Most Over-rated Movies
I confined myself to award-winners and/or commercial and critical successes, and the list is ongoing.
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23 titles
- DirectorRoberto BenigniStarsRoberto BenigniNicoletta BraschiGiorgio CantariniWhen an open-minded Jewish waiter and his son become victims of the Holocaust, he uses a perfect mixture of will, humor and imagination to protect his son from the dangers around their camp.Despicable and opportunistic, with death camps presented like poorly managed boot-camps in which you could mange to survive by means of being slightly more intelligent than the average prisoner. The Jewishness of the main character is announced, but there is no heart here, no soul. Only sentiment.
- DirectorJoe WrightStarsKeira KnightleyJames McAvoyBrenda BlethynThirteen-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.It falls apart upon examination. If the hero had gone to jail, instead of to war, he would have survived, and perhaps even cleared his name. And the girl who grows up to be an author never atones-- she writes fiction, not fact, about her destructive childhood lies.
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsJack LemmonShirley MacLaineFred MacMurrayA Manhattan insurance clerk tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complications and a romance of his own ensue.We are supposed to sympathize with Jack Lemmon's character, and Shirley Maclaine's, but he is an ambitious toady, and she's sleeping with a married man. Neither are admirable characters. Nor does it make sense that the boss, played by Fred Macmurray, would demand the toady's apartment for his trysts: that's what hotels and cash are for.
- DirectorRobert ZemeckisStarsTom HanksRobin WrightGary SiniseThe history of the United States from the 1950s to the '70s unfolds from the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75, who yearns to be reunited with his childhood sweetheart.
- DirectorSofia CoppolaStarsBill MurrayScarlett JohanssonGiovanni RibisiA faded movie star and a neglected young woman form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in Tokyo.An insult to Japanese culture, depicting nothing but cliches, from endless karaoke to Bill Murray being the tallest man in an elevator.
- DirectorWes AndersonStarsRalph FiennesF. Murray AbrahamMathieu AmalricA writer encounters the owner of an aging high-class hotel, who tells him of his early years serving as a lobby boy in the hotel's glorious years under an exceptional concierge.It’s all style, zero substance. To borrow from Macbeth— a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing. The screenplay has zero fresh ideas, or serious ones, or even comic ones. It’s a kaleidoscope, with no more change of pace or tone than that toy has.
- DirectorFrank CapraStarsJames StewartDonna ReedLionel BarrymoreAn angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.Not a bad movie, but gravely misunderstood. It is almost universally loved and regarded as heartwarming. The real message, however, is relentlessly negative: without George Bailey, the people of the town sink into decadence and despair. Only a strong leader saves them, which is the essence of fascism.
- DirectorSam MendesStarsKevin SpaceyAnnette BeningThora BirchA sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter's best friend.
- DirectorDelbert MannStarsErnest BorgnineBetsy BlairEsther MinciottiA middle-aged butcher and a school teacher who have given up on the idea of love meet at a dance and fall for each other.
- DirectorClint EastwoodStarsHilary SwankClint EastwoodMorgan FreemanFrankie, an ill-tempered old coach, reluctantly agrees to train aspiring boxer Maggie. Impressed with her determination and talent, he helps her become the best and the two soon form a close bond.
- DirectorChris ColumbusStarsRobin WilliamsSally FieldPierce BrosnanAfter a bitter divorce, an actor disguises himself as a female housekeeper to spend time with his children held in custody by his former wife.the only thing the working wife (Sally Field) asks of her unemployed husband (Robin Williams) is to behave like a responsible parent. So why doesn’t he just do it? Instead, he accepts a divorce, and then he does it– but not as himself, not as the kids’ father so that he could spare them the suffering endured by children of divorced parents, not to mention actually enjoy spending time with his own children as himself. No, he’s got to turn it into a stage for himself, never mind the family trauma. A deeply dishonest movie.
- DirectorDavid LynchStarsIsabella RosselliniKyle MacLachlanDennis HopperThe discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminals who have kidnapped her child.Sadistic, simple-minded, and wrong-headed. Sandy (Laura Dern) the church-going virgin, is viewed as pure and good, and sex is presented as sick and evil. The images are potent, but there are no powerful ideas here. Only confusion and cliche.
- DirectorPaul Thomas AndersonStarsDaniel Day-LewisPaul DanoCiarán HindsA story of family, religion, hatred, oil and madness, focusing on a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.The best way to deal with this endlessly over-rated film is with adjectives, starting with endless and over-rated. Then, of course, bloated. Slow. Fatuous. Loud. Unfaithful (to Upton Sinclair’s satire, Oil!). Sentimental. Confusing (Paul Dano’s twin characters). Abrupt (the ending). And, finally and crucially, pointless. I didn’t care about a single character, and the film introduced no new ideas or even flavors to the oil industry, family loyalties, ruthless ambition, misanthropy, religion, or bowling.
- DirectorJane CampionStarsHolly HunterHarvey KeitelSam NeillIn the mid-19th century a mute woman is sent to New Zealand along with her young daughter and prized piano for an arranged marriage to a farmer, but is soon lusted after by a farm worker.
- DirectorPaul HaggisStarsDon CheadleSandra BullockThandiwe NewtonLos Angeles citizens with vastly separate lives collide in interweaving stories of race, loss and redemption.At this point, doesn't everybody know that Crash was over-rated? One of the weakest films ever to win the Best Picture award at the Oscars.
- DirectorJason ReitmanStarsElliot PageMichael CeraJennifer GarnerFaced with an unplanned pregnancy, an offbeat young woman makes a selfless decision regarding the unborn child.Ellen Page is talented, but her character, Juno, shows zero vulnerability. At no point did I believe in her, her family, or anyone else-- particularly not the health care workers.
- DirectorGregory La CavaStarsWilliam PowellCarole LombardAlice BradyA scatterbrained socialite hires a vagrant as a family butler - but there's more to Godfrey than meets the eye.A great satiric idea-- socialites amusing themselves on a scavenger hunt for "forgotten men" during the Depression-- doomed because of the silliness of the female character (played by Carole Lombard), which makes the romance ring utterly false.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsGreer GarsonWalter PidgeonTeresa WrightA British family struggles to survive the first months of World War II.Soap opera as propaganda, with good performances.
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsCharles ChaplinPaulette GoddardJack OakieDictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.There's one good sequence-- a masterpiece of film-making, where Chaplin/Hitler dances with an inflated globe-- but the movie is otherwise tedious.
- DirectorEthan CoenJoel CoenStarsTommy Lee JonesJavier BardemJosh BrolinViolence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong and over two million dollars in cash near the Rio Grande.
- DirectorJonathan DemmeStarsJodie FosterAnthony HopkinsScott GlennA young F.B.I. cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated and manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer, a madman who skins his victims.There is no insight here. Violence, fear, and psychosis are presented in purely sensational terms. A deplorable film, despite the talent that went into it (which do not include writing).
- DirectorVincente MinnelliCharles WaltersStarsLeslie CaronMaurice ChevalierLouis JourdanWeary of the conventions of Parisian society, a rich playboy and a youthful courtesan-in-training enjoy a platonic friendship which may not stay platonic for long.Grooming an adolescent girl to become a courtesan, with music. Vile.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsCharlton HestonJack HawkinsStephen BoydAfter a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend in 1st-century Jerusalem, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge.And the other Biblical epics of that era, particularly the Greatest Story Ever Told and King of Kings. But Ben Hur is the worst. Slow, dull, and overwrought. For a brilliant (and hilarious) analysis of their failings, read Dwight MacDonald's series of reviews in his book, On the Movies.