Cult films you can't stand

Films with big cult followings you can't stand, not just because of the unwarranted hipster following but simply because the films are terrible or beyond overrated. Personally, I believe that the cult films from the past 20 years, like Donnie Darko or The Big Lebowski, are nothing special. But the film I can't stand is Brazil. Brazil is the acid test for those who mistake pretension for brilliance. Slaughter those sacred cows.

• Harold and Maude-boring and unfunny.

• Withnail & I...mostly because I find Richard E Grant intolerably bad. Actually, the whole film stinks.

• Agree on Donnie Darko and Big Lebowski. Didn't get the hype. Reservoir Dogs and True Romance left me cold.

• I like "The Big Lebowski," but I agree that "Donnie Darko" and "Brazil" are pretty insufferable. I also think "Repo Man" is overrated.

• I loved Donnie Darko.

• I despise Lebowski

• Love Lebowski, mostly hate Harold and Maude

• Fargo. Being John Malkovich. Heathers. Donnie Darko. Everything by Lars von Trier.

• Harold and Maude is GODAWFUL. It is only interesting if you have the maturity of a 16 year old. Like Catcher in the Rye and Kerouac.

• Fight Club. Vacuous tripe beloved by straight men who want to appear deep and sensitive. I didn't hate Brazil, but couldn't understand the hype. But then, again, Monty Python fanboys are a species unto itself.

• Eraserhead - don't get it, don't want to

• Clerks. I really don't get Kevin Smith's supposed brilliance at all.

• I really think the scene in "The Big Lebowski" where Julianne Moore speaks Italian pretentiously on the phone is genuinely funny, but the rest of it is pretty stupid. It's only funny if you're stoned. "Donnie Darko" is mostly Philosophy Lite, like "Inception." They're popular with high school students who want to think, but not very deeply.

• I'm generally not a fan of cult films, but I have to disagree about Brazil. It's probably my all time favourite film. I saw it the day it came out and went back to see it the next day, so I fell in love with it long before it reached cult status, of which i wasn't even aware it had. I think about the central point of that movie all the time; men are becoming more like machines, and machines are becoming more organic. It really is a remarkable movie.

• Brazil is one of my favorite films of all time. And I also love Fight Club, but agree about all the others mentioned.

• The Rocky Horror Show has never done it for me. I agree about Repo Man.

• r1 Is probably boring and funny as well

• Just watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for the second time. Is it considered a cult film?

• [quote]But the film I can't stand is Brazil. Brazil is the acid test for those who mistake pretension for brilliance. Um.... no.

• I love "Harold and Maude", and I'm over fifty. Lovely, funny films that affirms life without ignoring the dark side. However, I do hate "Donnie Darko". Apparently the filmmakers didn't intend to show the onset of schizophrenia, but that's what they got.

• Caddyshack (is that a cult film? Oh well, it kind of qualifies now). The Boondock Saints Fear & Loathing in LV Many, many others...

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• Anything by the Cohen brothers. I have fucking hated every single one of their movies that I've suffered through.

• Blue Velvet

• Harold and Maude was the first movie I ever watched and still my favorite. It's also the favorite of Henry Rollins btw.

• Pulp Fiction

• animal house blair witch project blade runner.. omg this film is soooo boring

• I disliked Joan Crawford/Bette Davis/Charles Busch/Bette Midler fare - as well as any and all of Al Pacino's work. Oddly enough, I liked some of the Barbra Streisand/Richard Day movies.

• I'm not sure if this is considered a cult film, but I DETESTED "Once."

• r20 but you weren't over 50 the first time you saw it. Same with r24. The first time one sees it, if he/she loves it, one is either a teenager or has the maturity of one.

• "Elizabeth" and "Queen Margot." They're incredibly shallow and Eurotrashy and historically inaccurate, and yet so many posters on Datalounge think they're deep explorations of European history. They're pretty eye candy, but that's it.

• John Waters. His films have never struck me as particularly smart. Serial Mom might be the smartest - but it's never funnier than a tired drag queen on an off night.

• Manhunter (the original Hannibal Lecter movie in the '80s). Everything about this movie screams cheap, low-budget, music-video-looking '80s cheese. And some Raspberry-bait acting by everyone. And no atmosphere whatsoever. One of the dullest, clumsiest crime dramas ever made and yet people worship it! Flame away, but I think the "Red Dragon" remake with Anthony Hopkins was better than Manhunter in every quantifiable way, shape and form. It felt so much more professional and polished.

• [italic]Manhunter[/italic] was good for Dennis Farina and Brian Cox. I preferred their portrayals of Jack Crawford and Lecter. They were much closer the characters as written. Hopkins cannot resist hamming things up. I know the audience loved that in Silence of the Lambs, but his Lecter didn't scare me even slightly. Cox scared the bejesus out of me.

• Hot ham water.

• "Pulp Fiction" and "Reservoir Dogs." I love exploitation movies, but Tarantino leaves me cold. Before "Harold and Maude," there was a cult film called "King of Hearts" -- my parents' friends LOVED it. I finally saw it and it was pure Roberto Benigni-style treacle about a soldier who comes across the escaped inmates of an insane asylum. Apparently it was a huge hit in college towns in the late 1960s and early 1970s and nearly forgotten today. Awful. (But I love Russ Meyer, John Waters, Almodovar, David Lynch, Doris Wishman, and all that stuff!)

• Holy Mountain

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• The Wicker Man.

• I'm a second person who cannot stand "Eraserhead".

• Brazil does try to be more meaningful than it is, but I don't think it's the acid test for anything. With its fabulous futuristic sets and funny situations and dialogue, it's actually pretty cool. Donnie Darko, agreed, I had to force myself to watch it once and wasn't impressed. The Big Lebowski- I've never seen it, don't think I'd like it. Harold and Maude - It was once great, but too dated now. Fargo - classic Being John Malkovich - classic, also points for extreme originality Heathers - overrated Fight Club - crap Eraserhead - first half brilliant, second half goes over the deep end and gets boring Rocky Horror Show - uneven but not worthless. Blue Velvet - maybe a little overrated, but it's still pretty cool Pulp Fiction - yeah, I never got all the praise for that either

• Fight Club. Jesus Christ, a violent, asinine movie for dumb straight guys who think it's 'profound' instead of ludicrous. Still, it's probably not as bad as when those straight white middle class males think that Inception is, like, deep.

• Joe vs the Volcano is unwatchable in my book.

• I loved Volcano the first few times I saw it, but then it stopped holding up. It was surprising that Meg Ryan had enough talent to portray 3 completely different people, but it didn't lead anywhere. She just went back to her crappy romcoms until they put her out to pasture.

• The Princess Bride! *Thread closed.*

• Star Wars! I can't stand any of the series...creaky dialog, stupid jokes, tedious plotlines. All the Star Wars movies are painfully mediocre.

• Only one mentioned Rocky Horror Pik-ture Show and no one mentioned Napoleon Dynamite?

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• "Prospero's Books"....I literally felt like dying watching it.

• Myra Breckenridge. Movies are supposed to have pacing, people.

• I love Myra Breckinridge but can't begin to explain why. You are right though, the pacing is all over the place.

• I like Pulp Fiction and a lot of Tarantino's movies but I tried to watch Reservoir Dogs the other night and was bored. I don't get the love for Wes Anderson. The Royal Tenenbaums was painfully dull and affected.

• Repo Man. Emilio Estevez cannot carry a movie.

• Donnie Darko is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I won't date anyone who loves it, that is how strongly I feel about it.

• The Gods Must Be Crazy Have never understood why this movie is so well loved.

• Aw, R35, I saw "King of Hearts" when I was a kid (back in the 60s) and I loved it. I'd probably hate it now but to a child back then it was pretty great. Alan Bates and Genevieve Bujold, wasn't it?

• Blade Runner. It doesn't matter how many different versions of it that I've seen, it's still boring. Local Hero is impossible to watch, as is Buckaroo Bonzai.

• I'm too old and stubborn to understand any cult films! Therefore they all suck! Hissssss!

  The Hissing Eldergay (THE)

• I absolutely adore "Buckaroo Banzai"! The fact that it's hard to follow is just part of the fun.

• I love Buckaroo Banzai, too. I found Blade Runner amazingly dull, but Repo Man makes me laugh.

• I could never really get into Star Wars and the reason is summed up in the opening credits.Long ago in a galaxy far away,they tell you right off the bat your watching a film featuring characters long since dead!

• Star Wars doesn't qualify as a cult film, cult films aren't popcorn-munching summer blockbusters. The ST movies have a devoted following, but it's way too mainstream to be called a cult.

• R37 How can you dislike The Wicker Man??? I'll add Re-animator. Terrible, unfunny movie (I'm not into 80s film)

• [quote] Long ago in a galaxy far away,they tell you right off the bat your watching a film featuring characters long since dead! I hope nobody's told you about Pride and Prejudice yet.

• Inland Empire.

• I heard on the news San Francisco wants to give rides to poor people, on public transit for free. I think this is right. But the Republicans won't let them Jerks.

• Hiroshima Mon Amour

• The only good thing in the Big Lebowski was John Goodman, the rest was terribly low brow. I think Planes Trains and Automobiles and Groudhog Day are terribly overrated too. The same goes for No Country for Old Men with Javier Bardem the only interesting thing in the 2 hours of boredom. Most Coens films are overrated IMHO. The Dark Knight was only interesting because of Heath Ledger.

  Anonymous

• The Salton Sea - grotesque

• Evil Dead. Sorry, just hate it. Look forward to the remake, though, to see if CGI helps.

• Well Evil Dead was really low-budget, but Evil Dead 2 was basically a comic remake and the effects were pretty good for the time. Me and my nephews watched Evil 2 probably over 100 times, every time they came over for me to babysit.

• Loved Donnie Darko, I didnt know it was a cult. Caught it by accident one night. It's really the kind of movie you got to see in the right mood. Late at night in the dark.

• Casablanca.

• "Chut up! Chut up!" The director's cut of Donnie Darko showed that he had NO IDEA what he was doing - he moved songs around, changed the story, made it much worse. It also showed that he had no idea what the strengths of the movie were, like the comedic elements.

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• Flash Gordon If Benny Hill directed a sci-fi film it would look like Flash Gordon. Just awful.

• Definitely on board with Heathers.

• Is The Master considered a cult film yet? Because it was fucking AWFUL.

• "Inland Empire"--between the rabbit people, the canned laughter and Jeremy Irons, I don't know what I saw. The best segments were Diane Ladd's "TMZ" like show and that homoerotic tension between the tall Polish guy and Justin Theroux where he warns the latter to stay away from his wife (Laura Dern).

• [quote] I think Planes Trains and Automobiles and Groudhog Day are terribly overrated Since when has Planes, Trains and Automobiles been considered a "cult" film? It's a John Hughes holiday film, for god's sake, about as uncult-like as you can get.

• The cartoon movie Heavy Metal.

• Reading all the mentions on this thread now makes me wonder what 'cult' actually means.

• Planes Trains and Automobiles has a cult following. It doesn't matter who made it. Cult means there's a special cult-like following, people obsessed with a certain film and it doesn't matter who made it. They know the film by heart and have seen it hundreds of time.

  http://www.meetup.com/Cult-Film-London/events/73914842/%3Faction%3Ddetail%26eventId%3D73914842

• "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte": Schmaltzy, over-acted drivel. Sorry, but I have to defend "Harold & Maude". Maybe because I was a child of the 70's. This movie really had a profound impact on me. There are lines in it, I still use on occasion. Such as, when defending art other's don't like: I quote Maude talking with the Preist who's car she stole and painted on: "Oh well, for aesthetic appreciation, always a little time." And: "And do try to be a little more, VIVACIOUS!" -- always in the mom's voice.

  Zak

• Rocky Horror! Never got it. And Star Wars is not a cult movie, whoever brought it up first. Huge mainstream success, which I never got either. Saw the first in its initial release, thought it was dumb, never saw another one.

• "Animal House", "Star Wars", "Plane, Trains and Automobiles" were ALL mainstream movies, NOT cult films. I always thought "Fargo" was a piece of shit. It's besotted with its own drollery; every time one of the retarded characters in it says "yah" the audience is supposed to bust a gut in hilarity. France McDormand's performance is a cartoon; she even uses a cartoon voice! And the dim fans of the obscenely over-rated movie thought it was a "true story!"

• R79, your link proves its not a cult film. Only one person showed up. Two of the other three fans couldn't make it.

• When "Fargo" was released, they held a screening fro residents of the city that it was named for (but not set in). According to reports at the time, the local audience was NOT pleased with the sex, ultraviolence and black comedy and sat stone faced through the screening.

• I'm not even sure that Coen Brothers' movies qualify as cult films. Didn't Fargo win a lot of awards, as did No Country...? My understanding was that a cult film is something that flies under the radar of critics and mainstream audiences and acquires following through word of mouth, late night screenings at arthouse movie theaters, etc.

• Another non-fan of Rocky Horror.

• Totally agree about Brazil, OP. Another overrated one I hate: Repo Man

• Hate rocky horror and fight club.

• [quote] Hate . . . fight club LOL! Well if anything labels DL as a gay and straight frau site it's hating Fight Club. Every straight male has at least one well worn tape of Fight Club and probably the anniversary special edition dvd. How can you hate it? Hilarious and subversive and full of Brad's beautiful face and body. And, of course, the only thing good about Rocky Horror was the community fun in attending - no one thought it was a good movie - no one.

• [quote] Hilarious and subversive Only if you live in some Midwestern suburb. Otherwise, it's trite and jejune.

• Barbarella. Who told Jane Fonda she could act?

• Except R89--the community fun stuff really wasn't all that...fun. For some of us, anyway.

• I agree, R89. I think your comment applies to most of the tedious kvetching on this thread. Some of you people would find the taste of whitebread too exotic.

• R89, I hate "Fight Club" because I know better ways of dealing with emotinoal issues than pointless violence. It's a movie about fools, made for fools.

• [quote]Barbarella. Who told Jane Fonda she could act? DL is officially ovuh.

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• A lot of great films being dissed on this thread. Zzzzz. It's much easier to dislike than it is to like something. Everyone sneering should also list a cult (not a classic or mainstream) film that they like. All the vipers could then shred each other to death.

• [quote] it's trite and jejune How precious you are.

• Yep, i also didn't like Fight Club. Overrated!

• I thought that Donnie Darko was fine until I listened to the director's commentary and realized that he really believed in that shit

• Pulp Fiction.

• Regarding Rocky Horror, I think the Last Picture Show was the preppiest movie ever made. No movie was ever targeted more toward preppies, although its content was not necessarily preppy. I propose that while freaky people go dance at midnight to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, preppies dress up in their particular clothes and go and dance at midnight to The Last Picture Show. They could get up on the stage and dance to all those early 50s songs. Most appropriate.

• R96 I don't like Big Lebowski, Rocky Horror, Princess Bride. I love most horror cult classics: The Wicker Man, Hausu, Braindead, Let's Scare Jessica to Death, Dark City, Black Christmas, Antichrist, House of the Devil, The Beyond...I could list 100 more

• WHET John Philip Law?

• I hope you're joking, R101.

  Sonny

• All of Todd Solondz's films.

• I'm fairly intelligent and not excessively pretentious and I liked Donnie Darko. To me it was haunting, mysterious and sad. And funny. Why are so many of you saying it is bad and faux deep? Also, I haven't seen the director's cut or commentary, but even if he is some stupid nut, can't the film stand on its own? Couldn't a stupid nut somehow make an odd, compelling film? Wouldn't that only enhance its cult appeal? ( I saw The Box, a pos, but it doesn't detract from my enjoyment of DD)

• I hated Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas so much that it is the only movie I've ever walked out of. Which is saying a lot, because I made it to the end of Dangerous Beauty.

• Bride of Chucky

• Maybe it's already been listed, but I thought My Dinner With Andre was just an attempt to make a low-budget film appear relevant. I much preferred My Breakfast With Blassie.

• "Diner" sucks ass

• I hate Diner, too.

• The Blues Brothers and Neighbors. Both got initial hype because of Belushi and Akroyd's pupularity at the time but it didn't take long for anyone but the hardcores to realize how awful they were. 1941 too.

• i second anything by Kevin Smith. I have hated every film of his that I've viewed, especially Clerks which I found unfunny and just dumb. That last one, Red State, was especially cruel and unoriginal---trying so desperately to make a statement but failing miserably.

• I hate The Blues Brothers and Animal House, but they are not really cult films. Note: Animal House, Porky's and Star Wars turned movies into shit, then they took a further turn into shit with the "succcess" of Something About Mary, American Pie, 40 yr old Virgin, etc.

• Agree about Kevin Smith (who I think may be gay), Clerks and all his films are bores.

• "Say Anything" "The Last House On The Left" (original was just gross, remake was horribly acted) "Repo Man" "Cube" "Eagle and Shark" "Hardcore Logo"

• This is the first time "Cube" has come up. I LOVE that movie, totally blew me away the first time I saw it, and I've seen it many times since. I heard they're doing a 3D remake. Repo Man's come up a lot. I loved it in the 80s, but I won't defend it now, it hasn't aged well.

• Another vote for "Eraserhead". Suffered through DL favorites "Showgirls" and "Valley of the Dolls" and couldn't wait for them to be over. I get the whole so-bad-it's-good thing, but these shitfests were just unbearable...

• I've seen it high and I have seen it sober, but I honestly just cannot get why anyone could praise "El Topo".

• I vastly prefer campy gay cult flicks (VOTD, Showgirls, Rocky Horror) to 99% of straight-boy cult (Big Lebowski, Office Space, Caddyshack, old obscure sci-fi). Guess I'm just really, really gay.

• High School Musical. Borat.

• OP, if you think Brazil is pretentious, you've obviously never seen my place of employment. The film was positively prescient.

• Agree with a lot of the comments. Hey, can we have a thread about great English 30s and 40s movies? I just found out the actress Judy Campbell who was in Green For Danger is Jane Birkin's mother. Anyone here like Green for Danger (1946)?

• This goes well with my book thread.

  http://www.datalounge.com/cgi-bin/iowa/ajax.html%23page:showThread%2C11882133

  PPSM

• A Clockwork Orange

• I'm very fond of Kevin Smith's "Dogma", which manages to carry off the rare trick of being both philosophical and funny. I still loathe "Fight Club", bunch of damn jackasses.

• I don't know if anyone mentioned "Napoleon Dynamite", but it probably deserves at least one mention. I managed to watch the whole thing on a recommendation from a younger co-worker. There were a few scenes that caused a slight chuckle and to say I can't stand the movie is probably not true, but I would never sit through it again. American History X and Braveheart are also 2 other monumental pieces of absolute rubbish. I had to fast forward in a number of spots in both movies it was so bad.

  anonymous

• I kind of liked "Liquid Sky" just because of the "OMG, WTF" and low-budget factors. ......But for the life of me, I can't figure out why it apparently received such critical praise on the festival circuit in the early 80s.

• A Clockwork Orange was an Oscar nominee for Best Picture. hardly a cult film.

• I hated "Pulp Fiction." It was overrated as hell, and it seemed to me that stupid dance scene was played over and over on all those unbearable entertainment news shows. And it rejuvenated John Travolta's moribund career. That in itself is reason enough to hate it.

• I don't know if this is a category that exists anymore, but can we talk about cult books for a little bit? Back when I was in college, in the mid-'70s, the big ones were "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert Pirsig, and "The Teachings of Don Juan" by Carlos Castaneda. I'm surprised neither of those were made into movies, although I suppose they were both too interior to translate readily onto film. That said, while they seemed deep in my marijuana-infused past, what a pile of stupid crap.

• I loved Fight Club. It came out the same year as other great "cult" films like Velevet Goldmine and GO!. Fight Club seemed to be a very entertaining indictment on materialistic/ credit debt culture--years before the "credit crunch" crisis. I realize for many straight men it's all about the fight club bits and what it means to be a "man" & that's it. But that's not my take so I don't care what enjoyment other people get out of it. Not to mention the support group bits were pretty funny. Many over-praised Cohen Brothers films bore me such as the Big Lebowski and Barton Fink. And yet I love some of their crappier films like The Hudscuker Proxy. Used to love both Harold and Maude and The Rocky Horror Picture Show but I wouldn't be able to stomach either one now.

• [quote]"Diner" sucks ass It's a boring movie for boring hetero men, who adore it. Animal House is for heteros too. My straight-ish best friend got very upset with me when I said I didn't like it. Likewise, I thought my straight brother would kill me when I said I thought Raging Bull was boring. Straights adore anything Peter Sellers. If I don't want to be instantly hated, I keep quiet about what I think of him. Likewise, but less so, Michael (dreary) Caine.

• Napoleon Dynamite

• [quote]"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert Pirsig, and "The Teachings of Don Juan" by Carlos Castaneda. A few years later, it was all about Douglas Adams. A few years after that, David Foster Wallace. Until Douglas, none of those sorts of writers were about movies, and any film attempted was usually a failure (The Bell Jar is a good example). Hitchhiker's Guide, too, was a failure, if sad BBC production values and the death of the author trying to produce a mediocre film are any indication. David Foster Wallace killed himself too soon, perhaps, or the people who make films sensed that would happen.

• BIG NIGHT. Badly acted in some parts, and overall pretty stupid.

• Clockwork Orange

• [quote]Harold and Maude was the first movie I ever watched Gee, R24 -- my first was Disney's "Snow White", when I was 5. Your childhood must have been quite different from mine.

• "Pulp Fiction" - total garbage "Moulin Rouge" - bad music video that goes on forever.

• Heathers is okay, but nowhere near as great as its cult devotees claim it is. I get it, the head bitchy mean girl says things like "Fuck me gently with a chainsaw" - it's soooo edgy! Maybe it really was in 1989, I don't know.

• Good news for those people who mentioned CLERKS. Even the people who initially extolled it are now disowning it in droves. It took freakin' long enough, but the indie crowd is finally admitting that the fat little emperor is naked.

• I never even got through Clerks in its entirety. I may have gotten about one third of the way through (I made about three attempts to watch it too). What a fucking snooze fest. What's the appeal? Was it made for Gen X slackers trying to find depth in the most mundane aspects of their everyday lives or something? Come to think of it, my entire paragraph above also applies to my thoughts on Mallrats. Isn't that another beloved Kevin Smith cult classic from the same era?

• A lot of Fargo isn't all that funny, but I have to admit I laughed so hard I cried at Steve Buscemi going into the wood chipper. That one white-socked foot that wouldn't go in was the best part. Blue Velvet is screamingly funny if you watch it with the right (wrong?) people. Friends and I used to act it out like Rocky Horror. "Fuck you, you fucking fuck!" The beginning with all the pretty smiling people and the worms and bugs crawling around under the sod is one of the clumsiest and funniest attempts at dwama I've ever seen. I took a series of film classes and I had to leave when we were watching Blue Velvet.

• I agree with R134 about Clerks. Not a good movie and painful to sit through. It was also annoying because the whole slacker thing attached to Gen X was way overblown and more a product of the media. I'm Gen X and had just graduated from college when the media was trying to define us. Most people I knew from on both coasts and in the Midwest weren't slackers. We were simply trying to find jobs and were underemployed. I really feel for this new generation struggling with that. Lucky for my generation the recession back then ended.

• My dad would watch a lot of John Waters movies when I was a kid (born in the mid-80s). He thought they were all great and could watch them over and over again. Face it: some of his movies are just not good. But I would get oddly compelled to keep watching Divine or whatever. And I guess his work can teach you "what not to do" with your low-budget films. Nonetheless, I would always regret taking the time to watch them. I wonder how the infant who played newborn Taffy in "Female Trouble" turned out as an adult.

• Pulp Fiction and Moulin Rouge were both big hits on their initial run. Cult films are movies that don't make much of a splash initially, but grow over the years. Blue Velvet would also not be a cult film. Neither would Fight Club.

• Wrong, R146. From Wiki: "Studio executives did not like the film and they restructured Fincher's intended marketing campaign to try to reduce anticipated losses. Fight Club failed to meet the studio's expectations at the box office and received polarized reactions from critics. It was cited as one of the most controversial and talked-about films of 1999. However, the film later found commercial success with its DVD release, which established Fight Club as a cult film. "

• [quote]It was cited as one of the most controversial and talked-about films of 1999 Therefore, not cult. they contradict themselves.

• Tarantino's bullshit movies. Every single one of them.

• Blade Runner. So many different versions, yet they all suck. Everything by Kevin Smith is bad. I actually liked Donnie Darko but I suspect that, if I watch the commentary or read anything about it from the director's perspective, it will be ruined for me.

• Harold and Maude is awesome. If just for the scene of Harold setting himself on fire.

  http://lmgtfy.com/%3Fq%3DRecovered+baptist

  PPSM

• Wow, an entire thread of bitter dipshits who can't understand slightly complex narratives. "Fraus," we call them.

• I thought any film that has a cult following? I hate 2001 a Space Odessey.

• I loved Withnail and I, probably because I love Richard E. Grant.

• True Romance was a perfect film....how could you not like it? Stupid?

• The Coen Brothers are the best director/producer/writers around. Their films always deserve awards. I liked Burn After Reading...it made me laugh more then any of their other films.

• "Wow, an entire thread of bitter dipshits who can't understand slightly complex narratives. "Fraus," we call them" Your statement doesn't make sense.

• Fargo is hardly a cult film.

• Pulp Fiction sucks big time. The Big Lebowski is even worse.

• R152, I don't know how you can generalize the entire thread when (1.) we're still deciding what can or cannot qualify as a cult film, and (2.) far from all of the examples mentioned consist of complex narratives. Also, true "fraus" have probably never seen most of the movies mentioned. Too busy reading the Chicken Soup books, or whatever.

• A lot of people I know never got into Sandra Bernhard's "Without You I'm Nothing" but I thought it was an ahead-of-its-time meta style comedy. You're watching a comedienne playing herself playing other people (e.g. Nina Simone) and throwing it back in our faces. I think "Entertainment Weekly" was particularly harsh on it and gave it a "D".

• It's not good, I liked it at the time, but it has not aged well. She's not a good singer and a lot of it is her singing. She's not good at playing other characters, like Lily Tomlin is, either.

• EVERYTHING Quentin Tarantino ever did.

• R123 - "Green for Danger" is one of my favourite films. But then I am a total sucker for anything with Alistair Sim.

• r164 - Alistair Sim can do no wrong!

• Fargo is beyond brilliant. Donnie Darko was good the way an episode of Roswell is good. it's fluff, cloaked as something serious. DD was ok for what it was. I enjoyed watching it. john waters is way overrated.

• "Every straight male has at least one well worn tape of Fight Club and probably the anniversary special edition dvd." R89, who gives a shit? I have to keep reminding myself that DL worships straight men (why?), but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy their trite garbage movies. Fight Club is gratuitous violence masquerading as satirical commentary on the human condition. In reality, it's a bunch of whiny white men reconciling their perceived emasculation by punching themselves in the head. What a great way to combat the feminization of society and evils of consumerism (sarcasm!). I've never seen a Hollywood film so obsessed with victimizing white males based purely on their white maleness. For anyone who isn't in the adolescent 14-14.5yr age demographic, that movie is gutter trash. It's for emotionally stunted hetero man-babies who resent their mother for not letting him borrow the car on weekends. Glad you enjoyed it....

• My list, in no particular order: The Lonely Lady, starring Pia Zawhora. Dune (the 1st one) with Jürgen Prostate and Kyle McYachlan Pink Vomit's The Wall Kill Bill, vol. barf and vol. vomit, with that anorexic unwatchable coatrack Uhmuh Thurman. Anything with that no-talent, fugly, unwashed, manorexic, pretentious-ass Johnny Depp (Depp is the German word for douchebag, as fate would have it.) 9½ Weeks -- Kim Basinger is unwatchable in this horrible, horrifying, betterosexist, misogynistic, male-ego-gratifying piece of cinematic crap passed off as "a look into the world of S&M."

  Bonnie%20Bitch

• Female Trouble. It starts off great, but after she has the acid thrown on her face is sort of loses steam. And by the time it ends its just damn depressing.

• "Drive". The more I think about that boring, wannabe-Michael-Mann-meets-Paul Schraeder broodfest, the more I hate it. The fanboys had the nerve to say that the film--and it's star, Ryan "One Expression" Gosling--were "robbed" at Oscar time.

  Anonymous

• I'm waiting for the sequel, Park. There's supposed to be a nail-biting, parallel-parking scene that really amps up the tension.

• Hot ham water!!!

• Two mentioned here that I love: The Big Lebowski is actually a pretty funny movie. The Dude definitely abides. And both the Clerks movies, and and any of Kevin Smith's movies are hilarious. Of the two Clerks movies the Star Wars vs. Lord of the Rings scene is awesome.

  LuciferTheLightBringer

• I love all horror but the EVIL DEAD films fucking suck. THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY - WTF??? Go ahead and flame away but PINK FLAMINGOS. I saw DESPERATE LIVING first and nearly pissed myself laughing the entire film. Then I watched FEMALE TROUBLE and thought it was funnier than DL. Then I chose PINK because it was supposed to be his "masterpiece." A few laughs but hardly the trashtastic gem it was made out to be. I followed that up with POLYESTER and my faith was restored. His post SERIAL MOM work is unwatchably lame. BLADE RUNNER bored the fuck out of me. PROMETHEUS for all its nonsense is infinitely more enjoyable to watch. I loathe all Coen Bros. films. CHASING AMY - Why was this considered so great??? I kept wanting to fall asleep.

• I'd forgotten Mallrats. It's the only Kevin Smith I'd watch, purely for Jason Lee's performance. He's so perfect as this slightly obnoxious, opinionated guy who really doesn't give a shit what other people think, walking around with his little cup of soda. Apart from that, Kevin Smith should let other people direct his scripts. He's just so terrible at directing.

• The Shawshank Redemption.

• blade runner clerks tron dune

• Always thought HEATHERS was overrated. Years ago, A DLer posted that s/he felt sorry for me because I wasn't a fan. WTF? Personalize much? Stupid. Never got into STAR WARS or any of the other films in the series. These are movies that I'd classify as mainstream blockbusters that developed rabid, cult followings. I'd classify the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy the exact same way, and I didn't get into those either. I still don't understand how the third film (RETURN OF THE KING? Don't feel like looking it up) got the Academy's Best Picture award. RESERVOIR DOGS. Overrated. PULP FICTION. Majorly overrated. I kept asking what all of the fuss was about. Why Travlota got the Academy's Best Actor nom over Jackson's Supporting Actor nom is bullshit because neither performance was all that. Everybody simply jumped onto the "Travolta is back" bandwagon and we haven't seen the last of him since. THE BLUES BROTHERS was crap. Nice to see it mentioned as such upthread.

• Eraserhead. Fucking tedious load of cack.

• Most overused word on DL: OVERRATED. Webmaster: please implement a "bigoted tool"-style ban of this word. It will make for some confusing reading. Thank you.

• Anything by David Lynch, honestly. Not a fan of Tarantino, though I believe Kill Bill, both parts, is a masterpiece. Pink Flamingoes is not my favorite Waters film. Certainly Female Trouble is beginning to be the new cult hit. It's had a resurgence in popularity, and is a personal favorite of his fans I've noticed. Love that and Polyester the most.

• I agree with the majority of the movies listed here. Honestly, all of the best movies are unpretentious. Alien for instance is a brilliant and dark classic, one of the best movies ever made, a genuine masterpiece. Completely 'real' emotions and intent behind it, no trendy hipster navel gazing. Pretentious people like fake emotions and hate deep emotions that are felt in the gut or anything real. They are all surface. Hell, I'll take a well made and fun family movie like Home Alone over most of the turds mentioned in here.

• [quote]Manhunter (the original Hannibal Lecter movie in the '80s). Everything about this movie screams cheap, low-budget, music-video-looking '80s cheese. And some Raspberry-bait acting by everyone. And no atmosphere whatsoever. One of the dullest, clumsiest crime dramas ever made and yet people worship it! [quote]Flame away, but I think the "Red Dragon" remake with Anthony Hopkins was better than Manhunter in every quantifiable way, shape and form. It felt so much more professional and polished. Agreed, and I was expecting to like Manhunter. A big bore with a shallow feel. But I wouldn't doubt that the book is good. Just didn't like the director's take.

• [quote]Joe vs the Volcano is unwatchable in my book. I think it's a good premise done in a shallow way, but it's still watchable. It's watchable but had some unfulfilled potential.

• Blade Runner is overrated by it's fanbase. It's a movie that is a classic and quite visionary despite it's script and much of it's story, so it does have big flaws. It really is about the production design, look, atmosphere, and the X factor, the story/script is a bit of an uneventful mess.

• Any Christopher Guest film. My friends all think they're hilarious. I can recognize the talent involved, but I just don't see the humor. Also, Reservoir Dogs. I've loved everything Tarantino has done since, but I hate that one.

• [quote]I don't get the love for Wes Anderson. The Royal Tenenbaums was painfully dull and affected. Hipsters love affectation.

• [quote]I always thought "Fargo" was a piece of shit. It's besotted with its own drollery; every time one of the retarded characters in it says "yah" the audience is supposed to bust a gut in hilarity. France McDormand's performance is a cartoon; she even uses a cartoon voice! And the dim fans of the obscenely over-rated movie thought it was a "true story!" Agreed.

• Fight Club is a 2 out of 4 star for me. I don't hate it, it has some decent aspects to it, but it's just the smug and shallow philosophy that drags it down. But I do hate the big fans of the movie.

• [quote]I'm fairly intelligent and not excessively pretentious and I liked Donnie Darko. To me it was haunting, mysterious and sad. I didn't like it at all, but boy do I wish I could find a good movie with those three adjectives you used. Anybody? Well known or obscure, doesn't matter.

• Harry Potter, r190.

• I thought The Sweet Hereafter was haunting and sad but not at all mysterious. I didn't hate it but I also didn't get all the hype. Does it qualify as a cult film? it did if you count some of the people I know.

• [quote]Agree about Kevin Smith (who I think may be gay), Clerks and all his films are bores. Why do you think he is gay?

• "My Dinner With Andre"--zzzzzzzzzz "Singles"---made me NEVER want to visit Seattle "Elephant"--re-telling Columbine in Oregon with high school emo amateurs. Surprised Van Sant, of all directors, would throw in a stunt gay kiss to get press. Even more surprised it won Cannes "Antichrist"--high-art nudie-gore. Not even Dafoe's great ass could save it

• David Lynch sucks. I despise Twin Peaks.

• The Shining is by far Kubrick's best movie. His other ones do nothing for me.

• Wizard of Oz Citizen Kane Grease Scrooge Christmas in Connecticut Mad Max Airplane Lover Come Back Shampoo Cactus Flower Georgie Girl

• [quote]"Singles"---made me NEVER want to visit Seattle Terrible movie, and it just goes to show who the real sellouts were. Appearances by both Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. Kurt Cobain despised the movie.

• The one film I truly despise with a passion is Natural Born Killers. Oooooooooo it was soooooooo edgy. The acting was straight out of a high school auditorium. No wonder EW deemed it the #1 film of the 90s.

• Haven't seen that one R199, but I must say that most people love crap. Especially posturing crap. If you want some more high school acting, check out Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. Or don't.

  Seriously%2C%20don%27t.

• [quote]It's besotted with its own drollery You just described every Coen brothers films in a nutshell.

• d

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Ffeature%3Dplayer_embedded%26v%3DJ4LG73s-OLw

• THE PRINCESS BRIDE---just don't get all the love for it. Ditto SAY ANYTHING. I'd heard it was soooooo romantic, but thought Cusack's character debased himself for Ione Skye's. ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW--an utter waste of time. BLUE VELVET was a typical bag of David Lynch bullshit. Even Kyle MacLachlan naked didn't save it. As much as it's being trashed makes me want to see FIGHT CLUB. It must truly suck.

• John Cusack sucks.

• Sweet Transvestite, Time Warp and Dammit Janet are all fun, well performed production numbers in Rocky Horror. And there's some other good songs and funny parts, also some really bad stuff like Meatloaf's screechy appearance and the absurdity of him being made as a sex toy for Frankenfurter. I don't love the movie, but I don't think it's worthless either.

• 'Ditto SAY ANYTHING. I'd heard it was soooooo romantic, but thought Cusack's character debased himself for Ione Skye's." I hated it because the girl basically transfers her pathological dependence from her father to her boyfriend.

• I'm with (R96), with the exception of, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW AND DONNIE DARKO.

• R199 - NATURAL BORN KILLERS. Thank you for reminding me!!! The very definition of shallow crap which thinks it has a big statement to make, scripted by drunk baboons, acted by even drunker baboons and directed by Oliver Stone(d)...

• Napoleon Dynamite owns this thread. Not funny, not interesting. And somehow I was given this film as a Secret Santa gift - ugh, just bad altogether.

• "A Matter of Life and Death" with David Niven.

• Kill Bill. Another chintz dressed up as urban piece of shit.

• Carrie sings!

• Sorry - wrong thread.

  R212

• I thought Napoleon Dynamite was funny and interesting.

• "Alphaville" and anything by Jean-Luc Godard after "Bande a part," but especially "Alphaville."

• .

• Grey Gardens. I thought it was depressing and exploitative. I saw nothing entertaining about two ill people living in squalor and babbling on about bullshit.

• This thread proves, along with the claptrap that lands in W&W, that the majority of DLers have very unsophisticated tastes.

• A lot of movies mentioned are the ones you watch stoned in college and think are groundbreaking. It isn't until a few years later when you've graduated and sobered up that you realize they kind of suck.

• Anything by Tarantino or Kevin Smith. Couldn't get through Grey Gardens. I had to do clinicals in psych hospitals, so watching crazy people talk is not entertaining to me.

• R217 - I thought Grey Gardens was inspiring.

  Producer%20for%20A%26E%20Hoarders

• I'm a fan of any film where every move and line isn't telegraphed and the ending can't be guessed in the first five minutes, so I've enjoyed almost everything on this thread. We need to celebrate creative filmmakers who take chances. Even if the film doesn't "wow" me, I can certainly appreciate the effort. Imagine if theaters only played the kind of dreck Adam Sandler and his ilk produce.

• There Will Be Blood. Impressive acting, but the story was soooooooooo slow. It took me a week to watch the DVD. I kept falling asleep and would have to restart it the next night. Sheer Torture.

• I've always loved Donnie Darko, a personal favourite. Heathers is the one I can't understand.