Curious, aren’t you? I generally avoid blogging about things I hate, but today let’s stir shit up.
Note that I will only name films which are highly acclaimed, or which are with a huge fanbase and considered iconic—the sacred cows, so to speak—it’s no fun mentioning something popular but slammed by critics and relatively recent (such as Twilight or superhero rubbish).
Here’s the list:
Lolita (dir. Stanley Kubrick)
The Shining (dir. Stanley Kubrick)
The Tree of Life (dir. Terrence Malick)
The Shape of Water (dir. Guillermo del Toro)
Mank (dir. David Fincher)
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (dir. Martin McDonagh)
Back to the Future (dir. Robert Zemeckis)
Jojo Rabbit (dir. Taika Waititi)
Roma (dir. Alfonso Cuaron)
Anything I have seen by Jean-Luc Godard, except Vivre sa vie
Oldboy (dir. Park Chan-wook)
Rope (dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
Emma (dir. Douglas McGrath)
Emma (dir. Autumn de Wilde)
Jane Eyre (dir. Cary Joji Fukunaga)
The list has just got updated on 20/8.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteLol.
DeleteI left the abusive comment up for a day because it's hilarious.
DeleteNow deleted so it doesn't spoil the discussion below.
Are these ranked? Any specific reason to hate these in particular?
ReplyDeleteVery loosely ranked.
DeleteThere are many reasons so ask me about specific ones.
Trying to see if there is a pattern. How about Jojo Rabbit?
DeleteUnfunny, easy, smug. Especially the ending.
DeleteEasy in the sense that Nazis are easy targets for satire, we all know they were bad and the condemnation is almost universal, you face no risks mocking and making fun of Nazis, especially now.
I also dislike films that exploit the Holocaust: it was a horrific thing, so set a story or a film during the Holocaust is an easy, cheap way of getting the audience to feel sad, and a way of saying "this is a serious film, it has serious themes".
Definitely not a risky movie, though I thought Sam Rockwell was pretty funny.
DeleteThe 2004 movie "Crash" is one of the ones that had me most scratching my head over the accolades it received.
I haven't seen Crash, I think.
DeleteI guess it has a lot to do with expectations. I expected "JoJo Rabbit" to be terrible for the reasons you describe, so I didn't see it in the theater. Then I saw it while semiconscious on an airplane and thought "hmm... this isn't all that bad."
DeleteHahahahaha.
DeleteIt didn't deserve Best Adapted Screenplay though.
"Unfunny, easy and smug" totally describes Taika Waititi these days unfortunately.
DeleteA while back I saw clips of Taika Waihiti's remake of the very British series The Inbetweeners, and fucking hell it's bad. So bad. Cringey bad.
DeleteHello - What’s wrong with The Shining? I liked it and Barry Lyndon is one of my favourite films. I haven’t seen Lolita.
ReplyDeleteThe Shining: the problem with pacing and structure and development of the story, the acting, the way Jack Nicholson (like every single actor in Kubrick's films) enunciates every single syllable...
DeleteI think Kubrick is strong at cinematography, sound, music but not at working with actors. That's why his Lolita is awful.
Okay, fair enough - thanks.
DeleteI've only seen one film on your list, "Back to the Future," which I enjoyed a lot when I was 16, when I saw it in a theater somewhere. By the time the sequel came out my tastes and standards had changed a lot.
ReplyDeleteMy hate is pretty distant, but my list would include "Forrest Gump," "Mediterraneo," and "American Beauty," well-made, entertaining films that seem fundamentally dishonest with a little thought.
Maybe I do not watch enough films to hate too many.
I think the thing with Back to the Future is that once you start to think about the premise and the story, everything falls apart and it's just a silly film.
DeleteCan't remember Forrest Gump.
American Beauty is a good shout. I knew I forgot something!
"The Shawshank Redemption" is another one people go crazy about that is rather dumb when you step back and think about it.
ReplyDeleteIs it mainly because the guy has to stay in the same cell for, was it 19 years?, for that to work?
DeleteAnother film which is highly acclaimed AND popular and which is rather stupid, once you step back and think about it, is Titanic. But I don't hate it because I'm fond of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in it.
I think "The Shawshank Redemption" is fine as just a fun prison break movie, but my friends seemed to think it contained some deep lessons about the goodness and resilience that can be found in people who've done bad things. I can't take that interpretation seriously given how the characters were completely black and white. The main guy's friends were totally lovable rogues.
DeleteThe way the main prisoners spoke to each other also strained my capacity for suspended disbelief. It sounded like the way a group of college professors imagine they might speak if they found themselves in prison. It isn't how I suspect a group of hardened mid-20th century criminals would sound.
Oh yeah. It and Forrest Gump are, for whatever reasons, extremely popular in Vietnam. They almost always show up when people name their favourite films.
DeleteSort of curious about the degree of hate you have for these. I'm usually just indifferent to most movies I see (e.g., Rope), but there have been a few that I actively hate. At or near the top of that list is the Wes Anderson one with the submarine, The Life Aquatic with Bill Murray (yes, that's not the title and I don't care). I loathed that movie. I got more and more angry while watching it. But it was useful in that it taught me to stay away from Wes Anderson movies. I have similar feelings toward Coen Bros films, though evidently not as strong since I've seen more than one of them. Emma (2020) is lower down on my hate list...almost on the indifferent list.
ReplyDeleteHahahhaa I haven't seen that one.
DeleteGenerally I don't like Wes Anderson much, but The Grand Budapest Hotel I do like. That one works.
I have different degrees of hate for these films. Very much hate Kubrick's Lolita (because the book is in my top 10), and The Shape of Water, for example.
Ugh, yes, I absolutely loathe the Life Aquatic, it’s awful! The Royal Tenenbaums is one of my favorite movies, though, so there might be other movies from the Anderson oeuvre you might enjoy.
Delete— E
I have seen The Royal Tenenbaums but can't remember it, haha.
DeleteYour list is something I understand completely. Stanley Kubrick is one of the most overrated directors, ever...
ReplyDeleteI do like his Dr Strangelove though, and admire 2001 even if I don't quite get it.
DeleteHahahhahahaha.
DeleteI think in terms of techniques, Kubrick is excellent. But I find him cold, and weak with actors, emotions, and relationships, especially in something where naturalistic acting would be good, like Lolita or Barry Lyndon.
I agree about 2001. Can't call it a favourite because I don't really understand it, but I can roughly see why people think so highly of it.
DeleteMaybe I should make a list of favourite film adaptations.
Lolita is a masterpiece.
In that case, I will compile a list.
DeleteGood to hear you also hate Three Billboards.
ReplyDeleteWhy did you hate The Thin Red Line? I haven't seen it.
Why do you hate "Rope"?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Tom about the awful "American Beauty" and could only watch the opening 15 minutes of "Forrest Gump"--ugh.
I didn't buy it. The psychology of the character didn't work for me.
DeleteI absolutely loathe Rope. The Jimmy Stewart character is only asked 4 or 5 times, so you really believe in this Nietzschean rubbish you are lecturing on, and he's like yep. Until he realizes that the two lads took him seriously. The scales fall from his eyes, and he realizes the error of his ways. Pathetic.
DeleteYeah, I found it ridiculous.
DeleteHahahhahahaa okay. I haven't seen Saving Private Ryan either.
ReplyDeleteWhich war films do you like?
What do you think about Come and See?
ReplyDeleteMovies may bore me or seem cliched, etc,, but I don’t usually hate them. The main exception is The Departed. I did enjoy Internal Affairs (the movie The Departed is based on), and I agree with its director that it is the better film.
ReplyDeleteI know, I also disliked The Departed because I loved Infernal Affairs (not Internal), but I only saw the Hong Kong film once and the ending maddened me so much I didn't wanna watch it again.
DeleteMost Hollywood remakes of non-Hollywood films are terrible.
There was a time I watched quite a few revenge films from Japan and South Korea.
ReplyDeleteMy considered opinion is that they're quite sick lol.
How about 1917?
ReplyDeleteHal, my guess is that Come and See is a very tough watch. I saw it at university.
ReplyDeleteI love Zhang Yimou's films till before Hero, that was the turning point, when he sold his soul to the devil (by which I mean the CCP).
Yeah, Lee Young-Ae is very famous in Vietnam.
ReplyDeleteI generally avoid TV series as much as I can. It's my mum who got me hooked on The Mentalist, but after that I'm gonna get back to avoiding series hahaha.
A war film I like is Ivan's Childhood.
ReplyDeleteHahahaha you have to prioritise the ones on my favourite list, and the Tarkovsky.
ReplyDeleteI thought 1917 was fantastic, although a lot of YouTube historians complained about inaccuracies.
ReplyDeleteA Korean War movie I liked was Taegukgi.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw 1917, I thought it was technically very impressive, and thought it was gonna win Best Director or Best Picture (rather than Parasite).
ReplyDeleteBut now I can't remember a single thing about it.
I've heard of Taegukgi. Jang Dong-gun and Won Bin are famous "heartrobs" in East Asia hahahaha. Won Bin is an excellent actor though, at least in Mother. Have you seen that one?
Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. I sat in the the theater as line after line of portentous, empty dialogue rolled by, each line separated by a space so big you could taxi a 747 through it (to give you time to admire the brilliance, I suppose). I wanted to flee, but I couldn't; I was frozen like a rabbit in front of a snake. I truly think it's the worst movie ever made.
ReplyDeleteHahahaha. I remember nothing about it.
DeleteYes, I saw "Mother" and liked it a lot. I felt bad about Lee Eun-ju from Taegukgi.
ReplyDeleteI will not ask why, in case of spoilers haha.
ReplyDeleteOh, I just mean that the actress's life was rather tragic.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Eun-ju
Oh.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of war films, I am just curious if you guys have seen The Human Condition trilogy by Masaki Kobayashi...
ReplyDeleteI haven't.
ReplyDeleteAh ok.
ReplyDeleteI generally don't watch a lot of war films. The last one I saw was Bondarchuk's War and Peace.
Hi Hal, I strongly suggest you to revisit them. (That being said, I need to revisit myself! XD.) There's also the incredible 'Under the Flag of the Rising Sun' by Kinki Fukasaku.
ReplyDeleteSome Japanese films from postwar period are truly the greatest movies I've ever seen.
Oh I agree, classic Japanese cinema (I only know the postwar period) is wonderful.
ReplyDeleteSouth Korean cinema now is popular, but with the exception of Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring, I think the best of South Korean cinema now are nowhere near the level of the best of classic Japanese cinema.
Oh it's the classic films that I like, by Kurosawa, Ozu, and Mizoguchi.
ReplyDeleteI do like Our Little Sister though. Shoplifters is also good.
"I think the best of South Korean cinema now are nowhere near the level of the best of classic Japanese cinema." -- 100%
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts exactly. The level of classic Japanese cinema (the screenplay, cinematography, editing, direction and acting) is just simply extraordinary. Hai, you have got to explore more of Japanese directors! The number of talented Japanese directors is really ridiculous...
Masaki Kobayashi is definitely one of them. Hiroshi Teshigahara is another and then there's Tomu Uchida :D
I have to watch more Kobayashi. Have seen and love Kwaidan. His trilogy is so long though, I mean each one.
ReplyDeleteSecond Hiroshi Teshigahara. Woman in the Dunes is unlike anything. Better than the book, I'd say. Guess I have to watch The Face of Another?
Right now I'm avoiding heavy, depressing things though. Not in the right frame of mine for them.
_Roma_ yeah, really boring, can't remember a thing about it except thinking is anything interesting going to happen in 1st half, & when it became clear nothing was, thinking how much longer to go in 2nd half. _Back to the Future_, just blockbuster trash; not sure why it makes the list. _The Shining_, well I grew up in the 80s and my Mum never let me read the book, so watching the film after she'd gone to bed felt liberating and it's a good _horror_ film my friends & I would quote at each other when we wanted to freak each other out. Hard to depict long-term psychological deterioration even in a long film, but cheats neatly by using Jack Nicholson, who comes across as sinister & weird even at the start, in contrast to the character in the book, so any abruptness in the decline is offset by the thought he was probably mad already.
ReplyDeleteKubrick is hit and miss, but if you make great films you're allowed to make some bad ones & still be a great director. As others have mentioned, _2001_ & _Strangelove_ are great, as is _Paths of Glory_, a superb war film with a portrait of genuinely heroic rebellion that is rarely pulled off without cheesiness.
_Titanic_, mentioned above, possibly the worst film ever made. Corny. Falsifies the disaster, in which from memory 119 of 127 2nd-class men died because Lightoller refused to let them on the lifeboats. You can't just ignore things like that in favour of a clichéd class-war narrative, unless you're determined to make a terrible film.
Oh and _Mank_, yeah, whether the writer is sober enough to write the screenplay is interesting to the writer & Orson Wells & the studio - but not to any imaginable audience.
ReplyDeleteHello Hadrian,
ReplyDeleteWelcome to my blog.
Yeah, that's the reason I didn't like The Shining. I also dislike the acting: in Kubrick's films, the actors all enunciate every single syllable very slowly and the unnaturalness of it gets on my nerves.
I used to like Kubrick a lot, but not anymore. But yes, I still speak highly of Dr Strangelove and 2001, though I didn't quite understand the latter.
Titanic I disliked for a different reason: a woman had a brief affair with a guy with whom she most likely wouldn't have been happy, if he hadn't died, then she got married and had children and had a whole other life, but as she's dying, the only person she cares about is that guy in her youth, as though her whole life with her family doesn't matter, and she throws the jewel into the sea. Absolutely stupid.
But it's not on the list because I'm fond of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in it.
Thank you, glad to be here. Somewhat in need of distraction at the moment.
DeleteThe Kubrick enunciation thing has never struck me before, but I am now worried next time I watch one it will strike me and the whole thing will be ruined.
I sympathise with your criticism of Titanic, though would say that as you get older and your possibilities shrink it's not unnatural to turn your focus to ones that never materialized. I remember Jonathan Miller doing a series on atheism where he visits a dying woman who says her vision of the moment of death is a blinding realisation of all the people she could have been. But that could have been the morphine talking, I guess. Plus even if there's anything in the idea, Titanic runs with it in a supremely naff way.
Oh I can tell you that you will definitely notice the enunciation in his films, in Dr Strangelove, in The Shining, in Eyes Wide Shut, etc.
DeleteTotally late to this party - but totally agree on Godard, his films are overrated rubbish. I'd like a throw in another director while I'm here that everyone lauds...Bresson. Maybe some of the early films are not too bad, but 'Lancelot du Lac' or 'L'Argent'...
ReplyDeleteWith Bresson, I enjoyed A Man Escaped but very much disliked L'Argent. I have rather strong views about acting, and about working with actors, because I mysefl went to film school and tried my hand at it, and Bresson's view is the opposite of mine.
DeleteCouldn't help noticing the unnatural way the non-actors in L'Argent walked and sat and acted.