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Super Mario Bros (1993) is this movie for me … it’s weird as hell and it’s adherence to the source material is … iffy at best … but god damn if it wasn’t a fun ride!
Then you read about how everyone hated the directors so much they literally got drunk on set and openly wore custom made shirts with slogans about how bad the directors were AND Bob Haskins was in a cast for most of it for an injury on set and it gets even more fascinating! The Directors poured hot coffee on people and just openly belittled everyone. It’s insane!
I love this movie. It’s gloriously cheesy and fun. I can see the poor ratings overall, but for 90s kids who were just pumped to see their favorite game on the big screen, this was an amazing moment in cinema.
yes, this is my answer as well! as much of a nightmare the filming process was for everyone i think it’s a legitimately good movie, not even “so bad it’s good”. it’s utterly bonkers & the production design is absolutely off the chain and i love it.
Not as extreme as the case in the OP, but I’m often surprised how “meh” a reaction Don’t Look Up got. Maybe people think it was heavy handed? Too on the nose? I don’t know but most folks seem to think it was at best merely “okay”.
For me, I place it next to Idiocracy as one of the most prescient films about what is in store for us. I think after this last election day, it seems even more prescient. On top of that, it is legitimately funny with really good performances, especially from Jennifer Lawrence.
Yeah, in my case this one was too close to home for me to love it. 10 or 20 years ago I probably would’ve felt differently. Similar for Idiocracy, I don’t think I’d feel the same way about it if it came out today. Kinda chilling when I think about that, honestly.
Welcome to Costco; I love you.
I like money though
Shut up im trying to watch ouch my balls!
I could go for a Starbucks
Now I know everybody’s shit is emotional right now…
Yeah, I’d call it heavy handed. It felt like it was a message first. Not as bad as the Daily Wire stuff, but going down that road. Even if I agree with the message, it felt contrived.
Just my two cents though.
That’s what I saw on reddit only for a week later to see someone argue that it’s not about climate change because it’s literally about a meteor.
So there you go, you probably weren’t the target audience
it makes sense to me. if the movie was supposed to be about climate change, why wouldn’t they make it about climate change?
is that something people do? make a comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification?
Agreed. It came across as preachy instead of entertaining, but it seemed like it was trying really hard to be entertaining.
I’ve gone over it again and again and again in my head and I still can’t make sense of it. He’s a three-star general. He works at the Pentagon. Why would he charge us for free snacks?
This part had me absolutely rolling. I loved that movie.
I loved Jonah Hill in that movie so much
It suffers from the “Reality is Unrealistic” trope. Seems so on the nose and heavy handed, yet is literally exactly how it would happen (and is arguably already happening).
In hindsight its kind of understatement.
Being so on the nose, to me, is part of the joke.
So obvious its blinding, and unrealistic. Just like reality lol.
Spot on. This thread got me to rewatch it tonight and I gotta say, it hits even harder this close to the election. Almost painfully plausible.
It’s not a true story, but it is a very high fidelity representation of reality.
I couldn’t watch it, not because it wasn’t good but because I was constantly getting unbelievably depressed about how accurately it mirrors the world today. Every scene had me thinking “this would be funny if it wasn’t exactly how it would actually pan out.” I think it might be hilarious a few decades after this all blows over but right now it hits way too close to home.
a few decades after this all blows over
Up. You mean blows up.
Or, in the Homerian fashion, ‘It’s Funny Coz It’s True’, really not in some cases, but laughter may help some people cope. Agreed. I also hate prattfall comedy for similar reasons, empathy, self-reflection, rational fear, those things…
I really liked that movie. Great example for me, too.
It’s one of the least forgettable movie I’ve seen in a while (it’s a good thing) and the concept is just so good because it’s idiotic but at the same time completely true
I tried watching that. But the wilful idiocy and mocking scene at the start just invoked such a rage in me i knew i was gonna stroke out if i kept going
It’s been a long time I got as visceral of a feeling as I got when watching that film and Leo’s character’s meltdown as the impending doom is happening an noone seems to be giving a fuck
Too fucking relatable and more every day.
I just loved the pacing of Don’t Look Up so much. Just constant subversion of expectations that I really enjoyed
As a kid, I couldn’t believe how funny Wild Wild West is
It did not hold up well.
I think it did.
But I grew up watching the TV show, and others like it (Get Smart), and appreciate the style of humor.
I think the divide on this is knowing what that genre is about, and some people just don’t appreciate that kind of humor.
I get it, I like these movies/shows, but don’t like the 3 Stooges.
I still think the movie slaps
So I just watched it for the first time earlier this year and honestly it wasn’t bad. It’s cheesy (and by most measures not a great film), but it was genuinely fun to watch.
Eh, I never saw it as a kid, and I watched it recently… imo it’s a decent action flick. It barely makes sense in more than one way but I still enjoyed the ride
Me too! I saw it in theaters and cracked up the whole time. Haven’t watched it again since then, but I did listen to an interview with the director who essentially disowned the movie. He said something to the effect of: “the couple of moments that were cute were not worth the overall quality of the film.” He said Klein and Smith had no chemistry. He also basically confirmed the Will Smith MIB fart rumor in the same interview.
He also basically confirmed the Will Smith MIB fart rumor in the same interview.
Say what now?
Will Smith is a farter… he’s, you know, a lovely guy. Just, he farts. Some do, some don’t.
I like that this director thinks that there are some people wired different to just never fart. But with that being said, I kind of get where he’s coming from. One of my brothers has no problem letting farts rip. One of his crowning achievements was making a pregnant lady puke when she walked into his office after he had been hot boxing it for a few hours.
I like that this director thinks that there are some people wired different to just never fart
As a fabled never farter I can confirm, I simply do not fart outside of during bowel movements.
I’m trying to convince my kids that “dads don’t fart” because that will be hilarious when they learn the truth
I loved Equilibrium and was surprised it wasn’t rated as good.
I’ve never met a person who I know has seen it but doesn’t like Equilibrium.
…And it’s at a 7.3 on IMDb. That’s a pretty good rating.
Huh that’s interesting. I kinda remember it not being that well received at the time. It did get a cult following over the years so maybe the IMDb rating has gone up since then?
It flopped at the box and was regarded as a ripoff of the matrix’s aesthetics by critics. But it was well received by home audiences. I remember it fondly as a quick to syndication movie. It definitely has some lows in quality at points and the plot could’ve been stronger. But its highs were very solid.
It definitely has some lows in quality at points and the plot could’ve been stronger. But its highs were very solid.
Would you say that overall, it managed to achieve … Equilibrium?
It’s Thanos’ favorite movie
It was widely compared to the matrix which I did, but watching later it is a great movie in its own right
I nearly literally started a friendship based on showing the other person this movie. It’s a fantastic movie and apparently why Christian Bale was chosen as Batman.
I cried harder at that dog scene in that movie than any other movie ever. Even right now I’m tearing up thinking about it. It may have been in part because I watched it alone so I didn’t feel the need to filter myself at all and there wasn’t anyone to comfort me. Fuck, man. Fuck.
But yeah, apart from that, I liked it too. It’s a bit cheesy, sure, but I really enjoyed a lot of it. I thought the gun stuff was cool. I forget the name they have it. Gun Kata or something? Like when they’d slide into a pitch black room and just shoot all around them. That was cool. It’s such a cheesy thing but so cool lol.
Back when Netflix had everything I watched that one thinking it would be a cool scifi film, but turns out its a kong fu movie and I was not in the mood for a that so I was disappointed. The sound track slapped though!
Equilibrium is great but it’s hard to see it as something else than a b-movie even with my rose tinted glasses
Lol my mom watched every version on the DVD. Probably watched more times than me. Amazing movie.
It’s one of the films I keep going back to in my mind. So clever. The way it makes one root for the main character and the emotional uprising, only to be, in the end, made aware of the awful things emotions can do. The ending makes you reconsider whether the unnatural emotionless society at the beginning could actually be a preferable solution despite the imperfection. It’s so good.
I have a friend who recommends literally every single thing he watches. He’ll watch the stupidest movie in the world and be like “wow, that was awesome!”. I envy how much enjoyment he can receive from terrible movies and TV shows.
I’m that friend, except I’ll preface it with “You know I like a lot of garbage movies, but…”
Lucky!
I love me some bad movies!
I actually liked sucker punch.
Seems like alot of people didn’t get the A B C B A style of story telling that it did. I get on so many arguments with IRL people over it.
A) real world beginning and end of movie. she is in an asylum.
B) In her mind she is elsewhere dancing to get items to escape.
C)her dancing is shown as boss battles because her dancing is her fighting for her life in her mind.
I still can’t decide if it’s a brilliant retelling of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest or schlocky trash, but it sure is fun.
A little of both. I mean they ended the same.
I saw it in the cinema, left with mixed feelings. I should probably rewatch it
I was surprised by the reaction to this movie. I really enjoyed it.
the A B C B A style of story telling
“Chiastic structure” is the five-dollar term.
See also Robocop.
Thanks! I didn’t know that.
I wasn’t confused by the story, I was bored by the terrible action
I’ll never not like Waterworld
Waterworld is fine. It just gets ragged on because of its insane budget and the lackluster results for said budget. But if you don’t care about that and just watch a movie, it’s a decent movie.
The Simpsons joke where the tie in video game needs 40 quarters is still funny though.
Is that simply a reference to it going over budget? I never got that joke.
The movie was infamously over budget. It basically doubled from its initial budget and was for the time a record expensive movie to make. All of that for a final product that was fine but not really showing all that money on screen. It was the topic of many late night show jokes and such.
What was the reason it went so overboard with the budget?
Storm trashed the key giant expensive set
Like most, I totally disagree. However, it had such great potential.
I feel the same about Valerian. The imagery was pure eye candy and then I watched it, so looking forward to a great flick, and what I got was… Valerian.
The setting and design in Valerian is fantastic. The opening sequence really is among the best in film. Shame about the plot and main characters.
The plot was bad, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie close to how bad the romantic chemistry was between the main characters. There was negative chemistry, in fact they felt more like brother and sister which just made the whole thing creepy.
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It’s definitely a spectacle.
I watched it at release time. And the scene where Kevin Kostner run through his boat activating various sail and gadget to escape the bad guy is still engraved in my memory as the most badass thing ever. Was obsessed about the revelation of him having gills too.
All that because it was heavily inspired of one of my favorite Sci-fi series: The Pandora Sequence by F. Herbert (where the 2 last book are on a water planet, where human evolved for this world)
NB: the second book in the series was the source material for a more successful movie “Avatar” by Cameron. In the “Jesus incident” the planet is hostile to human, and there is a magical plant controlling it named “avata”… just to name a few similarity … they are endless
I feel exactly the same way! I was a huge book nerd in the 80s and Frank Herbert was some core sci-fi exposure for me.
Yep. Great movie, watched it in cinema and a few times later. Still don’t understand how people didn’t like it.
F you and Saint Joe Hazelwood. I love sails.
“'Cause she’s my friend.” Will always have my respect for not phoning it in and just cashing the check.
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Star Wars: The Last Jedi
I saw it the day it came out and thought it was a brilliant departure from the macguffin-based plots that had come before, and it showed so many different things that had never been in a Star Wars movie before.
Turns out all Star Wars fans want is more of the exact same that had been in the previous 7 movies.
Honestly I loved both the direction that Rian Johnson clearly wanted to take the sequels and I loved the direction that JJ Abrams clearly wanted to take the sequels and I honestly wish Disney had just stuck with one of them for the entire trilogy and let the other do a trilogy as well. We all know how badly Disney wanted to pump out a Star Wars film every year during that timeframe so that way they could’ve had their cake and eaten it too
I agree with the other guy somewhat - take out a lot of the casino scene and it’s the best star wars movie so far.
I’m pissed Johnson isn’t going to get the trilogy he was promised. Instead, we got Abrams making the most corporate star wars to date, and that’s saying something
The casino scene is the crux of the movie. The main character - Rose - is a loyal soldier who stops a deserter ‘or her sister died for nothing.’ Planet Capitalism is where she’s disillusioned by war profiteers and makes the unsubtle decision to free their animals. By the end she prevents said deserter from repeating her sister’s sacrifice.
The Last Jedi is an anarchist critique of of Star Wars where a rebel soldier rejects the old lie.
I have no fucking idea how Disney decided to produce it as an actual Star Wars film.
This has won me over. I was kinda meh about it outside of the nice visuals, but this clicked it together for me.
Thank you.
Years later, I’m still flabbergasted this isn’t the default take. The movie has deep problems, but the themes are right there in your face.
The only way it doesn’t put “anyone can be a hero” onscreen in eight-foot-tall letters is the ending. Which sure feels like Disney checked in, went “Oh SHIT,” and forced a sudden fourth act that over-corrects back toward the status quo.
Imagine if Rey hadn’t arrived on Krait. Kylo offers her the universe, she inhales to answer, hard cut. We don’t see either of them until the next movie. Instead, when the last gasp of the Rebellion was pushed deep into the caves, some rando side character saves them. A nobody with significant screen time watches the whimsical native fauna casually nudge giant boulders, and decides to just fuckin’ try. In an ideal reading, this character would not have dialog. She would not even have a name. Who she is aggressively does not matter. Only that she understood what Luke said and Rey ignored: the Force is in all living things.
Nobody can own that.
Oh I meant I liked Last Jedi, it was the only good one.
The scene I wasn’t sure of, but the movie over all was good. I like the idea that Ray is a no one, and that helps the idea that anyone can be anything.
And then “whoops, youre only powerful because force eugenics!”
If you remove the whole space casino bit, I would agree with you.
If they had completely scrapped the casino arc it would fix so many problems. Not only would that shitty, worthless sequence not exist, but they would’ve had screen time to put in more quality stuff. Imagine if at the end of the movie the big reveal was that Palpatine was alive. Instead, they had to put that into a messy scroller at the beginning of the third movie.
Or they could just not bring back literally the most boring villain possible.
And I want to be very clear that I’m not saying the Emperor is the most boring villain in cinema history, even though he is. I’m saying he’s the most boring villain possible.
When he was introduced in the original trilogy he was a nameless old man in a robe. Defining characteristics? None. Voice? Evil. Face? Evil. Motivation? Evil. Outfit? Featureless robe, black because he’s evil.
The best part about The Last Jedi was that they were fixing the downgrade that RotJ made of replacing the most badass movie villain of all time with – I can’t stress this enough – the most boring villain possible. TLJ killed the Emperor stand-in and set Kylo Ren up as the real villain. That was exciting.
But then they let fan forums write the third movie, and somehow, the Emperor came back.
I’d say it’s quite annoying in its imperfections, as they make it quite an easy target and that undermines what it was trying to achieve. Washed-up, beaten Luke Skywalker drinking blue milk? Great. Reframing the Force as a cryptic balance that goes far beyond the Jedi Order’s sacred tomes? Great. Undoing the obsession with the special noble bloodlines. Also great.
Honestly its especially annoying to those of us who have a good grasp of the old lore. Hell half of what you listed is kinda done in KOTOR 1 & 2.
Beaten washed up Jedi, heres the exile and to a degree Kreia.
The force is esoteric force deconstruction heres fucking Kreia and her goddamn thesis.
No obsession with bloodlines and shit, might I introduce you to the Mando killer, the Malacor evaporator, Darth motherfucken Revan.
But seriously the Sequels really did just retread old ground, hell in Dark Empire we atleast got evil Luke Skywalker and a Droid army.
I thought it was alright. One thing that really bugged me is that if you’re chasing someone in space why not call another ship to cut them off, or just… fly faster. Idk it didn’t make a lot of sense to me lol
Yes, but at least this one has 91% critic rating on RT.
The original trilogy is over-rated.
There, I said it.
First movie is 100% forgettable by today’s standards. Empire Strikes Back is a great sci-fi movie by any standard, and Return of the Jedi is totally a lackluster finale. I think I agree with you
It’s easily the best of the sequel trilogy, and most popular criticism is total nonsense.
It’s still a hot mess.
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was my jam as a little girl… but it might just be because I ended up being bisexual and there’s a lot of beautiful and badass people in it.
Yes I remember enjoying this movie. I loved all of the characters from legends and stories, as well as all of its steampunk elements. It’s totally underrated.
That car with the four front wheels was epic
I watched the behind the scenes for that movie and found out that it wasn’t even drivable. It had to be pulled for all the chase scenes with a cable along the set. Now when I’ve put it on I only look at how the car moves. That’s one of those movies people took too seriously, it was fun.
Have you ever read the comics? Quick read, and vol 2 is a straight up banger.
Fun movie! Idk if I ever bought the DVD but I would always watch it when it was on TV.
LGX would make a good streaming series if the budget was generous.
It has a lot going for it, and a really great setting/foundation for a thing.
I gotta read those comics sometime.
Huh. I enjoyed The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen myself, but never really thought to look up the reviews. I never had any idea that movies was so disliked by reviewers. I suppose I’ve found the movie I liked but everyone else seems to think is terrible.
i feel like it’s much harder when you finish a movie, and you hate it, and then find out it’s one of the most critically acclaimed movies of all time.
this was my experience watching taxi driver. to this day, i have not been able to find a single other person who disliked that movie as much as i did
Fuck ‘em.
A good movie is a movie you enjoyed watching. Full stop.
This is why I’ve adopted the ACG-style rating for reviewing stuff. So, for movies it’ll be basically: must watch asap; wait till available to stream/BD/pirate; watch if you got nothing else to watch; skip.
This is your regular reminder that a 20% on Rotten Tomatoes means that 20% of reviewers liked the movie. The RT score represents chance that a reviewer liked it, not overall weighted score or how much they enjoyed it.
Yes it’s odds that you will like the movie going in.
Besides, aggregate scores are hard to work with.
The best thing you can do, when dealing with critics imo, is to find a critic with similar sensibilities to you, and then figure out the things they like.
If a critic hates car chases and you love them, it doesn’t matter what the score is, because you can see them score it low for car chases and use that information. What matters more than score with critics is consistency.
Exactly! The best thing I ever did was find two similar movies with similar scores, but I hated one and loved the other, then find any critics that agreed with me. Turned out there were only two and one of those ended up being one of the most enriching people I read regularly even today.
The critic is Walter Chaw and the movies were Live Free Or Die Hard and X-men 3. Both stupid action flicks that got similar RT scores, but I hated X-men 3 and loved Die Hard. Instantly fell in love with Walter Chaw when I saw his blurb for X-men 3 was “Michael Bay’s Schindler’s List.” lol
I watched Last Action Hero a few years ago for the first time, and it honestly didn’t even feel that dated. It held up!
Just had this experience with The Men Who Stare At Goats. Thought it was a good watch, like 6.2 on IMDb. Would recommend
6-7 on IMDB is a pretty decent score, plenty of good movies in that range. If it’s 5 and below it means it’s right proper schlock.
That’s not how IMDb rating works. It’s just an aggregate based on the number of users voting on it. It’s basically useless at distinguishing a stinker from a watchable weeknight movie from a masterpiece. Rotten Tomatoes attempts to address this imbalance with a weighted scheme, which usually works better for well-known movies.
I also highly recommend the book (and all of Jon Ronson tbh)
I read the book first which made me really not like the movie. I think in a vacuum the movie is fine, but the heavy fictionalization to the point of preposterousness of something that was only one part of the book was just such a twisting. The book was about government waste, fraud, and abuse. The movie was about a wacky special forces guy who could apparently on some level actually use powers.
I thoroughly enjoyed that one
Constantine. I’ve seen it dozens of times and it never gets old. Tilda Swinton as Gabriel and Peter Stormare as Satan are a big part of why.
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