General Discussion : Most overrated and underrated movies of all time

[FitFortDanga]

Going by avgcrtckr, both my overrated and my underrated involve Tarkovsky in a way...

Overrated: Andrei Rublev (my tier: 1, avgcrtckr tier: 10) - Probably #1 on my list of movies I need to revisit, but I'm waiting for a Blu-Ray release. I believe this was my first Tarkovsky, and I've grown to like him a lot since then. I'm certain I was too harsh on this film.

Underrated: Solaris (my tier: 10, avgcrtckr tier: 3) - Soderbergh's remake. A beautiful film that works better than Tarkovsky's in a lot of ways.

[TheDenizen]

Here's all the films where my Tier differs from avgcrtckr's by 7 or more, including my mini-review for each.

Overrated:

Apocalypse Now - avg Tier 10, my Tier 2
"Painful. I've sat through this mess a couple of times trying to figure out what other people see in it. A couple of good scenes are not worth 3 hours of hideous, shattering boredom. The much-vaunted Brando "horror" scene plays like a confused and dribbling old man rambling complete nonsense."

Casablanca - avg Tier 10, my Tier 2
"Wow, I did not care for this at all."

In the Mood for Love - avg Tier 10, my Tier 3
"Yes, it's all very beautiful, the sets and costumes are gorgeous, the performances from Leung and Cheung are fantastic. That still doesn't save this movie from being hopelessly boring."

Crumb - avg Tier 9, my Tier 3
"I don't understand the high praise for this film. Sure, Robert Crumb is a fantastic and important American artist, but this documentary is boring and depressing. It reveals Crumb as a weird pervert and his family as total losers. The only interesting parts were when they showed montages of Crumb's work."

Underrated:

Mystery Men - avg Tier 2, my Tier 9
"Probably the best superhero movie ever. The Shoveler rules."

Beowulf - avg Tier 2, my Tier 9
"Neil Gaiman takes several liberties with the original epic poem of Beowulf and Grendel, but the changes he's made actually make sense. It's not the same as the original story, but it's still a damn good story. Beautiful animation, some insanely violent and bloody battle scenes, and a chilling, ambiguous ending."

House of 1,000 Corpses - avg Tier 2, my Tier 9
"It wears its Texas Chainsaw influence prominently on its sleeve, but this flick is savage and psychedelic, packed with freaky characters and an ever-escalating sense of insanity. Excellent grindhouse effort for a first time director."

The Expendables - avg Tier 2, my Tier 9
"Yes, the story is dumb and it's full of cliches and corny one liners, but that doesn't stop it from being fucking awesome. There's one or two clunky buddy/bonding moments early on that don't seem genuine, and a couple of the fights are edited too frantically for my taste, but The Expendables is a solid blast of testosterone, nostalgia and adrenaline. Dolph Lundgren actually gets most of the best lines. If you didn't like this flick, you probably pee sitting down."

Cable Guy - avg Tier 2, my Tier 9
"Jim Carrey's darkest and best comedy. He's both incredibly menacing and uproariously funny in equal doses. The karaoke scene is a scream."

[tonydal]

Most underrated (recently anyway):

Cleopatra Jones

Which I gave a 10, but which averages out to 4.44 here.

[paulofilmo]

Overrated: Andrei Rublev (my tier: 1, avgcrtckr tier: 10) - Probably #1 on my list of movies I need to revisit, but I'm waiting for a Blu-Ray release. I believe this was my first Tarkovsky, and I've grown to like him a lot since then. I'm certain I was too harsh on this film.

Also on YouTube.

[Pickpocket]

overrated:
Come and See
The Mirror
A Woman Under the Influence
Tokyo Story
The Rules of the Game
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Cries and Whispers
The Red Shoes
The Man With the Movie Camera
The Great Dictator
The Gold Rush
Ali Fear Eats the Soul
Memories of Murder
The Tree of Life
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Duck Soup
The White Ribbon
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
Grapes of Wrath, The
Hud
A Night at the Opera
High Noon
Battleship Potemkin
Stagecoach

underrated:
a lot of campy movies

[movieboy]

My Tier 10's which are in avgcrtckr's Tier 1
- Sweet Home Alabama
- Along Came Polly
- Bringing Down the House

My Tier 1's which are in avgcrtckr's Tier10
- Annie Hall

[mwgerb]

I don't have any insanely dramatic disagreements, but these are films where I have at least a 5 tier difference from avgcrtckr.

Underrated:
The Rundown - A fantastic popcorn flick. This is a shockingly great combination of action and comedy.

Carrie - Brilliant and unapologetically bold direction from DePalma, who draws from Hitchcock to great effect. It was all pulled off thanks to Sissy Spacek's wonderful performance. It's not really a scary movie, though; it's much more. It veers from creepy to funny, from beautiful to grotesque, overdone magnificently at every turn.

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure - Most excellent, dude! Making two California stoner/rockers the prophets of the future allows the movie to throw all seriousness out the window and become a pinnacle of dumb comedy, having more fun with the concept of time travel than anyone should. The quotes are nearly endless, the depiction of historical figures are hilarious, and the 80s rock soundtrack matches the film perfectly. George Carlin is just icing on the cake.

Solaris (2002) - It has much better pacing than the original, but I think it loses a bit of Tarkovsky's flair for subtlety and transcendence; I didn't really feel the same punch at the end. However, it is still an enjoyable, meditative sci-fi.

Titanic - Forget the backlash. Yes, the movie has flaws, but I still find this to be an epic and emotionally powerful film.

Overrated:
The Passion of Joan of Arc - I'll give it another chance if I can find a version with the "Voices of Light" soundtrack, but as it stands now, I think it's just a film with a notable performance, not a masterpiece.

8 1/2 - It is incredibly bold and well-made, but the fact that it was such a personal film for Fellini makes it feel a bit harder for me to deeply connect with. However, I want to watch it again with a better copy.

Barton Fink - To be fair, I don't really like surrealism all that much, and that's probably why I don't like this movie. Most of my points are for Goodman and the visual direction.

[IMDb-byvotes]

The thread title's a little misleading. There are much more broad and generic communities to compare yourself against *cough*

From the Criticker community perspective:

IMDb most overrates (diff 5)

Avatar
Bowling for Columbine
Sicko
Zeitgeist: The Movie
300
The Butterfly Effect
Saw (Short) - movie is diff 4
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

IMDb most underrates (diff 3)

The Red Light Bandit
What time is it there?
Real Life

More underrated titles will pop up as avgcrtckr adds more obscure movies.

[ehk2]

most overrated: (generally, hollywood blockbusters and some stupid turkish crap)

inception, super 8, 300, zombieland, the incredibles, the blind side, rise of the planet apes, there will be blood, black hawk down, waltz with bashir, Inglourious Basterds, Gladiator
nefes, kaybedenler kulübü, pardon, hersey cok guzel olacak,


most underrated:
Mortadelo & Filemon: The Big Adventure, Emmanuelle (yes!)