Ever seen a film that was torn apart by all of the movie reviewers? But when you watched it you thought it was an excellent movie? Ever seen a film that got rave reviews but left you feeling disappointed?

Don't be shy share your hidden treasures or things that you would like to bury with us!

I remember hearing all the reviews panning the Chronicles of Riddick but when I watched it as part of my writing class I found it to have a really solid plot. It was a great example of the hero's journey. It was a pretty enjoyable movie, I didn't notice any gaping plot holes. Ok it wasn't the same genre exactly as the first movie but it was still a good solid example of great story telling.

Now on the other hand Inside Man - this movie had a lot of good reviews but there were plot holes galore. The thing was leaking like a sieve. I'm still irritated by the film to this day and I saw it for free. There were so many things that didn't add up and required you to suspend your disbelief and logic just one too many times.

Critics are worthless. Don't know what the hell their talking about. Generally, I never find out what critics think of the movies I watch. But I can tell you a couple of the flicks I totally dig but get laughed at from my classmates (film students) for. Among them are:

Anastasia (I'm a huge Don Bluth fan)
Flatliners
Enemy Mine
Truman Show

and there's some that everyone loves and I couldn't get into like:

Kill Bill
to a lesser extent, Pulp Fiction (I think with this one because I aligned myself to strongly with ResDogs before I ever saw Pulp and that soiled the whole thing)
Apocalypse Now (FFC was so meticulous with Godfather and AN just seemed haphazard)

eh, that's all I can think of at the moment. Maybe I'll edit a couple in later.

Yeah, I long ago gave up caring about what critics think about movies. I always take it with a grain of salt, because critics seem to go in with a list of things, and then tear the movie apart, looking for all the BAD things, and not commenting nearly enough on all the good parts. And frankly, some of the movies critics have rated as "outstanding", aren't.

Not to mention, I tend to like movies that others would just shake their heads over. Frankly, my top two movies right now are "Howl's Moving Castle" and the recent "Transformers". I embrace my inner geek, and plus, I take Latin, what more need I say?

~PenGryphon

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"Either a writer doesn't want to talk about his work, or he talks about it more than you want."
- Anatole Broyard
"Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything really good."
- William Faulkner

I am probably going to get killed for this, but I did not like Casablanca.

I don't know why. I just never got into it. Maybe it's because I heard so much about how it was one of the best movies, period, and how it was a timeless classic...

It bored me, and I'm not easily bored, either. :)

On the other hand, I liked Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run in English), even though none of my classmates did. Not to mention, none of them even knew what was going on. We're a second-year German class and my teacher decided to put it on without subtitles, so it was difficult to follow, to say the least...

By the way, Howl's Moving Castle rocks! Have you read the book?
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NaNo 2005: Lark's War (51k)
2006: The Passion of Resentment (50k)
2007: Cenotaph (finished! 121k)

This is kind of awkward, since I'm a film critic for my school's paper... And yes, Howl's Moving Castle does rock, but not as much as Princess Mononoke!
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What we have here is... failure to communicate.
-Cool Hand Luke

I HATED Pulp Fiction.

And I thought 27 Dresses was super cute.
And Transformers was awesome.

There, I've said it. Ready the firing squad.

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Scriptfrenzy '07: Darkness Rising (winner!)
Scriptfrenzy '08: The Jewel of Life

I saw "The Fountain" a few weeks ago and despite all the bad reviews I read, it instantly became one of my favorite movies of all time. It is a beautiful story about coping with death.

I think that The Truman Show is one of the most brilliant movies ever created. I loved every minute of it.

And okay, I disliked Transformers quite a bit, but I never played with them as a kid or anything and I was just bugged by the humans - the actual transforming was amazing.

And I want to see 27 Dresses so badly! It looks adorable. I'm a sucker for RomComs.

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NaNo '04 - Three Blind Mice (complete!)
NaNo '05 - Before The Needles (complete!)
NaNo '06 - Bless You (complete!)
NaNo '07 - Disney (complete!)
NaNoWriDay 01/07 - Totally Normal (30,003)
Screnzy '07 - Galactic Warfare For Dummies

I saw "The Fountain" in the theatre when it came out and was blown away by the sheer visual gorgeousness of it. The story for me was secondary to the amazing images the director was creating onscreen.

My boyfriend and I were sitting in front of a group of 13 year old girls who clearly did not agree. The phrase "WHAT IS GOING ON???" kept getting shrieked in our ears. Diff'rent strokes, I guess.

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Doin' it for the craic.

I hated Kill Bill. IMO, it was a massively bloated ego project; it was the movie that Tarentino wanted to see. All power to him for that, but the first part bored me to tears. I went in expecting the fighting to be lousy -- the trailers convinced me of that -- but I at least expected some funny and memorable dialogue. Alas, he left us with "Trix are for kids," and I never bothered to see the second one. Which people tell me is much better, but... I just can't be bothered.

Twelve Monkeys is another dislike of mine. It was a classic case of a short-format twist ending story unnecessarily lengthened to fit in a movie. Plus I wasn't impressed with the time travel elements; seems like I saw similar ideas done many times before, and better. "All You Zombies" and "By His Bootstraps" come to mind.

And, for unappreciated likes; the films of M. Night. In this case, I saw Sixth Sense first and was impressed. I didn't see any more of his movies until around 05 or so, when I saw Unbreakable, which remains my favorite; the classic superhero origin myth, taking a sharp left turn and leaving the carbon-copy-tales in the dust (how many origin movies have we seen recently where the hero walks into the sunset at the end, saying, "I'm [insert name here]"?). I liked the Village quite a bit, and although I agree wholeheartedly that the twist ending makes little sense, I still love it for the relentlessly creepy atmosphere. Signs was pretty good; I wish I had seen it in theatres, because I think then I would have loved it. Lady in the Water was definitely his weakest effort, but still miles imaginatively above such by-the-numbers dreck as Eragon.

Oh, I hate Eragon with a passion. Star Wars with dragons. His parents told him that everything he wrote was brilliant, they published his book for him, and now he rides high on a cloud of arrogance built on never being told that he needed improvement. The worst thing you can do to any sort of artist is to deny them criticism, becuase it prevents them from improving.

This is what I think, but since I'm not a critic I could be wrong. The thing with critics is that they go into movies with a different set of criteria than the average moviegoer. They know that at the end of the movie they're going to be writing about it intelligently. That has to change a person's perceptions. Me, I can just sit back and enjoy or not enjoy the movie based on my own personal tastes.

I've learned that Ebert and I have completely different preferences and so I ignore everything he says. Lists of the Best Movies of All Time can come out, but just because the movie is made well doesn't mean I'll like it.