Overrated "classics"

[Meatballs]

Funnily enough I was about to say the same thing and then I realised I had mixed it up with bits of Tigerland in my head...so I didn't

I have hot shots, hot shots part deux, fmj, apocalypse now, platoon, and random vietnam movies seen late night all mixed into my brain.

Oh topper!

 

[DaGaffer]

What defines a 'classic' - surely you're not going on the recommendations of the local tv listings writers opinion?

Is Shawshank Redemption a classic or just a very good film? Next you'll start honking on about 'cult' films which is just a silly phrase used by the media to describe crap like Jim Jarmusch films.

Shawshank regularly gets voted top ten or top five in the various polls that are always popping up; Empire, BFI, Channel 4 etc. etc. Of course, there are going to be people who say that's bollocks, but its as good a measure as any, and most of these polls usually end up with 2 or 3 of most people's favourite films in them. Personally, yes, I'd say Shawshank is a classic, but everyone's got their own views; for instance I'm increasingly struggling with Star Wars' status in most polls as 'best film evah' , but I think that's because The Beard's poisoned the well with his episode 1 and 2 shit.

 

[Scooba da Bass]

Agreed, I'd also like to nominate ghost in the shell.

Much the same with any scene that has fanatical fanboys. Anime nuts will rave about anything that comes out, regardless of how great it is.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

I know there's more, but I can't think of them right now... but the Mad Max series. They're god awful, badly acted, badly directed, badly written pieces of nonsensical SHIT.

 

[00dave]

And they have Mel Gibson in them

 

[Astfgl]

...which is always a bad sign...

 

[Scouse]

There's too much to have a pop at here but the "anything by Alfred Hitchcock" bit made me spit half-chewed roast lamb and mint sauce on my loverly 21" monitor....



North by Northwest anyone??? Fucking wall-to-wall genius.

Vertigo???


Psycho is utter tripe tho

 

[Paradroid]

A while back me and the missus were going to the pics alot, when one fatefull day, on a whim, we decided to go and see Zoolander...

*sigh*

The worst part of my experience was that after 10-20 minutes I knew that I wanted to leave, but I didn't say anything because I didn't want to ruin the film for the missus...after an hour of drivel (masquerading as comedy) the missus pronounced it was shite and we fled the sparsely populated theatre - deciding that we'd rather stand in a bus stop than sit through the rest of the "funny movie"...

Hey, maybe it picked-up in the last 30-40 minutes...don't care, too annoying to watch...

PS There were also 3 kids, a few rows behind us, who couldn't stop laughing at stuff that wasn't even supposed to be funny !!! (ffs)....and I was probably the most stoned person in there at the time !!! (ffs)

: /

 

[leggy]

That's interesting but what has it got to do with classics?

 

[gmloki]

All the film boffs who look down there nose at you our works hailed the Royal Tenanbaums as a comedy classic. What a pile of monkey sp*nk that was

 

[xane]

for instance I'm increasingly struggling with Star Wars' status in most polls as 'best film evah' , but I think that's because The Beard's poisoned the well with his episode 1 and 2 shit.

The problem with Star Wars, as I keep on mentioning, is most of the cinema audiences now were not even born when it was released, and therefore miss the whole "thing" about where sci-fi was at.

It was a classic film because of the groundbreaking special effects and epic storyline, sci-fi up to that point was tacky models on wires, blurry coloured blob effects, and based on trashy short stories found in most pulp science fiction.

Compare the effects and story of films like Dark Star and Silent Running, made a few years before Star Wars, or even Close Encounters of the Third Kind of the same year, they have hardly moved on since Barbarella.

(I'm not saying those films were bad, I enjoyed them all, but they lacked the epic feel of Star Wars).

What you see in Star Wars is everyday special effects nowdays, you needed to have been there to truely recognise how advanced the entire film was in its day.

 

[nath]

I don't agree.. entirely. I was too young to see them in the cinema (apart from ROTJ, and the ewoks scared me so much I had a tantrum and my mum had to take me out of the cinema). The first proper time I saw the triliogy was when my friend lent me the VHS tapes when I was about 13. They ruled, the special effects were still good.. but not ground breaking, it was almost all about the story. I think epic is entirely the right word to use, and that's what makes them such special films.

But yeah, the new two are utter toss.

 

[DaGaffer]

What you see in Star Wars is everyday special effects nowdays, you needed to have been there to truely recognise how advanced the entire film was in its day.

I was there - being old and crumbly as I am, and I know what you mean, but Star Wars captivated me when I was 11 years old, and that's actually what it is, a film for 11 year olds; leaps and bounds ahead of anything else at the time for sure, but as you get older you start to take it apart on grounds other than 'are the effects cool or not?' and it doesn't stand up that well. Add in all the extra baggage from the last 25 years and it gets worse. Fact is, even from that period, Close Encounters was better Sci-Fi and Raiders a better adventure yarn.

 

[Jonny_Darko]

I reckon the following are overrated:

Apocalypse Now
Scarface
Blade Runner

All of those films are the kind of films you're not allowed to say are overrated but hell with it.

 

[Scouse]

Disagree with all 3 of those m8.

And Star Wars is in no way overrated



Singing in the Rain on the other hand - fucking wank.

 

[throdgrain]

At last Im tempted to join in this thread.
Star wars ? Utter drivel imo, new films as well as the old ones.

 

[gmloki]

At last Im tempted to join in this thread.
Star wars ? Utter drivel imo, new films as well as the old ones.

First 3 star wars were good. It did have that feel of epic as mentioned in previous replies. It has certainly lost a lot of its veneer after Lucas insisted on bringing out another box set every 18 months. Digitally remastered, new footage, New footage and digitally remastered, yadda yadda yadda. It wil be interesting to see how the new one shapes up when its released next year

2nd two were poor. The script and dialoge in Attack of the Clones and The Phantom Menace were awful. Possibly worst than awful.

 

[jas_k1]

never could get into starwars cos i was too young to understand and now i'm too old to care but mainly cos I prefer comedies

Can't beat laughing your arse off in the cinema!!!

 

[throdgrain]

First 3 star wars were good. It did have that feel of epic as mentioned in previous replies. It has certainly lost a lot of its veneer after Lucas insisted on bringing out another box set every 18 months. Digitally remastered, new footage, New footage and digitally remastered, yadda yadda yadda. It wil be interesting to see how the new one shapes up when its released next year

2nd two were poor. The script and dialoge in Attack of the Clones and The Phantom Menace were awful. Possibly worst than awful.

imo the first ones were dreadful too.
I went to see Star Wars when it came out at the pictures, and yeah I quite liked it then, but i was 12 years old or something. A couple of years later it did nothing for me at all.
To this day ive never even seen the whole of the ewok film.

 

[Moving Target]

First 2 star wars were good.

Fixed.

 

[ReActor]

Personally I've seen the 'classicness' in most classics I've watched. One exception would be Goodfellas, which struck me as a bloated, rambling mess of a film. It got to the end and I thought, what is the point of this film? Why does it start there and stop here? Just felt really empty.

 

[yaruar]

absolutely anything made by woody allen...

it's not only unfunny comedy, but quite frankly disturbing watching a man have women throw themselves at him when he's old enough to be their grandfather and looks like a child molester anyway...

 

[throdgrain]

Agreed about Woody Allen

 

[Afx]

Reservoir dogs, Memento, The usual suspects.
Dont get me wrong, All three of them are good....But thats all.

 

[xane]

Depends which Woody Allen film.

You have the really depressingly awful films like Manhatten, and then the excellent comedies like Sleeper, Bananas, A Midsummers Nights Sex Comedy and Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex ..., and those that flounder inbetween like Annie Hall, Hanna And Her Sisters, etc.

Admittedly some are very crap, but then comes along Crimes And Misdemeanours which is very nearly a classic.

 

[xane]

the special effects were still good.. but not ground breaking,

No, tell me a film made before Star Wars that had that level of effects, there was nothing like it ever seen before, believe me.

 

[nath]

You missed my point, I was talking about when I watched them.. i.e. long after they were originally released.

 

[old.user4556]

When Kill Bill and Donnie Darko become "classics" in a few years, they will be the worst classics.

So utterly overrated. The next person to say to me "ahh you don't like donnie darko because you don't understand it" will be taken to the desert and shot in the face.

 

[Bodhi]

No, tell me a film made before Star Wars that had that level of effects, there was nothing like it ever seen before, believe me.

I found some of the effects in 2001 far more convincing tbh.


Obviously not the massive acid trip at the end. That's starting to look a bit silly nowadays.

 

[Jonaldo]

The Black Hole