Films/TV you are meant to like, but don't

[davek_964]

MikeT66 said:

The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Just... no.

My mum was obsessed by it - even to the point of asking for a Rocky Horror themed funeral.

[anonymous-user]

tangerine_sedge said:

Goodfellas is the best Mafia movie of all time, none of that honour crap, its all about making as much money as possible without getting caught, even if that involves getting rid of friends who might become liabilities.

On a slightly OT slant, if you are bored during lock down and want to look into what became of Henry, check out the howard stern show that's available on youtube. It's both tragic and shocking the way he went and the way Howard treated the guy (especially the way he talked about him after his death).

He was a mobster etc but the dialogue between Howard Stern and his news reader really did shine them in their true colours. Complete and utter media wes. It's worth checking out.

[Quickmoose]

Agreeing with a lot on here

I watched all of Breaking Bad, broke the mould, original stuff with a decent cast, production values etc.... despite a few occasions of entertaining tension, I just got bored of it, the ever stretching of story combined with a slow pace, glad it was over. I put Ozark way ahead of it.
Sons of Anarchy, again, I stuck this out faaaar too long.... but eventually through fatigue I just stopped.
Mrs Browns Boys.... it's not funny
Cult musicals.... can't stand a musical at the best of times, so that doesn't help.
Star Wars - the re-boots/re-told-prequel-sequel rubbish. The ones JJ Abrams had a hand in, had some merit, but 1,2,3 were awful, 7,8 same story re-told, and whilst 9 was ok, 4,5,6 were at least 'new' to some degree.

[Johnnytheboy]

_Rich_ said:

The Deer Hunter

I missed this post. Absolutely awful waste of film.

From that era when directors had a bit too much creative control.

IIRC Michael Cimino's next film (Heaven's Gate) was so self indulgent it bankrupted its studio, and killed his career.

The bizarre thing is you look at his career prior to The Deer Hunter and there isn't much, and yet Hollywood gave him huge bags of cash to make films with.

[garybezz]

Mr. Potato Head said:

Mention the Lord of the Rings just once more and I'll more than likely kill you.

Moorcock, Moorcock, Michael Moorcock you fervently moan

[toon10]

I didn't really like Luther and I watched them all after investing in the first season.

Breaking Bad is probably the best TV series I've ever watched. There's not much I didn't like from the cinematography, pace, character development and action. I was hooked 15 seconds in after the opening scene.

I'd like to say the Wire but I can't as I've never made it past the first 30 minutes or so. Awful accents, generic NCIS type acting and nothing about it grabbed me like BB did. That seems to be the one that makes a lot of peoples top 5 so maybe I need to give that another go. (I've tried twice now.)

Movie wise, probably The Lord of the Rings. Again, I can't make it past the first 30 minutes without turning off.

[Loose_Cannon]

TV: I dont watch much TV made in the last 10 plus years, its not because I think I'm above it, I'm just sick of being disappointed.

"Killing Eve" is the best example of whats wrong with TV (and films) today, for the foreseeable future, and possibly forever more; men running around acting like retarded pussies to make women look stronger and superior.

Films: I have a real hard time with Kubrick stuff. He's touted as genius, and I can appreciate the technical aspect like the lighting and filmography in barry Lyndon, or the scale of Spartacus, but I find his pace glacial and dialogue appalling.

Still cant make it to the end of "2001" no matter how hard I try. A parade of impressive tits was utterly boring in "Eyes Wide Shut for example". In fact my eyes were wide shut for most of the film.

My son introduced me to "Paths of Glory" which I really enjoyed, but it was probably more for Kirk Douglas' rivetting screen persona and powerhouse delivery.

[Loose_Cannon]

toon10 said:

Movie wise, probably The Lord of the Rings. Again, I can't make it past the first 30 minutes without turning off.

I enjoyed them but havent watched them since. Is that a sign?

Graham Norton did a good impression; "gooodbyyyyyyyye.....misterrrr.....Frohhhhhhhh.....dohhhhh...."

[marcosgt]

Surprised about The Office responses - It took me about 15 minutes of watching the first one to realise it wasn't a fly on the wall documentary.

Yes, it's kind of one joke, but there are loads of smaller good ones scattered throughout and, in my experience, most of the characters DO exist in most offices.

TV I'm 'meant' to like, but don't - The Wire - Watched the first two episodes, the second with subtitles on, but I found them rather slow, but worse incomprehensible. I gave up - Maybe my loss, but I can live with it.

Film - The Shawshank Redemption - It's an OK film, but it's not a 1/10th as good as a lot of people make it out to be - One watch was enough for me to shrug and say "Yeah, it was OK", I'll not bother with it again, though.

Mrs Brown's Boys IS sh**e, but at least you know that from the trailers! You don't need to pretend to be 'refined' to know it

M

[Frank7]

jet_noise said:

Rocky Horror - just another musical, with bad makeup.
I did however love the Blues Brothers. Playing spot the cameo. Tunes are a cut above. And as the plot features a band anyway it didn't suffer the usual musical let's-stop-things-to-lever-in-a-song malaise. Some great quotables too.
YMMV (in fact it does )

I saw Rocky Horror in NYC with my American girlfriend at the time, her friend, and a couple of their college friends, I didn’t like it at all, and said so, then walked out, accompanied by g/f’s friend.
We went to a bar and met the others later, their majority opinion, save for my g/f, was “What do you expect from an artless limey?”
Loved the Blues Brothers, watch it every now and again, never goes stale.
“I don’t believe it! It’s that st-box Dodge again!”

[p4cks]

Totally agree about Breaking Bad. I gave it three 'goes' and got up to season 3 but it was so poorly written and acted it was almost laughable. People will tell you that it's the best TV show ever, but 99.9% of those people will have never seen The Wire which is something that we will never see the likes of again.

Star Wars - The best description of it was Malcolm Tucker in the brilliant The Thick of It... "The one about the fking space hairdresser and the cowboy. He's got a tinfoil pal and a pedal bin. His father's a robot and he's fking fked his sister. Lego. They're all made of fking lego."

[ro250]

I see Killing Eve has been mentioned but not for the same reason as I have.

I just watched the first series. Thought it started well but got progressively more implausible to the point of becoming 'anything goes to keep this storyline going'. I watched episode 1 of series 2 and the stupidity continued. I know it's a dark comedy but it has to maintain some form of plausibility surely?

The Villanelle character is wonderfully acted but I just couldn't watch any more.

[davek_964]

marcosgt said:

Film - The Shawshank Redemption - It's an OK film, but it's not a 1/10th as good as a lot of people make it out to be - One watch was enough for me to shrug and say "Yeah, it was OK", I'll not bother with it again, though.

Thing with that is - wasn't it a bit of a flop / OK film when it was released? Only since then did it become some kind of Holy Grail of films.

(I agree with your view - it's an OK film, but nothing special).

[Centurion07]

p4cks said:

...Breaking Bad...(snip)...so poorly written and acted it was almost laughable...

I will accept reasons such as mentioned by another poster, that you didn't like any of the characters, or maybe the actors playing them, or where it was set, or the subject matter, or any other number of tangible things, but to say a show that is pretty much universally-acclaimed as being incredibly well-written AND acted is in fact the complete opposite, is laughable.

I don't listen to classical music, can't stand it. I do however realise that there is an immense talent required to write and perform it and that my loathing of it is in no way a reflection of what it actually is.

Edited by Centurion07 on Tuesday 14th April 15:53

[davek_964]

Centurion07 said:

p4cks said:

...Breaking Bad...(snip)...so poorly written and acted it was almost laughable...

I will accept reaosns such as mentioned by another poster, that you didn't like any of the characters, or maybe the actors playing them, or where it was set, or the subject matter, or any other number of tangible things, but to say a show that is pretty much universally-acclaimed as being incredibly well-written AND acted is in fact the complete opposite, is laughable.

I (as well as a few others in this thread) found it incredibly slow. I'd say that suggests that for our tastes (and this entire thread is 100% subjective) it was pretty badly written.

[Gameface]

People too lazy to watch more than an episode of two of something (especially The Wire) should not comment on them.

[Centurion07]

davek_964 said:

Centurion07 said:

p4cks said:

...Breaking Bad...(snip)...so poorly written and acted it was almost laughable...

I will accept reaosns such as mentioned by another poster, that you didn't like any of the characters, or maybe the actors playing them, or where it was set, or the subject matter, or any other number of tangible things, but to say a show that is pretty much universally-acclaimed as being incredibly well-written AND acted is in fact the complete opposite, is laughable.

I (as well as a few others in this thread) found it incredibly slow. I'd say that suggests that for our tastes (and this entire thread is 100% subjective) it was pretty badly written.

See my edit re. classical music. As you say, tastes are very subject and as I explained, my TASTE does not determine whether something is badly written or performed.

When the vast majority of critics and viewers are of the opinion something is good...

[p4cks]

davek_964 said:

Centurion07 said:

p4cks said:

...Breaking Bad...(snip)...so poorly written and acted it was almost laughable...

I will accept reaosns such as mentioned by another poster, that you didn't like any of the characters, or maybe the actors playing them, or where it was set, or the subject matter, or any other number of tangible things, but to say a show that is pretty much universally-acclaimed as being incredibly well-written AND acted is in fact the complete opposite, is laughable.

I (as well as a few others in this thread) found it incredibly slow. I'd say that suggests that for our tastes (and this entire thread is 100% subjective) it was pretty badly written.

This.

The problem is I'd seen The Wire before I'd seen Breaking Bad, therefore for me everything that followed the former was a real struggle to watch and to engage with. Even now I struggle to watch anything because the acting and storyline just isn't up to the standard of The Wire.

[toon10]

davek_964 said:

Centurion07 said:

p4cks said:

...Breaking Bad...(snip)...so poorly written and acted it was almost laughable...

I will accept reaosns such as mentioned by another poster, that you didn't like any of the characters, or maybe the actors playing them, or where it was set, or the subject matter, or any other number of tangible things, but to say a show that is pretty much universally-acclaimed as being incredibly well-written AND acted is in fact the complete opposite, is laughable.

I (as well as a few others in this thread) found it incredibly slow. I'd say that suggests that for our tastes (and this entire thread is 100% subjective) it was pretty badly written.

It is all subjective however I'd suggest that pace and writing are two different things. It is slow paced but written superbly to the point where I didn't mind the pace, I was still intrigued. In fact, I enjoyed it all the more because they didn't cram too much into a 50 minute/1 hour episode like mose shows do.

Better Call Saul is even slower, a lot slower in fact. Not that much happens in the first 2 seasons and yet it's so well shot, well acted and the characters are so fascinating that the pace doesn't really bother me. I accept both shows will not appeal to many but the writing is so far above most mainstream TV which is why they are critically acclaimed (in my opinion of course.)

[Centurion07]

toon10 said:

It is all subjective...

Well, yes and no.

Your like or dislike of something is subjective, but that is not so much a measure of the actual quality of the writing and acting as it is your own preferences and prejudices.

I can't stand Shakespeare. I can't understand Shakespeare, hence I don't like his work. I'm not under any kind of illusion however that his work obviously has some sort of artistic merit since his work is still referenced over 400 years later and his name is THE go-to when any kind of classic literature is referenced in any way and it is still taught in schools today.

Like/dislike and the reasoning behind that is subjective; quality is not.