Most Underrated Movie Ever (And/Or Most Overrated)

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So folks seemed to enjoy chatting about the worst movie ever last week, so what the hey, I thought we’d try a related thread this week. What do you all think is the most underrated film ever? And you can throw in your vote for most overrated too, if you’d like.

I think the most underrated movie is “I Spit On Your Grave.” I think it’s critical standing has risen slightly since Ebert wrote his scathing review memorably referring to it as “a vile bag of garbage”, but I think it’s mostly still thought of as an exploitation piece of trash. Whereas I think it’s one of the best films I’ve ever seen; bleakly insightful about the mechanisms and the consequences of sexual violence. Eron Tabor’s quietly delivers one of the best performances I’ve ever seen in cinema. (I talk about the movie at some length here.)

Most overrated…I guess I could go with Schindler’s List, which is my least favorite film and which lots of people inexplicably believe has some merit. But I guess I’d probably plump Taxi Driver, with its glib grit and De Niro ACTING! Barf.

Citizen Kane’s standing has always mystified me a little too. I love “Touch of Evil”, but “Citizen Kane” has always struck me as pretty boring, and its banal psychologizing twist is too earnest to even appreciate as campy fun.

So what about you all? Most underrated film and most overrated?
 

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So what about you folks? Most underrated and

95 thoughts on “Most Underrated Movie Ever (And/Or Most Overrated)”

  6. Overrated: Anything by Woody Allen (blahblahblah) or Godard’s Breathless (the most irritating teens in movie history with the possible exceptions of Melville’s Les Enfants Terribles or something starring a very young Michael Rapaport).

    Underrated: Billy Wilder’s Kiss Me, Stupid (one of his best films).

  7. Hey…wait a minute. We agree!

    I love Kiss Me Stupid. I’m trying to get someone to pay me to write about it, actually (it’s 50 this year.)

    I like Breathless okay, but I’d agree it’s reputation is probably overdone.

    I’ve liked a bunch of Woody Allen films. Not eager to resee any at the moment though.

  10. As I said, I think Tabor’s performance is amazing, actually. I think the writing is excellent as well, for the most part. Really smart and nuanced.

    I’m not sure about the stereotyping either. I would say that the film certainly exploits class stereotypes in various ways. I don’t think the characters are just stereotypes, though. Tabor’s character’s relationship with his family is complicated, for example. The movie is based on Deliverance, but it’s a good bit more thoughtful than Deliverance is.

  11. Underrated-
    Punch Drunk Love is an excellent film but also significantly better if you can watch it with a group who know when to laugh, and unfortunately I don’t think that’s an experience most people have.
    Mind Game is pretty well respected, but should be in the class of “Obviously one of the best films ever made”.

    Re: I Spit On Your Grave-
    I realize they’re almost completely sesperate animals, but it’s hard to really get behind a movie that’s so much less interesting than the book it’s supposedly based on.

  12. The acting and dialogue in Deliverance is much better, but I agree. Anyway, here’s an example of just another stereotype of repressed dweebs in 70s and 80s exploitation films.

    I think you might be conflating the remake with the original, which does expand the role of the family for the character played by Tabor. All I know from the original is that he loves his kids, while having a hobby of raping/mutilating/eating city dwelling types — just like all poor country folk do. These films are filled with negative views of white trash. No one much cares about that, however.

  14. I love Blade Runner, and don’t think it’s boring at all.

    I don’t think I Spit is based on a book? It was supposedly inspired by the director’s encounter with a woman who had just been raped, and by the police indifference.

  15. Re: Tabor; Actually, it’s not exactly clear how he feels about his kids. It’s not clear he knows how he feels about his kids, either. His wife has a great bit spot where she basically says he’s a good provider and a family man.

    It’s obviously a white trash stereotype, but the wife is presented (albeit briefly) with sympathy, and the group dynamics which lead to the rape aren’t coded as solely or necessarily rural, I don’t think. Tabor is also charming, and the class antagonisms are seen as antagonisms; that is, poverty is seen at least in part as a mode of oppression. I’d argue.

  16. Oh, and there isn’t more discussion of family in the remake. Johnny doesn’t have a family in the remake (the sheriffs family is mentioned, but it’s handled much less well.)

  17. You’re right, I’ve confused the 1959 French movie with the 1978 not-French movie, which is dumb because you gave a link, Sorry.

  18. I adore Magnolia…if anything by PT Anderson is overrated, it’s Boogie Nights, which is bloated and overly hip/snide (though it has, admittedly, a few terrific bits). Magnolia is when he started to risk embarrassment with his work, and thus became infinitely more interesting. Funny, I’d actually call that and Punch-Drunk Love his underrated work, both somewhat overlooked in comparison to Boogie and There Will Be Blood.

    In terms of most underrated movie…that’s a tough one. Maybe Brewster McCloud, by Robert Altman. It gets dismissed as an also-ran, but it’s my favorite of his films. A lot of his “minor” output is dismissed and forgotten, actually, and nearly all of it is interesting.

  20. Noah, just because Star Wars movies aren’t that well regarded doesn’t mean they can’t be considered the most overrated. Overrated means more popular and well regarded than it deserves right? So it depends on just how much that person dislikes them. To me, the fact that some reviews of Transformers 2 aren’t 99% negative makes that movie overrated.

    My pick for the most overrated movie is either Shawshank Redemption or Patch Adams. The former is obviously much more popular but the latter is just so much shittier.

  21. Star Wars is also very, very highly regarded critically. It was praised to the skies by mainstream reviewers when it came out and continues to be a praised subject of mainstream and academic criticism. It’s #13 on the AFI’s Top 100 American Films, and in the top 250 of both the critics and the directors polls on the Sight and Sound All-Time List.

  22. Wow. Okay, that’s insane.

    It has dirty robots and Jim Henson puppets. And James Earl Jones’ voice is fun. Otherwise not sure what it’s supposed to have going for it.

  23. I consider High Noon as the most overrated. It just seems contrived to me, especially Cooper (whose performance I do like) getting married a day or so before the new lawman (I can’t remember if he’s a sheriff or a marshall) arrives, and the 24 hours in-between just so happens to be when the bad guys get out of jail. I usually don’t mind coincidences–I like Dickens and Seinfeld–but those just seem glaring, perhaps because I don’t buy lot of other things that happen. Beyond Cooper’s own performance (which may be enough for most people) there’s simply not enough emotional truth. I don’t believe middle-class townspeople–not even SCARED middle-class townspeople–would scoff at the threat the way these do, especially when the threat is related by an authority figure (Cooper) He’s the one scared middle-class people would most listen to! As an allegory about McCartheyism, it doesn’t make sense either. That had to do with government repression. Gary Cooper IS the government!

  24. Oh, yeah, Robocop 2 is vastly underrated.

    And Blade Runner is one of my favorite movies.

  25. I would vote for Blade Runner, but not underrated anymore.

    Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift is underrated. It’s rewatchable like anything.

  26. As far as underrated, The Barefoot Executive. Not saying it’s a great movie, but as far as late ’60s-early ’70s Disney comedies go, it’s got kind of an edge to it. And it made me laugh out loud at least once (when the chimp gets up to get a beer.)

  30. English Patient definitely overrated. It’s kind of boring at times.

    However, Inglourious Basterd ROXX!!!

  35. Some of these movies aren’t so much highly regarded as influential. Lots of people didn’t like High Noon. John Sayne hated it and did Rio Lobo, wherein multiple townspeople help him fight the threat, in response. He thought High Noon was an unrealistic and insulting portrayal of the Americans who populated the frontier. But along with Neville Chamberlain and Munich, it’s referenced whenever someone wants to accuse someone of cowardly wishful thinking and underestimating a threat.

    Star Wars broadened a lot of horizons. It taught Hollywood that science fiction and special effects could make a lot of money, so it made a lot of entertainment possible that otherwise never would have happened (for better and worse). It was calculatedly formulaic, but the recipe was good. Lucas famously gave little direction to his actors, but most did decent jobs anyway.

  39. I agree with Elaine Benes on English Patient. Terrible.

    And I will probably get lambasted for this, but I like Daredevil. I don’t think it is that bad. To me it is just a slightly darker version of Spider-man. And everybody loved that. I know there are some cringeworthy parts, but it wasn’t that bad.

  41. One underrated Altman is Perfect Couple. An unlikely romance and lots of yacht rock. It may not be the crown jewel of his output, but it has lots of what I love in his films, and the central relationship resonated with my newlywed self back when I first saw it.

  43. Speaking of Altman, I just watched MASH for the first time in decades and I think it’s pretty overrated. When I first saw it as a kid, the scenes in which the “bad guys” are humiliated–the whole camp mocks Burns’s religious beliefs, the sound of Burns and Hotlips having sex gets broadcast over the PA system, Burns gets removed from the camp in a straightjacket while everyone watches, and Hotlips gets exposed while she’s taking a shower–were really upsetting to me. I guess they don’t seem quite as horrible now (during the straightjacket scene, one character expresses jealousy of Burns because he’s going home), but it’s still pretty mean-spirited. Plus the closing football sequence is really lame and goes on forever.

    Russ, what do you think of that one? I assume you don’t like the t.v. show’s sanctimonious liberalism, but I’d be interested in your take on the movie.

  44. Jack, I agree that MASH is insanely mean spirited… I think Pauline KAael argued that this illustrates the need for soldiers in high pressure situations to blow off steam with hazing and such, but I dunno. I go back and forth on this film. One thing I appreciate about it is that I went through a period when I was doing improv and listening to jazz, and watching this movie again was part of a general loosening up on my part, not because I liked the nastiness any more, but because I grooved on the loosey-goosey camera and sound work.

    My Mom, who usually hates blasphemy, meanness, smuttiness, etc., says she LOVED this film when it came out; laughed long and hard. something to do with the Zeitgeist, and a husband in Vietnam.

  45. Jack — I liked the original MASH film — and the TV show, for that matter. The film is kind of dated now, because of its strong “Hippie-era” influences — but it’s still a great film.

    Eric — I agree about “Bowfinger.” I enjoyed it quite a bit.

  46. I thought Tamor’s “Titus” was underrated… I remember being impressed with how deeply messy and messed-up it was. I also think that “Chameleon Street” never got the praise it deserves. As for overrated, “American Beauty” gets my vote, with “Rushmore” a close second.

  47. I totally agree with Bowfinger and Titus.

    I’ve never seen Daredevil, but I can sympathize with its admirers. I loved The Spirit, and it just got trashed by all and sundry, including multitudes who never saw it.

  48. Overrated: Shawshank Redemption. Schmaltzy day-time tv drama.

    Underrated: Jumper. Of all of the post Matrix special-effect-driven superhero movies, this is the only one I can stand to re-watch.

  49. I’m going to join in because it’s fun rather than because I have any real idea about “most”.

    Mladen makes me want to go for Blade as most underrated – a pre-Matrix SFX action movie that at least anticipated a lot of that film’s visual language, and invented the third (current) incarnation of the superhero movie (going with Donner and Burton as first and second). (Yes that’s supposed to be a positive, where are you going?)

    But a neater pair would be
    Overrated: The Bourne Supremacy
    Underrated: The Bourne Identity

    I haven’t seen Ultimatum, and I’m told the sequels work as a pair, but based on Supremacy I think it’s ridiculous that Liman’s movie is disregarded in favour of Greengrass’s efforts. A character-driven, exciting caper (with some excellent coreography) replaced by dour, dumb Clancyisms.

  50. underrated SF … The Quiet Earth … Chronopolis … The Bed Sitting Room …

    overrated SF … Star Wars (superb technique, rubbish everything else … the eternal dilemma of American mainstream pop culture, very talented artists making total crap)

  51. Mladen — I saw “The Spirit” and it made me cringe throughout. Of course, I may have had different expectations than the average filmgoer. I’ve been a Spirit fan since the early 1970s, and I really expected more from Frank Miller.

  52. There are so many great scenes in The Spirit. Just at random – Stana Katic explaining the Elektra Complex. Paz Vega. The Spirit falling out of the hotel window. Any scene with Scarlett Johansson as Silken Floss.

    It wasn’t Eisner. But the only way it could be Eisner is if it was 10 minutes long.

  54. Underrated movie would be Alien Resurrection. Whedon’s script is messy but the consistent strength of the Alien series (aside from atmosphere) has always been the characters and Resurrection has a cast of absurd and bizarre mercenaries that are as memorable as Vasquez or Ash.

    But the highlight is Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s (City of Lost Children) direction. Years before Sam Raimi wowed everyone with his take on Spider-Man, Alien Resurrection had dizzying POV shots, wide angle lenses, quick cuts and pans you rarely saw in an action film. Combine that with some of the best practical effects I’ve seen in a movie, when they could have relied on the burgeoning CGI field, and you have a movie that’s entertaining. Not good by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly entertaining. Definitely stronger than the maudlin Alien3.

    The most overrated film I’ve seen is definitely The Hurt Locker. I was in the Navy at the time working with a detachment of EOD on board the ship. It’s about as generic and Hollywood-ized action film as they come. Even the action isn’t very entertaining and none of the characters are particularly likable. I can’t say it’s bad but how or why it won 6 Oscars is beyond me.

  55. I enjoyed Alien Resurrection because the mercenaries were a dry run for Firefly, and it was fun to imagine the cast of Firefly getting killed by Aliens. Whereas with Aliens3, where they referred to the alien as a dragon, I had to fall back on imagining the Alien as Pete’s Dragon to get much pleasure.

  56. Pretty much everything that wins a Best Picture Oscar is extremely overrated, isn’t it? They always seem to pick the kinds of simple but pretentious movies that strike dumb people as brilliant. Clint Eastwood in his later days seems to have a particular knack for making that kind of thing.

  57. (Sorry if I sounded like a snobby prick in the above post. I like a lot of movies that are popular with everyone, but the “serious dramas” that win Oscars usually strike me as dumb.)

  58. Jack, this raises an interesting open question: when did you realize the Oscars were ridiculous? For me it was the year Braveheart won everything. Not that I hated Braveheart, but I figured if it was the best movie of the year, I didn’t need movies.

  59. I think it dawned on me around 1990 and 1991, when I was in my late teens. In 1990, Do the Right Thing didn’t get nominated and Driving Miss Daisy won. The next year, Goodfellas lost to Dances with Motherfucking Wolves.

  60. 2010 – the year that King’s Speech won – had a lot of good movies nominated. Winter’s Bone, True Grit. Black Swan. 127 Hours. (Even King’s Speech was pretty good.)

  62. Jaybee — Yeah, I agree about “Hurt Locker.” The EOD guy in the film was the stereotypical Hollywood maverick.

  63. Citizen Kane, Noah? Get with the new millennium, grandpa — it’s Vertigo you should be sneering at nowadays. Which I’ll do for you — phooey on Vertigo. It’s not even the best movie in the niche genre of 1950s colour Hitchcock thrillers featuring Jimmy Stewart playing against type.

    Let’s face it, any one of us could go through any of the Sight and Sound lists and pick out at least a dozen movies that we consider overrated. I’ll go Mulholland Drive, with Lost Highway as its better, underrated twin (thematically appropriate!). I do not understand how it’s not a bigger blow to Drive‘s reputation that Lynch did the exact freaking same plot twist/gimmick two movies prior.

    I’ll also go just about any Western, but especially The Searchers. Top 10 of all time? Are you kidding? Even if we’re just sticking with Ford, give me My Darling Clementine any old day.

    Underrated — 15 years ago, I might have said Sweet Smell of Success, but that’s had a massive critical reconsideration. I thought last year’s Stoker deserved more praise, but it isn’t a movie for everyone — the kind of movie you really like if you like that kind of movie.

    But, in true HU contrarian spirit, I’ll pick Seven Samurai for most underrated of all time. Only the 17th best movie of all time? Injustice!

  64. I’ve been reading this website (blog?) for awhile, and thought I’d add my two cents to this topic.

    As far as overrated, I’d go with The Dark Knight. I remember sitting in the theater watching it and generally enjoying it as a good crime-drama, and then Batman comes rolling out on some motorcycle-like contraption and I thought “Eh, this is ridiculous.” The whole idea of taking Batman seriously–I think it worked for Frank Miller, because Miller was/is/seems-like a crazy fascist, and you can feel his passion for the character when you read Dark Knight Returns, but it just hasn’t worked for me in these Christopher Nolan films. I saw one of the Tim Burton films on TV a couple weeks ago, and although I didn’t care for them much when they first came out, I think they’ve held up better than these more recent ones (though maybe not as well as the old TV series).

    For underrated, I recently saw the 2011 prequel/remake of The Thing on TV, and given all the horrible reviews that I read of it, I enjoyed this movie a lot more than I thought I would. I liked they way they tried to tie it in with the Carpenter film (instead of just doing a complete shitty remake, like the same producers had done with Dawn of the Dead), I liked the way the female lead takes control of the group without getting hysterical or trying to out-macho the other guys, and I thought the film paid at least some lip-service to the undertones of homophobia/ homosocial panic (or whatever you call it) that Noah Berlatsky had talked about in his Fecund Horror essay…but I don’t know, nobody else seemed to see much in it.

  65. Of the Sight and Sound 2012 Top 20, I’d say Singin’ in the Rain is the least deserving. That’s one grossly overrated movie. Noah would say Apocalypse Now I’m sure.

  66. When did I realize the Oscars were basically meaningless? When Kramer Vs Kramer beat Apocalypse Now AND All that Jazz.

  68. Can I like both Singin’ In the Rain and Tarkovsky?

    I actually even like them for similar reasons. Self-conscious joy in artificiality.

    Apocalypse Now is pompous drivel, though.

  69. I forgot that Breathless is on that list. Out of the all the Godard that could’ve been chosen …

    Singin’ in the Rain is a self-conscious joy in art, which is artificial, I guess, like a car is artificial, but the movie doesn’t seem to be a joy in cars, too.

  70. Art and artificial share a root; they’re kind of the same word. Don’t think that’s the case for cars.

    It’s been a long time since I saw Singin’ in the Rain; but musicals in general are very performative. I think self-conscious joy in art could be used to describe Tarkovsky too.

  71. “I’ll go Mulholland Drive, with Lost Highway as its better, underrated twin (thematically appropriate!).”

    This is a tough one. As a Lynch fanatic, LH is the most quintessential Lynch film, but as a film, independent of that, I’d say MD is the overall better choice (it doesn’t contain Marilyn Manson and Twiggy, musical selections by Trent Reznor, or the acting of Balthazar Getty).

  72. Yep, Breathless is an awful choice for best thing Godard ever did but that’s what you get when you take the “democratic” option, terrible compromise.

    I don’t actually mind Singin’ in the Rain but it’s not even a top 100 film for me. I would take many of the films on Charles’ list over it. And Charles, you don’t even like Andrei Rublev? Seems the least new agey of Tarkovsky’s films.

  73. “It’s been a long time since I saw Singin’ in the Rain; but musicals in general are very performative. I think self-conscious joy in art could be used to describe Tarkovsky too.”

    Well, if you want to read them as modernist, ok. But if you want to use them as apologia for the Grammys, no.

  74. AR’s ok in my book, even though I never finished it (not out of boredom, just didn’t get back to it).

    Seem’s right about Breathless, but kind of surprising regarding The Mirror. I think a lot of those critics were torn between democratically picking the historically significant films and picking more obscure choices from the most oft-cited historically significant directors.

  75. I like Singing in the Rain just fine, but as old musicals go, Guys and Dolls was better. Terrific performances.

  76. I prefer earlier musicals like 42nd Street, Footlight Parade, Shall We Dance and Follow the Fleet, but I like Singin’ in the Rain just fine. My mom made me watch it when I was 7 or 8 and it was probably the first musical I liked.

    Andrei Rublev is one of the most amazing movies I’ve ever seen. Every time I watch it, I can’t believe four hours have gone by. (I also like The Mirror and Nostalgia. I can’t stand Solaris, Stalker or The Sacrifice.)

  77. Huh, you can tolerate Nostalghia but can’t stand Solaris and The Sacrifice? Always thought that Nostalghia and Stalker were the two Tarkovskys which stood the best chance of sedating his viewers.

    Also, a slight correction to what I wrote above – Ivan’s Childhood is probably Tarkovsky’s least New Age-y movie but it’s also his most conventional.

  78. Tarkovsky fans are so weird. They are a lot different from Kurasawa fans and Fellini fans. They have more in common with Bergman fans.

    And don’t get me started on those Fassbinder people!

  79. Speaking of Bergman:

    Is Smiles of a Summer Night under-rated?

    You hear so much about “The Seventh Seal” and “Wild Strawberries” and “Fanny and Alexander” and “Persona.”

    I saw Smiles of Summer Night a few years ago and I was really blown away by it. I’m surprised I’ve never heard that much about it. (I feel the same way about Kurasawa. He has several much-ballyhooed films (yes, they are great) but I was just as entranced by Dodas’kaden, Dersu Uzala, High and Low, The Bad Sleep Well, Red Beard and etc. as I was by the others. (But my favorite is Yojimbo.))

  82. Citizen Kane is in no way overrated. Focusing on the “twist” (which is not a twist at all but rather a framing device to emphasize just one of the film’s themes) is obtuse, since there’s another 99% of the film which also examines – among other ideas – ambition, hubris, loyalty, greed, indulgence, obsession, work, media, nostalgia, family, and on and on. I don’t say it’s the best film ever made, but if there is such a thing as “The Great American Film” then this is it.

    Touch of Evil is actually my least favorite Welles. It’s a noir, nothing more. I can name about 40 other noirs that are far better both in terms of style and content, or more personal or more bizarre or more influential.

    I Spit on Your Grave is extraordinary, one of the greatest exploitation films ever made. Joe Bob Briggs has written very smartly about the film.

    It might help to define “overrated” and “underrated.” Many issues at hand here: visibility, influence, current critical opinion vs. previous critical opinion, etc. The “man on the street” might have heard of – if not seen – Citizen Kane, whereas among film cognoscenti it may in fact be old hat (justifiably or not). There are a fuckload of movies that are little seen even my film freaks that have been influential, or poorly neglected… The Sadist, Last House On Dead End Street, the work of Jordan Belson, Toshio Matsumoto, etc.

  83. Of fairly recent films, I seem to be mesmerized by “Moneyball.” I’ve watched it at least a half-dozen times. I don’t think it can be called underrated, because it did well at the box office, and received a bunch of awards nominations. But out of nine Academy Awards and Golden Globe nominations, it didn’t win any — so in that regards I guess one could call it underrated.

  84. Noah is 100% right on Apocalypse now. I can understand why so many people find so much depth in it, it’s so completely muddled that one can ready pretty much anything into it.

    Definitely my vote for most overrated. Numbers 2-10 would likely all be Oliver Stone movies.

    I probably don’t know enough about what movies are truly appreciated to know whether something is unappreciated or not. Little Big Man? Apparently it was well reviewed, but I never see it mentioned with other revisionist westerns.

  85. I haven’t seen Apocalypse Now in a good while, but FWIW a Vietnam vet I know vouches for it as an accurate representation of his experience. Whether that’s because the film is a Rorschach inkblot or because his experience was really that chaotic and overwhelming, I couldn’t say.

  86. “Apocalypse Now” was, to me, a spectacularly shot string of mesmerizing scenes in search of a coherent story — ala “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

  87. “Revisionist westerns” is kind of a baloney term made up by people who either hate westerns or are embarrassed to admit they like westerns. I mean, The Searchers” is a “revisionist western” and so was “Ride The High Country” and many others, before the term became fashionable.

  88. George Stevens’ “Greatest Story Ever Told” (his whole filmography, really) for underrated; how ’bout “Casablanca” for overrated? Though Star Wars is obviously a good pick. 12 Years a Slave might have a good case if we give it a couple years too.

  89. The original Godzilla strikes me as criminally underrated (at least here in the States). In addition to being a great monster movie, it functions very similarly to Kurosawa’s Stray Dog in being a snapshot of post-war Japan (and Ishiro Honda was Kurosawa’s protege and 2nd unit director for many years). Was exciting to see it get a Criterion release, but critics still tend to shrug it off.

    In the same genre, I found that indie movie Monsters to be a heavy-handed snoozer, but it was a critical darling on the festival circuit. It plays more like what happens when someone gets to college and discovers some of the old monster movies they thought were silly and stupid had subtext, then starts thinking “I can do that!” And it’s supposed to be about illegal immigration, but it focuses on two rich, white Americans?

  91. “In the same genre, I found that indie movie Monsters to be a heavy-handed snoozer, but it was a critical darling on the festival circuit. It plays more like what happens when someone gets to college and discovers some of the old monster movies they thought were silly and stupid had subtext, then starts thinking “I can do that!” And it’s supposed to be about illegal immigration, but it focuses on two rich, white Americans?”

    Well you’re in luck, becuase that dood is who they chose for the Godzilla reboot (which actually has a couple interesting trailers).

  92. Jones says “I do not understand how it’s not a bigger blow to Drive‘s reputation that Lynch did the exact freaking same plot twist/gimmick two movies prior”

    Because the plots aren’t that important. Lynch reuses ideas like an obsessive arteeste. That the films look and feel different and have all their own unique moments is important. The two films are very different experiences.

    =========================

    Overrated: I don’t have enough time, I could genuinely list hundreds. Even some of my favourite films are grossly overrated.
    I think much of the horror canon is just dull with some interesting moments sprinkled on them.
    I think a lot of the arthouse canon has elements that people appreciated the approach of but overrated them by calling them great films. I love the approach/style of Parajanov but I don’t think Ancestors or pomegranates are great films.
    Maybe I’m missing something but I don’t know why Seventh Seal, Hour Of The Wolf, Amacord, La Dolche Vita, In The Mood For Love, Stalker, Heart Of Glass and a few others are seen as anything more than films with some good bits.

    =========================

    Underrated: The career of Shinya Tsukamoto, one of the finest directors alive today; he and Sogo Ishii came before Takashi Miike and Park Chan Wook but they are probably better directors (although the latter two are also very good).

    Sion Sono’s Love Exposure deserves to be knocking other canon films out of the way. Most people who see it like it, but it should be way more popular; it packs a meatier punch than 99.5% of canon films.

    Tobe Hooper’s Eaten Alive/Death Trap often gets those dumb “Worst movie evar!” comments but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a film that more compellingly resembles the lurid grit of 50s horror comics. The motel psycho is really fascinatingly played, it has atmosphere and the limited space/setting of the film is appealing. It is a bit boring in places and it aint a great film but I like it more than most canon horror films.

    Lemora: A Child’s Tale Of The Supernatural is really good for atmosphere and flavour; everything is exaggerated and cartoonishly spooky. The film was so badly received that I think it discouraged the director but I dearly wish he had a career full of films like this.

    Pinocchio 964 is amazing and deranged.

    Lisztomania is exhilarating and fantastically silly. Everybody who thinks Ken Russell was best when more restrained is wrong. His madness and excess is the real deal and makes me excited about the potential of films.

    Animators Nina Shorina, Nikolai Serebryakov, Ideya Garanina, Keita Kurosaka and Gyorgy Kovasznai. This stuff makes me feel really great and believe in animation as an incredibly untapped medium for expression and infinite possibility.

    The late 50s version of Ghost Of Yotsuya still needs a western dvd release.

    Amer is well received and probably will grow in reputation as the directors make more films but I really think it is just as good as the best films that inspired it.

    Watson/Webber’s short Fall Of House Of Usher is one of the best silent films I’ve ever seen.

  93. ““Revisionist westerns” is kind of a baloney term made up by people who either hate westerns or are embarrassed to admit they like westerns. I mean, The Searchers” is a “revisionist western” and so was “Ride The High Country” and many others, before the term became fashionable.”

    I like westerns and I’m not embarrassed to say it.

    Not really sure why the fact that there are movies that can be classified as revisionist westerns before the term came about, invalidates the term itself. It seems to me that works in a genre are always going to exist before that genre becomes codified. Superman was a super-hero comic before the term existed.

    But, if it makes you happy, I’ll say Little Big Man is underrated as a western.

  94. It’s a term for guilty liberal critics. No serious, intelligent filmmaker would talk about his/her favorite “revisionist westerns.”

  95. In my opinion a few of the most underrated movies are: INSIDE,WILDERNESS,SWITCHBLADE ROMANCE,LIFE STINKS,DRAG ME TO HELL & I SAW THE DEVIL – all fantastic movies that did not get enough credit…..The most overrated movies:DONNIE DARKO(what did ANYBODY ever see in this load of crap !!),STAR WARS(all of them-not exciting at all)BLAIR WITCH PROJECT(was bored to death-and NOTHING actually happened !!!!)LORD OF THE RINGS(was glad when it ended)

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