All three did tie together. In fact, The second rolls right into the third without stopping and unless you saw the second you wouldn't understand the start of the third.

About Schmitt,

I forced myself to watch the first 20 minutes and when I just couldn't stand it any longer I hit max FF. I was somehow hoping to find a spot in the movie that looked good, but every time I stopped the FF I was sorry. One of the only movies I absolutely could not stand.

Two films by Frank Darabont, based upon Stephen King stories:

The Shawshank Redemption,
The Green Mile

Both of these are the most mawkish, contrived films that attempted to be about something SERIOUS that I've ever seen. I've had friends come up to me and their eyes get misty when they talk about that film. And I bite my tongue.

Definition of "mawkish":
1. bathetic, drippy, hokey, maudlin, mawkish, mushy, schmaltzy, schmalzy, sentimental, slushy -- (effusively or insincerely emotional; "a bathetic novel"; "maudlin expressons of sympathy"; "mushy effusiveness"; "a schmaltzy song"; "sentimental soap operas"; "slushy poetry")

I reserve most of my hatred for the second film which features what some call "the Magic Negro". This is a character whose only purpose is to provide some kind of lesson, advice or contrivance to the other characters. Michael Clarke Duncan's character (nothing wrong with his acting) is literally the magic negro. He has no real depth in his character, he is just there to help the other characters along. He could have been an alien and angel or any other sort of supernatural character who doesn't really have a motive or own desire. His purpose is there to serve the other people. Yet, The Green Mile is supposed to have some sort of message about the death penalty but there is nothing about the character to indicate he is even alive.

The Shawshank Redemption was like The Green Mile without the magic negro. Like the Green Mile it seemed to be an exercise in period photography. All the 'meaningful' scenes were ratched up with an excess of sentiment just in case the audience didn't get that there was some sort of injustice or turn of the character. The bad characters were extremely evil, the good characters were saints. The plot movements could be seen coming from miles away.

on Starship Troopers
 

I know a lot of people who hated "Starship Troopers" until they were told that it was actually a satire. Some of Paul Verhoven's American works are satires on the society he works in. "Robocop" was the most blatant example until "Starship Troopers" came along. I laughed from beginning to end. It's quite likely that some of the studio executives didn't get it either.

Keith you dont like Shawshank? Im speechless. Its okay I guess; my sister in law doesnt like Braveheart.

I don't like Braveheart either. I like battle movies. I like historical movies. But Braveheart also fell under the definition of mawkish. And the battle scenes, while under the veneer of authenticity, were uninspiring. Flat, linear direction. It doesn't inspire me to see The Passion of the Christ based upon Gibson's previous directing effort.

Another bad Gibson movie in which he starred was The Patriot which had me aghast at how cliches could be trundled out in such a lazy fashion.

Yep. Hated The Patriot.

Matrix
 

"All three did tie together. In fact, The second rolls right into the third without stopping and unless you saw the second you wouldn't understand the start of the third."

The gap isn't between the second and third film (which were written, a la Back to the Future Part 2 and Part 3, as one too-long story and delivered as two separate movies)--it's between the first film and its sequels.

There are so many plot holes, errors of science, misconceptions of philosophy and psychology in those films, and really only mediocre action to boot, since there was little suspense to any of the peripatetic fight sequences (especially in the sequels).

I think I know why the sequels failed to resonate with audiences as the first film did--if anyone wants to hear my theory.

Top Recent Awful Movies:

Starship Troopers - To me it didn't satirize society, it satirzed the book from which it was drawn.

Pearl Harbor - Holy moses, what were they thinking?

We Were Soldiers - An incredible book, botched by Sir Mel. The utterly unbelievable, yes, mawkish ending mady me want to puke. And the title! "We were soldiers once, and young" says something about a lost youth, marred by war while
"We were soldiers" says simply, Duh.

Daredevil - Maybe we can pay Ben Affleck to never be in another movie ever again. Ever.

Natural Born Killers - I read somewhere that the original store was written by Quentin Tarentino, but after he saw what Oliver Stone did with it, he asked to not be given a writing credit. I don't blame him a bit.

Robert,

Personally I'm burned out trying to explain it all to the unclean masses.

:)

Fun thread, felt I just had to contribute a bit here..
I completely agree with Natural Born Killers.. actually anything Oliver Stone makes put me to sleep fairly fast!

The royal tannenbaums.. is that the name? Well something like it. Never got what it was supposed to be... Lots of people were laughing around me though.

I agree on Chicago.. Loved Moulin Rouge though.

The Barbarian invasion. won the oscar for best foreign movie?? The worst crap I've seen in years!! (I'd rather watch Legally Blond 24 hours than watching that crap again.)

And finally I'll lose all my credibility, if I had one in the first place, that is..
The Godfather series.. What a hype!! AlPacino is boring.. (Before you disagree go and see, "searching for Richard the third" or something along those lines.)

How about the opposite.. a movie everybody thought stinking and you actually liked? (like mission impossible 2 or waterworld..)

Hey...

What about Gigli?

Anyone see it? Actually, scratch that.... I don't think anyone would 'fess up to it!

Someone here rented "Swept Away"... and I actually watched about half an hour of it.

I think Madonna blackmailed or somehow forced Guy Ritchie to make that piece of @#~¬.

While watching it I got the feeling, that no one on the set actually cared about the movie. No body believed in it (maybe Madonna?). It was like, ok we are getting payed, let´s get over with it.

Alfred: I did like Waterworld, and The Postman (a little bit), and while I´m with Costner.. I also liked that one with Kurt Russel where they rob a casino dressed like Elvis...

<<<-- Originally posted by Alfred Okocha : Fun thread, felt I just had to contribute a bit here..

How about the opposite.. a movie everybody thought stinking and you actually liked? (like mission impossible 2 or waterworld..) -->>>

Yeah, Starship Troopers for me. :)

Pearl Harbor! Yes! It was horrible. The ATTACK sequence was great stuff in CGI land but the movie was sooooooo bad. M. Bay is just bad for cinema.

We Were Soldiers! oh man, i saw that moviein the theater! so awfull that it became funny....it looked like it was shot in the santa monica moutains right here in good old southern cali. i herd they had to remove the hollywood sign from some shots.

I couldnt make it through the royal tannenbaums, put me right to sleep.

>>Another bad Gibson movie in which he starred was The Patriot which had me aghast at how cliches could be trundled out in such a lazy fashion.<<
Yes, I actually was rooting for the English by the end. Yuch. We were soldiers could never figure out what it was trying to say, and what it did say was sentimental and pathetic.

Scorsese hasn't had a decent film in over 20 years, why do they continue to lionize him?

Pearl Harbor. Well at least he made up for it with Pirates of the Carribean. See Tora Tora Tora for a good Pearl Harbor flick.

Swept Away? Guy Ritchie wouldn't let Madonna do the sex scenes and a lot of other stuff from the original, and yes I blame him for this piece of crap, not Madonna.
The only good thing he's done recently was the BMW short making fun of his new wife Madonna (she was actually pretty good in that one).

Dune part 2 on the scifi channel. The first one was passable for a very low budget movie, but the second series just plane sucked. They totally lost their way.

Just about any movie where English actors are playing Americans and don't get the accent right. Especially when they try to talk 'Southern' and constantly slip back into their native way of speaking. Really annoying, and it takes me out of the movie.
(I was raised in the south and know the dif between an accurate and phony southern accent).

I have to say I do like Kubrick. But he's an acquired taste for most.
Anybody who says he is overrated really doesn't understand his films. take the time to watch them again, and again if needed.

You didn't even like "Goodfellas" (1990), Joe?

Okay I take it back, 14 years then. Forgot about GoodFellas.

Welcome to the USA Keith, hehehe.

btw the latest issue if RES magazine has an interesting opinion piece by Rob Nilsson I think everyone should read.

Oh yeah, I just remembered. Could anybody PLEASE explain what exactly was SO fantastic with BASIC INSTINCT??

Okej Sharon Stone and all that, but the movie steamed quit alot IMHO..

i catch a lot of gruff for this, but i can't stand BLADE RUNNER.
and i'm a science fiction movie fan, and a big fan of Harrison Ford's early acting.

i get the argument that it's "true" science fiction instead of "science fiction as the background for a story" (i.e. star wars, etc.) but i don't care how original the science fiction is.
it's just a bad movie. bad writing, bad dialogue, bad acting, bad lots of stuff. (I also get that the main character's acting "should" be a little wooden, since the whole thing is an exploration of the fact that the humans are less human than the replicas...... WHATEVER)

the only thing it has going for it in my opinion is great atmosphere. it has that in spades, but for the life of me, i cannot
figure out why everyone thinks it's such a seminal science fiction film. YUK!

"bowling for columbine"...simply awful in every way.

It is clear that the only reason it got the oscar in the documentary category is that Michael Moore is held in high political foavor by the members of the academy.

It is not even a documentary, but a crude, deceptively edited low-quality diatribe with a "hate America first" agenda.

I could be charitable and call it a satire or comedy, but that would be unfair to "This Is Spinal Tap" or "A Mighty Wind" or "Best In Show" which are truly funny mockumentaries.

I loved it.. Moore rules. ;-)

-Moore is infact full of it. i dont know why they havnt revoked his oscar.


I dont like Mulholland Drive, made absoloutly no sense to me, strangely enuf i liked lost highway.

I thought mad max was long and boring.

Matrix 2 and 3 are pathetic and they should rename matrix 2,"Matrix 2, The Exposition"

Entropy , some film with stephen dorph.

From Dusk till Dawn, - didnt like the way it went horror, but i dont like horror anyway.
Spy kids 3 - need i say more

Anything with puppets in it like Dark Crystal.
Jackie Brown,

supertroopers is not good too.

"i dont know why they havnt revoked his oscar."
real simple, the same reason they gave it to him to begin with...the Hollyweird establishment sheeple who make these decisions all (mostly all) love his moronic bolshevik arse. They think like he does and share his radical politics, and it's real cool and hip to vilify America and Americans. And anyone in the film industry who dissents to this lockstep does so at the risk of his career.

Whether the picture was good or awful (it's the latter) it is certainly not a documentary. Hell, by the standards they applied, Harry Potter is a documentary about English boarding schools! (hee hee)

And even conceding the category, the film was not eligible for the award in the year it was granted, because its distribution timing was wrong to be nominated in that year. Oh well, more powerful people than me made this selection.

We had this debate a long time ago like after last year's Oscars. Please do a search and save us the trouble of dragging it out again.

Hmm. I loved Jackie Brown. What's not to like about that one?

Not a debate, just an attempt at a theory to solve Ben's mystery. And my guess is as good as anybody's. hahahaha

Now, the question from Kevin about Jackie Brown, that could be the opener of a debate. But I can't help you guys there, I haven't seen it.

Actually, Joe has been kind enough to favor us with another thread for those who are fans of Columbine or Jackie (again, i don't know about that one) or any other steamers mentioned here, and it's called: "Movies you like but shouldn't have"...

And I like Joe's rules: no flames, nobody is wrong or stupid, etc.

Oh yes, and back to movies I hated, let's try Blair Witch Project.

No flame intended, I was just curious about what he didn't like with Jackie Brown. The lo-o-ng shots, the script, the acting, what? It's an unusual movie and there's lots of room for opinion. I agree that there are no right or wrong answers here.

Dunno just didnt like it.

Kill Bill was pretty damn good,
cant wait to watch the sequal.

My Fav Tarantino Films in Order.

Four Rooms
Kill Bill
Reservoir Dogs
Pulp Fiction
Jackie Brown
From Dusk till Dawn

Tarantino didn't make From dusk to dawn. Only acted. That's Roberto Rodriguez.
Since he claims that Kill Bill was his fourth movie, I'm not sure what's the deal with Four Rooms either.. Anybody?

He wrote the screen play.

Actually, Four Rooms had four directors and four screenwriters. Tarantino wrote and directed the "The Man from Hollywood" segment. Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, and Robert Rodriguez wrote and directed "The Missing Ingredient," "The Wrong Man," and "The Misbehavers."

Drawing influence from other films (as in all his works), Tarantino looked to "The Man From Rio," an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, which, in turn, finds its pedigree from the Roald Dahl short story "The Man from the South." This would explain Roald Dahl's credit in Four Rooms.

Hated Lord of the Things
 

I hated the first of the Tolkien's so much I wont see the others. Sorry. Too much, too often. Too visually rich for me. . . . I must be the only one on the Planet . . there again I loved Paris Texas and Rumble Fish.. . well, that figures I guess . . . oh yeah, loved Toy Story 1 . . .

<<<-- Originally posted by Keith Loh : We had this debate a long time ago like after last year's Oscars. Please do a search and save us the trouble of dragging it out again. -->>>

? ? ? ? ? ?

I actually manage to not see many bad movies these days. I have a sixth sense for them at this point, in combination with a "life is too short" attitude. Most films are quite shallow and plod along like novels or Three's Company. Most of cinema can be classified as Stupid Human Tricks, as far as I'm concerned.
Let's see, what's come up in recent days...

Scarface - wow, insatiably worthless drivel. Why do we do this to ourselves?

Naqoyqatsi - total failure as cinema. Thumb in eye symbolism and distracting image effects. This failure matters to me because the first two in the trilogy, particularly the first, have had such a lasting, positive, and profound impact on me as an artist and thinker and participant in Life.

I'm running short on my list! That's good, right? It means I've chosen to focus on what really matters most to me. Have we started a thread for this area yet? I'll look around.

Speaking of The Sixth Sense... I've often thought that the best way to watch Shyamalan films is on VHS in fast-forward.

Any "video game" movies suck. "Natural Born Killers" is a movie I have never been able to sit through and I have sat through some god awful flicks. I'm pleased to see that there are some fellow Kubrick haters to be found. I didn't like "Chicago". I never have liked musicals, but "Moulin Rouge" was even worse. Was it really a musical? What the hell was that anyways?

Kubrick had a positive influence on me in my adolesence, but I feel I've pretty much outgrown him. I do like Barry Lyndon quite a lot, though.

"No flame intended..."
I know, that's cool, I'm just being generally pre-emptive here.

"I agree that there are no right or wrong answers here."
That's what I like about this thread.

Ok, here's another sucky movie: "Glengarry Glen Ross." Just really depressing and annoying.