A few days ago, Premiere put out one of the most inane movie lists I have ever seen – the 20 Most Overrated Movies of All Time. Now, “overrated” is an easy adjective to overuse, but this is just a weird collection of titles. I haven’t seen the actual article, so I don’t know how they defend these, but it really plays mostly like a list of films that shouldn’t have won the Best Picture Oscar. (And once I get ahold of the complete article, I’ll probably weigh in with my thoughts on their defenses of their choices, because I am a movie tool).
2001: A Space Odyssey
Hard for me to judge, as I like it more than anyone I know. But assuming that Premiere trots out the usual criticisms (too slow, make no sense), I would argue that it’s the viewer’s problem if he or she is impatient. The film comes as close to deliberate experimentation as narrative film ever has, and it gets allowances for that. Yes, the Dawn of Man is too damn long. The acting is bad, but not inappropriately, given the themes. And I’m sorry that the ending is unclear, but I have never believed that movies need to wrap themselves up with a little bow (and if 2001 is unclear to you, stay the fuck away from the European films of the same decade). I’d have to argue that it’s rated really quite well, especially given that it no longer seems to be the consensus favorite Kubrick.
A Beautiful Mind
I haven’t seen it, and never will; but did anyone, besides the Academy, ever really like this film? To be overrated, I think that somebody, somewhere, has to like it, and I don’t think that’s true of this one.
An American in Paris
If anything, this one is underrated – its reputation seems to be mostly “stultifying, with a great ballet at the end.” Sure, it’s not Singin’ in the Rain or Meet Me in St. Louis, and Leslie Caron is neither a great actor nor dancer, but it’s very pretty, and has a soundtrack composed entirely of Gershwin songs. It’s a fine entrant in the Freed Unit canon.
American Beauty
Four years ago? Definitely overrated. It’s a potty-mouthed sitcom with offensive cartoons as characters and a ludicrously overdeveloped sense of its own profundity. But does anyone still talk about it, for any reason?
Chariots of Fire
What? Who under the age of 30 has ever even seen the damn thing? (I have, but y’know). And do any of them have fond memories of it? Seriously, what does anyone remember about it besides the theme song?
Chicago
I wholeheartedly agree. For the film that ushered in the New Era of the Musical (and which Phantom of the Opera and Rent will finish off), it’s really not a very good one – the numbers would be good on stage, but they aren’t cinematic in the least. It seems clear to me that Rob Marshall doesn’t actually understand what cameras are for in the movies. And – no arguing – Renee Zellweger and Richard Gere are horribly miscast.
Clerks
Hm. It’s certainly not very “good.” But it is very “important.” And I think that even the most rabid fanboys admit that it’s a much better screenplay than movie. I don’t know of anyone who loves the film who tries to call it more than it really is, which is a really simple, fun comedy directed for about six bucks.
Easy Rider
Probably overrated, entirely because of nostalgia. It’s a very important cultural document – maybe the most important in cinema history – but it is a fucking awful movie, if coherence and thematic development are what we’re looking for. And it was dated pretty much the week after it came out. And yet, it does have a sterling reputation. So yes, I agree. Overrated.
Fantasia
I’m tempted to dismiss it just because it’s experimental and the rules don’t apply, but let’s not. Instead, I have to ask: a) does it really have that great a reputation? I don’t know of anyone who talks about it except in animation discussions; b) doesn’t the animation – some of it the most beautiful in the history of the medium – count for anything? “Toccata and Fugue,” the sequence, might be overrated, but not the whole piece.
Field of Dreams
Not overrated. I have never heard of one person who tried to claim it was anything more than a well-done male weepie about dads and sons. Which it is.
Forrest Gump
I guess, maybe. I remember when the DVD came out a few years back, and everyone was hugely excited, thinking it was a bit overrated. But I thought it was more of a punchline by now.
Gone with the Wind
It’s right up there with Casablanca as one of those Hollywood films where everything is firing at 110% just to make something really goddamn entertaining. Is it as good as non-scholarly polls tend to rank it? No. But calling it overrated is pointless. It exists solely to be a four-hour EPIC, with luscious cinematography, sets, costumes, title cards. Sure it’s racist, and sure the acting is, let us say, mildly overdone, but it’s literally impossible to overrate something whose entire point is to be the most massive film in history.
Good Will Hunting
I haven’t seen it…but the general tenor of the “New” Gus van Sant crowd seems to suggest that everything between My Own Private Idaho and Gerry sucked. So I don’t think it has that good of a reputation anymore. I doubt it deserved the Oscar nom, but it had to be better than the same year’s Titanic.
Jules et Jim
This is their only foreign film? Assholes…anyway, it’s not the best film of the Nouvelle Vague, like people often say, so it is “overrated,” but actively disliking this film is like stepping on a puppy: it’s vindictive and pointless. There are some gorgeous shots, great performances, and one of the most candidly adult views towards sex in the cinema.
Monster’s Ball
I haven’t seen it, but nobody gives a damn about the movie now, and nobody gave a damn about the movie then – it was all about Halle Berry. Again, it needs to be liked before it can be overrated.
Moonstruck
I don’t get it…it’s a serviceable romantic comedy. It’s one of the better romantic comedies of its decade. That’s all anyone has ever said about it. So who’s overrating?
Mystic River
Ooh, fighting words…my favorite English-language film of 2003 is on the list, eh? I’ll grant that the rhetoric surrounding the film probably oversold it, and there are flaws, especially if you think (as many do) that Sean Penn is too hammy. But, come on, this is one well-directed movie. I guess it’s overrated in the sense that it’s not the best film of the decade, which was the tenor of some of the reviews, but the pervasive criticisms of this film have always struck me as irrelevant and niggling. But frankly, anyone who really just hates this film has a sense of cinema which is totally incompatible with my own, and therefore our opinions shouldn’t matter to each other.
(Anyway, if I’m thinking of a 2003 Best Picture nominee that’s seriously overrated, the one I’m thinking of isn’t Mystic River.)
Nashville
If it’s overrated, I’m right at the top of the ones doing the overrating (it’s my favorite film of the 1970s – absolutely the best “portrait of America” film ever). Moving along.
The Red Shoes
FUCK YOU PREMIERE.
…
How the fuck do you watch this and not love it?
The Wizard of Oz
Why? Because it’s the one film that everyone in America thinks they must see? It’s one of the best-made MGM musicals (which is sort of like saying “one of Shakespeare’s best soliloquys”), and has some of the best songs ever written for a film. The perfect example of “everyone loves it because it’s really that good.” The acting, the writing…what is wrong with this film?
To conclude, while I have no such list of my own, if I did it would certainly include Bicycle Thieves, Rebel without a Cause, Children of Paradise and The African Queen, and probably Potemkin and The Usual Suspects. Also, no honest list can avoid including Citizen Kane, because…who really thinks it’s No. 1?
Your own overrated films, and thoughts on Premiere’s in the comments.