I saw Alexander at a special advance screening. I was excited at the thought of being able to watch a movie before it hit theaters. Despite the fact it was free, I felt immediately robbed.
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I can’t call LOTR overrated, as it’s still my favorite movie (my kids and I are most of the way through the fifth of six discs of the Extended Editions right now). I understand what many people don’t like about it, but I don’t care; except for Liv Tyler, I love the hell out of it.
But I’m a Cheerleader is, indeed, a hoot, as is Slums of Beverly Hills. I wish Ms Lyonne hadn’t burnt out so early (when she guested on Will & Grace, the consensus was that she was awfully coked up at the time), and I was delighted to see her return in Orange is the New Black. She’s kinda brilliant.
City of Lost Children was my favorite movie before LOTR came out, but I don’t think it’s underrated as such, merely underseen.
I didn’t mind Shakespeare in Love when it came out, since it was pretty exactly the movie I expected it to be and it was right in my wheelhouse, but yeah… it shouldn’t have gotten Best Picture over Saving Private Ryan. Or Elizabeth, for that matter.
Crash was spectacularly overrated. What a warm, ■■■■■ turdburger of a movie. I have no doubt it would handily lose to Brokeback Mountain in today’s Oscar race, as it should have eight years ago. 2005 was one of the rare years in which I saw all five Best Picture nominees, and all four of the also-rans were better pictures than Crash, if you ask me.
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…Dumbledore’s dead?
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What? No mention of the movie Head?
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The Rafelson one, with the Monkees?
Well, is it under- or over-rated?
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The other Crash is better.
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Oh yeah, the Cronenberg one. Yeah, that fell off the radar quick, didn’t it?
I can’t quite make myself watch it (or really any Cronenberg after The Fly… not because he sucks but because of pure squeamishness), but I have no doubt you are correct.
ETA: Heh. Saw this at the IMDB page for Cronenberg’s (and Ballard’s) Crash:
Was voted the #1 movie of 1996 by “Les Cahiers du Cinéma”.
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That works for me on multiple levels.
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Yes, that is the one. I enjoyed showing it to my students when I taught TV and Film – I don’t know whether it is under-rated (by a general audience) or over-rated by movie snobs – but it is definitely worth a watch…
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If I hadn’t paid money for it, I would have walked out of the theater. In a sense, I doubled down on my pain by forcing myself to sit through it after having paid for it.
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I had occasion to work on an HBO movie Rafelson directed some years back. There are many holes in my film knowledge, and at the time I’d never heard of him. Later on I watched Five Easy Pieces but couldn’t get through it. He could be grumpy and loud on set, and so I (rather foolishly) dismissed him as a has-been Hollywood loudmouth. But when I finally saw the finished show we were working on (Poodle Springs, based on an unfinished Raymond Chandler novel about Philip Marlowe that was eventually finished by Robert B. Parker and adapted for the screen by Tom Stoppard), I rather liked it. But I don’t think too many people followed his work after The Postman Always Rings Twice. Certainly I don’t know anyone who has seen Erotic Tales - Porn.com (and no, that’s actually an IMDB link to a short film of that name, not a naughty NSFW link, so relax everyone!), nor his latest credit: No Good Deed, starring Sam Jackson and Milla Jovovich. Seems Bob’s star has fallen.
Weird that he started out directing The Monkees. I liked 'em as a kid. Maybe I should check that one out.
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It is definitely worth watching – completely unlike the tv series and a strange little trip with some fabulous cameos…
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Hard to say any Coen Bros. film is underrated but I think in a couple years we’ll look back at “Burn after Reading” with the same reverence as Fargo and Lebowski.
All the Nolan action movies are overrated. Show me don’t tell me. His movies come to screeching halt every 7 minutes so he can beat you over the head with whatever philosophical idea he’s trying to impart.
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I’m going put the “wrath” into this thread.
Possibly one of the more recent underrated movies: Transformers.
Did anyone else notice that the Black robot died first?
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Personally, I think Hudsucker Proxy is underrated, but I also found myself in a tiny minority among my friends when I saw (and hated) Fargo. Someday I’ll rewatch it and give it another chance, but man did it leave me cold (no pun intended) in 1996.
As for Burn After Reading, I’ll be surprised if that one eventually develops even a cult following. I’m curious to learn what about it you liked. I found it a tiresome misfire. (But again: I hated Fargo, so my judgment is immediately suspect.)
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You’re not alone, I know a couple of others who dislike it. Personally, I love it. Hudsucker is great. I really liked Barton Fink though, and most of the rest of their stuff. I adore Lebowski but find the cult around it a little OTT. Disclaimer: I do own a proper dude sweater…
Intolerable Cruelty I hated and I didn’t really get into Blood Simple. I have no idea why The Ladykillers exists, but you couldn’t pay me enough to watch a Tom Hanks film, so that remains unwatched.
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Interesting tidbit #1: Without Hudsucker there wouldn’t have been a Fargo. Hudsucker was the Coen’s first big budget studio film and it was such a commercial failure that to save face the Coens agreed to make their next film (Fargo) on a shoestring.
Interesting tidbit #2: After the success of “Raising Arizona” the Coens were offered the chance to direct the first Batman film. They turned it down (with it going to the other hot director of the day Beetlejuice’s Tim Burton) and made “Millers Crossing” instead.
As far as “Burn After Reading” goes, it’s a brilliant character driven comedy in the same vein as Lebowski. IMO it’s Brad Pitt’s best performance and it says something that George Clooney is the most forgettable character in the film.
Subtle genius is like the tide. It takes a while for it to work it’s magic.
And I agree with you, Hudsucker is underrated.
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You either need to get out more or stay in more and read. I’m not sure which. 
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You are all correct: Alexander was a stunningly bad movie on so many levels. Textbook high profile movie train wreck.
Well, there was one good part… er body part… but that’s it.
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The 13th Warrior was a huge bomb and while I don’t think it is a great masterpiece, I quite like it.
I am also one of the few people who liked Unbreakable.
Of course there are many great films that are much more obscure than they deserve, but I think that’s not quite the same thing.
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I think the special edition more or less fixed alien 3.
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