Movies everyone else loves and you hate

[Yuki-Anne]

We've all been there. Everybody raves about this movie, and when you finally see it, you don't understand why they made you waste a couple of hours of your life on it. And maybe you've been at that place where you KNOW you hate the movie, but you're at somebody's birthday party and they rented the movie you hate and everybody else loves and you're FORCED to watch the stupid movie AGAIN.

And then, if it's a "Christian" movie you have to watch it at youth group MULTIPLE TIMES and...

Okay, I'm getting overly personal with this, but we all have a movie that everybody loves and we hate. So here it is. What are those movies for you?

A Walk to Remember - I have so much hatred for this movie. The performances are unbelievable, the characters are flat-out boring, and the dialogue is hokey beyond belief. And yet everybody else thinks it's this amazing film. When I was in high school I couldn't get away from it! So much hatred.

Fireproof - I probably can't escape hearing about this film just because I'm in ministry. Lots of people talk about how great this movie is. My church here in Japan loves it. And I'm like... seriously? It's... it's just bad. Bad acting, bad cinematography, bad writing... Actually, I hardly know any husbands who actually like it. Mostly wives and unmarried people. Probably because EVERYTHING IN THIS MOVIE IS THE HUSBAND'S FAULT. What if the husband is just as unhappy because his wife is HORRIBLE? I'll tell you what, because I know someone in this situation: in her mind, it further validates her behavior and puts all responsibility for fixing the marriage on him, even if he's working as hard as he possibly can at it. Which is awful.

National Treasure - It was exciting the first time, but after I knew what was going to happen was a huge yawn.

[ADXC]

At some of your choices, the thread name is aptly named because I do like Fireproof and National Treasure.

Lots of people love the HP movies, but I can't stand them at all. Sorry, magic is just not my thing.

[Gojira]

I can't get into the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. The movies perplex me, and any newb to pirate/sailor lore will get lost easily.

[Radical Dreamer]

This thread has made me so glad that I never saw A Walk To Remember. XDD My friend in the 7th grade loved it; I thought it sounded boring and never watched it. XD

Honestly, it's pretty tough for me to think of movies I don't like sometimes, just because I often put them so far out of my mind. XD But let's see...

Practical Magic: A bunch of my high school friends LOVED this movie. In high school, we all watched it together at a movie night we had, and I thought it was 100% terribly done. XD

Titanic: I watched this a little over a year ago, and I honestly just did not get the hype. XD I thought it was too long, I didn't care for the acting, and while I agree that the last hour, perhaps, was well done and well shot, I found the rest of the movie largely boring and overacted. And I tend to like long movies, so. XD

The Nightmare Before Christmas: Another movie that I watched later in life than most people my age, I also didn't get the hype for this one. I understand that it was a pretty big deal for its time, given the quality of the stop-motion animation, but I just didn't find it all that charming.

The mention of NBC actually opens up a can of worms with a lot of other Tim Burton movies. XD I find most of his films derivative of his other works--he doesn't seem to grow as an artist--and most of it seems catered to the Hot Topic audience (except for Big Fish, which I've mentioned before is one of my favorite movies of all time XD).

That's all that comes to mind for now, though I'm sure there are more. XD

[ShiroiHikari]

I am with you on Nightmare. I thought it was boring and vaguely embarrassing to watch, so I didn't see what the big freaking deal was.

Spiderman 2: Both fans and movie critics think this is the best superhero movie ever. I think they either saw a different movie than I did or they were paid off, because I thought it was freaking hokey and lame.

The Princess Bride: Sure, it's kind of a fun movie, but I never hailed it as the greatest film of all time like EVERYONE ELSE from my generation did. It's not that great and everyone needs to stop quoting it all of the time.

The Last Unicorn: Bad music, bad voice acting, and occasionally iffy animation ruined this for me. I never saw it as a kid (looking back I can see why I never was allowed to see it). Everyone worships this movie and I just don't get why.

[Radical Dreamer]

The Last Unicorn: Bad music, bad voice acting, and occasionally iffy animation ruined this for me. I never saw it as a kid (looking back I can see why I never was allowed to see it). Everyone worships this movie and I just don't get why.

Dude, I watched (most of) that movie a few years ago thinking it would be cool, because the art looked pretty neat and unlike most of what I'd grown up watching. But from what I remember (I fell asleep around 4AM because I was watching it SUPER LATE), I pretty much agree with what you said up there. XD Also I'm not a huge fan of America, so. XD

[Saiya~Jin]

The Transformers movies. I don't know much about the original, but I'm willing to be the movies aren't faithful. Looks like a lot of high~budget product~placement to me.

[shooraijin]

I have avoided ever watching Titanic.

[TWWK]

In defense of Titanic (which is by no means one of my favorites)...if you don't watch in on the big screen, you lose a huge part of the experience. The last hour makes up for the boring first 2/3 particularly when you feel the experience with big images and huge sound of a theater. Kind of similar to another Cameron movie - Avatar, which I tried to watch on DVD and just couldn't, even though I really enjoyed it in 3D on the big screen.

Here are some of the movies I hated (but everyone seemed to love):
The English Patient: Boring...and featuring a protagonist I couldn't sympathize with, featuring a relationship I didn't care for. I guess I wasn't the only one who hated it, though, as I'm remembering the episode of Seinfeld where Elaine felt the same way I did.

Up: The first third of the movie was brilliant. But...once the group landed at the their destination, I thought the movie kinda entered typical animated kids movie territory. I liked the film, but didn't have the love for it that so many have, and certainly don't feel the same way about it as I do for other Pixar movies.

The Princess Bride: Sure, it's kind of a fun movie, but I never hailed it as the greatest film of all time like EVERYONE ELSE from my generation did. It's not that great and everyone needs to stop quoting it all of the time.

Your feelings about the movie are inconceivable! Greatest movie of all time!

Hehe, actually, my wife hates this movie. I try to watch it at least once a year, but she refuses to watch it with me.

[Okami]

The Princess Bride: Sure, it's kind of a fun movie, but I never hailed it as the greatest film of all time like EVERYONE ELSE from my generation did. It's not that great and everyone needs to stop quoting it all of the time.

I know a girl who has watched this movie over one thousand times. She probably knows the exact number beyond that, too. She can quote the movie back at you in perfect duplication, complete with acting and all. (She did a skit of it for our Speech class once...I can't even remember what the speech was supposed to be over... ) Dedication that I never could understand, except for the fact that I knew she had some form of autism. That was the only way in my mind that I could comprehend her obsessive love of The Princess Bride.

[Mouse2010]

The Princess Bride: Sure, it's kind of a fun movie, but I never hailed it as the greatest film of all time like EVERYONE ELSE from my generation did. It's not that great and everyone needs to stop quoting it all of the time.

NOOOOOOOOOO! You realize that this is some kind of blasphemy, right? You're being a traitor to your own generation!

But seriously, this is one of those movies that carries additional importance BECAUSE it is so well-known and well-loved that some of us can quote whole passages of dialog by heart. It really isn't the greatest movie of all time, but it IS one of the most influential movies of its generation. It has a cultural significance that transcends its actual artistic significance, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The same is also true of the original Star Wars trilogy, for instance.

Er, as to the original question . . . I'm going to ditto whoever said Titanic. It wasn't an awful movie, but it wasn't brilliant.

[ShiroiHikari]

Titanic is more of a technical achievement than a great film. Parts of it are good, and parts of it are meh. It was fun to see in the theatre though.

I knew I'd ruffle some feathers by mentioning The Princess Bride. XD

Another popular 80s movie I never really liked is Labyrinth. It's just...I mean, it wasn't terrible, but it didn't really do anything for me. Then again, I didn't see it until I was in my 20s, so maybe that's why.

[Cognitive Gear]

I typically manage to avoid seeing movies that I would hate. I do have a few that I dislike, though.

The Sixth Sense. I have no idea why anyone ever liked this movie, or how it got such great reviews. I guess that people are emotionally moved by sudden twists, but the twist was not enough to make up for the rest of the movie.

Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. I just don't "get" Tarantino, I guess. His movies usually have one scene that is really great, surrounded by a bunch of things that fail to interest me. I honestly haven't taken the time to figure out why, but perhaps I should.

Repo! The Genetic Opera. Honestly, it's just terrible in every way. I don't, and won't ever understand why it has a following. When I saw it I thought it was the sort of thing that high school goth and emo kids would like, but grow out of. I very soon discovered that it isn't just high schoolers that love it.

Sin City- This was really good if you like the source material. Unfortunately for me, I hate Fank Miller's writing.

[ShiroiHikari]

I liked Pulp Fiction when I was younger, but the older I get, the more I see its many flaws. There's some funny dialogue, but overall the movie just seems meaningless to me and glorifies all the wrong things.

[bigsleepj]

The Princess Bride: Sure, it's kind of a fun movie, but I never hailed it as the greatest film of all time like EVERYONE ELSE from my generation did. It's not that great and everyone needs to stop quoting it all of the time.

This saddens me deeply. I watched the movie last night and still thought it a great movie for me. But I'll admit, its hard to explain quite why we feel that way about it.

Here's a few off the top of my head. Very few of them I 'hate', for hate is a strong word. Lets just say these are movies that I find disappointing.

The Matrix. The original is still the best, but still hugely overated. The film's depth is really not that deep, and its quotes implying intellect is really just a play with words. That doesn't distract that, in terms of plot, milieu and such the movie is pretty good. Its just not that good.

The Hidden Fortress. The only Kurosawa film that bored me.

The Searchers. John Ford can frame a shot and John Wayne has screen presence like few. But this movie for me has always had a good start and a good ending, but drags in the middle. I can't say why this is one of the best movies ever made, supposedly.

Citizen Kane. Great cinematography, great dialogue and excellent narrative construction... but still I don't understand why this movie gets so much attention. Its not a bad movie. Its a good movie. But its not the greatest film ever made. Not by a longshot. I'd barely put it on a top 100. Even its 'resolution' / denouement is too pat and neat. Other than how it was shot it holds no fascination for me.

[Psycho Molos]

The Matrix. The original is still the best, but still hugely overated. The film's depth is really not that deep, and its quotes implying intellect is really just a play with words. That doesn't distract that, in terms of plot, milieu and such the movie is pretty good. Its just not that good.

(gasp) Blasphemy LOL

[ShiroiHikari]

The Matrix. The original is still the best, but still hugely overated. The film's depth is really not that deep, and its quotes implying intellect is really just a play with words. That doesn't distract that, in terms of plot, milieu and such the movie is pretty good. Its just not that good.

I think I agree with you on this one. It's a fun movie and I enjoy watching it every once in a while, but it's not as "smart" or "deep" as people make it out to be.

[Atria35]

The Matrix. The original is still the best, but still hugely overated. The film's depth is really not that deep, and its quotes implying intellect is really just a play with words. That doesn't distract that, in terms of plot, milieu and such the movie is pretty good. Its just not that good.

Citizen Kane. Great cinematography, great dialogue and excellent narrative construction... but still I don't understand why this movie gets so much attention. Its not a bad movie. Its a good movie. But its not the greatest film ever made. Not by a longshot. I'd barely put it on a top 100. Even its 'resolution' / denouement is too pat and neat. Other than how it was shot it holds no fascination for me.

Agreeing with both, except I really hate Citizen Kane. I think it's horiffically boring and rather stupid.

[Cognitive Gear]

Citizen Kane. Great cinematography, great dialogue and excellent narrative construction... but still I don't understand why this movie gets so much attention. Its not a bad movie. Its a good movie. But its not the greatest film ever made. Not by a longshot. I'd barely put it on a top 100. Even its 'resolution' / denouement is too pat and neat. Other than how it was shot it holds no fascination for me.

Generally speaking, I think Citizen Kane is a great movie. It's not the greatest, unless you are taking into account things like impact on the art form. In which case, I'd be hard pressed to name one that had more impact. I'm guessing that this is the metric that most critics are using for "greatest film of all time".

I think I agree with you on this one. It's a fun movie and I enjoy watching it every once in a while, but it's not as "smart" or "deep" as people make it out to be.

Most pop movies aren't. For a recent example, see Inception. People seem to go on and on about it being a thinking man's movie, when it's no where close to that. The only things it leaves for people to think about are:

A) Does the top fall over?
B) Regurgitating the first half of the movie where they explain the entirety of the movie's plot, in detail. It's still a good blockbuster, though.

The Matrix at least offered an introduction to low level philosophy.

[Yuki-Anne]

Moulin Rouge. I do not get why people love this movie. Except for "Come What May," the songs are subpar, and the story uses all the romance cliches. There is nothing surprising about it. Okay, the visuals are great, I'll give it that. But it lost me when they tried to pass off "Material Girl" as a showtune. Fail.

[ShiroiHikari]

I had almost no previous context for the various pop songs that were used in the film, so it didn't bother me. I like Moulin Rouge for the singing, the visuals, the costumes, the dancing, the emotions, and Ewan MacGregor.

[Yuki-Anne]

I'll agree on the visuals and the Ewan MacGregor, but no musical film should remind me of minimum wage summer jobs in the fast food industry.

[Radical Dreamer]

I'll agree on the visuals and the Ewan MacGregor, but no musical film should remind me of minimum wage summer jobs in the fast food industry.

LOL. I can understand how that might be a little off-putting. XD I never have been a huge fan of Madonna, so I while I didn't love her songs, I did see how they fit into the narrative of the story (like the line from Material Girl in Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend--I don't love the song, but I thought it was a cool technique to introduce the character). The "Like a Virgin" scene is hilarious to me, though. XD I was actually just talking about this earlier, but I thought half of the fun when I saw that movie was recognizing as many songs as I could. XD That being said, I like The Police, but I LOVE the Roxanne tango number. XD It's definitely not a typical musical, but I loved seeing the creative ways they used some of the songs. XD And their use of Nature Boy will always give me chills. XD

[UniqueAngelStar]

Typical dance movies like the Step Up and You got Served series.

They are basically the same thing, and obviously the main dance team is going to win.
Of course, drama is added into them to make it more interesting.

Everybody seems to enjoy those movies, but I don't. I just don't see the hype about them.

[ShiroiHikari]

I LOVE the Roxanne tango number. XD

That is seriously the best part of the entire movie. There's just so much going on in that scene. I also thought Like a Virgin was pretty freaking hilarious.

Speaking of musicals, I really didn't think Chicago was all that good. It had a nice visual style but something about the tone just didn't work for me.

[Shao Feng-Li]

First one that comes to mind is Avatar. The only thing it had going for it were the special effects. I know it hard coming up with new plots and what not, but come on.

Lesee... another I didn't care for was Howl's Moving Castle. (It had limited theater release, so it counts, right?) The Turnip Head "plot" irks me to death in that movie. Him being a prince had no real meaning to the movie at all. The only mention of a prince is like two lines of easy to miss dialogue by some background characters. And it was boring, albeit pretty.

Nightmare Before Christmas... It doesn't help that Jack's face was all over Hot Topic. Since when are Disney musicals edgy enough for Hot Topic. I thought they were on a Twilight level of edgy.

Twilight.

Also, I watched about half of Citizen Kane before turning it off. "It's boring and in black and white, blah"

While I don't hate it, I really don't like watching Fireproof. I can certainly appreciate the film and the message. But really, it has no rewatch value at all, but it's way better than Flywheel or Facing the Giants... Each movie is better than the last, so I do hope for the company.

I'm not just a Contrarian. I swear.

[Nami]

Ok, I know I'm going to get blown away by everyone for this but...

Inception - For the first half of that movie I was... "Hmm" then, I knew EXACTLY how it would end after the middle ended, and I was soooo booooored. And everyone was freakin' out about how great this movie was -_- honestly, I saw it all coming from the beginning. Sorry Christopher Nolan, but, you are predictable.

Avatar - Ok, the graphics, pretty cool... but, I watched it again recently and gaped, because to my horror A LOT of that stuff was stolen from Final Fantasy, Alice in Wonderland and a bunch of other stuff. Cameron just... chopped off blocks of other peoples ideas and slapped it together in a make-shift crap of a movie! And he earned millions for a sloppy job done. Sorry guys, but, I didn't get the hype, especially since the graphics in Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children Complete are 100% cooler. I don't understand why he got so much money, people need to get out more. -_- Plus, after the second time... SNOOZE FEST!

[bigsleepj]

"...and in black and white, blah"

Hmmm. Them's fighting words. I assume then that plot, character, dialogue, milieu and theme means very little to you and you just watch movies and TV for all the bright colours?

[ShiroiHikari]

I didn't like Howl's Moving Castle either. I think it's a terrible movie, and I say that with all seriousness. It's like the guys who wrote the screenplay only read half the book. Anyone who liked it needs to read the book. It's way better than the stupid movie.

[Yamamaya]

Fireproof - Actually, I hardly know any husbands who actually like it. Mostly wives and unmarried people. Probably because EVERYTHING IN THIS MOVIE IS THE HUSBAND'S FAULT. What if the husband is just as unhappy because his wife is HORRIBLE? I'll tell you what, because I know someone in this situation: in her mind, it further validates her behavior and puts all responsibility for fixing the marriage on him, even if he's working as hard as he possibly can at it. Which is awful.
.

I'm glad I never watched Fireproof. I hate it when all the blame is put on the man for everything. I've even seen this mindset among some Christian guys. If something is going wrong spirtually or in the marriage, it's the man's fault because the man is supposed to be THE HEAD. Oh please, give me a break.

Anyway, pretty much every sports movie ever made, but especially the Christian ones.

Facing The Giants.
Horrible acting, predictable plot, and overall horrendous job. I didn't care about any of the characters. The Christian aspect of it felt awkward and forced.

Young Victoria
It played up the sappiness of the love story between Albert and Queen Victoria way too much. My biggest problem with the movie is that it had no focus. It didn't focus on any one aspect of Queen Victoria's life, it just tried to throw in everything they could get so that there was no one main focus to the movie. Maybe I'm just bitter because I wanted to see a different movie on that day. I believe it was on New Years or something. The costumes were nice though.