The 11 Most Overrated Movies Of All Time (Originally posted 2006)

Before I get into this, the word "overrated" is based on each person's taste. And in these cases, I'm not necessarily saying that these are awful movies. Some are fairly decent, but in comparison to how great others seem to think they are; to me they just don't hold water.

11. The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King (2003)- I could put the whole series on this list, but this is the one that won 11 freakin' Oscars. It won for every category it was nominated for. Visually, it is tremendous, but just like the other two, it runs very long and the story is rather thin for the time it takes to tell it.

10. Raging Bull (1980)- It's a pretty good movie, but the way critics and others bow to it is rather puzzling. The performances are top-notch, with DeNiro winning a Best Actor Oscar, but the film itself seems to repeat the same scenario again and again. Vickie LaMotta does something innocent, jealous Jake mistakes it as something sexual and pounds the guy involved senseless. After a while, it becomes less compelling to watch.

9. Taxi Driver (1976)- Again, a decent movie, but it's nowhere near as incredible as I've heard. It is good in spots while in other spots it's slow and meandering. The performances are very good, but Martin Scorcese sometimes has trouble reining in his material. (See also Gangs Of New York)

8. Rain Man (1988)- It's essentially a road/buddy movie, this time involving an autistic Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. Hoffman's performance is unique and probably authentic, but the character has limitations. Overall, I never found the film to be stirring or anything I cared about all that much.

7. A Night At The Opera (1935)- Groucho's oneliners and putdowns are pretty funny, but then the movie wanders off into endless musical interludes and singing. Groucho is funny. Chico, Harpo, and the others drag the movie down. Overall, the Marx Brothers themselves are the epitome of "overrated".

6. Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)- Here's a movie that Bush haters love simply because the movie hates GW. Considering the wealth of material that Michael Moore had to work with, the film is a missed opportunity. Lots of stuff is thrown at the wall in the hope that something sticks, but it wastes too much time attacking Bush for the wrong reasons.

5. Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (1964) A satire that quickly grows tiresome. It makes the mistake of having its characters act overtly ridiculous and turns everything into slapstick. Having Sterling Hayden's character named Jack D. Ripper is something out of a Marx Brothers movie, which isn't exactly comforting.

4. Shakespeare In Love (1998)- Won 7 Oscars including Best Picture and a Best Actress win for Gywneth Paltrow. You have to be kidding. This is a movie that doesn't know whether it wants to be a farce, tragedy, drama, or whatever. The juggling of tones leads to whiplash for the viewer. This movie beat out Life Is Beautiful and Saving Private Ryan for 1998's Best Picture. Come on now.

3. The Usual Suspects (1995)- This movie has been described as "a long ride for a short day at the beach." The movie hangs everything on its surprise ending, which really wasn't much of a surprise and everything leading up to it wasn't exactly thrilling to begin with. The ending doesn't solve much anyway. Kevin Spacey is Keyser Soze. So?

2. Reservoir Dogs (1992)- A crime drama that after a while simply becomes a talkathon. It assembles a cast of good actors and lets them drone on in endless conversations. Tim Roth's character spends the whole movie lying on the floor gushing blood from a gunshot wound. Yet, he is lucid and able to carry out a whole dialogue with others and even shoot someone with deadly precision. Wouldn't he eventually go into shock from that much blood loss? Or die, quickly? John Lennon died within 15 minutes of being shot due to blood loss. Roth must laugh at him. He probably could laugh, even if half of his blood is spilled out on the floor.

1. Crash (2005)- I will eventually get over the fact that this piece of shit movie won Best Picture. It just missed being on my top 10 Worst List and the fact that people don't see this movie as a two hour episode of The Real World is amazing to me. Crash is proof that movies involving numerous characters and intertwining stores all dovetailing at the end have seen better days. In the beginning, Don Cheadle's character talks about the human need for touch. In his mind, people in LA are having car accidents because they need to touch someone else so much that they crash into each other to get it. If anyone you knew spoke those words, you would send the guys in white with the nets after him.