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That Movie’s So Popular…Why???

 The Oscars are a’comin’, which brings to mind movies whose popularity eludes us. They may be critically acclaimed and audience favorites, but for us, the review is… meh.

Here are the Chicks’ choices of movies whose popularity, acclaim, or existence we just don’t get.

Lisa Q. Mathews

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Just start humming the opening bars of the theme song to The Godfather, and I’m out faster than Tony Soprano when he suddenly stops believin’ in a Jersey diner. I simply cannot make it through that movie, let alone the even more zzzz-inducing sequels. Please don’t get me wrong—I’m fine with violence in my movies, if it makes sense (and for organized thug-types, it certainly does). I watched most, if not all, of The Sopranos because I cared about the characters. But I felt much better about my Corleone Family aversion when I saw You’ve Got Mail, in which Tom Hanks’s character tries in vain to explain The Godfather’s appeal (mainly to men) to a clueless Meg Ryan. I did adopt the key quote he also explained to her, though: “Go to the mattresses.” It means, Get in there and fight. But there’s only one movie I actually walked out of a theater for: Eyes Wide Shut, with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. I couldn’t even sleep through that one, but no one else liked that movie, either. I wanted to bleach my eyes.

Ellen Byron

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For me, the Meh Award goes to… Jerry Maguire. This has nothing to do with the fact that it revolves around football, a sport I will never understand. (Sidebar: When I was in college, a date took me to a football game. Something happened on the field and our team ran off and another team of ours ran on. “I didn’t know we had two teams playing today,” I told my date, who responded, “That’s offense and defense.” Never saw him again.)

If you don’t remember, Tom Cruise plays a sports agent who strikes out on his own. My main objection to Jerry Maguire is that the wife of his one client makes the pivotal decision that determines the end of the movie while Jerry stands there being indecisive. Yet Jerry gets all the credit for it!! That chaps my storytelling hide. But I do appreciate the fact that the movie spawned a timeless cliché: “You had me at (fill in the blank.)”

Vickie Fee

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I admit I’ve never been a Thomas Wolfe fan, but because I’m Southern and maybe because I’m an author, I really wanted to like Genius, the 2016 movie about Thomas Wolfe and his New York editor, Max Perkins. (It might be a stretch to talk about its popularity, since it was nearly universally panned by critics and didn’t do so well at the box office either.) But, I struggle more to understand how it got made to begin with. And how did so many brilliant actors, including Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman, manage to make such a bad movie?

You may totally disagree with me, of course, about Thomas Wolfe or the quality of the movie, but I absolutely DEFY anyone to defend Jude Law’s Southern accent in this film! One review described it as “arguably the worst performance of Jude Law’s career.” I take exception to the word “arguably.” But even if it had been a good movie (it wasn’t), I never could have gotten past his accent. It was painful to hear. I submit that Jude Law’s attempt at a Southern drawl is right up there as a contender for worst accent evah – on par with Dick Van Dyke’s cockney accent in the original Mary Poppins, which at least Dick was classy enough to apologize for years later.

Cynthia Kuhn

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Not sure if this movie was actually popular, though we watched it in class, so it must have had renown: Duel. I don’t know why they showed it to us–it was completely unrelated to anything we were studying. Maybe they were secretly doing some sort of psychological test about what happens when you try to scare a bunch of students with a film. It is quite unsettling. But–and this is totally on me, not the film–my least favorite part of any movie-viewing experience is a car chase. Once a car chase begins, I’m out. And this whole film is one long stalker-y chase. One minute Dennis Weaver is driving down the road; the next minute, he’s being terrorized by a creepy truck. For no apparent reason. For the rest of the movie. Yep. Peace out.

Leslie Karst

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It’s on numerous “best movies ever” lists and is the darling of critics the world over, but the last time I watched Citizen Kane (and it will be the last time), I was astounded at how bad I thought the film was: full of stilted dialogue, eye-rollingly embarrassing plot-lines, and clichéd tropes. Yes, I get that when it was released (1941) the film was far ahead of its time—simultaneously perhaps the first film noir and the first “mockumentary” ever made—and that Orson Welles was exceedingly brave to take on the Hearst publishing empire as he did. But today it merely seems dated and over-acted to me, especially compared to other movies such as The Maltese Falcon and Suspicion, released the same year, which still remain relevant and fresh.

Kathleen Valenti

Let’s get in the Way Back Machine and talk about The Matrix. I’m not a fan.

I know, I know. It’s a classic! It makes us think deep thoughts! Gravity is optional! I get the themes of false realities, complacency, freedom, and autonomy, but I just don’t get its wild popularity or how it sustained an entire franchise. (Sorry! Please don’t pelt me with popcorn.) I don’t know if it’s Keanu Reeves’ wooden acting or the writing or the shifting time/place/reality sequences, but it was not for me. I actually watched all of the films in hopes that I’d have some kind of Matrix-y epiphany that would make me go, “Ahhhhhh, yes. Now I understand.” But I didn’t. Give me Bill & Ted Keanu or Parenthood Keanu. If The Matrix comes on TV, you’ll find me in the other room reading.

Becky Clark

I have two … The Tree of Life and The Life of Pi. They were both such a mishmash of nonsense, I just think of them as “The Tree of Life of Pi.”

I’ll confess I never watched Life of Pi because the book pissed me off so badly. It completely failed to live up to the “promise of its premise,” a cardinal sin in my book. The description says Pi was the son of a zookeeper who finds himself in a cargo ship, and then a lifeboat, with a bunch of animals, one of which is a tiger. That says to me straight-up adventure, but it turned into a steaming pile of woo-woo New Age-y extended metaphor gloop. Apparently the movie did the same. Plus, the trailer I saw had really unimpressive CGI.

The first twenty minutes of The Tree of Life was simply a kaleidoscope of unrelated images — can I say “a steaming pile of woo-woo New Age-y extended metaphor gloop” again here? The entire movie might have been the same way, but I’ll never know because that’s where I ditched out. I watch all kinds of movies, 70% of which are indie and foreign, with their fair share of extended metaphor, so it’s not like I need car chases and meet-cute scenes to be happy. But I do like my movies to have some sort of plot.

And don’t argue with me because if you do, I’ll be forced to go full Cranky Grandpa on you. Now get off my lawn.

Readers, what do you think of our choices?  And what’s a movie whose popularity eludes you?

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70 thoughts on “That Movie’s So Popular…Why???”

  1. Oh, no! I haven’t seen a couple of these (though just borrowed a DVD of Tree of Life from a friend who says it’s one of his favorites and so excited to see it myself). But the ones I have seen I mostlly love! …but I guess that’s the point. As for movies that are popular or highly praised and that I just can’t get into, I’m sure there have been some, but… I can’t think of them right now. (I’m also the person at cocktail parties where someone says, “So what are you reading now?” and my mind goes completely blank, so….)

    I’ll chime in later if I remember anything.

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    1. Art, I’ll be interested to hear what you think of Tree of Life. I’ll be forced to agree with whatever you say, though, because I wasn’t grown-up? able? dopey? enough to watch the whole thing. Viva la difference, eh?

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    2. Art, you definitely should give it a try, because we found it’s actually super fun to be popular movie critics–and once you start, it’s impossible to stop! *Oprah voice*: “I hate this movie, and this movie, and THIS movie!”

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  3. The version of Pride & Prejudice starring Keira Knightly not only eluded me, it made me hopping mad. The tone of the movie was miles from Austen’s book, and Keira Knightly was criminally miscast as Elizabeth Bennet. Don’t throw stones. Call me an Austen purist.
    AND I so identify with Ellen’s “two teams.” Hilarious.

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  4. Becky, my son had to read “Life of Pi” for school a year ago (a couple years ago?) and he totally didn’t get it either. I mean, he’s not a reading enthusiast to start with, but at least he gets the point of most of the books. “This one is just out there, Mom.” And after he explained the plot to me, I had to agree.

    For me, it’s “Titantic.” One, the movie is longer than it took the doggone ship to sink. Two, there was TOTALLY enough room on that plank! Grr. And that Celine Dion song? Don’t get me started.

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    2. Honestly, Liz, Leo DiCaprio looked sooo young in Titanic it was hard for me to take him seriously as a love interest. But maybe that says more about me than the movie!

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    5. I saw Titanic in a NYC theater for a buck, a couple years after it came out. It was pouring rain and it took the kids to a matinee. Water literally started running downward in the aisle and no one seemed to think that was odd.

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      1. I’m with you on Titanic–DiCaprio couldn’t drown fast enough at the end for my taste! But he has grown into a good actor, I think. I liked him in Catch Me if You Can.

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    6. Can I jump on the Titanic hate-wagon? I had hopes for it when I thought we were going to see more of the modern-day dive team and the granddaughter. But the silly DiCaprio-Winslet love story? Meh. (So disinterested, I can’t even recall the characters’ names.) And when the old lady threw a necklace worth, what, a couple million, minimum, into the sea? I actually wanted to jump through the screen and throw her in after it. That was stupid, not romantic.

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    1. I’m sure I would have loved it if I could just get through it. The funny thing is, I always see the same clips played over and over, so it’s like Groundhog Day. (That movie I watch religiously every Feb. 2–coming up soon!)

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      3. Sounds like maybe we could all agree to a popcorn screening of Groundhog Day. Art, are you and Dash and Tara in for movie night with the Chicks?!

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  7. Cynthia, I have a funny Duel story. Long ago in a galaxy far away, I worked in alternative education. At the time, I had kind of a weird thing for Duel. The movie was Spielberg’s directorial debut, so that was most of it, plus I thought the short story it was based on had Heavy and Meaningful Themes. Anyway, I used to assign the short story, but kept getting complaints about how much the kids hated it. Like, HATED. Finally, I reread it and was like, “Yep! You’re right. Not my favorite.” and never assigned it again. HA!

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    1. I’ve actually neither seen the movie nor read the short story. (Bad Chick.) I’ve come across it while channel surfing, tho, and always pegged it for Stephen King.

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    2. That is fascinating, K! Thanks. We’ll have to have a long conversation about Duel at Malice. When I watched it, I was so young that most of it probably went right over my head, frankly. All I remember is MENACING TRUCK ALERT!!!

      And let’s also talk about The Matrix–one I love and think is brilliant and have taught in multiple classes. LOL!

      Lisa, it does have a King feel for sure! (And I’m still struck by the water-in-the-aisles experience when you watched Titanic. That is so freaky!)

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      2. My son had to watch The Matrix with me, to give me the annotated version, thank goodness. And yes, NO ONE even blinked in that theater with the flooding. I was like, Hello? Anyone? The water is rising in here! So coooold…

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  8. I haven’t seen many of these movies because I’ve heard people say such things about them.

    The one that springs to mind for me is Jaws. Deathly boring to me.

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    1. I grew up on Long Island Sound (although filmed on Martha’s Vineyard) and it did give a kid pause…But in this case I really did prefer the book. (It also had parts that were very…educational)

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    1. I have a vague memory of the first scene, none of the second, but a VIVID memory of Cruise standing there dithering while Cuba Gooding Junior’s wife makes the pivotal decision of the film. And then HE’S the hero! (This is what my mother would call having a bug up my a–)

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  11. Great post! I would like to add: The complete works of Wes Anderson (The Royal Tennenbaums excepted). I just. Don’t. Get it. When I saw Rushmore, I thought maybe it had just been overhyped and my expectations were too high. But then over the years I have sat through so many of his films completely confused by why I’m supposed to like them. Why do I keep trying?!?! Because people love them so much. At best his films make me feel … sleepy, and at worst, I leave going, “Huh?!?” Okay, tell me I’m wrong!! 😆

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      1. Marla, I didn’t get Rushmore either! Honestly, I haven’t seen most of his films, but I thought The Darjeeling Limited was a train wreck (couldn’t resist saying that)!

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    1. I hear you, Suzie. Despite the fact that a couple of the Chicks really like The Godfather, I think there’s sometimes a general divide between men and women on certain movies. For instance, Paint Your Wagon is a fave film of my husband’s. (But, overall he’s a wonderful guy! LOL)

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    1. Hi, Vickie, Leslie, and Ellen — Yep, and yep, and yep! The acting is great, and it’s visually very beautiful, but…. The storytelling seems a little thin. Both Tara and I had trouble feeling anything in terms of emotion for the two main characters, and in terms of their love affair, all we knew was that they both *said* how in love they were with one another. (As Tara said, there was more chemistry between the two main characters in The Shape of Water, and one of those was a fish!) Just didn’t seem to strike a chord with us, even as ALL the reviews are finding it an amazing film……

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