Flicks You WANT to Like But Just CAN'T

[Deleted]

Oh, I second The Graduate. My parents loved that movie and talked about it as if it was something very profound, and by the time they let me watch it, I couldn't believe how cliched and pompous it was. The only interesting character in the whole thing was Mrs. Robinson; they should have made the movie about her.

On a similar note, I just recently watched Five Easy Pieces, widely revered as a four-star classic, and found every character in it completely awful except Karen Black, who the movie wanted us to laugh at because she was such a hick. It really irritated me. She was the only one who was ever honest about anything!

[forever1267]

I agree. Casablanca is one of my favorite movies, but I totally understand it feeling cliched. But that's where the cliches actually came from.

Citizen Kane is a great film, but only a good movie. But the overlaps, mise-en-scene, deep focus, etc. that make it such a stunning looking film are still used today.

I've always heard that The Commitments is a really good movie, but I have no interest whatsoever in seeing it.

[normadesmond]

Jan 21, 2010 17:22:20 GMT -4 @winnifer said:

Oh, I second The Graduate. My parents loved that movie and talked about it as if it was something very profound, and by the time they let me watch it, I couldn't believe how cliched and pompous it was. The only interesting character in the whole thing was Mrs. Robinson; they should have made the movie about her.

Some critic said something to the effect that now that he's older, he finds Anne Bancroft's Mrs. Robinson far sexier than the daughter played by Katharine Ross, and can't remember why he ever thought otherwise. It's interesting because it reveals a fatal flaw in a lot of the movies of the 60s: it automatically assumes you'll side with youth against age, and doesn't make any effort to justify this bias. It's fine to do that, but only if you properly establish this dramatically within the movie itself. It's playing to the counterculture crap of "never trust anyone over 30" and all the silliest slogans of the 60s.

On a similar note, I just recently watched Five Easy Pieces, widely revered as a four-star classic, and found every character in it completely awful except Karen Black, who the movie wanted us to laugh at because she was such a hick. It really irritated me. She was the only one who was ever honest about anything!

I find this to be a problem with lots and lots of Jack Nicholson movies. The movies make no effort to win you over to his side, they just assume you'll side with him because he's Jack! The coolest guy ever! The rebel wearing his cool shades seducing all the cool chicks and flashing his cool grin! The fact Nicholson has been cast apparently absolves the filmmakers from giving his fictional characters any inherently sympathetic traits.

Not only that, I find it distressing this misogynist crap was written by a woman. Carole Eastman (writing as Adrien Joyce) was the main creative force here. This, more than Easy Rider, was the movie that established Nicholson as a leading man, and really was more responsible than any other movie in establishing the template for Nicholson's onscreen personality he's milked for the rest of his life.

The worst scene is the supposedly classic "chicken salad sandwich" scene in the diner where he insults, mocks, and humiliates ("hold the chicken between your knees") the waitress. The movie doesn't give you a choice in the matter: it assumes you'll side with Nicholson against the waitress. Of course, a local diner wouldn't actually have such a stupid rule in the first place. The notion a diner would refuse to bring a slice of toast for a customer is absurd. But if it did have such a stupid rule, it wouldn't be the waitress' fault, and she'd be simply following the rules she needed to follow to stay employed. But as I say, it's a ridiculous scene because nobody but a complete idiot would run a diner that way, if they wanted any customers. Only in the movies!

Add that to the fact Nicholson's character's dating a waitress himself (so he should have some sympathy for the plight of waitresses!), and his character comes off as a loathsome creep (yet the movie, and Nicholson himself, seem to have no awareness of the fact).

[carrier76]

The Princess Bride works much better as a film for adults. Despite Fred Savage's presence, it's not really a kids' film.

See, I didn't see this 'til I was an adult....and I thought it was boring and hated it. I fell asleep in the middle of it. Cloying and irritating.

"The Dark Crystal" disturbed me as a child....greatly. My parents made the mistake of taking me to that as a youngster because yay, Muppets! Right? WRONG!!!

[chonies]

I thought the Princess Bride was funny because it was rolling its eyes at fae, romantical tropes, but I admit that a lot of my warm feelings are hold overs from high school. I actually haven't seen it in years, so maybe it just hasn't aged as well as I thought.

Mutagen, I get the idea of negative reaction=good but I can't bear applying it unilaterally. The book Animal Husbandry made me furious because I thought it was ridiculous and trite (a protagonist named Jane Goodall?) but I don't think that's the same sort of reaction I get when I watch Lars von Trier, either. I also have a certain respect for his technique, and even though I find it difficult to watch his films, my immediate reaction isn't "hack!" I suppose I need to think on this more to be able to parse the finer points of my issues.

[Shalamar]

Normally, I love Disney movies, but I didn't get Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

Totally. If not for the awesomeness of Angela Lansbury, B&B would've been a complete failure in my book. (I remember seeing that at the theatre. Man, I'm old.)

[Deleted]

Jan 21, 2010 16:51:55 GMT -4 @roisin54 said:

I think the problem with a lot of these old movies is that those of us who are too young to have seen them when they were new know them so well because they've been ripped-off and parodied to hell and back by the time we get to them. I've never actually watched Casablanca but from all the clips and parodies and whatnot I feel like I have, so I have zero desire to actually sit down and watch it all the way through.

I had that problem with Annie Hall - I rented it and it was just a huge compilation of stuff I'd already seen a million times. I knew that this was where the million movies had gotten the ideas, but it didn't make it any funnier.

[Smilla]

Total Recall. Pure tripe. Nothing entertaining, original or engaging in that one.

[hushhush]

I'm glad to see Blade Runner and The Princess Bride in this thread.

I'm not much of a sci-fi person in the first place, but I've tried to watch some of the more notable sci-fi films. I just can't make it through Blade Runner, 2001, or Alien. I've tried Blade Runner several times but it just bores the hell out of me!

The Princess Bride I watched because so many people told me I'd love it. I didn't. I have an offbeat sense of humor, but that one just didn't do it for me.

The Graduate. My mum, who is a huge Dustin Hoffman fan (as well as a huge Simon & Garfunkel fan), raved about it and said how hilarious it was. When I watched it, I thought it painfully unfunny, and I hated all the characters.

I have much love for The Graduate but it's all because of Anne Bancroft & Mrs. Robinson! She's the best part of the film by far. A little while back I was dating someone about 7 yrs. younger than myself and during that time period I totally had that Mrs. Robinson song as the ringtone which would play whenever my s.o. called, just to amuse myself

[Deleted]

I went to see True Lies in the theater, slept through the middle portion of the movie, woke up at the end of it, and have no intention of ever seeing it again.