Movies you hate that everyone else loves

[hepcat]

I'd like to add Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas to the list as well.  Over the years I have noticed how much of a cult following this film has developed, and yet for some reason I had never taken the time to watch it until this past Christmas.

Finally my wife and I caught it on television and were both excited to finally get to see what all of the hype has been about.

While the animation was rather cool, the story itself was awful.  We struggled through that abomination and at the close we both looked at each other and in unison said, "W. T. F?"  I can't even elaborate beyond "that was effing terrible."  While A Christmas Story, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and Die Hard will all remain annual Christmas favorites, I don't ever want to see The Nightmare Before Christmas ever again. 

in the movie's defense, no one actually had real hair in the film.  i understand that the rock family judges films based solely on the volume and luster of the main character's coif.  I remember the scathing review you gave the last Indiana Jones movie when the rumor leaked out that Harrison Ford was using an oil based gel instead of the preferred water based kind that most beauticians agree is better for the life of one's hair.

[Gratch]

I'd like to add Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas to the list as well.  Over the years I have noticed how much of a cult following this film has developed, and yet for some reason I had never taken the time to watch it until this past Christmas.

Finally my wife and I caught it on television and were both excited to finally get to see what all of the hype has been about.

While the animation was rather cool, the story itself was awful.  We struggled through that abomination and at the close we both looked at each other and in unison said, "W. T. F?"  I can't even elaborate beyond "that was effing terrible."  While A Christmas Story, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and Die Hard will all remain annual Christmas favorites, I don't ever want to see The Nightmare Before Christmas ever again. 

Sorry, nothing that features Danny Elfman vocals can ever be considered "terrible".

[Isgrimnur]

I've fallen asleep to Nightmare Before Christmas twice, the first time in the theater, the second at a New Year's Eve party.

[PeteRock]

I'd like to add Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas to the list as well.  Over the years I have noticed how much of a cult following this film has developed, and yet for some reason I had never taken the time to watch it until this past Christmas.

Finally my wife and I caught it on television and were both excited to finally get to see what all of the hype has been about.

While the animation was rather cool, the story itself was awful.  We struggled through that abomination and at the close we both looked at each other and in unison said, "W. T. F?"  I can't even elaborate beyond "that was effing terrible."  While A Christmas Story, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and Die Hard will all remain annual Christmas favorites, I don't ever want to see The Nightmare Before Christmas ever again. 

Sorry, nothing that features Danny Elfman vocals can ever be considered "terrible".

Well, then it seems that Nightmare breaks the "Law of Elfman."  While the music may have been good, the storyline itself was atrocious.  Not even Elfman's vocals could save it.

[scubabbl]

The matrix 2 and 3. Horrible car commercials.

Napoleon Dynamite. Just bland.

Wanted. screw you rotten tomatoes. I went and saw that last weekend because rotten tomatoes gave it a pretty good score and pretty good reviews.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Screw you loom of fate. A loom that spins modern ascii binary code into cloth which turns out to be people's names who fate wants killed. A loom? Seriously, that's the best they could come up with? A loom? God damn that's stupid.

[Isgrimnur]

Napoleon Dynamite. Just bland.

+1.

I was going to soldier on and watch the whole thing, but then the disc started acting funny.  Since I had to eject it anyway, it was less effort to just send it back.

[CeeKay]

Napoleon Dynamite. Just bland.

+1.

I was going to soldier on and watch the whole thing, but then the disc started acting funny.  Since I had to eject it anyway, it was less effort to just send it back.

+2.  I wanted someone to run onto the screen and beat the lead character to death after 15 minutes.

[LordMortis]

Spoiler for Hiden:

Screw you loom of fate. A loom that spins modern ascii binary code into cloth which turns out to be people's names who fate wants killed. A loom? Seriously, that's the best they could come up with? A loom? God damn that's stupid.

Spoiler for Hiden:

While I'm not going to say wanted was a great movie, the loom is a thing on the the woven tapestry/web of fate thing.  Not particularly clever but there for a reason just the same.

[cheeba]

The matrix 2 and 3.

I don't know of a single person who likes Matrix 2 and 3.

[cheeba]

Hmm, about the only ones I can think of are Fletch and The Big Lebowski. Oh and V for Vendetta.

I should probably take the Big Lebowski off there as I don't really hate it, I just found it incredibly boring and overrated. I should probably give it a second watch. Same with V - didn't *hate* it, but definitely didn't like it.

[GuidoTKP]

Funny, up until Batman Begins, I thought Michael Keaton was the best Batman.

It's almost impossible to fairly compare the Batmans prior to Christian Bale.  Even though I hated Burton's Batman, they weren't the total abominations that Joel Schumacher rode heard over.  The reason Keaton never did it for me is that he never appeared remotely dangerous outside of the suit.  Kilmer was probably the best actor prior to Bale to have the part, but there wasn't much he could do to rise above the script he was given.

[CeeKay]

The matrix 2 and 3.

I don't know of a single person who likes Matrix 2 and 3.

I liked them enough to own them on DVD and watch them occassionally.

[Lordnine]

I've fallen asleep to Nightmare Before Christmas twice, the first time in the theater, the second at a New Year's Eve party.

I thought I was the only one who didn’t like this movie!  I saw it the first time in theaters and thought it was dreadful.  After years of hearing its praise I thought I would give it another chance and about a year ago I did.  Fell asleep about 20 minutes into it and woke up in time to watch a singing dancing EVIL sock puppet.  I just don’t get the love for this one. 

[cheeba]

The matrix 2 and 3.

I don't know of a single person who likes Matrix 2 and 3.

I liked them enough to own them on DVD and watch them occassionally.

I said "person," not "spam bot."

Edit - if it wasn't clear

[Lassr]

Everyone just kill me now but

Pulp Fiction

Hated it!

and one I love but everyone else hates:

Solaris

[Ironrod]

I've fallen asleep to Nightmare Before Christmas twice, the first time in the theater, the second at a New Year's Eve party.

I thought I was the only one who didn’t like this movie!  I saw it the first time in theaters and thought it was dreadful.  After years of hearing its praise I thought I would give it another chance and about a year ago I did.  Fell asleep about 20 minutes into it and woke up in time to watch a singing dancing EVIL sock puppet.  I just don’t get the love for this one. 

It was one of the last non-CG animation movies. In its day it was state of the art, but it did not age well. I used to be a big fan. After seeing it fairly recently...not so much.

[Brendan]

Solaris

The original or the remake? (Or both?)

[Gratch]

I've fallen asleep to Nightmare Before Christmas twice, the first time in the theater, the second at a New Year's Eve party.

I thought I was the only one who didn’t like this movie!  I saw it the first time in theaters and thought it was dreadful.  After years of hearing its praise I thought I would give it another chance and about a year ago I did.  Fell asleep about 20 minutes into it and woke up in time to watch a singing dancing EVIL sock puppet.  I just don’t get the love for this one. 

It was one of the last non-CG animation movies. In its day it was state of the art, but it did not age well. I used to be a big fan. After seeing it fairly recently...not so much.

I don't get that.  How does stop-motion animation not age well?

[CeeKay]

I've fallen asleep to Nightmare Before Christmas twice, the first time in the theater, the second at a New Year's Eve party.

I thought I was the only one who didn’t like this movie!  I saw it the first time in theaters and thought it was dreadful.  After years of hearing its praise I thought I would give it another chance and about a year ago I did.  Fell asleep about 20 minutes into it and woke up in time to watch a singing dancing EVIL sock puppet.  I just don’t get the love for this one. 

It was one of the last non-CG animation movies. In its day it was state of the art, but it did not age well. I used to be a big fan. After seeing it fairly recently...not so much.

I don't get that.  How does stop-motion animation not age well?

it's probably just him that hasn't aged well.

[PeteRock]

I've fallen asleep to Nightmare Before Christmas twice, the first time in the theater, the second at a New Year's Eve party.

I thought I was the only one who didn’t like this movie!  I saw it the first time in theaters and thought it was dreadful.  After years of hearing its praise I thought I would give it another chance and about a year ago I did.  Fell asleep about 20 minutes into it and woke up in time to watch a singing dancing EVIL sock puppet.  I just don’t get the love for this one. 

It was one of the last non-CG animation movies. In its day it was state of the art, but it did not age well. I used to be a big fan. After seeing it fairly recently...not so much.

I don't get that.  How does stop-motion animation not age well?

My gripe isn't with the animation.  I actually felt that the animation was inspired and has in fact stood the test of time.  My gripe is with the twisted, odd storyline.  It was awful.  It was actually bad enough to negate the musical score and creative animation.

[hepcat]

<raises hand> i...uh...i love nightmare before christmas 

[Moliere]

<raises hand> i...uh...i love nightmare before christmas 

Sounds like you're in the wrong thread.

[hepcat]

<raises hand> i...uh...i love nightmare before christmas 

Sounds like you're in the wrong thread.

i've been in the wrong thread since 1989

[Purge]

<raises hand> i...uh...i love nightmare before christmas 

Sounds like you're in the wrong thread.

i've been in the wrong threads since 1989

Dude, leisure suits are NOT coming back. Move on.  (and '89? really? you should have stopped a decade earlier)

[Ironrod]

I've fallen asleep to Nightmare Before Christmas twice, the first time in the theater, the second at a New Year's Eve party.

I thought I was the only one who didn’t like this movie!  I saw it the first time in theaters and thought it was dreadful.  After years of hearing its praise I thought I would give it another chance and about a year ago I did.  Fell asleep about 20 minutes into it and woke up in time to watch a singing dancing EVIL sock puppet.  I just don’t get the love for this one. 

It was one of the last non-CG animation movies. In its day it was state of the art, but it did not age well. I used to be a big fan. After seeing it fairly recently...not so much.

I don't get that.  How does stop-motion animation not age well?

The jerky animation interferes with my suspension of disbelief by constantly drawing attention to the technique. Oddly, I don't have that same problem with old Harryhausen films, so I can't really explain why Nightmare was such a letdown the last time I saw it. Same complaint applies to Beetlejuice -- the fx were fine for its time, but they look pretty embarrassing now.

[LordMortis]

The jerky animation interferes with my suspension of disbelief by constantly drawing attention to the technique. Oddly, I don't have that same problem with old Harryhausen films, so I can't really explain why Nightmare was such a letdown the last time I saw it. Same complaint applies to Beetlejuice -- the fx were fine for its time, but they look pretty embarrassing now.

I didn't care of Nightmare (nor just almost any Burton film.  I'm surprised at how many I've seen and more surprised at how many I've paid for.  And I totally can't hang with Danny Elfman neither either) but I had assumed that "jerky" was intentional to make the film into something of a Rudolf or Frosty sort of Christmas special.

OTOH Beetlejuice was one of the few Burton movies I enjoyed (and while it didn't stand up well to time I don't think it was FX that made it so.  The comedy and story itself just wasn't timeless)

[cheeba]

My gripe is with the twisted, odd storyline.  It was awful.

This is just a weird gripe to me. You like a movie where the storyline is that a big ass magical cube in space comes to earth and big ass living good and evil robots who can change into an alternate, inferior mechanical shape come to earth to fight for it, but you hate a movie where a guy who is designated as the leader of Halloween Town wants to be something more and experience Christmas?

[PeteRock]

My gripe is with the twisted, odd storyline.  It was awful.

This is just a weird gripe to me. You like a movie where the storyline is that a big ass magical cube in space comes to earth and big ass living good and evil robots who can change into an alternate, inferior mechanical shape come to earth to fight for it, but you hate a movie where a guy who is designated as the leader of Halloween Town wants to be something more and experience Christmas?

You oversimplify.  The weird sock monster, the abusive scientist with his frankenstien geisha, etc.  It was too twisted and "off" for me to gain any enjoyment out of it.

[hepcat]

My gripe is with the twisted, odd storyline.  It was awful.

This is just a weird gripe to me. You like a movie where the storyline is that a big ass magical cube in space comes to earth and big ass living good and evil robots who can change into an alternate, inferior mechanical shape come to earth to fight for it, but you hate a movie where a guy who is designated as the leader of Halloween Town wants to be something more and experience Christmas?

You oversimplify.  The weird sock monster, the abusive scientist with his frankenstien geisha, etc.  It was too twisted and "off" for me to gain any enjoyment out of it.

that was kind of the point.  they lived in HALLOWEEN Town, not Mayberry.   

p.s. you still waking up in a cold sweat at nights while screaming, "BUT YOU CAN'T BE A DENTIST, YOU DUMB ASS ELF!"?   

[Isgrimnur]

Imagine having to get your SO through the tough parts of Halloweentown in Kingdom Hearts... and fighting the stupid sock Monster when he's the size of a grain elevator.

[Crux]

If the "message" of your movie is nothing more than war is gritty and disgusting, well then you're making a pretty shallow movie. I understood that point before I stepped into the theater and I don't want to spend two hours in the theater watching it. What you are basically saying is that the point of a movie like SPR is to show violence, the grittier the better. That may be fine for some people, but it bores me silly.

That isn't the message of the movie. But a story is told by more than just conversation. Action is its own language, and in Saving Private Ryan much of the story is told via that action. My point is you cannot take away a core aspect of any move and expect it to stand on the remaining pieces. The Princess Bride is a hell of a movie, but if you randomly remove one of the main characters, it doesn't stand up so well. This is no different.

[Lassr]

Solaris

The original or the remake? (Or both?)

Remake. I have not had a chance to see the original

[whiteboyskim]

Titanic pretty much rules this list for me. Hated it opening night, years before it was cool to hate on it. The Insider absolutely should have won best picture over that turd.

[cheeba]

Doesn't pretty much every heterosexual male hate Titanic though?

[Moliere]

Doesn't pretty much every heterosexual male hate Titanic though?

It had its moments.

[CeeKay]

Doesn't pretty much every heterosexual male hate Titanic though?

It had its moments.

Plus Leonardo DIES!!!!

[Crux]

Plus Leonardo DIES!!!!

WTF CeeKay? Spoiler Tags Please!!!!

[Kevin Grey]

The Insider absolutely should have won best picture over that turd.

Wow, that would have been quite a feat since The Insider was released two years later   Are you thinking of LA Confidential? 

[denoginizer]

The matrix 2 and 3.

I don't know of a single person who likes Matrix 2 and 3.

Actually I am a big fan of the second one.  That freeway chase scene is amazing.  I also liked the Architect explanation scene at the end even though I know many people hated it.


***Edit***
And whoever said Saving Private Ryan is a terrible movie earlier in the thread is off his rocker.   

[CeeKay]

Plus Leonardo DIES!!!!

WTF CeeKay? Spoiler Tags Please!!!!

At least I didn't mention the ship sinks at the end.