November 21, 2011
Movies we hated
In the short time we've lived in Nashville, we've overhauled about half of our list of least favorite movies (a loose mental list in written form below for the first time). We've seen a few gems too, like "Bill Cunningham's New York." But many weeks, it's felt like neither of us deserves the privilege of choosing the movie. In approximate order, the worst of the worst listed first:
Memory Keeper's Daughter
Arsenic & Old Lace
Benny and Joon
I've Loved You So Long
The Host
The Shipping News
Is Anybody There? (fell asleep x3)
Nights in Rodanthe
Happy Feet
Grumpy Old Men
Dishonorable mentions:
Morning Glory, No Impact Man, Ghost World, Shattered Glass, Sideways, Sex and the City 2, All the Pretty Horses, The Russian Ark, Valentine's Day, Biutiful.
If you have a worst films list, please leave it in the comments. And we dare you to defend any of these.
Labels: movies
by Tony at 8:18 AM |
20 Comments:
As someone who really hated Happy Feet and Arsenic & Old Lace, and didn't much care for the Host (damn you Rotten Tomatoes), this really pleases me.
From what I understand, All the Pretty Horses was originally 2 1/2 hours or something, and the studio cut out an hour like three weeks before its premiere. Billy Bob Thornton never directed again and blamed the trauma of seeing his film destroyed. I've never seen it.
I was meaning to see Biutiful. Hm.
In general, I'm not interested in watching any movie based off Cormac McCarthy's work (though, No Country for Old Men was good). Yeah, yeah, descend upon me now McCarthy fanboys.
I did enjoy Ghost World and Sideways (mainly because I like Paul Giamatti in the case of the latter). You should check out Valentino: The Last Emperor if you're interested in a humorous, sometimes sad, fashion documentary.
Also, why on earth would you re-watch Shattered Glass outside a mandatory classroom setting?
Ghost World is good, but I think you were just asking for trouble with Nights in Rodanthe.
I think my biggest disappointment so far on Netflix was "Margot at the Wedding," which I was expecting to be a quirky comedy (with Jack Black!) but ended up being about him sleeping with underage girls and ruining a family. Yeah.
We hated Sideways, too. Truthfully, Russian Ark is one of those movies that I've watched several times because the concept is such a neat idea and it's the freaking Hermitage, after all. Yet, after watching it at least three times now, I still can't say I enjoyed most of it. Nevertheless, I think I'll just keep watching it, hoping that some day it will "click," and the genius will be revealed to me. Does anyone feel this way about any other movies?
Mark: We were really disappointed by "Biutiful." It was almost totally depressing with about three interesting shot compositions that hardly made up for how much of a downer it is.
Chase: We did NOT re-watch Shattered Glass. I included that from our college days.
Jack: I want to say that "Margot" disappointed me too, but I honestly cannot say for sure that I watched it. It has a mediocre rating in our Netflix history.
Naomi: I'm amazed you sat through Russian Ark three times. I was gung ho about the concept, but we totally bit the dust and fell asleep on our first attempt to watch it.
I wonder if my patience has grown short when it comes to waiting and hoping for "genius to be revealed" to me. That may be a sad admission. But I will continue to think about movies that may fall into that category, and return to these comments with some in mind.
Perhaps I'm patient. But I'm probably just stubborn.
I surprised to see hatred for Sideways. If you don't care for Giamatti's performance and you don't find it funny, I could imagine thinking it's dull. I would be interested to hear what about the movie earns it a stronger reaction than that.
I like Sideways. But I seem to remember that movie being very divisive when it came out. Not sure why.
I do to, but I've not understood any of the strong negative reactions. At the time I suspected some viewers had (once again) confused judgments of "that's overrated" for "that's bad." Now I'm not sure what motivates it.
Katie and I debated whether to consider "Sideways" as overrated, and that may be the case. It's odd because I had generally positive feelings about it (Katie did not), so we recently rewatched it and I moved into her camp.
Maybe I should watch it again.
I can't remember, did we all watch it once at the SadBear? I feel like I watched it in the presence of Oatess but I honestly don't remember.
Another movie I just watched recently that I had to reassess was Dead Man. I watched it late one night at the SadBear with Oatess, Evan, Carly and Econ and thought it was awesome. I recently watched it again and realized most of it was pretentious bullshit that didn't make sense. I was really tired, kind of drunk and putting off a paper that first time so that might explain things.
Agreed about "Dead Man." I'd call it solid. You know, we also debated putting "Barton Fink" on here, which really only gave me a few lasting images.
I like the vibe and the soundtrack of "Dead Man" a lot more than I like the actual content/plot. It looks and feels cool, but there's actually nothing going on in the movie. Which I guess is fine. That's kind of how I feel about the majority of David Lynch's movies I have seen.
Also, Barton Fink I watched once and thought it was okay. It's definitley a lesser Coen movie. As are "Hudsucker Proxy" and "Blood Simple." I know Tsao likes the latter one, but I had trouble getting into it at all.
(Conversely, the more I watch "Raising Arizona" the more convinced I become of just how underrated it is.)
Tony, what was it about Sideways that moved you into the Katie's camp? I don't doubt that there's something about the movie that rubs people the wrong way. I just wish I could ascertain what it is.
Also, if you had put Barton Fink on the list, I would have disagreed outright. That was a meticulous, understated, and forceful movie that didn't really falter. I'm glad you left it off.
I haven't actually seen Sideways, but I do love Paul Giamatti.
Chase, did you see the Road? It's too grim to be an especially good movie, but I found it enormously affecting at times.
Mark: Nope. The interest wasn't there for me. >_>
Goat: Hatred is definitely the wrong characterization of my feelings toward "Sideways." I'm hung up on Giamatti's character, who is just too pitiful, or too unbelievably sad/slimy. My previous good vibes were built around a general impression that the movie was funny. On second viewing, it was just a meandering downer.
We've finally seen a good movie: "Cold Weather," which is now streaming on Netflix. Really beautiful visuals and a quirky story.
You mean the 1944 Arsenic and Old Lace? This seems like a misfit on your list ... it's certainly strange, but Cary Grant (acting kookier than ever), Ray Massey, Peter Lorre?? Pretty great stuff.
Giamatti is best in supporting roles, if that - he's not my favorite. I refused to see John Adams when I heard he was the lead - I knew I'd hate it too much. Never saw Sideways for the same reason.
Bill Cunningham's New York was a treasure. We just watched Moonrise Kingdom last week, and it was so perfect.
Lauren, you've got the correct "Arsenic and Old Lace." Epic stars aside, it's incredibly stilted. Believe me, I went into it with high expectations and an open mind, but I think that thing is stylistically lost to time.
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