"How Can You Not Like (fill in movie title)??????"

[Aces / Chawk]

I hear that a lot from close friends and family shocked that I didn't like some popular movie.

Gone Baby Gone was on a Long Wait for about 1 month but I finally got to see it - and I hated it. It keeps getting great reviews but I wrote a negative review on it. There must be others out there like me.

It made we wonder what movies others went against the majority on and didn't like.

I'm sure there are other really popular movies I hated but here are some that come to mind in no particular order. For me they are all bad.

1. Saving Private Ryan (except the begining - that filming was great)
2. Mystic River
3. The English Patient - (shudder)
4. Napoleon Dynamite
5. Lost in Translation
6. Brokeback Mountain
7. Out of Africa
8. Legends of the Fall
9. Titanic
10. Dead Man Walking

On the other hand I've found some of my favorite movies on other NF members worst lists. I even made a list of them:

My 5 Star Movies on Others' Worst List - No Way!

I'm glad we're all different in our tastes so film makers will keep bringing out such a wide variety of films and we can all find the ones that delight us. (I like vanilla ice cream and don't eat chocolate but I'm happy it's available for all those who do.)

I'd like to hear from others - Any movies you hate that others love?

[pihkal020]

What was up with the budget on Happyness? I think it was $50+ million...in that ballpark. It seemed high for that kind of flick

That must have been mostly Smith's salary? Where else it would it go? So I thought he was a huge dick for making a movie about a guy struggling to make ends meet while he's collecting 10s of millions in reality.

I could be wrong, but I'm looking for reasons to hate the A list stars! :-P

[Russ in Wyo]

I was turned off by The Pursuit of Happiness trailers, too (another Will Smith vehicle where he just plays himself, only with a sappy side). Saw it on DVD, though, and gave it 5 stars! It... made... me... cry. And I'm a war movie buff.

[watermelonpunch]

YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
First, Gone Baby Gone, I never even saw, because I knew I wouldn't be interested in it.

Saving Private Ryan made me kind of sick. I felt it was gratuitously upsetting, it felt forced to me, like it was unjustly using a real life war & story to manipulate my emotions.

Mystic River I thought was one of the most actors-self-massaging movies ever made. I didn't find one ounce of entertainment nor any enjoyment or satisfaction or anything from it.

The English Patient, I always meant to see. But at first the hype put me off. Then it just seems I'm never in the mood to watch an extremely depressing movie. After all, after just seeing The Sheltering Sky, I was upset for weeks, and every time I sniffled that winter I worried I had malaria. ha!!

I've resisted watching Napolean Dynamite because people I know have hyped it up so much. That, and I'm not sure it's my bag.

I've just never felt motivated to watch Lost in Translation.

I've been putting off seeing Brokeback Mountain since it came out for some reason, and now even moreso. Despite the fact that I have many gay friends and have no problem with gays, and I'm a big fan of Heath Ledger in "A Knight's Tale". I'm not that big on westerns though. I think it's just made out to be big, frankly, because, rightly, finally there's been a breakthrough movie about the plight of the gay person, historically, so it seems bigger than it is, and if you go into it expecting something more than just the social breakthrough aspect of it, then maybe that would be a disappointment.

I can barely remember Out of Africa. Maybe if I saw it now, older and all, I'd like it more, I don't know.

Legends of the Fall is another one I just resisted seeing because I was put off by hype and people drooling over that actor.

Titanic was another one that made me sick. Again, I felt it was gratuitously upsetting, it felt forced to me, like it was unjustly using a real life tragedy to manipulate my emotions. And in this case, the fictional story set in a real life tragedy just seemed unseemly, uncouth, opportunistic, manipulative... And I have a hard time understanding why more people didn't feel it was just plain in poor taste.

If I've seen Dead Man Walking, I don't remember it.

[MrCarbohydrate]

I think throughout these lists of "Movies People Hate", I can pretty much find my all time Top 10 Favourites list except for Eternal Sunshine. I mean, Children of Men, Hunt for Red October, 2001, All the President's Men....I don't buy very many movies (I own only 25 films, plus a few more TV Shows), because I won't buy them unless I really, really like them. And I own all of the above...:/

Good thing there's no law requiring everyone to like the same thing, right? Cheers!

Edit: I liked "The English Patient" as well, though it wasn't as good as "Fargo."

[Jo17ie]

Speaking of...I watched the first half hour of Fargo, and turned it off. I might not have been in the mood for it, because everyone tells me it is my kind of movie...but i just couldn't get into it. I think i'll have to give it another shot.

[Microwaved]

I love the hell out of Children of Men. No shame in that at all. And Fargo in my opinion is a classic.

[Jo17ie]

Children of men is fantastic. I've been meaning to read the book....there just aren't enough hours in the day. Especially with all the lovely distractions here.

[watermelonpunch]

I liked Children of Men.

But

1) I'm a post-apocalyptic sci-fi fan.
2) I saw it in the cinema.
3) I saw it in the cinema with a close friend who was pregnant, and it was the first time I'd seen her since she'd started showing.
4) I like Clive Owen
5) I really admired the quality of the film making in the sense that it was done, very well & expertly, in hand-held, and nobody stooped to the urge to do that shaky-cam or sped-up cam crapola.

Oh, and
6) I've never had children of my own, and my biological clock is running out, if it hasn't already run out - and I wonder if that may play into my viewpoint in watching the movie.

[Microwaved]

I too saw it at the cinema, but I'll do you one better, I was with my pregnant wife. 11 month pregnant wife. We bawled through the whole final reel of that film. I mean full on crying in the theatre. The whole theatre was in tears.

That film tore me apart in a good way.

[watermelonpunch]

I'm glad someone else mentions hating the Constant Gardener. I hated every moment. I barely was able to make myself watch the whole thing. I found it painfully boring, and then boringly painful too. And supposedly I'm exactly the sort of person who should've liked it. I don't get it.

[watermelonpunch]

Reply by pihkal020 on March 16, 2008 at 9:27am
I knew a couple of lifelong 2001 haters who then went to see a 70mm big screen print of it and were silenced. :)

This is definitely true.
But also, I think there are other factors as well. Having read the book, for one thing. Second, if you're not clued into certain psychology points about the story on some level, it probably would seem lacking in storyline & substance.

[watermelonpunch]

I think Fargo was over-rated. It wasn't bad. But it was kind of just that trying to be cool thing that seemed a little annoying to me.

As for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - I thought it was an interesting concept made into a very insipid movie.