The Most Grossly Overrated Movies Ever
Have you ever seen a movie that you thought was not worth the ubiquitous praise it received from critics and moviegoers alike? Have you ever felt like you were in the minority for thinking that a movie was just blasé instead of being groundbreaking and influential? I am certain that you are not alone.
Before you grab your pitchforks and light your torches, I want to clarify that some of these selections are not, in my opinion, bad films. To be overrated is not to be terrible by any means. I just can’t bring myself to qualify them in the very high regard that so many other critics and filmaholics have bestowed upon them.
This compilation (not in any order) will, no doubt, frustrate some that hold these films very dear to their hearts. That’s fine. I am not out to please anyone else but yours truly. Moreover, I should make a very conscious effort to emphasize that my picks here are based on a few criteria:
a) Films that were critically lauded, but were works that I did not feverishly revere and/or
b) Films that seemed collectively precious and respected by filmgoers (and are highly rated on IMDB), but ones that I did not find so awe-inspiring and resoundingly triumphant.
So hold on to the urge of using your pitchforks and read on...!
Before you grab your pitchforks and light your torches, I want to clarify that some of these selections are not, in my opinion, bad films. To be overrated is not to be terrible by any means. I just can’t bring myself to qualify them in the very high regard that so many other critics and filmaholics have bestowed upon them.
This compilation (not in any order) will, no doubt, frustrate some that hold these films very dear to their hearts. That’s fine. I am not out to please anyone else but yours truly. Moreover, I should make a very conscious effort to emphasize that my picks here are based on a few criteria:
a) Films that were critically lauded, but were works that I did not feverishly revere and/or
b) Films that seemed collectively precious and respected by filmgoers (and are highly rated on IMDB), but ones that I did not find so awe-inspiring and resoundingly triumphant.
So hold on to the urge of using your pitchforks and read on...!
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- DirectorDavid LynchStarsNaomi WattsLaura HarringJustin TherouxAfter a car wreck on Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.IMDB Rating: 8.0/10
My Rating: 6.0/10
It was touted as the best movie of the new millenium. But when I finally saw Mulholland Drive, I absolutely despised it. To be honest, I think that David Lynch is a narcissist who is so enamored by his own creativity that he made a film incomprehensible to everyone but himself.
On a visual level, it has moments of flash and dynamism, but the story and themes of the film are such a nauseating bag of incoherent psychobabble, the kind that only comes from a cocky artist who thinks he is smarter and wiser than his audience. Lynch has famously declined to offer up explanations behind the film’s impenetrable story and themes, maybe because, deep down, he does not know what his film is about either.
Even after a decade, it remains one of those films that's just weird for the sake of being weird. - DirectorRobert BressonStarsAnne WiazemskyWalter GreenFrançois LafargeThe story of a mistreated donkey and the people around him. A study on saintliness and a sister piece to Bresson's Mouchette.IMDB Rating: 7.9/10
My Rating: 4.4/10
The story of a mistreated donkey and the people around him doesn't sound all that bad. But Robert Bresson takes this idea and drags it out painstakingly over 95 tiresome minutes, such that all the appeal of the central idea has pretty much evaporated by the film’s end and it seems almost 950 minutes long. While Bresson clearly has some inspired ideas, he can’t seem to make head or tail of them, resulting in this dull, plodding, unremittingly incomprehensible drama. The acting on display here is one of the worst ever committed to the silver screen with the actors almost sleepwalking their way through the proceedings. To add to that, the script is so leaden that there is almost zero narrative impetus to drive things forward.
If you have heard a donkey hee-haw before, you might as well watch this on mute! You won’t be missing much! - DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsMax von SydowGunnar BjörnstrandBengt EkerotA knight returning to Sweden after the Crusades seeks answers about life, death, and the existence of God as he plays chess against the Grim Reaper during the Black Plague.IMDB Rating: 8.3/10
My Rating: 5.0/10
Three years after I first saw The Seventh Seal, all I remember of it is the often-parodied image of the Grim Reaper playing chess. Well, dont blame me for it; there was nothing quite memorable about the movie!
The first time I tried to watch it, I fell asleep before the half-way point. The second time, I drank two cups of coffee beforehand. Thus fortified with enough caffeine to keep me from dozing off, I viewed all of The Seventh Seal. When it was over, I wished I had fallen asleep. It’s a case of Bergman having a visually lavish, intelligent concept, and then failing to really go anywhere with it until those haunting final moments. It’s further troubling because Bergman has broached far more troubling and challenging ideas than this in other films with far greater success; that this film is heralded as a classic, and is to many his best film, is absolutely baffling.
Don’t ‘put yourself back in the time it was made’ or do anything else to let it off the hook, just watch it for what it actually is. I am sure you will realize, The Seventh Seal is pretty freaking boring! - DirectorZack SnyderStarsJackie Earle HaleyPatrick WilsonCarla GuginoIn a version of 1985 where superheroes exist, the murder of a colleague sends active vigilante Rorschach on the trail of a conspiracy that will change the course of history.IMDB Rating: 7.6/10
My Rating: 5.1/10
Let me not beat around the bush and set the record straight. Watchmen is the worst comic book movie I have ever seen. In fact, it is one of the worst movies I have had the misfortune to sit through.
Watchmen calls itself a super hero movie but to be honest it isn't one. It's a pretentious turkey that thinks it's better than the genre. It is a perfect storm of all the worst aspects of the genre, including a dispiriting appetite for pornographic brutality, vacuous characters and abominable acting. As a movie, Watchmen bites off more than a single film can chew, and chokes on its gluttony.
Watchmen left me looking at the exit far more often than at the screen. One more close-up shot of the Doctor's lower Manhattan and I would have run screaming from the theater! - DirectorDavid LynchStarsIsabella RosselliniKyle MacLachlanDennis HopperThe discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminals who have kidnapped her child.IMDB Rating: 7.8/10
My Rating: 5.0/10
Already let down by what is considered as Lynch's greatest 'Mulholland Drive', I was foolish enough to watch his 'second best work'. And to say that I was dissapointed would be an understatement.
Blue Velvet is downright boring most of the time. Since the characters are so out there (and so fake, one could argue), it's impossible to identify with anyone.
Often seen as the work of an ingenious artist, Blue Velvet is just artsy-fartsy work of incredulous and sanctimonious self-indulgence. The movie isn't about David Lynch's view of the world, it's about David Lynch; he isn't interested in communicating, he's interested in parading his personality. The movie doesn't progress or deepen, it just gets weirder, and to no good end. - DirectorAlfonso CuarónStarsJulianne MooreClive OwenChiwetel EjioforIn 2027, in a chaotic world in which women have somehow become infertile, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea.IMDB Rating: 7.9/10
My Rating: 5.4/10
The year is 2027. Famine and pestilence rage unchecked. Infertility is rampant, and the world's youngest person has died at 18. Worst of all, the movies are dull!
The plot of Children of Men showed a lot of promise, but what it ended up being is a stylish mish-mash of dystopian clichés. The story, despite its nominally fascinating nature, never barrels forth the way it needs to. It plods. How a director as versatile and inventive as Cuarón managed that is a mystery greater than any found in the film.
Though certain scenes in the film show sparks of Cuaron's brilliance, the rest of the movie is bleak and pedantic and never rings true. Yawwwwwwn! - DirectorRichard KellyStarsJake GyllenhaalJena MaloneMary McDonnellAfter narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.IMDB Rating: 8.1/10
My Rating: 6.1/10
Here's another one that can get me in trouble. But, I am not holding back here. No one can convince me that this is an intelligent film. You can't.
Described as 'cool', 'classic' and 'cult' by various beret-wearing critics, Donnie Darko has become one of those films that everybody likes because nobody wants to say "actually, it's wank". "Oh you just didn't understand it" will be the outcry from Darko fans convinced they have a secret understanding of movies that nobody else possibly could. No, I understood it perfectly well. For me, it's a movie with some creepy images and a nightmare-inducing rabbit suit, but all in all, it's just a pretentious mess.
And I'm sorry but no matter how high it ranks on the IMDB 250, you can't convince me otherwise. We'll just have to agree to disagree. - DirectorTerry JonesStarsGraham ChapmanJohn CleeseMichael PalinBorn on the original Christmas in the stable next door to Jesus Christ, Brian of Nazareth spends his life being mistaken for a messiah.IMDB Rating: 8.2/10
My Rating: 5.4/10
I quite enjoyed Monty Python's Holy Grail, so I was really excited about watching Life of Brian. But when I finally managed to see it, I realised what a sorry excuse of a movie it was.
The whole 2 hours was overrated schlock and vapid dross. The major issue with Life of Brian is the characters are often flat, emotionless, stripped down travesties that speak their mind and act rashly on freewill. They’re so stylized and doped up, that they become caricatures of themselves and make audiences lose interest quickly. It’s uniqueness cannot be ignored and it sure has it's moments (like an exasperated Brian rounding on his ever-growing band of disciples - "Alright, I am the Messiah, now will you all *beep* off?" Pure class!).
But it shouldn’t be praised like the second coming of Christ on every favorite comedies list either. - DirectorAndrei TarkovskyStarsNatalya BondarchukDonatas BanionisJüri JärvetA psychologist is sent to a station orbiting a distant planet in order to discover what has caused the crew to go insane.IMDB Rating: 8.1/10
My Rating: 5.6/10
The storyline of Solaris - featuring the mysterious Solaris and the supernatural effect is seems to have on people - is undeniably quite intriguing, but is rendered frustratingly obtuse by Tarkovsky's heavy-handed style. Tarkovsky keeps all his characters at arms-length from the viewer, which prevents us from making any kind of emotional connection to them. Moreover. the movie has some serious pacing issues, sometimes being as slow as molasses.
There's absolutely no flow here; the screenplay lurches from one sequence to the next, with no concern for how it affects the whole. It's impossible to discern what Tarkovsky's aim was, especially in the way his camera lingers oppressively on things that mean absolutely nothing. Perhaps he wanted to viewer to experience the feeling of going slowly mad just like the crew on board, in which case, he's succeeded brilliantly! - DirectorMichael CiminoStarsRobert De NiroChristopher WalkenJohn CazaleAn in-depth examination of the ways in which the Vietnam War impacts and disrupts the lives of several friends in a small steel mill town in Pennsylvania.IMDB Rating: 8.2/10
My Rating: 6.1/10
At three hours long, The Deer Hunter is long and feels long. Mostly because very little happens in it. I keep catching myself really wanting to exonerate The Deer Hunter, because the Russian roulette metaphor, when thought about, is sort of brilliant, and those scenes are wrenching and well-directed. Yet maybe that is precisely the reason that The Deer Hunter has to be thrown out. I can’t figure out either why this movie had to be about Vietnam or why it even had to be about a war. The film gains its power from the juxtaposition of the implications of the Russian roulette scenes with its Vietnam setting, but on examination the two seem totally unrelated.
The setting is so dreary, and Cimino’s love for blood and death is so deep, that after three hours it’s hard to believe he’d be a sucker for resilience of American character. Instead, he gives us a hollow movie that only play-acted at meaning; the sucker was us. - DirectorOrson WellesGary GraverOja KodarStarsOrson WellesOja KodarFrançois ReichenbachA documentary about fraud and fakery.IMDB Rating: 7.8/10
My Rating: 5.4/10
F for Fake is a curios, unsatisfactory pastiche of documentary tidbits acquired from Reichenbach and speculative filler supplied by Welles himself, who appears prowling around in his Felliniesque hat and cape, performing a couple of magic tricks and mostly pontificating about himself, Hughes, Irving, de Hory and the nature of art and illusion in the editing room or at the dinner table.
Welles' speculation don't clarify the difference between authenticity and fakery, between originality and imitation. What's worse, they don't even obscure the difference in an entertaining or revealing way. In his desperation to prove something he probably doesn't believe in, Welles falls back on garrulity and false humility. Aided by his protege, Oja Kodar, he pretends to fox us with a shaggy dog art forgery story.
Unfortunately, time has enhanced both the documentary and human interest of the original interview material while tarnishing Welles' sometimes dexterous but essentially fatuous interpolations and commentary. - DirectorShane BlackStarsRobert Downey Jr.Val KilmerMichelle MonaghanAfter being mistaken for an actor, a New York thief is sent to Hollywood to train under a private eye for a potential movie role, but the duo are thrown together with a struggling actress into a murder mystery.IMDB Rating: 7.7/10
My Rating: 5.4/10
Okay, before everyone gets ready to crucify me, let me confess: I saw this movie nine years ago and all I remember today, is I didn't enjoy it back then. I have been wanting to revisit it ever since, but haven't had the chance. So while I am at it, I will still go ahead and list this one as grossly overrated!
From what I recollect, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang spends so much time trying to be hip and clever that it just failed to entertain me. The movie wants to be cheeky with an extra wink wink nudge nudge, but it's more of a mess than a farce. It turns into a film that is too ostentatiously pleased with itself, so in love with its own cleverness it doesn't notice it's darn near worn you out.
The result is an occasionally funny and entertaining film that ultimately tries too hard and cannot maintain the breakneck pace that the first act antes up. In the end, it's more exhausting than thrilling. - DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsVictor SjöströmBibi AnderssonIngrid ThulinAfter living a life marked by coldness, an aging professor is forced to confront the emptiness of his existence.IMDB Rating: 8.3/10
My Rating: 6.2/10
As if I had not gone through enough trouble trying to understand what Ingmar Bergman was trying to convey in his "beautifully poetic and allegorical The Seventh Seal", that he decided to come up with another "masterpiece"!
To be honest, Wild Strawberries was not as pointless a film as the former. But that's not to say it was a masterpiece! Many people deeply identify with Professor Isak’s pre-mortem ruminations in the movie, but I confess I’m not one of them. This kind of realism-based movie conjures no magic for me.
I frankly think the movie is sub-par, overwhelmingly oppresive in its obvious imagery - crucifixion motifs and non-sequitur dream sequences. In fact, at times it is so thoroughly mystifying that I wonder whether Mr. Bergman himself knew what he was trying to say! - DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsBibi AnderssonLiv UllmannMargaretha KrookA nurse is put in charge of a mute actress and finds that their personae are melding together.IMDB Rating: 8.2/10
My Rating: 5.6/10
Persona is another one of Ingmar Berman’s “classics” which is shamelessly overrated. While there is no denying that his films are thoroughly cinematic, and it is hard to think of another director who uses the camera so well to capture his characters, I found Persona as empty as his other works.
Here’s a case of critics making the fatal assumption that just because something dares to go against the grain, it is worthy. Critics at the time were so taken with the film’s rejection of contemporary Hollywood that they jumped on it like a tiger on a T-bone steak hailing it as visionary and original. But when I finally caught up with Bergman’s “seminal entry into the new wave cinema”, I found it to be a piece of pseudo-intellectual trash.
Thankfully, this doesn’t have the same beguilingly untouchable reputation as The Seventh Seal, whereby attacking it is considered tantamount to sacrilege. But that doesn’t make the film any better. Like a vast majority of his work, Persona is tedious and excruciatingly boring. All the while, as I was trying my best to stay awake while watching Persona, I was constantly wondering – Exactly where did the outsized reputation of Mr. Bergman come from? - DirectorHayao MiyazakiStarsChieko BaishôTakuya KimuraTatsuya GashûinWhen an unconfident young woman is cursed with an old body by a spiteful witch, her only chance of breaking the spell lies with a self-indulgent yet insecure young wizard and his companions in his legged, walking castle.IMDB Rating: 8.2/10
My Rating: 6.9/10
Although Howl's Moving Castle had some great animation (most notably the 'castle' of the title) and some interesting concepts, the plot was so senseless in so many places that I found myself shaking my head wondering why the hell was I watching this pathetic excuse of a fantasy.
A lot of action is thrown at us, without any explanation: Evil beings inexplicably become good; characters set out on quests that aren’t really all that necessary; wars happen for no reason other than to remind us that war is bad; people fly through the air just because it looks cool. All of these things are painstakingly laid out before us, designed to make us clasp our hands in delight but never to stop to ask, “Why?” — or even the more deadly question, “Who cares?”
I don't mind films that leave a certain amount of exposition up to the viewers interpretation, but there needs to be some rhythm and/or an actual reason for the basic story of a movie. No answers here. This movie will leave you 'howl'ing for some answers! - DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsTakashi ShimuraNobuo KanekoShin'ichi HimoriA bureaucrat tries to find meaning in his life after he discovers he has terminal cancer.IMDB Rating: 8.4/10
My Rating: 7.1/10
A squandered opportunity, Ikiru is a yawn-inducing piece of otherwise mostly fascinating Japanese cinema from the '50s. I've seen numerous obscure Japanese movies from that period that outshine, in every respect, this alleged 'masterpiece' by the usually masterful Akira Kurosawa.
There is some of the most over the top acting I have ever seen in this movie. People give very loud laughs, crying screams, and if shyness and loneliness can be acted in an over the top manner, this movie certainly has that too.The lack of any subtlety in the movie script, as well as in the overly naive and comical overacting, is what makes this movie almost insufferable at times.
Everything we’re meant to feel here is bluntly dictated by the script and delivered with unambiguous, button-pushing direction. Not really Kurosawa's finest hour! - DirectorJoel CoenEthan CoenStarsJeff BridgesJohn GoodmanJulianne MooreJeff "The Dude" Lebowski, mistaken for a millionaire of the same name, seeks restitution for his ruined rug and enlists his bowling buddies to help get it.IMDB Rating: 8.2/10
My Rating: 6.3/10
Well, let's not wait for me to give you all the ammo to shoot me both barrels in the face with. I know there are millions out there who would want to do just that right now! But if you allow me, let me say this...
The Big Lebowski is not a bad film, far from it. It just isn't one of the best films ever made. This is a Coen film through and through and I enjoy their quirks. However, I've always felt this one pushes the Coens' oddball style further than it should and that makes it less enjoyable of a film.
The Big Lebowski is popularly recognized as Coen Brothers' greatest film. Now you see, that is where the trouble lies. To say that for someone who's repertoire inlcudes classics like Fargo, Miller's Crossing among other greats, is certainly stretching it too far! - DirectorDavid LeanStarsPeter O'TooleAlec GuinnessAnthony QuinnThe story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.IMDB Rating: 8.4/10
My Rating: 7.3/10
Another film that’s considered sacrilegious to slag off! But before you close the page, let me plead my case. Lawrence of Arabia is in no way, shape, or form, a bad film. It has technical and cinematographic achievements that are still some of the best ever.
But as far as storylines go, I could never attach myself emotionally to anyone or anything that was happening. I recognize the greatness in its technical aptitude, but as a film I was rather bored. And this isn’t a film you don’t 'get', like the pretentious masses like to say. The story is rather straightforward. It just isn’t very interesting and plods along in the desert a bit too long for my tastes.
Peter O’Toole gives a more than decent performance with the material he is given, but the material is a little soggy… even in the desert sand! - DirectorRobert ZemeckisStarsTom HanksRobin WrightGary SiniseThe history of the United States from the 1950s to the '70s unfolds from the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75, who yearns to be reunited with his childhood sweetheart.IMDB Rating: 8.8/10
My Rating: 7.3/10
Ok, incase I just about manage to survive the backlash from Lebowski lovers, this one sure is going to send me packing to my graveyard.
For me, Forrest Gump was as awkward, clumsy and cheesy as its gumpy title suggests. The entire script feels like a whiff of a first draft. Sure, it provides the basic outline of a film, but it fails to flesh out its ideas with any distinction. Even with all the nostalgia of Vietnam, AIDS, and growing up in the south, the film was flat and dull just like the comely narrator America was so in love with. Not saying the film was complete *beep* but its no masterpiece.
Overall, I think this was just a letdown that people refuse to admit is such. - DirectorJean-Pierre JeunetStarsAudrey TautouMathieu KassovitzRufusDespite being caught in her imaginative world, Amelie, a young waitress, decides to help people find happiness. Her quest to spread joy leads her on a journey where she finds true love.IMDB Rating: 8.5/10
My Rating: 7.2/10
No film in recent memory is as wildly, absurdly overrated as Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s silly farce Amelie, which begins well, but soon crumbles under the weight of its own self-conscious quirkiness. Though there is a lot of invention in the film, Audrey Tatou does verge on the irritating from time to time, because her character is just too precious and keen to be different.
It’s supposed to be quaint and quirky, but comes off overwritten and kind of phoney. Though there are a lot of good individual scenes, the whole thing falls apart when Amelie goes looking for love, and the cuteness is ratcheted up to near-unbearable levels.
Millions of proto hipsters might hold this up like the bible, but I put it down like a light read. - DirectorWerner HerzogStarsTimothy TreadwellAmie HuguenardWerner HerzogA devastating and heart-rending take on grizzly bear activists Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard, who were killed in October of 2003 while living among grizzly bears in Alaska.IMDB Rating: 7.8/10
My Rating: 7.0/10
Although at first, Grizzly Man might seem like a nature film, it's really more of a character study of Treadwell. Sadly, this man, who believed so much in the animals who he befriended, comes across as a bit of a laughing stock. Much of the blame can be pinned on the documentary's director Werner Herzog.
Herzog tends to permeate every frame of his own work, adding his own commentary and analysis to all of Treadwell's footage. Maybe if Herzog weren't such an opinionated filmmaker in his own right, you might be able to appreciate Treadwell's childlike innocence, but the way that it's colored by Herzog, Treadwell comes across like an escaped mental patient. Herzog's manipulations are the most apparent during some of the interviews in scenes which are clearly staged and rather clumsily. At one point, the coroner who did Treadwell's autopsy gives his good friend Jewel Palovak, one of the film's many executive producers, the watch found in Treadwell's remains. It's a scene that seems so contrived that it takes the film further away from seeming like a documentary and makes you wonder if this whole thing is an elaborate hoax.
On the plus side, Treadwell's nature footage is quite beautiful, showing scenes that no other human has ever seen. But I believe that alone cannot grant it a place in every other Best Documentary list, can it? - DirectorYavuz TurgulStarsSener SenUgur YücelSermin HürmeriçBaran the Bandit, released from prison after 35 years, searches for vengeance and his lover.IMDB Rating: 8.6/10
My Rating: 7.0/10
Betrayed by the glowing reviews, I decided to explore the uncharted Turkish filmdom and what better way to start than the movie hailed as the ‘rebirth of Turkish cinema’? I went into The Bandit with a lot of anticipation but what I got instead was a soullessly incoherent film that takes itself a little too seriously to be enjoyable.
The Bandit happens to be such a bland, paper-thin crime drama that it almost seems to be a part of the Top 250 on account of an error. Though not a pathetic movie by any standards, it is muddled and scatterbrained, plot-wise, to the point where comprehension takes a backseat to flashy theatrics and all around chaos simply for the sake of being chaotic. Its kitsch burdened by stereotypes, average to below average acting and a really sloppy direction – the emotional peak-points in the film come off as laughably unbearable so do the action sequences that would make even Stallone cringe!
If this is ‘the rebirth of Turkish cinema’, I wish it were never born! - DirectorTerry GilliamStarsJonathan PryceKim GreistRobert De NiroA bureaucrat in a dystopic society becomes an enemy of the state as he pursues the woman of his dreams.IMDB Rating: 8.0/10
My Rating: 6.5/10
My biggest problem with Brazil is Terry Gilliam's direction - his vision of the future is juvenile and pastiche. The comedic elements he tries to play into his idea of a dark gloomy future does not really work. Maybe its too British for my taste, but I just find the whole cluttered, bureaucratic, dingy version of the future highly irritating.
What starts out as a delight soon becomes a chore. By the time you get to the sequence with the truck, you’re praying it’s going to end soon. After all, there’s only so much grubby dystopia that you can take. But still it goes on and on and on. When you boil it down, Brazil is the kind of film people say you “have” to watch, and if you do and you don’t like it, then they say that it’s because you clearly don’t understand “intelligent” sci-fi fantasy flicks. To which I say: poohsticks! It’s a load of pretty, pretentious arse. - DirectorRobert RossenStarsPaul NewmanJackie GleasonPiper LaurieAn up-and-coming pool player plays a long-time champion in a single high-stakes match.IMDB Rating: 8.1/10
My Rating: 7.1/10
Considered a classic by most, I believe The Hustler hasn’t aged all that well.
It is not a bad movie, but when Paul Newman and George C. Scott are atop the marquee, you expect greatness. The Hustler belongs to the school of screen realism that allows impressive performances but defeats the basic goal of pure entertainment. Unfoldment of the screenplay, is far overlength, and despite the excellence of Newman’s portrayal of the boozing pool hustler, the sordid aspects of overall picture are strictly downbeat.
All in all, it just simply doesn’t pass the “if I didn’t know the movie was a classic, would I consider it a classic” rule! - DirectorStanley KubrickStarsMalcolm McDowellPatrick MageeMichael BatesIn the future, a sadistic gang leader is imprisoned and volunteers for a conduct-aversion experiment, but it doesn't go as planned.IMDB Rating: 8.4/10
My Rating: 7.4/10
I almost hate myself for putting this one in, as Kubrick is right up there with my all time favorite film makers.
But A Clockwork Orange is an ideological mess - a paranoid right-wing fantasy masquerading as a satirical crime drama. It pretends to oppose the police state and forced mind control, but all it really does is celebrate the nastiness of its hero, Alex. And there-in lies my primary grudge with the film - I do not like Malcolm McDowell's reading of Alex at all. I find him tacky, annoying and not in the least fearsome.
Don't get me wrong - I am not saying Clockwork is a bad film (I have safely concluded that Kubrick is incapable of making one). I just dont understand what the whole euphoria around it is all about!