Overrated, Underrated: Movies

I think I'm going to do an Overrated and then follow it with an Underrated... These are just movies I have been impressed or disappointed with. I would also like to say that it's not that I didn't LIKE these movies, or wouldn't watch them again... It's just that they end up on lists whereas the others don't (or at least, not as often). So please! Argue with me if I am way off base!

Overrated:
   Gone With The Wind.
Why I believe it's Overrated:
  It's supposedly one of the greatest love stories of all time. But Rhett is this cocky, preening, shallow man who uses the war to become very very rich. And Scarlett is a spoiled little brat who only loves what she can't have. I don't understand the concept of a movie wrapped around two people we hate being hateful to one another. When Rhett finally decides to join the war, it's almost over so there isn't even a point. It's like he's riding the prideful wave and wants some of the credit for something he didn't actually have a part of. And it comes at the price of abandoning three women, (two of them completely useless...) and a newborn baby! His pride is always more important than the health and happiness of "the weaker sex". The only person who you actually appreciate is Melanie, and you KNOW she's destined to die simply because she's the only pleasant character. All movie Scarlett is obsessed with Tara (her home plantation), and yet she only there for a 6th of the movie. She's constantly going off and even when she decides to go back, she buys a DIFFERENT HOUSE. I don't get it. She doesn't care two figs about her actual family. I mean, in the beginning, her dad is like, "This is all that lasts" and I thought he meant family. But nope. He literally meant the dirt that makes up Tara. So basically what she takes away from that is, "Screw over your sisters as long as it means you can hang onto this hunk of dirt." The main massage in the movie is INVEST IN REAL ESTATE! Because family will either die or hate you, men are to be used or pined after, and the only real friend you will ever have will ignore all your faults and then die.

Underrated:
  Some Like It Hot
Why:

 It's funny. It's crude. It's sweet. It's one of those movies that leaves you laughing and feeling like life is a little bit better now that you've seen this movie. Plus, Marilyn Monroe! But it never ends up on any of those "100 Greatest Romantic Movies of All Time" lists. Cross-dressing men, gangsters, murder... It's all there, mixed with humor, romance, and rich millionaires who aren't too picky about genders. Sure, the romance is based on lies and manipulation and the girl who has been used by the same type of man over and over again ends up falling for THE SAME type of guy AGAIN. But at least this time, it's based on friendship while he was dressed as a woman.

Overrated:
  West Side Story
Why:
 It's just BAD. I love musicals. I do. I freely admit it! But the music in this "classic" is so terrible! The rhyming is elementary, the songs are painfully simple and repetitive, and the idea that men pirouetting make up a manly, intimidating gang is RIDICULOUS. There is a certain amount of suspension of reality that goes into watching a music. It's just not natural or organic for a whole street to burst into song and dance. But you can forgive it for the most part. But gangsters randomly shooting up from the middle of the crowd in a perfect allegro? Yeah. That's not so easy to forgive. Not only that, it's based of Romeo and Juliette, so you know that the underlying themes are, so you keep an eye out for them, but they aren't really there! There isn't the foreshadowing or the love there... it's mostly about the music and the music is so painfully hard to listen to... "I feeeeel Preetty! Oh so preeettty!!" Really? AND! AND! They couldn't get any REAL ethnicities in there? They must have paid thousands for fake tanner!!! She doesn't even die at the end. I don't know. That's what I was looking forward to the most. That's what makes Romeo and Juliette such a provocative story. Both families are confronted with loss so they BOTH have to reassess this feud. And through this devastation, they are finally able to relate to each other. Through sacrifice they become changed. How can anything actually change when only one side suffers loss? Now it's even more about revenge then before!

Underrated:
  Meet Me In Saint Louis
Why:

 Judy Garland singing the way she sings, set in a beautiful, idyllic St. Louis... With this lovely romance with the boy next door. (He's also age-apporpriate which wasn't common in movies back then!) It starts in summer and plays throughout the other three seasons as well. Set in Victorian America. And the Christmas-yness is just enough to set you in the mood. There is the epic scene where she is accompanied to the ball by her sweet old grandfather, and as they dance, she's crying because of her man not being there, tucking her head into her grandfather's shoulder, and as they spin behind the tree... Out from the other side she comes with HIM! The sweet boy from next door and her tears are dried and the magic is sparkly!!! >.< Plus, Tootie, the sweetest little morbid 5 year old, with a precocious vocabulary and a knack for thinking up deadly diseases for her dolls. "Ding ding ding went the beeeellll.... Stop stop stop went my heart strings... When I saw him I fell!!!"

Overrated:
  Sleepless in Seattle
Why:
  Stalker Meg Ryan is obsessed with the idea of "The One" perfect someone... with all the "signs" telling her to be with them. She falls for a voice on the radio of a mourning Tom Hanks. (And this is while she is engaged to the adorable and safe and sweet Bill Pullman. Sure, they give him loads of allergies because they want the watcher to have a reason not to love him. But he's so enduringly nice and understanding!) She gets even creepier, going over there to see him without permission, just to watch him like a creepy creeper. After throwing in some underage antics, they end up on the top of The Empire State Building, magically making it the "Most Romantic Building In The World"where every woman will obsess about meeting their Tom for the rest of eternity. And without much to appease the patient viewer, the two strangers go home together, suddenly a family. So you waited all movie for these two to make contact, and now that they are finally together... It ends. Keep in mind, Tom still has a girlfriend.

Underrated:
 While You Were Sleeping

Why:
  The shy and terribly lonely Sandra Bullock falls for a man named Peter, played by a man named Peter. He's got a nice coat. She is very very lonely. So she turns him into her ideal man without ever actually speaking to him. But SHE DOES NOT STALK HIM. She sees him every day because of her legitimate JOB. So she saves his life and in the hospital there is some mix up and she is introduced to the family as his fiancé, a mistake she tries to remedy, but there are old lady heart problems and the fact that she is very very lonely and this is a whole family that suddenly cares. I love this story, not only because unlike the idiot Meg Ryan, Sandra sees the beautiful Bill Pullman as the adorable dork that he is and drops her ideas of what the "perfect man" should be and falls for someone REAL, AWAKE, and IN HER ZIP CODE. But also because it's not just about the love between a man and a woman, but the love of a family. Going from 1 person with 1 cat and only a handful of friends... she's pulled into this warm world of home cooked meals and hugs! It's awesome.

Overrated:
  The Matrix
Why:
  I admit, I really enjoyed this movie. I thought it was interesting. I thought it was well done. But when I tried to rewatch it recently... it's just so P-A-T. Just so... cliched. And yes, maybe it's because it created some of the cliches that other movies are now based on. But the dialog?? It's terrible. And the franchise just went all to crap. I haven't watched it in a while, and the last time I tried I couldn't actually get all the way through it. But it still ends up on lists like it's amazing.











Underrated:
  Minority Report
Why:

 A new take on a crime solving show, the danger of premeditation, and free will over impulses. Because just because someone is gifted, doesn't mean they should be manipulated, used, or obligated to use their gifts for the good of mankind. Power is about choosing what to believe, who to save and trust, and what is really important. Because psychics and surgery and robots. That's why. Plus I'd take Tom Cruise over Keanu Reeves any day.





Overrated:
  Star Wars
Why:
  I have watched all of them multiple times. And everyone goes on about "the story telling"... WHAT STORY TELLING??? I don't know. Maybe I'm missing something. They cast Hayden Christensen and then break your heart! I remember the first time I watched him going through the change from Anakin to you know who... It was awful! Gut-wrenching, actually. I feel like they make all these arbitrary rules and then don't try to break them for the good of the movie. Which MAKES a movie.

Underrated:
  The Fifth Element
Why:
  It's got everything. Humor. Aliens. Futuristic-ness. Bruce. And the drama of a ticking time bomb. Several, actually. And considering it was made BEFORE The Phantom Menace, it has some pretty killer effects. And a kick ass lady lead. Of course there is the stupidity and anti-femist idea that a woman can't fulfill her life's purpose without a man's love and support... but I can overlook that since I love a man and don't mind being supported by him. But I could understand why it would upset women. Still! It's got Love! It's got Chris Tucker screaming! It's got the most epic opera ever to be sung/autotuned! It's got darkness and light! It's got The trashcan dinosaur from the live action Flintstones! Probably my favorite movie of all time. Oh who am I kidding... IT IS my favorite movie of all time!!! (This one. Not the Flintstones.)

Overrated:
  Pretty In Pink
Why:

  I love this movie. I do. Ducky. Miss Molly. But it's kind of confusing. Like... why do the rich kids hate the poor kids? Why is Molly so angry and defensive? I don't know. I feel like John Hughs only told part of the story and I want to know more! Also... the original ending, where she ends up with Ducky... would have made so much more sense to the woman in me!! I don't love Andrew McCarthy in that movie. I want to. He's awesome. But in this movie he's a spineless jerk who did NOT "always believe in" her!!! He gave up when things got hard, but changed his mind when she shows up looking hot. OH! Also a big beef with the movie? THE DRESS IS HIDEOUS! It's called "Pretty In Pink" and then the dress is disgusting? That's just bad planning.







Underrated:
  Some Kind Of Wonderful
Why:
  This is the same kind of set up as Pretty in Pink, though the roles are reversed and the rich girl isn't ACTUALLY rich. But still the same sort of idea. THIS, is about friendship across years and ideas of what a woman should be, or look like, or whatever. He falls for his besty before she transformed, and she doesn't change to get him. And the beautiful girl gets revenge for herself, she fights her own battle finally and makes the right choice to learn how to be strong on her own. I feel like it's a romance that doesn't confine itself to traditional roles. Again, this is a movie where the boy (Eric Stoltz) falls for who he thinks Amanda Jones is. And she surprises him by being so much more, but through it all he finally realizes who Mary Stuart-Masterson is, and wants her. And I think through Eric, Amanda sees who she is. But of course (Watts) always knew who she was, she just finally gets him to notice... by continuing to be herself! Plus... THAT KISS!!! It's probably the best kiss of ALL TIMES! But it NEVER GETS THE CREDIT it deserves. I swear. Sometimes I just want to shake people!












There are more. And I may add to this list at another time! But for now, I have purged myself! ^_^