5 movies I love to hate
11:30 AM
Sometimes disliking a movie is not enough.
There are movies I've seen more than once and that I tried to understand and enjoy but ended up abhorring them. My feelings towards these movies are just as intense as my feelings towards the movies I love. (You know how they say the opposite of love is not hate but indifference?)
And the funny thing is that, even though everyone is entitled to their own taste, there are some movies that everybody loves. Have you ever said you don’t like a certain popular movie and the other person just stared at you with
open, incredulous eyes as if you said you didn't like ice cream.
These are the five movies that when I say I don't like them people go “How can anyone not like....?”
1) Pulp Fiction
Never argue with Tarantino fans. They stand up for him like I stand up for Nutella.
If we are being honest (and unpopular) I'd have to say I don't like any Tarantino movie. I haven't seen Inglorious Basterds and don't feel the slightest inclination towards watching Django Unchained. I remember watching Kill Bill and feeling like blood was coming out of the screen and leaving me drenched at the end. Weird, right? You know what's weirder? Laughing at violence.
2) Modern times
Admit it, you don't like this movie either.
This is a big college hit. People in English departments worship Charlie Chaplin. It’s not
that I don’t like silent movies, because I love Buster
Keaton’s. I just don’t care for the persona that Chaplin created or that corny
feeling of every movie he makes.
3) Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Oh Audrey, do people really watch this movie or they just love you for your clothes?
I do admit
that Audrey Hepburn is an icon. I also know it was Truman Capote who
wrote the book, but that doesn’t make it good either. Holly is a shallow, empty
character who has all this elegance but no intelligence or morals for that
matter (the scene where she encourages Paul to steal always bothered me). I
can’t sympathize with the characters or their fates. I’m afraid what draws
people to this movie is Audrey Hepburn and not the story.
4) 2001
My first disappointed was discovering this actor was not Michael J. Fox.
People go a little crazy when it comes to 2001. After watching 2001, some fainted, others wrote doctoral thesis about it. Everybody agrees is an out-of-this-world experience. I hated it. The Shinning, A Clockwork Orange and Dr. Strangelove are
just as complex and much more watchable.
5) Star Wars
The only reason I watched Star Wars in the first place
Maybe you had to grow up in the 70's to like this franchise, because come on... Nobody started liking Star Wards based on the last three movies, right? It's sad because there are six movies and none of them is a match for, say... Lord of the Rings.
What movies you hate (and all your friends love)?
10 comments
Hmm I no big fan of Chaplin either, for the same reasons. But I do love Buster! I like Tarantino (though yeah, a LOT of blood, but it's all so intentionally fake that it doesn't bother me) and Holly, so I'm not with you there, but I get it.
ReplyDeleteEvery friend of mine seems to love Moulin Rouge and Slumdog Millionaire, and I hate both. But it's usually the other way around - with me loving a film that everyone else hates!
A lot of people are comparing Moulin Rouge with The Great Gatsby, so I need to watch it again. I watch it such a long time ago I don't even remember if I liked it or not... I also know many people who like Slumdog Millionaire - I didn't like it very much too! xx
DeleteI love Star Wars ;)I think I'm a few years older than you... I remember watching the old Star Wars films as early as 1985 (when I was quite young). I've seen them all many times. I agree that the new ones weren't great overall, though I didn't hate them as much as some people did, and thought the third one was quite moving in parts.
ReplyDeleteI have no desire to watch Tarantino - even if it's deliberately fake, I have no interest in watching that kind of violence. (In the interests of full disclosure, Gladiator is practically my favourite film, but I feel the violence is not gratuitous in that film, and there's so much more to it - it's very emotional and I love how loyal and devoted Maximus is to his family.)
I watched half an hour of Moulin Rouge and thought "what on earth...THIS IS SO SO BAD." Really had no desire at all to finish it. I love the book of The Great Gatsby but I probably won't see the film because I don't like the director's style.
I was also surprisingly disappointed with Sleepless in Seattle (though I didn't "hate" it). I like the occasional romantic comedy/chick flick and I'd heard so much about this one. I just found it unconvincing and blah. Maybe I need to watch it again.
I agree with you about Gladiator. Violence has a purpose to it, while Tarantino wants to make violence the center of his movies, even his trademark. Once I was teaching a class and one of my students was trying to convince me to watch Inglorious Basterds. I asked her: "Doesn't it have too much violence?" She replied: "Yes, but it's funny violence." That really stuck with me, his movies desensitize people to violence to the point where they are laughing at it, which I think it's extremely dangerous.
DeleteI'm not going to recommend The Great Gatsby, even though I really liked it. So many people hated it,not sure why. It does a good job translating the atmosphere of the Jazz Age. Though I'm not crazy about the choice of the actors. A good way of telling if you'll like the movie is the trailer. If you can't bear watching it, then stay away from the movie!
Oh, Sleepless in Seatle... Everyone loves this movie! I've never seen it, it doesn't seem that interesting. Plus, I'm not crazy about the genre. I'd probably be more willing to re-watch Star Wars than to watch When Harry met Sally for the first time! xx
So You haven't seen When Harry met Sally either? :o
ReplyDelete"Sleepless..." is ok. Not a very big movie, and not the best by Tom Hanks, nor Meg Ryan either, but still it got something. It's the same thing like with "Driving Miss Daisy" - a great SIMPLE movie, but not a neccesairly a top 50 classic.
Ok. So it's my "hating time" now I guess ;)
So I didn't like both Godfather and Apocalypse Now. I do aknowledge some of the great skill put into them by actors or directors, but I don't really like them and think of them as anything above average. Maybe the problem is that I coudln't see them when these were launched. They offered a lot of new stuff back then. Novadays they don't offer me anything.
And I don't like Blade Runner. Can't believe that some people call it the best movie ever made! Really... I know that it has a great cyber punk & noir climate, and some great acting, but there is simply NOTHING in this movie. Simple story, not much of a character, almost no action. And I don't say that a movie needs to have tones of action or to have any action at all... but common... there is climate... and nothing else :/
Ok. And Tarantino. Yeah. I think he is really overrated. Actually there are two kinds of Tarantinos. The one before Pulp Fiction, and the one after ;)
Simply - Pulp Fiction was great. Don't know why really, but this flick has something. Everything made by Quentin after that was a crap. And it doesn't matter if it was a crap made initially. He surely is great when in choosing a proper soundtrack, but everything he made after PF got to the box only because of his name, nothing else.
And... as for Quentin before PF. Well let me just say that Reservoir Dogs was one of my biggest dissapointments of all time. Seriously! I had a feeling that this movie had some two hours of missing footage. There's so many holes, it jumps and jumps, there's a scene shot for detailed character creation... and then there's the looong ending sequence right after that! Madsen's character danced his dance out of nothing!
I mean... I saw the bar ( tip ) scene, team song scene, and Madsen's dance scene before watching the whole movie. And just by watching them I had a feeling like "wow, this is gonna be a legendary movie"... But... the whole movie looks like it was made only with/for these 3 scenes... and the rest was nothing more but a silly stuffing... Using simple words - it's a movie build on two ingridients - great classic scenes + lots of crap.
And this idiotic antipolice violence... "I shot a cop" "I shot two" etc Scene when Harvey K. shoots those cops in their car is one of the worst and needless I've ever seen... Same with that innocent woman in her car! What for Quentin? What for?
Oh... and I detaste everyting by Nolan. Have I mentioned that? :)
The funniest thing about him is that they point he's put so much psychology into Batman character. He had to got through entire 3 movies to work that out... And guess what - Burton's Batman does the same thing just by Keaton's mimic! Brilliant! You don't need an entire movie to show Batman second thoughts Chris... Just use some proper lighting and let Batman put a finger on a chin from time to time :)
I also hate Apocalipse Now, it was brutal to watch! I'm not such a fan of the Godfather movies, but I dislike the third one more than the first two.
DeleteUnless I forgot all about it, I haven't seen Reservoir Dogs and after what you said I don't feel like it too!
Nolan's movies are great! I like everything he's done including Man of Steel (he wrote the story and I thought it was very similar to Batman Begins). I agree that Burton's Batman was very good, but I think Nolan's stands out as something unique. There's just too much of Tim Burton's aesthetics in the movie. If you don't like Tim Burton's style is difficult to like the movie.
Ok, I might give Nolan another shot ;)
ReplyDeleteThen again with Burton, aside from two Batmans, I can't really recall any more great movies made by him. Ok. Beetlejuice was pretty nice, and Edward Scissorhands got himself a big applause. Though I don't really like this one. Then Sleepy Hollow was kind of unique and very climatic, but still, nothing impressive and Mars attack is a nice flick to watch, and this one is very rewatchable actually... but nothing more. So... I think he did his best only with Batman.
But hay... what do You think about two other Batman movies, those by Schumacher?
I like both Batman Forever and Batman and Robin. I guess those are movies most people love to hate, but Batman Forever is very entertaining. ;)
DeleteHaa :) Then I've finally found someone else who likes them as I do ;) Yeah... it's kind of risky today to claim that you like B&R, as it's for some reason considered the movie which have almost killed comic book adaptations ;)
ReplyDeleteHear, hear!!!
ReplyDeletePoint one: I DON'T LIKE Tarantino. Period.
Point two: I don't like Chaplin. I've watched "Monsieur Verdoux" and I was about to DESPISE him. Rather have an appointmernt with my dentist.
point three: I think pelople use to like Audrey for her clothes. It's as if Giselle Bundchen started to make movies ... Oh, wait, she did!! (Holy Moses!)
point four: 2001 - didn't watch, don't want to.
point fiveStar Wars ... # 1 (I mean Episode IV) was WONDERFUL!! but episode VI was cheesy, corny, all together.
For those who didn't see The Godfather - Premiere Magqazine told this movie was the last adult movie Hollywood released. `Period.
Thanks for commenting! Do come back because I usually reply to comments here.