Over-rated and Under-rated films

[Zac Smith]

I know personal opinions matter quite a bit, but pushing that aside as best you can for a bit, what film do you feel was over or under-rated and your reasoning behind it.

I'll set the ball rolling by saying Avatar, now I liked the film, and will admit it looked pretty good but apart from the way in which it was filmed, it has done nothing that films before haven't done, right down to the story which we've seen countless times before.

But hey, any other opinions out there?

 

[Bill Bread]

Tropa de Elite ('Elite Squad'), a Brazilian film about the BOPE, the ruthless and all round awesome police in Rio de Janeiro.

I recommend that massively. The sequel's proper good too. Can't wait for 3.

 

[Jonluw]

I can't remember any under-rated films I've seen, but I was told Napoleon Dynamite was good.
Now that's just wrong. It's the worst piece of shit I've ever had the pleasure to watch.

 

[DJDarque]

MirrorMask. It had fantastic visuals and a wonderful story. Seriously underrated.

 

[N3vans]

*cough*Twilight*cough*mormon sermon*cough*

I'll set the ball rolling by saying Avatar, now I liked the film, and will admit it looked pretty good but apart from the way in which it was filmed, it has done nothing that films before haven't done, right down to the story which we've seen countless times before.

^This, it looked shiny but definitely one of the best examples of style over substance.

As far as underrated films go, I'd say [REC] and [REC2]. Even though I'm not a massive fan of horror films I'd say these were excellent. Not the awful shot for shot American remakes though, which were made for 'people who can't read subtitles good'.

Oh and Harry Brown, very good (and dark) UK film starring Michael Caine as a pensioner kicking the shit out of some chavs.

 

[spartan231490]

Over-rated: I don't usually remember over-rated movies, but two from recent memory stick out. Avatar and Inception. don't get me wrong, both are good movies, but nowhere near as good as all the hype they got. A movie isn't good because it's pretty.

Under-rated: "Accepted", "Legend of Bagger Vance", "How to Train Your Dragon"(deserved a nomination for best picture, and def deserved to win best animated),"Evolution" and The "Tremors" series.

 

[spartan231490]

Over-rated: I don't usually remember over-rated movies, but two from recent memory stick out. Avatar and Inception. don't get me wrong, both are good movies, but nowhere near as good as all the hype they got. A movie isn't good because it's pretty.

Under-rated: "Accepted", "Legend of Bagger Vance", "How to Train Your Dragon"(deserved a nomination for best picture, and def deserved to win best animated),"Evolution" and The "Tremors" series.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Over-rated: Gladiator (effectively a hash-up of some old classics: Spartacus meets Ben-Hur on a backdrop of The Fall of the Roman Empire, I'm thinking), plus they got a looooooooooot of details just plain wrong. I enjoyed it, to be fair, but spent the entire time nitpicking it and thinking of the three other films I just mentioned.

Under-rated: The Harry Palmer series (Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin etc.) This is what a spy film should look like (and yes, I'll say it now, I view Bames Jond movies as snarky action comedies).

EDIT:

"Legend of Bagger Vance"

Preferred the book.

 

[Matthew Wilson]

There's a very good British Film called Dead Man's Shoes, to give it its broadest context it's essentially Taxi Driver in the Midlands. It stars English De-Niro Paddy Considine - from Red Riding, The Bourne Ultimatum and Hot Fuzz - as a completely deranged ex-solider. It's an underrated film and I recommend it to everyone, it may be brutal in places but you have to see it if only for the utter demented protagonist.

On a personal note another film I think is underrated is the I Spit On Your Grave remake from last year. People will cast it off as a typical rape/revenge flick but it's actually really good and the main girl does an excellant job going from victimised to dehumanised which really helps the story along.

 

[ronald1840]

- "BOOT CAMP" released in 2008 starring Mila Kunis (Lily from black swan).

A psychological suspense thriller about a rebel teen girl sent toa boot camp of the area of Indonesia on a cut-off island. The kids are subjected to mind-torture in horrible ways as with verbal abuse, rape, and solitary confinment in a drainage pool on the coast of a beach as the tide comes in. The camp is meant to 'treat and cure' the teens for about a year until their released back home and their is a sort of caste system as to how you get promoted.

Mila starts out with a white t-shirt which marks her as a rebellious beginner who still needs to be worked, and pushed until she grows more accepting of her chores and labors. Soon after she will be granted to move up to the Yellow shirts (lvl 2) and will take on more relaxing responsibilities. As Mila continues to defie camp rules, the overall supervisor grows irritated and starts taking it out on her best friend 'Ashley' by giving her ridiculous jobs (giving oral to the white shirt guys) in order to stay. As the film nears its end, Mila's old drug abusing boyfriend gets himself in trouble with armed robbery to personally get sent to the camp where Mila is located.

 

[tjs09]

The King's Speech is so overrated to me. Nothing exciting or groundbreaking happened. The whole thing just seemed like Oscar bait.
Takers is an underrated film IMO. The action scenes are pure gold, and I'm a sucker for bittersweet endings. Not to mention the concept overall was rock solid XD

 

[Alrocsmash]

THE GOOD:

Law abiding citizen. Got only a little press, randomly watched it and I have not been that pleasantly surprised by a movie in a long time.

The Count of Monty Cristo 2002. Great story telling, nothing cheesy. Good mix of action and story.

Kingdom of Heaven. Mentioned above, good story, great cast and rather under appreciated.

Liar liar. One of Jim Carreys best movies. He is not over the top trying to hard. Very funny, and more genuine. Also taught me the phrase "HOLY HELL!".

THE BAD:

Avatar...self explanatory.

Any Twilight movie. That franchise needs to die a horrible death.

I am going to catch flak for this but: Will Ferrell. He is funny, but his type of movies were already done by Adam Sandler. He needs a new niche. I liked step brothers because it was different. Not his exact same character of " Im somehow a successful complete moron". He needs to be more mellow.

 

[DuplicateValue]

Overrated:

- The Dark Knight (Were it not for Heath Ledger's performance (and his subsequent death), this wouldn't have been nearly as praised in my opinion.)

- Fight Club (It's good I'll admit, but nothing amazing. I have no idea why it turns up in ever Top Ten Movies list ever.)

- The Hangover (Maybe it's just me, but I didn't find this amazingly funny at all. At least not as much as most people seem to think it is.)

.
Underrated:

- Most foreign cinema (Most people are turned off by the fact they have to read subtitles, and as a result miss out on the gems that exist in this category.)

 

[WaReloaded]

Underrated: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (For obvious reasons).

Overrated: The Hangover.

 

[Lilani]

Underrated, for me, would be Treasure Planet. Seriously, it's a lost gem of the Disney Animation Studio. Beautiful animation, flawless implementation of 3D animation elements right along side 2D, fun story and characters...why did it just fall off the radar? It's one of the only things Disney did right at the time it came out.

Overrated...I dunno, I'm on a pretty strict budget and I usually don't see films I don't think I'm going to enjoy. Most movies with Will Ferrell, I guess.

 

[Alrocsmash]

Overrated:
- Fight Club (It's good I'll admit, but nothing amazing. I have no idea why it turns up in ever Top Ten Movies list ever.)

Not attempting to insult you, but how old are you? The reason this movie is on top ten lists is because of its deep look into human nature. Physical possessions, company profit, internal conflict, accepting death as certainty. It has big topics. This is why it is rated very highly.

To quote one of my favorite lines " We are spending money we don't have on shit we don't need. We are no great generation. We have no great war. Our war is a spiritual war."

 

[jakko12345]

overrated - pretty much every film of the past 2-3 years

underrated - District 13. It's a french film about some free-running cop in a dystopian future settlement. It's really well done, but no-one i've asked has ever heard of it.

 

[plugav]

Overrated:
- Batman Begins: if you want your Batman film to feel "realistic," it shouldn't have a ridiculous plot.
- Inception: not a bad film, but a great disappointment. The idea is cool and the visuals are superb, but it's like somewhere along the way Nolan thought: "This needs more rifles and senseless drama, or it won't sell!"
- Martyrs: pretentious torture porn that's in no way less sh*tty than the rest of the genre.

Underrated:
- Event Horizon: does space horror way better than Pandorum.
- Ginger Snaps: Not so much underrated as easily overlooked. Too bad, because it does female angsty teen way better than any of the Twilight movies, and doesn't take itself as seriously.
- Bitten: unintentionally, a brilliant parody of any recent vampire romance you can think of.

 

[DuplicateValue]

Not attempting to insult you, but how old are you? The reason this movie is on top ten lists is because of its deep look into human nature. Physical possessions, company profit, internal conflict, accepting death as certainty. It has big topics. This is why it is rated very highly.

To quote one of my favorite lines " We are spending money we don't have on shit we don't need. We are no great generation. We have no great war. Our war is a spiritual war."

I'm 18, not that it matters. I've seen 13/14 year olds who could analyse the underlying themes in films and texts better than many maturer people could.

And yes, it has all those things - I never said it didn't. I merely said it wasn't particularly special - there's plenty of other films that have explored similar ideas.
Fight club isn't alone in it's depth.

But then, that's just how I feel about it - my opinion.