Classic films you hate

[burntcopper]

everyone knows that list of classic films. the critical *and* popular darlings. The ones everyone is supposed to have on their rack of filmic Desert Island Discs. However, not everyone's tastes are the same. One person's squee is another's bored to tears.

So, name me two classic films you hate (and tell me *why*, I want reasons) and two that you'll quite happily feel justified about pushing someone off a cliff if anyone dares denigrate them, even slightly. You don't need to explain those you love, because that tends to collapse into flailing and seal noises.

Citizen Kane
My father loves this film. He talked it up for years. So, one day it's on at the BFI so he pulls me along to get rid of my sceptical eyebrow and 'not again' eyeroll.

I sit. My eyebrow does not go down. As the film goes on i get increasingly fidgety. And i nearly strain something with the amount of eyerolling done. Seriously. what the hell is with that script? the acting is overblown, wooden or dead in the water. the camera angles and lighting are... meh if they're not looking like something trying to imitate early silent horror. The costuming. Dear FSM. The choppy editing. And what fucking satire? This is not satire, I have been to the Hirst castle and read up on the bloke, this is fucking Krankies with the subtlety of a doorknob, as done by emo kid trying to be rebellious. And someone shoot the person who wrote the score, they need to be put out of their misery. I could go on. And the first person to say 'groundbreaking'? there are better films with better acting, script and lighting from before this.

the Godfather

Read the book in my early teens, saw the film at uni. Yawn. BORING. it's like they've taken the interesting bits of the book and flattened them (and the book wasn't that great to begin with), it goes on forever, goes slowly and... yeah, I can see your attempts at self-conscious cool while you're in love with the Mafia idea. get over yourself, really.

Two classics I love : Casablanca and Some Like it Hot.

Go.

Comments

[akadougal.livejournal.com]

2001 - so fucking boring. And pointless.
The Seven Samuri - I admired the techniques but did wander out to the bar halfway through, return, and realised I'd missed nothing.

I also second your Citizen Kane hate.

Defending films? Original St Trinians and Excalibur. You didn't say they had to be amazing.

[peterjevans.livejournal.com]

Interesting question. But tough for a couple of reasons… Firstly, how you define a classic film? Secondly, if I’m not enjoying a film I tend to take the hugely unfashionable step of ceasing to watch it, which leaves me feeling unjustified in saying I hate, say, anything by Alfred Hitchcock or Singing in the Rain or The Creature from the Black Lagoon or whatever, because I’ve only been masochistic enough to expose myself to the first fifteen minutes or so.

Thus I cannot properly comment on either Citizen Kane or The Godfather

However, out of supposedly great movies that I have seen at least most of and which have made me want to put out the director’s eyes with my thumbs:

Fight Club
Inexplicably popular. I found most of the movie to be vaguely watchable if stupid, self-important, unfunny, uninteresting and so far up it’s own arse it can brush its teeth from the inside. Hateful central characters, too. Then the big reveal at the end comes, which is quite frankly the most goddamn stupid trick I have ever seen a movie try to pull. And I’ve watched all the Batman films, so I’ve looked into the dark heart of stupid. Cue anguished cry of ‘Oh, you gotta be fucking kidding!’ from Pete.

Gone with the Wind
Horrible, horrible, long, melodramatic, dull, tedious, overblown sludge of a movie with a ‘heroine’ who I would have quite happily taken out back and beaten with a shovel until she ceased to live, thereby saving everyone else in the story a lot of trouble. Would have only been worth my time had Rhett Butler told her that he didn’t give a damn, turned away, then turned back and punched her.

Classic films I love:

2001: A Space Odyssey

Midnight Cowboy

[gmh.livejournal.com]

The bad:

The Seventh Seal. I know that it's a Classic Of Cinema. That is has Cultural Influence up the wazoo. I just fall asleep whenever I try to watch it. Everyone is going to die. No exceptions.

(At least it's not quite slit-your-wrists time.)

Breaking The Waves: Lars von Trier. OK, this is slit-your-wrists time. Along with PRETTY MUCH ANYTHING BY LARS VON TRIER. Everything is either sick, painful, suicidally depressing or all three.


The good:

Four Weddings and a Funeral.

(sure, the lead actress is a plank. The lead actor isn't much better. On the other hand, you have Kristin Scott-Thomas and Duckf^H^H^H^H^HAnna Chancellor and the late Charlotte Coleman and Simon Callow and John Hannah. It's also probably a slightly guiltily middle-class confession to point to people and places in the film and go 'yep, been there, know them, recognise the situation'.)

When Harry Met Sally.

(Can you spot a certain theme here? Yes, I confess, I have a certain weakness for mushy films with halfway-decent scripts. And Billy Crystal. Doubly so for mushy films with halfway-decent scripts starring Billy Crystal.)

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

I don't watch a great many classic films, but I do have to say though a few parts of The Seven Samurai were quite nice, most of it was kind of really, really boring.

on the other hand, Casablanca! OH, CASABLANCA. <3333 absolute love.

[annajaneclare.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but I fucking love the Godfather I and II. And you're right about the book - it's really not that good. But seconding the love for Casablanca and Some Like It Hot.

So, let's barbeque a couple of sacred moo-cows.

First, and I feel dreadful about saying this because he's not long gone, but Dirty Dancing. I just can't stand it. I managed to avoid it throughout my teenage years despite Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze's picture being everywhere and I didn't see it until I was thirty. Whereupon I loathed it on sight. I think part of my aversion springs from the way it's just been mooned over and drooled over in that annoying OMGNOSTALGIA way. Same goes for Grease. Kill it. Kill it with fire.

Second - Titanic. Do I need to elaborate on this?

Classics I love forever - Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Exorcist.

[xenaclone.livejournal.com]

Titanic - big overdone pile of poo

Gigi - the irrepressible Maurice Chevalier aside, this is 'a fella can sleep around but his eventual wife must be a pure virgin' set to music. GAH!

***

2001 - love. Okay, it's seriously weird shit conceived on LSD and we all know Kubrick was as mad as a bucket of frogs, but I love the enigmatic nature of it. Plus, realistic space scenes.

Clockwork Orange - Forget 'Fight club'; this is that film set in the 70's and laden with satire and violence

[sbp.livejournal.com]

"It's A Wonderful Life" and "Forrest Gump". Maybe I don't go for everyman uplifting type movies, but I really don't want to see either of these films, no matter how much anyone says "but it's great". Jimmy Stewart I like in a bunch of other stuff though, and '80s Tom Hank is fine, just nothing since Philadelphia.

Dunno if they're classics, but two films that I loved when I was growing up were Blazing Saddles and The Life Of Brian. We used to watch one or the other when there was a wet games afternoon.

[alysscarlet.livejournal.com]

I totally agree that 'It's A Wonderful Life' and 'Forrest Gump' are over-rated. People look at me as if I've grown another head when I tell them I don't like 'It's A Wonderful Life'.

Films I love that aren't really rated:

Excalibur - I always got the impression it was admired when it came out, but has become a laughing stock since. Perhaps with the more pro-80s nostalgia we now have it will come back into fashion.
The Object of My Affection - a faghag romance by Nicholas Hytner. Lovely performances by Paul Rudd and Nigel Hawthorne and a bittersweet ending. It probably rings more true with those of us women who have been in love with a gay man. :-)

[silly-swordsman.livejournal.com]

Interesting to see what some people consider 'classics' - I'd reserve that for films older than, well, 25-30 years?

Bambi
Didn't see this until I was an adult already, and Disney started to release their animated classics on VHS (but at the time it was made, they didn't yet aim fully at kids, but at families). What's the point of this film? To make kids feel bad about hunters shooting deer? Inane songs and characters, patronisingly cardboard cutout characters, and twee anthropomorphication. The animation is excellent, I'll give it that, but that's never going to be enough.

Bullit
I don't care about these characters. The longest I've lasted is, I think, twenty minutes, after which I've become bored. Oh, and the chase scene. Sorry, was that supposed to be exciting?

I love: Rocky and Streets of Fire.

[genarti]

I don't know that it's a classic, at least yet, but it's something lots of people seem to adore: The Dark Crystal.

It may be that I didn't see it when I was young enough to imprint, but I tried watching it on a college vacation because I'd heard it raved about and quoted so much. Boring, boring, boring. The pace is glacial, and the main character spends 90% of his time being annoying and inept. (The other 10% he's just inept and boring.) There are a lot of interesting ideas in the worldbuilding, but they're totally ruined by the execution IMO. I was literally fighting off sleep, and I hadn't been tired when I sat down to watch. I was the only person in my family who stuck it out to the end, and that was sheer stubbornness on my part.

[andromakie.livejournal.com]

I'm going to have to go with The Godfather as well. Ick.
Also Rocky (all of them if we can stretch it that far) - as far as I'm concerned there is nothing redeeming about these films.

Classics I love: The Philadelphia Story and Brigadoon

[luckykaa.livejournal.com]

Mary Poppins. The original Special Effects movie. And to give credit the special effects are fantastic for its time. On the other hand, it just isn't that funny. The animated sections just tryu to be cute at us. Bedknobs and broomsticks did the same thing with that football match but that had lots of visual gags as well. And the other problem is they're all so damn good. Even when the kids misbehave it's in such a sweet saccharin way.

The Wizard Of Oz. I just hate the ending. How being home is such a great place. No it's not! You're an orphan who nobody listens to you and your entire life is literally without colour!

Classics I love: Pulp fiction and I'll pick Some Like it Hot as well because it's hilarious!