Most Overrated Movies

Eyes Wide Shut is one of my favorite Kubrick films. Brilliant stuff.

I didn't like it the first time I saw it...

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Eyes Wide **** is nice eye candy. But it isn't much of a film IMHO. The only reason that I don't list it amongst the 'overrated' is because most people seem to actually agree with meThough the second half is fine in it's own right, it suffers from the inevitable comparison with the tight-as-**** and generally brilliant first half. It feels like a great short with an alright feature tacked onto it's backside.

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I took the bifurcated technical approach as a physical distillation of [one of the] concepts the film is trying to get across - Man's attempt to apply structure to chaos. Kubrick's rigid, geometric camera control, and focus on one of the the most structured of activities for man, boot camp, which is then blown to pieces by the reality of the theater of war; basically chaos incarnate. His technique in the second half, which features hand held, frenetic camerawork, highlight the string of chaotic situations these men are thrust into.

His opinion of the whole mess is cleverly conveyed by the final scene, and the shared chorus of The Mickey Mouse club theme, letting us know exactly what Kubrick though of this alleged structured approach to war - Mickey Mouse ********.

My film knowledge is admittedly limited, but, to me, this film is so beyond brilliant in its execution of film allegory, that it deserves high marks for this reason alone.

Ever the wordsmith, I had to look this up. Pablum is a defunct trademark for baby food. Pabulum comes up as intellectual sustenance or 2: Something insipid, simplistic, or bland. Is that what you were getting at?

That said, I agree completely. Forrest Gump is overrated, for sure.

Citizen Kane. Definately not the greatest film of all time AFI! Had some good technical components, and I accept it was an important film for it's time, but it's just soo boring.

Pablum is definitely the right word to use when you mean something "easily digestible" or "regurgitated". The second definition of pabulum is mistaken usage of the word and should not be used in favor of pablum. I've never used the word pabulum in my life; at least until now.

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This dovetails very well into that thread about critics. Artists rarely think of brilliant **** like that when they're actually making the stuff- they need the critics to point it out

I found it to be an amazing piece of work. And I despise when someone says a film sucked; do they honestly believe they could do any better?

Eyes Wide Shut is great. Also one of my favorite Kubrick films.

Overrated... hmm, well, the three most boring films I have ever seen were Goodfellas, The Godfather Part II (I love the first Godfather, though), and The Departed. So I would definitely consider them overrated.

Taxi Driver is totally my favorite Scorsese flick.

So we're not allowed to criticize anything? I'm sure you think plenty of movies suck.

Anyway, can one of you Eyes Wide Shut fans here tell me what's so great about Eyes Wide Shut? I don't like the movie at all, but I'm not trying to be a jerkfacehole, I just legitimately want to read a thoughtful defense of that flick. And I know I can find that literally anywhere on these here interwebs, but since I respect you MoFos and your opinions so much, I'd love to see it here.

I didn't say that. There is a difference between critiquing and saying something "sucked".

Do we have a "Who/What do you not get?" thread, or am I thinking of someplace else? I've tried to "get" many movies that I apparently didn't "get" or, at least, appreciate as much as others do. That's one luxury of being old. You've had the time to watch and rewatch movies and see some of them "get better" and others "diminish somehow". Of course, the movies never changed, but I did. There are many movies which I may have said "sucked" (sorry) in my younger days which I have rewatched, often several times, and I've found things to make them seem improved in my mind. However, I still have to use some overall criteria to rate and rank films, so I do that.

I just hope that most people who post here have actually seen (in their entirety) the films they think are overrated and hopefully even rewatched them. It's just as important a concept in film appreciation and criticism (that dirty word) to understand WHY YOU dislike something as it is to understand WHY YOU like something. It's also good for the "soul" because "All of life's riddles are solved in the movies", and movies can help you grow and become more in touch with yourself and the world around you. However, I do realize that people always gravitate to what they love (or at least, believe they love).

Yeah, right, now shut up, MoFo!!

Woo! I was just discussing this with a member on another forum (he's a member here, too, actually), and I think you definitely have to see a film in it's entirety to have a genuine opinion about it. The Departed is a fine example, in my case. I didn't like it much, and it did bore me more than any movie I've seen, but I thought the last 10 minutes were pretty good. So it wasn't all bad, and that's my genuine opinion about it.

Eyes Wide Shut

First off, this film has one of the most attractive female casts I can remember, so that's a good reason to give it a rewatch to find out if Kubrick or the viewer is a jerkfacehole.

I'm not going to get into any in-depth psychological rationale about whether what happens to Cruise in the film is real or imaginary because I choose to accept it all as real. That makes the film scarier and more significant as a possibly-serious film about the complexity of marriage and open relationships. Cruise can't handle that his wife (Nicole Kidman) finds other men attractive and/or fun, and she can even have a Citizen Kane-type memory, albeit far more erotic in nature, than the one about the girl with the parasol.

Cruise uses his wife's confession to go on a night-long odyssey, which involves death by old age, drugs and murder, pedophilia, secret organizations, humongous, otherworldly orgies and attacks from drunken, macho homophobic youths. His world is turned almost inside out and his wife and daughter are threatened. This is all in exchange of Cruise trying to somehow payback his wife for her "non-infidelity", and even Cruise doesn't actually get laid, but he comes a lot closer than she ever did.

I have to admit that the film is slowly paced, but as it moves along, it builds suspense and becomes much more compelling and hypnotic. Sydney Pollack is especially good playing a character who knows far more than Cruise and the audience do. I probably have a lot more to say about this film because I haven't really said anything, but I haven't watched this film in at least six years. I do own it though (I received it as a gift), so I will try to rewatch it so that I can make a more-compelling argument next time. For people who have actually seen it and didn't like it at all, I'd rewatch the orgy scene first because that is its own mini-movie and seems pretty unique in cinema to me. The music, camerawork and staging are spectacular, and it all builds to an almost Phantom of the Opera-ish crescendo with the removal of a mask. Really creepy stuff.

I realize this is borderline lame, but I will have more things to say when I rewatch it. You've heard of Alzheimer's, yes?

I Do Not Think That Movies Are Overrated.

This reminds me of something I heard once:

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Maybe there is no such thing as overrated movies.

Great post, Mark!

Where are you getting this info? According to my dictionary...


Main Entry:pab·lum Pronunciation:\ˈpa-bləm\
Function:noun
Etymology:from Pablum, a trademark for an infant cerealDate:1932 - DEFUNCT
That is the only entry I can find.


Here is the WIKI entry for the word, as well - Here



Meanwhile:



Main Entry:pab·u·lum Pronunciation:\ˈpa-byə-ləm\
Function:noun
Etymology:Latin, food, fodder; akin to Latin pascere to feed more at foodDate:1733

1: food ; especially : a suspension or solution of nutrients in a state suitable for absorption

2: intellectual sustenance

3: something (as writing or speech) that is insipid, simplistic, or bland




Definition 3 seems to fit the line of discussion, no?

Ebert may have an extensive knowledge of the cinema, but does that mean he could ever do it? By the way, I doubt you will ever see anything like the word "suck" in Ebert's reviews. That isn't reviewing.