I Heart Huckabees @ Amazon

With a healthy Film Contentiousness Quotient of 48.29 (details on the math here), David O. Russel’s bizarre comedy about metaphysical detectives is the tenth film to earn the dubious honor of a place in our canon of contentious movies. At the end of this post, we’ve listed all the films which have so far been featured.

The plot, as far as the word applies to I Heart Huckabees, concerns a young man who is freaked out by the strange coincidences he sees all over. He hires the services of a existential detective agency to help him figure out the meaning of his life… and in the words of the director himself, “hilarity ensues“.

Or not. No one argues the film is clever and original, but claims that it is “hilarious” are tenuous. A lot of people found the wacky humor and quirky philosophy spot-on, but just as many agreed with the Christopher Smith’s description of it, as “a high-concept, high-minded piece of pseudointellectual trash” (Bangor Daily News).

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Here are a couple battling opinions from Criticker users.

Tate: “Zany, whack-fest with hilarious moments and unusual but terrific performances. Not really seen anything like it.”

Shmendrek: “One of the most painfully pretentious films I’ve ever seen. Beware the type of person who enjoys this film.”

And last week’s poll is closed, on Transformers. By a pretty wide margin, Criticker users have deemed it TERRIBLE. Poor Shia!

As promised, here’s a list of the films we’ve featured so far in order of how contentious they are. We’ll keep this list up-to-date as we feature more and more films with a high FCQ.

1. Eyes Wide Shut - FCQ 59.33 - Poll Result: GREAT!
2. King Kong - FCQ 52.74 - Poll Result: GREAT!
3. I Am Sam - FCQ 52.61 - Poll Result: TERRIBLE!
4. Dumb & Dumber - FCQ 52.01 - Poll Result: GREAT!
5. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest - FCQ 51.13 - Poll Result: TERRIBLE!
6. Brotherhood of the Wolf - FCQ 49.2 - Poll Result: GREAT!
7. I Heart Huckabees - FCQ 49.05 - Poll Result: pending…
8. Saw - FCQ 48.77 - Poll Result: TIE!
9. Transformers - FCQ 46.93 - Poll Result: TERRIBLE!
10. Marie Antoinette - FCQ 45.44 - Poll Result: GREAT!

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest @ Amazon

2006’s sequel to Curse of the Black Pearl was as inevitable as it was anticipated. People, it seemed, couldn’t get enough of Jack Sparrow and Dead Man’s Chest broke all sorts of records on its opening day, and ended up netting over $1 billion worldwide. Crazy.

But while there’s no denying its success, this film has become one of Criticker’s most bitterly fought-over, with an extremely high FCQ of 52.06 (Film Contentiousness Quotient, details here). The higher the FCQ, the more contentious the film. For comparison’s sake, the first Pirates of the Caribbean had an FCQ of 15.53 (almost everyone loved it), while the third, At World’s End, rings in at 37.71 (most hated it).

User opinions pretty much matched the film’s critical reception: reviews were all over the place, with some praising the roller-coaster ride of a story as wonderful escapism, and other bemoaning how convoluted and pointless it all seemed.

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Here are a couple battling opinions from Criticker users.

Neil Miller: “Despite a few shortfalls at the end of its tale, Dead Man’s Chest is a delightful movie theater experience. It has every element that we have come to love from great summer movies of the past; heart-pounding action, expert comedic timing, and characters that we will not soon forget”

peba: “I prefer the ride at Walt Disney World”

The jury has rendered its opinion in the case of I Am Sam, and we finally have our first guilty verdict. You have decided that I Am Sam is TERRIBLE (but only by a single vote!)

And just to prove that we don’t always have to disagree, here are two more films that are the opposite of contentious:
Unanimously Crap (FCQ 0.27): Son of the Mask. Try your hardest, you will not be able to think of something less necessary or demanded by the general public than an 11-years-later sequel to The Mask.
Unanimously Sweet (FCQ 2.49): Modern Times. Charlie Chaplin never gets old.

Brotherhood of the Wolf @ Amazon

It’s just one of the universal truths about French 18th-century martial-arts werewolf films: you either love ‘em or you hate ‘em. This burgeoning genre is most famously represented by 2001’s Brotherhood of the Wolf (Le Pacte des loups).

This movie was a surprise hit all over the world, including in the USA, where it became the 2nd highest-grossing French film in two decades. Sacrebleu! It’s supposedly based on factual events, and on the legend of the Beast of Gévaudan. It’s a long movie, and people either appreciated the insane genre mash-up, or found themselves bored to tears by it. The only thing everyone could agree on is that Monica Bellucci is hot. Among Criticker’s user base, its FCQ (Film Contentiousness Quotient, details here), is 50.06 — pretty high.

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Here are a couple opinions from Criticker users.

WoozyB: “The movie is an explosion of genres, but I’m a sucker for the supernatural and historical fiction, so I loved it. Also, Monica Bellucci as a spy for Pope pretending to be a courtesan. Awesome.”

knyttelol: “A long, embarrassing half-rock video, half-videogame, epic pile of crap about mute Indians kicking ass for Frenchmen, and ripe women enjoying selling their bodies.”
Observation: knyttelol’s review actually makes it sound kind of cool!

Last week’s poll has been closed, and you have spoken: Eyes Wide Shut is GREAT!

And just to prove that we don’t always have to disagree, here are two more films that are the opposite of contentious:
Unanimously Crap (FCQ 0.97): Dungeons & Dragons. Geekdom cried.
Unanimously Sweet (FCQ 2.92): Seven Samurai. Classic Japanese action — a nearly perfect film.

King Kong @ Amazon

Having just brought to life the greatest film trilogy of all time (not debatable!), Peter Jackson must have been worried that whatever came next would be a letdown. But instead of scale his ambition back, he dove straight into another project whose creation had been a lifelong dream: King Kong.

The film was a smash at the box office, and garnered relatively good reviews, which might make its inclusion in Criticker’s Heroes of Contentiousness feature surprising. But in retrospect, its FCQ of 50.45 (Film Contentiousness Quotient, details here) is understandable. I know plenty of people who were left cold by the sheer over-abundance of both CGI and running time.

The first time I saw King Kong was in a theater, and I loved it — the great ape was probably the best CGI creation to date, and the action was terrifying & exhilarating. But by the second viewing, on DVD, doubts began to form. The 3 hour 8 minute running time is at least one hour too long. Get to the island already! Had every scene featuring Jack Black been cut, the film would have been immensely improved. And a lot of the CGI — particularly the dinosaur-valley scene — was utterly unconvincing.

So which will it be: GREAT or TERRIBLE? You must choose. I’ll come down on the side of “great”, although I don’t think I’ll be watching it a third time.

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Here are a couple opinions from Criticker users.

JoshStew06: “While the opening is overly long, it is also it’s only true flaw, after that it’s an amazing adventure that succeeds in bringing to life the giant gorilla. Peter Jackson is a brilliant and wise director, and the way he skillfully balances the thrilling action (some of the best staged in recent memory) with the heart-tugging drama is amazing. The ending is terrifically moving.”

Patabongo: “About as dull as a megabudget film of a gigantic rampaging ape can possibly be.”

There was a problem with last week’s poll, on Marie Antoinette, so we’ve changed polling software and will post it again. Please vote! Results will be revealed next week.

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And just to prove that we don’t always have to disagree, here are two more films that are the opposite of contentious:
Unanimously Crap (FCQ 0.27): Gigli. Bennifer already seems so long ago…
Unanimously Sweet (FCQ 3.06): Raiders of the Lost Ark. Before he was Shia LeBouf’s sidekick, Indy was the baddest.