Overrated/underrated films?

[Drew]

What would you list as overrated? Underrated? Why? Inquiring minds want to know!

Overrated: Dario Argento's Suspiria - sure, it's stylized and the cinematography is good, but honestly, I have no idea why it gets so many props. The dialogue is as corny as any other slasher/horror film out there - I could totally see this film getting ripped on by the crew of Mysterious Science Theater 3000. That's a rule I abide by when it comes to film: if it's MST3K fodder, it's probably not great.

Also (I'm going to get mad hate for this, oh well): Latter Days. I could only make it through, like, 26 minutes of this film. I think someone in junior high wrote the script.

Underrated: I Love You, Philip Morris. Seems to get only so-so reviews from movie goers and the IMDB.com crowd, but it's actually a very clever, well-paced and, well, exciting film about a guy who'll go to crazy lengths for love. One of my favorite, if not overall favorite, gay-themed movies ever.

Also: The Secret of NIMH. Is there a proper letterbox/remastered version of this on DVD? I have it bundled with Thumbelina, but it's the TV-sized version. I loved this film as a kid, and still do. It still holds up, even by today's Pixar-sized standards.

What do you think?

[CellarDweller]

Also (I'm going to get mad hate for this, oh well): Latter Days. I could only make it through, like, 26 minutes of this film. I think someone in junior high wrote the script.

I won't give you mad hate, but I did like that film. I've seen it on DVD a few times.

Underrated - Shelter - commonly known as "Brokeback Surfer flick". Yeah, it's not Shakespeare, but I really enjoyed the film.

Overrated - Titanic - It wasn't horrible, but I don't think it deserved all the hype it had.

[Pix]

I hope I don't regret sharing...

I think an underrated movie was Persepolis, a brilliantly animated (kinda rough but very expressive) biography of Marjane Satrapi, a girl who grew up in Iran (and also Vienna). Seeing her grow and Iranian history from the eyes of a young girl who likes Iron Maiden was at times charming, other times hilarious, and other times sad or horrifying. Even though it's based on history I kept being surprised by what happened next, and it kinda blew my mind when the main character sings an off key "Eye of the Tiger" (and why) in her accent. Rarely has a movie made me laugh or cry or fall in love with a character like this one has.

I'm tempted to share how I think The Invasion (the last Invasion of the Body Snatchers that I know of) was a lot better than many say it was and adjusted to our political myths of today just as the previous versions were adjusted to the myths of their time and how the Lost in Space movie was actually very true to the original series save the 90s cynicism (and somewhat role reversal of the mom & dad, another 90s-ification) as well. But as they're not favorites of mine I find it too hard to share my thoughts. Maybe later.

Moving on...

One of the most overrated movies IMO was the original black & white Dracula with Bela Lugosi.

I'd heard so much how awesome this was, etc, that when I saw this with friends (none of us had seen it), it wasn't just a movie night, it was an EVENT. At least that's how we had it set up. Unfortunately, we were to be disappointed by the absolute lameness of it. (The ONLY thing we agreed to was that there was an intensity about Bela Lugosi's eyes, and he'd be awesome telling stories around a campfire given his face, but that's about it. None of us felt lust or awe towards him, and I not only rolled my eyes when he commanded, "Obey!" but one of the other women sighed wearily.)

Now there ARE a few extenuating circumstances. One being that the director and actors came from the silent film era, which didn't translate all that well to actual movies with audio (as they focused more on expressions, dramatic pauses, etc), and they weren't that practiced in the new form yet. Another bit, at least for me (and a lot of this would apply to those who watched it with me) is that we've seen more modern versions of Dracula, were used to characters like Van Helsing (the action hero of the movie of the same name), Blade, and Buffy (the series, not the movie), and I'd read vampire series like Ann Rice and played Vampire: The Masquerade. This made us a jaded audience, and I'm sure Dracula was probably a lot more impressive making scary faces at Renfeld back in the day when it was fresh and new.

Nevertheless, we were not only unimpressed, mystified by how people found this scary or sexy, but boggled by how boring it was. Like Dracula is walking through London....and still walking....STILL walking....we should've timed it, because he was doing it for like forever. And the characters not only had the tendency to say the obvious, but repeat themselves over and over. And the ending? It was lacking in closure, just some hammering noises and moans that I recall, and THE END. And there didn't seem to be a POINT to it, it was like Dracula was some superstition that just up and moved to London for no reason.

Because of all this, we caught all kinds of plot holes, like Dracula blaming Renfeld for leading Van Helsing to his hideout when Dracula friggin told 'em all where it was, while also telling everybody to listen to Van Helsing! I recall that we talked about the "vampire magic" and "if vampires are actually semi-corporeal spirits" because of how Dracula's brides could walk backwards in those long, trailing gowns without tripping over them (as well as not getting dust and cobwebs all over them--and Dracula's white vest, too), among other things simply because we were bored enough to pick it out. (Oh, yes, we broke out laughing because one of Dracula's victims got out of bed already wearing high heels!)

All in all, in our opinion, this movie is WAY over hyped and we were bitterly disappointed having expected much better. My apologies to those I've offended.

[dfiant]

Just about every box office success is over-rated basically because they are flogged to death by commercialism.

Real movies that have a real story line about real people in situations are often the overlooked and most under-rated. Romulous, My Father, Matching Jack, Alabama Moon, Prayers For Bobby, The Earthling, Love Of Siam, Where the Wild Thing Are, Balls...you get the idea...the independant, TV movie type movies often have some of the most powerful acting and most under-rated actors who don't sell themselves out to hollywood, some that have but have remained true to their roots like Australia's own Eric Bana in Romulous, my Father.

[Drew]

I hope I don't regret sharing...

I think an underrated movie was Persepolis, a brilliantly animated (kinda rough but very expressive) biography of Marjane Satrapi, a girl who grew up in Iran (and also Vienna). Seeing her grow and Iranian history from the eyes of a young girl who likes Iron Maiden was at times charming, other times hilarious, and other times sad or horrifying. Even though it's based on history I kept being surprised by what happened next, and it kinda blew my mind when the main character sings an off key "Eye of the Tiger" (and why) in her accent. Rarely has a movie made me laugh or cry or fall in love with a character like this one has.

I liked Persepolis a lot too - I actually have the graphic novels it's based on in my collection and was super stoked when I heard they were making an animated feature about them. The books are a little more in depth (like the part about her living with the gay men was only skimmed in the movie), but the joy of seeing young Marji rocking out to Maiden or the anarcho-punk groups alone is worth having the DVD alongside the books.

I've never seen the Bela Lugosi version of Dracula, but yeah, sounds like I'd be bored stiff too from that description. I'm not a huge vampire-story fan, but they always sound cool in theory (I recently rewatched Interview With the Vampire.....didn't like it, I was going "wtf?" too many times to follow it logically), but I'm kinda curious about Nosferatu, even if it's a silent film. Ever see that one, and any thoughts if you have?

[joseph]

i wont to wwatchs more gay film. i like truckers hihscool musicle and imagine that

[gilhooly]

The 2 most terrifying movies I ever saw was a double feature of Frankenstein and Dracula. I saw about 4 minutes of Frankenstein when I managed to lift my head up. I saw less than a minute of Dracula. Finally an usher rescued me. He asked me who in the name of God would leave a 4 year old boy alone at this theatre. He promised to call my mother and straighten things out. My mother came and asked me where my diagnosed sociopathic sister was. I swore to my mom I had no idea where my sister was. Whatever nasty things you have heard about sociopaths.please believe them. I am 65 and still terrified of my sister. You meet a sociopath runaway fast. Currently my sister is dying. She loves to call and remind that she is very rich. Since she is rich she can still have me killed even after she is dead. I take my sister very seriously I always have.
By the way, the reason my sister took me to that movie. My mom thought I could use a few laughs. The day before my mother thought I had fallen off a kitchen chair and hurt myself. She told my sister to take me to see 2 Abbott and Costello movies. I didn't tell my mother that my sister had broken the kitchen chair on my back. Every time I attempted to tell on my sister, my sister managed to make me more frightened.
Things got straightened out when the nuns at my Catholic grammar school demanded a police investigation of my father They were annoyed that I showed up every day for school with black and blue marks. The police came and grilled me for hours and I finally broke down and told the truth. My sister is the one who is beating me, not my father. The school called in a psychiatrist. My sister was also threatening many girls. She was diagnosed a sociopath.
The nuns, our pastor, even Cardinal Spellman offerd to help my parents. They said my sister should be put away somewhere and forgotten. I wish my sister had been put away. I avoided my sister like she had a contagious disease. At 65 I am reduced to guessing how many people my sister has hurt. She feels quite chipper about it She says she only stole from charities. I wonder how the parents who gave millions of dollars to charity would feel if they found out it all went into my sister's bank account My sister adamantly insists she gave it all away to casinos in Atlantic City. She believes a girl should be allowed to have a good time in AC.
My question to God is simple. I hope He posts a reply I am a homosexual with hazel eyes. My sister is a sociopath with brown eyes. God is supposed to be forgiving. God, I am glad I don't have your job. I haven't a clue how people can forgive anyone who has never felt sorrow for anyone.
Of course God isn't perfect either. The plate tectonics under North America aren't so hot. We got the San Andreas fault, a super volcano under Yosemite, The Mississippi schist and some lousy weather problems Hey God, you forgive my sister and I will forgive you Good luck, big fella. At 65 I will be seeing you real soon. Feel free to tell me off. I am still a pagan with free will. It is what we have in common. Does a sociopath act with free will. I hope not. I hope they are just crazy and need to be put away.
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE SICKNESS OF THE HUMAN MIND. INSANITY IS OFTEN CONTAGIOUS.
Sociopaths now control Wall St, Congress and the media without so much as a whimper from 300 hundred million Americans. The only difference between me and you I actually knew the name of my tormentor, A lot of you are in worse shape than me and have been beaten more severely than I have.
To all young people of America, I am sorry for the way we old people have behaved. From 1946 to 1968 we had the greatest nation ever conceived. I graduated from Parris Island on 1/4/69 prepared to happily die for America,. By 1968 every one graduating from high school or college had their pick of jobs.. I went to 4 interviews and got 4 terrific job offers. I knew I could go a hundred job interviews and get a 100 job offers. By the time we put men on the moon we knew we were in first place. We started the Peace Corps and prepared to rebuild the planet from scratch Everyone was raring to go. They destroyed liberalism and civil rights simply by killing the Kennedys and Martin Luther King.
Richard Milhouse Nixon put his foot down and said he was ending liberalism and civil rights. He said he represented the silent majority composed of hypocrites, thieves, liars and every other racist warmongering imperialists in the US... Psst guys. The Republicans have controlled this nation since 1969.. Apparently I am the only one who noticed the change. I was born in America and I no longer recognize the country I live in.. Guys I was certain my country tolerated free will. Guys it never occurred to me to apologize for being gay I owe no one an explanation for how I behave. How many GS members feel free? We now only tolerate things whch seem politically correct. Guys, I truly love reading your complaints and infractions of gilhooly. It reminds how far down the path towards political correctness we have come. I dare anyone to describe a Presidential candidate as someone who would sound like a Democrat or a Republican.. Whatever you do don't tell anyone we are an oligarchy run by a small band of people in New York and Beverly Hills.
Good night. I hope I didn't wake you up.

[Drew]

........anyways. Another really underrated film I like but forgot to mention: 7 Years in Tibet. I notice Brad Pitt tends to star in a lot of films I like, including this one. This is not usually mentioned among his best, but it's a good one. If you have a basic understanding of Buddhism and of the Tibetian fight for autonomy, you'll like it.