Most boring "great" movie

Driving Miss Daisy

Elaine Benes spoke for me when she screamed “Die already!” during a showing of The English Patient.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) "The Ultimate Trip" Just drop acid and look at a lava lamp for 21/2 hours!

"Giant" with Liz Taylor was boring. More like a made-for-TV movie.

Children of Paradise

Doctor Zhivago

Any movie directed by David Lean.

Lawrence of Arabia

The Sting.

I have never been able to make it through "Citizen Kane."

R9 but at least Redford looked fine as hell in it

Vanilla Sky

My list of boring "acclaimed" movies includes recent Oscar winners for best picture

The Shape of Water (2018)

The King's Speech (2010)

The Departed (2006)

Slumdog Millionaire (2009)

Spotlight (2015)

Argo (2012) .

Birdman (2014)

Million Dollar Baby (2004)

Moonlight (2016)

Parasite (2019)

Melancholia damn near killed me

Two for me. First, "Out of Africa" left me cold. But I saw it immediately after watching a showing of "The Color Purple", so maybe I was already emotionally drained and tired from that.

The other is "Amadeus". I'm sure it's a good film. But it was so hyped up that by the time I saw it, I was expecting something exceptionally great. I was just kind of "meh" after it. Over the years, it's become sort of a shorthand among me and my friends for something that's so overly hyped that I fear I'll end up not liking it. For example, when my friends go on and on about how I need to watch the filmed version of "Hamilton" on Disney+, my reaction is "It's going to be Amadeus, isn't it?"

Anything directed by Andrei Tarkovsky.

The Revenant

It took me three attempts to get through "Gandhi".

I kept falling asleep.

The Way We Were was a slogfest through boredom I hadn’t expected.

For arthouse audiences:

“Jeanne Dielmann”. She barely beat me to the punch of killing myself.

The Dark Knight. Or really, anything Christopher Nolan touches. All 3 Lord of the Rings movies. The Social Network.

"The Last Emperor"

[quote] It took me three attempts to get through "Gandhi".

The first thirty minutes of Gandhi are interesting. After that it is very dull.

[quote] Anything directed by Andrei Tarkovsky.

I tried to watch Andrei Rublev recently. Although I appreciated it, it was long and boring with jarring scenes of cruelty. I gave up.

Citizen Kane

Every single fucking movie about english aristocrats in the early 20th century. Cleaning a bathroom has more excitement in it.

[quote] "The Last Emperor"

The story of the last emperor is fascinating and tragic yet the movie is so dull.

Raging Bull

Titanic, with Leo and Kate

Yes, we know, boobs, dancing.

Yes, we know, water.

Yes, we know more water, less boobs, more water.

Die already.

Planks in the ocean, you just wont die.

Die!

Seconding Out of Africa. A dreadful bore and one of the most “huh?” Best Picture winners. Robert Redford couldn’t even save it.

All. Miramax. OscarBait.

Philistines all. Go watch "Toy Story 8".

R29 Redford ruined it, he was flat.

Dawson’s 50-Load Weekend. I was done after the third load.

R6 Doctor Zhivago is a great movie ! You're just trash.

The Irishman

r13 i kind of liked The Shape of Water

The Dark Knight - a leaden, ponderous, badly written bore that puerile fanboys have pathetically attached their self-esteem to and have an existential meltdown anyone justifiably criticizes it for the overrated dud that it is; whereas Batman Begins is a near perfect comic book movie -- coherent, well-paced, and smartly conceived and executed, with a reasonable runtime.

Roma -- I call it "Coma" because it practically reduces you to that state. It's worse than watching paint dry in that it is literally watching someone do laundry. I checked my watch and it was an hour and 20 minutes before anything you could call interesting happened. Awful.

Spotlight - a dry, glorified HBO movie with no pulse. It's like they actively tried to drain all the emotion and drama out of it before shooting it.

Out of Africa was boring as fuck. Also didn't like:

Argo (2012) .

Birdman (2014)

Million Dollar Baby (2004)

Moonlight (2016)

Parasite (2019)

As well, I've never even watched La La Land because it looked insipidly stupid. And i probably never watch Avatar either. I hate the movies that get so hyped for reasons other than they are actually a GOOD MOVIE.

English Patient

The Master. Dreadful. Walked out.

Pretty much any piece of Oscar bait from the last 20 years. These movies come out, get a ton of buzz, and disappear completely once the ceremony is over.

R12 Who ever considered Vanilla Sky to be a great movie?

R41 Bullshit. There will be blood or No country for old men, just two examples, are already considered modern classics and some of the best movies ever made.

Butterfield 8

Brokeback Mountain

The Royal Tenenbaums

R43 There Will Be Blood is tiresome but, I do like No Country For Old Men

omg i fell asleep in both of those movies. they sucked. maybe you connected to some aspect of each film but they were both boring as fuck. not unique.

There Will Be Blood was a painfully empty movie. (Then again, most of PT Anderson's movies are shallow.)

However, No Country For Old Men was excellent. I look at it as a great companion piece to Fargo, just darker and less humorous.

I tune out at the exact moment every single time I try to get through "Magnolia" -- love it, love it, love it, and then Tom Cruise starts yelling at Jason Robards in a hospital bed and I snooze.

"There Will Be Blood" exhausts me too but I do love 'Boogie Nights" and "Punch Drunk Love" and "Phantom Menace". So he's not always a blowhard, just sometimes.

[quote] Anything directed by Andrei Tarkovsky.

I bought all of his movies released from the Criterion Collection because I haven't seen any of his films.

I feel like I'm going to regret my purchase.

No Country For Old Men is the most overhyped movie EVER. It gets so many mentions and accolades, but it’s a bore.

LOTR

Paris, Texas

Paris, Texas is beautiful.

Howard's End was quite boring on first viewing. Slightly less on the 2nd time but still...yep, nope. Not great.

Dances With Wolves

[quote]Spotlight - a dry, glorified HBO movie with no pulse. It's like they actively tried to drain all the emotion and drama out of it before shooting it.

I totally agree with this. I watched it with a friend and afterwards we both commented that it something that should have just aired HBO or another cable network.

Another vote for Citizen Kane. Pointless movie.

R37, I concur on "Roma". It was stupefyingly boring for what seemed like an eternity. I found it nearly impossible to hold my attention for any length of time and never finished watching it.

I have tried to watch 2001 A Space Odyssey three times and fallen asleep three times. Which is funny to me because Barry Lyndon is supposed to be Kubrick's "slow" film from what I've read and I was absolutely glued to the screen the first time I saw it, and did not notice how long it was.

"My DInner With Andre." A camera pointed at two tedious talking heads. What a cinematic innovation that was.

[quote] "There Will Be Blood" exhausts me too but I do love 'Boogie Nights" and "Punch Drunk Love" and "Phantom Menace".

Oh, dear.

Amadeus was "meh", R15? How DARE you.

Every single Marvel movie.

Boring, empty, mindless and vapid.

All Star Wars movies except the first 2.

Bored of the Rings.

The Hobbit mess.

i liked Amadeus. and another side of this...Punch Drunk Love was kind of good. i liked it because i lived in Hollywood at the time and the juxt of some famous stupid chef with a maid was sort of...extemporaneous? at that time. also i'm a bitch that loves food. i love to re-watch it because i'm at a different time of my life and a different geo place.

Wings of Desire.

Blue Velvet.

R63 Then why do you keep watching them? A person would give up after first two-three. But you say you saw every single one of them? Isn't there like 50+ of them by now?

Yes, R62. That's the response I get from pretty much everyone when I tell them that. But for me, it was just "meh". It just didn't connect for me. I don't know why. Over the past 36 years, I've never had a desire to watch it again. Maybe I should. Maybe my reaction after all this time would be different.

Amadeus was a move I modestly enjoyed when I saw it but have never had a need to ever revisit it. A lot revered/award winning movies are like that, especially the "noble/important cause" kind.

As for those hating on Citizen Kane or Parasite or Children of Paradise or There Will Be Blood, y'all can stay the fuck away from me, you tasteless neanderthals.

I keed, I keed! It's all subjective!

Kubrick's most boring--even worse than "2001 A Space Odyssey" [R59]? "Eyes Wide Shut." How do I know? I attempted to watch it again last month when some thread here brought it up.

Pure drivel! Unwatchable.

The sex was unsexy. The storyline, to the extent there was one, was pointless.

I came away angry.

ORDINARY PEOPLE

Eyes Wide Shut isn't a great movie....it's pretty awful.

R70 Buck would never go on a DL thread to bad mouth "Ordinary People"....

Purple Rose of Cairo.

R69, I actually left work early to catch a matinee the day "Eyes Wide Shut" opened and was majorly disappointed.

Terms of Endearment

R55 That was my immediate thought. It has so many conclusions that I could have left an hour before it was over and still feel I had seen everything I needed to see to get the story. Plus Mary McDonnell's hair...a big what the fuck.....

R76, Even Kevin Costner's bare ass couldn't make the movie interesting.

To think it won Best Picture over "Goodfellas" is a shame.

A lot of people just like certain movies because movie critics decided they're great and fanboys don't dare want to go against the grain.

Breezy, with the great Kay Lenz.

Godfather.

I guess nobody's going to mention "Gone with the Wind," huh?

I avoid all "prestige" movies directed by actors, especially all the ones that were a big deal in the 80s and 90s.

Costner, Gibson AND Clint Eastwood are shitty directors.

Not to mention, mediocre actors.

Oh! I left off Redford, another shitty actor/director.

And, Warren Beatty!

La Jetée

R79 But, no one ever said Breezy was a "great" movie. And certainly great was never used as an adjective for the drab Kay Lenz.

The Thin Red Line

R82, case in point, "Reds."

Lisa, Bright and Dark.

A lot of good responses here. The two that came to mind for me were "Apocalypse Now" and "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Are we talking about “prestige pictures” or alleged masterpieces? Those things are very different. Nobody thinks Out of Africa is a significant movie; it’s just Oscary. But you couldn’t pay me to watch The Lives of Others again.

R81, The middle is boring.

They gave a movie about white people in Africa all the top Oscars when [italic]The Color Purple[/italic] came home empty-handed. They're lucky there was no Twitter in 1986 to do the #OscarsSoWhite campaign then.

[quote][R12] Who ever considered Vanilla Sky to be a great movie?

Is a vanilla sky where chocolate rain comes from?

The Great Gatsby - both the 1974 version and the 2013 version. The book does not translate well to film, and no matter how you dress it up it’s deadly boring.

Sounds like they all are.

Call Me By Your Name owns this thread. We could call it Coma Me By Your Name. I remember staring into the fireplace along with Timothy at the film's end, contemplating that I had just lost two hours of my life.

There's a large percentage of movies listed here that I think are wonderful. Like 80%

The first few hours of "Out 1" (1971) are dreadfully boring. The other 9 or so hours are really great.

I LOVE "Last Year at Marienbad". I have the BluRay and I could watch it over and over.

I can appreciate DW Griffith’s “Intolerance” but it’s a slog.

Robert Redford could be an excellent director. I think 'Quiz Show' was a masterpiece.

2001: A Space Odyssey is my most boring "great" movie of all time, and I say that having seen it twice. I was recently dragged the second time to an IMAX (or whatever) version by an enthusiast friend who refers to himself as "a student of film," even though he actually studied...well, something other than film. It was as pure a snooze for me in 2019 as it was in 1968.

Some contenders:

Moonlight

La La Land

Melancholia

Star Wars (I saw the first three only)

Uncut Gems

I loved Amadeus, Reds, and CMBYN. And I [italic]really[/italic] loved Ordinary People.

Definitely Gandhi. I wanted to like it, but I couldn't. I really tried.

As for Amadeus, it's probably the movie I hated most and couldn't finish watching. It actually made me angry.

I can see how people could think that Uncut Gems is abrasive and exhausting, but the last thing you could call that movie is boring.

And the original Star Wars movies can be juvenile and poorly-written, but they're never dull. Wait until the prequels for boring. One movies actually delves into debates over intergalactic trade policy!

For truly boring films, pick anything acclaimed out of Russia or the former Soviet territories. If the Russians made a screwball comedy, it would still be six hours long and feature peasants trudging through the steppes.

R102 Fan here of Uncut Gems and never thought I'd use the word tremendous and Adam Sandler in the same sentence but, his performance was but, Star Wars is boring because it's busy (and noisy) rather than compelling or interesting and the characters and basic situation are meh! Who cares!

R103, Many critics praised Adam Sandler for a silly movie like "Spanglish", but not for "Uncut Gems", which was so much better and a daring stretch for him.

All the love for "Vertigo" baffles me.

The Passenger by Antonioni.

My partner loves the original Russian Solaris, but he couldn't make it through The Passenger. That says it all. (I had to watch it for a class, so didn't have the option of bailing.)

Yes, Vertigo was really stupid.

Ran.

howl, sorry, was late and dodgy. Meant "Phantom Thread" of course.

But deserved that "Oh dear"...

Reservoir Dogs. Derivative claptrap for straight dudes. Copied "City on Fire" with Chow Yun Fat.

Agree that Ran was hard to watch, but I did enjoy 7 Samurai.

Hiroshima Mon Amour.

R108 - yes, "Ran". I went to see it in the local art house theater and it was packed - not one seat available. The a/c couldn't handle it and it got stuffier and stuffier as the movie went on FOREVER.

It's been many years since I watched La Dolce Vita. At the time, I thought it was just a lot of pretty, self-absorbed characters endlessly talking. I did like the surreal quality of Last Year At Marienbad. At least it was trying to be different.

Field of Dreams.

1492: Conquest of Paradise

Is it a great movie? I don’t know because I’ve fallen asleep to it twice—once at the movies, and once at home. Seems ambitious, however.

Koyaanisqatsi, and it's sequel Powaqqatsi

Every single Barbara Streisand movie, especially Yentyl

The Hunt For Red October, I literally fell asleep in the theater - friend of mine wanted to see it

Nutcracker (1986) we walked out of the theater a few minutes into it. Again, wasn't my choice to see it, my sister suggested it

Call Me By Your Name

Beaches

The Social Network

Salo

Last Tango in Paris

Repulsion

There Will Be Blood

Citizen Kane was excruciating. Of course, it was a 'must watch' in my film class. I preferred foreign films we were required to watch, especially Kurosawa, Truffaut and the Italian films with Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni.

[quote] Koyaanisqatsi

A colleague of mine asked me to babysit his class while they watched a movie when he was out of town for a conference and I foolishly said yes. Had to sit through that TWICE in one day.

Departed might have faults, but I never thought it was boring.

R115, Except for the last ten minutes.

I loved "There Will Be Blood" but can understand how someone might not have the patience for it.

R89 The Lives of Others? Such a great, interesting film. Thanks for reminding me. Need to rewatch it again.

I will never understand the love for Citizen Kane. It's a wonderfully made film in the technical sense and I understand why it's so praised for all of that stuff, but the story leaves me completely cold. I didn't care about or find anyone in the film very interesting. Certainly not interesting enough to spend 2 hours with them.

[quote] But you couldn’t pay me to watch The Lives of Others again.

OMG! The Lives of Others is my favorite movie!

So many of you have fallen to sleep in theaters. Do you suffer from narcolepsy? I don't understand how can a grown person fall asleep in the public place surrounded by people. Can't you control your own body lor longer than 30 minutes?

Vertigo is brilliant, one of the best films ever.

OP Good choice.

Ahhh hahhhd a fahhhm eeen Ahhhhfreeeka, at de fuut of the Neeeyongooo Heeeeels.

La La Land!

A Clockwork Orange

I've only fallen asleep ONCE in a movie theater and it was the very drowsy "A Sunday in the Country" (1984) by Bernard Tavernier that did it for me.

"The Wife"

I enjoyed Vertigo. The Hitchcock film that I found utterly boring was Rear Window.

When it comes to movies, some people are time travelers who can put themselves into the time and place the film comes from and appreciate it from that viewpoint. Others are centered in the here and now and get the most out of new and recent films they can directly relate to. It all depends on your preference.

If you don't like a classic acclaimed film, you don't like it, that's it, but if you give yourself airs because you can't see what other people see in it, that's not very impressive.

"Lost in Translation". God no. I kinda hate it.

Barry Lyndon forever!!

Another vote for that dreary Spotlight film. What an overrated and soulless bore. I still can't believe it won an Oscar. I have a theory that much of the over the top praise came from the fact that the film did the journalists- as- heroes trope. So a lot of critics loved it, there's nothing that people in the media love more than depictions of themselves.

R65 and R73 Those are my three favorite films!

Anything by Malick. Although, I didn't hate The New World-mainly because I could stare at Colin Farell all day long.

Super Size Me. Can't stand that guy, Spurlock. Self-satisfied, etc.

Adding: no shit finding out that eating McDonald's 24/7 is not good for you.

OP is an idiot.

R135, How the hell could anyone find "Rear Window" boring?

Yeah, Rear Window is exciting.

However, a friend pointed out to me how he hates Jimmy Stewart as an actor (his aw shucks demeanor). Ever since then, I don't really like him (JS) as much. (He seems kind of phony to me.)

EXCUSE me??

R146 was meant for R30.

R144, because I find it an exercise in style rather than a compelling story with unique characters. The whole point of the film was to push the Kuleshov effect as far as it could go, and I found that to be boring. It doesn't help matters that I'm not fond of either Grace Kelly or Jimmy Stewart as actors.

Yeah, Grace Kelly is boring, also. Thelma Ritter was the best main actor.

It's weird--I'm a huge fan of Antonioni. His movies are "slow" but they get better the more times you revisit them. But I cannot stand ANY Bermang movie I have seen--they all bore me to death. All except Persona.

*bergman

[quote] Thelma Ritter was the best main actor.

I do agree that Thelma Ritter was the best part about the film. But that's usually the case with any film she's in.

Parasite was not boring.

Fell asleep in the most recent incarnation of Nutcracker 2018. Sue me. it was boring as fuck, we were seated in those lounge chairs and there were barely any people there. Plus the movie was fucking yawn. And i love Christmas, so it wasn't for lack of the spirit.

Bergman's movies are bleak, my God. I mean, all that Kierkegaard, right? Real adolescent, you know, fashionable pessimism. I mean, The Silence. God’s silence. Okay, okay, okay. I mean, I loved it when I was a Radcliffe, but, I mean, all right, you outgrow it. You absolutely outgrow it

"Spotlight" Is easily my least favorite Best Picture winner, truly baffling and up against much better films. Rachel McAdams doing that crappy Lois Lane acting, speaking as fast as she can while hooking her hair behind one ear over and over. Mark Ruffalo doing the cliched "We can't let them win!" speech. And more unapologetic pedophile priests, just what the gay community and Catholics need. Insufferably self-congratulatory and they didn't do anything amazing as journalists to boot (the story seemed just handed to them without much effort). Awful.

"Waffles at R155, sit down!"

The English Patient

[quote]I enjoyed Vertigo. The Hitchcock film that I found utterly boring was Rear Window.

I love both of them.

First off, it's "Sidney Pollack's OUT OF AFRICA," according to DL cineastes. (LOL.) There was a lengthy thread about this absurd and absurdly overrated POS not long ago.

Some interesting points of view on this thread. Film history is constantly being rewritten and revised, which is healthy, I think. New generations don't always find "the auteurs" as deserving. Not everything Hitchcock touched was golden. It's okay to watch Ingmar Bergman films and find them pretentious and dull (I happen to find FANNY AND ALEXANDER really delightful but almost nothing else.) I happen to love CITIZEN KANE but find other Hollywood classics like CASABLANCA insanely overrated: talky, static, and dull. (And no, I don't think Bogie and Ingrid have great chemistry.)

Lastly, has anyone ever considered THE GREAT GATSBY (in any version) or BEACHES a "great movie"?

Dances With Wolves

[quote]So many of you have fallen to sleep in theaters. Do you suffer from narcolepsy? I don't understand how can a grown person fall asleep in the public place surrounded by people. Can't you control your own body lor longer than 30 minutes?

It depends on how much longer than 30 minutes we're talking about.

I mentioned Children of Paradise @ R5. That movie is 3 hours long, feels even longer and has a MIME as one of the main characters!

And R68 - I love Parasite, and I've seen Citizen Kane (one of my all-time favorites) in a theater every decade since the 1980s. But as I said re CoP - MIMES!

Another vote for 2001 Space Odyssey. Also Solaris.

The worst time I had sitting through a movie was A.I. : Artificial Intelligence. It didn't start off bad, but then Spielberg had to show his Kubrick-worship, thus making the audience sit through one of the most ponderous (and endless!) film endings of all time.

Speaking of Kubrick,(and I know this is heresy to many), but "The Shining" had to be the most boring movie I ever sat through. Yes, it has a few great "gotcha" scenes (Here's Johnny!), but for the most part, it was unendurable to sit through.

Gandhi

R111 Overall I'm a big Kurosawa fan, but I freely admit that I hate King Lear in any format.

Give me 'Throne of Blood' any day.

I consider "Throne of Blood" the greatest Shakespearean adaptation to film, even if it is set to ancient Japan. Highly re-watchable, which I can't say the same for Rashomon or Seven Samurai. However, Yojimbo is a lot of fun.

YES, R164!! The Shining. A gorgeous tedious exercise in not being scared.

Chariots of Fire

Anything directed by moi.

Hey, R170! I tried to watch "Days of Heaven" recently and didn't make it past the first 30 minutes. It was pretty and all (as was Richard Gere), but boring as fuck. By the way, the Texas flag you had on the flagpole at Sam Shepard's house was upside down. You should have paid more attention to the details.

Air Force One

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

The French Lieutenant's Woman is neither.

I'm probably alone in this but The Dark Knight bored me. I was checking my watch the whole time

The Dark Knight was the one and only superhero movie I have watched. I don't even think it qualifies as a superhero movie, but it sucked so hard.

No normal filmgoer could be expected to sit through something like Last night at Marienbad unless they were very stoned. It's a work of pioneering cinematic technique, not of relatable drama for the popcorn munchers.

Anyone reading this--If you're ever watching a movie and find yourself bored, give it another 5 or 10 mins. If you are still bored, TURN THE MOVIE OFF. Not all films are for all people. You can also get a refund at most theaters (or a readmit pass, which allows you to come back for free).

If you were bored after 20 mins and stayed until the end, you're the idiot.

The Lord of the Rings movies. I found them unbearably long, tedious, boring and pointless. I just wanted all the characters killed off.

Out of Africa was another movie I had to force myself to sit through. Meandering rubbish.

Barry Lyndon is right and the weird thing is we have always had a troll who adores this movie.

As has been pointed out, some of you have problems following instructions...GREAT movies that bore you.

No one on the planet thinks "Air Force One" is a great movie.

And, I also agree that about 75% of the movies y'all are moaning about are great, but, to each their own, even if you're tragically wrong.

I saw 2001 as a teen in an almost empty theater. They showed the reels out of order: apes, spaceships, boring colors, the old guys eats, then more spaceships, then more boring colors. Something like that. Seeing it in proper sequence did not make it more coherent.

"No one on the planet thinks "Air Force One" is a great movie."

Speak for yourself.

My Dinner with Andre

Sideways

Being an Oscar winner usually means it’s boring.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ....couldn't sit through it

Marty's 50 Man Gangbang.

Reds

Citizen Kane

A Few Good Men

The Martian.

Maybe no one called it great but, it was nominated for Best Picture, won the Golden Globe as Best Picture comedy or musical!!!? Dull, talky and seemingly endless at 2 hrs. 24 mins. i

You couldn't pay me enough to watch Frances again.

Mama....oh, mama.

R185 So true!

Patton, The Sting, Out of Africa, Ben Hur, The English Patient, Titanic, Kramer vs Kramer, Rain Man, Dances with Wolves, Forest Gump, Tom Jones, A Man for All Seasons, 12 Years a Slave, Chariots of Fire, The Departed, Rain Man.

I don't care for Borat.

[quote]I don't care for Borat.

"Borat" was considered a "great" movie?

Borat was universally praised. It just won TWO Golden Globes!! But I don't think it's great filmmaking that will stand the test of time. Controversial opinions are allowed here.

I will watch the first reel (back when films were stored in reels). That’s about 10 or 11 minutes. If it doesn’t improve after that I turn it off or walk out because it’s not going to get any better.

Life is too short to subject yourself to bad movies. Last Year at Marienbad is one of the few films I find totally unwatchable.

Except for Tom Jones, [193] is correct.

But, R198, of the films R193 lists, only Tom Jones has ever been thought to be “great.” The rest are schlock; in the case of Ben Hur, inspired schlock, but schlock nonetheless.

The Favorite. The most boring drawing room, costume drama ever.

Any film that revolves around a comic book character.

No one has ever made a truly great film about a comic book character.

There are some entertaining ones: SUPERMAN (w/Christopher Reeve), BLACK PANTHER, BATMAN RETURNS. But great? Meh.

Not all heroes wear capes R202.

Unless you've taken a film studies course and been forced to sit through the likes of Fellini, Bunuel, Renoir, Carné, and Bergman, then you don't know what a "boring 'great' movie" is.

Another vote for the self-indulgent "Jeanne Dielman..."; that final 10-minute shot of her zoning out at the kitchen table was ridiculous.

I love Melancholia but could totally see why people think it’s dull.

I don’t understand The Favourite being called dull, though. That movie’s a riot.

Most general audiences take in film at a childlike level. Especially those who grew up around Hollywood cinema, which is different because its almost always about a hero in pursuit of a clear goal. Without that, most audiences quickly get bored. Most foreign classics do not follow this approach.

Just because you got bored or didn't understand a movie does not make it bad. And just because you have unsophisticated taste in film does not mean you are stupid or shallow.

It just drives me a nutty when people say a movie is bad because it didn't work for them or entertain them. If you dislike a movie that you know is critically beloved, take some time to read about it. You've already put 2 hours in, another 15 minutes of reading about why it is special or how it functions might help clarify what you didn't pick up on. And I'm the guy who says STOP FUCKING WATCHING if you aren't entertained. You're not getting paid to finish something you are not enjoying and less than 1% of the time will you be rewarded for sticking with it until the end and be glad that you did.

^ Thanks Gramps. Duh. Most everyone reads about movies now, before or after watching them.

R199 True but, my post R193 was specifically in response to R185 Oscar Best Picture winners are usually boring or at best mediocre.

R175, you are not alone. The Dark Knight is an overrated bore. If Heath Ledger hadn't died right after making it, the amount of praise it gets would be significantly lower.

OMG: I forgot about the best pics that were essentially TV movies...Marty, Spotlight, Driving Miss Daisy, In the Heat of the Night.

[quote]"Spotlight" Is easily my least favorite Best Picture winner, truly baffling and up against much better films. Rachel McAdams doing that crappy Lois Lane acting, speaking as fast as she can while hooking her hair behind one ear over and over. Mark Ruffalo doing the cliched "We can't let them win!" speech. And more unapologetic pedophile priests, just what the gay community and Catholics need. Insufferably self-congratulatory and they didn't do anything amazing as journalists to boot (the story seemed just handed to them without much effort). Awful.

I thought Ruffalo and McAdams dragged down the movie quite a bit with their acting. Overall, I thought it was an average film.

R8- The WORST line in the second Sex And The City movie is when Samantha says - LAWRENCE OF MY LABIA.

It’s a wonderful life. It’s on every Christmas and I’ve seen the beginning, middle and end at different times but can never get into it. Then everyone says how amazing it is.

A Passage to India gets my vote.

This takes the cake

La Dolce Vita...I've tried so hard to like it but it just puts me to sleep every time.

And The English Patient...one British critic called it "one long Camay soap commercial" and that about sums it up.

"Gandhi". TCM trots this snorefest out every year at Oscar time.

OP said GREAT movies, R12. "Vanilla Sky" is not among them.

I should probably give it another try now that I'm significantly older, but when I saw Citizen Kane at a revival house in the early 80s I thought it was the slowest, most boring thing I'd ever seen.

Roma

Yes, ROMA.

I gave up at the midway mark, and then privately felt like I was a bad or ignorant person (or even a racist one) because I didn't care even one bit.

Enough other people loved it. ROMA doesn't need my love or attention.

221 posts and no Godawful "Lawrence of Arabia "

Nearly 4 hours of Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif looking beautiful...who would mention it R222

[quote]They gave a movie about white people in Africa all the top Oscars when The Color Purple came home empty-handed. They're lucky there was no Twitter in 1986 to do the #OscarsSoWhite campaign then.

No, 1986 Twitter would have protested AGAINST the movie. White people loved THE COLOR PURPLE. That is why it was a huge hit at the box office (#4 of the year) and received 11 Oscar nominations. However, African-Americans hated it! Just hated it! They resented that a white man directed it and thought it portrayed the black men as predatory and buffoonish. Many prominent black figures came out in opposition to it. And the Academy, as we all know, tries to avoid scandal whenever possible, so decided to steer clear of that hornet's nest. Thus, TCP went home empty-handed.

It wasn't until Oprah Winfrey became 'Oprah' in the 1990s and started promoting the movie on her show that black Americans finally embraced it. That decade, it seemed that anything Oprah touched turned to gold. For example, her book club spawned many bestsellers.

R221 I also disliked Roma.

Scenes from a Marriage: all fuck, fight, sandwiches and beer. Muriel: brilliant, baffling, snooze I’ve never made it through Godard’s La Chinoise.

R221, I watched Roma twice because I thought I was missing something. When I couldn’t shake the feeling the movie was intensely dull, I actually rented Burning as a test of whether I could still enjoy a long, foreign-language art house film.

Burning is great. And so was Cold War from that same year. Roma is just a chore,

Is Mank considered great? If so my vote goes to Mank. I love old films and have an interest in Hollywood in the 30s and 40s but this film was a snooze fest. The whole film seems like it’s made in cooperation with some herbal sleep supplement to induce sleep!

Sideways. Maybe because there’s no eye candy, this film put me to sleep.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Ditto to so many of these. 2001 was an imaginative product of its time (and a beneficiary of drug-induced viewings) but it's not a great or coherent story.

SIDEWAYS was an indie critical darling that just doesn't hold up on repeat viewings. Fifteen years later, so many of those movies feel really slight and insubstantial. Remember all the fuss about LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE? LOST IN TRANSLATION?

MANK is an indefensibly bad, dull piece of filmmaking. Much worse than these others. The emperor has no clothes.

The problem with Mank is that it looks gorgeous but has no compelling story at the center; one is left with "who cares" even though Fincher is a brilliant director.

[quote]Is Mank considered great? If so my vote goes to Mank. I love old films and have an interest in Hollywood in the 30s and 40s but this film was a snooze fest. The whole film seems like it’s made in cooperation with some herbal sleep supplement to induce sleep!

I watched it a couple of weeks ago for the first time and I thought it was a snooze fest. I went in hoping it would be good since I also love old films.

R212, What about Abu Dhabi Doo?

[quote]Super Size Me. Can't stand that guy, Spurlock. Self-satisfied, etc.

I liked the message of the movie. But, yeah Spurlock is annoying as fuck.

r227, I agree with you about Burning. It really stays with you.

[quote]The King's Speech (2010)

I have a family friend who is a speech pathologist and she said that found the movie boring and she can't stand that some of her colleagues love it.

I find Colin firth immensely boring to watch. He’s the reason I never really took to A single man. I really wanted to like that film but he’s just bland and unappealing to me. How has he gone further than the other two (Rupert Everett and Cary elwes) with whom he starred in another country. They were much more exciting to watch than him.

Fitzcarraldo: overwrought, overlong, hysterical, boring.

I actually really enjoyed Gandhi, The English Patient, Amadeus, Howard's End, and Eyes Wide Shut!

The English Patient seems to be the front runner so far. The book is amazing and the movie is pretty close to the book. I wish Jeremy Northam would have had a bigger role though. He was Maddox, Ralph Fiennes business partner. He plays a major part in the book.

I always found Boy Hood to be boring. It is too long. The first part, her raising kids, the divorce, marrying an alcoholic are GREAT. However, the after that is takes FOREVER to end!

BOYHOOD!

That deserves special mention here. A hugely overrated stunt of a movie, a one-trick pony. The central character (and the young actor playing him) is a gaping void onscreen, and the audience feels like they're aging as visibly as he is.

With the exception of a lovely performance by Patricia Arquette and one or two others, it deserves to be forgotten. And it mostly is.

BOYHOOD is one of the reasons people don't bother reading film reviews anymore.

The third part of Moonlight was like watching paint dry. Dreadful.

Wow many of you are very generous about what movies are great. The English Patient is a shit movie. And boring. Does not qualify for a thread about boring great movies. Because it's treacle.

Days of Heaven aside, anything by Terrance Malluxk

Eyes Wide Shut

The only movie I've ever walked out of was THE THIN RED LINE. I couldn't take the constant voice-overs and random editing any longer!

The only movie I've fallen asleep to in the theater was THE ENGLISH PATIENT. I dozed off about an hour into it and remember waking up an hour later and being annoyed that it was *still* on. I was mystified by its popularity/success that Oscar season.

Others people haven't mentioned:

Meet Joe Black

Australia

Seven Years in Tibet

Lincoln

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Diamonds Are Forever (not even DL favorite Charles Gray could safe it).

"Out of Africa". The only movie ever where I fell asleep in the theater. Vacuous, insipid, middlebrow Oscar bait.

The original Alien with Sigourney Weaver.

Other than the chest-burst scene, I thought this was a real snoozer (and so dark you could barely see anything.)

[quote]Barry Lyndon is right and the weird thing is we have always had a troll who adores this movie.

I thought Barry Lyndon was hilarious. Am I the troll? Maybe I am, who knows. Ryan was perfect because he was as dumb as a post and completely clueless.

R250 I like Barry Lyndon, too! Sir Michael Hordern's narration is my favorite part!

1492: Conquest of Paradise. I saw it in theatres and at home—fell asleep both times.

Bird Box

R52 That's my favorite movie

Antonioni's RED DESERT. Walked out of it twice in theaters, just couldn't stand the tedium of it. It's hilarious in a way.

[quote] 1492: Conquest of Paradise. I saw it in theatres and at home—fell asleep both times.

I know. It's no "Bedknobs and Broomsticks."

Chariots of Fire

Atonement

Witches of Eastwick

I fell asleep during Out of Africa. With The Master I started daydreaming toward the end and completely fell out of the movie. I couldn't follow the plot and had no idea why PSH was singing A Slow Boat to China. It wasn't as boring as Out of Africa though. That's the worst of the worst.

That first Wonder Woman movie with Gal Gadot.

Fell asleep during the second half.

Some friends hauled me to see Out of Africa on Christmas or New Years Day, whatever year it came out. A beautiful clear afternoon, and the theater was full of people. It must have been a SLOW holiday time for movies, because the guys who got me to go see it with them weren't the types to willingly sit through 2 hours of Streep, and I'm sure it was the most likely thing they could find from the choices available that day. We laughed all the way through it. I don't remember a minute of it except the fucking airplane in the air and all that yellow light. Unadulterated crap. Robert Redford is like a wooden robot, as nearly always. What a waste of my time.

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What an endurance test.

R261 Wonder Woman is considered a great movie? This is not what this thread is about. It's about critically acclaimed movies, about classics, cult movies...that you find boring.

At least Out of Africa has Klaus Maria Brandauer. He is never bad.

Wonder Woman was a critically acclaimed movie, R264. Go fuck your mouth with a bar of soap.

I don't find Driving Miss Daisy boring at all. It's a character study, as well as a study of how relationships evolve over decades.

Few movies do that well.

R266 Wonder Woman was critically acclaimed movie? Really? Only among super hero nerds maybe

Wonder Woman has a 93% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

That's a very critically-acclaimed score.

Fuckhead.

L'Avventura

Koyaanisqatsi will leave you wanting an hour and a half of your life back. This shit even has a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, including praise from Roger Ebert.

There's an also dreadful sequel, Powaqqatsi.

^ oh wow, I just discovered there's another sequel as well, Naqoyqatsi

I enjoyed Koyaanisqatsi, r271, and didn't find it boring