What movie, to you, was criminally OVERrated?

Question

abc3643 · Accepted Answer

"The Happening" by M. Night Shamaladingdong. It was made in 2008 and was actually rather gripping. However, there wasn't a lot of action to go with the menace (it involved plants causing people to harm themselves). Roger Ebert got it though and I agree with his review.

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The Happening
Action 91 minutes ‧ R ‧ 2008
Roger Ebert
June 12, 2008
3 out of 4 stars

"If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live." -- Albert Einstein

An alarming prospect, and all the more so because there has been a recent decline in the honeybee population. Perhaps it is comforting to know that Einstein never said any such thing -- less comforting, of course, for the bees. The quotation appears on a blackboard near the beginning of M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening," a movie that I find oddly touching. It is no doubt too thoughtful for the summer action season, but I appreciate the quietly realistic way Shyamalan finds to tell a story about the possible death of man.

One day in Central Park, people start to lose their trains of thought. They begin walking backward. They start killing themselves. This behavior spreads through Manhattan, and then all of the Northeast. Construction workers throw themselves from scaffolds. Policemen shoot themselves. The deaths are blamed on a "terrorist attack," but in fact no one has the slightest clue, and New York City is evacuated.

We meet Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg), a Philadelphia high school science teacher; the quote was on his blackboard. We meet his wife, Alma (Zooey Deschanel); his friend, Julian (John Leguizamo), and Julian's daughter, Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez). They find themselves fleeing on a train to Harrisburg, Pa., although people learn from their cell phones that the plague, or whatever it is, may have jumped ahead of them.

Now consider how Shyamalan shows the exodus from Philadelphia. He avoids all the conventional scenes of riots in the train station, people killing Philadelphia, not New York, and shows the population as quiet and apprehensive. If you don't know what you're fleeing, how would you behave? Like this, I suspect.

Julian entrusts his daughter to Elliot and Alma, and goes in search of his wife. The train stops -- permanently -- at a town. The three hitch a ride in a stranger's car, and later meet others who are fleeing, from what or to what, they do not know. Elliot meets a man who talks about a way plants have of creating hormones to kill their enemies, and he develops a half-baked theory that man may have finally delivered too many insults to the grasses and the shrubs, the flowers and the trees, and their revenge is in the wind.

By now the three are trekking cross-country through Pennsylvania, joined by two young boys, who they will eventually lose. They walk on, the wind moaning ominously behind them, and come to the isolated country home of Mrs. Jones (Betty Buckley), a very odd old lady. Here they eat and spend the night and other events take place, and Elliot and Alma find an opportunity to discuss their love and reveal some secrets and speculate about what dread manifestation has overtaken the world.

Too uneventful for you? Not enough action? For me, Shyamalan's approach is more effective than smash-and-grab plot-mongering. His use of the landscape is disturbingly effective. The performances by Wahlberg and Deschanel bring a quiet dignity to their characters. The strangeness of starting a day in New York and ending it by hiking across a country field is underlined. Most of the other people we meet, not all, are muted and introspective. Had they been half-expecting some such "event" as this?

I know I have. For some time the thought has been gathering at the back of my mind that we are in the final act. We have finally insulted the planet so much that it can no longer sustain us. It is exhausted. It never occurred to me that vegetation might exterminate us. In fact, the form of the planet's revenge remains undefined in my thoughts, although I have read of rising sea levels and the ends of species.

What I admire about "The Happening" is that its pace and substance allowed me to examine such thoughts, and to ask how I might respond to a wake-up call from nature. Shyamalan allows his characters space and time as they look within themselves. Those they meet on the way are such as they might indeed plausibly meet. Even the TV and radio news is done correctly, as convenient cliches about terrorism give way to bewilderment and apprehension.

I suspect I'll be in the minority in praising this film. It will be described as empty, uneventful, meandering. But for some, it will weave a spell. It is a parable, yes, but it is also simply the story of these people and how their lives and existence have suddenly become problematic. We depend on such a superstructure to maintain us that one or two alterations could leave us stranded and wandering through a field, if we are that lucky.

Zack-Bann · Accepted Answer

The dark knight

People glaze it because of Heath Ledger’s tragic passing but if you omit that fact the movie was nothing special

Predictable story beats
Lacks the esthetic and atmosphere of a Batman story
Joker is not that huge of a psycho, he does classic comic book villain tropes

It’s a good movie but a long way from being the cultural sensation that people pretend it is

Gold618 · Accepted Answer

The Matrix! That film was average at best, a solid five out of ten, and yet people have been gushing over it ever since and, what's worse, I hear many people say stupid things like, "Did you know we're actually living in the matrix?", and "Have you taken the blue pill rather than the red?" It has seeped into our culture in a most insidious way, and now we have conspiracy idiots on YouTube who believe that our reality is fake. ALL because of that film!

Aubrey97 · Accepted Answer

Maybe if I were a guy I'd feel differently but I thought Fight Club was the dumbest thing ever, and I don't even slightly understand the cult following it has.

Cinematic Lily · Accepted Answer

The movie "Avatar" comes to mind. Visually, it's a masterpiece, and its groundbreaking effects were incredible at the time. 🌌 However, I found the storyline quite predictable and reminiscent of other films. It received a massive amount of attention, but for me, it didn't match the depth or originality of some other films from that era.

docster · Answer

I'm about 2/3 the way through Spring Breakers for the first time. On DirecTV they list it as 4 out of 5 stars. So far I would give it 1.

Most Tarantino films aren't worth watching, in my opinion. The only one I've found that I like is Inglorious Basterds.

NathanDavis · Answer

I don't really see movies like that... more or less appreciated by more or less people does not really make a difference to me I either like them or not, or I enjoy them very much or I don't... lol

BCRanger10 · Answer

Joker. How and why  anyone  thought that movie was good is a mystery that would drive Sherlock Holmes into certifiable insanity.

Nikki1989 · Answer

Titanic. The biggest, most overrated snooze-fest I have ever had the misfortune to sit, though.

DryGermanGuy · Answer

Pretty Woman. So unbelievable and silly. More a star vehicle than a movie.

danielle872024 · Answer

Barbie

TheRealPepperPotts · Answer

Oh, definitely  Gone With The Wind . I can't get through that movie. It's sooooo long and so boring. Frankly, I just don't give a... :D

ThatGuyAaron · Answer

Maybe Avengers End Game? Maybe I'm just tired of superhero movies, but it wasn't worth the hype in my opinion.

ProbablyClueless · Answer

Oppenheimer.  I'm glad so many people loved it, but I just did not see the magic of it lol

BetaBucks · Answer

Star Wars movies and every comic/superhero movie after 2005.

exitseven · Answer

I thought that Scarface with Al Pacino was a terrible movie but a lot of people went to see it.

CarolinaGirl5 · Answer

Lord of the rings I seen 30 minutes and just turned it off lol. Too much. Star trek and star wars boring too

Agape93 · Answer

The godfather. It's boring as fuck to me.  Any superhero movie.  Old slasher movies

Anonymous · Answer

The Notebook. It's just a story about a cuckolding, abusive woman, wrapped up as a romance story.

goaded · Answer

I think probably ET, but I never did get around to watching it.

Jackblue · Answer

Black Panther, that movie was terrible, I hated it so much I walked out of the theater.

GlowUpGirly5 · Answer

Lord of the rings its boring as hell omg. I fell asleep within 3 seconds.

Chloe1225 · Answer

The Godfather it was boring.

IslaTheWitch · Answer

most of them lol

DrPepper12 · Answer

Anything with Adam Sandler in it.

Deserter2 · Answer

I find most old movies boring. Star Wars is overrated. The old movies I like are like The Wizard of Oz

Coden7 · Answer

Elf is an overrated Christmas movie

TheStaleMarshmellow · Answer

Taylor Swift The Eras tour movie.

David5668 · Answer

Anything with Tom Cruise in the credits

Purpleronnie · Answer

All marvel movies 🎥

moneymagnet24 · Answer

I don't watch movies I watch you 😏

CubaPirate · Answer

Far too many to single one out

Flower7 · Answer

Avatar

Anonymous · Answer

Manchester By The Sea.

Ms_Facesitter · Answer

Frozen.

Anonymous · Answer

Wicked.

LiamJHayden · Answer

Titanic.

KittygosMeoWW · Answer

Beetlejuice 2

Hellraiser1984 · Answer

Avatar

Crazzyyworld · Answer

titanic

SpaceGalaxy · Answer

Argo

Anonymous · Answer

The titanic

What movie, to you, was criminally OVERrated?

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What movie, to you, was criminally UNDERrated?

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