What are your least favorite (critically acclaimed) movies?
Sept 1, 2020 9:44:31 GMT
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marianne48 and Toasted Cheese like this
Post by avocadojoe on Sept 1, 2020 9:44:31 GMT
Leonard Maltin's rating/my rating.
Also because there is such a disparity in opinion, I'm going to indulge in a few choice comments for each movie.
1. "Some Like it Hot" - ****/**3/4 I do not dislike SLIH. But it's one of those movies that seems to get praised across the board as one of the funniest comedies ever made and, with the exception of Jack Lemmon who, admittedly, is absolutely hysterical (highlight of the film, imo, takes place in an upper berth), I don't find the movie to be all that funny or entertaining. The St. Valentine's Day backdrop really didn't interest me, the script I didn't find all that great and honestly, I thought the movie dragged a bit. Funny Jack and charming Marilyn were the movie's main assets.
2. "The Maltese Falcon" - ****/**1/2 I do like the look and the tone of this obvious classic, and the supporting cast is fascinating, but that's really as far as I can go with it. I'm really not a Humphrey Bogart fan and I could not follow the plot to save my life. If somebody asked me what happened in the movie, I could tell them Peter Lorre gets slapped around by Humphrey Bogart. And also Sidney Greensreet is very creepy.
3. "Kramer vs. Kramer" - ****/**1/4 Meryl Streep is excellent playing a cold, COLD, completely unlikable character. I'm not being facetious when I say Streep deservedly won the Oscar. Justin is cute and sweet and effective and I like the Vivaldi theme. And that's it. To me, it felt like a typical tv movie of the week, overly earnest and transparent in its message. And, with a couple notable exceptions, I am not a fan of Dustin Hoffman. There's something about him that is precious in the extreme and not in a good way. He's overbearing and obnoxious. It all worked to great advantage in "Tootsie" as Dorothy Michaels was precious, and very likable. (But that movie was a comedy, anyway.) But overall, I just found the movie basically obvious and more than a bit dreary.
4. "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" - ***1/2/** I felt compelled to put this movie on my list primarily because as much as I ADORE Elizabeth Taylor, I don't find her performance as "Maggie, the Cat" to be very good. In fact, I think it's a pretty bad performance. Her line readings carry no weight and her emoting is both ostentatious and hollow. I also don't think Paul Newman is all the good of an actor and his nice blue eyes do not get to me. Tennessee Williams is by far my favorite playwright, and this play might be a good one, but it was not going to translate well in the year 1958, when big production values and a glossy look were substitutes for any depth or intensity. Boring.
5. "Bonnie and Clyde" - ****/** The color photography is vivid and makes an impact, and the family reunion scene was very sad, but I'm just not impressed with this movie at all. First, I cannot stand Warren Beatty. He is a terrible actor. He has this habit of inserting pauses in the middle of sentences. I don't know why he does this. He does this ALL THE TIME! Maybe Beatty thinks it makes his characters appear to be thoughtful and intelligent, but all it really does is to distract and draw attention to Beatty's own obvious self-importance. I may be indifferent to Paul Newman, but Warren Beatty is blatantly unlikable, and since he's playing the male lead.... Also, I really didn't like any of the characters. I just didn't feel anything for them. They're all kind of cold to me, and so is the movie. Cold and vaguely unlikable. Dunaway is pretty good, Parsons is just awful and Hackman gives the best performance in the movie. But this movie just put me off. I would take "Badlands" over this any day.
6. "Schindler's List" - ****/** I found it overlong, turgid, lethargic, self-congratulatory and boring.
7. "North by Northwest" - ****/** I just don't get the appeal of this one. The "wrong man" plot has been utilized better elsewhere and I thought the movie was pretty slow-moving. For me, Cary Grant is marginal and Eva Marie Saint is extremely bland. She does nothing for me. The crop dusting scene was awesome and my favorite thing in the movie.
8. "American Beauty" - ***1/2/*1/2 I like Kevin Spacey in almost everything I've seen him in. And he's the only thing I like about AB. Super obvious and predictable with its sophomoric pandering and no sympathetic characters at all.
9. "Titanic" - ***1/2/*1/2 I found this movie to be rather offensive. It takes a real life human tragedy and turns it into a bloated, boring love story between two people I could not care less about. At the very least, this is not really a sensitively felt movie, though James Cameron wants to think that it is. I think even watching the movie, you can sense the director's enormous ego. I'd rather watch "Piranha 2: The Spawning" than this movie. At least that one has Tricia O'Neal in it.
10. "Vertigo" - ****/*1/2 Maybe I just don't get the movie's (supposed) psychological complexity, but I have never been able to find my way into this film. And I cannot stand James Stewart. His cornpone routine is bad enough, but when he tries to be assertive, like he does here, he just comes across as a jerk. I do not get his appeal at all. The movie does have some cool camera work and I do like the Bernard Hermann theme.
11. "Lenny" - ****/*1/2 This movie was completely uninvolving to me. It didn't provide any insight into the main character. Dustin Hoffman at his most obnoxious (well, here and as Rico Rizzo. But I focus on Voight in that one.) Movie also looks ugly.
12. "Fargo" - ***1/2/* For me, this movie gets the lowest rating. I found it extremely mean spirited and unfunny. For example, the lady running around with a bag on her head, scared to death, I did NOT find funny at all. I found the entire to be a depressing and alienating experience. Frances Mcdormand was quite good, but it wasn't enough to make me not hate this movie. ...furthermore, I have found every Coen Brothers movie to contain all these qualities that run contrary to what I find endearing or impressive in a film. I can't imagine them making a movie that I would like.
13. "Raging Bull" - ****/* This is definitely my least favorite so called "great" movie. There is nothing about it that I can like. As Robert De Niro portrays him, the main character is as comprehensible as a bucket full of wet cement. Scordese wants everything to be dense and offputting. Well, he succeeded with that one. Who could ever care about any of these characters? (If the movie is supposed to have anything to do with Catholic guilt, Scorsese did this SO MUCH BETTER in the stunning "Mean Streets", which was a kinetic movie experience.) To borrow from Pauline Kael, De Niro is thoroughly absorbed in the process of becoming a potato. Yes. Thanks, Pauline. That sums this one up.
Also because there is such a disparity in opinion, I'm going to indulge in a few choice comments for each movie.
1. "Some Like it Hot" - ****/**3/4 I do not dislike SLIH. But it's one of those movies that seems to get praised across the board as one of the funniest comedies ever made and, with the exception of Jack Lemmon who, admittedly, is absolutely hysterical (highlight of the film, imo, takes place in an upper berth), I don't find the movie to be all that funny or entertaining. The St. Valentine's Day backdrop really didn't interest me, the script I didn't find all that great and honestly, I thought the movie dragged a bit. Funny Jack and charming Marilyn were the movie's main assets.
2. "The Maltese Falcon" - ****/**1/2 I do like the look and the tone of this obvious classic, and the supporting cast is fascinating, but that's really as far as I can go with it. I'm really not a Humphrey Bogart fan and I could not follow the plot to save my life. If somebody asked me what happened in the movie, I could tell them Peter Lorre gets slapped around by Humphrey Bogart. And also Sidney Greensreet is very creepy.
3. "Kramer vs. Kramer" - ****/**1/4 Meryl Streep is excellent playing a cold, COLD, completely unlikable character. I'm not being facetious when I say Streep deservedly won the Oscar. Justin is cute and sweet and effective and I like the Vivaldi theme. And that's it. To me, it felt like a typical tv movie of the week, overly earnest and transparent in its message. And, with a couple notable exceptions, I am not a fan of Dustin Hoffman. There's something about him that is precious in the extreme and not in a good way. He's overbearing and obnoxious. It all worked to great advantage in "Tootsie" as Dorothy Michaels was precious, and very likable. (But that movie was a comedy, anyway.) But overall, I just found the movie basically obvious and more than a bit dreary.
4. "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" - ***1/2/** I felt compelled to put this movie on my list primarily because as much as I ADORE Elizabeth Taylor, I don't find her performance as "Maggie, the Cat" to be very good. In fact, I think it's a pretty bad performance. Her line readings carry no weight and her emoting is both ostentatious and hollow. I also don't think Paul Newman is all the good of an actor and his nice blue eyes do not get to me. Tennessee Williams is by far my favorite playwright, and this play might be a good one, but it was not going to translate well in the year 1958, when big production values and a glossy look were substitutes for any depth or intensity. Boring.
5. "Bonnie and Clyde" - ****/** The color photography is vivid and makes an impact, and the family reunion scene was very sad, but I'm just not impressed with this movie at all. First, I cannot stand Warren Beatty. He is a terrible actor. He has this habit of inserting pauses in the middle of sentences. I don't know why he does this. He does this ALL THE TIME! Maybe Beatty thinks it makes his characters appear to be thoughtful and intelligent, but all it really does is to distract and draw attention to Beatty's own obvious self-importance. I may be indifferent to Paul Newman, but Warren Beatty is blatantly unlikable, and since he's playing the male lead.... Also, I really didn't like any of the characters. I just didn't feel anything for them. They're all kind of cold to me, and so is the movie. Cold and vaguely unlikable. Dunaway is pretty good, Parsons is just awful and Hackman gives the best performance in the movie. But this movie just put me off. I would take "Badlands" over this any day.
6. "Schindler's List" - ****/** I found it overlong, turgid, lethargic, self-congratulatory and boring.
7. "North by Northwest" - ****/** I just don't get the appeal of this one. The "wrong man" plot has been utilized better elsewhere and I thought the movie was pretty slow-moving. For me, Cary Grant is marginal and Eva Marie Saint is extremely bland. She does nothing for me. The crop dusting scene was awesome and my favorite thing in the movie.
8. "American Beauty" - ***1/2/*1/2 I like Kevin Spacey in almost everything I've seen him in. And he's the only thing I like about AB. Super obvious and predictable with its sophomoric pandering and no sympathetic characters at all.
9. "Titanic" - ***1/2/*1/2 I found this movie to be rather offensive. It takes a real life human tragedy and turns it into a bloated, boring love story between two people I could not care less about. At the very least, this is not really a sensitively felt movie, though James Cameron wants to think that it is. I think even watching the movie, you can sense the director's enormous ego. I'd rather watch "Piranha 2: The Spawning" than this movie. At least that one has Tricia O'Neal in it.
10. "Vertigo" - ****/*1/2 Maybe I just don't get the movie's (supposed) psychological complexity, but I have never been able to find my way into this film. And I cannot stand James Stewart. His cornpone routine is bad enough, but when he tries to be assertive, like he does here, he just comes across as a jerk. I do not get his appeal at all. The movie does have some cool camera work and I do like the Bernard Hermann theme.
11. "Lenny" - ****/*1/2 This movie was completely uninvolving to me. It didn't provide any insight into the main character. Dustin Hoffman at his most obnoxious (well, here and as Rico Rizzo. But I focus on Voight in that one.) Movie also looks ugly.
12. "Fargo" - ***1/2/* For me, this movie gets the lowest rating. I found it extremely mean spirited and unfunny. For example, the lady running around with a bag on her head, scared to death, I did NOT find funny at all. I found the entire to be a depressing and alienating experience. Frances Mcdormand was quite good, but it wasn't enough to make me not hate this movie. ...furthermore, I have found every Coen Brothers movie to contain all these qualities that run contrary to what I find endearing or impressive in a film. I can't imagine them making a movie that I would like.
13. "Raging Bull" - ****/* This is definitely my least favorite so called "great" movie. There is nothing about it that I can like. As Robert De Niro portrays him, the main character is as comprehensible as a bucket full of wet cement. Scordese wants everything to be dense and offputting. Well, he succeeded with that one. Who could ever care about any of these characters? (If the movie is supposed to have anything to do with Catholic guilt, Scorsese did this SO MUCH BETTER in the stunning "Mean Streets", which was a kinetic movie experience.) To borrow from Pauline Kael, De Niro is thoroughly absorbed in the process of becoming a potato. Yes. Thanks, Pauline. That sums this one up.
