Movies everyone seems to love that you do not get?

Thank God I’m not alone in that. So true on both.

My go-to's are Fat City and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. Two better movies that I feel are still overrated are Sonatine and The Conformist.

I'm with you on that. I watched it about a month or two ago, my second or third watch of the film and while it's not bad by any means, it wouldn't probably even make a top 15 Bogart films list of mine, let alone greatest of all time.


My answer is The Dark Knight. It was a huge let down after Batman Begins which I thought was an interesting take on Batman, but then Nolan got too far into his quirks as a filmmaker and hasn't looked back. It has some cool moments, but as a whole it's uninspiring, too plot and exposition heavy and disjointed. It's just silly and the storytelling isn't nearly as tight as Batman Begins.

__________________
"A candy colored clown!"
Member since Fall 2002
Top 100 Films, clicky below

http://www.movieforums.com/community...ad.php?t=26201

I don't know how anyone can like a movie like Clockwork Orange. It's about a nasty group of people doing nasty things to innocent people and also to other nasty people. Yeah what a good film... Oh wait no it isn't...

It confounds me that people like Goodfellas. There's no coherence and the people are terrible to everyone. Yes I know it's a film about gangsters. How does that excuse their awful behavior? Why should we glorify deplorable people?

Lastly is Fight Club, which is a movie for self-righteous nerds who want to feel special and tough for a couple of hours by pretending they're anarchists and that fighting establishment with an underground fighting ring and insanity makes you cool.

__________________
I destroyed the dastardly dairy dame! I made mad milk maid mulch!

The Dark Knight would be my answer as well.

__________________
IMDb
Letterboxd

Yeah, I'm with you on all three. At least, I can appreciate the acting in Goodfellas, but for what? As for Fight Club and CW, both are lost on me. Clockwork Orange seemed downright nihilistic.

I don't worry too much about the characters in Fight Club, since, after a few years, they be brain-damaged anyway.

I can see that Barry Lyndon is on Amazon Prime but you have to pay. I probably won't.

Maybe I was a little harsh. I just don't like films where they glorify brutality. How do I explain the violent films I watch where they're brutal? Usually it's reluctant or in a different context, or the brutal person gets his comeuppance.

I don't think a war film where people are reluctantly in a harrowing situation is really the same as someone shooting someone else in the face to get what he wants.

My favorite gangster film is the Korean Bittersweet Life, in which most of the gangsters die. If memory serves, honestly it's been quite a while since I watched it, I believe they all die. Then in stuff like Goodfellas, while Pesci does die, Liotta and De Niro survive and continue to wreak havoc and are touted as heroes. I can't support that.

Getting through that movie is like walking through mud. It's possible, except unfortunately you will have a hard time and wish you were doing something else.

Yeah, this summarizes where I'm at on any movie where cruelty is presented as entertainment. When did people eating other people, people ripping up others with chainsaws or hatchets, and the like ... when did that become entertaining? The Last of Us was so popular I decided to give it a try, and I got only a few minutes into it before bailing when we see gramma eating someone. I do enjoy huge chunks of Pulp Fiction, but the scenes around The Gimp just make me pause and wonder ... how does anyone find this funny? I guess I've just got a weak stomach ...

__________________
Scarecrow: I haven't got a brain ... only straw. Dorothy: How can you talk if you haven't got a brain? Scarecrow: I don't know. But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't they? Dorothy: Yes, I guess you're right.

Far too much to unpack here for right now anyway, but interesting thoughts. Each of these films were absolutely trend setting and I love all three of them and they have been a part of my film-nerd conscious for the last 20 years. I actually had the chance in the past couple years to see A Clockwork Orange and Goodfellas on the big screen and they are both a marvel to behold in the format they were meant for. Fight Club I have not seen in the theaters.

Of those three, I think A Clockwork Orange is the best and most realized film. I also think it holds up best to repeat viewings as it's just other-worldly, both the style and the set design and world that's created. The pacing is also spectacular too with the first 20 minutes of sheer turbo-charged madness in showing Alex's misadventures with his droogs of an evening because his "come down" and lapse back in to the land of the living. It's artistry of the highest order and I've never seen anything like it before or since. It is a film that I got a lot out of at 20 years old and as also at 40 years old too.

Your are correct in that A Clockwork Orange features a nasty group of people, but before I would go into that subject more, do you not like films that are centered around non-redeemable characters or sociopaths or just villains?

Interesting because you have RAN as your third favorite film, yet it is probably more nihilstic and dark than Goodfellas, A Clockwork Orange, and Fight Club. I love RAN too by the way and it's one of the best films of the 1980s.

I saw Dark Knight in the IMAX, and it was, wow, amazeballs. But Nolan's a weird one for me in that he swings back and forth. Do I like this or that Nolan film? Maybe today I do, but the next time, it's possible I'll go, "Eh", and that applies to Dark Knight as well. I don't know why Nolan does that (for me at least) but he does.

But as for the topic, as I've gotten older, I've learned to not rage against a beloved classic as much, to watch myself with debate or heated negative reviews, because I've made such a jackass out of myself in the past... I remember being all of 19 and in some film debate, and I was so full of myself; but looking back now, I didn't know what the hell I was talking about. There are some older write-ups that make me cringe as well.

Not saying there's no validity in mine or anyone's negative opinions, just that I put the brakes on a bit, try to limit the egg on my face if I come back at a movie the next day and - oh, well, hmm. it seems I was wrong. Never mind.

That said, in the spirit of the thread. I need to rewatch Nightcrawler (2014), which I turned off half-way through. And give The Rules of the Game (1939) another go - I didn't care for the element of farce Renoir injected into that one, felt like oil and water, but again, I could be missing the point, and with a director like that, he/it deserves more consideration, and a second look (maybe even 3, or 4).

Edit - and watching on the big screen can make a world of difference, just something about being in that room with little to distract you (if the audience is respectful and quiet). BTW- waiting with anticipation for Fathoms 2025 schedule to be posted.

__________________
Completed Extant Filmographies: Luis Buńuel, Federico Fellini, Satyajit Ray, Fritz Lang, Andrei Tarkovsky, Buster Keaton, Yasujirō Ozu - (for favorite directors who have passed or retired, 10 minimum)

Eh the gimp stuff in Pulp Fiction never resonated with me. It felt extreme and grotesque and I couldn't really find a reason for it to be there other than shock value. I don't have a weak stomach. I just have a low tolerance for "Hey look; this guy got brutally murdered."

Slashers are a gray area for me. While I do like the original Friday the 13th, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Texas Chain Saw Massacre films, the sequels are almost all mindless mush, from what I've seen. I must make it known that the only Texas Chain Saw Massacre film I've seen is the original by Tobe Hooper. I've seen none of the rest. I have seen every sequel of the original run of the other three. They aren't very good... Freddy vs Jason is actually fairly entertaining because it works as a fantasy/action film when Freddy and Jason are pitted against each other.

I don't need brutality. I've not gone beyond thirty minutes of the first Terrifier film because I don't see the point in them. "This guy got ripped to pieces." I don't really need to watch that. Shock value for the sake of shock value just isn't appealing.

I mean Malcom McDowell kicking some dude in the head and raping his wife isn't my idea of a good time. Beating someone's nose into a pulp with the butt of a gun doesn't really appeal to me. Having sweaty guys punch each other and blow up public buildings doesn't speak to me positively. I don't expect film characters to be role models. I just don't like it when the abhorrent individuals are presented as heroic people.

There is a lot there, and I know what I stated is rather uncommon, hence why they fit in this thread; he says "Movies everyone seems to love that you do not get?" so I understand your response is an expected one.

Clockwork Orange I will always strongly dislike and I recognize people will always disagree with my assessment of it and I am okay with that. I know it's a wild social commentary, although I can't for the life of me remember what the commentary is (not because I don't think it exists else because I watched it 16 years ago). I totally understand my opinions are eclectic. I don't mount them on the mantle and brag. I just hold onto them tightly.

For Ran, it is different for me. I understand what you mean that Ran is dark and nihilistic. In my perspective there is at least one underlying difference; every awful person in Ran is touted as an awful person, and not as a heroic one. They all have to reap what they had sewn and all meet their comeuppance. It is bleak as hell. The difference here is they all get what they deserve. And that's just the writing. Ran is a beautiful film visually too. I could sympathize with the characters too. They felt very human and interesting.

Anyway I can see the points you made. Clockwork Orange has some sort of societal message or something? I can't remember. I just remember being appalled. I have always hated how Scorsese makes films, so my disliking of Goodfellas is of no surprise. Fight Club I believe is an anarchist thing about throwing out establishment, I think. I don't remember it that well. I just found it boring, mostly because I didn't sympathize with any of the characters so I couldn't care less what happened to any of them. I think that's one big issue I have with all three aforementioned film; I didn't like any of the main characters, so I didn't care what happened to them, so the movies were dull because it was all inconsequential.

I'm a horror movie fan, but I definitely prefer tension and implied violence, rather than direct gore.


Clockwork Orange is another one of those movies where I'm supposed to sympathize with a violent psychopath, and it just doesn't work for me.


But it's a fine line, because I did like American Psycho. But we weren't intended to sympathize with our killer in that one, and overall it fell more into the category of violent, dark humor. I'm not sure exactly where the lines are.


That says, a Clockwork Orange is a masterfully constructed movie, that never takes the easy way out. It's a violent, nasty story, filled with terrible people. Not my cup of tea, but I appreciate its value as cinematic art.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
It’s not a bad movie, but I found it to be full dull and uninteresting. I have no idea why this movie is so beloved. As far as Westerns go, films like Unforgiven, The Wild Bunch, and The Searchers are VASTLY superior.
With that being said, I loved the other movie that Redford, Newman, and Hill made together—The Sting.

Mark C

That's where I stand. Clockwork Orange is technically sound. I just didn't like what it portrayed. I strongly dislike how Kubrick wrote. I occasionally like his directing style to an extent. He is one of my least favorite high-profile filmmakers due to his films' screenplays and performances than his ability to piece them together. He should have stuck to cinematography honestly.

I'd guess nostalgia plays a big part in why people like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. That and it's just a non serious fun western. I like the movie but don't love it like many do. Now The Searchers and Unforgiven are amazing. The Unforgiven is really good too.

It's dangerous to fall into the chasm of "this film is better than that film". Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid has its merit even if it isn't the best Western ever made. I won't disparage anyone calling it "dull" or "uninteresting" although my adjectives would probably be "fluffy" and "light".

Quint and I were discussing, I believe it was Quint, the whole "this film vs that film" idea and how it's disingenuous to the "other" film to compare the films. It's best to take a film on its own than say "It's no Unforgiven".

Kubrick is very hit or miss, but his e execution is always masterful.


The biggest hits with me are Dr. Strangelove and the Shining.