The Fantaverse 25 Most Over-rated films list

[Ron Burgundy]

Six/Shawshank - I love it, but still not exactly sure why its #1 on imdb. I think there was a voting war between this and godfather 2 on imdb in the mid 00's.

Boosh/Avengers - Agreed, my lil bro was talking this up for days, then when i saw it, was disappointed. Not bad, but not very good

Wall/Wolf - Its a good movie but nothing more so i see why you place it here.

Chien/??? - Yeah, nah

John/Brave - You must really hate this movie! But yeah, tis over rated

Tranny/lotr - ok, everyone on the count of 3 jump on Tranny...1....2....

[Walleye413]

Dude, I thought I would take some heat for Dark Knight. But LOTR? I cried. During the movie. Not when I saw it on your list.

[numbersix]

Ron B: See, John, see?

Boosch: Agreed that it's over-rated, but it's not like Thor or the other Marvel movies are much better. They're all similar in their over-ratedness. And yeah, whedon's dialogue irritates here - you've got a hugely diverse range of characters and they all sound like Buffy.

Walleye: I think you missed the point here. Scorsese is far from glorifying this guy. What he does, and he does it brilliantly, is showing the appeal of Belfort's life from the inside, but then undermining it. I mean, he punches his wife twice in that horrendous sequence where he tries to abduct his child and then crashes his car. And even in that hilarious scene where a barely mobile Belfort tries to wrestle the phone from Jonah Hill's character, the camera cuts to the daughter watching, confused, undermining the fun of it. Just like Goodfellas, Scorsese lets you understand the character before pulling the rug from underneath. The fact that the film made Belfort more popular is baffling to me - it's clear the guy is a psycho, but then again, isn't the point that he represents Wall St itself?

Chien: Yeah, very much over-rated. Liked the idea, but the story itself is poor and actually quite sexist.

John: Can't remember it being homophobic, but it's Mel so I wouldn't be surprised. You know I've yet to see Rob Roy. Really must do so.

Tranny: Hmm... interesting choice. I really like it and it fits into the trilogy as a whole. But the last 30 mins are way too long. Still, I'd watch this over pretty much any blockbuster since.

[Buscemi2]

I'd say Hacksaw Ridge is more overrated than Braveheart. Braveheart to me works as a spectacle film. Sure, it's loose with the facts but it's nice to look at and it came in a simpler time (if one could consider 1995 as a simpler time). Meanwhile, I'm not sure what Hacksaw Ridge was trying to say. It wants to be anti-war but the film is so violent and plays to the pro-war crowd that it defeats the purpose. It ends up coming off as American Sniper but less racist.

[JohnErle]

The Avengers – The entire MCU is over-rated, apart from the first Captain America, which stands apart from all the rest. I'd say the one that's most over-rated is the original Iron Man.

The Wolf Of Wall St – I don't like it as much as Six does, but it's a good film, if too long. I hadn't heard that the movie had made Belfort more popular, but I'm not surprised. If so, it's a much better version of Scarface since both offer a matter of fact look at the rise and fall of a selfish bastard. In both cases, the other selfish bastards of the world only saw the money, glitz, and beautiful women and said “I want that.” Wasn't that the ultimate point of Wolf Of Wall St, when we see that slack-jawed audience staring in awe at Jordan Belfort while he spins his tales of extravagance. Turning the camera on the audience was the movie's masterstroke and saving grace.

Braveheart – The homophobia is largely in the portrayal of the king's son and his consort, who are obviously a gay couple and despised for it. Near the end the cartoon villain king throws one of them out a window and the audience cheers. A disgusting moment in an intolerable film.

The Broken What Now? - I have no memory of this film whatsoever. It doesn't seem to be anything anyone is talking about any more, at least outside of France.

The Return Of The King – Now I know you're just trolling.

And I'm still trying to wrap my head around the notion of Six ever liking Life Is Beautiful.

[transformers2]

The Return Of The King – Now I know you're just trolling.

I'm afraid not. I found Return of the King to be an overly long and relatively dull conclusion to an otherwise great trilogy.

[Buscemi2]

The Two Towers is the overrated one. Hardly anything happens in it.

And am I the only one who fails to recall what Liv Tyler's character actually did in the series? Seriously, I don't remember her in any of the films.

[undeadmonkey]

Ron
Gran Torino - Hmm, i really think you guys are over-rating the love people have for this movie

Six
The Shawshank Redemption - I wan't to agree, but it was a fine movie and in essence wouldn't any movie that is rated #1 be over rated? (unless it's your personal favorite film)

Boosh
The Avengers - one day the superhero craze will die down... hopefully. It reminds me of all the Computer Animated films of the early 2000s, just about all did well, until people got over the novelty.

Walleye
Haven't Seen - but might watch it
Chien
Haven't Seen - never heard of it
John
Haven't Seen - and dont want to

Tran
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King - what new devilry is this? i just saw it this weekend, it holds up incredibly well. The CG is barely starting to show it's age and it's a 15 year old movie. Can't say that about most 5 year old movies. There are so many moments that could be incredibly cheesy and campy but they aren't, they are earnest and real. it's an amazing piece of film.

[Buscemi2]

I don't think the superhero genre is ever going to die down. A lot of the target audience seems to be so hyper-focused on their fandom that they'll forget everything else around them and proceed to give all their money to the product. I remember when Deadpool came out and you had adult comic book fans taking their children to see it, despite the graphic content on-screen (it even got banned in China due to all the violence and we all know how important China is to the film industry). If so many fans weren't so narcissistic, I'm sure a lot of them would have thought twice and just gone to see Kung Fu Panda 3 instead.

It's kind of like why we're still seeing so many movies being made based on 80's properties (despite the trend now being 90's nostalgia, as seen recently with Jumanji's monster box office). The executives grew up in the 80's and are so in love with the era that they want to let us know instead of getting away from their hedonistic dream worlds where every night's a party, everyone who's not them is an object, and the 90's never happened to pay attention to what works. Is there really any interest in a Micronauts movie?

[Ron Burgundy]

Heh, that made me laugh, devilry indeed.

As for nostalgia of 80s/90s, if Star Wars and stranger things is a precursor of what is to come, we'll see more one man army movies OTT with funny stuff ala Hitmans Bodyguard, even more rehashed sequels to giant movies of yesteryear and The James Cameron films from Titanic onwards made into TV shows

[Buscemi2]

Well, Top Gun 2 is coming next year so you are right about one of those things. And there is that Jesus Quintana movie that seems to be in perpetual limbo (I'm convinced the Coens are trying to block its release even though they let Turturro use the character under the condition that the film not be sold as The Big Lebowski 2).

And we are kind of seeing those one-man army movies again in the form of the John Wick series, though the influences seem to go even further than 80's and 90's action films. And I know of a few who saw Brawl in Cell Block 99 as a throwback to those movies (I personally thought that it went beyond that, as noted in my review of the film).

[Ron Burgundy]

#1


Just want to thank all who contributed to this count down, its been fun. If you are all keen, i'd like to do another count down in a couple months or so- your favourite 50 actors/actresses. Also, this weekend, ill tally up the films from this thread and put together a top 10 over rated collectively.



Ron B



Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
imdb rating: 8.0 from 692k people. Metascore: 86
While im a fan of Danny Boyle (he has 2 films in my top 25 of all time) this was an absolute stinker. Simply put, its the most over rated film i can think of. It has won 8 oscars, which is just absurd.
My rating: 1.5/10



Six


Zeitgeist (2007)
Many of you may not have heard of this, but this represents one of the biggest problems in the Western world. This shitfest came out for free on Youtube, around the time bandwidths were expanding and people were starting to share. One of my best friends, a smart, articulate guy, insisted I watch this. It addresses issues such as the flaws in money and the origins of religion, and then it gets to the crux… September 11th, where it reveals problems with the “official story”. A community lapped this nonsense up, sharing more nonsense about global conspiracies, dodgy data splashed onto blogs and amateur websites. Yes, this is the dawn of Fake News (okay, propaganda is as old as whoring, so I’m talking about the modern context). You appeal to those desperate for something exciting, fill them full of half truths and they wander around like drunken bumblebees ranting away about MSM as if what they’ve been told isn’t as reliable and honorable as that leering pervert in the trenchcoat who hangs around the children’s playground.

When I told my friend that it was mostly bullshit his response was that “yeah, but at least it’s asking questions”. Alex Jones asks questions, but they’re the wrong, misleading, stupid ones. He sure as hell doesn’t question himself, which good docs should do. Later, two sequels were released, sidestepping the offensive 9/11 stuff and focusing on the monetary system. But really this was a mouthpiece for the Venus Project, an utterly half-baked movement to replace money with natural resources, but with no solutions as to how the distributors of the resources won’t become powerful, greedy, and corrupt. Fortunately you don’t hear about these docs much, but it was indicative of the kind of crap in which those with ulterior motives make their moves while pointing fingers against a media trying way harder to get the facts straight.



Boosh



Whiplash (2014)
Why?: I can’t think of any film in recent years that’s gotten so much hype and praise without even deserving it. It won various awards, had scores of praise showered onto it by critics and audiences, and has pretty much become Fight Club for the current generation of teenagers. But personally, I just view as nothing more than Drumline remade for white people. And when you’re ripping off a mediocre Nick Cannon movie and trying to remake for awards, you are trying far too hard. Also, Miles Teller is an awful lead and Damien Chazelle is not the great American filmmaker people think he is. It makes Birdman seem like it really did deserve Best Picture.
Better movies: Fight Club (generation-defining films), Mr. Holland’s Opus (music teachers), Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench (Chazelle)



Walleye



Seven (1995)
SPOILER ALERT!
Any movie where a pregnant woman’s head ends up severed in a box, is gross. Just wrong. Can’t believe this movie made $100 million dollars. Yuck.



Chien



Dancer in the Dark (2000)
Lars Von Trier’s film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2000 ahead of “In the mood for love”, and I still can’t understand that. Well, Luc Besson was the head of Jury, that may explain it. I’m really not a fan of Von Trier in general, but this one particularly gets on my nerve. I’ve never seen a film more self-indulgent in the worst possible way than this one.



John



The Dark Knight (2008)
The most over-rated film by the most over-rated director of our age. I easily could have filled half this this list with Nolan and Tarantino, but for the sake of variety I limited myself to one film from each of them.



Tranny



Edward Scissorhands (1990)

[numbersix]

Thanks Ron, for putting this together! And for everyone who contributed. Except you, Tranny, you can go to hell

Ron: Enjoyed it the first watch. Then rewatched it again and boy did the contrived narrative bug me. I still like Boyle's direction, but not enough to think this deserved the awards.

Boosch: Agreed, to a certian extent. Some of the scenes between the two actors are electric and stunning. Just felt by the end that Chazelle kinda ended up saying what he probably didn't want to say. It's better than La La Land though.

Walleye: That ending is supposed to be wrong, and fucked up. That's the point! It's horrible, and twisted, and the killer reveals the base instincts in us all, which is out own downfall. It's a good film.

Chien: Liked it when I saw it 17 years ago, but my dislike for Von Trier has grown since then so maybe this would annoy me too.

John: Agreed on Nolan being over-rated, but for me this is one of his better ones. So disagree!

Tranny: It's a lovely, twisted, teen fairytale.

[JohnErle]

Slumdog – I never understood why it won all those Oscars either, unless Hollywood was patting itself on the back for making a movie starring brown people. It's a perfectly adequate film, but over-rated.

Zeitgeist – Congratulations on choosing something even more obscure than any of Chien's picks. You'd been going after some pretty big targets lately, so I'm surprised you picked some conspiracy theory hack-job from YouTube for your #1 instead of a proper movie. It does have more votes on IMDB than Broken Circle Breakdown, so I guess some people off in the dark recesses of the internet rate it highly, but it seems unlikely anyone not wearing a tinfoil hat would.

Whiplash – It's stylish and well directed, but it's pure fantasy. I haven't seen La La Land yet, but it's probably more grounded in reality. It's over-rated if people claim to find any insight into the human condition in it.

Se7en – If the hero had committed that act, you'd have a point, but it was meant to be shocking, and very effective, although I might find it a bit exploitative if I watched it now. I still think you're being way too harsh, though.

Dancer In The Dark – Haven't seen, no interest. Personally, I think your list places too much weight on whatever the handful of people in the Cannes jury chose from the handful of films that were submitted in a particular year, but you're French so it's understandable.

Edward Scissorhands – A beautiful film. Tim Burton's masterpiece. I think I listed it in my top 10 of all time back when we did that list.

[Walleye413]

Intersting final picks - almost anti-climactic.

Agree on Slumdog. I enjoyed the movie but oh the hype. A little much.

No idea on the Internet one, but if it gets any traction it shouldn't.

I thought Whiplash was pretty dang interesting. Don't know if it's super overrated. It has a passionate fanbase, much like La La Land, but La La got way more hype. (And, I actually really enjoyed that one too, so I might not be the best critic.)

No argument from me on the Lars Von Trier.

Another one for The Dark Knight? Here I thought I was the only one.

And Edward Scissorhands is one of the few Tim Burton movies I really liked. Although it's been years since I've seen it, so I can't claim that it holds up.

As for Seven, the ending felt like another instance of violence against women as plot device (Obviously a theme in many of my picks, so I'll freely admit this is a hill i will choose to die on.) I don't care if it's meant to shock, or horrify, it was cheap and easy and in this particular case even more repugnant than normal. Good writers can do better. Smart audiences deserve more. Again, at least in my opinion.

Great lists all, I'm already working on my top actors/actresses. Way harder than I though it would be. You going living, all-time, single great performance or life-time of work. It's tough.