Most overrated and underrated movies of all time

[MmzHrrdb]

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.

[MmzHrrdb]

Overrated
The Conversation- 10th tier for avgcrtckr, but 4th tier for me
The Sting- 9th tier for avgcrtckr, but 2nd tier for me
Fargo- 9th tier for avgcrtckr, but 1st tier for me
Groundhog Day- 7th tier for avgcrtckr, but 1st tier for me
And if it were ranked by avgcrtckr I'm pretty sure Wise Blood would also be in the red (Its in my first tier).
In fairness though, I probably should give The Sting and Groundhog day another chance, because it has been forever since I've seen them.

Underrated
Gremlins- 4th tier for avgcrtckr, 10th for me (One of my favorite childhood films, which I probably have rated too high)
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End- 3rd tier for avgcrtckr, 10th for me- I didn't really think this was as bad as everyone else
The Village- 2nd tier for avgcrtckr, 8th tier for me
The Punisher- 2nd tier for avgcrtckr, 8th tier for me- Definitely a guilty pleasure of mine. I love catching this on TV.

[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

[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!)

[MmzHrrdb]

Overrated --

Precious (Average Tier: 6)
Granted, I'm relieved that this thing's average tier wasn't as high as expected, but what a load of regressive crap it is. Norbit was correctly derided for its stereotypes and BS, but it probably had less than this ridiculous garbage.

Wayne's World (Average Tier: 5.5)
Stupidity tinged with nothing. Rejoice.

Easy A (Average Tier: 5.59)
5.59 would hardly indicate the second coming, but why have so many tricked themselves into believing this junk? If you want John Hughes, I suggest you watch a John Hughes film, not this.

Inside (Average Tier: 5.78)
Honestly might have had a point somewhere amid all the bloodshed, but just becomes pre-occupied with violence (in fact, a character comes back from the dead for no other purpose than to be quickly, brutally offed again). As home invasion horrors go, The Strangers and Them (ils) run circles around it.

(500) Days of Summer (Average Tier: 6.72)
At some point it became par the course for mainstream movies to tell you how great they are without ever demonstrating it, and not many people seem to argue with that. A different rom-com in that it's told out of chronological order = Whoopee!

Black Swan (Average Tier: 7.68)
I've ranted about this before. Better: Showgirls, The Company, Suspiria, and the other films Aronofsky cribs from.

Avatar (Average Tier: 6.15)
Extraordinary eco movies decrying militarisation and destruction of gorgeous landscapes have never been James Cameron's forte and they never will be.

Almost Famous (Average Tier: 6.85)
It's been awhile and I can't remember all the reasons why this was agony, but I remember that it went on forever.


Underrated ---

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (Average Tier:4.42)
The greatest film of Joe Dante's career and a supreme sequel to the fine first film. Unashamedly overblown and all the better, and more creative, for it, but the fact that it's a sequel (and so not serious, whereas Gremlins barely was) seems to have blinded people to its greatness

The Company (Average Tier: 5.36)
It is everything that Black Swan could only ever hope to be and a whole lot more.

Femme Fatale (Average Tier: 5.17)
Probably the best film of De Palma's career. Reverse Shot and Slant Magazine both have excellent interpretations of a film described as "silly" by critics who both took it all too literally and not seriously enough.

The Tracey Fragments (Average Tier: 4.6)
One of the most evocative and stylishly rendered movie experiences of the past decade -- and no I'm not just talking about the split-screen approach. Chief criticism against it is that there isn't much of a story, but for me the personal nature of the story that was being told, combined with McDonald's creative way of relaying it, was enough. Lake Tahoe's another great example of how you can make a great movie with only a semblance of a narrative.

Aquamarine (Average Tier: 2.68)
It goes without saying that it's the best movie about two tween girls palling up with a hyperactive young mermaid that you're likely to see, but I don't seriously think there's any need to be embarrassed about liking films in that kind of market if they're done as well as this. This review by Joseph Young is about right: http://sorarc2006.blogspot.com/2009/10/secret-mermaid-spy-network.html

Notre Musique (Average Tier: 6.06)
Another impossible, beautiful and personal film by Jean-Luc Godard, my personal favorite director.

Storytelling (Average Tier: 5.81)
Fun because it's no fun at all. Also, Todd Solondz is one of the best satirical filmmakers we've got.