Make a top 10 of something

A Few Good Men is a great movie.  It's probably a top ten movie for me, and I can't be alone considering it's still in permanent rotation on cable 30 years later.  Also, I didn't realize there were people on the Earth who don't like Christmas Vacation.  I like Independence Day but don't love it, and that's probably the general consensus, so I don't know if it's overrated. 

Completely agree with you on Forrest Gump and TDKR.  Nobody actually likes Avatar movies, they just feel obligated to see them in the theater because 'the visuals are amazing.'  Does anyone ever talk about American Beauty, except for how uncomfortable they feel watching it?  The Revenant, I can't remember the last time anyone brought that movie up.  I still haven't seen Scent of a Woman, but I think it's almost universally seen as the movie they gave Pacino his lifetime achievement Oscar for.  So I don't think it's held in high regard.  

Will Ferrell is an interesting case.  I think he works better as a supporting character.  I've never hated a Will Ferrell movie, but never loved one, either.  (Truth be told, I haven't seen that many Will Ferrell movies, which kind of says it all.)  Elf is probably my favorite.     

In my write up I argued that they shouldn't have been convicted in the first place, as the trial proved they were coerced into doing the code red, and Dawson had previously been reprimanded for ignoring orders to help out a fellow marine.  But the bittersweet ending makes it a better movie than if they're innocent on all counts and everyone high fives as the credits roll.   

I haven't seen A Few Good Men in a while but the "I want the truth" scene is still to this day one of the most rewatchable scenes. I remember Jack Nicholson stealing that film in every scene he was in yet wasn't in the film for that much of it. Much like Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs.

Will Ferrell is an interesting case. You either love him or hate him I think. For me he has some big time hits like Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Step Brothers and even a lesser known one The Campaign with Zach Galifianakis which is a hilarious rewatch knowing the idiotic landscape of politics post Trump. It was ahead of its time. Elf is really the only Christmas movie I've ever enjoyed. He also has some big time misses like his Sherlock Holmes movie and another where he plays like a Spanish cowboy or something, Casa something is the name. Old School while beloved by a large portion of people I would agree is over rated.

The Dark Knight Rises I would agree with in a way. I didn't love it but I also don't ever really hear anybody praising it either. There are the Nolan fan boys out there that worship everything he does but I dont ever come in contact with them so TDKR never really reenters my mind. The Dark Knight I could say is over rated outside of Heath Ledgers performance. I rewatch that film and I'm literally only wanting to watch the scenes he is in. The rest of the film I could easily do without.

The Christmas Vacation films I am with you. Never liked any of them and to be honest I (apparently much like everyone else in Hollywood) can't stand Chevy Chase. I just never got the appeal of him. I think its a generation thing. Never really got Steve Martin either, while I dont dislike him like Chevy I never really found him as humorous as others.

Obviously I love the movie, but I totally agree that the most unrealistic part is Jessup cracking.  He's even told he doesn't have to answer the question, and he just says "Nah, I'd like to confess to the whole damn thing now."  I don't disagree with Ebert, I just think the cat & mouse is half of the point of the movie.  It's not even a whodunnit, they tell you what happened right off the bat.  The question is, how do the good guys prove it? 

It's also about having the courage to do the right thing.  Kaffee has made a half-assed legal career going through the motions, basically seeing the legal profession as a kind of game that you can manipulate.  He finally gets a case with real stakes, and his own clients see him as a joke.  Against his better judgment he makes a stand, and in the end, he's proven right.  Meanwhile the defendants (particularly Dawson) learn the hard way that you should always adhere to your core values.  Dawson and Downey are Dishonorably Discharged, probably a fate worse than death for them.  Dawson states aloud that the purpose of being a Marine is to protect people, and they betrayed their values by attacking (and inadvertently killing) a weaker Marine, simply because they were told to.  He realizes Kaffee stood up for them the way they should've stood up for Pvt. Santiago.  Ultimately, Dawson has to believe they got what they deserved (which is why I think those characters kill themselves in the aftermath). 

Anyway it's funny that you mention daddy issues, because so many of my favorite films revolve around (or heavily feature) the father/son dynamic, but I never thought of A Few Good Men as being in that category-- but it absolutely fits.  Hell at one point Capt. Ross even tells Kaffee he was pressured into taking the case by the memory of a dead lawyer.  (A shitty thing for Ross to say by the way, for an otherwise decent character.) 

See, this is why I love this board.  I'm not trying to convince you it's a good movie, it either works for you or it doesn't.  But this discussion with you guys helped me understand what it is some people don't like about it, but also helped me identify to a deeper extent why I love this movie.  If you're not learning anything from a discussion, what's the point of having it?              

       

1. A Few Good Men... not great yet not overrated either for me.  The studio/marketing/etc played the Jack blowup into oblivion.
2. American Beauty... properly rated for its time, & now entirely forgotten... it's a meh film that deserves its fate.
3. Forrest Gump... overrated moment it had perhaps, yet without its media machine & boomer orgasms, it's actually still a decent film.  
4. Avatar... I cannot ever overrate this because it was one of the most legitimate cinematic experiences of my existence.  I think it can still play okay, but the sequels are needless.
5. Every single movie starring Will Ferrell except for Elf and Stranger than Fiction... Elf got tired for me real quick actually, kicked it out of my xmas rota within 4yrs of DVD.
6. The Dark Knight Rises... I don't think it's overrated when no one truly beholds & loves it.  I wish Nolan had kept the film in nighttime darkness like BB, the daylight is like the Space Mountain POV with no lights on youtube vid (honestly check that out to ruin your fantasies).
7. Independence Day... Hard no.  Terrific summer blockbuster without tropey little children or overstuffed rom-com bs.  ID4 is great.
8. The Revenant... I think Leo's efforts to secure Oscar votes was overrated more than the film.  I thought Hardy had his best acting here.  Why Leo would chase Oscar when he defies the machine of it is weird.  
9. Scent of a Woman... lols sure.  Like Leo except even more transparent as lifelong Oscar make up for Pacino - or else all voters would perish in hell.
10. Christmas Vacation... it's a great now less modern classic.  Plays best right after Thanksgiving as a holiday warm up, before the big B&W classic hitters take over for me nearer Dec 24th.  

2 films there I think are great - ID4 & Vacation.  Some others I don't think are overrated at all.

When I started watching movies, home video didn’t exist. Repertory theaters showing old classics were still a thing. I remember watching the best known Charlie Chaplin movies and also some Marx Brothers comedies in retrospectives. D.W.Griffith’s Intolerance (1916 if memory serves) is probably the oldest movie I saw on the big screen. Other notable ones were Potemkin, Gone with the Wind, Ben Hur, The Ten Commandments, Spartacus. Oh, and the great Marcel Pagnol Marseille trilogy, Marius, Fanny and César.

I saw Blade Runner at a lecture hall on campus...for a school I didn't even attend.  A professor was showing Blade Runner and then hosting a conversation specifically about the cluttered architecture of the future when my girlfriend (now wife) was still in college.  I attended despite not being a student, just to watch Blade Runner with a group of people and listen to a discussion on literally any aspect of my favorite film. 

When I was in high school, I saw the Blade Runner Director's Cut in the theater when it was released (also the version shown at that lecture), and the Final Cut in the theater as a Blade Runner rerelease a few years ago.  It's great to see a direct to video cut of a film on the big screen, obviously even better when it's your favorite movie.  My brother in Chicago went to one of those showings where they play live symphony music.  I asked him why he didn't tell me because I would've flown out to see it.  (And I wasn't kidding.)      

The oldest movie I've seen in the theater is probably Lawrence of Arabia a few years back.  It's sad to see Ghostbusters on a 'top ten oldest movies' list, I saw that movie in the theater when it was new!           

Yeah I saw Ghostbusters when I was seven.  The first movie I remember seeing in the theater was ET.  We didn't go to the movies a ton either, so I remember the few times we did.