Most overrated and underrated movies of all time

[geohawk]

Overrated - It's a Wonderful Life.
Underrated - Clueless.

Between these two, it is confirmed: I have no soul.

[Bojangles]

(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!

Yeah yeah, but it's also got parentheses in the title. How original is that?!

[MmzHrrdb]

Underrated:
Fellini Satyricon (diff 5)

Overrated (Diff 9):
Inception
Sansho the Bailiff
Grave of the Fireflies

[theficionado]

None of these are Tier 1/Tier 10, but whatever...

Underrated:
Observe and Report (this is some subversive shit)
Birth (if Criticker doesn't appreciate this, who will?)

Overrated:
Dear Zachary (I could literally make a better documentary about this. No competence whatsoever.)
King's Speech (Seriously, guys?)
Princess Bride (SERIOUSLY, GUYS?)
Being There (A precursor to Forrest Gump)
Return of the Jedi (Watched this again recently, shocked by how stupid and boring it is)
American History X (Moralistic and by-the-numbers)
Forrest Gump (... speaking of...)

[zae]

Going by avgcrtckr:

Overrated (my tier/avg tier)
9 tier difference:
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1/10)
7 tier difference:
Barton Fink (2/9) - Need to revisit this; I suspect it deserves better.
Batman Begins (1/8)
The Departed (2/9) - I suppose that by itself, it's a decent enough film, but in every way worse than its source material.
The Silence of the Lambs (3/10)
Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (3/10)
Yojimbo (3/10) - Can see how it was interesting for its time, but today it appears as one of Kurosawa's weakest.
6 tier difference:
Casino (3/9) - Never really liked these big epic gangster films...
Citizen Kane (4/10) - Again, important for its time, but doesn't hold up all that well today.
Shawshank Redemption (4/10)
Tokyo Godfathers (2/8) - Another one to revisit.
Vertigo (4/10) - Never been a fan of Hitchcock...
...Dead Man's Shoes, Die Hard, A Fistful of Dollars, Forrest Gump, Lilya 4-ever, Scarface.

Underrated
6 tier difference:
Napoleon Dynamite (9/3)
5 tier difference:
Back to the Future Part III (9/4)
Coffee & Cigarettes (9/4)
Dark Water (8/3)
Day Watch (9/4)
The Fountain (10/5)
The Life Aquatic (10/5)
MirrorMask (9/4)
Night Watch (9/4)
A Tale of Two Sisters (10/5)
Tideland (9/4)

[jess87]

Most overrated:

The Shawshank Redemption
I didn't think this film was terrible or anything, but I cannot understand how (seemingly) the majority of the population considers it to be amongst the all-time greats, if not the greatest. I believe it's #1 on IMDB, and #1 on countless other lists.

Amélie
Sickeningly saccharine, quirky and cutesy to the max, I found this one incredibly hard to stomach and I'd sooner rather eat my own vomit than have to endure this one again. This is like a children's film that adults love, almost unanimously.

Evil Dead II
Not sure why this is regarded by most to be the best of the series when the first film is vastly superior.


Most underrated: :
Santa Sangre
Shallow Grave

[by Devol]

Being There (A precursor to Forrest Gump)

wow........
just........wow..........seriously?

Amélie
Sickeningly saccharine, quirky and cutesy to the max, I found this one incredibly hard to stomach and I'd sooner rather eat my own vomit than have to endure this one again. This is like a children's film that adults love, almost unanimously.

yes.....THANK-YOU!!!!!!.....and here I was thinking I was the only one in this site that thought that.

Santa Sangre

also agreed about how neglected this mindblower of a flick this is.

[iconogassed]

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

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.

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.

this man wins the thread. gremlins 2 is the closest thing we've had to tashlin since tashlin.

[Spanks]

Overrated:

Zeitgeist - hardly a 'film', but there are quite a few people on here who have this ranked 6 tier or above. Frightening and moronic.

Amélie - OMG look at how quirky I am!!

Inception - OMG look at what a mindfuck I am!

Lord of the Rings Trilogy - dreadfully boring.

The Tree of Life - granted I thought this was an excellent film, but there is hardly a story and my god is it pretentious.

Bicycle Thieves - just because bad things happen to a character doesn't make it that emotionally engaging. There was nothing to really make me root for Antonio, and to me he just seemed like a passively unlikeable character. And having nothing but amateur actors doesn't make a film incredible because of its realistic simplicity, not too mention its totally unrealistic plot... I get why people like it, but it just isn't for me.

Primer - this is the definition of a DIY movie. And like most DIY things, it sucks. The dialogue is more ridiculous than a Tarantino flick, the story is awful, and for only 77 minutes it feels like it drags on. Also, nothing happens.

An Inconvenient Truth - Fuck you Al Gore. Both you and your wife look and sound like a couple of pre-op trannys.

The Sacrifice, and The Seventh Seal - two of the most overrated films ever. Just because something is "deep" does not make it a work of art. Both try so damn hard to accomplish this while screaming at how profound and existential they are. Sad.

And last, but certainly not least - anything by Kubrick or Woody Allen.

Underrated:

Last Tango in Paris - Brando's most underrated and riveting performance. "I'm gonna get a pig and I'm gonna have the pig fuck you. I want the pig to vomit in your face and I want you to swallow the vomit. Yeah! I want the pig to die while you're fucking him. Then you'll have to go around behind him. I want you to smell the dying farts of the pig. Are you gonna do all that for me?" ..For you, Mr. Brando, yes. Yes I would.

Funny Games - the American version. Why? Because it's awesome.

Cape Fear - overshadowed by Scorsese's other work by a longshot, yet this still has one of the most memorable vibes I've ever gotten from a movie. Might be De Niro's most insane character as well.

Freie Wille, Der - not necessarily overrated (average 8.15 tier) but only 62 people have ranked it on here. One of, if not the most, devastating film I've ever seen.

The Vicious Kind - another relatively unknown film (74 rankings). Besides the fact that it ends with a song, Adam Scott is awesome and just an overall great black comedy.

Caddyshack - one of the great American comedies it only hosts a 6.01 tier rating on here. Disappointing. SPAULING GET YOUR FOOT OFF THE BOAT!

[TheDenizen]

Overrated (my tier/avg tier)
9 tier difference:
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1/10)

oh god yes, what a trite and banal waste of celluloid. Every time someone who knows I like Westerns recommends this turd to me, I die a little inside.