Overrated / Underrated Film

don't curr bout no necroes round where I'm from, y'see?

Overrated- Inception and The Matrix, two kinda sorta similar movies. The former, while a solid flick IMO, suffers on repeat viewing from a crushing mountain of exposition (used largely to explain the technology of the film), pretty shallow characterization for the most part, and a shlocky action video gameish structure for the main dream sequence at the end. The latter seemed confused about what kind of tone it wanted, swinging between an attempt at gritty cerebral cyberpunk and indulgent over the top kung fu. To be fair, it maintains a relatively decent balance of the two for the first 1/2-2/3, but the final act goes so far in the indulgent kung fu direction that it seems comical, complete with over the top, intrusive, "hey guys look at how awesome this shit that's happening is guys are you looking? guys?" electric guitar soundtrack. Not to mention its ideas can be found in a philosophy 101 class, so it seems to use its pretensions of intellectual stimulation as a crutch. I get that the SFX were groundbreaking at the time, but I don't think this one has aged well. Again, just an opinion.

Underrated- The Assassination of Jesse James and Ed Wood. The former, if you can enjoy a slow burn kind of pace, brings subtle, complex, conflicted characters, totally breathtaking visuals, and a moody, contemplative, immersive atmosphere, and is easily one of the best movies of the 00s. Ed Wood, coming from a director I generally think of as a gimmicky, one trick fellow, is one of the most sincere, warm celebrations of movies (and of the artistic process in general), living a life of passion and joy even though one might not succeed, and just general optimism I've ever seen, while simultaneously (and kind of paradoxically) serving as an extremely effective cautionary tale about failure and delusion. And it seems to be one of the least popular flicks from Tim Burton. Go figure.

Anyway, just two measly cents from yrs truly.

Overrated: Planes Trains And Automobiles

Underrated: Uncle Buck

Overrated - The Godfather Part One. Underrated - The Godfather Part Three.

Overrated: Its A Wonderful Life - You can only see it so many times before you get sick of it.

Underrated: Roman Holiday - A gem of a romantic comedy. It was Audrey Hepburn's first major movie, and she won an Oscar for her performance.

edited 9th Jul '12 6:37:41 PM by OjamajoLimePie

And everyone seems to think that "It's a Wonderful Life" is, well, life-affirming. You just know that two days after New Years, George Bailey is going to snap.

• Overrated: Mission: Impossible III. People say this was the film that revitalised the Mission: Impossible franchise, and while it's true in some way, it's not exactly a masterpiece. The only good things were the fleshing out of Ethan's life outside of the IMF, and it's return to the cloak-and-dagger style after action took the forefront in Mission: Impossible II. The McGuffin falls hard into The Unreveal, the action is poorly shot and plot points from the first movie were shamefully rehashed.
• Underrated: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Dark Phoenix. I personally enjoyed these two for my own reasons. With the former, people said that there were too many subplots and odd writing, but I appreciated its 142-minute runtime to flesh out its characters and motivations, something Spider-Man 3 failed to do with Venom as a sore thumb. The slow-motion and swinging scenes were among the franchise's best, and its ending packed a wallop. The latter's sinister and emotional story was more simple for its 114-minute runtime, and didn't feel bogged down by sluggish pacing like X-Men: Apocalypse. And as for the action scenes, there was more teamwork, which is exactly how the X-Men fight, enhanced by the character interactions in past movies. Finally, both films had outstanding performances, with no one phoning it in (Yes, I don't think Jennifer Lawrence was guilty of this, despite what many think), with special mention going to Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, James McAvoy and Sophie Turner.