Critically Praised Movies you Hated

[ROC]

American Beauty. I can never even finish it, it's so annoying. Also banked on that "isn't the suburbs really just a nightmare where your cartoonishly bitchy wife and family hates you and you want to fuck the cheerleader?" idea like everyone would respond "yes." The performances are fine considering the material, but genuinely everything that happens in it feels utterly vile and the point's long since been reached.

Then again, I'm finding myself to be this way to Alan Ball material other than Six Feet Under as of late. (And Towelhead might be a more annoying example of Alan Ball's "whoops the suburbs are evil" mentality.)

[IDOL]

American Beauty is one of my faves!

One I hated that I heard a lot of people praising is Cabin in the Woods. Terrible.

[Jimmy]

What didn't you like about it?

[Hobo]

Has anybody mentioned Chasing Amy yet? Jesus Christ, I wanted to kick that movie in its explicitly presented nards.

I forgot this one! I used to like it, then I rewatched it with Hobina ages ago and I slowly began to realize that it is horrid.

Jersey Girl is far better.

[GoGo Yubari]

I dread rewatching Chasing Amy. I really liked it when I was like fifteen and imagine I'd hate it now.

[LL!]

I never liked Chasing Amy. I thought it was a really weak effort by Smith at a time where he could seemingly do no wrong.

[Josh]

I once did the Hooper X monologue from the opening convention for a high school theatre audition.

But yeah, that movie's probably gonna go down in history as a long list of "seemed like a good idea at the time" moments.

[GA!]

Chasing Amy really is one of the worst films ever, and it pretty much shows why Kevin Smith is probably the most overrated director of the last twenty years. He directs like he's shooting a sitcom anyway, but to put all that misogynist shit on top is soul destroying. The frustrating thing is the concept of Chasing Amy is great, and someone who doesn't hate women could have done a better resolution than:

She's not a lesbian and she sucked a million cocks because LOL WOMAN

Smith has sustained his entire career on the Clerks zeitgeist. Clerks had its charm from a film-making perspective, and Dogma is all right in places, but everything else he has done is utter garbage.

[GoGo Yubari]

Clerks: The Animated Series is tremendous and I will not hear a bad word said about it.

Really, I like everything Clerks. Mallrats has two good scenes (Stan Lee and the Dating Game) and I imagine that's it. Dogma is fine, and then I dunno. He does good commentary tracks and the Sweeney Todd scene in Jersey Girl I recall loving.

[Jimmy]

I thought Clerks was over rated but I think I hyped it up waaaay too much for myself, because it took me a year to find a cheap DVD copy. I just got kind of bored and then I felt bad that I didn't love it. I love Dogma, though. That film is a shitload of fun.

[KONGO]

I liked Dogma a bunch on my first watch, much less on subsequent watches. Clerks is okay, I like it enough that I wish I liked it more so I would be cool like all the Clerks-liking people, but I don't. Clerks II is okay, too. I thought Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back was a ton of fun when I first saw it but haven't seen it since. Haven't seen his other movies like Mallrats or Chasing Amy and I'm avoiding Jersey Girl like the plague.

Should mention I first watched Dogma when I was formulating my atheist tendencies and I think that had a huge part to play in why I liked it. I also don't really rate Kevin Smith as a director.

[Sousa]

Mallrats is just stupid; Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back is stupid but fun. Dogma is decent but even I as the wacky atheist can't stand how preachy it is. Chasing Amy is just... unsettling. It's literally like they took the worst parts of the relationships thread in the Lounge and made a movie out of it.

[ROC]

To be honest, I only have really turned on Smith since I listened to some of his podcasts post Smodcast era (and even later-SModCasts after Zack and Miri bombed) and realized he's just not that bright, really. I mean, he's hardly dumb, but he always feels like he's just a vaguely boring guy who just sort of says "and cocks" and "and shit" when his contemporaries are more or less taking a step back and putting out quality product. I say this not having seen Red State or Cop Out, however, so his films might not hold the same bit of malaise I have for the podcast stuff.

[Hobo]

Went through (most) of Kevin Smith's films a while back.

Clerks - I like.

MallRats - is okay, the Jay and Silent Bob schtick is fun.

Chasing Amy - is horrible. The only good thing is Silent Bob's speech.

Jay and Silent Bob - It's silly. Not sure those characters really could carry a whole film but I don't mind it.

Dogma - I like.

Jersey Girl - I honestly love this film the most. George Carlin is fantastic in it.

Clerks 2 - I like, but I get thrown every time by it's big lipped alligator moment.

Zach and Miri - I like this as well, quite a bit.

I've seen Cop Out and it's meh but I've yet to see Red State.

[Summers]

Ooh this looks fun.

Clerks - I like, a lot. Very good.

MallRats - reaaaally good. Funny throughout.

Chasing Amy - is okay. Love Affleck (which helps) & while it has issues I can still enjoy it.

Jay and Silent Bob - same as Mallrats, I'd say. More outrageously funny, but loses some of the charm I found in 'rats.

Dogma - fantastic. Seriously, really really good.

Jersey Girl - what a film. Pulls at my heartstrings while remaining entertaining.

Clerks 2 - loses the charm of the original, but it's a nice & fun film.

Zach and Miri - I like this. Much better than it should have been.

In short, I find these films fun & enjoyable.

[LL!]

Clerks - I still enjoy Clerks to this day.

MallRats - It's alright. Liked a lot better when I was younger.

Chasing Amy - Didn't like it.

Jay and Silent Bob - It's fun. Jason Mewes gets pretty grating, but it's still not a bad time.

Dogma - It's my favorite of Smith's movies.

Jersey Girl - It's not bad. George Carlin IS the best part about it.

Clerks 2 - I really enjoyed Clerks 2, as well.

Zach and Miri - This movie got so much hate, and I have no idea why. Perfectly acceptable.

Cop Out- I haven't seen it.

Red State - Overrated.

[SRN]

I have only ever seen Clerks a long time ago and half of Dogma once like, ten years ago. It seems like I have something be doing over the course of next week.

[zero]

I must've been absent the day everyone decided Chasing Amy is so awful. Maybe something's changed in the five or so years since I last watched it, but I've always remembered it as Smith's best work. I know some controversy stirred up when during an Evening With Kevin Smith, a lesbian in the audience kinda pushed him on the message, and his fans, being the lemmings they are, circled their wagons and kinda proved her point for her, but that doesn't negate the merits of the movie.

I think it's certainly a movie that spurs discussion, but I don't think the point of it is "all women need is some serious deep dicking." It's a pretty honest movie about how fucked up we all are, especially when it comes to sex. Perhaps the movie has always clicked with me since I've lived it - I've been the asshole who expected the former wild girl to still be wild when she was ready to settle down. I've been the guy hung up on a girl's past too.

And it doesn't hurt that I kinda wanna kiss Ben Affleck on the mouth.

I've always enjoyed Smith's work... I think he's clearly struggled outside of his Jay & Bob comfort zone, but his movies have all been solid. Jersey Girl is totally underrated, Zack & Miri would've been as acclaimed as The Hangover with any other director, and Red State was one of the ballsiest things I've ever seen a director like Smith do. Haven't seen Cop Out though.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Dogma - it's alright. I've got it on DVD from when I bought it yeeears ago. Not watched it in maybe a decade though.

Not seen any of his others.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I siffed thru the thread a bit and I have a few useless opinions to add on movies people mentioned.

I will probably get shit for this but I don't get The Big Lebowski. Like, I enjoyed it the 3rd time I watched it but I still don't get the love it gets. I really enjoy the characters in the film but not enough to make up for such a dead-end story. I don't hate the movie by any stretch as that's a strong word, I just don't understand the love it gets.

Avatar is a movie that I don't understand the hate it gets. Seems like people hate it because it has a simple story that has been done before (in one way or another) and it was very successful. I'll take 10 Avatars over 3 (or 4, 5, 6 or however many they are making) Transformers movies any day of the week. Yes, the film is a mix of about 6 different stories (depending on who you ask). It borrows most of it's core elements from other stuff. I think the hate would be justified if it was at it's core, a bad film, but it's not, in my opinion. They didn't try to cheap out or simplify the story. They spent 3 hours building relationships and characters while introducing a very interesting world to the audience. All in the name of creating the first film that actually works with 3D in a way that enhances the environment instead of distracting from it.

Lord of the Rings feels like you are watching a novel on-screen, for the good and the bad. It's quite long for the story it's telling. I really liked The Lord of the Rings but I can't call myself a huge fan either. Very well done tho. Not sure how Peter Jackson could have done much better than he did with the material.

Honestly though, I can't think of one movie I disagreed with the critics enough to even call it a 'hate' for a film. Most of the films I really dislike are cult films that critics either panned or were mixed on. My disagreements are with movies, like The Big Lebowski, where I just didn't get the appeal or didn't think deserved such high of praise. Not that I outright hated.

I think the Coen Brothers films have a specific fanbase, especially their earlier stuff. What makes Lebowski and Fargo able to split viewers is that you just cut into the unexciting lives of normal (maybe even more boring than normal) people for a few days, see their very understated reactions to a ridiculous situation unfold and then toodle off again, leaving them to resume their lives at the end. I really like it but it's unsurprising that a lot of people don't.