Most Over Hyped Movies/Actors

[sdreid]

I like Halloween but none of the sequels, in fact, Halloween II is so bad that it almost ruins the original.

Pretty Woman is one we all agree on it appears. Going by the title, it's somewhat miscast as well.

[mariab]

Wow, cool thread!
I like The big chill, and I have yet to see Citizen Cane in its entirety.
I adore sports films, but Chariots of fire was the worst turkey ever. And its music theme was super annoying.
I agree with Abby that Steve Martin is really good playing the uptight/anal/neurotic guy.

Most overated female actresses: Mia Farrow, Diane Keaton (apart from her performance in Looking for Mr Goodbar)
Most overated male actors: Al Pacino, Henry Fonda (the rest of his family can act circles around him)
Most overated directors: Steven Spielberg (apart from Jaws and Saving private Ryan), Jean-Luc Godard (after his first films, which were true jewels), Andrei Zulawski
most internationally recognized and super promoted bad actress: Julia Roberts
internationally despised execrable actress: Meg Ryan
actresses who overplay: Jessica Lange, Faye Dunaway, Jodie Foster (of late)

Maybe someone should create a thread about underated very good actors?

[Sally]

Pirates of the Carribean. The first one was enjoyable, the others were utter tripe. No amount of hype was ever going to help.

The 'first' Star Wars chapters. Rubbish.

Indiana Jones - the latest one - so bad I can't even remember what it was called! Dire.

Maybe this goes to show that digging up the corpses of successful films to reanimate them for profit is a bad idea.

[mariab]

Maybe this goes to show that digging up the corpses of successful films to reanimate them for profit is a bad idea.

Absolutely. The only exceptions to this rule are Star wars (The empire strikes back was better) and Back to the future.

[Sally]

Absolutely. The only exceptions to this rule are Star wars (The empire strikes back was better) and Back to the future.

Yes, I totally agree! Back to the future 2 easily equals the first film. Almost everyone I know thinks The Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars film. I'm ashamed to admit that I prefer The Return of the Jedi.

[Tom_Wescott]

John Carpenter's Halloween is the best modern horror film. Zombie's is the worst.

Just this weekend I tried to watch The Big Chill and couldn't. Maybe it made sense in 1983, but I thought it was extremely boring. And this is coming from a guy who absolutely loves The Piano and Remains of the Day.

I think the Die Hard films are overrated. And Shrek, and any kid's movie, really. They virtually all suck.

I think Angelina Jolie is very overrated, and Keanu Reeves' success remains a great American mystery.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[mariab]

I'm ashamed to admit that I prefer The Return of the Jedi.

The return of the Jedi had the cool, operatic redemption-scene (with a new actor, Sebastian Shaw, for Darth Vader).

[mariab]

John Carpenter's Halloween is the best modern horror film.

The first Halloween movie is a cult film, a classic, and a casebook for the slash genre, and Jamie Lee Curtis the first so-called “final girl“. Scream and Buffy, the vampire slayer subverted the genre very cleverly and self-reflectively.

Just this weekend I tried to watch The Big Chill and couldn't. Maybe it made sense in 1983, but I thought it was extremely boring. And this is coming from a guy who absolutely loves The Piano and Remains of the Day.

I like The big chill because it makes me understand baby boomers, with whom I deal a lot at my job. It shows their haughtiness and self-importance very nicely. Plus I liked the way it showed old friendship realistically. I loved The remains of the day (I thought even Christopher Reeve was very good in it), but I found The piano unwatchable, boring to death. Maybe if it had another male lead, because Harvey Keitel as a romantic lead? Nah.

I think Angelina Jolie is very overrated, and Keanu Reeves' success remains a great American mystery.

Angelina has an amazing physicality, and she can act, although she's not the greatest actress out there. Still, I think she's become too much of a Hollywood twig. She should gain about 12 pounds, then she'd be perfect.
I didn't mention Keanu Reeves cause everyone knows he's one of the worst actors of his generation, special agent Utah! He manages to make every line he recites sound hilarious. Not everyone can do this. ;-)

[Limehouse]

Brief Encounter

Although I adore Celia Johnson as an actres and Rachmaninov's music added a lot to the film - for me it was basically about a couple having cups of tea and catching trains with a bit of emotive wishful-thinking thrown in.

It is an interesting social study though because it's obviously a bit of propaganda encouraging people to get back into their roles (socially and within the family) following a period of war. It is also amusing to listen to the accents - the cut glass Johnson and Howard - the upwardly mobile cafe mangeress trying not to sound common - and the chirpy 'I'm-working-class-and-be-dammed' railway porter.

[Tom_Wescott]

I agree with Stan about Bela Lugosi, and I feel that Boris Karloff is very much overrated within the horror community.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[dmann30]

[/QUOTE]
Now on to the topic..... can someone, anyone please explain to me why people find Will Ferrell funny, hey may very well be the most unfunny man I have ever seen.....Ok I'll stop now as I really don't like to be negative on the forums.. but that is a question I must ask.[/QUOTE]

I would unequivocally agree with this. I do NOT understand why he is funny. I have laughed at his films, but it is ALWAYS at the other actors. And the kids around here are always quoting his lines like he is some kind of demi-god or something. Sheesh. *shrug* To each his own I guess.

Some would say the same of Adam Sandler, although I did like him in Spanglish. Better dramatic actor than I thought he could be.

And as for movies:
ANY horror flick makes little sense to me as to how they are "cinematic gems"

[Steadmund Brand]

I too agree, in part with Stan, but the thing with Lugosi was, he just wanted to work, always, so he would take just about any part to stay busy... as far as the Ed Wood stuff that everyone loves to make fun of him for.... isn't it funny that today they are as well known and watched as much, if not more so than anything else he did, including Dracula. The really sad thing is, none of us got to really see the best of Bela, seeing as he was already a shell of his former self by the time he did Dracula (or so he claimed....so take that however you will.)

As for Karloff, hmmm overrated.. Thats really hard to say, as he, like Lugosi, became so much more than just a charatcter actor, he really did become and icon, it was the face, and the voice, and the name... was he a great actor, not really, but he had such presence that it made up for so much.

Now when you put Lugosi and Karloff together... you got to see some really great stuff.. The Black Cat probably being the best..and filled with pretty heavy stuff, especially for 1934...this may very well be the best film of either of their lives, that includes both Dracula and Frankenstein, The Body Snatcher, another great film takes on a classic status just for the few scenes with the two masters together, and this was Bela at what may have been his worst, health wise, Lugosi actaully manages to steal the film away from the monster in Son of Frankenstein, The Raven is another fun film, Lugosi at his sinister best...now of all their films the Invisable Ray may be the most overrated, quite a slow moving film really, In Black Friday they don't even have one scene together, what a waste... they were also in You'll Find Out and Gift of Gab together, but there really isn't much of anything to say about those films.

Wow, I spend way too much time with old horror films eh?

---Steadmund Brand

[sdreid]

I think to really see how good Lugosi could be I'd recommend The Black Camel, an early Charlie Chan film that was released the same year as Dracula.

[Mrs. E. Nigma]

Worst actresses
Jennifer Lopez
Angelina Jolie
Megan Fox
Jodie Foster - she's at the bottom of my list simply because of Silence of the Lambs .

Worst Actors
Keanu Reeves
Tom Cruise
Ben Affleck

All the best,
Erynn

[sdreid]

Does Jodie Foster have a lisp or was that some affectation for the role?

I guess it was for real with Boris Karloff.

Add them to Barbara Walters (R impeded) and Tom Brokaw (L impeded) in the speech impediment hall of fame.