Ok, ok, perhaps the title was meant to bate you a little. I'm just going to make a list and point out some reasons some popular movies (to one degree or another) are far from the bee's knees.
Donnie Darko This emo pile of shit was the bane of my existence my Sophmore year of college. I don't remember how many times people would ask if I've seen it or wanted to. Guess what. Any movie that requires an explanation after the fact to THE BIGGEST THING IN THE STORY is retarded. Oh, you're supposed to watch the director's cut or dig around on their website to learn about his super powers? I came to watch a movie; not do a homework assignment on why Richard Kelly is full of shit. Make no mistake, I am not against having to think about a film to understand it. However, when all of your thinking is proven futile because the facts simply aren't there is merely an insult and waste of my time. Maybe if Gyllenhaal didn't have that stupid look on his face the whole time I wouldn't have been so induced by rage.
The Hangover How far have our expectations of comedies dropped when this thing receives good reviews and makes hundreds of millions at the box office? Oh look, it's Mike Tyson! Oh look, he got tasered! Oh look, there's a tiger in the bathroom! Oh look, there's an asian man in a trunk! Non-stop gags as opposed to actual jokes left me feeling insulted quickly as a movie goer. I wasn't expecting some masterpiece that I'd rewatch repeatedly for the laughs, but I was expecting laughs. Perhaps I was simply raised watching 80's comedies and spoiled for life by doing so... but damn.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Jesus Christ. What a fucking snoozefest. Let's take a great movie like Forrest Gump, add a gimmick to it, remove all plot and forgettable characters... and..... ACTION! I haven't fallen asleep in the theaters before but between this and Public Enemies I was damn close.
Requiem for a Dream As somebody who has done more than dabble... I'll just say that I have reason to be attentive when watching this movie. Too bad it's a tired out story I've seen before. I don't care how dark it was or how well Aronosky sets the stage for it all to occur. I will say I am probably too harsh on this movie since I do find myself quoting "Ass to ass!" whenever I'm drunk. But whatever, I didn't like it.
Scarface Rappers have taste in shitty champagne and shitty movies. I really, really dislike Al Pacino. Perhaps I'm bias on this one for that fact alone. However, if I'm going to watch an actor go overboard on screen for 2 hours I'd rather watch Daniel Day Lewis do it than Pacino. It's plagued by overall bad acting and is about 45 minutes longer than it should be. I find it's talked about like Citizen Kane (relative to its field) that people simply throw its name out at the top of the list without any actual discussion. I blame MTV.
Napoleon Dynamite Worst. Movie. Ever.
The Professional (Leon) I remember last summer I decided to dig through the IMDB top 100 to see if there were any specific movies listed which I hadn't seen before. This one popped out at me. I got around to watching it and was extremely disappointed. I think a movie that just involved Gary Oldman and Jean Reno playing backgammon and discussing movie roles would have been more entertaining. No matter what happened I simply couldn't put Portman's character out of my mind; and for the story to work you couldn't do that.
Vanilla Sky Ok, I laughed at the cum swallowing joke. Any movie with Kurt Russell deserves to be praised for a decade... he was Captain Ron, dude. Captain. fucking. Ron. That earns him a pass in my book for all time but even he couldn't save this shit pile of a movie. The whole movie just didn't work. I sat here on this paragraph for some time trying to think of why I didn't enjoy the movie and then I realized that as a whole it simply fell flat. Too long, unenjoyable experience, ultimately pointless... I wanted to call it pretentious but I feel people use that term too often when describing films they didn't like even if it does fit this particular film.
I feel like I'm forgetting some major names on my list but I could always revisit it. Noticeably lacking from my list is Titanic but I figured on a forum such as this that particular film wouldn't be as well received anyways.
I guess I agree with you on most movies, but you should reevaluate your stance on Requiem for a Dream and Scarface....not many people would agree with you, and some may say your taste in movie sucks.
Man it's so easy to just rip on everything, since nothing's perfect. I kinda used to be like that cause it makes you seem smarter, but it also makes everything boring.
I didn't like Donnie Darko either. The only good thing I got out of the movie was Mad World. And even then I already knew the song from the Gears of War trailer.
I have Benjamin Button because I've heard good things about it, but I haven't watched it yet.
Oh, and OP, could you list some movies that you DO really like? Just to compare.
I really agree with everything except for The Professional. I thought that was a great movie.
In addition, I really liked the Hangover, but I'm a HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGE fan of Zach Galifianakis's stand-up and such. There were a lot of funny references to his previous work so I suppose that made it funnier for me.
Of those movies on your list, I liked Donnie Darko, The Professional, and Requiem for a Dream. I thought Scarface was okay, but highly overrated. The Hangover got a few laughs from me, but I certainly don't see how people chalk it up as the greatest movie ever and I live in Vegas.
I agree with you 100% on Napoleon Dynamite, though. That was the most boring piece of shit I sat through. I watched it with my brother, and there was only one scene that caused either of us to laugh; the rest was just a lot of foot tapping waiting for something funny to happen.
Terrible reviews of those movies, even if most of them are artistically barren.
The fact that you negate the strength of Pacino's acting in Scarface, in a time period where acting hasn't been scrutinized like it is today, shows that you have no value of innovation relative to time period in cinematic development. We've only started expecting great performances out of our actors in the last decade or so.
I usually don't take part in movie review threads because many people (and here come the flames) simply aren't as knowledgeable on cinema as they'd like to think they are. Sorry, but this is true for nearly everyone. I'm hoping to be a film critic on the side of my career in the near future, and the depths to which I have explored film really stun most people I meet, and I take pride in that. Teamliquid, and all internet forums in general, are NOT the places to make your voice heard in film critique.
Non-stop gags as opposed to actual jokes left me feeling insulted quickly as a movie goer. .... Perhaps I was simply raised watching 80's comedies and spoiled for life by doing so... but damn.
You mean 80's comedies like Airplane, Naked Gun and Police Academy?
But on most other stuff I agree with you, maybe I wouldn't be so harsh on Scarface but certainly not a fan
On July 20 2010 01:48 fly.stat wrote: Terrible reviews of those movies, even if most of them are artistically barren.
The fact that you negate the strength of Pacino's acting in Scarface, in a time period where acting hasn't been scrutinized like it is today, shows that you have no value of innovation relative to time period in cinematic development. We've only started expecting great performances out of our actors in the last decade or so.
I usually don't take part in movie review threads because many people (and here come the flames) simply aren't as knowledgeable on cinema as they'd like to think they are. Sorry, but this is true for nearly everyone. I'm hoping to be a film critic on the side of my career in the near future, and the depths to which I have explored film really stun most people I meet, and I enjoy that. Teamliquid, and all internet forums in general, are NOT the places to make your voice heard in film critique.
pretty much this. even if you don't like the movies your critiques of them are poorly worded with childish complaints.
comparing old comedies to comedies today is sketchy. calling the scenes in The Hangover "gimmicks" isn't the correct use of the word either, and I don't really know what you're getting at by making the reference to old school comedies. its not like Rodney Dangerfield is just gonna walk out and start spitting one liners again.
Yawn your boring and think you are a hip raging nerd or something.
You never considered this - What if I dont care what you consider my taste as? It sucks ? I dont care at all , it's just a small form of entertainment in my life.
My goodness you are strange, OP.
Also agree with Nttea. Hating shit is a lame way out.
Ok so you posted this in order to accomplish what? All I see is a flame fest waiting to happen, just because you hate some movies doesn't mean you should make random blogs about it... You're just asking for people to yell at you. Some of those movies are bad but others like them so I don't openly insult them. Two movies I saw on there are some of the greatest/funniest I've ever watched and the fact that you relate Scarface to rappers just means you dislike it because you link it to rappers (who I'm assuming you hate as well). The fact that you relate The Hangover to 80's movies doesn't make sense at all... You can't compare old movies to modern day movies because the trend is always changing.
On July 20 2010 01:48 fly.stat wrote: Terrible reviews of those movies, even if most of them are artistically barren.
The fact that you negate the strength of Pacino's acting in Scarface, in a time period where acting hasn't been scrutinized like it is today, shows that you have no value of innovation relative to time period in cinematic development. We've only started expecting great performances out of our actors in the last decade or so.
I usually don't take part in movie review threads because many people (and here come the flames) simply aren't as knowledgeable on cinema as they'd like to think they are. Sorry, but this is true for nearly everyone. I'm hoping to be a film critic on the side of my career in the near future, and the depths to which I have explored film really stun most people I meet, and I take pride in that. Teamliquid, and all internet forums in general, are NOT the places to make your voice heard in film critique.
For the most part his "reviews" of the movies express opinions about his perception of your opinion on a given film. Anyone can be an expert about how they feel about your tastes.
And, I will say, most of the listed movies have a degree of pop-culture status and yes, they do in fact suck. Scarface and The Hangover both entertained me though.
Finally, God yes Napoleon Dynamite is a piece of horse shit movie. The nunchucks line was almost funny but for the rest of the 90 minute load of vomit I failed to understand when the funny part was coming.
I disagree with Scarface strongly, this is called one of the best movies of all time for a reason you know..
However, i 500% Agree on Napoleon Dynamite, everyone i know kept talking about how awesome and badass it was, so i was like "yeah ill watch". Cut it on and i dont think ive ever met a movie that was less funny than watching paint dry. Quite honestly one of the most stupid movies ive ever wasted time watching in my life
I loved Donnie Darko. I thought Napoleon Dynamite was pretty funny the first time I watched it. The rest of the movies I really didn't get into, not as to say that they are bad films, I just didn't much care for them.
Haven't seen requiem for a dream though, should check it out when I get the chance. Alot of people say its really well done.
EPT![[image loading]](http://i30.tinypic.com/2uhldso.jpg)
