Critically Praised Movies you Hated

[TKz]

Butterfly Effect is pretty piss poor too. Not that it's critically praised, but it's another one I had to suffer through constant adoration of when doing Film Studies with a class of 16 year olds who hadn't seen anything better. >_>

[GoGo Yubari]

The best thing about Donnie Darko is that on the DVD, they have the full video of Patrick Swayze's character's self-help thing and a fake commentary track of the director and cinematographer, who spend the whole time bitching at each other about who ate the last donut at catering. It's hilarious.

The worst thing about Donnie Darko is a lot of other stuff about Donnie Darko.

[Your Mom]

Butterfly Effect is pretty piss poor too. Not that it's critically praised, but it's another one I had to suffer through constant adoration of when doing Film Studies with a class of 16 year olds who hadn't seen anything better. >_>

That made me sad. I like the concept a lot, but the execution not near as much.

[TKz]

A lot of my contempt for these films comes from how overhyped their quality is, not so much the films themselves. Fight Club is a fine enough film, but it's fanbase would have you believe it's this generations Citizen Kane because... I dunno, Edward Norton still cared at that point.

[Hobo]

I liked Whip It more than I liked Juno. I think that's all I've ever seen Ellen Page do, though.

Juno is alright. Whip It, oh God, Whip It. We get it, you're quirky and indie! Stop hammering us over the head with it.

I thought Inception was pretty okay. I didn't think it was particularly high concept. The Cinema Snob called it a ' basically a heist movie' and that's all it is. It just takes place in a guys head.

The Dark Knight is okay, I guess, too.

I don't get The Lord of the Rings, I couldn't be bothered with any of the films after Fellowship.

Titanic is too long.

Didn't think much of The Matrix and didn't bother with any of the rest of them.

[Your Mom]

A lot of my contempt for these films comes from how overhyped their quality is, not so much the films themselves. Fight Club is a fine enough film, but it's fanbase would have you believe it's this generations Citizen Kane because... I dunno, Edward Norton still cared at that point.

Yeah that happens to me all the time. I do like Fight Club but hated when people used to try and act cool by quoting it.

[LL!]

TheKazarian has made one of the better assessments of Fight Club I've ever read in that post. He also hasn't even seen the topic I made for him.

[TKz]

TheKazarian has made one of the better assessments of Fight Club I've ever read in that post. He also hasn't even seen the topic I made for him.

Sometimes I post good things. It's not often, but if you pay attention, it happens!

Also there's a topic just for me!?

And yeah, hated is too strong a word, but I found Inception to be somewhat underwhelming. It wasn't bad at all, just not everything I'd been told to expect.

[OctoberRaven]

I agree on the lack of likable characters than it was really, really, really pretentious at times. It's not nearly as deep as fanboys suggest (Seriously, it's just a suicide allegory. Nothing much more than that). But I didn't think it was that bad. Not a great movie either, but had a few good moments.

I was mostly surprised that it got as much as hate as it does. Though I guess given that it is a junior film student's golden cow, it makes sense...

Edited October 19, 2012 by OctoberRavenO

[GoGo Yubari]

Okay, yeah, being fair a lot of my hatred for Donnie Darko stems from its fanbase. On its own it's mostly a quirky indie movie.

[Jimmy]

A lot of my contempt for these films comes from how overhyped their quality is, not so much the films themselves. Fight Club is a fine enough film, but it's fanbase would have you believe it's this generations Citizen Kane because... I dunno, Edward Norton still cared at that point.

I'd say it's similar to Pulp Fiction in the sense that it's a movie that turns a lot of people from this generation onto film. It's accessable because it has stars people can recognise in a contempary setting and it happens to be a really fucking good film (or I think so, anyway.) So people are going to see it through rose tinted glasses because, for a lot of people, they haven't seen many critically acclaimed films and it's what gets them into film. I happen to love the film, but I can get why people may tire of being told it's the greatest film ever made or whatever.

I'm not sure I phrased that right, but I think it's why Fight Club is really popular with a younger generation.

[TKz]

A lot of my contempt for these films comes from how overhyped their quality is, not so much the films themselves. Fight Club is a fine enough film, but it's fanbase would have you believe it's this generations Citizen Kane because... I dunno, Edward Norton still cared at that point.

I'd say it's similar to Pulp Fiction in the sense that it's a movie that turns a lot of people from this generation onto film. It's accessable because it has stars people can recognise in a contempary setting and it happens to be a really fucking good film (or I think so, anyway.) So people are going to see it through rose tinted glasses because, for a lot of people, they haven't seen many critically acclaimed films and it's what gets them into film. I happen to love the film, but I can get why people may tire of being told it's the greatest film ever made or whatever.

I'm not sure I phrased that right, but I think it's why Fight Club is really popular with a younger generation.

That about sums it up, yeah. My problem isn't so much that they like it and think it's great, it's when you get a class full of these kids throwing out Fight Club as their favorite film when asked. Then you have an actual conversation with them and they're like "Fuck man, Pirates of the Caribbean? Pretty much my favorite film ever." And it's like... there's no shame in your favorite film not being some artsy flick that won awards! It doesn't make you any less intelligent about film!

[probablyoliver]

Maybe it's just because I haven't had the displeasure of coming across any Fight Club superfans but I'd say it's a terrific film and deserves every accolade it gets. Watched it for the first time in years a few months ago with my ex as she'd never seen it and I thought it'd aged fantastically well.

[zero]

The Shining... yeah, I said it.

Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful movie, there are many iconic horror moments that are genuinely terrifying: the twins, the elevator, "here's Johnny," furries before furries were a thing... but Shelley Duvall is unbearable, it drags and it has nothing on the book in terms of being scary. I generally hate "the book was better" snobs, but yeah, the book was better.

I still watch it every single time it's on TV (it's on BBC America right now), but it is nowhere near as good as people make it out to be.

The Hangover

It's actually a solid comedy, but the fact that they gave away all the best jokes in the trailer pissed me off so bad that I hated the movie.

And seriously, fuck A Christmas Story.

[Damian WayLNKe]

Just finished watching The Shining miniseries which Stephen King had a close hand in so it stays very close to the book. Steven Weber was awesome as Jack. The most iconic line from it: "Hello, you old bitch. You're just as ugly in wintertime as you are in summertime."

[zero]

I haven't watched the Weber version since it aired in 97, but I remember enjoying it in a made-for-TV kind of way.

[GA!]

Donnie Darko is one of my favourite films. The fanbase and supplemental reading material can fuck right off though. I take atmosphere over 'official' explanations any day of the week.

[deli]

Has anyone brought up Avatar yet? Fucking hated that film.

[Noah]

I have the world's worst attention span.

I struggle to sit through long movies and I sometimes struggle to read a book of any great length.

Yet even i sat through and enjoyed all of the LOTR's movies. If it was that much of a chore to do so, i'd not have been able to.

I don't even care for fantasy normally.

[RPS]

Some more movies I realized I did not like that critics loved:

The Godfather (Marlon Brando's performance just kills the whole movie for me. People like it, but it is to over the top for me)

The New Batman trilogy (Nolan sucked the fun and camp out of Batman. I know he is basing it on an entirely different source material. I just always associate Batman with a bit of humor and fun, and Nolan's steers clear of it)

The Usual Suspects (iconic ending, everything up until that point was, in my opinion, pretty mediocre)

Memento (cute gimmick, but not executed very well. When I hear people say 'you'll wanna watch it twice to figure out everything' I always say 'that's not really a good thing...')

Actually, I'd probably go on record as saying I really have disliked everything Nolan has done as a director with the exception of Insomnia (a pretty good film) and Inception (I don't like Nolan, so I've avoided watching this movie).