Bad reviews for good movies
There's just no pleasing some
It's hard to make everyone happy. Just yesterday, we bought Snickers bars for the whole office and it turned out that one person was on a diet, another didn't like caramel (?!) and someone else had a nut allergy or whatever.
Even if you're a talented filmmaker and you've made a movie that everyone is pretty much in love with, you're still not guaranteed an easy ride.
Here are 30 examples of critics who've hated movies that everyone else loved.
Click on each image to read more
With thanks to Rotten Tomatoes.
-
Fight Club
"When you see good actors in a project like this, you… More details
Fight Club
"When you see good actors in a project like this, you wonder if they signed up as an alternative to canyoneering"
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
Alien
"An empty-headed horror movie with nothing to… More details
Alien
"An empty-headed horror movie with nothing to recommend it"
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
Star Wars
"Star Wars is a junkyard of cinematic gimcracks not… More details
Star Wars
"Star Wars is a junkyard of cinematic gimcracks not unlike the Jawas' heap of purloined, discarded, barely functioning droids"
Peter Keough, Boston Phoenix
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
Schindler's List
"A theme park ride masquerading as master's… More details
Schindler's List
"A theme park ride masquerading as master's thesis"
Luke Y Thompson, New Times
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
The Godfather Part II
"Part II's dialogue often sounds like cartoon… More details
The Godfather Part II
"Part II's dialogue often sounds like cartoon captions...its insights are fairly lame"
Vincent Canby, New York Times
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
The Dark Knight
"Plodding, puffed-up kitsch mistaking itself for… More details
The Dark Knight
"Plodding, puffed-up kitsch mistaking itself for profound psycho noir that the source material won't support"
Jurgen Fauth, About.com
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
Se7en
"So chic, studied and murky it resembles a cross… More details
Se7en
"So chic, studied and murky it resembles a cross between a Nike commercial and a bad Polish art film"
David Ansen, Newsweek
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
Lord of the Rings: Return o…
"An uneven movie with yawns aplenty"
David… More details
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
"An uneven movie with yawns aplenty"
David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
Blade Runner
"A very dark and far too long thriller with many dull… More details
Blade Runner
"A very dark and far too long thriller with many dull moments that would serve the film better by moving along a bit faster."
Chris Hicks, Deseret News
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
Heat
"All the squealing tyres, flying bullets and falling… More details
Heat
"All the squealing tyres, flying bullets and falling bodies cannot save Heat from drowning in its own banalities"
Andrew Ross, Salon.com
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
Airplane!
"Most of the jokes are groan-worthy, and some are… More details
Airplane!
"Most of the jokes are groan-worthy, and some are downright racist."
Josh Larsen, Larsen On Film
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
Mad Max
"Mad Max is ugly and incoherent, and aimed, probably… More details
Mad Max
"Mad Max is ugly and incoherent, and aimed, probably accurately, at the most uncritical of moviegoers"
Tom Buckley, New York Times
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
The Warriors
"A bad joke shoddily disguised as a gritty urban… More details
The Warriors
"A bad joke shoddily disguised as a gritty urban thriller"
Rob Vaux, Flipside Movie Emporium
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
Die Hard
"Inappropriate and wrongheaded interruptions reveal… More details
Die Hard
"Inappropriate and wrongheaded interruptions reveal the fragile nature of the plot and prevent it from working...a mess"
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
Requiem For A Dream
"If this is the future of cinema, I'd rather be home… More details
Requiem For A Dream
"If this is the future of cinema, I'd rather be home watching television"
Christopher Kelly, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
Rocky
"The screenplay of Rocky is purest Hollywood… More details
Rocky
"The screenplay of Rocky is purest Hollywood make-believe of the 1930's, but there would be nothing wrong with that, had the film been executed with any verve."
Vincent Calby, New York Times
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
The Goonies
"I find nothing entertaining about kids screaming for… More details
The Goonies
"I find nothing entertaining about kids screaming for two hours"
Jeffrey Westhoff, Northwest Herald
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
Spartacus
"It is a spotty, uneven drama"
Bosley Crowther,… More details
Spartacus
"It is a spotty, uneven drama"
Bosley Crowther, New York Times
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
Goodfellas
"Dramatically unsatisfying"
Joseph McBride,… More details
Goodfellas
"Dramatically unsatisfying"
Joseph McBride, Variety
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
Trainspotting
"Full of repugnant junkies so unpleasant that I was… More details
Trainspotting
"Full of repugnant junkies so unpleasant that I was hoping they'd all OD just so I could escape this torture test"
Chuck O'Leary, Fantastica Daily
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
Blue Velvet
"It made me feel pity for the actors who worked in it… More details
Blue Velvet
"It made me feel pity for the actors who worked in it and anger at the director for taking liberties with them"
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
.jpg?m=1329436165 "Gladiator")
Gladiator
"It's almost like [Scott]'s trying as hard as he can… More details
.jpg?m=1329436165 "Gladiator")
Gladiator
"It's almost like [Scott]'s trying as hard as he can to make the worst movie of all time"
Chuck Randolph, Matinee Magazine
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
Oldboy
"As pointless as it is shocking"
Rex Reed, New… More details
Oldboy
"As pointless as it is shocking"
Rex Reed, New York Observer
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
The Matrix
"It's astonishing that so much money, talent,… More details
The Matrix
"It's astonishing that so much money, talent, technical expertise and visual imagination can be put in the service of something so stupid"
Bob Graham, San Francisco Chronicle
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
The Big Lebowski
"This movie seems to me almost a mishmash of the worst… More details
The Big Lebowski
"This movie seems to me almost a mishmash of the worst bits that were left out of previous Coen Brothers outings"
Widgett Walls, Needcoffee.com
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
Gone With The Wind
"Badly written...a bore"
Arthur Schlesinger, The… More details
Gone With The Wind
"Badly written...a bore"
Arthur Schlesinger, The Atlantic
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
2001: A Space Odyssey
"Pretentious, abysmally slow, amateurishly acted and,… More details
2001: A Space Odyssey
"Pretentious, abysmally slow, amateurishly acted and, above all, wrong"
Stephen Hunter, Washington Post
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
Jaws
"It is a coarse-grained and exploitative work which… More details
Jaws
"It is a coarse-grained and exploitative work which depends on excess for its impact. Ashore it is a bore, awkwardly staged and lumpily written"
Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
The Empire Strikes Back
"The Empire Strikes Back is about as personal as a… More details
The Empire Strikes Back
"The Empire Strikes Back is about as personal as a Christmas card from a bank"
Vincent Canby, The New York Times
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
-
Inception
"One way to salvage some fun with this blunderbuss… More details
Inception
"One way to salvage some fun with this blunderbuss would be to fall asleep while watching and dream up a better movie yourself. Try it. You'll avoid a headache"
Kelly Vance, East Bay Express
Top Stories
There's always one...
Every dog has its day
Tags: movies
Even More Stuff
It's hard to be the voice of dissent. We know all about it after that ill-advised dolphin rant at last year's…
More
Characters in movies generally live life exactly like us regular folk do. They eat, they drink, they fight robots…
More
It's not nice getting dumped. So we hear.
Being rejected is always gonna sting, even more so if it's by someone…
More
