Least favorite movies...

[remixor]

I tend to agree with some of his other points... Anime is usually too damn melodramatic and intense, which annoys me. Comedic anime tends to be far too off the wall and incoherent (it just doesn't translate over into English very well, IMO.) Most anime I've been shown didn't hold my interest, and I think it's overrated, as a genre.
(I do really like Hayao Miyazaki's movies, though.)

I agree pretty much completely.  There is some anime I enjoy but as a medium I find its conventions incredibly irritating.

[Bluke4x4]

Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. Lemme put it this way: Roald Dahl hated it so much he refused the offer for a sequel. For real.

[LGM]

Let's hope Burton adapts it the right way this time.. Him and Dahl are both wacky fellows.

[Peter Thomas]

Tv shows that get made into movies are nearly always bad - ie: Pokemon, THE MOVIE; The Wild Thornberry's, THE MOVIE; Rugrats, THE MOVIE....

They just take the (normally good) qualities of the show and screw them up completely. Not that I'm saying pokemon has any good qualities... they just screwed the bad ones up even more...

[bspeers100]

I think I agree with the Deep Blue Sea comment.  I would really like to see a MS3K of that, or perhaps get together with some folks and mock it.  I like the effort they put into taking a lady's clothes off, for no dicernable reason.

L.L Cool J. also audotmatically ups the ante on quality when he gets into a movie.

I have to disagree with generalizing anime, however, not because it is good, or because it is bad, but because there is no "anime" -- anime is a term we use to describe a whole gamut of animation styles, most of which are Japanese.  But how anyone can watch anime on TV an conclude that it's unrealistic, stupid, overblown and does not make sense WITHOUT conceding that ALL children's programming is more or less in this boat is beyond me.

I mean, Anime is aimed (normally) at slightly older viewers than other cartoons and child/youth programming, but that doesn't mean it should be treated as some completely external category.

For example, why not compare Pokemon to Looney Tunes?  Both are cartoons aimed at young people, both involve simple sight gags, but the animation in Pokemon (while abysmal) is at least as interesting and skillful as looney tunes, and the cartoons (while considered "classic" by way too many people) are much better written in the Japanese context.

Consider two randomly googled examples. 


vs


Now the Pokemon one is faded, granted, but I think you can see how neither is clearly better than the other.  And yet, the Pokemon shot is presumably from some kind of plot, while the other is almost certainly one of the same 6 recycled gags in the Warner Bros. handbook.

Neither are quality examples of the sort of stuff put out at the higher end of animation, like some Disney movies and many Japanese anime films, but unlike Disney, "Anime" often deals with substansive philosophical/political issues.  But not always.  You simply can't categorize anime based on the cheap shlock we get on TV here, anymore than you can characterize the American animation scene based on Saturday morning cartoons.  Both countries have robust animation centres that are far more advanced and more interesting than the daily 'toons, and both have an active underground market.

It's like saying you hate video games based on your experience of FPS.  It's simply illogical.

[LGM]

X vs X.. That would be a good title for a movie.

[Barcik]

I am not a fan of anime as well. In fact, the only part of Kill Bill I disliked (both volumes) is the anime segment. I mean, how much of the same can you show? I've heard people say that QT's dialog drags, but this 'action' scene drags much more.

[bspeers100]

Oops.  Guess that shows what I know about the IMG function.

In related news, I really love movies that offer a challenge, like Mullholland Dr., or to a lesser extent Adaptation (I especially like the credits of Adapt. nice touch!), and "stupid" movies such as Airplane/Naked Gun, but cannot stand most of the "classic" movies of the 80's.  I found them boring then, and they're boring now.

Goonies -- A classic.  Boring as hell, compared to say the youthful adventures of The Neverending Story or the riveting, hold-on-to-your seats excitement of "The Care Bears Movie."

Ferris Beuller's Day Off -- Another Boring movie.  At the same time as "The Blues Brothers" mixed ludicrous action with anti-establishment comedy, Ferris Beuller was doing exciting things like... going to a museum. Or... becoming part of a parade.  Let me tell you something.  I know people that have walked in parades, andI say me to school any day over walking in a damn procession.  Watching a parade is about ten times as much fun as standing on a float in one.

Perhaps this kinda stuff was immensely exciting for middle-class kids with no greater fantasy than driving a ferrari, but if you can imagine something more interesting than that, you're pretty much wasting your time.  What's great about the reaction to this movie is the number of people saying that this was "the" starting place for the teen movie.  Great flicks like... um... The Breakfast Club and Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

Man.  What a legacy.  : Even writing those other names makes me depressed.

Independence Day -- A 90's clunker.  Try watching it with the sound down some time.  It appears to be just a random amalgam of explosion shots with pretty much nothing in-between.  There is nothing more boring than watching a plotless vacuum populated by exploding planes and an alien race without any logical motivation.  At least "This Island Earth" had some kind of purpose--even if it didn't make any sense, they tried, and that counts for something.

[Las Naranjas]

I think it's time to stress Sturgeon's law here.

90% of everything is crap.
Thus 90% of Anime would not apeal to manypeople, but likewise, the vast majority of western animation, and live action films regardless of origin are also dreadful.
To like or dislike an entire genre is foolish, since all have strengths and weaknesses [usually the result of conventions]. Take all movies [and all works of art] on their own merits.

In fact, the only thing stupider than cementing yourself to a genre, whether it be Anime, or Country Music, or the one's branding themselves Alternative whom are often worse, or even Adventure Games, is cementing yourself away from a genre. It's just unproductive and silly. The fanboys are just as small minded, but at least it's not being done with a negative mindset.

Which is why I, because I have always disliked Fantasy, have been trying to read some, so my prejudices are not unfounded.

[Ashen]

Las Naranjas:
Thank you, I've kinda wanted to say that myself, but have been too 'British' and polite. I totally argree, except personally I'd make it 95%. Maybe higher. Except for Jennifer Lopez, who I reserve the right to hate on principle. The principle being 'She's shit.'

[bspeers100]

Yup.

[Kinoko]

Starship Troopers. God, that movie sucks. SUUUUCKS, I tell you! The worst thing is that most of my idiotic friends love it and some consider it to be one of the best movies of all time. Suuuuucks, oh god, how I hate it. Poo to it.

As for even calling 'anime' a genre, that's ridiculous. I won't go on, others have made good points, but it isn't a genre, it's a medium more than anything. Anime is just a general term for animation that comes from Japan. In Japan, it's the word for animation, but it -has- evolved in our language to mean Japanese animation. Anime has zillions of genres within it. Sure, you can hate cartoons and even the Japanese style of them (though within 'anime' there are zillions of different styles) but I just hate people generalizing with what kinds of shows they are. In the western world, you're generally exposed to a tiny percentage of and often stupid and poor quality anime shows/movies and trust me, these are not indicitive of even a majority of what you'll find in Japan.

OK, I won't go on, but just... genre... blech. I hate that word.

Zillion IS a number, damnit! I'm making it one! Stay off my lawn!

[remixor]

In regards to the anime posts:  I understand completely that you cannot discount all anime as being one way or another, being too childish, and so forth.  That's not my point.  I simply don't like many of the general stylistic conventions of the medium.  Again, there are some series I enjoy, but like any other medium anime tends to have characteristics that are common to many instances of the medium.  Let me give an example:  Laugh tracks are one convention of sitcoms.  I hate laugh tracks.  Laugh tracks, among other things, contribute to my overall distaste for sitcoms.  Now, I have seen sitcoms I enjoy, but in general as a "medium" so to speak, they get on my nerves.  Anime is the same way for me.

[Nacho]

Cutthroads island.

[Kweepa]

In the last year or so,
- Mystic River
- Blood Work
- City by the Sea
Yawn!

[Esseb]

Then again, there are sitcoms without laugh tracks.

As for movies I hate, this one comes pretty close: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0327169/

Interestingly it is the most expensive South-Korean movie production ever and made its primary backer bankrupt. One would think a movie starring a lesbian Lara Croft played by a man in drag would be awesome, but you would be surprised.

[ElectricMonk]

Starship Troopers. God, that movie sucks. SUUUUCKS, I tell you! The worst thing is that most of my idiotic friends love it and some consider it to be one of the best movies of all time. Suuuuucks, oh god, how I hate it. Poo to it.

I always find it funny how people react to that particular movie.

Personally, I love how Verhoeven managed to wrap a very subversive anti-totalitarian message in a seemingly pro-military and pro-totalitarian action film. And I always get very disheartened when I hear someone say they liked the movie, I agree with them, get into a conversation about it and then it turns out they got nothing of the subtext and only liked it for the gore and action.

[Kinoko]

It definitely seems to be a love or hate movie. I only know people who feel strongly either way. Of course, all the really smart people hate it ^_^

[Eggie]

I liked Starship Troopers, I didn't love it, but it seemed like a perfectly decent piece of entertainment with a few smart ideas to give it some weight.

Maybe it's just one o' those films where you just have to read the book before you can form a valid opinion. But I liked it.

[remixor]

Then again, there are sitcoms without laugh tracks.

Exactly, and the few I like fall into that category.