What movie do you most detest? (1 Viewer)

[Michael Reuben]

You're welcome, Claire. (And it's plain "Michael", BTW. .) I could go on, but this isn't the right thread. Besides, I'm saving it for when SiL hits Blu-ray and I ask our Disney reviewer to let me write the review.

 

[Robin9]

Originally Posted by Michael Reuben

I'm saving it for when SiL hits Blu-ray and I ask our Disney reviewer to let me write the review.

Is it coming on Blu-ray?

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I liked Sweeney Todd but thought it could've done with fewer gross-out bits. Some of them were REALLY gross. On the other hand, the actors did a passable job with the singing. (Normally I hate when they cast non-singers in musicals -- Across the Universe was half the film it should've been.)

 

[Arild]

Originally Posted by WadeLil /forum/thread/306368/what-movie-do-you-most-detest/210#post_3769313

 

[Claire Panke]

Originally Posted by Michael Reuben )


Michael, I meant to type "Mr. Reuben", but I wasn't too sharp after 36 hours straight working - no sleep does not improve my brain or typing skills. I was alos still a bit shocked that "Ethel..." wasn't a complete give-away. I look forward to your full review when the BD is out. (Soon, I hope.)


If I can find my Arlene Croce book on Fred Asraire I will tackle musicals next ;-)

 

[Martin Teller]

Empire Records. So very awful. There isn't a single character in that movie that I don't want to punch in the teeth, and it's got one of the lamest soundtracks ever (especially for a movie about a supposedly hip record store).

 

[Mark Oates]

Just referring back to the rejection of musicals by a modern audience. The next thing they'll be saying is there's no place in a movie for a custard pie fight!

 

[Nick Martin]

Originally Posted by Steve_Pannell

For me I like such a wide range of movies including a lot of the ones in this thread.


However, I absolutely hate most senseless horror movies.... "Saw I, II, III..." type flicks... Why are these made anyway?

For people who hate musicals.

[/QUOTE]

I despise those horror movies like that as well. The endless 'Friday the 13th' slasher-types and so on.


Therefore they aren't for ALL people who hate musicals.

 

[Steve_Pannell]

I really meant to put a with my comment.


Musicals aren't my cup of tea at all and I can take or leave the slasher films, too.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I didn't think "Empire Records" was a good movie, but Liv Tyler's so very, very hot in it that I don't care!

Originally Posted by Martin Teller

Empire Records. So very awful. There isn't a single character in that movie that I don't want to punch in the teeth, and it's got one of the lamest soundtracks ever (especially for a movie about a supposedly hip record store).

 

[Nick Martin]

spoiler-tagged because I quoted the entire post, not just a paragraph:

Originally Posted by MatthewA

You musical haters are the only ones who have condemned an entire genre, or more appropriately, an entire form. And it seems that musicals are the only genre that is fair game to hate. And it's gotten so bad that this century's attempt to revive movie musicals must make concessions to those who hate it (I.e. Chicago which put all the musical numbers in Roxie's head; it may have worked there but the more I see it's influence on subsequent movie musicals, the less I like the film), and it doesn't appear to have cured any haters of their hatred. I am sick and tired of putting up with all the musical hate and the glib denunciation of a form that is wide ranging enough to include multiple styles of Music from rock to jazz to classical, and encompassing every genre from comedy to drama to horror as being nothing but a bunch of people singing and dancing without motivation. Not to mention the endless gay "jokes" about it, considering that it was my parents, who are heterosexual (or I wouldn't be here) that introduced me to movie musicals (and later stage musicals) at a very early age. Singing is a natural extension of human speech, and people singing with a backing orchestra to advance the plot or express character traits is no less absurd than there being background music on movies without a motivated audio source to begin with. I have less trouble suspending disbelief when Julie Andrews is singing at the top of her lungs on a mountainside than when Tobey Maguire puts on spandex long johns and shoots spider webs out of his wrists (although the twain are about to meet on Broadway if no more actors die). Musicals, like all fantasy and scifi, inhabit a world which sets it's own internal rules and regulations. It is therefore believable to me to hear a character sing to express his or her feelings within the context of that work. If you don't enjoy it, then you may be denying yourself the pleasure of discovering the sources of some of the finest American popular music ever composed. Musical theater and film was the source of a good chunk of the popular music of the first half of the 20th century.The majority of horror films I have seen I have been unimpressed with but I do not hate the genre. In fact, I count Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho among my favorite films. The intent to shock and Titillate is not a fault of the horror genre, when there is nothing else there. It is just bad filmmaking.If it is okay to Systematically denounce entire genres and forms, then I hate all 19th century French melodramas. Hate them with a passion. They make me glad Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo. And I also hate all gregorian chants. And all songs that use musical notes or chords. I also hate commedia dell'arte with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns. And don't get me started on bunraku puppetry, telenovelas, and how-to books. Maybe I went a little far in saying I lose respect for people who hate musicals. If I offended you, I apologize. But I've heard it so much and had it go unchallenged for so long that I had to speak up.



I understand the need to defend why someone has a love for something like musicals, but honestly if I ever did that for anything here I doubt anyone would read it, let alone care so I commend you for doing that, because I don't have it in me to do something similar anymore without thinking it's a waste of time to write passionately about something I care about.


It's easy to understand the stigma attached with this whole sexuality issue that's been shoved into the genre (why is that exactly? I've never understood the connection) but that has never and will never be any reason to dislike anything at all, be it musicals or otherwise. So I don't look at musicals and who likes them, who participates in them from that perspective or critical eye AT ALL. Never have, never will. It's irrelevant.


Popular music isn't something I listen to on a regular basis, so that's sort of lost on me. There is probably a lot of irony in the fact that I love film SCORES, which of course are usually without lyrics but do indeed fit the bill of wide-ranging styles, given that although I'm not a musical fan I do love music from the movies, primarily how well it works whenever it does.


Suspension of disbelief has nothing to do with it either, since I can buy just about any ridiculous situation in a movie or TV show and just run with it, knowing how silly it can be and not care because it's part of the fun.


I just can't sit there and watch someone launch into a routine like that. There are many ways to approach a type of scene, and interpreting a scene through song and dance just isn't something I've ever been into at all and really don't enjoy. It just leaves me embarrassed and I've felt that way forever - I just want it to stop. I don't know exactly why it is. Maybe it's just some deep psychological thing, I really don't know. Somethings just hit the wrong way, that's all but I'm sure everyone has something like that.

 

[Martin Teller]

I came into this thread without reading it, but yeah, if you write off the entire musical genre, then I don't take you very seriously. There's fantastic movies in every genre. If you can't experience joy watching Singin' in the Rain or 42nd Street or Meet Me in St. Louis, there's something broken in you.

 

[Ruz-El]

I couldn't imagine hating any genre of film. I enjoy musicals and gore porn. A good movie is a good movie, it doesn't matter when it was made, how it was made, where it was made or what type. If it's good it's good.


that said, I recently detested "A Safe Place" that can be found in the otherwise great Criterion set "America Lost & Found: The BBS Story". Pretentious, annoying, nonsensical crap. Not even a small part with Jack Nicholson or Orson Welles performing magic tricks could save it, Tuesday Welds character was the special type of annoying that you just wanted to kick. Thankfully all the other movies in the set were pretty to amazingly good ha ha.

 

[Edwin-S]

Originally Posted by Martin Teller

I came into this thread without reading it, but yeah, if you write off the entire musical genre, then I don't take you very seriously. There's fantastic movies in every genre. If you can't experience joy watching Singin' in the Rain or 42nd Street or Meet Me in St. Louis, there's something broken in you.

It really is presumptuous to say that there is something broken in a person if they don't like Singin' in the Rain or any other musical. I don't particularly like any of the old musicals, because I find the music styles in those films old fashioned and trite, not because I have a psychological problem.

 

[MielR]

I'm sure there are others, but these come to mind first:


War Of The Roses

American Beauty (I was invited to a preview- no end credits on the print)

Moulin Rouge

The Black Dahlia (I came very close to walking out on that one)

Attack Of The Clones (I didn't like any of the SW prequels, but that was the worst)

 

[Ruz-El]

Originally Posted by Edwin-S





It really is presumptuous to say that there is something broken in a person if they don't like Singin' in the Rain or any other musical. I don't particularly like any of the old musicals, because I find the music styles in those films old fashioned and trite, not because I have a psychological problem.

"Singin' In The Rain" might be my all time fave, it's definitely up there. I really liked the others that Teller mentioned. that said, I agree with you Edwin-S. Many may find these films pretty corny.

I have a hard time believing that the "tough guy having to watch a group of kids and is grossed out by a poopy diaper" genre (see "The Pacifier", "The Game Plan" and any other dopey kids film made by action stars) even exists, yet, people do love them since they keep making them.

 

[Ockeghem]

For the record, I love musicals. I am in awe of some of the material created by the collaborations of song writers and lyricists. I've studied music seriously for over forty-five years, and it continues to amaze me how gifted some teams (e.g., Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, to name but only two) are. What is occurring in the music (to say nothing of the text and choreography) is at times simply astonishing. I write in many antiquated forms (ricercar, fugue, etc.), which is challenging -- but how I wish I could write just one or two songs of the calibre of some of the greatest song-writing teams that have come before us.

 

[Steve Christou]

I'm not a fan of the modern musical the songs all sound a bit samey to me, but I do love the classic Hollywood musicals with Singin' in the Rain my all time fave.


I've only watched Chicago and Moulin Rouge once and I have yet to see Nine, not sure I want to. And watching James Bond 'singing' an ABBA song wasn't one of my favourite movie moments.



Zardoz the Musical might be interesting though...

 

[Ruz-El]

Originally Posted by Steve Christou

I'm not a fan of the modern musical the songs all sound a bit samey to me, but I do love the classic Hollywood musicals with Singin' in the Rain my all time fave.


I've only watched Chicago and Moulin Rouge once and I have yet to see Nine, not sure I want to. And watching James Bond 'singing' an ABBA song wasn't one of my favourite movie moments.



Zardoz the Musical might be interesting though...

I tend not to care for modern musicals either. Find them too over the top, self consciously broadway in a bad way. "Chicago" and "Nine" looked unpleasant in the trailers so I never bothered with them. "Moulin Rouge" left me flat.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I liked Chicago and Nine (the former was definitely better, but oh man. . .Penelope's Cruz's big number in the latter. . .). As far as I can tell, my wife and I are the only people other than professional reviewers who have actually seen Nine.