Great movies with not so great reviews.

My wife and I thought "Must Love Dogs" had quite a bit of funny dialogue in it, but I don't think it did all that well in the theaters. (we're also fans of John Cusack so that didn't hurt either).

I think Elizabethtown was a very good movie, but the critics hated it, and it did poorly in the box office. Oh well, I guess women still won't see everything Orlando Bloom is in (Kingdom of Heaven bombed, too).

Equillibrium. Got no play. I loved it.

Puddle Jumper said:

I liked Kingdom of Heaven, all except for the killing off of Liam Neeson's character. Why does he have to be killed off in all the good movies he's in? Maybe Orlando would have more success if he bleached his hair blond.

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And fought with a bow and a couple of swords....

.....or sailed on a pirate ship....

....or.....

......um......

If they ever make "The Hobbit", he could make a cameo appearance in the scene where the Elf King captures the dwarves at the edge of Mirkwood. Though his character Legolas isn't named (as far as I can tell or remember), the Elf King is his father....(correct me if I'm wrong).

As for the topic of the thread - wasn't "It's a Wonderful Life" a bit of a box office bomb?

I thought Kingdom Of Heaven was very good. I did a paper on Salah ed Din using Beha ed Din's Saladin: or what befell the Sultan Yusuf as my primary source, and the actor who played that part was near perfect, in my opinion.

I was also impressed that they showed the darker side of some of the Crusaders, which is usually glossed over by Hollywood. If they ever do a film showing what Richard's knights did to the people of Acre after the city fell, it will forever change the way this "hero" is viewed.

I loved The Forgotten, but it didn't get good reviews. I agree about Frequency, too. That was a great movie!

The Goonies!


I had also heard that Rent got bad reviews, but at the same time if you were a fan of the broadway play you probably liked the movie. . .

what else. . .hmmmmmmm. . . ya! Cheaper by the Dozen. . . 2!

I didn't even know there was first one. . .


-W

I don't recall Secret Window doing all that well, though I thought it was an amazing film. I likewise was delighted by Frequency, Goonies, Equilibrium, andI must admit, i was very impressed by "In Her Shoes," with Cameron Diaz. I went in expecting to be very bored. I enjoy girly films, being married and spineless and all, but I had no expectations for that one and was surprised to find myself delighted by it.

X-Men; I just saw it on PPV (hubby's choice) and it was much better than I anticipated (not a complete waste of time and money).

Two more surprises (but older movies)...Adventures in Babysitting and Night of the Comet. Neither were Oscar quality but could hold your attention.

werencole said:

what else. . .hmmmmmmm. . . ya! Cheaper by the Dozen. . . 2!

I didn't even know there was first one. . .

-W

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The first one had an innocent quality that I liked very much!

The first one was all right. It got better once we got away from the "Steve Martin falls in a puddle of vomit,and it's funny" sort of stuff. The genuine family stuff was very good.

Everything I like is hated by the critics.

It's usually a pretty safe guarantee that if the critics hate it, then a) it's a good film with a storyline b) it does not feature Hilary Duff in any way, shape, or form (except dead.)

I think I'm one of the few people who loves Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. Some critics loved it, others hated it. Most people seem to ignore it. Which leads me to. . .


AI (Artificial Intelligence). Stanley Kubrick worked on it for twenty years and handed it to Steven Spielberg. I loved it loved it loved it. The critics thought it was just okay. I thought it would go down as another movie people would just adore, like Close Encounters or ET. Instead, people seem to be forgetting about it.

Huh. What's wrong with me?

allen

I very much liked A.I..I thought it was a very well done fairy tale (which, essentially, was what it was). I don't care what people say, good sci-fi movies are few and far between and I'm happy when I see them. Hell, I even enjoyed Minority Report.

I was also very fond of I, Robot, and Sky Captain... but I'm unsure how well either of those did in the reviews. I don't much care, for that matter.

The original Star Wars got skewered by the critics. i mean they were scorching it. That's when i knew I would like it.

Didn't know that about the original Star Wars...but we loved it at the time (I had just learned how to walk & talk back but was a gifted child, wink)

My hubby and I loved The Great Raid - and it got lousy reviews. It affected the whole theater, too; you could have heard a mouse tip-toeing when it ended and the credits rolled. People stayed glued in their seats to watch the WWII footage of some of the real people involved.

I also really liked Aeonflux. Went in expecting to make fun of it the whole time, and was happily surprised. Of course, I think Marton Csokas is about the hottest actor on the planet so that got me IN the theater...and oops - he was in Great Raid, wasn't he? Ok, that's a coincidence! But Aeon was still an interesting & entertaining movie. So crucify me, all you MTV-purist fans!

Many critics are just out of touch with what "regular people" enjoy...
Most of us don't jet all over the world, swim at nude beaches, wear Blahniks, go to premiers, hang with the celebs.

We're just people...working, reading, writing, loving, living in mid-class America, being "regular." And alot of what the critics like is just, plain AWFUL.

Bree

I love the movie Galaxy Quest! Everytime its on I stop whatever I'm doing to watch and everytime I find something new to laugh at...I think it would have done better without Tim Allen in it though...

srwpnh said:

I love the movie Galaxy Quest! Everytime its on I stop whatever I'm doing to watch and everytime I find something new to laugh at...I think it would have done better without Tim Allen in it though...

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What, did reviewers not like Galaxy Quest?

Also, all Trek fans (and non Trek fans) I know of absolutely adore the movie. And sorry I disagree, but Tim Allen was awesome.

allen

My husband and I liked "Frequency," but there's something I just didn't get, and I'm hoping someone can explain it to me.

Originally, the serial killer dies early, but something happens that alters the more recent past, so he was alive. What was it that changed to have made him alive?

One movie (don't know if it got panned or not) that my husband and I love watching from time to time is "Army of Darkness." It's so campy and full of great one-liners!

My-Immortal said:

Though his character Legolas isn't named (as far as I can tell or remember), the Elf King is his father....(correct me if I'm wrong).

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Right on both counts. Thranduil is his father, and Legolas is not explicitly or even implicitly identified. You could argue that he was not present during the events of Bilbo's adventure, though, because he never mentions having met Bilbo before the Council of Elrond.

underthecity said:

I think I'm one of the few people who loves Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut.

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I liked it too. It was surrounded by so much hype, then it split on reviews. It's not a crowd-pleaser, but I agree with you.

AI (Artificial Intelligence). Stanley Kubrick worked on it for twenty years and handed it to Steven Spielberg. I loved it loved it loved it. The critics thought it was just okay.

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I thought it was quite good until that ending sequence that bothered so many people. I'm one of them, but until that point, it was an interesting film.