Critically acclaimed films that you didn't enjoy

What are the critically acclaimed films that you didn't enjoy very much? Films considered among the best ever made by professional critics that you found boring or simply bad?

Some of my examples:

The Tree of Life - Malick

My opinion: Self indulgent and pretentious. I was nauseous and bored watching this.

Pom Poko - Takahata

One of the most critically acclaimed animated films ever made, I found it to be quite bad.

La Dolce Vitta - Fellini

While 8 1/2 is among my top 20 favorite movies of all time, I found La Dolce Vitta, which is considered his other masterpiece, to be a bore.

Breathless - Godard

My opinion: Not bad, but not great either. My rating is , which is very low for a movie that was rated among the 20 greatest movies of all time.

Come and See - Klimov

My opinion: Bad cinematography, pacing, general lack of humanism in characters: they look like robots in human flesh, demonization of wartime enemies (Germans), which amounts to propaganda. I would say this was one of the worst movies ever considered among the greatest.

Casablanca - Curtiz

My opinion: Too explicit in its execution/dialogue: characters could have been more subtle. I have heard all the lines in this film 50 times before watching it. I was mostly bored.

Chinatown - Polanski

My opinion: I didn't find it entertaining and was bored. There are films that are not entertaining but they are high art (such as Tarkovsky's, Andrei Rublev) and hence are great, while this is a thriller that made me feel sleepy.

Don't be afraid people, talk about movies that many loved that you didn't and why you didn't like them!

Off the top of my head-

Life is Beautiful
A Beautiful Mind
Gladiator
Avatar
Scent of a Woman
Blade Runner
Chariots of Fire

Quote simply, they all bored me.

The Wrestler
No Country For Old Men
Black Swan
There Will Be Blood
Lord of the Rings
Little Miss Sunshine
Mulholland Drive
Crash
The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford
Amelie

__________________

Avatar is one that was huge but I thought the exposition was extremely hollow and contrived. I rated it high due to being a well made film but the storytelling was pathetic.

The Wizard Of Oz... (preparing for backlash now)... is pretty lame tbh. Interesting ideas but I found it to be another contrived pile and pretty twee.

Can't think of any more right now, will check back when I get some more ideas.

__________________

This is a topic I think about when I watch a film that is critically beloved. Are my own film tastes not "refined" enough to enjoy the film on its merits, or is it a matter of a movie striking a chord with your sensibilities and tastes? I'll probably try re-watching a lot of these in the future, just to see if I can see them in a different light after I've (presumably) matured a bit. Anyway, here's what I've got:

The Rules of the Game (1939), directed by Jean Renoir. This is a film I've seen at the top of "all-time" lists, and I guess it didn't seem particularly special to me. The humor wasn't funny, the social commentary was not impactful, and while there were some good-looking shots, the only really memorable scene to me was the brutal hunting scene. Definitely one I want to watch again, because it's been maybe 5 years.

8 1/2 (1963), directed by Federico Fellini. Again, a film on the short list of many discussions for the best all-time. I was sick when I watched it, and it was under less than ideal viewing circumstances on a small TV, so maybe I've never given it a proper shot. But I found the characters abrasive and unappealing, it felt far too long, and the visual tricks were not overly interesting to me. It just felt self-indulgent and tedious.

Blade Runner (1982), directed by Ridley Scott. I'm a fan of sci-fi, Harrison Ford, beautiful films, and Ridley Scott, but for some reason I can't get behind Blade Runner. I've seen it three times, each time convinced I would "get" it, but I can't connect with it. I know it's going for a neo-noir thing, but it feels sterile and I don't feel invested in the stakes of the film. Looks great though.

Anatomy of a Murder (1959), directed by Otto Preminger. A friend whose taste I really respect keeps proselytizing to me about Preminger, but after this film and Laura, I don't have any desire to go further into his filmography. It just felt dull, and I honestly don't remember a lot more about it besides that iconic poster. Again, it's been at least 5 years since I've seen it, so I'd probably need to revisit it before analyzing it further.

There are a few others, but that'll do for now. I'm willing to be convinced that any or all of these are great and I should watch them again!

This is about the 50th of this type of thread around here, but carry on if it makes you feel better.

__________________
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

There's probably a ton of them if I think about it long enough, but the one I really don't like is Dr. Strangelove or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb.

Aha! Apocalypse Now is another... I totally get the love for it... I just don't feel it myself.

Everyone here probably knows already about my thoughts on A Clockwork Orange... boring, self loving and extremely arty for the sake of being arty. Not a fan.

Something tells me I'm going to be + repping the heck out of this thread.

And mark's right, there's plenty of these if someone wants to merge them.

__________________
5-time MoFo Award winner.

Inception Found it very confusing and understood very little. But then, I watched it two and a half years ago so probably if I watch it now I'll understand it better. But I didn't enjoy it at all. Besides, I was very tired and sleepy while watching it so that probably made it even worse.

Glengarry Glen Ross I watched this almost three years ago and found it very boring. My first impression was that it could cure somebody's insomnia. But things have changed since then, now I know how to appreciate films better, and probably I wouldn't have liked films like Pulp Fiction either if I watched them at that time. So maybe I'll give it another go sometime.

Flight This is a new movie (released last year), but reviews have been positive and Denzel Washington's performance has been praised too. I liked him in the movie even though I think that he shouldn't have played the role, they should've given it to somebody else, and I personally found the entire movie to be a cliche. It's not that I can name a movie that is similar to it right now, but while watching it it really gave me the feeling that I've been watching films like Flight since forever. I had higher expectations.

Life is Beautiful Roberto Benigni was alright, but I found his performance a little over the top, and I had higher expectations for the movie. How the hell did he win an Oscar ahead of Edward Norton (American History X) anyway? Just doesn't make sense to me.

The Usual Suspects Good ending, but the movie was a let down for me. I expected much more.


There probably are other crticially acclaimed films that I haven't enjoyed, but right now I can't think of more.

Ah yes, A Clockwork Orange. Hated it.

Also Malcolm McDowell is one creepy dude. I can't stand watching him, which is probably not helped by the fact that in all of the first three movies I saw him in, his character rapes somebody.

I don't hate any of the following, but just couldn't get into them:






^ Especially the third one.








^ Most films by this guy.



^ Every film I've seen by this guy.




^ Enjoyed the second half but a lot of the first part of this film is absolutely rubbish.



There are more that I've put in another topic like this, but can't remember them.

Citizen Kane.

All of the films by Federico Fellini that I've seen have left me cold, including 8 1/2, La Dolce Vita, La Strada and Nights of Cabiria. After watching these supposed classics I finally gave up and admitted I just can't stand the guy. Furthermore, while I respect filmmakers like Akira Kurosawa and John Ford, I find most of their films to be dull and quite difficult to sit through.

Oh, and one film that is beloved among critics and cinephiles that I loathe is Lawrence of Arabia. The music is fantastic, but other than that I'm baffled as to why it receives so much praise.

Oh, and I agree about A Clockwork Orange, one of the few Kubrick films I just don't like.

Why? The first time I've seen this it seemed pretty weird to me, but after a year I watched it again and was amazed.

Cinematography was pretty good to me. Different tastes I guess. The plea about the lack of humanism? I've seen the movie quite time ago, so I don't remember it clearly, but perhaps people were so shocked and exhausted by the war they were but a flesh? Demonization of Germans? Probably, partially. They might have been portrayed as soulless bastards in general, but the fact is such events as shown in the film really took place. This is the war. No matter whose side are you on, you are going to suffer. Not to mention that in Soviet Union you couldn't make a movie showing the flaws of Soviets, because your film wouldn't be released and you could go to prison for that.

There Will Be Blood.

Ah another one I didn't enjoy, 8½, found it to be a complete and utter bore of a film.

The Last of the Mohicans is one that I just didn't enjoy, even though everyone says it's well done and Daniel Day Lewis is a fantastic actor. It just seemed like he ran through the forest for the whole movie...slow and dull.

I agree with whoever said The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford, it was a shapeless, self indulgent movie that had no forward plot momentum til the last few bits...

And finally, I still do not like The Dark Knight Rises. It was a poorly plotted, poorly executed mess made by a director who is so much better than this, but who is treated like he's the savior of movies, so of course he's going to make a bad, sloppy pile of poo like DKR...Plus, and I can't stress this enough, I want more than 33 minutes of actual Batman content in my Batman films. If you wanted to make "Joseph Gordon Levitt: Hero Cop!" go make that movie. just don't call it a Batman film. Thank you.

__________________
"You, me, everyone...we are all made of star stuff." - Neil Degrasse Tyson

https://shawnsmovienight.blogspot.com/

I think that the Lord of the Ring trilogy, Inception, and Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas are examples of movies that I didn't think were as good as what everyone else thought. None of them are necessarily bad, I just don't hold them in as high regard, Lord of the Ring as a whole can be considered great, but the movies once separated aren't tremendous, which can also be said about the books.

Was Cloverfield critically acclaimed??
It was pretty poor though.