Overrated
by shadowmailboxer | created - 20 Jan 2015 | updated - 1 month ago | PublicMay range from "harmless but highly overrated" (just boring/not for me) to "utter crapfest that makes me wonder about my fellow humans"(why!?).
To get on this list you need at least an 8-star-rating with 100k votes, so probably the movie is in the Top250.
- Some movies dropped below the 8* after adding them to the list, people watching them after the hype.
- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. Gladiator (2000)
R | 155 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A former Roman General sets out to exact vengeance against the corrupt emperor who murdered his family and sent him into slavery.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed
Votes: 1,621,371 | Gross: $187.71M
2. Inception (2010)
PG-13 | 148 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a C.E.O., but his tragic past may doom the project and his team to disaster.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page, Ken Watanabe
Votes: 2,552,699 | Gross: $292.58M
3. Taxi Driver (1976)
R | 114 min | Crime, Drama
A mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Albert Brooks
Votes: 921,383 | Gross: $28.26M
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
G | 149 min | Adventure, Sci-Fi
After uncovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, a spacecraft is sent to Jupiter to find its origins: a spacecraft manned by two men and the supercomputer HAL 9000.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter
Votes: 720,034 | Gross: $56.95M
5. Trainspotting (1996)
R | 93 min | Drama
Renton, deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene, tries to clean up and get out despite the allure of drugs and the influence of friends.
Director: Danny Boyle | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd
Votes: 726,008 | Gross: $16.50M
6. Mary and Max (2009)
Not Rated | 92 min | Animation, Comedy, Drama
In 1976 Melbourne, a lonely 8-year-old girl strikes up a correspondence with an unlikely pen pal: a severely obese 44-year-old New Yorker with Asperger's syndrome.
Director: Adam Elliot | Stars: Toni Collette, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Eric Bana, Barry Humphries
Votes: 186,872
7. Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
PG-13 | 132 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one-man weapon of mass destruction.
Director: J.J. Abrams | Stars: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Benedict Cumberbatch
Votes: 497,176 | Gross: $228.78M
8. Avatar (2009)
PG-13 | 162 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
A paraplegic Marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez
Votes: 1,387,118 | Gross: $760.51M
9. Life Is Beautiful (1997)
PG-13 | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
When an open-minded Jewish waiter and his son become victims of the Holocaust, he uses a perfect mixture of will, humor and imagination to protect his son from the dangers around their camp.
Director: Roberto Benigni | Stars: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini, Giustino Durano
Votes: 743,651 | Gross: $57.60M
10. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
PG | 115 min | Action, Adventure
In 1936, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis can obtain its awesome powers.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, John Rhys-Davies
Votes: 1,037,299 | Gross: $248.16M
The styrofoam scenery, the grandstanding hero in his thick leather jacket, while the whiny help is sweating through their open shirts, set the tone for a pulpy adventure caper. Do not engage brain too much, surley the idol is not pure gold our hero recognizes, therefore the little sack of sand will do the trick.
The iconic opening sequence has been persiflaged or hommaged many times, seeing the original last has to be underwhelming.
Why can kids save "uncle Indy", the henchmen have scruples?
The blow of Marion dying accidently was unexpected for the tone and hightend the stakes, I liked it but felt like she would be back in a twist. Tounging her and leaving her bound to her captors is quite the dick (more psychopathic) move by Indy.
Why does the french bad guy have a wedding dress with him on an archeaological digging site, why does he want to see his hostage in it? And why is he such an idiot fool to let her play him? Isn't he supposed to be most clever, at least an equal to Indy?
Mfer with suit and tightest tie in the desert talking about overdressing...okee, I guess that's the joke.
Why enclose them in an archeological find (somehow with nice magical lighting...and a second entrance above ground) instead of shooting them? What are the nazi soldiers for? Why is Indy's friend, who got caught digging with him, walking around freely? How were dozens of people ready to hide Indy's stolen truck, did he call them on his smartphone? Why are they so happy and dancy? Indy held on to a diving submarine??? Why is he again not shot but captured?
Action: fight scenes are horrible, thugs waiting frozen to be punched. Some explosions, nothing impressive by todays standards. Some impressive car stunts.
Adventure: Nope (except the opening of the ark). Supposedly we are in the jungle, Nepal, the desert in Cairo...but we don't really get to see it. No atmosphere of exploration.
Comedy: I didn't laugh or smile once.
Music ok, cinematography, decent but no extraordinary images. It feels more like a 40ies than a 80ies movie. Again a movie I do not get...why is it so beloved? Must be nostalgia.
11. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
PG-13 | 178 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A meek Hobbit from the Shire and eight companions set out on a journey to destroy the powerful One Ring and save Middle-earth from the Dark Lord Sauron.
Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom, Sean Bean
Votes: 2,008,334 | Gross: $315.54M
12. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
PG-13 | 179 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
While Frodo and Sam edge closer to Mordor with the help of the shifty Gollum, the divided fellowship makes a stand against Sauron's new ally, Saruman, and his hordes of Isengard.
Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Orlando Bloom
Votes: 1,785,010 | Gross: $342.55M
13. The Prestige (2006)
PG-13 | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
After a tragic accident, two stage magicians in 1890s London engage in a battle to create the ultimate illusion while sacrificing everything they have to outwit each other.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Caine
Votes: 1,442,137 | Gross: $53.09M
14. The Lives of Others (2006)
R | 137 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
In 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck | Stars: Ulrich Mühe, Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur
Votes: 410,694 | Gross: $11.29M
15. Toy Story 3 (2010)
G | 103 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
The toys are mistakenly delivered to a day-care center instead of the attic right before Andy leaves for college, and it's up to Woody to convince the other toys that they weren't abandoned and to return home.
Director: Lee Unkrich | Stars: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Ned Beatty
Votes: 892,953 | Gross: $415.00M
16. Oldboy (2003)
R | 120 min | Action, Drama, Mystery
After being kidnapped and imprisoned for fifteen years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he must track down his captor in five days.
Director: Park Chan-wook | Stars: Choi Min-sik, Yoo Ji-tae, Kang Hye-jeong, Kim Byeong-Ok
Votes: 636,363 | Gross: $0.71M
17. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
R | 99 min | Crime, Thriller
When a simple jewelry heist goes horribly wrong, the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn
Votes: 1,088,835 | Gross: $2.83M
18. Blade Runner (1982)
R | 117 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
A blade runner must pursue and terminate four replicants who stole a ship in space and have returned to Earth to find their creator.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos
Votes: 823,518 | Gross: $32.87M
"Like tears in rain." Rutger Hauer is the star in this. Not One-Face-Ford.
19. Into the Wild (2007)
R | 148 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters that shape his life.
Director: Sean Penn | Stars: Emile Hirsch, Vince Vaughn, Catherine Keener, Marcia Gay Harden
Votes: 658,467 | Gross: $18.35M
20. A Beautiful Mind (2001)
PG-13 | 135 min | Biography, Drama, Mystery
A mathematical genius, John Nash made an astonishing discovery early in his career and stood on the brink of international acclaim. But the handsome and arrogant Nash soon found himself on a harrowing journey of self-discovery.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer
Votes: 987,523 | Gross: $170.74M
21. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
R | 107 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Eddy persuades his three pals to pool money for a vital poker game against a powerful local mobster, Hatchet Harry. Eddy loses, after which Harry gives him a week to pay back 500,000 pounds.
Director: Guy Ritchie | Stars: Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher, Nick Moran, Jason Statham
Votes: 616,587 | Gross: $3.90M
22. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
R | 111 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
After awakening from a four-year coma, a former assassin wreaks vengeance on the team of assassins who betrayed her.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen
Votes: 1,194,892 | Gross: $70.10M
23. Arrival (II) (2016)
PG-13 | 116 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A linguist works with the military to communicate with alien lifeforms after twelve mysterious spacecraft appear around the world.
Director: Denis Villeneuve | Stars: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg
Votes: 772,029 | Gross: $100.55M
Why are first contact movies interesting? Exploration. New ideas, at least new designs. This visually bland movie does not give you that. Just a red herring of a daughter.
24. Million Dollar Baby (2004)
PG-13 | 132 min | Drama, Sport
Frankie, an ill-tempered old coach, reluctantly agrees to train aspiring boxer Maggie. Impressed with her determination and talent, he helps her become the best and the two soon form a close bond.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Hilary Swank, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Jay Baruchel
Votes: 722,124 | Gross: $100.49M
25. Maniac (2018)
TV-MA | 39 min | Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
Two strangers are drawn to a mysterious pharmaceutical trial for a drug that they're assured will, with no complications or side-effects whatsoever, permanently solve all of their problems. Things do not go as planned.
Stars: Emma Stone, Jonah Hill, Sonoya Mizuno, Justin Theroux
Votes: 86,799
Great cast and nice visual style, the rest: wannabe. Want new creative visual storytelling of psychological themes and dreamworlds? Watch Legion instead. 6* might even be much.
26. Shutter Island (2010)
R | 138 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule, two US marshals, are sent to an asylum on a remote island in order to investigate the disappearance of a patient, where Teddy uncovers a shocking truth about the place.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Emily Mortimer, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley
Votes: 1,457,979 | Gross: $128.01M
27. Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
PG | 119 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
When an unconfident young woman is cursed with an old body by a spiteful witch, her only chance of breaking the spell lies with a self-indulgent yet insecure young wizard and his companions in his legged, walking castle.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki | Stars: Chieko Baishô, Takuya Kimura, Tatsuya Gashûin, Akihiro Miwa
Votes: 449,873 | Gross: $4.71M
Character arcs are ridiculous. Motivation/feelings arise out of nothing other than cliche.
28. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
PG-13 | 143 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Blacksmith Will Turner teams up with eccentric pirate "Captain" Jack Sparrow to save his love, the governor's daughter, from Jack's former pirate allies, who are now undead.
Director: Gore Verbinski | Stars: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley
Votes: 1,211,297 | Gross: $305.41M
29. The Sting (1973)
PG | 129 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Two grifters team up to pull off the ultimate con.
Director: George Roy Hill | Stars: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning
Votes: 280,035 | Gross: $159.60M
Utterly predictable and still illogical. Scenes between main characters solely to mislead audience, no need to play conning each other all dramatically behind closed doors. As soon as the FBI says to keep it from the police, no mystery is left. Boring and stupid(ly acting people).
30. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
R | 119 min | Comedy, Drama
A washed-up superhero actor attempts to revive his fading career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway production.
Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu | Stars: Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough
Votes: 666,776 | Gross: $42.34M
31. The Irishman (2019)
R | 209 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
An illustration of Frank Sheeran's life, from W.W.II veteran to hit-man for the Bufalino crime family and his alleged assassination of his close friend Jimmy Hoffa.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel
Votes: 431,388 | Gross: $7.00M
What, who or why exactly am I supposed to care about in this dull overlong plot-fest? Sure, good actors doing a good job but I assume there is something that I simply don't see the way the direcor wants me to...why would so many old guys spend so much time of their lives on this? What do they want to tell me...?
32. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
R | 120 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, a woman rebels against a tyrannical ruler in search for her homeland with the aid of a group of female prisoners, a psychotic worshiper and a drifter named Max.
Director: George Miller | Stars: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Zoë Kravitz
Votes: 1,087,327 | Gross: $154.06M
Best car-stunt-explosion movie? Yes. Top 200 movies of all time? No.
33. Her (2013)
R | 126 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
In a near future, a lonely writer develops an unlikely relationship with an operating system designed to meet his every need.
Director: Spike Jonze | Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Scarlett Johansson, Rooney Mara
Votes: 670,039 | Gross: $25.57M
Not feeling it. Samantha was too artificial, just like you would program a sex-bot. Good premise, did not take me on a ride.
34. Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)
PG-13 | 138 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
As a new threat to the galaxy rises, Rey, a desert scavenger, and Finn, an ex-stormtrooper, must join Han Solo and Chewbacca to search for the one hope of restoring peace.
Director: J.J. Abrams | Stars: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson
Votes: 974,127 | Gross: $936.66M
Boring copy. Without Han's death there would be no emotion at all. The prequels had at least spectacular design.
35. Westworld (2016–2022)
TV-MA | 60 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
At the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past, waits a world in which every human appetite can be indulged without consequence.
Stars: Evan Rachel Wood, Jeffrey Wright, Ed Harris, Thandiwe Newton
Votes: 533,219
36. The Intouchables (2011)
R | 112 min | Comedy, Drama
After he becomes a quadriplegic from a paragliding accident, an aristocrat hires a young man from the projects to be his caregiver.
Directors: Olivier Nakache, Éric Toledano | Stars: François Cluzet, Omar Sy, Anne Le Ny, Audrey Fleurot
Votes: 930,209 | Gross: $13.18M
37. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
PG-13 | 164 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
Eight years after the Joker's reign of chaos, Batman is coerced out of exile with the assistance of the mysterious Selina Kyle in order to defend Gotham City from the vicious guerrilla terrorist Bane.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman
Votes: 1,828,715 | Gross: $448.14M
38. Interstellar (2014)
PG-13 | 169 min | Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
When Earth becomes uninhabitable in the future, a farmer and ex-NASA pilot, Joseph Cooper, is tasked to pilot a spacecraft, along with a team of researchers, to find a new planet for humans.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Mackenzie Foy
Votes: 2,102,569 | Gross: $188.02M
39. Batman Begins (2005)
PG-13 | 140 min | Action, Crime, Drama
After witnessing his parents' death, Bruce learns the art of fighting to confront injustice. When he returns to Gotham as Batman, he must stop a secret society that intends to destroy the city.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Ken Watanabe, Liam Neeson
Votes: 1,579,483 | Gross: $206.85M
40. Parasite (2019)
R | 132 min | Drama, Thriller
Greed and class discrimination threaten the newly-formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan.
Director: Bong Joon Ho | Stars: Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-sik
Votes: 960,759 | Gross: $53.37M
First third tediously draging. Crucial climactic action of father not sufficiently derived. Good, but not THAT good.
41. Attack on Titan (2013–2023)
TV-MA | 24 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
After his hometown is destroyed and is traumatized, young Eren Jaeger vows to cleanse the earth of the giant humanoid Titans that have brought humanity to the brink of extinction.
Stars: Jessie James Grelle, Bryce Papenbrook, Trina Nishimura, Yûki Kaji
Votes: 512,429
Many "mysteries" aka random stuff that could be woven into something interesting but never gets explained, just used as cliffhangers. Annyoing psychopathic ideology, "honor", childish reverse psychology teasing. 7* is a lot, because some episodes are intriguing (female titan). Overall: kids stuff.
42. The Godfather (1972)
R | 175 min | Crime, Drama
The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Diane Keaton
Votes: 2,014,013 | Gross: $134.97M
43. Back to the Future (1985)
PG | 116 min | Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover
Votes: 1,307,736 | Gross: $210.61M
High rating must be nostalgia. The supposed friendship between Marty and Doc is not in the 2h movie, at all. They must have had other adventures before.
Overall pretty much just stereotypes, no laughs, standard plot. Does not hold up.
44. Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
R | 139 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
A middle-aged Chinese immigrant is swept up into an insane adventure in which she alone can save existence by exploring other universes and connecting with the lives she could have led.
Directors: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert | Stars: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ke Huy Quan
Votes: 533,729 | Gross: $72.86M
Props for doing something a bit different. Unfortunately not that different. Overall pacing issues...needed multiple attempts to get trough.
45. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Approved | 178 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
A bounty hunting scam joins two men in an uneasy alliance against a third in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery.
Director: Sergio Leone | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef, Aldo Giuffrè
Votes: 811,743 | Gross: $6.10M
How is this a Top10 movie? I really don't know. reading reviews didn't explain it to me. All 3 protagonists (really only 2 since "the bad" is useless for morality or plot) are cold blooded killers. Eastwoods character gets introduced killing 3 men without speaking to them, solely for profit. He is "the good", yeah...no. The squirrely, rat-like, "ugly" character has most depth, therefore more of his actions could be "explained/understood". In the end all of them are sadistic killers, I don't subscribe to some "personal code" that tries to find redeemable qualities.
As far as movie making, the 3h are paced mostly ok, even for modern standards. The cinematograohy is..ok, nothing special compared to modern films. The music is iconic. The "anti-war" aspect of the film put it above other genre classics, so yeah Top10 of its time in that genre, ok, not more.
46. Yojimbo (1961)
Not Rated | 110 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A crafty ronin comes to a town divided by two criminal gangs and decides to play them against each other to free the town.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Eijirô Tôno, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yôko Tsukasa
Votes: 131,426
Facepaint and grimaces. Unfunny slapstick, puppet theater style overacting. Plot drags on for weeks, boring. "Hero" kills 3 guys just to show off his skills to establish his rate (pretty similiar to "The Good's" introduction in Sergio Leone's classic...). No recognizable/guiding morals that would make his reasoning for playing both sides against each other plausible, not even keeping the money. "Rescuing" the towns people? Nope, he escalates until the village is destroyed. Treats everyone like shit. His only "good deed" (rescuing a kidnapped, pretty woman, not all the other female slaves obvi) gets punished.
On top, irksome facts like: No range weapons except one guy with a gun who shoots 2 hostages/witnesses but not the opposing boss standing next to them. Why not end it right there or on various other occasions? Because there would be no movie.
I am baffled how this is considered a masterpiece, even for it's time. Cinematography? Nah. Acting? Hell no! Fight choreography? Surely not. Music is ok. Influence on westerns...? Maybe...
47. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
PG | 130 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
An angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell
Votes: 499,404
First 50 minutes "flashback" are draaaaging, could easily be 5 since its all clichee anyway. Self-realization and love vs duty and "the right thing". Ok, George is a good, responsible guy, we get it.
Heavy overacting, a sign of the times I suppose. A nearly 40-year old lead playing college freshman...well, they didn't have the technology to make him look younger.
Only the last 30 minutes, where the 2h plot slag has been leading up to, the appearance of the guardian angel, have some merit. The concept of a persons life touching others (in exclusively positive ways...). If it may have been so in a tight-knit community a hundred years ago, is it like this for the billions of singles in cities today?
Let's stay inside the movie, the angel shows George how everybody's life was worse without him. He was a pillar of the community because he was lending money selflessly. Why his wife, the prettiest girl in town, would stay alone doesn't make any sense though...he never existed to break her heart. More reasonable would be that she went with the rich guy that was after her and had an even happier live instead of being with frustrated, non-self-actualized and broke George.
After George saw, he says: "I don't care what happens to me, get me back to my wife and kids" sounds like a a contradiction in itself...or is it an affirmation of duty as the highest value? This movie was made during WW2.
Being back in his old live, he is ecstatic even though the circumstances that drove him to attempt suicide haven't changed. So that is the moral of the story: be happy and thankful to be alive, no matter how shit you think things are.
And the final twist, the townspeople collecting money for broke George: good deeds will be repayed, litterally.
Why do people love this movie today? Probably because wishful thinking is still a thing. It is a fairy tale. I read of people crying and laughing with it, happy for them, I don't get it. Not because I would have a distaste for hopeful concepts, it just didn't take me on the ride in it's theatrical fakeness.
48. The Thing (1982)
R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David, Richard Masur
Votes: 467,023 | Gross: $13.78M
Practical SFX mostly hold up, even though they feel more like a static pile of glob than an unpredictable alien fighting for its life. I suppose that is more so the camera's (cut/editing) fault. When they don't the atmosphere is ridiculous (flailing puppet of a man being devoured) instead of horrifying.
Overall the movie feels less tense, claustrophobic and paranoid than it should/could be. The pace is very calm, possibly that was supposed to express hesitant helplessness, cold vastness in the arctic...but more so underlines Kurt Russels' characters bad mfers badassery...going forward and coming up with scientific solutions. It is more 80ies action flick than suspensefull thriller.
The (only male) characters or any relationships between them barely get established so no reason to care for one over another or even at all. Not scary, not anxiety inducing...what keeps one watching is the question of how it might end/can be solved but mostly: why such a high rating?
49. Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
PG-13 | 192 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Jake Sully lives with his newfound family formed on the extrasolar moon Pandora. Once a familiar threat returns to finish what was previously started, Jake must work with Neytiri and the army of the Na'vi race to protect their home.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang
Votes: 494,930 | Gross: $659.68M
This movie was destined for this list. Does it look good and even spectacular at times? Of course. Does it have images that stay with you? No...
It actually irks me that everything is too close to our reality, visually and behaviourally. The new turquoise sea people are Maori doing their haka faces...like wtf. Where is the imagination?
Does it have a story? Not really. Just an ex-maniac in a way more reasonable body being tasked to hunt a "traitor". Why they would put this much manpower and effort into this fugitive? Because movie... 6,5* rounded up.
50. Alien (1979)
R | 117 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
The crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform after investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright
Votes: 951,674 | Gross: $78.90M
Even 7* is rounded up... For it's time it is remarkable but it does not hold up.The stiff baby alien puppet looking around? Ridonculous or even cute, certainly not scary. The big ones drippy mouth sure still looks good, but the movements are all too stiff and slow. The alien arms jump scareing out (multiple times) looked bad beccause they just stay still and the alien is not moving. The ships (and viewers) user experience is horrible with all the beeping, swooshing and flickering...the android is a nice plot twist, dead puppet head looks bad and alive one like the actor in a box...it's just too obvious, even the cuts. Finale is a bit weird with the alien cowering in plain sight and not attacking...did he lie down in his uber ride? The sets and miniatures still do look ok/good. Characters get some personality very quickly, that is well done. Pacing does feel also a bit slow, maybe due to lack of music, maybe back then it was a slow burn. 45 years is a long time.
51. The Last of Us (2023– )
TV-MA | 50 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
After a global pandemic destroys civilization, a hardened survivor takes charge of a 14-year-old girl who may be humanity's last hope.
Stars: Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Anna Torv, Gabriel Luna
Votes: 525,459
Build around rushed, manipulative emotional punches. Characters don't (have time to) develop.
52. Oppenheimer (I) (2023)
R | 180 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the development of the atomic bomb.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr.
Votes: 731,343 | Gross: $326.11M
Too long, boring at times. Convoluted timelines and jumps, which might be necessary for a biopic but I just don't care about the political intrigue. Sure, it serves as a way to have others speak about the subject und thus portay him, but if you have every side give their opinion than you are left with nothing definitive.
Bad vfx and make-up. Does not need to be seen on the big screen.
53. Dune: Part Two (2024)
PG-13 | 166 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Paul Atreides unites with Chani and the Fremen while seeking revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family.
Director: Denis Villeneuve | Stars: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem
Votes: 385,667
So looong and yet feels rushed in the beginning and unsatisfying in the "end" (of the next chapter...if you want to use cliffhangers then make a TV series not overlong movies years apart). The climax is supposed to be the knife duel but after being pounded by Hans Zimmer's rumbly bass for 3 hours, nukes and the sandworms riding in, that just feels bland and ridiuculous. Might be because I do not care for "The Chosen One"... everbody else does some good acting though.
I actually do not care for the entire trope of "the chosen one" around whom eeeverything and everyone revolves....might have to re-watch The Matrix to check.
What is the heart of the movie? Underdog sand people fighting their opressors? Thye are just sheep to be herded by the Messiah. On top of it all the "indigenuity" is their "religion", which is whispered manipulation from outside. They really have no agency.
Did like the infrared/black&white scenes with the baddies. Welcomed variety after hours of sand. Then again, big bad baron baddie, who actually was cunning and menacing, just lies on stairs waiting to be finished of...meh.
And of course...logic. Sure emperor of hundered of planets lands in the desert because sand mesiah wants him to? I mean...maybe his commanding voice works over distances... Laser guns / shields work? Or no? Or yes? They have interstellar travel and personal levitating but need to run at each other and do the medieval stabby dance.
I don't mind whichy "fantasy", that is beyond logic anyway, but things that are based in some kind of known reality, like behaviour and logic, need to be plausible.
Tell Your Friends