somewhere along the way. i may have to see what they have for online archives...
10. gone with the wind
i've never seen gone with the wind, and frankly my dear, i don't fucking care.
11. citizen kane
no way it should be on this list. if you approach citizen kane without all the GREATEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME baggage (admittedly almost impossible to do) it's still a very very good film.
12. the exorcist
never saw it. hate horror films.
13. doctor zhivago
wholeheartedly agree on this one, though not for inane reason of the reviewer. it's over-rated because it's turgid crap.
14. wizard of oz
i'm torn on this one. it definitely scared me as a kid (i hated witches) and still makes me feel a bit uneasy and uncomfortable. but it has flying monkeys, so it can't be all bad.
15. close encounters of the third kind
been a long time, but i remember liking it as a kid when it came out
16. singin' in the rain
hate musicals.
17. breakfast at tiffany's
thank you. this movie sucks balls. audrey hepburn is bad. george peppard is bad. jerry lewis should be fucking shot for his portrayal of the chinese super. the world would be a better place if this movie had never been made. much better.
18. philadelphia story
like children, cary grant should be seen and not heard.
19. to kill a mockingbird
thank you once again. sentimental crap that americans use to pat themselves on the back. and i don't care what anyone says, the book is crap too. if it needs to be read at all, let 6th graders read it and then make them read the autobiography of malcolm x. fuck harper lee.
20. annie hall
sorry, i love annie hall. probably because i'm an east coast liberal elitist.
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| roger ebert and i.... |
| posted by: publius |
11:57 5.1.10 |
feel more or less exactly the same about 3d movies.
i've seen avatar and alice in wonderland in 3d. neither were very good (actually avatar was awful and alice was just ok). but the 3d thing just screams gimmick. maybe that will change somewhat as the technology gets better. i tend to find that things standing still or moving slowly look impressively 3d, but things that are moving turn the whole foreground into a 3 dimensional blur. that is not the kind thing which makes me want to pay $17.50 to see a movie...
so i say down with 3d, up with better (2d) movies...
http://www.newsweek.com/id/237110/output/print |
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| holy wow? |
| posted by: publius |
08:51 4.22.10 |
| good grief, grandpa... |
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| invention of lying |
| posted by: horsebeater |
00:56 4.22.10 |
this might even belong in pantheon movies, but actually not quite.
i was excited for a gervais movie, but this got middling reviews and i didn't expect much. not even sure why i rented it. the first 40 minutes go by and its a little too romcommy and the main premise plays out (that only one man in the world can lie) and it's a fun idea and what they do with it is good or ok but not great and you think ... awww shit, they blew their wad, it's probably just going downhill from here.
and then at about minute 45 ... holy wow. it changes up, and to prevent spoilers i won't say how. and the next 15 minutes are great. i mean, the idea is obvious, but they keep delving in and keep you on your toes and it completely works.
ultimately it isn't a great movie. it's a great movie stuffed into a romcom costume, which prohibits it from being great, but it's definitely worth seeing. |
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| ditto |
| posted by: simplicissimus |
17:11 12.28.09 |
wasn't going to see it.
heard mr. waits on npr this morning talking about his role, and i'm there.
this is, after all, a guy who worked for scale on jarmusch's "down by law" so long as a single condition was met: he got to wear a hairnet in a scene.
i never even noticed it until i saw the movie again, but there it is: in a single jail cell scene, without explanation or elaboration or really making any sense at all, he's wearing it.
and for those who still doubt the power of mr. waits, i offer this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3GRtOkmOo4
...fishing...with john. |
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| the imaginarium of dr. parnassus |
| posted by: publius |
14:34 12.28.09 |
i haven't seen this film yet (it gets released here in nyc on 8 january), but i'm wagering that this is the thread in which it will evenutally belong. as a matter of fact i could very well have seen myself skipping it altogether...but then again it is terry gilliam and it is heath ledger's last film, so perhaps that would have tipped the scaled.
but then i saw this:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091228/ap_en_mo/us_film_tom_waits
tom waits as the devil? that alone sold a ticket to me. could be good, could be bad, but come on...it's tom waits.
and in true tom waits fashion, there are some lovely quotes from this article...
"I was about to let him [a mouse he brought to an audition] loose in a vacant lot in Hollywood, and we looked at each other, and I said, `OK, all right,' and I put him in my pocket and I flew home with him. That was before the mouse detectors at the airport."
and it seems that sir tom has the same fixation on scale which has occupied me for a while now and is becoming more and more central to how i see the world we live in and life in general:
"While songwriters such as Nick Cave have branched into screenwriting, Waits said he has no ambitions to spin movie-length stories himself.
'Songs are such a manageable size. People who make films, it's like being the mayor of a town or the governor of a state. You're dealing with transportation and plumbing and cops. I don't think that large. I like the pocket-size films, which is what songs are. Little movies for the ears."
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| re: michael shannon |
| posted by: publius |
12:21 12.10.09 |
as i mentioned in the revolutionary road post below, this guy michael shannon is a wild man. i saw him over the past weekend in werner herzog's "bad lieutenant" port of call new orleans", and tomorrow will see him in ANOTHER new herzog film (introduced by werner himself, live and in the flesh), "my son, my son what have ye done".
it looks like mr. shannon is finally getting his turn at leading roles, and doing it in a werner herzog-directed, david lynch produced film, no less...that's quite a cool career trajectory one year on from upstaging di caprio and winslet with 5 minutes of screen time...
i think i should quit architecture and become a hollywood agent... |
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| Pope of Greenwhich Village |
| posted by: prankmonkey |
14:17 3.5.09 |
Just caught part of this last night. It is particularly notable for featuring both 1) Eric Roberts carrying his own goddamn jockstrap ("They took my thumb! Charlie! It hurts so much!!!"), and 2) Rourke eating assholes left, right and center ("Get over here! Get the fuck over here! No, don't come over here.")
It also features a young Daryl Hannah shooting off the uber-hotness chart as the ultimately disillusioned aerobics instructor girlfriend. |
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| rourke |
| posted by: horsebeater |
20:50 2.25.09 |
check out these performances
"not many girls can climb the pole" (complimenting marisa tomei)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/feb/22/spirit-awards-golden-raspberries-oscars
"i shoulda been in that gay movie"
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=rourke%20gay%20movie&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&oe=utf8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wv#
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| mickey rourke... |
| posted by: publius |
13:48 2.15.09 |
i haven't seen the wrestler, and will probably (check that, definitely) wait until it's available on netflix to watch it...but i must say i'm enjoying mickey rourke clusterfuck that is going on leading up to the oscars...
because if you listen to mickey rourke, sometimes he says things like this:
"You take Alec Baldwin and Daniel Day-Lewis and Kevin Costner and put me in something [with them] and I'll eat their assholes" (1994)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/feb/15/mickey-rourke-did-i-say-that
good to have you back mickey... |
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| the wrestler |
| posted by: simplicissimus |
18:37 1.3.09 |
there was a lot to love about this movie.
the music. the line about cobain. and it really is a perfect role for him.
sadly, though, it did seem to wallow in cliche at the end, especially. in any event, worth checking out - you may never make fun of hair metal music again (time and again i was like "hey, ratt! ha! ha! wait, this kind of rocks - no it really rocks!") |
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| revolutionary road |
| posted by: publius |
19:25 1.2.09 |
| i was bored today and this was the only movie playing at the closest movie theater to my apartment that i wanted to see. overall it's not a very good movie (typical sam mendes fodder). however, the performance by the michael shannon as the crazy son of acquaintances of the protagonists is worth the price of admission. he's not on screen for all that long, and the movie as a whole is a bit of a slog...but it's worth the effort if you're looking for a random movie to check out... |
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| michael clayton |
| posted by: horsebeater |
22:49 2.24.08 |
i actually decided to see this, got the wifebeater's permission and everything and was JUST about to leave when I read publius's above post and thought "Uh-oh." But it helped, since it only lowered my expectations for a damn good movie.
It was two films: first, a smart well-paced, interesting corporate crime thriller. not awesome in and of itself, the bad guys a little too plastic and uber-evil. the action wasn't particularly interesting, but that helped in some ways because it let the movie keep its realism. second, a character piece on how mind jarring and morality twisting corporate life and big-firm lawyering can be. again, nothing staggering in the little insights, but good shit.
i don't know how well the second message translates. as someone who works at the big firm, and as someone who is also more likely than average to freak-out while on the job, i could relate in a lot of ways. so the character drama side of it was fascinating and spot-on to me.
the combination of the two was original and while a bit forced, it wasn't too forced. the movie has its flaws, but it's as good as the average best-picture nomination in most years. i was quite pleased. |
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| you're spot on with lebowski.. |
| posted by: publius |
21:54 2.24.08 |
and i'd actually been meaning to post about that at some point. i would add that it's very much about how even someone as as "off the grid" as the dude is very much affeted by what's going in th world and how it's spun by those in power...thus all of the bush-isms ("this aggression will not stand [man]") that make it into his speech. but that's part of what made lebowski so great...it was hilarious even if you look at it as nothing more than a movie about some slackers bowling in la. there was no beat you over the head, "there's a larger meaning" thing going on. it was there, and if you got it (it certainly took me more than once to "figure it out" to any degree of personal satisfaction) then more power to you.
no country...yeah, there are larger issues being addressed...but they're largely expressed through tommy lee jones voice overs and that train wreck of an ending. there are things i liked about it...any film which kills off its protagonist is likely to get at least a few points in my book. but i just couldn't gt past the javier bardem bit and the feeling that i was watching a re-hash of "lone star" (want to see a good modern western AND get kris kristofferson? see "lone star").
i felt that
1. in the coen brothers' oeuvre, this wasn't their best
2. much like "there will be blood", it was a fine movie but all of this gushing over how it so great swings me the opposite way...i like the role of counterbalance.
my bitter is showing? i don't think i'd have it, nor do i think it's ever been, any other way... |
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| publius, you better check the |
| posted by: simplicissimus |
21:07 2.24.08 |
your bitter is showing!
look, i think the bardem line about the air-gun and the haircut is something i have and will be quoting (without attribution) for years to come.
but don't you think you're being just a wee bit over the top?
i'll give you juno...to a point. i thought it was a funny and pleasant enough movie, though i will say that i thought it was "too" funny (that 16 year old had more witty, snappy lines in the first 10 minutes than most people have in their entire life) at times and then all the sudden "too" serious (jason bateman is really a creep!).
and i haven't seem michael clayton, so i can't comment.
but "no country" was a fine little picture. i am also bummed by the attention bardem is getting...but the film itself? come on, man. the thing about the coen brothers' films is that they are fantastic about making much, much, much larger points about america in a given time and place.
nobody pays any attention to it, and i've been pushing it for years, but for all of its comic brilliance, the big lebowski is very much about vietnam and the persian gulf war. don't believe me? next time you watch it, keep that fact in mind (all the way down to the persian rug).
no country is the same...just like all the others. it's a great story, with a lot to say about what america was, is, and is becoming. and if you can do that while telling a great story? i don't care what you say, you've done something damn good. |
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| i can think of at least 3 of t |
| posted by: publius |
11:15 2.24.08 |
juno (though this one barely qualifies)
michael clayton
no country for old men
and i'm sure i'd be able to think of two others but i haven't seen them yet and will give them the benefit of the doubt.
and can we talk about javier bardem for a second....friendo. i like javier bardem as an actor (before night falls, dancer upstairs) but this character was ridiculous. he's one step away from the slasher villains of our youth ("but he so perfectly exemplifies the arbitrary and unchangeable nature of fate"...give me a fucking break). if he wins he damned well better thank that haircut and that air-compressor, because they're the true winners....
apparently the new hip position is not to hate the oscars...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/movies/awardsseason/24carr.html
...but to accept them as the celebration of mass-market consumer-driven mediocrity that they are (the pretty dresses! the thrill of victory! the agony of defeat! the pretty dresses!). whatever. just because someone gives me a shit sandwich when i'm hungry doesn't mean i'm going to eat it. fuck the oscars. |
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| some like it hot |
| posted by: horsebeater |
22:36 2.23.08 |
this movie reminds me of all of the reasons that i always thought i would hate old movies. a silly plot that you clearly aren't meant to take seriously; it's just a vehicle for the "comedy," except there isn't much of that.
men dressed like women! HAHAHAHA. that's hilarious! it's the gift that keeps on giving, so let's make 50 lame jokes about it! Jack Lemmon is enjoying being a woman and falling for a guy! hahaha! and how about lying to try to get women to sleep with you! that's always good for laughs.
unbelievably, it was rated the FUNNIEST american movie of the last 100 years. I went in thinking "my perceptions must be wrong; to be rated the funniest movie, it must be at least decent." Now I have 0 confidence in the AFI after this.
even marilyn monroe wasn't all that hot in it. starting to get a little chunky in the arms by this stage.
http://www.afi.com/tvevents/100years/laughs.aspx
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| saw "this old cub" this weeken |
| posted by: horsebeater |
09:50 1.7.08 |
it is a documentary by ron santo (maybe this goes in the "for the chicago denizens" thread, actually) about his career, his bout with diabetes and his campaign to get into the hall of fame. a lot of it isn't really game footage or anything like that, but more people just talking about how great santo was and how much they love him and then showing santo with no legs. it gets old. it would've been a nice 30 minute WGN special. a 90-minute documentary it isn't.
the best part is probably when santo's name is being put before the baseball hall of fame veteran's committee for the first time and all kinds of people come out of the woodwork (willie mays, mccovey, gammons' quote: "i've been saying for 15 years that he's the best player not in the hall of fame") to support him, so santo clearly thinks that he's gonna make it, so he invites scores of media to his house to watch him receive the phone call from the HOF. him getting called and told him didn't make it with the kleig lights in his living room and cameras going off like crazy made viewing the thing worthwhile. you felt bad for the guy. |
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