Underrated Movies

[dissention]

I was talking about this with one of my friends this evening and thought it might make an interesting thread. Which movies have you seen that were dismissed as crap, but you actually found to be quite brilliant? When we were talking, the two movies that came to my mind first were Spielberg's "Artificial Intelligence" and Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut".

I didn't bother with A.I. when it was in theaters because I don't have much of a tolerance for Spielberg (see one of his movies and you've seen them all, except that they get progressively duller and less interesting as the years wear on), and while I found the last half hour to be heinous and unwatchable, the rest of it was quite good. He couldn't keep his emotional masturbation in check, but that's to be expected. The "heart" that every hack critic finds at the center of it (while simultaneously bashing it) is nothing of the sort, it's incredibly fake and hollow as only Spielberg can do because he's the ultimate anti-intellectual, but the scenes involving David and the wide-eyed look of shock, terror, and excitement on his face as he wanders throughout the movie make it worth watching. The fact that Speilberg doesn't have the mental capacity to get a good grasp on the material was what I found most interesting, because he glossed over the perverse nature of it so much that you couldn't help but notice how twisted the proceedings were. It was as if he didn't quite understand the movie or what he was doing, so you were actually viewing it from a child's point of view. It worked magnificently, albeit unintentionally, until the last act.

I find Kubrick maddening. Watching his movies is like being hog tied and then being repeatedly bashed in the skull with a brick. He's either too naive in the treatment of his themes, or he's too cynical and downright vicious to the point where you find yourself watching the work of a man who believes his audiences are masochists. But "Eyes Wide Shut" was fantastic. I think I was the only person to walk out of the theater satisfied. I could go on and on about it, but I won't. Probably his best movie (which, considering how I can't stand him, isn't exactly saying much, but it was still fantastic).