Movies that failed to live up to their potential

Plus, Evangeline Lilly was in those scenes. And Evangeline Lilly is terrible.

 

First fucking sentence! I blame Canada. And Cleveland.

There are a few suggestions I totally agree with, though. Casino had nothing beyond Robert De Niro being awesome. Burn After Reading was not what I thought it would be. And I particularly agreed with Uncle.Ruckus' thoughtful suggestion of The Ladykillers, which was painfully bad despite funny trailers.

It's also weird how many movies I like or even love have been mentioned: Superbad, Pineapple Express, Road to Perdition, Inglourious Basterds, The Good Shepherd and No Country for Old Men. I'm not surprised by the nods to Pineapple Exprress, The Good Shepherd or Inglourious Basterd, but the others never struck me as divisive.

Have they?

 

Driving Miss Daisy.
Ordinary People.
A Beautiful Mind.
Shakespeare in Love.
The English Patient (talk about an Oscar grab flick . . .)
Crash.
The Departed.

 

Crash is a great choice for this list. Shakespeare in Love clearly wasn't targeting me, but I know a few people who loved it. None of the rest qualify as "meh," even if The English Patient never would make my list of favorite movies.

I cannot fathom all the intense hatred some people have for The Departed.

 

"Movie 43"

 

Part of it, I've gathered, is anger that it won Best Picture when Scorsese's two masterpieces didn't.

 

Maybe "plenty" is a bad choice of words.

But, I would say maybe 4 or 5 in my lifetime qualify. Maybe I'm also looking at it too subjectively, versus objectively. Like you, I was never going to like Shakespeare in Love.

I did love the Departed. Don't get the hatred for that.


And, regarding No Country for Old Men, I understand that criticism Songbird. But, that was one of the things I loved about the movie, the nihilism/randomness of it. He's just hanging out the motel, talking to a women, then he's dead. It didn't fit the rest of the movie either, because they certainly didn't shy away from showing gruesome scenes early in the film.

 

There are a lot of very good movies being mentioned.
'Pineapple Express' was hysterical. I loved it.
Same with 'Mystery Men.' I love that movie.
'Superbad' was good, although not as good as the two above.
'No Country for Old Men' was great.
'The Good Shepherd' was very good.
'The Road to Perdition' was very good.
'The Departed' was good.
'Inglouious Bastards' was good.
'The Hurt Locker' was very good.

 

Also some movies I expected to be terrible that were.
'Loud and Close' looked like a schmaltzy mess when it came out.
'Pearl Harbor' and 'Red Tails' looked terrible when they came out.
I recently tried to watch 'Red Tails.' It's been on DirecTV. It was so bad I had to turn it off.
I've tried to watch'Pearl Harbor,' but turned it off.

 

Someone mentioned the Hurt Locker? Really? That's a damn near perfect film.

Regarding my opinion on The Good Shepherd-- It was good, I enjoyed it. But, I think it could have been so much better. It starts well, but I thought it kind of fizzled by the end. It's well acted and beautifully shot, but I guess I had higher hopes.

 

Technically a sequel, but the fact it tried to stand so much as its own movie, without the "Alien" tie-in, ruined "Prometheus" for me.
As a prequel, it didn't answer enough. As the start of a new franchise, it didn't answer enough. As a standalone movie, it didn't answer enough. I don't want to leave the theater feeling like I watched the first third of a six-hour movie.
"Prometheus" was pretty to look at and had some cool moments, but ultimately let me down because it tried to be too many things and ended up failing at all of them.

 

Any movie I ever watched on Cinemax with the word "Bikini" in the title, and the only titty shot comes during a wrap-up montage at the 1 hour, 15 minute mark.