This is the first of many lists I will be doing from time to time. This particular list was inspired by Doug Walker (aka The Nostalgia Critic) and while the idea is his, the list is totally mine. Why 12 you ask? Because I believe in going one step farther than even The Nostalgia Critic as he only does 11.
This list will be split over 2 parts as will the follow up list which will be the top 12 movies that I hate but everyone else seems to like. Anyway, here are 12-7 of the top 12 movies that I really like but most other people seem to hate. Or at least strongly dislike.
12. Transformers The Movie (1986). This amazes me how many people dislike the film. I don't know if it's because of Michael Bay's recent abominations or because they didn't like the fact that Optimus Prime died for the first of many times in Transformers mythos here. If nothing else, this is the one movie based on an 80's toy line that most people remember either positively or negatively. The story is a decent story, and honestly sitting next to Bay's films it should be considered a masterpiece. Optimus Prime's death here is arguably the most memorable scene in the film and is one of the better animated death scenes that I've personally ever seen. The fight scenes are spectacular as well. However the most important thing in this movie to me is that it was not dumbed down. This movie was geared towards a teenage audience in order to make it appeal to more people and this to me is the biggest reason why it's still remembered to this day.
11. Dodes'ka-den. A somewhat obscure film made by the master himself Akira Kurosawa. If Kurosawa had one film that even Kurosawa buffs dislike, it's this one. The story takes place in present(1970) day Japan in the middle of a landfill. It tells a story of multiple people and how their circumstances impact their lives. Some deal with it with hope, and some with despair in various forms. The title of this film comes from a line that one of the characters, a mentally-challenged teenager, continually mumbles throughout the day. This boy imagines himself as a train conductor and "dodes'ka-den" is his representation of the sound that a train makes as it rolls on the tracks. I think most people hate this film because of the films that preceded it. Such masterpieces as Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, The Hidden Fortress, and to continue on with that would be to simply list other accepted world classics. Most of these were epic-action films and starred the great Toshiro Mifune. Dodes'ka-den has none of those. Kurosawa and Mifune had their falling out several years earlier and as I said, this entire film takes place in a landfill. No action, no epic grand scale, just down and out characters trying to survive from day to day. Aside from the story, the film is actually a technical marvel featuring a wide palette of color in such a bleak setting to go along with Kurosawa's typical masterful editing. I will admit that it is one of the weaker films in Kurosawa's filmography but I think to hate or dismiss it entirely is a mistake because it may not be Seven Samurai or Yojimbo, but Dodes'ka-den has much to offer for anyone willing to listen.
10. Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. Ahhh Episode 1. You hold such a special place in my heart. For the record, this is a bad movie and I get why this movie receives the venom it does from most people. What I don't get is what people were expecting. I do own the Star Wars movies because I believe every serious fan of cinema as a whole should own them, but I am not a fan of Star Wars. The stories they tell have been told a million times and unlike say Avatar, they don't even re-tell these stories very well. Episode 1 is largely criticized for the character of Jar Jar Binks. Jar Jar is to me one of these characters that is SOOOO stereotypical that he's actually funny. George Lucas' attempts at lame humor here are not at all funny, but the fact that he made a character who is so one-dimensionally stereotypical and quite frankly insulted his fan base so bad actually is funny. Yes, I get joy from watching this character because I know there are thousands of mindless Star Wars fans losing sleep even 13 yeas later because this character exists. Lots of animosity also exists because Anakin Skywalker appears as a young child in the film....wait...what? People are angry that Anakin began life as a boy? How else do you expect him to begin life? What is he supposed to be Benjamin Button or something? They're also angry at how immature and bloody annoying he was but again, what did you expect? Are you seriously expecting a 9 year old boy to be fully mature? For the reasons mentioned above, I do actually enjoy this awful movie because it warms my heart knowing that Star Wars fans who take these films way too GD seriously are still losing sleep and facing blood pressure problems 13 years later due to this film. Good show George Lucas. Good show. For the record as well, if you are a fan of Star Wars, God bless you. You're a normal person who happens to have a hobby and you should be commended for putting your interest into a subject that isn't harming anyone. But for those of you who literally hinge life and death on these bloody films and actually have the gall to refer to the first 3 films as "The Holy Trilogy" I hold no sympathy for you because anyone who takes any film so seriously as to refer to it as "Holy" should be removed from the gene pool. These are the people that I enjoy laughing at every time George Lucas makes some minute change to the original films and of course, these people react as though an asteroid is about to collide with Earth.
9. The Matrix Sequels. Yes, these 2 films are not anywhere on the level of the first Matrix film. But they are not at all bad films. The action is spectacular in them and the story line at least follows a consistent path. I will admit that it seems Keanu Reeves remembered that he was Keanu Reeves in these 2 and returned to his wooden "style" of acting. In the first Matrix, he seemed to forget who he was to a certain extent and actually put some feeling and emotion into the Neo character. The shining star in all 3 films really but especially these sequels is Hugo Weaving as Smith. The fight scenes are spectacular and it's amazing to watch this character's transformation from essentially a Captain Ahab-like character into one who just simply is tired of it all and wants to rest. Honestly, I really don't have a lot to say about them because I've only seen them a couple times and it has been a while but I did enjoy them when I saw them. I guess for these 2 films, I will just ask you to take my word that most people hate them but they're not as bad as many people say they are.
8. Terminator 3/Terminator Salvation. Most people dislike these films from what I've seen for a few reasons. The first of which being James Cameron's lack of involvement with them which in itself fascinates me because so many people despise James Cameron to begin with and no one's ever presented a logical reason to me as to why. In the case of T3, most people I've seen absolutely hated the ending of the film. There is simply no other way it could end. For this 3rd film to exist, Judgement Day can't be averted again. If it is, there's no reason to make the 3rd film. Now I know people say that there was no reason to anyway since T2 brought the story to a logical conclusion. I raise this question though. If we can assume everything else about the Terminator series to be true, why can we not also at least consider the possibility that the U.S. government could've gotten ahold of Cyberdyne's technology or perhaps may have been funding Cyberdyne's research to begin with? This is not answered in the film, it's speculation on my part. Yes Miles Dyson destroyed his files in T2, but again, who's to say that someone else at Cyberdyne, perhaps Dyson's boss whomever it may have been, wasn't sharing some of this info with the government. This could explain as well how it would've taken 7 years to get to the stage of Skynet's final creation. Without Dyson to spearhead the operation, I imagine it would've taken longer than it would've with him there and if the film says 7 years without him and 3 years with him, I can accept that as a logical gap since Dyson was "the man most directly responsible" for Skynet.
Terminator Salvation was the film that Terminator fans had wanted for a while as far as finally getting to see the future war in a substantial way and not just in brief "flashbacks." The major thing I saw that angered people about this film was the fact that McG directed it. Again, if he makes a good film that stays true to the storyline and is entertaining, who cares? McG did everything to maintain the continuity between the previous films and the CGI Arnold near the end to go with Brad Fiedel's original score was absolutely fantastic. Christian Bale is his usual superb self here and was a worthy successor in the role of John Connor. This was something that I've seen that angered a lot of people as well and that was the absence of Edward Furlong as John Connor in both films. Granted, I would've liked to have seen this continuity maintained as well, but Furlong has a long history of drug issues and was battling addiction and legal issues at the time both of these films were being made. I hear he's gotten himself straightened out and if there is a Terminator 5 someday, perhaps he can resume the role that made him a star.
7. Eyes Wide Shut. I will admit that I'm at a loss as to why this movie gets the hate that it does. It's a well acted, well directed film with a story line that just screams bizarre. I guess for me I like this movie because I actually "get it." The film features a pre-bat-shit-crazy Tom Cruise as a prominent doctor who is ultimately forced to deal with his own sexual inadequacies. The repression in this man's eyes throughout the whole film is staggering. The world he dips into is one of depravity and the rituals in this world are just utterly bizarre. I use that word constantly to describe this film but I think it's so accurate. The orgy sequence in the movie is one of the rare times in movies that I've been legitimately creeped out by what I was seeing. Especially the beginning of it with all the chanting. It literally gave me chills because it was just so creepy. I will admit I would like to have learned whether or not Sydney Pollock's character was lying at the end about the girl's fate as well as the circumstances around the orgy sequence but it doesn't ruin the film for me. To me, it's a fine film that served as Stanley Kubrick's final work as he passed away a few months before this film was released in 1999.
And so we come to the end of part 1 of this list. Join me tomorrow as I will list the remaining 6 films that I like but most people seem to hate. I'm not the Nostalgia Critic. I didn't remember it so you have to. Anyone who's a fan of his will understand that last line.
