MovieChat Forums > O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2001) Discussion > One of the worst movies I've ever seen.....

One of the worst movies I've ever seen....


Watched for the first time tonight. I don't get why so many people consider this a great movie. What am I missing? It wasn't funny. It wasn't amusing. It just kind of sucked and it dragged on and on and on. It had a great cast, but they were wasted in this.

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It wasn't for you. Personally I loved it.

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Don't feed the trolls. Put them on ignore. I just added this simpleton.

"I don’t know when it was decided we all need a soundtrack everywhere we go". Soderbergh

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Every film has a least one person who will think it is the greatest movie ever placed on celluloid and every film has at least one person who will think it is the worst thing they have ever seen. Film is subjective to individual taste. As another said, this film was simply not for you. Does it really matter why other people enjoyed it?

It's curious as to why some human beings apparently need constant validation of their own opinions or hold a constant craving to understand why their opinion differs from the crowd.





Pretentious is a three syllable word for any cinematic thought too big for little minds.

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I guess my curiosity stems from the fact that it isn't often that I hate (and I don't use the word "hate" lightly) a film that is held in such high regard by so many.

Maybe if I'd watched it in 2000 or 2001 (or whenever it was released), I would have appreciated it more. Instead, I waited until now to see it, and only recorded and viewed it because I've heard about how great it is.

Also, I typically like the works of the Coen Bros.....not sure why this one just didn't do anything for me.

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I find it fascinating you feel that way, Aeropacker. For me, "O Brother, Where Art Thou" has all the trademarks of a Coen Brothers' film. All of their witty dialogue, all of the great acting I would expect, all of the visual flair. Personally, I would consider this to be among the top three films they have made (alongside "The Big Lebowski" and "Miller's Crossing").

Perhaps you were in a bad mood when you watched the film? Perhaps the period it was set in rubbed you the wrong way? In some respects, I genuinely wish I could help you unlock the meaning behind your hatred of this piece, since you have said you typically enjoy the Coen Brothers and this is certainly a typical film within their oeuvre.






Pretentious is a three syllable word for any cinematic thought too big for little minds.

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Well-put, "cross". I just re-watched it about 15 years after my initial viewing. It is a fun movie because of the whimsy, of using Homer's Odyssey as a framework to have three daffy escaped prisoners, one of them a con-man supreme, make their journey home. As the Coen Brothers themselves state, their intent was "3 Stooges plus Homer's Odyssey".

To me it is overall very entertaining, like the three doing the studio recording just to get some fast cash but ending up being a radio hit. Yet I can easily understand why some viewers will come away with opposite reactions. Not everyone likes the Three Stooges.

Different strokes for different folks certainly applies here.

..*.. TxMike ..*..

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Have you ever heard of something called The Odyssey? Look it up. Then add humor.

This movie, is brilliant. PERIOD.


Chase: Wow. Yeah, I get it. House is adorable. I just want to hold him and never let go.

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I found it somewhat annoying that you would make such a statement about a movie that I found to be brilliant in both script and presentation. Sadly, if you don't "get" it, you likely won't find the answer why, anywhere. Assuming your being honest, Good luck (because joy should be shared)!

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I found it somewhat annoying that you would make such a statement about a movie that I found to be brilliant in both script and presentation.


Sorry, my intention in creating this post was not to antagonize those with differing opinions, it was to try to understand what I missed because the popular opinion is that it's a great movie. Generallly the movies that are critically acclaimed are ones that I enjoy, particularly Coen Bros. movies, so I'm not sure why this one was so unenjoyable for me.

In hindsight, perhaps the title of this thread was a bit on the negative side - it was right after the movie (finally) finished and I was annoyed that I'd wasted two plus hours of my life on it.

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Thanks for the honest reply, quite refreshing I must admit, because I wasn't sure if you were trolling.
I think everyone has a movie they just didn't agree with the masses about. For me, it was Django Unchained. I love Quentin Tarantino and consider him one of America's modern cinema masters, but Django felt overly cartoonish to me. C'est la vie.

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I loved Django, so I guess we're even.

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Go back to watching the Transformers and Harry Potter then!

The validity of my answers is highly dependent on the intelligence of the question..or lack thereof.

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Go back to watching the Transformers and Harry Potter then!


Thanks for that. Just because I don't like one film doesn't mean I'm into mindless entertainment. Which the HP films definitely are not, BTW.....

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There's always one person on every single message board calling every movie "the worst movies I've ever seen" and to every one of you I must ask, how many movies have you actually SEEN? If THIS is one of the worst movies you've ever seen, it must only be about ten or so

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how many movies have you actually SEEN? If THIS is one of the worst movies you've ever seen, it must only be about ten or so


I've seen thousands of movies. Maybe I should clarify: "one of the worst critically acclaimed movies I've ever seen". Is that better?

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I loved this movie..great storyline

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I, too, used to hate O Brother. My family loves this movie. Every time they insisted on watching it, I would moan, "O Brother, do we have to watch this stupid movie again?" Since then, I discovered that Coen Brothers movies require a certain style of watching. Here are some tips that, I hope, will help you extract maximum enjoyment from O Brother, Where Art Thou?

--View it like a Christopher Guest mockumentary, fully of silly characters who take themselves very seriously.

--Don't expect a linear plot. The movie travels a straight line about as well as a drunk on a bicycle. In each Coen Brothers movie, there is a catalyst that sets off a chain of compounding misfortune. The catalyst is usually some really bad idea concocted by one of the main characters. Everett escapes a chain gang with the two people attached to him. After that, we're off and running. The misfortune continues to multiply in random ways, pulled about by a parade of characters who each add to the chaos. Things work out in the end, though. Redemption for the good guys, comeuppance for the bad.

--Understand that the main characters are almost all bumblers. If, at any point, you ask yourself, "Why are they doing that?!" you aren't watching it properly. They will continue to stagger cluelessly through the film, learning nothing, until the credits roll.

--Oh, and that's another thing: if you like movies in which the main characters learn some important lesson over the course of the film, forget it. These people learn nothing.

--Expect abnormal reactions and prepare to suspend disbelief. Baby Face Nelson starts shooting cows in a field: Aw, not the livestock. Someone just sold their soul to the devil: Hey, we just came from a baptism! Ten dollars to sing a song: Heck, we have a fully composed and really catchy tune already memorized, and just so happens we picked up a guitarist on the way here. You say our friend got turned into a toad? Okay. Put him in this box. We'll take him with us.

--Pay attention to the dialogue, not the plot. The dialogue is clever. It's a Coen Brothers specialty and, I suspect, the main reason why people love these movies. The Big Lebowski does witty repartee the best, but O Brother is close behind. So, if you watch the movie as a series of weird interactions, you may get more out of it. The Everett one-liners are also delightful: "Well, ain't this place a geographical oddity. Two weeks from everywhere!" What the characters do is much less interesting than what they say. If you view it as a dialogue-driven movie rather than one driven by action or plot, perhaps you might at least understand what others love about it, even if you never come to love it yourself.

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Thank you for that well thought-out reply. IF I ever watch this again, I will keep these things in mind.

As I've said before, I love other Coen Bros. movies. Maybe I need to wait a few years and try again....

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