Month: August 2011

50DMC #23: Critically or Commercially Overrated

On August 11, 2011

The 50 Day Movie Challenge asks one question every day, to be answered by a few paragraphs and a clip, if possible. Click here for the full list of questions.

Today’s prompt: What’s a movie that you think is critically or commercially overrated?

This seems to be a fairly similar question to “What’s a movie that critics and fans loved that you hated,” but so be it. I’ll choose this time a film that I didn’t hate, but one that I definitely think was BOTH critically and commercially overrated, and that’s James Cameron’s Avatar. After many, many, many posts and comment threads about it back when it came out, I’m sure people (who read those threads) think I hate it, but I don’t. I just don’t think it’s all that. It’s got some really nice technology providing smoke and mirrors for an overly-earnest story that is derivative and an emotionally-shallow experience that’s fleeting.

I usually try not be part of backlashes, but that’s pretty much what happened for me with Avatar; that said, I still think it’s overrated. At the time I said I’d revisit it a year later. I haven’t, and I’m pretty apathetic about ever spending time with it again.

50DMC #22: A Movie Most Hated But I Loved

By Jandy

On August 3, 2011

In Film

The 50 Day Movie Challenge asks one question every day, to be answered by a few paragraphs and a clip, if possible. Click here for the full list of questions.

Today’s prompt: What’s a movie that most fans and critics hated but you loved?

This is a little disingenuous, perhaps, because Speed Racer does have a good many supporters in the critical community, but it’s sitting at a squishy 38% on the Rotten Tomatoes meter, so I’m counting that as close enough to “hated” to work for this question. And there’s absolutely no doubt that I loved this film. It’s even sitting comfortably in my top ten for 2008. And the reason for that is because, quite simply, Speed Racer is the most immediately overwhelming visual experience I have ever had – I’m kicking myself that I didn’t see it in theatres, but when I got the blu-ray, I spent the full two and a quarter hours staring at the TV with my jaw dropped open.

The story itself is fairly simple and often simplistic, but it goes about even that basic kids-stuff story with a wide-eyed exuberance and joy that I rarely see from any films these days, let alone the children’s movie industry that has gotten too damn self-aware for its own good. The Wachowskis know exactly how standard this story is, but they allow it to go silly and campy and gloriously fun without ever resorting to irony or out of place juvenile humor. Because, really, the story of Speed Racer’s rise in the world of racing, his problematic relationship with his older brother, and his potential defection to a greedy racing conglomerate is all a McGuffin for the candy-colored world the characters inhabit. It’s somewhere on the cusp of live action and animation, and exactly where the line between the two is drawn is difficult to tell – and that’s precisely the point. This is the ultimate live action cartoon, and I mean that in a good way. Of all the movies I’ve seen in my life, Speed Racer is always my first thought when it comes to sheer visual overstimulation of the very best kind.

Here’s the first seven minutes, encompassing a bit of backstory and the first race. Even just watching this I get all wide-eyed and have a huge grin plastered on my face.

50DMC #21: A Movie Most Loved But I Hated

By Jandy

On August 2, 2011

In Film

The 50 Day Movie Challenge asks one question every day, to be answered by a few paragraphs and a clip, if possible. Click here for the full list of questions.

Today’s prompt: What’s a movie that most fans and critics loved but you hated?

There aren’t very many films I *hate*, and most of the ones I do are generally not well-thought of by critics or fans in general. So I had to think for a while to come up with Knocked Up, but I think it definitely fits the criteria, even if “hate” is still a word I hesitate to use. I do actively dislike it, though, so I figure that’s close enough.

Knocked Up is incredibly well-regarded by critics and fans alike, and even though Judd Apatow did other films before it, it’s probably the one the kicked off the current Apatow film trend. He usually just produces films rather than directing them, but he did everything on Knocked Up, so I feel pretty justified in saying that I just don’t like his stuff. It’s only funny in a juvenile sort of way, and most of the humor comes from this group of man-children being pushed into adult situations that they can’t handle. Like a maternity ward. I’d say I don’t get it because I’m a woman, but a lot of Knocked Up fans are women, so it’s not as simple as that. It just does nothing for me, I don’t believe these characters should be together (or would be in real life, which has NOTHING to do with Rogen’s physical appearance and everything to do with the mismatch in the two characters’ personalities), and if Allison is Apatow’s idea of a well-written female character, then yeah. I rest my case. Maybe she isn’t, but that’s the impression I get from reading other reviews.

What keeps me from *hating* the film is the Paul Rudd-Leslie Mann subplot, a more dramatic look at a marriage that’s not quite working. THIS is the interesting story in the movie, and if they do a spinoff focusing on these two characters (which has been rumored for a while), I will watch it – even though I’m prepared to be disappointed. But in Knocked Up, this intriguing and emotionally truthful story was utterly eclipsed by the mediocrity and boorishness of the main plot. Since I hate to be a total downer, here’s a short clip from the part of the movie I DID like.