Underrated/Overrated
 

What two movies by a particular director or star do you feel are underrated and overrated, respectively? Provide some reasoning as well.

I find that Curse of the Jade Scorpion has been overly targeted in recent reviews as being one of Woody's recent disasters. Like most of Woody's movies these days, it's not a masterpiece, but I think he's still on top of his game, and the mystery is a relatively interesting clothesline plot. However, the reviews its getting bashed in are usually for Scoop, which gets mild praise from most of the reviews I read. I thought it was dismal, an overlong waste of talent that features Woody at his most...well, saddening -- watching him stutter for a minute to come up with a joke is almost interminable.

I also think Bad Boys II gets a lot of flak it doesn't deserve, its bombastic over-the-top insistence on being the Biggest Summer Spectacle Ever is almost admirable (although its equal indulgence in a massive 147m runtime is not so commendable). Instead, everyone seems to be thrilled with Transformers, a movie I thought was a poorly written and edited, incoherently directed bit of ego-massage as Bay acted as if he was "dumbing down" his already dumb schtick to please the masses. Chop 30 minutes, zoom out during the fights, and remove the annoying, Jar Jar Binks-level chittering robot comic relief and you might have something. And, sorry to say it, lose Megan Fox for a different hottie with at least some remote shred of personality or you might as well just use her Maxim cover as a stand-in.

Those words are overrated. :(

Um, I feel that The Man Who Wasn't There doesn't get a lot of credit among the Coen brothers' body of works. However, it is my favorite of their movies.

On the other hand, I feel that North By Northwest gets way more credit than it deserves. I've never really understood why this movie is considered one of the very best Hitchcock movies (or why it's ranked as the 24th greatest movie of all-time on IMDB's laughable little list). Sure, I liked the movie. But of the nine Hitchcock movies I've seen, I'd rank it at #8.

I also feel that Fight Club is vastly overrated by the general populace because I think the average person loves this movie for all the wrong reasons and I think the average person just gets caught up with the OMG PLOT TWIST or the terrorism crap at the end of the movie and entirely misses the very clever social satire on contemporary masculine and corporate America presented within the movie's first hour. Once again, don't get me wrong. I like this movie, I like it a lot in fact. But every time I see it listed at the very top of somebody's top 20 list, I wince and wonder if they too like it for all the wrong reasons.

oh that's easy,

overrated: 'Chasing Amy' - the dialogue and sheer idiocy made me wanna barf.

underrated: 'Spring Forward' with Liev Schreiber and Ned Beatty - best film about male friendship.

Steven Spielberg

Overrated - Schindler's List

Underrated - Munich

Fight Club is one of my favorites because I find it utterly hillarious, wonderfully witty writing.

Overrated: Most Pixar movies, I like em, but don't consider them classics.
Underrated: Tough call.

I thought this thread was about the usage of those two words. Anyway...

Overrated: Crash
Underrated: The Conversation

Agree with The Man Who Wasn't There but I'm sure I'll get a lot of flak for saying that, in comparison, I think Fargo is overrated. It's alright but I have to work to get past a certain point before I'll be able to stay with the movie all the way to the end.

Overrated: The Graduate
Underrated: The Taking of Pelham 123

Bob Clark (Director):
Overrated: A Christmas Story
Underrated: Black Christmas

Dennis Hopper (Actor):
Overrated: Speed
Underrated: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

I could probally think of more...

I agree with Pelham, Walter is great in it.
Overrated I still have to say Vertigo.
I love Hitchcock, I have most of his movies, but I could never see the big deal about this one.

Overrated: Independence Day
Underrated: Throw Momma From the Train

I'm not paying attention to the OP's rules, that would require too much thought.

Overrated: Knocked Up

Underrated: Spider-Man 3

Overrated: Big Lebowski

Underrated: Girl Next Door

Agreed.

Worst post of the week.

Overrated - <b>Aliens</b>
Underrated - <b>Alien³</b>

i know

Overrated: Gladiator
Underrated: Go

Similarity is both start with G. :)

Ridley Scott:
Overrated - Gladiator
Underrated - Kingdom of Heaven

Robert Zemeckis:
Overrated - Forrest Gump
Underrated - Death Becomes Her

Overrated to the 5000th power: Chicago

regarding Hopper in Speed, he wasn't menacing, he just came across as an utter jerk.

It think it's just the fanboy crowd who is loving this flick. The reviews have been far less that great.

I'll go with

Comedy
Overrated : The Big Lebowski, Rushmore
Underrated : Van Wilder, Waiting

Underrated : Accepted

Overrated: Garden State, Boondock Saints

Underrated: Happiness, Magnolia

Overrated: 300
Underrated: Slither

Not to offend, but this comes across as a little pretentious. People like it for all the wrong reasons?

I like Fight Club a lot, in fact it might very well be in my list of top 20 (if I ever made one), what gives someone the right to tell me the reasons I like the movie are right or wrong?

:up:

:up: i have to agree with you on this one.

I agree as well.

This kinda thread begs the question: who is doing the rating? Because no one on this forum is saying Independence Day is a great movie no critics either. However, movies like The Big Lebowski are only rated highly by people on internet forums.

This might be fun... One thing: in no way am I implying that the "underrated" movie is better than the "overrated" movie, just that the movies are not entirely deserving of their respective reputations

First, the obvious: James Cameron
Overrated: Titanic
Underrated: The Abyss

Tim Burton:
Overrated: Nightmare Before Christmas
Underrated: Corpse Bride

Soderburgh:
Overrated: Traffic
Underrated: The Limey

Wes Anderson:
Overrated: The Royal Tenenbaums
Underrated: The Life Aquatic

Speilberg:
Overrated: Saving Private Ryan (although I like it, it's not the be-all-end-all of WW2 movies that people make it out to be)
Underrated: War of the Worlds (except for the ending)

Peter Weir:
Overrated: Dead Poets Society
Underrated: Master and Commander

Oliver Stone:
Overrated: Wall Street
Underrated: The Doors (just IMO on this one)

Kubrick:
Overrated: The Shining
Underrated: Paths of Glory

Michael Mann:
Overrated: Heat
Underrated: Miami Vice (yeah, I think so)

Scorcese:
Overrated: The Last Waltz (the performers look so exhusted and wasted that it seems more like a condemnation of the 60s than a celebration)
Underrated: Casino

Werner Herzog:
Overrated: Fitzcarraldo
Underrated: Nosferatu the Vampyre

Robert Altman:
Overrated: The Player
Underrated: Gosford Park

Walt Disney:
Overrated: Bambi
Underrated: Sleeping Beauty

Mel Brooks:
Overrated: The Producers
Underrated: Silent Movie

Coppola:
Overrated: Apocalypse Now Redux (the original is much better)
Underrated: Bram Stoker's Dracula (Keanu excepted) (I guess I like Dracula movies)

GIGANTIC, OVERWHELMING disagreement. :)

:up: :up: :up:

:up: This was the first one I thought of, but I didn't post it because I figured The Abyss wasn't really "underrated"

Agreed, though I'd replace The Royal Tenenbaums with Rushmore.


I grew up thinking The Shining was severely overrated but the older I get and the more I see it, the more I realize it isn't overrated (just my opinion of course). Paths of Glory is an exceptional film BTW.

Agreed. Redux is far inferior to the original. I like Keanu but he nearly ruined Dracula.

Wachowski Bros

(over) Matrix
(under) Bound

Takashi Miike

(over) Ichii the Killer
(under) Negotiator

Robert Rodriquez

(over) Sin City
(under) El Mariachi

and I wholeheartedly agree with the Spielberg reference earlier:

(over) Schindler's List
(under) Munich - phenomenal film

Overrated: The Departed

Underrated: Casino

Tarantino:

Overrated: Kill Bill Vol. 2, Jackie Brown
Underrated: Death Proof

John Lasseter:

Overrated: Toy Story
Underrated: Cars

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu:

Overrated: Amores Perros
Underrated: 21 Grams

Coppola:

Overrated: Apocalypse Now
Underrated: The Godfather, Part III

Speilberg:

Overrated: E.T.
Underrated: Munich

Wachowski Bros:

Overrated to the 10^1000th degree: V for Vendetta (even though they only wrote it)
Underrate: The Matrix Reloaded

my favourtie Miike underrated movie is 'Zebraman'

Even Shelley Duvall's painful acting can't kill this film (but almost).

I've heard/seen mostly bad things about Redux, so not really sure that I would consider it Overrated.