The September issue of Premiere runs its list of the 20 most
overrated movies of all time. Their list, which they run in
alphabetical order:
2001
A Beautiful Mind
American Beauty
An American in Paris
Chariots of Fire
Chicago
Clerks
Easy Rider
Fantasia
Forrest Gump
Field of Dreams
Gone with the Wind
Good Will Hunting
Jules and Jim
Monster's Ball
Moonstruck
Mystic River
Nashville
The Red Shoes
The Wizard of Oz
By and large, I issue a vociferous Halleluiah! in response to
Premiere's list. There's nothing that rubs me the wrong way quite
like a barrage of sappy and sycophantic praise for a crappy film,
and the Academy subsequently showering the film with Oscars to the
detriment of a much more deserving and extraordinary piece of Art.
Disclaimer: I haven't seen a number of the above films, and I
adamantly contest the presence of 'Oz' on this list. That just ain't
right. I offer a few comments on this group. I look forward to
reading some of yours...
2001: Anytime it becomes popular to mute a movie, smoke a truck
bed full of marijuana, and throw on a Pink Floyd album to enhance
one's viewing pleasure of the film, that means we can pretty safely
assume the film was either A) pretty exciting as-is or B) pretty
hapless and mind numbingly boring as-is. As much as I love, adore,
cherish other Kubrick films, 2001 falls solidly in the "B" category
for me on this one.
American Beauty: This might be my A#1 over-rated film of all time.
I'd rank it pretty low as an after school Hallmark special, but as it
won Best Picture, well, you've got to be kidding. In a nutshell:
Just because you empathized deeply with a sucky and solipsistic film,
that doesn't mean the film was good, it might just mean, well. . . . .
Clerks: Not a bad film, mind you, but on multiple occasions I've
avidly watched people watching Clerks for the Nth time with giddy
excitement and thought, you can't possibly be having as much fun
right now as you're letting on... Really. I could sit down and
watch with you or I could go outside and clean out the gutters or
wax the car. Just about as stimulating.
Forrest Gump: Catchy! Lots of catchy phrases! Tom Hanks showing
his depth by proving that it wasn't only Leo DiCaprio in Gilbert's
Grape who can play a guy with a developmental disability. Robert
Zemeckis pouring on the sentimentality real think and heavy. What
really hurt with this film was that it beat out Shawshank Redemption
and Pulp Fiction for Best Picture. Together, these films are about
394 to the power of 698 times better than Gump. You disagree?
Meet me in the parking lot at 4:00. Which lot? I dunno. Pick one.
No brass knuckles, no fish hooking, no rabbit punching. Other than
that, its no holds barred.
Mystic River: This was a truly great film, save for the fact that about
half the characters and nearly all of the plot twists were completely
f**king contrived ... other than that, we're on solid ground here.
Monster's Ball: I'm not going to write that Halle Berry couldn't act
her way out of a paper bag, but Halle Berry couldn't act her way out
of a paper bag. As Walter from The Big Lebowski might say,
"Catwoman dude, Catwoman."
Maybe I'll blog about my additions to the list (Ahem.. The English
Patient, anyone??) or the most under-rated movies of all time (Like,
Peter Weir getting nominated for Best Director for The Truman Show,
while Joel Coen wasn't nominated for Lebowski. Someone please
explain that one to me)... but Premiere's list warrants some
discussion unto itself. Until next time...
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3 comments:
I agree with most of these, although I kinda think 2001 is a masterpiece (although not one I'd like to watch over and over). And Nashville, The Wizard of Oz, and Fantasia are well-loved by me.
As for the others (that I've seen): American Beauty is fun, but the same old "dysfunction in middle America" we've been sold ever since David Lynch's Blue Velvet. An American in Paris is dull and doesn't hold a candle to Singin' in the Rain. Chicago is enjoyable but not remotely significant. Clerks is funny, but I think it's one of Kevin Smith's weakest films-- beloved mainly by half-smart young guys who are looking for some, as Smith himself would say, "dick and fart jokes." Easy Rider is clumsy filmmaking, significant historically and in terms of style, but a narrative mess. Forrest Gump is pseudo-conservative mythmaking. Field of Dreams is guy-schmaltz. Gone With the Wind is beautifully made melodrama, but it certainly sags at points, and seeks to romanticize the old South. Good Will Hunting is a solid middlebrow drama and nothing else. Monster's Ball has some strong performances, but doesn't overcome the unlikeliness of its plot. Moonstruck is just goofy. Mystic River is a solid crime drama until the out-of-left field Lady Macbeth Laura Linney moment. And The Red Shoes is gorgeous cinematography and not much else.
So, yeah, great list from Premiere.
Oh, and I forgot A Beautiful Mind, which must have been a psychological slip on my part, because I wish I could forget watching A Beautiful Mind. God was that movie shitty. All high-gloss Oscar bait (and it has to be one of the dumbest Best Picture winners ever) in the service of a trite, repetitive, sentimentalized vision of mental illness that only exists in the movies.
I agree with most of those, but I thought Life is Beautiful was deserving of the praise it got. I mean, how many OTHER effective comedies have been made about the Holocaust?
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