Over-rated movies - punching above their weight? (Top Ten Most Over-rated Movies!)

Member Name: Neenawneenaw

Product:	Top Ten Most Over-rated Movies!
Date:	18/12/08 (39 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: They're not all turkeys, just over-rated

Disadvantages: Not as good as people say...

Some films win too many awards, some make too much money, others have hardened film critics inexplicably wetting themselves - some manage all three.

Now because it's hard to compare a film that is OK but laden with praise and awards with a film that's truly appalling but gets a reasonable reception, the following top 10 are in no particular order:

1) Titanic - an OK but silly, overlong venture despite the efforts of Winslet and Di Caprio. Maybe it deserved to be a hit - but to make that much money and pick up the gongs? I don't think so.

2) Braveheart - another unworthy Oscar-winner. Mel Gibson's pantomime strike for Scottish nationalism is all (admittedly entertaining) grimy action and sentimentality and no real substance.

3) Gladiator - and it's a hat-trick for rather silly awards winners. Russell Crowe and particularly Joaquin Phoenix put in screen-eating performances but what should merely be an entertaining swords and sandals revenge romp thinks it's a SERIOUS FILM. And the ending makes me laugh every time...

4) Apocalypse Now. Dull, pretentious tripe. Read the fantastic Heart of Darkness instead.

5) O Brother Where Art Thou? I usually love the Coens but this self-indulgent, soggy-plotted caper left me cold. Inexplicably generally acclaimed by the critics. Nothing wrong with the soundtrack though.

6) Groundhog Day. Weirdly beloved by critics and normal folk alike. Yes, I enjoyed it (the first time) but I find it overplays its hand and I get as frustrated as the great Bill Murray in reliving the same day over and over again. And after the first viewing, I find it hard to ignore the ever-irritating Andie McDowell.

7) Forrest Gump. How did this cartoon film with its cartoon performance win awards? It makes me feel like someone's scratching their nails down a blackboard.

8) Three Colours: the first of Krzysztof Kieslowski's 'outstanding' 3-colours trilogy. I didn't make it to the end of this one and haven't been tempted to see the second or third! I just found it unengaging, bleak and very disappointing (I remember being grimly gripped by A Short Film About Killing years previously). Despite the fact that the fab Juliette Binoche stars.

9) The Dark Knight: now I like this film, but somehow rational judgement seems to have been abandoned, perhaps due in part to Heath Ledger's untimely and tragic death and great performance as the Joker. It's a really good film, but it does sag a bit in parts, and as a sequel it can't recapture the full surprise of the first relaunched batman flick, Batman Begins.

10) Star Wars. Not really - I just put it in to distress the fanboys. Or did I? I mean, can any film this highly rated by so many not be over-rated?

Summary: An honest opinion - what's yours?