A little Overrated?

Yes, definitely overrated, like so many other old things. When something establishes itself as 'a classic', deservedly or not, people will flock like brainless sheep around it and all cry "baahh, classic, baaah" together as one.

And dissidence won't be tolerated, of course. It's scary, such a thing! No independent thinking on THIS planet, thank you very much! Let the masses do the thinking for me, and I am happy, says the sheeple.

The peasants were not funny at all.

The duel was slow and painful to watch (all that tearing of cloth - yawn), and the ending of it was not visually impressive or realistic. I compare this to how Jackie Chan used to do things in his best fights, and I must say the difference is huge. Jackie Chan's movies are better than this one, which says a lot. We all know that no one watches a Jackie Chan movie for it's plot, characters, humor, or dialog. We all watch them because of the fights - which are usually excellent (but not always).

I share your opinion, to an extent, I think - but it seems my opinion is lower than yours.

I think a movie should be entertaining, not annoying or boring. This movie consists of annoying and boring scenes put together, with ONE decent (and not all THAT decent) fight scene in the middle, and does this for almost 2 and a half hours, after which, it ends abruptly.

I think fights should be exciting, not oddly paced and with lots of 'waiting' inbetween strikes, no matter how 'realistic' that may be (and I am not even sure it is).

Jackie Chan, no matter what you think of him otherwise, certainly delivers in the entertainment portion - in fact, I think I am going to wash down the dust of boredom this movie gathered in my soul with a faster-paced Jackie Chan movie.

Sure, a movie can be slow-paced (though I don't see why any movie should be), but at least keep it entertaining, for crying out loud. And entertaining and annoying are not synonyms.

There wasn't much about this movie that wasn't annoying. The shrieking hag (princess) who only gave our ears peace when she pretended to be mute (I think Kurosawa must have added such a plot element after hearing her speak and watching her act). She was extremely annoying. All the misandry in the movie - extremely annoying (a woman can defeat two men with just a stick - yeah, right. Women are shown as either noble and capable ninja masters or poor and innocent 'victims', but men are shown as bumbling fools, murderous a55ho1es and incompetent soldiers, and on and on). The two peasants were really annoying. Nothing much happening (plotwise, that is), even after the peasants met the odd murderer-general, very annoying AND boring.

The Matrix is also a very long movie, if I remember correctly, approximately similar length. And it certainly has its boring parts, but it compensates them with amazingly energetic and interesting Martial Arts fight scenes and a climactic, epic finale that lasts for a long time and presents the viewer with intriquing possibilities as well as provoking his thoughts.

This movie simply plods steadily and slowly along towards the predictable conclusion, without ever giving the viewer ANY reason to care about anything that happens on the screen.

I don't think this movie is a little overrated, I think it's VERY overrated, like many of the supposed "classics" that no one seems to DARE to critisize.

To prove my point: if you disagree with me, try critisizing these movies openly and with your actual IMDb account (or in real life, using your 'official name' (really the label of the 'person' and possibly your physical body, not really your true identity in any case, although many people are fooled) whichever you prefer), just to see if you dare to do it.

And without explaining that it's just a test or anything. Do it convincingly.

- Citizen Kane
- Casablanca
- The Seven Samurai
- The Godfather I & II
- The Shawshank Redemption (of course)
- ANY Tarantino movie
- Forrest Gump
- Apocalypse Now!

There's a nice pack of 'classics' that I can't honestly see the value of. There are more, but we can keep it simple. What's good about these movies? What is it that makes people praise them so much? (Everyone usually takes this question as an INSULT instead of A QUESTION, and no one simply answers it. In fact, it seems that no one even has an answer. I don't blame them, because my answer would be : "nothing")

In my honest opinion - popularity. Because OTHER people love them, people love them, too! Not because the movies themselves are any good (most are pretty boring and/or ridiculous), but because you are SUPPOSED to love and praise them, no matter how empty/boring/dumb/unnecessary/ridiculous/slow-paced or endlessly corny they are.

Why would anyone think a story about some guy creating a media empire and then regretting the whole thing would be interesting (it's not)? Why would a depressing and meaningless (not to mention boring and ENDLESS) trip to visit a madman in jungle be worth showing to the viewer? What is so fascinating about seeing a boring, image-conscious Hollywood poster boy portray a retarded man, who has an incredibly good luck but doesn't realize it? What's the point of any of that? Doesn't anyone find it rather banal to keep referring to life as a box of chocolates? So life was manufactured in a cardboard and plastic factory, before some artificial processing, sugar and flavoring was introduced to a bean that was then molded by robots into little shapes and packaged in shiny wrapper? I don't think so. What's so delightful and escapist about a prison, even if the main character gets out in the end (too little, too late, anyone)? Not to mention the bugs, flaws and plot 'holes', especially concerning one of the physical 'holes' in the movie (how did he 're-cover' the whole so perfectly after he went through, etc.)..

I could go on, but intelligent people here must realize the nakedness.

But the masses..

"The emperor's clothes are such fine, beautiful silk, aren't they! They glow so nicely in the evening sun, they are suucch wonderfully beautiful clothes, because we are so sophisticated and intelligent, pure and non-corrupted that we must be able to see them!"

Where's the innocence of the little boy who can see directly, and sees that the emperor is naked?

"Overrated" is the norm on this planet.. any trash that million idiots love MUST be praised and rated high. That's just the way it goes.

Whereas good movies are not given this praise, because 'common people' might like those.. ech! Disgusting!

(And now, time to hear from the idiots who missed the point, find the words "Jackie Chan" in this post and think it's an EXCELLENT idea to use that finding as a weapon against me to show my incredible stupidity, which of course leads to the fact that anything I write must be flawed - people who appreciate anything Jackie Chan has done can't write posts that make any sense or have any valid arguments or points, especially if they like things that the 'common folk' might like! How ironic that it's indeed the masses that think this way.. )

To me it is fantastic, I rate it 10/10.

IMO 'The Dark Knight' is an overrated movie, I gave it 3/10.

It's all a matter of personal taste.

Sure some people think others only like a movie because it's 'old' or 'called a classic', IMO that says more about them than the people they are judging.

Its not as profound and serious as some other Kurosawa works but even when being playful and almost comedic he still manages to make something close to a masterpiece

Finally watched it. This is easily the worst film I've seen of Kurosawa. If you enjoy grating screaming and arguing for 2 hrs, I guess this is for you.


Citing NASA as experts on these matters is like citing the KK on matters of race relations.
- rj

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