Movies You Thought Weren't That Bad, That Everyone Else Hated... Or Vice Versa

Wait - you're including one of the most successful movies of all-time as one that "everyone else hated"?

 

"Ishtar" isn't as bad as its reputation - but I can't agree it "rules". It's watchable and sporadically entertaining but that's about it...

 

Carnival of Souls. Yes, it's got community-theater acting, a predictable story and gaffes galore. In between, it has some of the most breathtaking B&W cinematography I've ever seen, and some genuinely suspenseful and scary moments. The folks at Criterion seem to have agreed with me...but very few other people.

 

I saw it once: back when the original Criterion DVD came out in 2000. I appreciated much of what you did - the cinematography and some creepy bits - but so much of it is so bad that it becomes a dud, IMO.

I'll watch it again when the BD arrives - we'll see if I view it different 16 years later!

 

I think they should make a Hulk origin story with Mark Ruffalo. Since the 2008 Hulk that is actually in Marvel Phase I was not an origin story, they could go back and do it with Ruffalo. Then you could watch that film after Iron Man, and before Avengers, and it would fit perfectly.

 

The Village by M. Night Shyamalan.

I love the period feel of the film, the acting, and dialogue. It is one of my favorite movies, and finished a perfect 4 movie run for Shyamalan (Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, The Village). It is Lady In The Water where it went off the rails, not the fantastic The Village.

 

The only Ryan O'Neal film I've ever liked.
"Never tell an Italian that they're 'small potatoes'..."

 

You don't think it'd be more than a little weird to go back and tell the origin of a character already established in the MCU?

I mean, I guess they could do something akin to "X-Men Origins: Wolverine", but I don't see it happening - and I don't think it's necessary. I'd rather see a standalone Ruffalo Hulk movie than one that sticks us with the origin again.

Though it doesn't seem like they're interested in mining that territory again. The 2003 and 2008 films were both viewed as disappointments, so it doesn't look like Marvel wants to make another.

Seems like if they wanted to do a standalone Hulk, one would've been done - or at least in the works - by now. It's been 4 years since Ruffalo took over the character, but as far as I can tell, there's no standalone Hulk on the horizon...

 

Zardoz avatar. 'Nuff said

I did too. I think it suffered from comparison to the Tarkovsky version (what wouldn't?) but it's a great standalone film. I want to say that Lem (Solaris' author) preferred it as well.

I was working at a theater when it came out. I was a projectionist, and had to watch films as they came in to make sure they were OK before opening day. Of course, most of the time there would be another five or six employees who wanted to watch whatever film it was as well. I could hardly breathe for parts of Fear and Loathing, and there were only two or three other people in our group who liked it at all. I think it was too disorienting. We were all pretty young, and I think the fact that I was (probably) the only person in the theater who had ever done drugs was a big factor in my understanding of it

Agreed. I also loved Verehoeven's previous film, which was...yes...Showgirls.

Which is OBVIOUSLY satire. It amazes me that people thought that film was serious. Some of the humor was so broad it bordered on slapstick. The "sex" scene in the pool is literally impossible, unless Kyle MacLaughlin's manhood is located on his shoulders. Brilliant comedy that I think went over most people's heads.

I love Shock Treatment, aka the sequel to Rocky Horror. The songs are great and the atmosphere is as claustrophobic and insane as RHPC. RHPC was glam, Shock Treatment is new wave.

Tapeheads. I consider it as the last in a trilogy of John Cusack surreal comedy films, along with Better Off Dead and One Crazy Summer, although outside of Cusack, it was made with completely different people (I think.) There's so much comic detail that it's easy to lose track of what's happening. There's one scene where he and Tim Robbins are driving down the street, and reach out of frame and grab a beer. While sitting in a moving car. Hilarious, but easy to miss.

 

I love that movie.

 

I love "Little Nicky".

 

In the vice versa category. I'm gonna go with the latest Mad Max film. I liked it, but didn't think it was this transcendent action movie that most made it out to be.

 

Most people I've talked to hated "Quest for Fire". I've probably seen it ten times.

I liked "Batman vs. Superman" and most hated that.

 

Well here's a fun fact: Gilliam himself hasn't used drugs and he was the one who made the film. Go figure. A sober person bringing Thompson's classic story to screen.

 

That's the weird thing about drug inspired work: sometimes, you need somebody sober to keep the lid on while the ideas stomp around like a bunch of out of control kittens.

 

The one thing that amazed me about Fear and Loathing was how closely it followed the narrative of the novel. This was a book that was supposedly "unfilmable" but Gilliam was able to create a film that barely deviated from the source material. I really can't think of other films that stayed that close to the novel.

As somebody whose only experience with drugs is pot and alcohol, it did not diminish my appreciation of the film. But I can certainly understand why the audience that would appreciate it would be limited. It's not for everyone.

 

I was going to mention this one as well, I paid to see "Howard" in a theater back in 1986 (I was sixteen years old at the time) and I thought it was a hoot. Still do! It's spent so many years being hated that nowadays it's almost underrated.

Looking at it now, it's like a big candy coated neon colored time capsule of everything that was wrong with the '80s, all rolled up in one movie.

I have friends who claim "Howard" is "the worst movie ever," to which I always reply "If you really think that, then you haven't seen nearly enough bad movies."

 

Though it got pretty poor reviews, I thought the glam rock film Velvet Goldmine (loosely based on Bowie) was fantastic. It really seemed to capture the spirit of the era, the sense of exciting new possibilities and transformation. Bowie didn't allow them to use his music, but it all worked out for the best with plenty of great songs from classic artists like Roxy/Eno and T. Rex, as well as newer music in that style.

 

How I summed up "Howard":

"Howard isn’t the worst movie ever made. Heck, I’m sure we can find crummier flicks from the same year; it’s not like 1986 was the golden age of cinema. Nonetheless, few films waste their resources to such a depressing degree, as this big-budget dud looks cheap and fails to provide even rudimentary entertainment value beyond the shock that comes from the realization we once thought Lea Thompson’s huge crimped-out hairstyle didn’t look ridiculous."

 

Velvet Goldmine was FANTASTIC until Iggy turned into Kurt. It lost me completely at that point.

 

The important thing is for someone to grab the message the writer or producer is passing across.

 

Peter Greenaway's The Pillow Book - so disorientingly sensual.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. This movie is directed by Tom Stoppard who wrote and probably directed the play. It has Tim Roth and Gary Oldman in the main parts with Richard Dreyfus in a smaller but important part. If there is one movie I could force everyone to watch until they get it, it's this one. It is too slow for some and not serious enough for others, but for me, a Shakespeare on film fan, it is a perfect introduction to and inversion of Hamlet. It is also at times out and out hilarious with great visual gags. Oldman is brilliant. It is also a brilliant meditation on what words do in the English language.

 

On the Vice Versa side - Star Wars and any of the follow ups. Don't know why it didn't touch me as it did so many others. I was the right age, I love Science Fiction movies usually and I like blockbusters but I just didn't get it.
Also Lord of the Rings - any of them. I kept wanting the first Lord of the Rings, with all that CGI, to end but it just wouldn't! Then someone made me sit through the second one. Then someone recommended the third and I figured how bad could it be? It could be bad. Why did I have to lose all that time?
Oh yeah - The Matrix

Maybe I don't like big blockbusters.

 

I hated "The Ring"! I feel like I'm the only person in the world that feels that way.

 

I hated it. The ending really sucked. What a rip-off!