Movies you always wanted to see that dissapoint

[Dom Heffner]

Oh, Superbad was just that. Hated McLovin and the entire crew. Saw Roper on television explaining that this movie was this generation's Fast Times at Ridgemont High. If that's true, God help this generation.

You know, I sort of felt this way, too after Superbad. I liked it, but I was a little letdown for some reason.

What is funny is so subjective, and most of the movies in this genre are so bad that this one could seem like a gem to most critics.

The movie was hilarious up until a point but it didn't sustain. It stinks when you find yourself enthralled in something so funny and then all the air gets let out.

Superbad went from being a classic to a movie whose whole was less than its sum. A few classic scenes filled with some humor that anybody on this board could write.

I don't think the comparison to Fast Times is all that off. That really was a movie that missed the mark by a hair for me as well, though the scenes with Spicoli and the teacher are classic.

Mr. Hand: "Mr. Hand, will I pass this class?' Gee, Mr. Spicoli, I don't know! You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to leave your words right up here for all my classes to enjoy, giving you full credit of course, Mr. Spicoli."

Spicoli: Alright!

[redsfan1966]

Wedding Crashers was such a major disappointment for me...I heard so much about how funny it was and how it was probably my type of comedy and Wham!--only one laugh the whole 90 minutes--the Godzilla remake with Matthew Broderick was also a letdown--as was Pearl Harbor and The Thin Red Line....

[Raisor]

Wedding Crashers was such a major disappointment for me......

Yet another one I love.

Raisor hearts the Fratpack.

[sonny]

The Blair Witch Project. I came in so excited to see the majesty of the film but came out tired and bored.

[Falls City Beer]

My biggest beef with most Hollywood-backed comedies of late is the focus-group feel of most of them; they are so often overly-tidy, overly-formulaic and in the effort to move the audience along with tremendous haste from joke to joke, the sense of timing is brutally lost. Some comedies do benefit from this triphammer pacing, but most don't. I can say for certain that the original Vacation or Revenge of the Nerds would never make it past the first edit in today's Hollywood market.

[vaticanplum]

My biggest beef with most Hollywood-backed comedies of late is the focus-group feel of most of them; they are so often overly-tidy, overly-formulaic and in the effort to move the audience along with tremendous haste from joke to joke, the sense of timing is brutally lost. Some comedies do benefit from this triphammer pacing, but most don't. I can say for certain that the original Vacation or Revenge of the Nerds would never make it past the first edit in today's Hollywood market.

Test audiences. They go through so many screenings from the very first edit on that I believe they completely lose sight of the bigger picture of the film. It's literally: which joke gets a laugh, which doesn't; keep, delete. I think it reduces a movie to a line of jokes rather than keeping a focus on the complete whole, which certainly plays into what you're saying.

[bucksfan2]

Wedding Crashers was such a major disappointment for me...I heard so much about how funny it was and how it was probably my type of comedy and Wham!--only one laugh the whole 90 minutes--the Godzilla remake with Matthew Broderick was also a letdown--as was Pearl Harbor and The Thin Red Line....

That is one of the few movies that I was excited to go to and wasn't disappointed. I think it is one of the funniest movies to come out in a long time.

[M2]

Oh, Superbad was just that. Hated McLovin and the entire crew. Saw Roper on television explaining that this movie was this generation's Fast Times at Ridgemont High. If that's true, God help this generation.

I remember hearing that same basic complaint leveled at Fast Times. It got slammed by critics and columnists and parents, who complained it glorified a morally bereft pack of teens, who had little to do with teens in the real world. Being a teenager I thought it only teased at how gonzo we'd become.

I haven't seen Superbad, but I get the feeling the objections are along the same lines.

[DoogMinAmo]

X2, Wedding Crashers and Knocked Up

[Falls City Beer]

Test audiences. They go through so many screenings from the very first edit on that I believe they completely lose sight of the bigger picture of the film. It's literally: which joke gets a laugh, which doesn't; keep, delete. I think it reduces a movie to a line of jokes rather than keeping a focus on the complete whole, which certainly plays into what you're saying.

That's got to be right. Just watch a movie like, say, Dog Day Afternoon. Pay attention to the pacing, all the "excess" footage, the lazy, hot-1970's summer motion of the characters and the action, the odd, sometimes disjunctive or "unnecessary" dialogue. It has a wonderful, shaggy, human appeal to it. It would never, ever survive today's Hollywood market. Maybe that's a good thing, I don't know. But I love Dog Day Afternoon precisely for its peculiarities, quirks, and asymmetries.

[Chip R]

That's got to be right. Just watch a movie like, say, Dog Day Afternoon. Pay attention to the pacing, all the "excess" footage, the lazy, hot-1970's summer motion of the characters and the action, the odd, sometimes disjunctive or "unnecessary" dialogue. It has a wonderful, shaggy, human appeal to it. It would never, ever survive today's Hollywood market. Maybe that's a good thing, I don't know. But I love Dog Day Afternoon precisely for its peculiarities, quirks, and asymmetries.

You think a movie with its subplot themes could be made today or would it be too risky to get financing for?

[Falls City Beer]

You think a movie with its subplot themes could be made today or would it be too risky to get financing for?

It probably depends on the director. If a guy has a ton of hits under his/her belt, he/she likely have the leverage to do something longer, more idiosyncratic (Coen brothers come to mind). But if you're a young pup, no way your 2 1/2 hour long movie gets funding unless it is edited tighter than a drum, and even then, it's highly unlikely.

[Roy Tucker]

You think a movie with its subplot themes could be made today or would it be too risky to get financing for?

Nah, I think we live in the ADD generation.

[westofyou]

That's got to be right. Just watch a movie like, say, Dog Day Afternoon. Pay attention to the pacing, all the "excess" footage, the lazy, hot-1970's summer motion of the characters and the action, the odd, sometimes disjunctive or "unnecessary" dialogue. It has a wonderful, shaggy, human appeal to it. It would never, ever survive today's Hollywood market. Maybe that's a good thing, I don't know. But I love Dog Day Afternoon precisely for its peculiarities, quirks, and asymmetries.

That style of cinema was not a prevalent one for very long, the realism of the 67 - 82 era was a reflection of the current culture and reaction to the prior one. One rooted in realism for the sake of realism. I love that style, was weaned on it and appreciate it.

But the ET's of the world demanded that style be pushed back into the art houses. Mostly because it bored the regular theater goer more and more as the 70's moved on, it became almost a deluge of movies that made you think... and feel (crappy most of the time) So let's thank The Unmarried Woman, Foxes, Lifeguard and American Gigilo for making us all feel seedy whilst eating popcorn.

[Roy Tucker]

Come to think of it, Napoleon Dynamite was a movie that many went ga-ga over and I just didn't get it.

Watched it a couple times with the kids and the parts that they were rolling on the floor on, I was sitting there saying "what?, is that supposed to be funny?".