Most overrated film of all time...

Have to agree with Mariner on Gangs of New York. Most long winded boring plotless movie I have ever seen. I stay away from dramas generally, esp romance ones, so I have never seen Titanic and refuse to watch it.

 

Oh yeah...so it is...heh. Oops.

Having read Basic's statement that we must know how highly a film is rated before determining how over-rated it is, and agreeing and alluding to that in my own post (I did, didn't I?), I just came up with the most overrated piece of celluloid garbage ever. Prepare yourself...

The Great Escape.

My goodness. Something is terribly wrong with this movie. It's one of those movies that we can fondly remember, carrying some abbreviated version in our heads to ponder and cherish. It's even got Steve McQueen and on a motorbike. So what's wrong with it? The plot is pretty interesting, it has numerous characters in an all-star cast, and a "classic" WW2 setting. Yet it manages to be dreafully boring while actually seated in front of the screen. I'm quite sure that many give up on the idea of escaping and simply commit suicide where they sit.

Think about it. It's one of those movies that everyone knows and nobody has a bad word about. People will say things like "remember in The Great Escape when they ...." and that somehow seems to qualify whatever follows as being interesting or wild. But it actually isn't. In fact, if you have insomnia I think you should consider making this movie a part of your library. It may just cure you.

Disclaimer: Watching it twice in a row may cause sleep purely by the time it takes that drivel to unfold. It's almost 3 hours long...but that doesn't stop it from feeling more like 7 or 8...days!

PS. Here's hoping that it's actually called The Great Escape and not The Great Beginning or something which will force me to return to this thread in shame.

 

Especially Indiana Jones.



PS: It was a joke. See
http://thecrispincorner.com/essay.html
Nevermind the spelling errors
I actually liked Encounters and E.T. as a little kid, but that's about it.

 

as soon as I saw the title, I thought 'War of the Worlds' with Tom cruise. So overrated its not funny. The adverts around here call it the greatest epic film of all time. yeah right!

Then someone mentioned Peral Harbour. I had wiped that from my memory, thanks for reminding me! Comes a close second I think

 

Alot of these films got panned by critics. Not exactly overrated.

 

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith - those who said it was a return to form must have been desperate to believe Lucas could re-create the old magic. He couldn't. Being better than Episodes 1 and 2 is hardly difficult and does not a good film make.

 

Dunno, maybe.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/war_of_the_worlds/
73% isn't bad at all.

 

Anything by Stanley Kubric.

2001
Perhaps it has not aged well, I imagine in comparison to 60's SciFi contemporaries it was head and shoulders above, but at least I can still watch Barbarella and enjoy it.

A Clockwork Orange
Malcom McDowell is a violent thug who likes Beethoven. Yep, OK. WOW....

Eyes wide shut
Tom Cruise, the prosecution rests it's case...


By no means do I think he is a bad director, but certainly overrated.

 

Agreed on 2001. It's not that the material is bad, it's pretty well thought out, but I just found it incredibly boring.

 

Heathens!

2001 is "boring" in part to communicate the sense of deep space travel - boring!
Amazing movie, especially for its time.

 

I rather liked War Of The Worlds You just have to put the gaping plot holes aside for awhile

Best use of CG in ages. Much better than LOTR's over the top stuff. On that note I nominate the LOTR trilogy. Peter Jackson can't direct for crap.

 

Three kings.
Oceans 12
Fast Times at Rigmont High.
Pulp Fiction
AI

 

I think the Godfather films are overrated. The story was interesting but I my opinion they are no way near the best films of all time.

 

EYE WIDESHUT has to be close to the top of my list

 

I know that – but the art of conveying the feeling of boredom lies in stopping before the audience really becomes bored.

 

Star Wars 1-3.

 

Bullpoop. It's vision of space technology still hasn't found a match in any later SF movie. Not that they really even try in Hollywood, nowadays. I think even HAL is more convincing as a computer than the idiotic things they call computers in movies nowadays (maybe it has gotten a little bit better from the late 90s, though - I always want to cry when someone is remotely erasing files from the computer which the hero is logged on to, and this is visualised by making the hero's screen slowly get garbled etc.)

I think even the effects of 2001 are still easily enjoyable. OK, the movie may not be enjoyable to the masses, but that does not mean it's overrated.

 

That movie was kind of cool...

 

Just watched Serenity.

Serenity.

 

Regarding Serenity:
I've watched the movie whithout having seen a single Firefly episode (Just to rule out fanboism ). And while I too think that an 8++ rating at IMDB may be slightly overrated, I still hugely enjoyed it.
Simply because it's that kind of 80ies style popcorn flick I soo missed. I has over-the-top action that's not polished to death, at least somewhat interesting heroes that don't seem to come from ACME(tm) hero factory, lots of oneliners (ok, lets not debate the hit:miss ratio here , etc...
Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable guilty pleasure.



To get back on topic, the most overrated film I saw the last few years...hm, make that Ken Park. Maybe I made the fault of watching it a day after i had watched Ulrich Seidl's "Hundstage" (Dog Days), but it's waaay to contrived for wanting to be a realistic portrait of suburban middle class, and the wannabe "shock scenes" screamed cheap sensationalism to me - they were just too blatant in their execution. If you want to do controversial movies, you'd better do it well (and there are a lot of examples in movie history, from Pasolini to, well, the aforementioned Seidl).