The Chronic Curmudgeon

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August 22, 2005

20 "Overrated" Movies

While they blew it on their Website (come out with a list, publicize that the list exists, and then don't even put the list on the site? what the hell?), Premiere magazine has come up with a list of "The 20 Most Overrated Movies of All Time." This might be even more fun than a Best Movies list. Thankfully, despite Premiere's Web stupidity, someone in blogtopia posted the list (so thank you, Kulturblog!).

I'll post my take on five of their list at a time... and then will perhaps add a few of my own to complete the effort. So awaaaay we go with Premiere's list of the 20 most overrated movies.

20. The Wizard of Oz. So much has been made of this movie, standing as it does as a Thanksgiving weekend tradition on TV, and with nearly every element of the film having become a cliche. The entire movie's a meme -- from "We're not in Kansas anymore" to the Yellow Brick Road to Munchkins to "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain." So I can understand why some would call it overrated.

But you have to take into account how far ahead of its time this movie was. You have to take into account how deeply the film, its story, and its imagery have become ingrained in our collective consciousness. You have to take into account the power of a film that 65 years later still captivates little kids. You have to say that The Wizard of Oz has no place on a list of overrated movies.

19. The Red Shoes. I've never even heard of The Red Shoes. I had to look it up on IMDB just to find out what it was. I could say that the very fact that I haven't even heard of it makes it overrated. Instead, I'll just opt to watch a few episodes of The Red Shoe Diaries... that's what Cinemax is for.

18. Nashville. Another one I've never seen. Either this means I haven't seen many movies, or I just have the good taste and smarts enough not to watch overrated movies. Either way, I have no opinion on the film "Nashville."

17. Mystic River. Premiere's entire list just lost pretty much all of its credibiity for including Mystic River. This was far and away the Best Picture of 2003 -- far better than that stupid movie about elves and hobbits. This is the finest collection of outstanding performances, from the most stellar cast, so far this decade. And while Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and Marcia Gay Harden got Oscar nominations, and Kevin Bacon got plenty of attention, the film's most accurate Boston accent (and in my opinion it's best performance) belonged to Laurence Fishburne. This movie is on my "ten best of the 2000s" list - hardly belongs on an overrated list. Glaring failure here.

16. Moonstruck. God, I hated this movie. Hated it, hated it, kept hating it, took a walk, went to the store, came back, and hated it some more. Cher is on my list of Ten Most Annoying Celebrities (a list I'll share some time). This may be the biggest case of "every movie and every performance sucked this year, but we had to give the Oscar to somebody, so here you go" in Oscar history. I've disagreed with Premiere so far on every movie they've listed that I've actually seen... but my only disagreement with them here is that "Moonstruck" should have been higher on the overrated list than just 16th.

Coming tomorrow... my take on Premiere's spots #15-11.

Posted by Christopher on August 22, 2005 09:20 PM

Comments

Posted by: Cuzin Jose at August 23, 2005 12:41 AM

Posted by: Curmudgeon at August 23, 2005 06:44 AM

Posted by: Steve Evans at August 24, 2005 06:26 PM