Movies you should have liked but didn't

[Red Diabla]

This thread is killing me! lol

I LOVE Casablanca. Wonderful casting, great lines, good production value, and a great director. I think the characters make that film for me.

Michael Curtiz, Casablanca's director, did Romance on the High Seas which is great, as is Mildred Pierce and Angels with Dirty Faces.

I'm a fan of Bogie, but he's done some stinkers...Swing My Lady and The Return of Dr. X immediately come to mind. Key Largo should've been better considering director, cast, plot, etc. but it wasn't.

Bringing Up Baby: I think it's cute, but not that cute. But then I figured out that I'm not a big Katharine Hepburn fan, and that probably has a lot to do with why I don't like that film. Nor am I a huge fan of the Hepburn/Tracy films such as Adam's Rib and Woman of the Year. I liked Pat and Mike, and I think it's because Hepburn didn't talk a whole lot in it.

Citizen Kane: I haven't been able to sit through it since college. I can admire the technical aspects that Welles achieved (same with Touch of Evil), but dang! I fall asleep every time I try to watch it.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Peter Sellers, Shelley Winters and James Mason in the Kubrick version of Lolita. Considering the time the film was made in, I thought the subject matter was handled really well. The '97 version was good in a different way, but I gotta go with the '62 version.

I can't sit through 2001: A Space Odyssey. Or A Clockwork Orange. Or any Fellini movie made later than the late 1950's.

I used to not be able to sit through Hitchcock films until I realized that they reminded me of other, inferior films that borrowed from Hitchcock and I let those inferior films color my perceptions of Hitchcock. Then I enjoyed his films up to The Birds. Yawn city on anything he made after that.

A couple people mentioned films like Treasure of the Sierra Madre and of course Key Largo. I think that's because of the director, John Huston. He has a particular style that either really works or really doesn't. I like some of his work, such as Treasure... and African Queen(despite Katharine Hepburn's presence!), but for the most part he just doesn't sit right with me.

I've generally stopped going to contemporary movies because I find them to be a letdown in general. The last movie I saw in the theater was The Dark Knight, which I enjoyed despite Christian Bale's Cookie Monster voice when he was Batman. lol I've been told that Iron Man and the latest Star Trek movie are really good, but I haven't found out for myself yet.

In the end, I find that I"m watching more and more old, black and white movies and enjoying them more than contemporary fare. I guess I'm weird that way!

RD

 

[Widebrim]

Casablanca (and Bogart in general) - slow, obvious, and tremendously overrated

Wow! I know opinions vary on every subject under the sun, Lefty, but I never thought I'd see the day...:cry:

 

[Orion]

Philadelphia Story. Boring, stiff and lifeless. I loved High Society, though. [huh]

How interesting. I love Philadelphia Story, but High Society, despite having such a fabulous cast (Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelly, Louis Armstrong...,) always falls a little flat in comparison for me. 9/10 versus 7/10.


The movie that didn't meet my expectations was Around the World in 80 Days. I remembered loving it as a little kid, but was a bit disappointed when I bought the DVD a few years ago. Don't get me wrong, the visuals are beautiful -- I imagine the scale and scope of the film was stunning when it was released -- and David Niven is always a hoot, but dang if the movie isn't as slow as molasses in January, overlong, and has an abrupt, annoying ending.

Many of the same critiques can be said of Lawrence of Arabia, which some people find mind-numbingly boring. I actually enjoy it considerably; probably my keen interest in that period of time plus the joy of seeing it on a fairly large (52") screen. For that matter, I've never seen it on a small screen and I'm sure that makes all the difference. My first viewing was at a drive-in years and years ago.

 

[bobalooba]

Casablanca (and Bogart in general) - slow, obvious, and tremendously overrated

I too didn't like a lot of bogart movies but with him it seems very hit or miss, when I see one I like I really love it

 

[anon`]

In reading this thread, I must say that I've been quite surprised by some of the responses herein! But oddly, I can't think of a single film that I should have liked, but didn't. I suppose part of that comes from the fact that I have seen very few films that I went to see with high expectations (Peter Jackson's take on the Lord of the Rings was one of these, and fortunately he got it right, for the most part). I generally expect that I won't like it, and am often correct! Sometimes this can be a good thing, resulting in a pleasant surprise: I basically watched American Graffiti for the first time under duress, and it is one of my favourite movies!

But I find it very interesting that Dr. Strangelove has shown up three times in this thread, each time as an example of a disliked film (as you might expect). At least one of the commentators I suspect is younger than I, at 27. The reason being... even at my age, I "get" this movie, even though I really shouldn't, as there isn't a bit of its intended commentary or subtext that really applies to my generation. Just an observation that stuck out to me. But really... what's not to be loved about Peter Sellers being strangled by his own hand, or a very young-looking George C Scott proclaiming "Mr. President, we must not allow... a mine shaft gap!"?

PS~ I love Casablanca and the Maltese Falcon. And quite a few other films from the era, complete with wooden acting, questionable direction and oddly-incomplete scripts!

 

[Celia Crowson]

"High Society" - personally didn't think much of it BUT I did love the music, that's probably why I sat through it.

"On the town" - I love Gene Kelly but I just did not care for this movie (first half good, but the second half just silly).

"Gentlemen marry brunettes" - I just found it silly too. I guess it might be because I love "Gentlemen prefer blondes", thus I could not see Jane Russell in this role.