Overrated Movies

Grey Fil · Post by **Grey Fil** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 11:48 am

Presuming that "overrated" means "hiped by the media more than it`s worth" I would say that most big movie companies make overrated movies. But it has nothing to do with quality, right?

Franz Schubert · Post by **Franz Schubert** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 12:31 pm

Most overrated movie ever: Gigli. This movie SUCKED! I don't know what everyone saw in it...

OnTheBounce · Post by **OnTheBounce** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 12:38 pm

Franz_Schubert wrote:Most overrated movie ever: Gigli. This movie SUCKED! I don't know what everyone saw in it...

Um...judging by the way it tanked at the box office...well, it's not like "everyone" saw it.

OTB

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 12:45 pm

Well Citizen Kane was pretty fucking horrible

Viktor · Post by **Viktor** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 3:48 pm

OnTheBounce wrote: You know, I've avoided this film largely because it's based on a bullshit story.

OTB

Wasn't the whole Zaitsev Vs. Koenig sniper story lifted from David Robbins' "War of the Rats"??

OnTheBounce · Post by **OnTheBounce** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 4:14 pm

Viktor wrote:Wasn't the whole Zaitsev Vs. Koenig sniper story lifted from David Robbins' "War of the Rats"??

I don't know where the people who made the film got the story from, but it's ultimately a piece of Soviet propaganda.

There are enough holes in the story to drive a regiment of T34s through it.

For instance, the German sniper is allegedly an SS Officer (the equivalent of a Major) who taught at the sniper school at Posen. Posen was the location of the German Infantry School, but there was no sniper training facility there, ever. Snipers were locally trained at no higher than divisional level. (The procedure varied from unit to unit.)

Also, German snipers were invariably enlisted men. It was considered beneath an officer to slither through the mud on his belly, and hence this work was left to enlisted men, it was very rare for even NCOs to fill these positions.

The next bit is circumstantial, but rather telling: the German sniper's name was (in one version) Thorwald Koenig. Note that "Koenig" is the German world for "king". So here we have a member of the SS, an officer who bears the name of "king". This man is then slain by a smalltown boy. Sounds a bit too much like plain Soviet folk talking on the best the Nazis had to offer, if you ask me.

Lastly, the casualty lists for officers are very complete up until Dec 1941 for those units at Stalingrad. The duel took place before that, yet there is no mention of any SS officer (there were no SS units engaged at Stalingrad) on the list, let alone a Sturmbannfuehrer by either of the names that this German sniper supposedly had.

Unfortunately programs on the History Channel here in the US of A pass this little story on as fact, as I saw on a documentary about snipers.

The sources the makers of the movie could have used would be the War of the Rats you mentioned or the book Enemy at the Gates, which also contains the basically the same story.

Cheers,

OTB

Viktor · Post by **Viktor** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 4:42 pm

Having dug a little deeper, it would appear that the original publication of William Craig's "Enemy At The Gates" pre date "War Of The Rats" by 25 years... Robbins atcually lists Craig's book amongst many other Stalingrad references in a bibliography in his later book.

In "War Of The Rats", the German protagonist is an SS Colonel called Heinz von Krupp Thorvald who's supposedely the head of a special sniper school in Gnossen.....

requiem_for_a_starfury · Wed Dec 24, 2003 4:46 pm

Franz_Schubert wrote:Most overrated movie ever: Gigli. This movie SUCKED! I don't know what everyone saw in it...

I thought for a minute you were talking about Gigi and was about to argue with you but since OTB didn't correct your spelling I guess you're talking about another film.

Which one's Gigli then?

atoga · Post by **atoga** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 5:27 pm

Mandalorian FaLLouT GoD wrote:meh Pulp Fiction is overrated because when you watch it more than twice you wish you could strap explosives to your disk/tape and blow it to hell. i cant sit through some stupid bitch oding on sniffin heroin and think "damn that was action packed" just like i can use that statement related to butch and zed. shit was there anything remotely related to a good action sequence in pulp fiction?

You're missing the point as usual, shithead.

Megatron · Post by **Megatron** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 5:33 pm

d00d pulp fiction was the action blockbuster of the DECADE!

Just tryed watching citizen kane. How boring.

OnTheBounce · Post by **OnTheBounce** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 6:01 pm

requiem_for_a_starfury wrote:Which one's Gigli then?

Gigli was a cornerstone in the conspiracy of Ben Affleck and J-Lo to garner as much of the voyeuristic public's fixation w/their (obviously) staged relationship.

Notice that it's in the imdb.com's "Bottom 100" coming in at #8 and only garnered a rating of -- get this! -- 1.8 stars (out of 10). Box office performance was about the same...

(Oh Jesus! I just noticed that Chris Walken was in it!!!)

OTB

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 7:28 pm

Citizen Kane is similar to Pulp Fiction in many ways, in that it basically turned cinema on its head. Watching Citizen Kane now, it seems a bit flat, but if you pay close attention to it, you realize just how many cinematic conventions and storytelling devices owe themselves to CK. Same with Pulp Fiction - revolutionary at the time, but its effect has been diluted because of all the ripoffs.

Franz Schubert · Post by **Franz Schubert** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 10:29 pm

Chris Walken? As in, THE great, genius actor Christopher Walken? He was in Gigli? No fuckin' way! Maybe I should go see it then?

Trakocian · Post by **Trakocian** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 1:16 am

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: I simply did not get this movie. The characters were two dimensional, some were one dimension, the plot read like someone dropped the script and didn't put it back in order. Even for a martial arts movie, the thing was extremely cheezy.

Turan · Post by **Turan** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 1:32 am

Agree on CT,HD, and Citizen Kane, but I think that Kane was signifigantly more influential then PF.

Vanilla Sky (its like Eyes Wide Shut, only if it where a cheap, stupid, New Jersey skank)
Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco=God, Christian Slater=Shitfaced Cockmaster)

iohkus · Post by **iohkus** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 1:52 am

um. trying to enjoy citizen kane in 2003 is like trying to enjoy pong in 2065

you fucking dolts.

POOPERSCOOPER · Post by **POOPERSCOOPER** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 2:01 am

Franz_Schubert wrote:Chris Walken? As in, THE great, genius actor Christopher Walken? He was in Gigli? No fuckin' way! Maybe I should go see it then?

Him and Al Pacino, how fucking sad is that. J low and ben should fucking die.

Lunchmeat · Post by **Lunchmeat** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 2:13 am

Christopher Walken is in everything.

iohkus · Post by **iohkus** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 3:13 am

he was kewl in deer hunter

Nicolai · Post by **Nicolai** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 3:25 pm

ah, yea, that Crouching tiger, Hidden Dragon-movie was crap. I actually fell asleep in the cinema when we were watching it :o..