What Movie Do You Hate, But Everybody Else Likes?

Seaclusion

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I know there are many movies that critics, friends, and the general populace like that I really loathe. But because everyone seems to like them, I rarely express my opinion about them for fear of having to defend myself against everyone present. If you're like me and have these secret loathings, this is your chance to express your dislike. Give a reason for your contempt. Here's mine:

I hate Top Gun. The music is awesome (well, except for the cringe-worthy rendition of You've lost that lovin' feeling) and the flying scenes are spectacular, but there is no way that Navy pilots would ever act the way Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer did in that movie. They would never be allowed to get near a paper airplane let alone a jet fighter after the first dumb-assed stunt in ground school. The opening credits of the movie state "..the Navy began the Top Gun school to find the best fighter pilot." That is the furthest thing from the truth. The Navy started the Top Gun school (and the Air Force the Red Flag school) to teach our fighter pilots how to fly and fight against enemy (mainly Russian and Chinese pilots) so they don't get shot out of the sky the first time they encounter one. The armed services couldn't care less who is the best pilot and wouldn't spend a dime trying to find out.
 

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Yeah, I think TG is mostly remembered as a 1980's nostalgia thing with a kick-arse soundtrack and some great dogfight footage. The story... not so much. (And I got zero sense of chemistry between the leads.)

As for movies others love that I hate, I got a million of 'em. First and foremost would be Pretty Woman. Of four adults, I'm the only one who stuck it out to the end, and that was out of sheer stubbornness. Duller than dishwater, Gere was cardboard, and the whole premise was icktastic.

Guardians of the Galaxy. Marvel movies have gotten very tie-in heavy, to the point where some can't even be watched without knowing the comics or greater universe, and this one epitomizes that. Three villains, of which one was just a cameo teasing another Marvel arc... a sarcastic Earthman hero who lacks the likeability factor that makes such characters endearing rather than aggravatingly immature... aliens inexplicably fascinated by pop culture references... and the most natural actors with the best chemistry in the film were entirely CGI. (I also utterly refuse to believe a cassette tape would still be functioning, let alone produce crystal-clear sound, after so much abuse and overplaying.)

ET. Now, when my sister and I were kids, we saw it and the family enjoyed it - don't know that any of us love-loved it, but it was fun, and as a kid there were moving things on the screen and a kid flying in a bike and all that. We saw it again when it came out on DVD... and, dang, what the heck? Lousy movie, foul-mouthed brat kids. I can get my sister and I misjudging it - we were kids, and our favorite film was usually whatever we last saw - but my parents were grown-ups, and they, too, had a completely different reaction.

Willow. Everyone gushed about this one, but I remember it being too long and kinda boring, with maybe a few funnish moments and lines.
 
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I know there are many movies that critics, friends, and the general populace like that I really loathe. But because everyone seems to like them, I rarely express my opinion about them for fear of having to defend myself against everyone present. If you're like me and have these secret loathings, this is your chance to express your dislike. Give a reason for your contempt. Here's mine:

I hate Top Gun. The music is awesome (well, except for the cringe-worthy rendition of You've lost that lovin' feeling) and the flying scenes are spectacular, but there is no way that Navy pilots would ever act the way Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer did in that movie. They would never be allowed to get near a paper airplane let alone a jet fighter after the first dumb-assed stunt in ground school. The opening credits of the movie state "..the Navy began the Top Gun school to find the best fighter pilot." That is the furthest thing from the truth. The Navy started the Top Gun school (and the Air Force the Red Flag school) to teach our fighter pilots how to fly and fight against enemy (mainly Russian and Chinese pilots) so they don't get shot out of the sky the first time they encounter one. The armed services couldn't care less who is the best pilot and wouldn't spend a dime trying to find out.

I love Top Gun, but it is wildly unrealistic. Also, pilots (at least Navy pilots) with call signs like Maverick or Iceman are usually the pilots people don’t like. Your team/squadron/unit (depending on what we’re talking about since pilots aren’t the only ones with call signs) chooses yours for you. If they don’t like you, they’ll give you a “cool” one.
 

Seaclusion

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I've got another one. Dances with wolves. It's just too damn long. I get that he is alone in a forlorn and empty place. I get it that there is no companionship. I don't need twenty minutes of being bored out of my mind to get it. Photography is awesome, locations are spectacular, but too much movie and not enough story.
 

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Interstellar. I often see claims that it's "Hard SF" or "scientifically accurate." FFS, no. It acknowledges that the Earth isn't flat; beyond that it makes Star Wars looks like a science show.
 

Seaclusion

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As a side note about Top Gun. Did you know that Kelly Mcgillis now runs a bar in Key West, Fl
 
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Interstellar. I often see claims that it's "Hard SF" or "scientifically accurate." FFS, no. It acknowledges that the Earth isn't flat; beyond that it makes Star Wars looks like a science show.

Wait, what? I mean I’m not a physicist (I’m just a mathematician), but it seemed pretty good to me for the most part. Kip Thorne did all the science. There are some things that are a stretch, and obviously anything once he gets to the event horizon is pure fiction, but otherwise it seemed decent. Neil deGrasse Tyson and Michio Kaku thought it was mostly accurate. In fact, probably the biggest error was with how they portrayed the atmosphere becoming too toxic.

Sorry for the derail. Obviously, you are entitled to your opinion. :)
 

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ET. Now, when my sister and I were kids, we saw it and the family enjoyed it - don't know that any of us love-loved it, but it was fun, and as a kid there were moving things on the screen and a kid flying in a bike and all that. We saw it again when it came out on DVD... and, dang, what the heck? Lousy movie, foul-mouthed brat kids. I can get my sister and I misjudging it - we were kids, and our favorite film was usually whatever we last saw - but my parents were grown-ups, and they, too, had a completely different reaction.

ET and I are fellow travelers, having come into this world on the same day of the same year. But I frankly could care less, that little alien can suck it (I am not a Spielberg fan, is what I am saying).

Interstellar. I often see claims that it's "Hard SF" or "scientifically accurate." FFS, no. It acknowledges that the Earth isn't flat; beyond that it makes Star Wars looks like a science show.

Ugh. Good robot, and excellent O'Neill habitat, but this movie was DUMB. Another instance of familial love being some kind of quantum handwavium magic.
 
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As a side note about Top Gun. Did you know that Kelly Mcgillis now runs a bar in Key West, Fl

I didn’t know that. The actual Top Gun bar is in San Diego where the film is set. I’ve been there. The food is meh and it looks nothing like the film version.
 

Kjbartolotta

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Wait, what? I mean I’m not a physicist (I’m just a mathematician), but it seemed pretty good to me for the most part. Kip Thorne did all the science. There are some things that are a stretch, and obviously anything once he gets to the event horizon is pure fiction, but otherwise it seemed decent. Neil deGrasse Tyson and Michio Kaku thought it was mostly accurate. In fact, probably the biggest error was with how they portrayed the atmosphere becoming too toxic.

The part where they go down to the planet and time is moving faster for some reason. I have never taken a physics class in my life and even I facepalmed over this. I think Michio and Neil, for all their greatness, were being a little overenthusiastic here. Not that I'm not saying there weren't interesting and accurate elements (and with all due respect and openness to difference of opinion :) ).
 
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Seaclusion

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I didn’t know that. The actual Top Gun bar is in San Diego where the film is set. I’ve been there. The food is meh and it looks nothing like the film version.

A lot of movies were filmed in New Mexico when I lived there and almost all the locations look nothing like the real place on the silver screen. Most of them were decorated according to the story.

Honky Tonk Freeway was filmed in Mount Dora, Florida (I actually appear in the crowd for 2/10's of a second) and they painted one side of an entire block of the main street pink. It remained pink for many years before eventually every building was repainted.
 

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I didn't hate Interstellar, I just found it boring and tedious after the, what, ninth hour? I was falling asleep by the soaring, Hans Zimmery climax. And I don't fall asleep in movies often. Everyone else I know seemed to love it, though.

Also, I'm pretty sure waves don't work like that.
 

Albedo

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I must be too agreeable for my own good, or something, though. I can't really think of a movie I hate. There are plenty of movies I love to hate -- 2012, Love Actually, the Riddick movies -- but it's out of affection for high concept crap, not seething malice.
 

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Avatar. There was just no engagement of sympathy for any of the characters at all.

It's bad when you don't care at all what happens to ANY of the characters. I didn't even care when Sigourney Weaver's character <redacted just in case someone hasn't seen the steaming pile of turd and wants to>.

The idea was interesting - but I felt the execution was sadly lacking.
 
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lizmonster

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The Social Network. Appallingly misogynistic, and utterly misrepresents the software industry. And the depiction of Harvard was so deeply unpleasant I'm surprised they didn't sue.

Interstellar
. I should have loved this movie, but it took 40 minutes to get to the point, and then hammered me over the head with it for the next seven or eight hours or however long it was. (The wormhole was pretty, though.)

And an oldie:

Prizzi's Honor.​ The mob is not funny. Ever.
 

NathanBrazil

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Mulholland Drive - I'm a fan of Lynch's work and have noodled over some of his more deeply disturbing films, like Eraser Head. But this film, for me, is just unwatchable. It's something about the pacing. I've never been able to finish it.
 

Albedo

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Avatar. There was just no engagement of sympathy for any of the characters at all.

It's bad when you don't care at all what happens to ANY of the characters. I didn't even care when Sigourney Weaver's character <redacted just in case someone hasn't seen the steaming pile of turd and wants to>.

The idea was interesting - but I felt the execution was sadly lacking.
There should be a name for this: Auteur syndome, where an A-list director becomes so legendary during a long absence from filmmaking that on their return no-one dares challenge their creative decision-making, and the resulting output is a turgid, overwrought disasterpiece with exquisite production design (that nevertheless makes ninety squillion dollars). George Lucas had the most famous case, but Cameron's been afflicted as well.

I've said it before here, but compare District Nine, which came out the same year. That's how you make sympathetic alien characters. You can't just crank the blue alien sideboob slider to 11 and be done with it.

Interstellar. I should have loved this movie, but it took 40 minutes to get to the point, and then hammered me over the head with it for the next seven or eight hours or however long it was. (The wormhole was pretty, though.)
Hammering in the form of that one Dylan Thomas poem everyone knows again and again and again. It's the new Ozymandias. By the umpteenth repetition I was praying for humanity's end.
 

Jaymz Connelly

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There should be a name for this: Auteur syndome, where an A-list director becomes so legendary during a long absence from filmmaking that on their return no-one dares challenge their creative decision-making, and the resulting output is a turgid, overwrought disasterpiece with exquisite production design (that nevertheless makes ninety squillion dollars). George Lucas had the most famous case, but Cameron's been afflicted as well.

I've said it before here, but compare District Nine, which came out the same year. That's how you make sympathetic alien characters. You can't just crank the blue alien sideboob slider to 11 and be done with it.

Total agreement on A-list directors putting out turds and having everyone rave about it because it was directed by X, don't you know! It's brilliant by default! A shiny turd is still, just a turd.

I haven't seen District Nine. Maybe I should check it out sometime.
 

Kjbartolotta

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Avatar. There was just no engagement of sympathy for any of the characters at all.

It's bad when you don't care at all what happens to ANY of the characters. I didn't even care when Sigourney Weaver's character <redacted just in case someone hasn't seen the steaming pile of turd and wants to>.

The idea was interesting - but I felt the execution was sadly lacking.

I still haven't seen it but have watched Ferngully multiple times, so I think I'm good.
 

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I was unimpressed with Get Out, but everyone else in the world raves about it. I saw his girlfriend turning on him long before it happened, and nothing really even happened in the whole movie. He killed everyone and got away. Yay. The bad guys seemed pretty one dimensional; I don't remember one of them having a good side/non-ridiculous motives. I will say that they had an interesting concept with the whole taking over someone else's mind like that and how that would go down in our society. I just don't think they went far enough with it.

Yeah, not really scary or suspenseful or thrilling. Nothing like what all the hype made it out to be IMO
 
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The part where they go down to the planet and time is moving faster for some reason. I have never taken a physics class in my life and even I facepalmed over this. I think Michio and Neil, for all their greatness, were being a little overenthusiastic here. Not that I'm not saying there weren't interesting and accurate elements (and with all due respect and openness to difference of opinion :) ).

You facepalmed because you’ve never taken a physics class. Time dilation is a very real physical phenomenon that we can predict with great accuracy. You experience it any time you are closer to a massive body than someone else. When astronauts are in orbit they experience a measurable time difference that we have shown using synchronized clocks. You even experience it in an airplane to a very small extent.

But yeah, the science behind the space stuff is extremely solid. If you’re interested in learning more about time dilation and the effects of being near a black hole (or even just what happens to light near a black hole and why the one in the film is an excellent representation of what it would look like from that close), I can give you some links.
 
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I didn't hate Interstellar, I just found it boring and tedious after the, what, ninth hour? I was falling asleep by the soaring, Hans Zimmery climax. And I don't fall asleep in movies often. Everyone else I know seemed to love it, though.

Also, I'm pretty sure waves don't work like that.

Tidal waves work that way. Near a black hole, a planet with bodies of water would experience massive tidal forces producing waves along those lines. They were much closer together and larger in the film than they would be in real life, but it wasn’t too far off.

Bah. I feel like I’m the defender of this film. I really don’t mind if people didn’t like it. I really only care about the science being accurately represented.

=====

Anyway, I don’t really hate too many movies. I will say that I do not like any of The Godfather movies. Everyone seems to think they are classics, but I don’t like them. Oh. I also hated Inception. Everyone I know loved it. I thought it was so boring and really overexplained what was going on like the audience was a bunch of fifth graders.
 

Kjbartolotta

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You facepalmed because you’ve never taken a physics class. Time dilation is a very real physical phenomenon that we can predict with great accuracy. You experience it any time you are closer to a massive body than someone else. When astronauts are in orbit they experience a measurable time difference that we have shown using synchronized clocks. You even experience it in an airplane to a very small extent.

But yeah, the science behind the space stuff is extremely solid. If you’re interested in learning more about time dilation and the effects of being near a black hole (or even just what happens to light near a black hole and why the one in the film is an excellent representation of what it would look like from that close), I can give you some links.

Link

As explained by Thorne in his popular book, such a large time dilation was a « non-negotiable » request of the film director, for the needs of the story. Intuitively, even an expert in general relativity would estimate impossible to reconcile an enormous time differential with a planet skimming up the event horizon and safely enduring the correspondingly enormous gravitational forces.

But I'm with you on Inception tho :)
 
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