movies

Not as extreme as the case in the OP, but I'm often surprised how "meh" a reaction Don't Look Up got. Maybe people think it was heavy handed? Too on the nose? I don't know but most folks seem to think it was at best merely "okay".

For me, I place it next to Idiocracy as one of the most prescient films about what is in store for us. I think after this last election day, it seems even more prescient. On top of that, it is legitimately funny with really good performances, especially from Jennifer Lawrence.

Netflix's Avatar the Last Airbender.

Not a movie, but it's moving. Zuko/Iroh stole the show just like Book 1 of the animation, Lu Ten's funeral legit made me cry. Yet it gets tons of hate!

I'm a huge Avatar fan, but few fandoms put the original on the pedestal as much as ours, and it's only gotten worse with time. I feel like Korra got the same treatment, as I'm a massive Korra fan and I don't understand how so much of the fandom treats it like garbage.

I have a bit of a soft spot for a movie called Club Paradise starring Robin Williams. It doesn't review well but it's fun enough. I also love some of the lines from it.

"What the hell kind of a name is 'Moniker?'" (Robin Williams' character's name is Jack Moniker)

"Just seeing that all is well." "Is it?" "No."

"On behalf of her Britannic magesty Queen Elizabeth The Second, I order you to disperse this mob at once or I shall be forced to shoot you between the eyes with a Rather Large Bullet."

"Say hello to Hat." "Possible." (An excellent cook with VERY long dreadlocks was kicked out of the kitchen by the chef because his hair is unsanitary. Jack's solution? A 3 foot tall chef's hat.)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

I saw it the day it came out and thought it was a brilliant departure from the macguffin-based plots that had come before, and it showed so many different things that had never been in a Star Wars movie before.

Turns out all Star Wars fans want is more of the exact same that had been in the previous 7 movies.

This is your regular reminder that a 20% on Rotten Tomatoes means that 20% of reviewers liked the movie. The RT score represents chance that a reviewer liked it, not overall weighted score or how much they enjoyed it.

I have a friend who recommends literally every single thing he watches. He'll watch the stupidest movie in the world and be like "wow, that was awesome!". I envy how much enjoyment he can receive from terrible movies and TV shows.

Batman and Robin. I KNOW it's cheesy as hell but I was a kid and I loved it. I loved the aesthetic of Gotham but found the previous Batman villains too scary (Penguin, Two Face) but Mr Freeze and Poison Ivy weren't scary at all. It was a romp!

I loved Equilibrium and was surprised it wasn't rated as good.

Not as bad as watching a movie with friends when everyone else loved it and you were the only one who hated it lol. It feels so much more visceral.

I thought Speed Racer was visually fantastic, and did a good job capturing some of the feel of the original show while putting a more modern spin on it. John Goodman feels like he can do no wrong. I just had a good time with it the whole time through.

It seems most people didn't feel the same way I did

Your Highness for me

Universally got trashed but I honestly enjoyed it and still do on a rewatch

It's stupid and it's fantasy but it doesn't try to be anything else

I watched the Last Airbender movie before seeing the cartoon.

It's not a bad kung fu movie, except for the casting. Not great, but it was a fun watch. Now that I've seen the cartoon, I understand why the folx who grew up with it refuse to acknowledge it's existence.

Beowulf (2007).

Yes, the cgi aged badly, but everyone panned it for the plot change, which was the thing I liked about it the most!

I thought Battlefield Earth had a cool concept when I was like 13. I watched it again a few years ago and it's hilariously bad. 90% of the movie is Dutch angles

Fuck ‘em.

A good movie is a movie you enjoyed watching. Full stop.

As a kid, I couldn't believe how funny Wild Wild West is

I swear pretty much every comedy movie is like this unless it's a massive hit and then becomes a 70% at best

Super Mario Bros (1993) is this movie for me ... it's weird as hell and it's adherence to the source material is ... iffy at best ... but god damn if it wasn't a fun ride!

Then you read about how everyone hated the directors so much they literally got drunk on set and openly wore custom made shirts with slogans about how bad the directors were AND Bob Haskins was in a cast for most of it for an injury on set and it gets even more fascinating! The Directors poured hot coffee on people and just openly belittled everyone. It's insane!

This is actually why I like rotten tomatoes, breaks apart the critics and the fans.

I recall going to a movie with friends, walking out and saying "that was terrible" and my friend saying "what, that was good". Debate ensued in the group.

Oh my God you guys you need to watch The Naked Man

I'm telling you it's fucking hilarious. I swear. Look:

Estranged pharmacist's son who is a savant at chiropractor by day/underground pro-wrestler by night goes on a murderous rampage to avenge his father's murder at the hands of a quadriplegic pharmacutical ceo and his elvis impersonator bodyguard.

He uses his knowledge of wrestling and the human skeleton to commit devastating chiropractic attacks on his enemies.

He's chased by a detective who's a genius but also clinically depressed and....You must watch this movie. I'm not crazy! It's amazing!

Please!

Going to give an old example and a new example.

I remember liking the Aeon Flux movie. Don't remember too much about it, but I remember enjoying it, and favorably comparing it to Ultraviolet which came out around the same time. Recently I heard someone bring it up in a podcast as a terrible movie and it turns out it's pretty universally panned lol.

A more recent example is The Watchers. I thought it was pretty good and kept my interest the whole time, but seems pretty middling from reviews. A lot of people especially didn't like the ending, which I guess was kind of sudden, but still alright imo. Not noteworthy in being especially bad or anything.