0002. 10 (or more) Over-Rated Films
Submitted by muzza on Fri, 10/25/2002 - 03:14
Tags:
- Die Hard With A Vengeance
- If it ain't broke, don't fix it. This second sequel strays too far from the winning Die Hard formula. What you end up with is a mess. First mistake is the introduction of Samuel L. Jackson. Why? The whole appeal of Die Hard and Die Hard 2 rested with the notion of ONE MAN against everyone else. The excitement came from McClane battling against impossible odds. Give him a partner and it becomes a buddy buddy movie which Lethal Weapon did much better. You get the impression Jackson is just there because he is Jackson, one of the hottest actors of that time.
- Also, McClane is not James Bond. So why imitate Bond with having Simon tie the duo to a bomb whilst explaining his whole plan and leaving assuming they will be killed? Surely Alan Rickman would have just shot them in the head.
- Another complaint is the setting. The whole of New York? What happened to the claustrophobic atmosphere? The producers should have just ignored Under Siege and set the movie on a cruise ship as was originally intended.
- Die Hard 3 also joins the dire list of movies where endings were re-shot. This is always a bad omen. See Alien3 and Jaws: The Revenge.
- Lastly, and this is the clincher, ask yourself what really makes a great action movie. The hero, the stunts? Well partly yes, but for me the key element is the villian. Villians have all the fun and should be the most interesting characters in the movie. Without villains there can be no heroes. Die Hard had Rickman (surely one of the best screen villans of all time), Die Hard 2 had Sadler. Who do we get in the third instalment? ermmm...Irons. I struggle to think of a decent movie starring Jeremy Irons. As Simon he is rubbish. Terrible with his bleached hair and comedy stutter. He makes for a pantomime villain. Even his henchmen and band of terrorists fail to come up to scratch. The final showdown between McClane and Simon also proves a damp squid.
- I hear Die Hard 4 is in the offing and if rumours are to believed Willis is to be paired with the lightweight Ben Affleck. I despair.
- Gladiator
- A good film, don't get me wrong but not anywhere as good as people make out. I have seen it appear in the top ten of some 'greatest 100 movies of all time' polls. get a grip. Ridley Scott is a shadow of the director he used to be and while this is a thrilling film it is no classic.
- Withnail and I.
- Have tried to watch this twice but just don't get it. Not funny.
- Seven.
- A pretentious serial killer movie. Thinks its so much cleverer than it really is with its quotes from Hemingway and classical soundtrack.
- Braveheart.
- Again, a good film but they used to do historical epics so much better than this. And is it me or are movies that scoop Oscars these days remarkably lame when compared to their counterparts of yesteryear? Oh and being a Scotsman, can't let Mel Gibson's accent pass. Sorry.
Cloned From:
Hey, nice start to this list! I might take exception with the inclusion of Seven, but I haven't seen it in quite awhile and I'd have to rewatch it before committing. I do remember liking it quite a bit though.
I thought I'd mention one formatting trick: Listology will automatically but a bullet at the beginning of any line. If you want to suppress this for a given line (like at the beginning of some of your paragraphs), just start the line with an underscore character.
Oliver Reed suffered a fatal heart attack during filming. Some of his sequences had to be re-edited and a double, photographed in the shadows and with a 3D CGI mask of Reed's face, was used as a stand-in. The film is dedicated to his memory.
I read this about Gladiator. pretty interesting