Premier's top 20 most-overrated movies

Forrest Gump - KwikSave version of Being There with added Zelig

NOT A DOCUMENTARY!!!

(xpost about Pretty Woman. The fact that they altered the ending made the film null and void, more to the point)

But seriously? Like half the people I went to film school with thought u>American Beauty was amazing, and half the twenty-somethings who style themselves film buffs b/c they watch the commentary tracks on DVDs agree.

remy, I don't think anyone here should apologize anymore for the fact that you hang out with a lot of idiots. How about you try looking at ILX film thread re: this movie and its director OH WAIT YOU CANNOT IT IS GONE ;_;

But we're 7 years later now, and how many of those same folks are still talking about the movie? Kevin Spacey's been established to the point that its never referred to, Thora Birch is more remembered for Ghost World, and Spiderman-dude and even Donnie Darko-dude has usurped the place that the kid in this one(wes bently, wasn't it?) had.

(xp)

OH OH OH I know let's ask DORKTOR MORBIUS what he thinks, too!

This list was actually published I think nearly a year ago. Though it's nice to see a boring list ignored here for once, until now.

But yeah, having an "underrated" list is a far better use of time & column space.

Wasn't the Red Shoes some corny 'erotic' drama with David Duchovny?

xp

(and constner is an inert gblob)

that and "bottle rocket" UGH

I really, truly hated Jules and Jim, but the exact reasons are fuzzy. But I've hated every Truffaut I've seen - sooner or later will have to borrow The 400 Blows just to make sure I can write him off completely.

I don't think I like truffaut either

actually it's still better than that deadening manga-esque film 'renaissance' (which also features daniel craig providing the voice for the lead character...hmm..)

Where's Saving Private Ryan and Platoon?

Disagree:
Clerks
Fantasia
The Wizard of Oz (calling this crap is daft btw)
2001: A Space Oddyssey
Moonstruck
Mystic River

(They're 100% wrong about a few of those, too: 2001? Wizard of Oz?)

I mean, really, who gives a crap about Forrest Gump?

If anyone thinks there aren't a lot of people out there who rate Forrest Gump, American Beauty, et al...try taking a look at people's favorite movies on, say, Match.com sometime. It's like a Gump/American Beauty/Chocolat lovefest there. And Gump is a permanent part of American popular culture.

And no, I really don't believe the public at large rates many of these movies very highly at all

Not Moonstruck or Jules and Jim, no. But American Beauty, Good Will Hunting, Forrest Gump, A Beautiful Mind, they're like the Four Horsemen of Mediocrity, and they hold sway over a lot of people out there (once you get outside of NYC and DC, anyway).

Person 1: ".....[blah blah blah] Moonstruck...."
Person 2: "Oh, Moonstruck! I love that movie, it's one of my alltime favorites!"

And I don't really remember too much about Moonstruck, so I'm always a little baffled by it, but I accept it's one of those movies that people really love that did nothing for me.

The other movie where this happens a lot: The Big Lebowski.

I finally saw Chicago last summer, and was positively surprised, it was actually better than its reviews suggested.

So what's your point -- that it's not true, or just that it's not interesting? If the latter, I can respect that, but if the former, then you're just wrong.

("Random lonely hearts", whatever -- what cross-section would work for you, then?)

and that somehow box office popularity is actually a qualifier for being "overrated"

From what I can tell, the list is a hodgepodge of critical and popular/box-office favorites, no? I mean, it's a mess, but it's certainly not calibrating solely on "box office popularity" (though I'm not sure that you were saying that).

And again, if you're arguing that there aren't a lot of people who rate Forrest Gump, A Beautiful Mind, etc. highly, then you're wrong. If you're arguing that those people are somehow irrelevant, then I might like to know who it is you would consider relevant.

But if you ask "who gives a crap about Forrest Gump?", then you kinda forfeit the right to wring your hands about it if you get a truthful answer to that question.

Results 1 - 10 of about 250,000 for american beauty.
Results 1 - 10 of about 199,000 for shawshank redemption.
Results 1 - 10 of about 197,000 for beautiful mind.
Results 1 - 10 of about 186,000 for pretty woman.
Results 1 - 10 of about 163,000 for clerks.
Results 1 - 10 of about 133,000 for forrest gump.
Results 1 - 10 of about 10,500 for moonstruck.