What Classic Movies Did the Critics Get Wrong?
Overlooked in the Scre4m-y rush of the weekend was an interesting article from the Guardian film blog, where Danny Leigh postulated about the long history of first impressions gone wrong. Not just any first impressions, though -- critics' first impressions, some of which, for better or worse (often better, believe it or not), have notably tended to fall on the wrong side of history.
Leigh's principal subject is the thriller Peeping Tom, which drew excoriating reviews upon its release in 1960 before finding a second wave of support among a later generation of filmmakers and critics. But you could go back decades further, from Buster Keaton's silent masterpiece The General ("[B]y no means as good as his previous efforts," wrote the NYT) to Metropolis ("Six million marks! The waste of it!", said another NYT review), or jump decades ahead to The Shining or any of Stanley Kubrick's coolly received work, for that matter, and find scores of classics initially earmarked for the scrap pile. It's a fascinating phenomenon: Was it simply taste that torpedoed things like Vertigo among critics who were paid to "know better," or was there something about the contemporary zeitgeist that disinclined those same critics from believing the film could be relevant then or ever?
Moreover, advancing the story to today, what are some future classics you foresee that maybe didn't get the hottest critical reception? Will we eventually determine that Ang Lee's Hulk is actually the comic-book adaptation to define all comic-book adaptations? Is the maligned oeuvre of Kevin James really the most significant comic output of our age? Let's move beyond contrarianism -- there is no goddamn way Armond White is right about Jonah Hex, for example -- and into the space of what may have, in fact, been ahead of its time or simply misunderstood on a scale too large to overcome when it was new. I'll stand by Jennifer's Body, myself. What's your pick?
· Peeping Tom was not the first cinematic masterpiece to get a critical slating [The Guardian]
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Norm MacDonald's classic "Dirty Work". Hilarious from beginning to end. Watch it and try not to laugh. So much better than the Adam Sandler drivel we are force fed twice a year.
I don't trust a writer (Danny Leigh) who ends his article suggesting that M. Night's films may be revered given time. The Sixth Sense may indeed be seen eventually, if it isn't already, as a masterpiece. But every movie he's done since has been the palest of imitations of his first success. Unbreakable would have been far more powerful if not for the ludicrous ending. Signs had to give significance to a dying woman's last words and make aliens allergic to water, which robbed the movie of the power it could have had with Mel Gibson's tremendous performance. And the movies after those are almost ridiculously bad.
"Joe Versus the Volcano" and "Boomerang."
Spielberg's "A.I."
I can only hope that one day Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo will be accorded the same level of respect as Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo.
Darren Aronofsky's "The Fountain"
I'm preeeetttty sure Danny was joking about Shyamalan.
My pick is "Synedoche, NY" -- I think years from now it will be hailed as genius.
YES YES YES. This.
We are agreeing today!
Absolutely. This movie just drips Kubrick. I think that in time it will be appreciated like most of his other work. It's nice to see Eyes Wide Shut getting the kudos it deserved over a decade later. (Before anyone tries to correct me, Kubrick was working on A.I. until he died, then Spielberg actually made the movie.)
"Search & Destroy" directed by David Salle and written by Howard Korder & Michael Almereyda. Produced by Martin Scorsese.
Check out this cast!> Dennis Hopper, Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Christopher Walken, Ethan Hawke, Illeana Douglas, Martin Scorsese, and John Turturro
A film of our times. Extremely ignored. HILARIOUS. The best dialogue rhythm this side of "The Big Lebowski".
Scorsese considers the film to be a spiritual sequel to his own "After Hours".
The Life Aquatic
Excellent choice!
I completely agree with this. Such an amazing, touching, heartbreaking movie.
In addition to the excellent suggestions made above, I have to say Disney's "The Princess and The Frog". Apparently it failed commercially but it is so much better than the BS Disney has sadly been pumping out for years now.
An also, "Big Trouble in Little China".
Yep. I've said from the day it came out that A.I. was Spielberg's VERTIGO, and would only be appreciated as the masterpiece it is in decades to come. I think it's up with E.T. and SCHINDLER'S LIST among his greatest achievements.
And yep, it's as much a Kubrick film as a Spielberg film. Read the making of coffee table book that came out last year. Anybody who complains about Spielberg changing things, especially the ending, is woefully uninformed. The ending is straight out of Kubrick.
In fact, the Flesh Fair and Rouge City portions are where Spielberg created the most content, as Kubrick had focused on the opening portion in the house and the final portion in the ice world.
I seem to be the only person who thought TRON: LEGACY was one of the most staggeringly beautiful films I had seen in years. Kosinski has a visual confidence on his first feature that boggles my mind. He moves his camera like Fincher, Spielberg, Polanski, and only a few others I can think of.
People complained that the narrative was too simplistic, but I think they missed the point. It reminded me a great deal of THE CELL, by another Fincher protege, which also focused on telling its story visually and through music. I felt everything I needed to about the characters by the way they acted during the stunning fight scenes, and by the balletic movement of the camera around them.
And even people who hated the movie seemed to recognize the brilliance of the Daft Punk score.
I'd be shocked if there isn't a reappraisal of this film once Kosinski becomes established as a major director.
Tron: Legacy was pretty dull in parts. Can't see it.
I think The Game with Michael Douglas should be up there. Talk about your noir-based paranoia. Good stuff.
A Knight's Tale has a 54 on metacritic. A tragedy, really. Probably Heath Ledger's best performance.
I still insist that Peter Bogdanovich's "At Long Last Love" was unfairly trashed at the time of its 1975 release. And for the record, the actors in "ALLL" are no worse singers than the cast of the Oscar-winning "Chicago" (or the Oscar-nommed "Moulin Rouge").
Oliver's Stone's U-Turn. "Funny" and "subtle" are not two words one normally associates with his ouvre. This one's both.
Totally agree. I don't think "A.I." is 100% successful, but I think a lot of it is and even its flaws are fascinating. And the parts of it that are great (the Flesh Fair, Osment's creepy performance, the irony of the hyperevolved robots finding the "real boy" at the end) are stupendous and unforgettable.
"Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" is a comedic masterpiece that should have won (at least been nominated for) the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. Panned by critics, which caused a depressed box office performance, it remains one of the best films I've ever seen.