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OVERRATED MOVIES

This is from yet another Name That Film discussion. When it comes to movies, I am full of . . . opinions.



American Beauty: A re-hash of warmed-over 60s ideas. Suburbs bad! Teenagers good! Military men insane! About as deep as "Pleasant Valley Sunday".

I also hated Lost in Translation, but it could be just watching people who are miserable because they got a free trip to Japan burns my ass.

Anything by the British Art School club: Sally Potter, Peter Greenaway, Derek Jarman, and Ken Russell (except for Lair of the White Worm). These movies would be OK for 10 minutes at a time in an art gallery, but not for 2 hours. Caravaggio was just agonizing. Oh look, the Pope has a digital watch! That must symbolize something!

Betty Blue, Breaking the Waves, King of Hearts, and any other arty mental-illness-exploitation movie. If it doesn't resemble any mental illness anyone has ever seen outside of a movie, it isn't any good. This goes for terminal illnesses as well.

The Mystery of Kasper Hauser, Apocalypto
, and any movie with the theme: nature good, civilization bad. If civilization is so bad, why are you making a movie about it? Shouldn't you be out in the woods whittling something?

Crappy Hollywood studio product doesn't bother me as much as critically-acclaimed arty crap. I usually know better than to see some stinky blockbuster, but bad arty movies insist on their own importance. Unfair, perhaps, but true.




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Comments

JethSeux said…
More importantly Sweetie, you are full of good opinions.
I would have to say that Lost in Translation is one of the worst films out there besides Reykjavik 101, an agonizing tale of a slacker with the hots for his mom's lesbian lover. When they try to make a movie about quirky situations or people that are less interesting or shocking than ones I have encountered in my own life, I get bored very quickly!
I think Bill Murray's character just needed to go to one of those fake "pleasure train" brothels, and grope some women posing as subway riders, and it would have wiped that somber, my rich life as a washed up star is so horrible look right off his face!!
ash966 said…
"my rich life as a washed up star is so horrible look"

--Good one, sweetie!

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