This past weekend I went to a special premiere of a Dutch movie, which won three prestigious Dutch movie awards. It was shown in a big electronics store on three of the biggest televisions available and the cast was also available. My expectation of it was high as I wanted to know if it really was that good. Turned out the movie really disappointed and bored me. It is one of those films which makes you wonder whether you have missed something which makes it so praiseworthy. I didn’t think it was particularly clever or funny so it really left me stunned. Why did it receive the award? Where there no other movies available? So this week’s question:
Are there any award winning movies which you didn’t like and made you wonder why they won?
Oh, there’s a bunch of them. Paul Haggis’ Crash which I felt didn’t deserve its Oscars. Memoirs of a Geisha which I thought was overrated not just story wise but also on a visual scale. Gladiator which I thought was overrated as is A Beautiful Mind which I think is a terrible film.
Interesting movies. I didn’t mind Traffic a lot as much as other people did after its award. Have not seen Memoirs. Gladiator surprises me, it is one I love. So why do you think it is overrated? Can’t remember much of A Beautiful Mind. So I guess I can agree with you on that one.
There’s so much about Gladiator I didn’t like as I didn’t think of the film as Best Picture worthy. I liked the fight scenes but there wasn’t enough to keep me engaged.
Fair enough, happens to me sometimes as well that everything except some very specific moments engaging and others make you zone out.
My set includes The English Patient, American Beauty, and Chicago.
Feel the same about Chicago as you, there are a lot of better musicals filmed.
Of course there are a good number. As you rightly said, sometimes it just seems like it’s cos of a lack of worthy nominees. At least it seems like that a lot here…..
But if you look at the amount of movies, especially Hollywood ones you’d expect there would be enough great ones to pick.
The LOTR movies (I don’t find them bad, just overrated), Avatar (I hate this one; I think it’s utter crap)
Is easy for popular movies to feel overrated quickly. Like you I also want a fan of Avatar. The 3d interesting, but as a story it didn’t do much for me. Have not reattached it and am not planning to…
Great topic! I did feel like that in my first years of blogging, but I now realize sometimes we just have different taste. Or there’s an X factor why it won. I find Argo a little bit overrated. And I guess American Hustle.
Yeah, can’t agree with all the awards. Personally I loved both those movies, but I can understand why people feel the way they do.
I’m sure there are many, but the first that came to mind was “Ordinary People”.
I don’t think I have ever seen it, although the name vaguely rings a bell.
Crash and American Beauty are two movies I loathe and feel are so over-praised (though I’m sure I’m not alone in disliking the two). I’ll also second the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I don’t think they’re bad but find them very overrated.
I thought Crash was interesting, but can understand the sentiment. I quite liked American Beauty, but it’s been too long since I last seen it but at the time I don’t think I felt it was overpraised. As for Lord of the Rings, I won’t say I love them, but do enjoy them quite a bit and can understand why these got so many awards.
I thought Avatar was totally overrated. I also thought Lost in Translation wasn’t as good as most people claimed it was.
Oh, and just noticing that some people didn’t care for the LOTR trilogy, I just thought I’d put in my two cents and say that I absolutely LOVE the LOTR trilogy. Had to get some love in there. Great topic, Nostra!
Agree with you on Avatar Kristin. Saw it when it came out and didn’t understand why people wanted to revisit it as much as they could. This also could have something to do with Sam Worthington because I still don’t understand how he got to do so many starring roles. Think he simply lacks the charisma.