I've taken Premiere's list of the 20 most overrated movies and arranged them here. Obviously there are plenty of very overrated films that don't show up on this list (*cough* Fight Club *cough*) but for polling purposes I've limited it to Premiere's twenty. You can vote on up to 3 of them.

This ties in nicely with what we've been talking about elsewhere with divisive movies. Let the arguments begin. (For anyone who's curious, Premiere had Gone with the Wind as number 1 and 2001 as number 2 on the list)

American Beauty-completely uninvoving and pretentious crapfest. Chicago was bad too, but was ultimately too forgettable to be worth voting for, and while 2001 was a coma-inducingly dull experience for me, I can unnderstand why others find it fascinating

Good Will Hunting was a 1996 release, not 1999. Now that that's out of the way:

I voted for The Red Shoes. I'm not sure why as I thought the movie was perfectly good. It wasn't perfectly great, I suppose. That applies to most of the movies on the list and so voting on two more seemed indulgent. American Beauty would have been on my list in 2000 but, in 2010, the movie is generally viewed as "flawed but good" and that's fair.

Y'all know how I feel about the word "overrated," but I am strongly tempted to choose American Beauty. The list appears to be made up mainly of films that are seen for what they are, but American Beauty was treated as God's gift to a tired and lackluster era of cinema, even though both the movie wasn't God's gift to anything and the era was anything but tired and lackluster.

Actually it was 1997 smart guy. Way to go Mark.

I picked Easy Rider and Nashville.

Nashville just got boring by the last 45 minutes and Easy Rider may have been good if I was into mind-altering drugs...which I'm not.

It's become trendy to hate on American Beauty.

When Chicago was released i saw it in theater and wondered what all the fuss was about. Then it won best film?

My vote goes for Chicago.

Rob

I could have sworn that I saw it Freshman year at the college place... hmmmm. Maybe it's the mind-altering drugs. That explains why I liked Easy Rider.



Yes. Yes it has. Not just American Beauty but Pulp Fiction, Titanic, and virtually every other movie that receives high critical marks. American Beauty was never a great movie but it was always, and will always be, a very good one.

Yeah, it seems that there is a real move against this film in particular. It's no masterpiece, but having seen it several times, it really is very good.

Same goes with Pulp Fiction, though that is arguably a masterpiece.

I find Titanic to be quite a bore till the iceberg hits, then it's an amazing tour de force of FX. But that's about all.

Rob

The only time I would stand up and defend the criticism of American Beauty is when it's incorrectly labeled the peak (or start or what have you) of American Independent Cinema. It was not an indie film but a studio project that faithfully emulated the 90s indie gestalt*. It didn't do anything different than what John Updike did with his Rabbit Angstrom cycle but, as far as uncomfortable domestic comedies go, it was a good movie.


*this is now my favorite word.

I think the reason for the backlash against this film in particular--and Rob is correct, the anti-American Beauty wave is particularly strong--is because the film was met with absolutely rapturous critical adoration, if not worship, when it came out. It was probably a little overpraised (though I love it) but the backlash has been far too strong

I almost voted for Clerks, but I don't think too many people consider it to be a truly great film (I consider it to be an awful film and Smith to be an awful writer and director). I chose 2001, The Red Shoes (boring melodrama), and Gone With The Wind (more boring melodrama). I think that if GWTW hadn't made as much money as it did, I think it would've at least somewhat faded.

I wish that Fargo had been on this list as it would've instantly gotten my vote here! However, I guess I'm gonna have to go with Forrest Gump. In both cases, neither film is bad, but how they managed to get the massive amounts of critical acclaim that they've gotten over the years is completely beyond me.

Based on the votes so far it would appear that I hate you all.



Especially you. I remove my Ubuntu love.



FARGO??????? You're a fellow Tarantino-phile. Hating Fargo shouldn't be allowed. Incidentally, you can vote for up to 3 films. I'm not sure if I should have told you that.

I agree on Gone With The Wind, it's deifnitely not a film that's worth remembering, same goes for Wizard Of Oz, never understood the fascination for that film at all.

Oh! It's really, really great... I love The Wizard of Oz. Not just a glorious technocolor awesome-land but sweet, a lot of fun, and so damned ambitious that it can set even the mopiest to head-spinning. Such a delightful movie that, if you take another look, reveals why it has spun out so much fascination for audiences. On a purely technical level the movie is amazing but it also has a lot of heart... and the end? The scene with The Wizard is some of the greatest comedy of that era. People knock it because they filter it through B&W Nostalgia but, like It's A Wonderful Life (which I just saw for the first time), it's 10,000% more than its legacy's memory would have you believe.

I agree--I'd put Wizard of Oz far above GWTW. Although I must say that I prefer subsequent covers of Over the Rainbow to Judy Garland's.

Guess you didn't read my post to careful did ya, Ed? Never said I hated Fargo; in fact, I like it to a limited degree. I just don't see it as the masterpiece that many others do. The Coens have definitely done better IMHO!

Here's the thing: A lot of effective comedy relies on acting. Here's the other thing: My 6-month-old nephew can act better than anyone in the cast of Clerks. Oh, and that pseudo-philosophical blabber near the end of it? Stick to dick jokes, Smith. Clerks wins this vote hands down for convincing anyone it was worth anything. There are films that I don't personally like where I can see how others liked them (American Beauty's smugness and pitiful ideology (because everyone knows the best way to overcome middle aged malaise is to smoke pot, work out, and fuck teenagers. You want to talk about the stupidification of America? Back off Transformers for a couple minutes and realize that this is what passed as an "intellectual" work 10 damn years ago) overpowered its significant comedic powers for me), and then there's Clerks, which has nothing but attitude going for it. Nothing.

Zepp

Clerks is in my opinion a good movie.

It's not great or bad

Dunno if it's my most over rated film though

Rob