This week’s 3x3 starts at the 51-minute mark of our Stone podcast. Our picks for movies we hate that everyone else loves:
Dingus
3. The Departed
2. Crash
Tom Chick
3. Life Is Beautiful
2. The Departed
Kellywand
3. Scarface
2. Spider-Man 2
Your picks?
That’s cheating, sort of. Half of these won’t even qualify for the first round of the “everyone loves me” contest.
Are we talking about everyone on QT3 or everyone we know? Everyone I know loves Top Gun and I get the general impression that it’s a much-loved film. I think it’s crap.
Leaving aside Revolver and that Madonna one that he did, I know a lot of people who love Snatch and Lock Stock - again, I think they’re terrible.
Finally, Forrest Gump; I suppose this is an odd pick for me. I hate the idea of Forrest Gump; I hate that it’s such a shameless piece of introspective Americana, so unapologetically sentimental. But as I said, I can’t help but enjoy it whenever I see it. Hanks plays the part so well and there’s something utterly compelling (and often heartbreaking) about watching someone all of these things without really being able to grasp what’s going on. And the bit at the end with his son gets me every time.
@dermot:
I am talking about the OP. Look at the posting time. :)
I don’t think The Departed, Crash, 300 or Spiderman 2 come even close to a movie everyone likes, let alone “loves”.
3> Kill Bill
2> The Shining
1> Twilight - everyone means people not us right? I’d say a damn lot of people love twilight.
Ah. I see. As you were!
Scourge, as I mention on the podcast, mine are taken directly from IMDB’s top 250 movies by user ratings. I just went down the list, picked the first three movies I hated, and listed them in reverse order.
But, yeah, this topic sucks because I honestly couldn’t care less what “everyone” thinks, much less the average IMDB voter.
-Tom
What’s the point of picking popular movies you don’t like? How about critically acclaimed movies you hate, instead. That Family Guy bit, when Peter admits he didn’t like Godfather, was pretty much my feeling about the movie.
Equis: What didn’t you like about the Shining?
I’m not Equis, but I also don’t like The Shining. I hate Nicholson in it and have to wonder about the directing that allowed him to start almost insane. From the very first scene he seems manic and that leaves him very little room to develop into the maniac from later in the film. I wish Kubric had reigned him in and stopped the eyebrow wiggling, at least until later in the film. Whilst I will confess it has some very pretty camera work, and some creepy moments, I genuinely do feel that Nicholson is diabolical in it and simply ruins the film. The character in the book is far more nuanced.
I would confess that I’m not much of a Kubric fan, I can’t think of anything of his I have really enjoyed the whole way through. Please therefore take my opinion with a pinch of salt.
Dude, you hate him so much you refuse to spell his name correctly!
BTW, I don’t see how anyone can watch Dr. Strangelove and then claim to not be a Kubrick fan. I also don’t care for The Shining – or Eyes Wide Shut or much of 2001 or half of Full Metal Jacket or any of what AI eventually turned into – but there’s so much obvious genius in a lot of what Kubrick has done.
-TomWell, then, using the Tom Chick Method, my list is as follows:
I’m not sure precisely what it is about those films that turns me off, but, while I appreciated their technical merits, nothing else really appealed. I can handle violence, nihilism, and characters of questionable moral fortitude in plenty of other films, but something about these ones just left me uneasy.
In the case of Pulp Fiction, I’m coming to the conclusion that I may simply just dislike Tarantino. He’s a gifted pastiche artist, but I don’t really liked his vaunted dialogue, and whenever he steps in front of the camera the movie just flatlines for me. But we’ve been over all this before.
Apologies - was typing from the sofa with a cold… Mr. Kubrick then.
Fair cop, I do have a real soft spot for Dr. Strangelove. However, I just have never really ‘gotten’ Cubrik. Tragically, it’s not even something that I can really pinpoint and have a proper debate about, it’s just that I’ve never really managed to see what it is about him that has created his legions of fans.
I should probably rewatch some of the older films, and indeed try to delve a little further into his work to give him a fairer chance, but somehow I’ve just never been massively impressed.
Again, wish there was something more concrete I could say - I hate discussing things from such a total lack of position other than ‘I dunno’ (said with a shrug of the shoulders) - but really it’s just that, his films have never really grabbed me. It’s always frustrated me that I’ve never really been able to see what makes him so well-received.
I do question his directorial choices with Nicholson in The Shining - if it wasn’t a case of just not being able to reign him in then it strikes me as a mistake to allow him to start off crazy and have nowhere to go.
No time to elaborate
This would be so much easier if it were comics. Then I could just say “Alan Moore”.
3: A Hard Day’s Night. Watched it again last night to see if I could get something more out of it. While I’m ambivalent at best towards the Beatles in general, the film I found disjointed and more akin to a freshman student art film than anything with either musical or cinematic purpose. Seems to be one of those polarizing “Well, if you aren’t a fan, you won’t like it” things.
2: Star Wars, Episode IV. Yes, I don’t like it. The idea, maybe. It’s bog-standard fantasy adventure with a sci-fi skin tacked on. But the storytelling is sparse, the acting is horrible, the effects are goofy, and it’s very obviously a relic of the 1970s. It might have set the stage for a lot of awesome stuff to come after, but on its own it just doesn’t hold up. These days it’d be considered around the quality of a Syfy Original Movie.
1: A Clockwork Orange. This one barely qualifies - I can appreciate the movie on its artistic merits, but the content of the movie just turns my stomach on multiple levels. I mean, I can watch Hostel while eating dinner, I’ll wax rhapsodic about the Saw mythos and its commentary on modern horror culture, and I found the original I Spit On Your Grave to be rather bland. Yet somehow A Clockwork Orange disturbs me enough to not want to watch it again.
American Beauty. A proto-fascist hymn to the weary oppressedness of rich, middle-class white men that requires “misunderstandings” that would seem ridiculous on an episode of “Three’s Company” to turn the plot forward. A movie without characters but rather caricatures. How dare society deny Kevin Spacey his right to statutory rape? How dare they!
Se7en. So utterly disappointing. A great–if belief suspending–opening gives way to a real howler of a third act. Part one of the “David Fincher has created a scenario and has no idea where to take it” duology…
“Fight Club”…and here’s part two. Great first act, and that’s all this has. Blame Fincher, blame an idiot writer like Chuck Pahlaniuk, blame whomever, but having an ending as ridiculous as Patrick Duffy stepping out of the shower is not really an ending at all, fellas.
I’ve never been a fan of The Matrix. Maybe I was older then the teenagers who were raving about it on the internet when it first came out. Maybe I waiting too long before giving in to the hype and just thought it was ok. Maybe I read to much sci fi as a kid and it seemed really predictable. Whatever it was I never saw the appeal of this movie.
“Everybody” is pretty nebulous. If you use this list:
There’s a lot of steaming ponyloaf to choose from. Excluding Star Wars I/II/III…
Titanic: Remember “Apollo 13”? Good, now imagine it with a fictional love story inserted.
Transformers: Imagine you favorite childhood toy. Now imagine a movie about your favorite toy directed by Michael Bay
Independence Day: Imagine aliens capable of traveling between stars. Now imagine them being defeated by a Mac.