Name a "Classic" movie that you think sucks (defend your answer).

[LostInAnomie]

1. Casablanca - The only thing good about that movie is the memorable lines, but you can't base a movie on that alone. It's a dull and contrived story with a wooden leading man and characters that were cliche even then.

2. Dracula (1931) - Worst ending of any movie. It's like the director just got tired of filming and decided he wanted to end it immediately. Plot gaps that you could drive a truck through (Why is Renfield able to just walk around? He's a dangerous lunatic in an asylum.)

3. Nosferatu - Huge plot gaps in an already hard to follow story, numerous unnecessary scenes and characters, poor acting even for the silent movie era.

[BulletproofLandshark]

1. Is "Lost In Translation" too new to qualify?

Can't believe I wasted 2 hours on that boring POS.

[XemaSab]

50. +1

I suppose that the ennui of the main characters is the point of the film, but ennui does not an interesting film make.

[JanMichael]

56. +2. hated it. NT.

[XemaSab]

70. I wouldn't say I hated it

but I thought it was boring.

Why watch a boring movie? :shrug:

[valerief]

2. The Godfather

Buncha guys killing each other and shit. Yecch.

[litlady]

12. Not personally a fan of any mafia films. nt

[Tikki]

33. +a million

Why would we glorify the Mafia? To me they are on parr with
child molesters.



Tikki

[tigereye]

59. yeah, I've never understood the attraction

It's not like they have any real redeeming qualities... :shrug:

[Shell Beau]

78. I am torn here. I so agree that it shouldn't be glorified, but it is/was a

reality. Many movies are made from real stuff. They do draw you in and make you root for a mobster, but I still love them. In fact I was so freakin' excited when I met Uncle Jr. from the Sopranos when I was NYC. It was right when the last season was airing. We have to remember they are movies. Even if they depict real life. War movies?

Oh, and my fave mob movie besides Godfather I and II was Donnie Brasco.

[JonLP24]

92. The director of the Godfather

initial refused to do the film because he didn't want to glorify the mafia but the writers or whoever wanted an Italian-American director I guess to make it appear more authentic. So Francis Ford Coppola agreed to do it as long as it was to be used a metaphor for capitalism. I'm not sure if others did but I noticed the metaphor and enjoyed the movie as well. :hide:

If you liked Donnie Brasco I highly recommend reading the book "Covert" by Bob Delaney. I liked that book 10x more than Donnie Brasco and it's the same thing. A detective goes undercover and infiltrates the mob. Delaney and Brasco even crossed paths and they didn't know each other was working undercover at the time.

[HughBeaumont]

101. Because of the male's love for anything violent and illegal.

They love that life - violence, murder, assbeatings, bloodshed and bullying. It's what their ideal is, since very few of them are insane enough to cross the line and actually DO all of that stuff and think they'll get away with it. For many, it's just in their imagination, so that's the outlet. Mafia movies, gangsta rap, GTA, MMA, etc.

[ZombieHorde]

127. I am not particularly into mafia movies, but I do love dismemberment, cannibalism, people on hooks,

fire, skinning, crushed skulls, castration, people cut in half, blood and guts everywhere, exploding heads, extreme impaling, ankle rolls, extracted teeth, people who vomit their own organs, and self mutilation. Love it, yum yum yum.

[foxfeet]

136. Then let me turn you on to a couple of stories by Louisa May Alcott.

"Little Women," in particular. That Marmee, I'm telling you . . .

[JonLP24]

148. Could be true for others

Not me though. I don't sit around and imagine doing violent stuff, in fact I've only been in a less than a handful of fights and every time I was defending myself and tried to talk to that person and settle it that way and those where when I was 15 or under. I'm very peaceful person and I don't do anything to make others want to beat me up and I'm very respectful and generous to others. So I do not "love that life", but I have watched a few of those movies. Not because of the violence but usually because of the storyline. I've played GTA and enjoy it. If you understand video games, 98% of them determines you have to go here than here in this order. You have to do this first before you can move on or so forth. In GTA you can go anywhere at anytime and do a variety of missions in whatever order you decide. It has a very large map you can explore which is unheard of in video games. You can take a drive through the entire city if you want. You have to do the missions to advance the storyline which is actually pretty good and the lastest GTA IV has a GREAT Fox News parody which I'm sure most people on DU would enjoy. It's called Weasel News and it has very slanted right wing articles but they write them in a way in which makes it funny. That is the only game I play which has violence and I don't play 'Call of Duty' or any game like that because it is very restricted on what you can do. You don't have to enjoy it but I'm saying your theory just doesn't fit me and explained why the game is so popular because it is unique in the variety of things you can do when nearly all games are so restrictive on what rooms to enter and when you can enter them, etc.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Citizen Kane, my dear LostInAnomie!

Boring, boring, boring!

I recently saw this "classic" again, and I could not believe it.

:thumbsdown:

[Kat45]

5. I also found that to be quite boring. nt

[UndertheOcean]

63. !!!!! !!!!! !!!!!

oh no .... oh no ...the horror ..... 1 person in the world does not like Citizen Kane ? I never dreamed such people existed on this Earth .... What is not to like ?

[Captain Hilts]

67. I agree. I realize the way it was filmed was revolutionary, but that's not enough to hold me. nt

[begin_within]

117. I found it boring too.

[Jade Fox]

141. agree

The movie was a visual ground-breaker in it's day, but it's a snoozer.

[Demoiselle]

174. I have tried to watch Citizen Kane a brazillion times.

I canNOT stick it out! Boring indeed. I gotta say I think Orson Welles may be the most unappealing movie actor of all time. Joseph Cotten (or is it Cotton?) runs him a close second.

[JonLP24]

4. "Rocky"

I did not why. Just didn't enjoy it and the boxing was so unrealistic.

[valerief]

7. Years ago when I saw Rocky, I was with a friend and right at the end,

when I guess the audience was supposed to be crying, the mescaline kicked in. I never laughed so hard!!!

To this day, every time I see Sly Stallone, I want to laugh.

[Tikki]

29. +2

The Tikkis

[Midwestern Democrat]

139. "Rocky" was always overrated - and the sequels basically destroyed

the entire film's premise. The premise of the original film was that a good, but not great, boxer - through determination and will - for one night - could go the distance with the heavyweight champion of the world - who was, of course, a technically far superior boxer.

Then the sequels come along and it turns out Rocky was a great boxer himself all along - heavyweight champion worthy - which totally undoes the premise of the original film.

[valerief]

6. Taxi Driver

Another creepy guy and another gory ending. Blech.

[litlady]

8. Gone with the Wind

Attack if you like, as apparently it is one of the most beloved and money-making films, but I can't stand it.

Overwrought soap opera with an annoying/depressing storyline, set in an unfortunate time period portrayed idealistically, Scarlett is an aggravating character, and it's too long for what it is.

[peekaloo]

21. Sorry I didn't see your post.

Same reaction here.

:-)

[Ikonoklast]

40. That film and the people that idolize it annoy me to no end.

"Overwrought soap opera" is a generous description.

"Steaming pile of poop" is closer to how I see it.

And Miss Scarlett needed her attitude adjusted.

[WolverineDG]

42. I nominate it because it turned all the strong women characters

(even Melanie!) into simpering whimps. Read the book & you'll be stunned at the difference. The men are side characters, including Rhett, while all the women are quite strong, even Prissy & Mammy.

dg

[surrealAmerican]

47. I agree.

It's utterly tedious, and none of the characters are likable.

[Blasphemer]

57. That tops my list as well

When I first saw it (with a friend who was annoyingly obsessed with it), I laughed out loud through the whole thing. Talk about cheesy melodrama. It is flat out bad.

[quakerboy]

93. +1 more

[kwassa]

106. Scarlett O'Hara is the most unlikable lead character, with no redeeming qualities

she defines "selfish twit".

[quiet.american]

118. My thoughts exactly! nt

[Amerigo Vespucci]

9. LOVE STORY

...because do dying people REALLY say shit like "love means never having to say you're sorry?"

Whether it was the book or the movie, "Love Story"...to me...was a story that cried out to be printed on 2-ply.

[kedrys]

20. Actually, love means

having to say you're sorry every 5 minutes. Which is only one reason why that movie sucks.

[Inspired]

28. I always thought that line was complete bullshit. It was a stupid movie.

But damn....in his day Ryan O'Neal was gorgeous. Too bad he was an asshole.

[lunamagica]

39. Stupid line. But she wasn't dying or even sick when she said it n/t

[Captain Hilts]

68. Agree. And I couldn't feel sorry for a rich kid who wasn't fearing the draft. nt

[Midwestern Democrat]

96. "Love Story" was never considered a classic. It was a huge date

movie, but even back then everybody knew it was no better than a typical "ABC Movie of the Week" - the shock was that it made something like fifty million dollars at the box office.

[raccoon]

103. +1. I agree, book & movie were fucking stupid. nt

[NNadir]

10. Titanic. First of all, they should have died of hypothermia long before

the ship went down.

So much for the "accuracy."

Second of all, the characters played by Winslet and DiCaprio were tiresome and uninteresting inflated twits.

I was rooting for the iceberg through the whole movie.

[litlady]

13. Thank you!

This was my second choice after Gone with the Wind! I have never liked Titanic and found Kate and Leo very uninteresting. Can't believe this is still the best selling movie of all time.

[driver8]

49. I HATED that movie!!

When I finally saw it, I thought, "WTF? How can anyone sit through this movie more than once?".

It sucks.

[HughBeaumont]

111. Many, unfortunately, did.

I don't know whether it was because they wanted a different ending or Leo worship or they're INTO weepy melodramas . . . it sure wasn't because of the movie itself, which was an overlong pile of Waterworld toss.

And because of this, this movie can only be beaten in numbers if inflation-adjustment is factored in. No movie released from now on will ever top this piece of crap.

[geardaddy]

99. +1

What an awful movie.

[Patiod]

129. My SO and I saw it in a crowded theater

and we kept whispering to each other "let him GO already" "for God's sake, just LET HIM GO".

we just kept wanting the goddamned ship to sink already. too damned long.

[nolabear]

145. Oh yeah, hated that one.

[blue_onyx]

146. I love Titanic

"First of all, they should have died of hypothermia long before the ship went down."

Huh? You know hundreds of people survived sitting in open lifeboats for hours, right? Several people were, indeed, saved from the water after the ship sank. There's nothing inaccurate about that.

[NNadir]

149. Um, um, um, um...

The survivors did not survive after being fully immersed in water, as the two idiots in the movie were shown - for an insufferably long time - in the hold of the ship.

There is no thermodynamic possibility of the water in which they were so dramatically swimming endlessly in the movie having been warmed as a result of flowing into the hold of the ship. In the real event, any water that was in the ship was quite nearly as cold as the water outside the ship.

Almost everyone who actually touched the water in the real event - as opposed to being lowered into a life boat - was dead within minutes.

This sort of thing is still true in the North Atlantic. You fall in it, you're unlikely to live very long.

I will wager that Ms. Winslet did have a fair amount of thermal insulation under her skin, but even so, it is very unlikely that she could have survived long enough to get on deck to make out with that dumb guy before dying.

If Winslet and DiCaprio had died as quickly as most of the real victims died, the movie would have been about an hour less tiresome.

For the record, some people were found dead in the lifeboats in the real Titanic event, even though they were not wet.

[blue_onyx]

150. Well...

I've read otherwise:

"Only two of the sixteen lifeboats went back to pick up survivors, and they ended up saving six."

"The people in the bone chilling 28° water above the sinking Titanic would have had anywhere from several minutes to an hour to live, depending on their physical condition and how much they flailed."

http://www.chasingthefrog.com/reelfaces/titanic.php

[unpossibles]

157. Spoiler alert!!!

Thanks for ruining it for me. I did not know the ship sank!

[WinkyDink]

170. This movie is not a classic.

[valerief]

11. I'm shocked--SHOCKED--that you found Casablanca sucky. nt

[Truthiness Inspector]

14. I have to agree about Casablanca

Boring as all heck. I have no idea how this film became a "classic."

[tigereye]

60. but it's so romantic...

I love those old movies.

[Bucky]

86. I still get goosebumps watching the Marseillaise-singing scene. It utterly stirs my loins.

But admittedly, it's a guy's chick flick--it's about getting over one's self loathing listlessness and getting involved with the world again, something every guy has gone through unless he's lived a charmed shallow life. I love that movie.

[valerief]

15. Star Wars

I didn't get the appeal in 1977 and I don't today. WTF is the Force?

[Aristus]

30. It's an energy field, created by all living things.

It surrounds us; it penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.

:P

[rcrush]

35. You mean its little microscopic bugs that live in your blood system

What is this energy field you speak of?

[Aristus]

38. Yeah, when I saw "The Phantom Menace" for the first, and so far, only time, I said:

:wtf: are midichlorians? And :wtf: do they have to do with The Force? And :wtf: is this about Anakin Skywalker being the product of a virgin birth?

George Lucas has definitely outlived whatever talent he may once have possessed... :eyes:

[Maine-ah]

46. they should have left SW alone.

Everything after (or technically story wise, before)is a steaming pile of shit. Same thing for Indian Jones...wtf Kingdom of the Crystal Skull...

[tigereye]

61. the nuclear commentary is pretty hilarious in Crystal Skull, but generally

it's a very bizarre film.

[Orrex]

74. You're being far too kind to that trite sham of a movie

[Bucky]

87. I knew it would suck the second I read "Shia LaBouef" in the credits.

But it had Karen Allen's return, so I had to go see it.

[MilesColtrane]

100. "trite sham" is far too kind.

I'd go with, "185 million dollar, fetid piece of dog shit".

[tigereye]

133. yeah it's one of my bad habits...

we have too high of a Indiana Jones tolerance at my house - personally I think it's time for Harrison to hang up the role. And I kind of liked Shia La Bouef or however you spell it.

:D

[Tommy_Carcetti]

121. Even TESB? nt

[WolverineDG]

43. So the Force = duct tape? nt

[valerief]

122. That's magic talk I don't find appealing. Hence, Star Wars held no attraction for me. nt

[wickerwoman]

16. ET

I just didn't care about the alien, the pace was glacial, the special effects didn't age well at all... I hated it when I was 6 and the two or three times I've tried to watch it since, I could barely get through it.

[mitchum]

17. 2001...it's just a lava lamp of a movie

[Richardo]

18. 2001 is one of my all-time favorites, but your description made me LOL

:rofl:

I can understand why a lot of people would agree with you. :)

[peekaloo]

19. 'Gone With the Wind'

probably just me but the whole Scarlett/Rhett thang made me :boring:

[distantearlywarning]

22. Dunno if either of these are considered "classic" yet, but...

I thought both Pulp Fiction and the Matrix were completely pretentious and boring.

[Pool Hall Ace]

23. It's a Wonderful Life

I was waiting for it to start to get good, and the next thing I know, it was over.

[GoCubsGo]

24. It has become a cliche.

I never understood the big attraction to this movie. I found it to be a bit nauseating, the way eating too much cheap candy makes one nauseated. It's like I imagine how one would feel after eating a case of circus peanuts.

[Pool Hall Ace]

25. Yes, in fact, "treacly" would be the one word I would use

to describe this film.

[baldguy]

32. Capra-corn

[Pool Hall Ace]

36. ah, perfect!

[distantearlywarning]

27. Oh yeah, good one.

I hated that movie. Loathed it. I have no idea why that movie is so beloved.

[raccoon]

104. It was way too long. nt

[jobycom]

26. Ferris Buehler's Day Off, and when they become classic, Lord of the RIngs.

Both are so formulaic they could have been filmed by Simulac.

[Deep13]

31. Gone with the Wind

Not a single sympathetic character in the whole film (except maybe the doctor). I was rooting for Sherman.

Citizen Kane, the "Citizen Kane" of boring, predictable movies.

[Odin2005]

34. Gone With The Wind

Romanticism of the antebellum South. :puke:

[JCMach1]

37. Out of Africa

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

[Xithras]

41. Rocky Horror Picture Show

I'm consistently amazed at the cultlike following that movie has. Bad acting, bad writing, and poor singing (I'm obviously not a Meatloaf fan). I like off the wall musicals, but RHPS is just bizzarre and pointless.

[surrealAmerican]

48. That is kind of the point with RHPS.

It's so bad that the audience takes over. They're the attraction, not the film.

[EFerrari]

44. Casablanca was nearly perfect, from the casting to the music.

I think I better go scrub something to avoid heart attack from this heresy. :)

[Iggo]

45. + a brazillion

[gmoney]

88. Think it would help the OP to recognize it was a metaphor for US isolationism?

Rick (Bogart) represents the US, who despite all the turmoil going on, is intent on "not getting involved" -- just as we stayed out of WWII while Hitler conquered most of Europe. Now, it was made BEFORE Pearl Harbor, but clearly is anti-isolationism...

http://www.teachwithmovies.org/guides/casablanca.html

[Orrex]

90. For me, all of that was cheapened by the graphic, gratuitous sex

I mean, come on Ilsa. Give poor Rick a break! He's got a bar to run!



Incidentally, I didn't know this, but wiki says that shooting began in May of 1942. Doesn't change the correctness of your comments re: US isolationism, but still...

[gmoney]

112. My bad... I recalled incorrectly. Could have sworn it came out in 1941 (eom)

[Orrex]

119. Well, I had no idea whatsoever until I cheated and looked it up

So I'd say that your guess was better than mine!

[kwassa]

107. Casablanca is a great film, and I see it again every couple of years

Some people ain't got no TASTE!

[Chan790]

173. You'd be unhappy to know...

I consider it among the worst movies I've ever seen...somewhere between Porky's and Vampire Zombie Gorefest 2.

There is nothing redeeming about Casablanca, nothing revolutionary; it was a tired bundle of cliches and tropes when it was made and has been emulated and referenced ad-nauseum by the film industry ever since. It's the film version of Eric Cartman's "Fish Sticks" joke...utterly lame and them omnipresent.

[Brigid]

51. Night of the Living Dead

I saw it for the first time last night. Bad storytelling in some places if you ask me, because some of what might have been truly horrifying scenes were merely recounted later, like Ben telling of what had just happened to him when he reached the house. We also only get an idea of the scope of the zombie attack because he has the radio on while trying to secure the house. And most of the acting, especially Judith O'Dea as Barbara, was just plain awful. A decent remake is in order.

One interesting side note, though: An African-American in an heroic role may not seem at all unusual now, but it was in 1968. George Romero says that it just sort of happened that way: Duane Jones was the best actor, so they cast him. They weren't planning to make a statement. Just as the final prints of the film were completed, Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered.

[LostInAnomie]

53. NOTLD gets credit because it was the first of a genre.

I'll agree that it's not the best made or compelling of a movie, but Romero gets credit for creating the genre.

I completely agree that Ben's story would have been a great addition. His retelling of it sounded more interesting that what was actually happening in the movie. I don't think they had the budget for much more than they did though.

[Brigid]

55. You're probably right.

Budget limitation probably played a role in the storytelling. Another thing I noticed was that the zombies just sort of showed up, for no particular reason. Nothing was said about what might have caused them to appear and go on a rampage. All we see is a brother an sister at a cemetery, and all of a sudden a zombie shows up.

[LostInAnomie]

64. Romero has always been a jack of all trades, but master of none.

He's a good idea man, but he's not especially good at implementing those ideas. If he would give his ideas to better writers and directors, you would probably get a much more satisfactory movie.

[Orrex]

80. Well, the reason was given in the news broadcasts, but...

having read and/or seen quite a bit of the "zombie apocalypse" genre, I have to say that I'm almost always bored by the attempts to give elaborate explanations for the plague. If it takes more than about ten seconds of screen time--or more than two lines in a story--I find that it's invariably hackneyed or just plain lame.

Better to have them appear to come out of nowhere, because that strikes me as how it would seem to the people suddenly dropped into such a situation!

[Orrex]

79. I'm more impressed by NotLD every time I watch it

I'm always struck by his performance and by his character itself; the role of Ben was originally conceived as "a simple truck driver," but Jones was very well educated and simply refused to play the role as written. The character was rewritten to be worthy of the skill of the performer.

From a narrative standpoint, it's interesting to me that his character starts and ends the film alone, in contrast to the other principal characters. This suggests to me a sense of isolation, even when trapped in a house with half a dozen other people. I wonder how audiences reacted in 1968 when a black man slapped a white woman, even though she'd slapped him first.

It is, of course, interesting that Ben is ultimately gunned down by a redneck mob after he alone has survived the zombie onslaught, and thereafter he's simply thrown on a heap with the other bodies. And the still photos of the denouement show the white mob approaching his lifeless body with bailing hooks in hand.


Here's another cool fact: Jones' performance as Ben marked the first time that an African-American actor was cast in a non-ethnic role in a major American film and the first time that an African-American actor had a starring role in a horror film.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duane_Jones


Sure, the movie as a whole has its shortcomings, but it's so groundbreaking in so many ways that I can't help being impressed by it. And it was filmed within about 20 miles of my home!

[Brigid]

84. What a tragic ending.

I wanted to cry. Why did they have to go and do that to Ben like that? :cry:

[ZombieHorde]

128. May you outlive everyone you love. nt

[pokerfan]

52. A Clockwork Orange

Roger Ebert said it best: Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" is an ideological mess, a paranoid right-wing fantasy masquerading As an Orwellian warning. It pretends to oppose the police state and forced mind control, but all it really does is celebrate the nastiness of its hero, Alex.

Yet it's http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/clockwork_orange/?critic=approved&sortby=rotten&name_order=asc&view=text#contentReviews">91% on the Tomatometer.

[Captain Hilts]

69. Dreadful AND disturbing. Disturbing that folks would like it. We struggled to get the lead

character's face removed as an avatar here. What an insult to women.

[JackDragna]

72. If you think that, you don't get the movie.

The reason Alex even exists is because of the oppressive, sterile culture created by the ruling British government. It tries to fix him with brainwashing and mind control without addressing how and why he became a sociopath in the first place.

[Orrex]

73. +1

:thumbsup:

It's hard to find a better-constructed film in the past four decades that wasn't directed by Kubrick or Bergman. And it's vastly superior to the book, too.

[JackDragna]

77. Kubrick did direct the movie.

..which explains a lot.

[Orrex]

81. Yes, that was kind of my point

:hi:

[tjwash]

130. What's to get?

The freaking plot is no more complicated than anything you've read on the back of a cereal box. Think what goes around comes around, and you'll save a couple of hours out of your life watching it. Alex treats his friends badly--later, they do the same to him. Alex tries to beat the system--later the system beats up on him...blah, blah, blah. I hate this film. Critics say Clockwork Orange is good. Film professors try to shove that it's a masterpiece down your throat. Contentious artsy internet message board dweebs can't shut their silver spoon filled mouths about it.

Shit...we would get horribly stoned off of massive bong-loads of sweet Humboldt County red-hair at the midnight movies and get THAT out of it.

It's like every piece of Impressionistic art; people attempt to label it as classy and innovative, yet it is nothing but a Rorschach test that either makes no sense to someone, or serves as a projection point for all of their anxieties and faults.

Although I do have to admire Malcolm McDowell's patience here... he gets kicked in the nuts, smashed in the head, stripped naked, strapped down, set in body casts, and has his eyes jammed open with metal prongs. No special effects either. They put long, sharp pieces of metal in his eyes, and spread them unnaturally wide.

There were a LOT of times where I shook my head and thought "Jeez... he actually fucking DID that?".

[pokerfan]

131. I never said I didn't get it

I said I didn't like it.

[JackDragna]

147. There's a reason people think highly of it.

..beyond the excellent acting and scenes. The whole point of the film was to address whether forced goodness, or goodness at all, was really better than evil chosen by free will. Again, if you think this is just some piece on revenge, you miss the point completely. Personally, I find your attitude far more pretentious and ridiculous than the "silver-spooned" arthouse critics you try to skewer. You come off as someone who wants to try to reduce a work to base elements because they dare show sex, violence and the raw side of a miserable existence in all its graphic detail.

By the way, if you call A Clockwork Orange Impressionism, you don't know what Impressionism is.

[jonnyblitz]

95. i hated that movie. i tried to sit throught it TWICE. nt

[Zavulon]

54. Another vote for Star Wars here.

A more predictable and boring "classic" I've never seen.

[retread]

58. Casablanca!!!! WTF!!!! n/t

[Danger Mouse]

62. Titanic.

Stupid. boring. Manipulative.

[Ghost of Tom Joad]

65. American Beauty

Daddy is a pedophile and we're supposed to feel bad for him. What a bunch of losers.

[Glorfindel]

66. I agree - I never saw the attraction of that movie

n/t

[Orrex]

82. No no no no no

If that was your sense of the film then I'd say that you missed about 95% of it.

The film is about confronting the reality of self and the implications of that reality.

[HughBeaumont]

102. TOTALLY.

The only appealing and likeable characters were the gay couple. Everyone else sucked and should have been destroyed either under the wet carpets of their own pompousness or by their own violent hands.

[Jade Fox]

140. Awful

Okay, I did like the "dancing plastic bag" scene. But the rest of the movie sucked.

[cemaphonic]

154. Is it really a classic though?

It was popular at the time, obviously, but I rarely hear anyone talking about it, good or bad anymore.

I think it was a pretty mediocre movie overall, but was salvaged a bit by some good acting. Kevin Spacey is usually entertaining when playing an obnoxious jerk for some reason.

[Ghost of Tom Joad]

158. won 5 Oscars

2 Golden Globes, several other awards. Doesn't have to be old to be a classic, depends on definition of the term. I view this film the same as Slumdog Millionaire, a mediocre film with lots of hype to push it into Oscar contention and wins. This happens a lot, while other often very interesting and off beat films get kicked to the curb.

[jmm]

71. I agree about Casablanca

Being chocked full of cliques may have helped make it a success but if a film can't offer me more than that then I can't get into it. I could get past her cheating on her husband while he was in a concentration camp, inconsistencies and triteness in the film, and parts of the film that were ripped off from other films from it's time if I liked it.


Umberto Eco put it best when he wrote this-

Casablanca, or The Cliches Are Having a Ball

What then is the fascination of Casablanca?

The question is a legitimate one, for aesthetically speaking (or by any strict critical standards) Casablanca is a very mediocre film. It is a comic strip, a hotch-potch, low on psychological credibility, and with little continuity in its dramatic effects.

[Bucky]

89. She wasn't cheating on him! She thought he was dead!! Argh! You heathen!!

I argh thee again! Argh!!!

The fascination is with Rick's emotional arc. He was once an idealist, then he got dumped by a chick and burned by life. So he's not just an American with a melting pot bar waiting to go home; he's Every Man, playing it cool on the outside and treating the occasional pretty young thing badly because he can't face his own inner pain. Trust me, we've all done that. Then he's tempted to get his old dream back, even gets the chance to get his lost flame back and all he has to do is honor a deal with the devil. But in the end, he chooses idealism--not a young idealism, but a mature fight-the-good-fight belief in standing with the good guys, even if it costs you. It's as timeless as William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience.

But admittedly, you have to be in the right mood to get it.

[jmm]

97. Like I wrote if I liked it I could get past that and more but

if I can't get into a film then every little detail like that will stand out to me. I kept waiting for it to live up to some of the hype but it never did. One man's timeless is another woman's predictable...

[Shell Beau]

75. Your #1 is mine also.

I love the lines from the movie and all, but I was built waaaaaay too up for this classic. My expectations were pretty high, and they were slammed.

And let me add Easy Rider. I think it would help me appreciate the movie if I lived in that time period, but I didn't.

[Sugarcoated]

76. My husband says anything by Alfred Hitchcock

because, he says, everything takes too long. :P

[704wipes]

83. "Rocky"

because Stallone is such a dumbshit star

[Bucky]

85. I didn't like this last Batman movie with Heath Ledger.

The "cops are all bungling idiots" thing is overdone and trite. In the final scene in the empty office building the "surprise plot twist" was laughably obvious, but no one could figure out but Batman, and Batman was too busy to think to tell the cops, "Hey, they switched themselves with the hostages." Right--cause that's gonna take so much longer than, say, beating up 200 SWAT officers.

There were planet-sized holes in the plot. Joker's big cleverly devised scheme could not have possibly been worked out in the details they suggested--some elements were clever, but too much of it all depended on police turning on a certain street at a certain time in the middle of a chase sequence and no one else showing up to help them out. One man simply can't do that. If he had been able to do all that, he'd just as easily have been able to kill Batman. And the boat full of convicts nobly willing to sacrifice themselves... oh please!

Nihilism that isn't well thought through is about as boring as teenaged angst.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

91. I thought it was a complete waste of time.

Nothing but pointless violence and threats against people. No character development so you would identify with the characters.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

94. I too thought it was overrated and boring.

Ledger was okay, I guess, but really had he been alive when the movie premiered, I don't think people would have raved nearly as much about his performance.

I just get tired of all the Joker costumes and posters that have come out since the movie. Ohh, look.....Obama/McCain/Whomever as the Joker. How oh so original. :eyes:

[Common Sense Party]

153. Yup. I have watched it 3 times, trying to see why so many people loved it.

I don't see it. I didn't even think Ledger was interesting.

[Orsino]

98. Olivier's Henry V.

I watched this tedious thing all the way through. Dull, dull, dull--even what should be the most stirring moments fail to excite.

The Pride And Prejudice he stars is is lousy, too, except for Lady Catherine.

[HughBeaumont]

105. Pulp Fiction. Hell, let's just say it - pretty much EVERY Quentin Tarrantino movie.

Intense F-bomb laden opening scene. Guns/swords, witty dialogue, pompous reparte, F-bombs, cringeworthy violence, Mo Mo MO guns, violence, gallons-o-blood, witty dialogue, cringeworthy torture scene, F-bombs, F-bomb-laden witty dialogue, witty monologue, wrap up of stories, anti-climax, FIN.

Interchange characters, hipster names/costumes and settings.

imdb.com ratings go through the roof. Merch sales are off the charts. Fanboys slobber gangsterly, elevate Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill 1 & 2, Reservoir Dogs and Inglorious Basterds on par with Hitchcock, Kubrick, Kurosawa and Leone. Film nerds insult those not in the "club". I laugh right at them.

[kwassa]

108. I liked Pulp Fiction, and nothing else by Tarentino.

Mostly adolescent puerile pseudo-hip fantasies for those arrested in their development at age 13.

[HughBeaumont]

109. I'm just starting to wonder whether he can make an interesting movie without his usual crutches.

Great directors never made the same movie over and over again. I don't think anyone would go if those elements weren't in them.

[kwassa]

113. There are many artists who have only one really good idea

expressed well once, and then repeat ad nauseum. He is that way for me.

Tarentino's films are no more divorced from reality than most blockbuster films, but do pretend to be so much more. He lost me completely with the Kill Bill films.

[Blue_Tires]

110. +1

I've grown to appreciate how Pulp Fiction was so fresh and different from the other stuff in the theaters at the time, but his stuff just doesn't resonate with me...

[Blue_Tires]

114. here are a few, i can post defenses later by request

Note: some of these are too new to be 'classic' but they will certainly be considered so someday...

Sex, Lies and Videotape
True Grit
Braveheart
Jurassic Park
Forrest Gump
No Country For Old Men (You can just search the archives for my issues with the movie)
Saving Private Ryan
Requiem for a Dream
Crash
Mystic River
And yes; someone has to say it, and you can ban me now, but The Dark Knight

and add another vote for lost in Translation, American Beauty and all the Tarantino works

[valerief]

123. I TOTALLY agree with your selections!!!! Great list of crap!!!!!

:applause:

[Jade Fox]

142. Yup...

the Dark Knight sucked.

When you start taking source material from comic books that seriously, you're in trouble.

[JonLP24]

162. I really like 3 movies on that list

and 2 I enjoyed. I haven't seen the Dark Knight though.

[begin_within]

115. The Big Lebowski

I'm sure I'll get crucified because I know there are a lot of Big Leboswki fans here. But when I finally rented it in 2005, I was really disappointed. An attempt to be funny/bizarre in the John Waters style but with none of the charm of John Waters' characters. And Jeff Bridges doing a 2-hour impression of Tommy Chong wore thin too. My neighbors have outdoor movie nights every 2 weeks in the summer, and they had The Big Lebowski last summer, and of 30 people at the beginning, only 4 were left at the end. They apologized for it at the next movie night. Maybe the movie is funny if you're stoned, I can only guess.

[valerief]

124. I saw it and wasn't impressed. Years passed and my boss raved about it, so I watched it again.

Still sucked.

[begin_within]

116. Citizen Kane

I saw it in a theater about 1982 and walked out afterwards thinking, "well, at least now I have that one out of the way." Maybe at one time it was innovative and relevant, but the story bored me. Sorry.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

120. I never cared for Goodfellas.

I mean, I wouldn't say it "sucks" as it was Scorsese and as a film itself, it was well done. (I loved the whole musical montage using the instrumental from "Layla").

But comparing it to other mob works, and I just cannot get into it. I think the problem is there is not a single likeable character in it, not even Henry Hill or Karen. And that sounds very weird when talking about movies about career criminals but I think for most people, there has to be some romantic sense of moral ambiguity about the mafia (at least the Italian mafia. Russian mafia are always just soulless brutes). Characters like Michael Corleone and Tony Soprano are very obviously ruthless killers, yet the way they are presented you still find some way to connect to them despite who they are. They are rich, well-developed characters. And in comparision to Corleone or Soprano, Henry Hill isn't nearly as morally culpable, but there is nothing about him that you find admirable as a character in any way even if you are to excise the criminal element to it. I mean, even in the end when he turns, he does so solely to save his own ass.

So what you have in Goodfellas is a movie about three pathetic wannabee gangsters, with one of them (Tommy, i.e. Joe Pesci) being just one of the most annoying and irriating characters ever to grace the screen that you just want to slap the crap out of more than anything else. In the end, things don't work out for Jimmy and Tommy, and Henry turns good just to save his own butt. The whole movie just seemed pointless to me.

Perhaps because unlike The Godfather or The Sopranos it is based on a true story, the realism overshadows the romaticism of those works, and what you get is a much more true to life tale. But maybe realism isn't the best thing when making a movie about the mafia.

[valerief]

125. I'm so glad no one listed Wizard of Oz. nt

[tigereye]

135. yeah, how did it get off scot-free?

:rofl:

[Taverner]

126. The Godfather

Sure, the acting is great. But the story? Boring. Done way too operatically.

[cleveramerican]

132. " Titanic"

The poor kid from the lowest deck would never have even seen the rich girl from the upper crust.
The annoying theme song is just a crime against music.

just sucks on so many levels.

[azmouse]

134. Jeremiah Johnson

By the mid point of the movie I was begging for something, anything, to happen.
It is a total snooze of a movie only slightly redeemed by beautiful scenery.

[KamaAina]

137. Has anyone made a porn flick called "Jeremiah's Johnson'?

:evilgrin:

[gmoney]

143. I think it might have been on the marquee in a flashback on the Simpsons

When Homer recounts his trip to New York City in his younger days... this is in the NYC WTC episode, which is pretty scarce since 9/11...

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

161. No, but there was an "On Golden Blonde"

I never saw the movie, which I imagine wasn't half as entertaining as the title.

[XemaSab]

138. Pulp Fiction, Clockwork Orange, Kill Bill, Magnolia, 2001, Titanic

Two of them were unwatchably violent, and I felt that they celebrated exactly what they were meant to critique.

Two of them were self-consciously all-too-clever.

One of them I kept waiting for a plot to develop.

One of them I thought the casting was horrible, the acting was overwrought, and the story was improbable and stupid.

I'll leave it to y'all to figure out which films are which. :P

[Happyhippychick]

144. The English Patient. Hated every bloody minute.

The sex scenes were borderline violent instead of passionate, Ralph Fiennes is gorgeous and I couldn't stand him rasping away underneath those bandages. The story was boring and sucky, movie was too fucking long.

[JVS]

152. That movie was unwatchable.

I just sat in front of the TV and got drunker and drunker and drunker.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

159. + Infinity

What a steaming pile of crapola. I couldn't finish it.

[EndersDame]

151. Juno-Nobody talks like that

Seriously no one talks like that in real life. I believe I am the right demographic that the movie would appeal to (early 20's alterna-girl) but felt that Juno was like having an indie movie poured straight into my eye! Sometimes I think Diablo Cody just wrote the movie just to see how many counter culture/indie/pop culture references she could drop in one and a half hours. The only character I had any empathy was Juno's parents the rest seemed so two dimensional and contrived

[Ghost of Tom Joad]

163. I also found the

whole pregnancy and everybody is happy scenario unbelievable. Would a teen's parents really be relieved that that she's pregnant and not on drugs?

[EndersDame]

164. I went to an alternative high school with alot of teenaged mothers.

I witnessed teen pregnancy first hand and it is not that easy going

[WinkyDink]

171. Not a classic.

[EndersDame]

176. I know but it is supposedly a very good movie and Diablo Cody won an oscar

[sakabatou]

155. My Man Godfrey

Snore-fest.

[kentauros]

156. Silence of the Lambs

I simply cannot accept Jodie Foster with a southern accent. It just does not fit her. Had they cast Helen Hunt in the same role, I likely would have approved and enjoyed the film more.

Also, although I love Anthony Hopkins in most every other role (like as the New Zealander Bert Munro in "The World's Fastest Indian") he is nowhere near as creepy (and sneaky) in the role of Lecktor like Brian Cox in Manhunter.

[PVnRT]

160. "Manhunter" is way underrated

The guy playing Dolarhyde is just.....weird.....creepy.....disturbing. Hopkins did seem to be hamming it up way too much as Lector - I thought Cox was much more sinister and subtle.

[kentauros]

166. It is indeed way underrated

which is unusual for a Michael Mann movie.

It also portrays law enforcement believably, including their technology. Makes me wonder if the CSI-type shows would be all that popular if they had taken a similar route in believable forensics...

The actor playing Dolarhyde is pretty creeping-looking anyway ;)
I did like how he got his blind friend/coworker some time at a veterinary hospital with a sedated tiger. That was such a cool scene :D

[PVnRT]

177. Ironic, since Petersen is on CSI

[Martin Eden]

167. They named it Manhunter instead of Red Dragon ...

... so that it wouldn;t get mistaken for a kung fu movie.

Probably Will Petersen's best movie, though "To LIve and Die in LA" was also quite good.

[kentauros]

168. "To LIve and Die in LA" is intense

and it's not even about repo men ;)

[Martin Eden]

165. North By Northwest

The whole thing was contrived and gimmicky ... fighting the bad guys on Mount Rushmore? Gimme a friggin break.

[Teaser]

169. Wuthering Heights

half the story is lopped off.
Merle Oberon is a whiny Catherine.

[mreilly]

172. Sorry folks... The Princess Bride

I realize I'm now as popular as Adolf Hitler for saying this, but I just really, really plain hate this movie. I never saw its charm when it first came out and have gotten so sick of people quoting it over and over and over again throughout the years. The part about how my name is such-and-such, you killed my father, prepare to die. The part about storming the castle. The part about as you wish. Et cetera, et cetera.

[Initech]

175. Lord Of The Rings trilogy

Total fucking snoozefest. I nearly fell asleep by the end of the third.

[PVnRT]

178. Vertigo

OK, so Jimmy Stewart is pretty much borderline psychotic, acts weird, there's a church tower where people fall of, some weird dude in a mustache....blah. How is this brilliant again? It's not even Hitchcock's best movie, let alone one of the best of all time.