Overly appreciated movies?

[p51]

The underappreciated movie thread has a lot of good suggestions in it.
But that got me thinking, what movies do you think are overhyped and simply not as good as people say they are?
What movies do you think the movie snobs make you think is a classic when it really isn't all that good?
I have a few but I'll wait for the first couple of other folks to throw down their own, first...

 

[LizzieMaine]

"A Night At The Opera." Any movie where Harpo Marx gets brutally beaten to make you "sympathetic" to him is a movie about crass manipulation, not comedy. Irving Thalberg was a cheap hack.

 

[Guttersnipe]

The Third Man (1949) is consistently on "best of film noir" lists, but I don't think it really belongs there (hopefully I don't get any hate mail for this, a certain Lounger's username is taken from this movie, I believe...).

Don't get me wrong, it's good (actually, it's quite good), but I don't think its the defining classic some make it out to be. I suspect it gets talked up a lot because of the Orson Welles connection. But for my money, The Lady from Shanghai (1947) or Touch of Evil (1958) are both better films.

Another fish-out-of-water noir -- also featuring an American in Europe -- is Night and the City (1950), which I highly recommend.

 

[Nobert]

My Fair Lady. I watched this one Thanksgiving on T.V. because I had nothing better to do, and at some point I decided I was going to finish it out of sheer, jaw-clenching determination. "Of course you've grown accustomed to her face, we all have! We've been looking at for the last three and a half hours! And you didn't have to sit through the commercial breaks!"

 

[Levallois]

Grease

Just shoot me in the freakin head.

 

[Stormy]

Casablanca. It has its "moments," and nobody loves Bogie more than I. But ... well... I dunno!

 

[Blackthorn]

African Queen, and Touch of Evil. I was disappointed in both.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Anything Rodgers and Hammerstein ever did, from Oklahoma to The Sound of Music, is overrated. Rodgers and Hart, on the other hand, are woefully underrated.

 

[AntonAAK]

Anything by Stanley Kubrick.

 

[Two Types]

The Third Man (1949) is consistently on "best of film noir" lists, but I don't think it really belongs there

I really don't like that film.


And whilst we are talking about Orson Welles, I think Citizen Kane is truly dull.

I would also add Apocalyse Now and Chariots of Fire to my list of overated films.

 

[Two Types]

Another fish-out-of-water noir -- also featuring an American in Europe -- is Night and the City (1950), which I highly recommend.

if i remember correctly, in the book Harry Fabian is actually a British bloke putting on an American accent in an attempt to appear like a gangster. It was the lure of all things American that caused such behaviour. Dirk Bogarde's character in The Woman in Question does the same thing.

 

[p51]

I was going to initally throw down "Casablanca" and "Citizen Kane" but wanted to see if anyone would as well. The former certainly has its moments, but the latter? That movie just baffles me why people think it's a classic.

Grease

Just shoot me in the freakin head.

Amen, there. :eusa_clap
I could say the same for most musicals. Most men I know have very little use for musicals at all and would fine with none ever having been made.
"The Sound of Music" is another that's always eluded me.

 

[lolly_loisides]

"The Women". The characters are one dimensional, the acting is hammy and the plot, oh boy don't get me started on the plot. Sure there are a few good lines, but the movie is a real chore to watch.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"The Women". The characters are one dimensional, the acting is hammy and the plot, oh boy don't get me started on the plot. Sure there are a few good lines, but the movie is a real chore to watch.

Clare Boothe Luce was the world's first female female impersonator.

 

[Stanley Doble]

The African Queen is the only movie in which Humphrey Bogart played a Canadian. They changed him from a Cockney to a Canuck, it's in the movie but you have to be quick to catch it.

The Third Man is one of those movies I can watch over and over and never tire of. On the other hand, I tried to watch The Lady From Shanghai last night and shut it off about 15 minutes in. It is one of the phoniest movies I have ever seen, even allowing for the suspension of disbelief necessary to watch any show. There wasn't a single scene that rang true or even made sense.

 

[jamespowers]

I could say the same for most musicals. Most men I know have very little use for musicals at all and would fine with none ever having been made.
"The Sound of Music" is another that's always eluded me.

Agreed on both. I can't stand musicals either. I'll throw Singing in the Rain down the stairs too.
Worse than all musicals though is Love Story. Talk about a just shoot me in the head movie! :doh:

 

[1mach1]

There is no place for musicals. How about my wife's favorite film, the abhorrent Moulin Rouge? ainkiller:

 

[jamespowers]

There is no place for musicals. How about my wife's favorite film, the abhorrent Moulin Rouge? ainkiller:

:faint: Really Bad....

 

[LizzieMaine]

There is no place for musicals.

Nertz to you philistines. You just haven't seen any *good* musicals. Anything postwar is the bunk as far as I'm concerned -- America forgot how to write a decent song after about 1945 -- but the finest music ever written in the United States came out of film and stage musicals in the twenties and thirties. So there.

But yes, I've had all I can stand of "Singin' In The Rain." The individual songs are fine -- all the film is is a "best-of" collection culled from various MGM musicals of the previous twenty years -- but the presentation is terribly cloying in a "look at me, ain't I cute" manner. And it had nothing of the acid edge of actual 1929 film musicals to cut thru all the the smiley-faced postwar sweetness.

 

[1mach1]

Like this one, Lizzie? Not by bag....but I see your point.

[video=youtube;5hVtHBcjVCI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hVtHBcjVCI[/video]