Most Overrated Films of the Year

"Magic Mike". Putting aside complaints about the lack of skin and mirth, what Soderbergh realized is an very traditional, almost prudish film in which a hedonistic man realizes the error of his ways through his love for an honest, hardworking woman, paralleled with a young man's fall from innocence. It could not be more cliched if it simultaneously ended with a wedding and a funeral. Overlooked was a much more interesting story about working-class men dealing with their problems against the backdrop of an eccentric profession. What it wanted to be: Saturday Night Fever What it turned out to be: Flashdance What it should have been: Boogie Nights meets The Full Monty

• "Argo". A unique and exciting hostage story was drastically altered to create a three-pronged vanity project: Affleck's, Hollywood's, and America's vanity. Every character is stock: Affleck is the stock bland "strong quiet type" protagonist, Bryan Cranston is the stock hard-nosed superior, Alan Arkin is the stock Hollywood Jew, John Goodman is the stock John Goodman character, the hostages are the stock nerds, and the Iranians are the stock angry, threatening brown people. The runway scene climax with the gun-toting Libyans from Back to the Future trying to catch up with a jumbo jet was laughable. What it wanted to be: Wag the Dog meets Midnight Express What it turned out to be: Wag the Dog meets Not Without My Daughter What is should have been: not quite sure.

• Loved Argo, not a vanity project but a movielovers movie, taut and clever script, great direction, fine featured characters and a great story. My vote goes, as it almost always does, to the talented Paul Thomas Anderson. who never met a pretentious, sensationalistic overblown script he didn't love. The Master is a piece of crap. And no, I am not a fucking Scientologist. Just a movie lover.

• Lincoln Lincoln Lincoln

• R2, totally agree on "The Master." Coulda been great. Sucked.

• The Usual Suspects Casino Inception Sin City The above films were totally overrated. I have seen so much greater movies. In fact, i find something annoying and ugly in each of them. They are boring and pompous.

• Another vote for Magic Mike. What was the magic about? And so many overly long takes of that brooding humorless blonde chick. It was like a photo essay with a plot inserted.

• R5, maybe those movies contain a piece of your soul.

• R5 do you think before you post?

• R7, no way goofy!

  http://www.clicksmilies.com/s1106/sehrgrosse/large-smiley-030.gif

• R8, i think and very hard...

  http://www.acontinuouslean.com/wp-content/gallery/the-men/153f56351c59a4d1_large.jpg

• I would have to agree both with Magic Mike and the Master. Both movies were a disappointment. I think both stories seriously lacked strong screenplays. They just seemed like ideas put to on film. There was no story, just broad strokes.

• Ok you probably know this already, i just send it for fun. Brando outs himself and Newman : ''"He never fooled me. Paul Newman had just as many on-location affairs as the rest of us, and he was just as bisexual as I was. But, where I was always getting caught with my pants down, he managed to do it in the dark."

  http://www.crazydaysandnights.net/2009/05/marlon-brando-outs-himself-and-paul.html

• [quote]Putting aside complaints about the lack of skin and mirth, what Soderbergh realized is an very traditional, almost prudish film in which a hedonistic man realizes the error of his ways through his love for an honest, hardworking woman, paralleled with a young man's fall from innocence. It could not be more cliched if it simultaneously ended with a wedding and a funeral It's essentially a Joan Crawford working girl vehicle from the 1930s, with a little more sex and a lot less eyebrow pencil.

• The Master was like an unfinished outline for a script. It didn't know where it was going or what it wanted to say and it just petered out into nothing.

• Agree re Magic MIke. That piece of shit actress - daughter of a studio head? is the cuntiest cunt who ever cunted. Matthew M the best thing in it. Channing Tatum FUG. Wonder if would have been as much as buzz without Matthew Bomer in it? VERY disappointed in Soderbergh; has anyone commented here that he's probably quite the homophobe? or at least, insecure? Hmmmmmm

• The problem with Magic Mike is Soderbergh could have gotten away with the 'nothingness' of it all if he didn't cast the two leads-the blonde girl and Tatum.

• Sorry guys. I accidentally sent the previous message here,while i wanted to send it in the Paul Newman thread.

  R12

• I saw Magic Mike with no expectations and thought it was a very good film. No masterpiece but a decent look at life in 2012. It's a small film though and all the PR did it no justice. Argo is just a well done action film. I think it's more overrated that MM. The Master is ...a mess.

• Magic Mike absolutely, and I'm a big Soderbergh fan. It was, by far, the worst movie I've seen of his. Not one reason for it to exist, and that includes Matthew McConnaughey's repulsive, lizard like, hugely over praised performance and Channing Tatum's laughable, creepy, and totally non-sexy turn as a stripper. The girl was easily the worst female performance I've seen in years. Utterly charmless and deeply unattractive. I was bewildered the entire movie.

• The problem with Magic Mike is that Soderbergh appears to not understand the psychology of the kind of film he is trying to make. He kept saying "This is Saturday Night Fever, Saturday Night Fever" but it's not, really. Saturday Night Fever, and Flashdance for the matter, understood that their respective dancing and stripping, in addition to providing a vicarious thrill for the audience, also provided an essential gateway into the psychology of the characters: why is it they do what they do. Magic Mike only skirts through that, giving you a cursory glance at the stripping and no real idea of what it is about stripping that the characters like. What would "Saturday Night Fever" feel like without scenes like this? It would feel like "Magic Mike."

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DYu8z1DIMe9Q

• [quote]Lincoln You're insane! "Lincoln" was the best film released by far.

• Since it was based on Channing Tatum's life and he was starring in the movie, there's no reason why they shouldn't have been able to get into the psychology of stripping.

• [quote]Agree re Magic MIke. That piece of shit actress - daughter of a studio head? is the cuntiest cunt who ever cunted. Matthew M the best thing in it. Channing Tatum FUG You're FUG! "Magic Mike" was Soderbergh's best film to date. I didn't think "The Master" was a very good film.

• Lincoln is not overrated. It's one of Spielberg's masterpieces. R3 is simply being contrarian. He hasn't seen the movie.

• Overrated films in general are... Point Blank (1967) The Godfather (all three parts) Too much style and so less substance in them, really.

• I've seen a lot of over rated films recently - Argo, Silver Linings Playbook - but The Master is not one of them. Prepare yourselves for perhaps the most over rated film of the year coming your way - Mivhael Haneke's Amour. I don't see this going over with American audiences at all.

• Totally agree with everything said about Magic Mike. Huge disappointment. Didn't see The Master. Based on the trailer, I just couldn't get motivated to go. I've seen several clips of Lincoln, and you couldn't dragged me drugged to see that movie. It looks completely unwatchable. But loved Argo. Way better than anything I expected going into the theater. But I could have done without the comparisons of fact and fiction over the credits.

• I didn't think Magic Mike was overrated at all. I thought it was billed as what was half- naked male celebrities. When I think of an overrated movie, I think of The Master.

• The Master and Beasts of the Southern Wild.

• As far as I can tell, everything that's been released this year (that I've heard of) has been overrated. I just saw "Flight," and it was a huge disappointment.

• Les Miserables.

• Mirth?? Are you channeling the spirit of Edith Wharton OP?

• Beasts of the Southern Wild. This year's "wow, black people!" curiosity piece. Nearly unwatchable. No true film lover would be disappointed in The Master. Its a fascinating, bold, gorgeous piece of filmmaking. It isn't perfect, but people who hated it wanted it to be the movie THEY would have made on the subject, instead of appreciating what PTA made. The complaints are all centered on how it didn't conform to mainstream expectations for narrative film. So what?

• You're a fucking idiot, R25. The Godfather and Godfather 2 didn't become iconic pieces of American culture because of style. Are you sure you like movies?

• The Master was a pretentious piece of crap. And endless. Really enjoyed Argo, though its a complete work of fiction. Liked Silver Linings Playbook, didn't love it.

• What made "Silver Linings Playbook" entertaining was Jennifer Lawrence. I thought "The Master" and "Cloud Atlas" were overrated. You really have to be into History to enjoy "Lincoln".

• Skyfall. Critics were falling all over themselves saying how well written it was but I thought it was a run-of-the-mill action flick with unappealing characters.

• Matthew Mc had a lot of fun making MM, you could tell. Still most of the movie felt like a bachelorette party for those who've never seen male strippers. The blond needed acting lessons, and any real break from the dancing was too long. Shame on Tatum for not exploring how changing into a sexual object of desire by both women AND men changed his self-image and outlook on life. Why wasn't there at least a hint of how real male strippers make the big bucks?

• Argo was frustrating because you never knew where reality ended and "Hollywood-style" entertainment began. The chase at the conclusion was fun but so over the top silly. It's almost as if there were 3 movies combined to satisfy all possible audience interests. 1)Historical portrayal 2) comedy a la stereotypical Jewish producer 3)action in an anti-Islamic, anti-governmental stupidity, anti-establishment mode The Canadians appeared the most dignified, from the realistic portrayal.

• Skyfall was lame. So tired of the REALLY SERIOUS SUPERHERO movie style. If I go to a James Bond movie I want to see lots of silly sex, a ridiculous evil plot, and sun-splashed foreign locales. Not the drudgery of real life crap, gigantic plot holes (how did Prissy Badguy know that James would chase him down that exact tunnel at the exact time a train was coming? why did they bring no backup to the end sequence?), and sullen seriousness. It drew a lot from the well of The Dark Knight and Bourne movies, which is ill-suited to the fun escapism I like in a Bond movie.

• Magic Mike, The Cabin in the Woods, and Silver Linings Playbook.

• I thought Silver Linings Playbook was totally overrated. It was a typical, predictable romantic comedy. Yes, Jennifer Lawrence was good, but no one in that movie was "Oscar-worthy" and the movie itself certainly wasn't.

• Anna Karenina was the most pretentious crapfest of the year IMO.

• Skyfall I loved Argo though.

• Make way for The Hobbit.

• The Master owns this thread.