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Most overrated movies?

Harp

I'll Lock Up
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8,508
Location
Chicago, IL US
The Way We Were

Now, I like this flick. Babs and Redford struggle and call it quits. This cuts 'cause I am an
incurable romantic happily ever after kinda guy. Yeah, their opposites and everybody tells me
they were right to divorce. But that final scene when Babs and R meet again and he is with
his new wife, and Babs is protesting whatever, I just wanna bawl my eyes out. Ughhh.
 
Messages
12,941
Location
Germany
Stripes.

I know, it got some "cult factor".
But maybe it was great in it's time in early 80s, when I wasn't already born. First half is fine, but why this cartoony second half??

They better had stopped the movie after the epic scene! ;)
 

Harp

I'll Lock Up
Messages
8,508
Location
Chicago, IL US
Love Story

This flick is fifty years young but fifty ain't nifty-as Kiri Te Kanawa fondly said of herself
at that age-but its like stepping into a right cross. :confused:
 
Messages
12,005
Location
Southern California
One of the--if not the--most overrated movies is also the second-highest grossing movie of all time: Avatar (2019). From start to finish nearly every plot point was stolen from a previous movie, and almost every character was a cliché. The one thing Avatar had going for it was the visual impact--bright colors, decent CGI, and some of the best 3D I've seen in a movie--and I think that's why so many people remember it so favorably; in their minds they've confused the pretty colors for quality filmmaking. If Avatar hadn't been released in 3D I'd bet it wouldn't have had such a strong box office draw, but, of course, now there's no way of knowing.
 
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12,941
Location
Germany
It boggles the mind to hear that "Avatar" is the second-highest-grossing film of all time, and the only thing I know about it is that I have no interest whatsoever in seeing it.

(One of the many things wrong with my eyes is that they don't process 3-D movies, which, given the quality of most 3-D movies is no great loss.)

So much "kids" of my generation laughed so hard, when Avatar was launched and didn't went to cinema!

Playstation 1 game "Abe's Odyssee" + "Aliens" (Vietnam context) + "Starship Troopers" etc..

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=abe's+odyssee&form=HDRSC2&first=1&tsc=ImageBasicHover

Typical Cameron blockbuster movie for "dupery/trickery/skin game".

;)
 
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Messages
12,005
Location
Southern California
It boggles the mind to hear that "Avatar" is the second-highest-grossing film of all time, and the only thing I know about it is that I have no interest whatsoever in seeing it.

(One of the many things wrong with my eyes is that they don't process 3-D movies, which, given the quality of most 3-D movies is no great loss.)
I went to see it with two friends, and we all shared the same main reason for wanting to see it--just to see if all of the fuss was justified. It wasn't; not even close. And we had all read and heard reports that people had allegedly committed suicide because they couldn't live in the fictional world seen in the movie??? o_O

One of the friends had/has vision issues as well (i.e., she regularly wears some form of corrective lenses), and she had never seen a 3D movie before, so she joined us rather than attending a 2D screening. She said the headache (from her brain trying to interpret the 3D effects) got so bad after 15 minutes that she had to remove the glasses and just try to make sense of the blurry footage. Needless to say, she wasn't impressed.

That said, I've always believed 3D is nothing more than a gimmick to sell tickets. I've seen a few 3D movies knowing that, and the effects ranged from poor to well done, sometimes within the same movie. But I never thought the 3D effects improved those movies; they were just as good or bad without 3D.
 

EngProf

Practically Family
Messages
608
One of the--if not the--most overrated movies is also the second-highest grossing movie of all time: Avatar (2019). From start to finish nearly every plot point was stolen from a previous movie, and almost every character was a cliché. The one thing Avatar had going for it was the visual impact--bright colors, decent CGI, and some of the best 3D I've seen in a movie--and I think that's why so many people remember it so favorably; in their minds they've confused the pretty colors for quality filmmaking. If Avatar hadn't been released in 3D I'd bet it wouldn't have had such a strong box office draw, but, of course, now there's no way of knowing.

A joke from the "Avatar" era: Person A: "Have you seen "Avatar"?"
Person B: "No need to - I saw it when it was called "Dances With Wolves."
 

Seb Lucas

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,562
Location
Australia
It boggles the mind to hear that "Avatar" is the second-highest-grossing film of all time, and the only thing I know about it is that I have no interest whatsoever in seeing it.

(One of the many things wrong with my eyes is that they don't process 3-D movies, which, given the quality of most 3-D movies is no great loss.)

I've not seen it either, but high grossing films are very often, well... gross.
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
25,074
Location
London, UK
Avatar was,naufht but Dances with Wolves in Space, with a cast of overgrown smurfs. It looked awful, like sombody had let George Harrison on lsd do much of the design. Tedious rubbish, really. That some people actually needed counselling after seeing it because they became so obssessed they sank into a depression that they couldn't live on the hippy planet for real made *me* depressed.
 

GHT

I'll Lock Up
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9,775
Location
New Forest
I think there were some great movies in the 80s...including the best horror film of all time, The Shining, and the best sci-fi film of all time, Blade Runner.
Sci-fi leaves me cold, but there's one film, or series of films, that I have tried to watch, just to see the appeal. Did you know that five Twilight Saga films have grossed $3.3billion worldwide? Never got past the first thirty minutes.
 
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12,005
Location
Southern California
Sci-fi leaves me cold, but there's one film, or series of films, that I have tried to watch, just to see the appeal. Did you know that five Twilight Saga films have grossed $3.3billion worldwide? Never got past the first thirty minutes.
I saw the first movie in the Twilight franchise only because a good friend of ours had read the novels and wanted to see it. When she heard me describe it as "soft core porn for women between the pre-teen and middle-aged years who seem to have never quite finished going through puberty", she didn't ask if I was interested in seeing any of the others. :D
 

Bushman

I'll Lock Up
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4,138
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Joliet
Re: "James Cameron's Avatar," I recall the primary selling point of the movie being the 3D and visual effects. The movie writing is not original. In essence, it's just another blatant story of (literally) star-crossed lovers. It is a proverbial tale almost as old as time, dating back to the turn of the last millennium. But then again, James Cameron's strong suit was never his writing, and always his visuals. Heck, Cameron himself has even admitted that "The Terminator" (1984) was partially inspired by John Carpenter's "Halloween." "Avatar" was and continues to be praised so highly only because it was a groundbreaking visual spectacle ala "Star Wars" (which itself is just a genre mashed Arthurian-style fairytale set in space). "Avatar" pushed visual and 3D technology to the next level, and is still visually stunning today. Without it, many of the last decade's summer blockbuster movies would not be possible (take that as you will).

At least it's still better than the rotten attempt of an adaption of a similarly titled animated series that was butchered up by Shyamalan.
 
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Ed Bass

One of the Regulars
Messages
162
Location
Palm Springs, CA.
It's a Wonderful Life.
Jimmy Stewart's endless whining just grates on me to no end.

Followed closely by The Spirit of St. Louis (which by coincidence is also a Stewart film) for the worst casting ever.
There was just no hiding the fact that the boyish 25 year old Lindbergh was being portrayed by a half century old man.
 

Seb Lucas

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,562
Location
Australia
Sci-fi leaves me cold, but there's one film, or series of films, that I have tried to watch, just to see the appeal. Did you know that five Twilight Saga films have grossed $3.3billion worldwide? Never got past the first thirty minutes.

I liked the first Twilight film. I found it to be a decent pop film for young people. The rest I left alone.
 

Seb Lucas

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,562
Location
Australia
It's a Wonderful Life.
Jimmy Stewart's endless whining just grates on me to no end.

Followed closely by The Spirit of St. Louis (which by coincidence is also a Stewart film) for the worst casting ever.
There was just no hiding the fact that the boyish 25 year old Lindbergh was being portrayed by a half century old man.

I find Capra's films mostly too mawkish and painful to watch.

Stewart was also clearly too old in Vertigo, a tedious movie many people consider to be a masterpiece.
 

Doctor Strange

I'll Lock Up
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5,245
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Hudson Valley, NY
Agreed that he's pushing it a bit in The Spirit of Saint Louis and Vertigo (also Bell, Book and Candle), but the movie role that Jimmy Stewart was REALLY too old for is "just out of law school" Ranse Stoddard in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Of course, the film remains a timeless masterpiece, but come on: Stewart was FIFTY-FOUR in 1962!
 

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