quote:

---

Originally posted by MisterBadIdea

Maybe someone here likes all those movies I listed. I admit that I haven't seen all of them so I can't assess them. But my point is, they're all very, very middlebrow. None of them are true crowdpleasers (like, say, Best Picture nominees E.T. or Raiders of the Lost Ark), nor are they really unique, something truly unlike anything else (like Platoon or Raging Bull in there). Even among cineastes, they haven't really carved out a space in the collective consciousness. They won their awards and they disappeared. I guess under those criteria I shouldn't have included Dead Poets Society, but I did because it's bullshit and I hate it.

But honestly, if they all turned out to be boring as hell, I wouldn't be surprised. The ones I have seen, star rating out of four:

The Dresser (**1/2): Brought down by boring direction. A movie where two hams play two hams should not be this earthbound.
The Big Chill (**): Even duller. Who doesn't love boring, unlikeable yuppies whining about how they used to be cooler? Plus, they're all indistinguishable; imagine a Breakfast Club made up of five Emilio Estevezes and you'll get the idea.
On Golden Pond: (**1/2) Very sweet but too understated for my tastes.
My Left Foot: (**1/2) Fearless performance from Day-Lewis, but kind of awful in its shameless tardsploitation. So he can paint with his foot, so what? A friend summed this movie up as "Look what the cripple can do!" which I think is largely accurate.
Chariots of Fire: (*1/2) Bottom of the barrel. Worst sports movie ever made. A movie devoid of suspense, tension, emotion, everything except the need for Britain to pat itself on the back. Without the iconic first scene I'd rate it even lower.
Hannah and Her Sisters: (**1/2) One of those Woody Allen movies where the drama and comedy don't mix together well at all.
Dead Poets Society: (*1/2) Awful.

I could have included Ordinary People, Rain Man and Driving Miss Daisy too, but I like all those movies and they've all taken their place in people's hearts. Those have largely stood the test of time. But compare the '80s to the '70s and see how many bonafide test-of-time classics they nominated in either decade. The '70s overpowers them. And really, who's going to say their lives were changed by Tender Mercies?

---