Good Movies You Hate

[Mandle]

Lately I have detected an interesting category for movies that I have seen, and could recognize as genuinely good movies, but that I absolutely could not stand or even outright hated.

If anyone else has had similar experiences then please post the movies' name(s) and your reason for your reaction (if possible).

Please try to avoid posts like "NO WAY! That movie is a masterpiece!" in response to someone else's opinion. This thread is not intended to start arguments.

Think of this as more of a place to vent your feelings that would be unpopular anywhere else.

I will start with:

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas.

I love Terry Gilliam movies. I think the man is a genius. I think this movie is expertly crafted, and has amazing acting, outstanding camerawork, and everything else one would expect from a Terry Gilliam movie.

I understand the concepts of Gonzo Journalism and Stream Of Consciousness writing.

But, oh my GOD! I just found this movie grating on my nerves and that feeling increasing exponentially per gorgeous onscreen minute.

The characters were screechy and made me want to tear out the last bit of hair I have left.

I knew the movie was going to wander as aimlessly as the drugged-out characters so that was also annoying on a surface level, but I have read (and watched) The Naked Lunch and read On The Road, without that being a major issue.

I think I just found the entire thing so self-indulgent on the part of the characters, the actors, and the director that I just stopped caring about anything and turned the movie off at the bathroom scene with no regret.

I doubt I will ever attempt a rewatch.

Anyone else got any movies they knew were good, or even great, but just couldn't stand for whatever reason(s)?

[Snarky]

I really enjoyed Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but a movie in a somewhat similar vein that I couldn't stand when I finally got to watch it was Hard to Be a God. I found it almost literally unwatchable, between the camera work of incessant closeups, the nonsensical world, the apparently nonexistent storyline and the wildly over-the-top performances. Oh, and it's three hours long. (I think I lasted about half that.)

Is it a good movie nevertheless? I don't know. I don't see it, but it's certainly critically acclaimed.

[heltenjon]

Lost in translation. I just found it incredibly boring. Good actors, interesting fish-out-of-water premise, and (for me) no entertainment value.

[CaptainD]

Lost in translation. I just found it incredibly boring. Good actors, interesting fish-out-of-water premise, and (for me) no entertainment value.

Ditto!  Some people adore it but I just can't understand why.

Another well thought-of movie that I just found boring was La Dolce Vita. Maybe I was in the wrong mood or too tired but I actually fell asleep and couldn't bring myself to finish watching it another time.

[KyriakosCH]

I recently saw Apocalypse Now.

It has some very nice scenes, and is memorable - but the plot seemed to be the opposite of anything cerebral.

[Sinitrena]

Star Wars (the original trilogy) To be fair, I was running a high fever when I watched the movies (got to about the middle of the second one before I gave up) but I just couldn't find them interesting. For me, the characters were annoyingly boring, the story dragged and the acting was okay at best. I never tried to watch them again. Maybe I'd like them more without a fever melting my brain, but the first try just left me not interested in another one.

If we aren't just talking about movies, but TV shows too, I currently try to get through Dark on Netflix. All critics I've read tell me the show is great, reactions on youtube considered it intruiging and I just find it fairly predictable so far (I'm halfway through the first season - no spoilers please, I haven't given up completely yet!) and just dragging on and on without anything noteable happening for far too large stretches each episode.

[Creamy]

Reds by and with Warren Beatty. I couldn't stand his ego trip for very long.

Strangers on a train by Alfred Hitchcock. It may be a classic but I found the plot silly in several places.

Spoiler

Why can't the hero withdraw from his tennis match? What carousel can turn that fast? And many more

[close]

300 and Sin City. Frank Miller is all style and no substance for me.

I kinda like the feeling of disconnection that Lost in translation creates. Watching it in good company certainly helped me stand the slow rhythm.

I've tried to watch Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas twice but gave up each time for the same reasons as Mandle.

[Mandle]

Creamy, you absolutely nailed your descriptions of Warren (You're So Vain) Beatty and Frank Miller IMO. Although without Frank Miller we wouldn't have The Dark Knight graphic novel so he kind of gets a pass from me just for that.

[dactylopus]

OK, so Citizen Kane may have been a revolutionary movie that pushed film-making to new heights, but I found the movie to be lacking in entertainment value.  Just didn't care for it, and I love old films.  Oh well.

[LimpingFish]

Hate is a strong word, but...

The Shawshank Redemption: The number one movie on IMDB. Figures.

Also, and I recognize the quality, talent, and expertise involved, but almost anything by Martin Scorsese (except After Hours and The King of Comedy...and maybe Taxi Driver), Christopher Nolan (Inception is bollocks), and Quentin Tarantino (probably because I'm aware of almost everything he cribs from, which makes watching his movies nothing but prolonged fan-wank).

...

Francis Ford Coppola! I love Bram Stokers Dracula! Quite like Apocalypse Now. Don't care for much else he's made. The Godfather? Meh.

Though, I have been drinking, so this post may come off as rather boorish. Soz.

EDIT: You know what I hate? People with Scarface posters. That movie sucks.

[Mandle]

You know what I hate? People with Scarface posters. That movie sucks.

A valid personal opinion on the movie, but I gotta say that the poster is pretty nice-looking as just a piece of interior decoration to my eye. I would say it's one of the movie posters that rises to the level of "art worth looking at just for its own sake", even if completely divorced from the film it was originally advertising.

[lorenzo]

a movie in a somewhat similar vein that I couldn't stand when I finally got to watch it was Hard to Be a God.

The Strugatsky Brothers' book was pretty good, but I never watched the film. Seemed too exaggerated and grotesque judging from what I saw.

Strangers on a train by Alfred Hitchcock. It may be a classic but I found the plot silly in several places.

I found that to be the case with many of Hitchcock's films. They're well-made and entertaining, as long as you don't think too much about the story -- there are often huge plot holes.

You know what I hate? People with Scarface posters. That movie sucks.

To be honest, it's not a great poster...

[Mandle]

I've honestly been racking my brain for the last few days since I started this thread to try to come up with another example of a movie that I know is good but that I hate or dislike, mainly to justify having started the thread I guess.

But the closest I can get is:

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

I used to watch this movie repeatedly as a teen. It seemed like it was on TV five or six times a year back in the mid-'80s in Australia.

And every time I watched it I just felt like life has no point for the next 3 days and wondered why even bother.

Then one day I realized my problem and I said to myself "Just don't watch that movie ever again!"

And I never have.

I also understand that the author of the book, based on his real-life experiences in mental institutions, also vowed to never watch the film and never did, as far as I know.

It's an insanely good movie.

Never watch it!

[Stupot]

A recent example of this is Ad Astra. Great effects, some solid acting by a great cast, an incredibly simple and attractive premise. Absolutely mind-numbingly dull as hell. Easily the most boring film I’ve seen at the cinema.

As for classics that I hate... hmmm I can’t actually think of any examples at the moment. I’m sure I’ll think of something though,  because I hate people who seem to like everything that you’re supposed to like.

I have a suspicion that if I went back and watched some stuff I haven’t seen since I was a kid, I might not like them so much... Like E.T or something.

[Adeel]

EDIT: You know what I hate? People with Scarface posters. That movie sucks.

[imgzoom]https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/JdMAAOSwx1Rd1Z7A/s-l1600.jpg[/imgzoom]

[Stupot]

[KyriakosCH]

Mafia films are bad, generally. In the 90s they were a craze, a bit like how it is now with superhero movies (which also suck, imo).

[Mandle]

Anyway, back on topic. Anyone else got one?

[Snarky]

A recent example of this is Ad Astra. Great effects, some solid acting by a great cast, an incredibly simple and attractive premise. Absolutely mind-numbingly dull as hell. Easily the most boring film I’ve seen at the cinema.

I feel like we all, except for Mandle, have strayed away from the concept of the thread: movies you don't like even though you accept that they are good.

(Agreed about Ad Astra, though. I didn't much care for Gray's last movie, The Lost City of Z, either, even though it's right up my alley. Herzog he is not.)

[KyriakosCH]

I generally wouldn't identify a movie as good, if I don't like it, so there are very few I can think of that can be fitted into this rather peculiar mold

It's why I mentioned Apocalypse Now, given at least I could identify parts of the cinematography as high quality, while the overall plot didn't interest me at all. I don't hate it, just would never watch it again.

So if I just go with "movies I didn't like, but had some good elements", there are a few. Even the recent (2020) Underwater, with Kristen Stewart, has high production value (at least in the first half) and a decent lead, but the story has no originality, nor do the characters.

[Mandle]

I feel like we all, except for Mandle, have strayed away from the concept of the thread: movies you don't like even though you accept that they are good.

Stu was on topic with Ad Astra, and I 100% had the same feelings about that movie.

Granted though, it's not an easy topic to find honest examples for.

I'm still searching my memory banks for another.

I know there's one in there though. I can feel it tugging on the line!

[Snarky]

There are some movies that deal with topics and issues I simply cannot relate to, or that take some position I find so problematic that it makes it impossible for me to enjoy them, even though I can see that they're well made. (The example I always come back to is a novel: Brideshead Revisited. I just cannot wrap my head around the author and narrator's enthusiasm for a religion that destroys the lives of most of the book's characters.)

For example, I found Tokyo Story pretty rough going, both in some of the cultural assumptions and in the conflict presented. I did find much to enjoy in it, but it was very much a mixed bag for me. Doesn't mean it's not a masterpieceâ€"because it wasn't made for me.

[TheFrighter]

Another well thought-of movie that I just found boring was La Dolce Vita. Maybe I was in the wrong mood or too tired but I actually fell asleep and couldn't bring myself to finish watching it another time.

I have the same feeling for La grande bellezza (The great beauty), Best International Feature film at 86th Academy Award.
Pratically a 2.0 version of La Dolce Vita.
Yeah, the cinematography is great. Roma is the best set ever. And the protagonist Toni Servillo deserved the academy award for the best actor more than Matthew McConaughey! (Don't hate me for this)

But... what I can say, it don't match with me. Maybe is the glamour, or the support characters. But really don't.

_

[LimpingFish]

I feel like we all, except for Mandle, have strayed away from the concept of the thread: movies you don't like even though you accept that they are good.

Oh, I accept that most of the movies I mentioned (in my rambling post ) are good, even great, examples of cinema. But I didn't enjoy them, for various reasons, and would choose not to watch them again.

Like Mandle said, it's not that easy a question to answer. In fact, it's something of a paradox, especially if we try to separate objective opinion from personal preference.

[heltenjon]

Titanic. I so wanted it to be a historic drama, and it partly is. I just didn't want the love story. And the love story isn't exactly bad either, it just kept interferring with me wanting to see the ship sink.

[Gilbert]

I think the love story was a necessity at the time, as otherwise they could never get back the HUGE amount of money invested in the production. People would not repeatedly dump their money to just watch an (more or less) accurate documentary. Still I'd rather have a special version with all these fillers edited out.

Otherwise this movie was just an updated version of A Night to Remember (with ideas of other old Titanic movies thrown in), which was very, very good (there was another B&W movie just called Titanic with lots of dramas added, which IMO was not as good). A number of scenes were just recreated identically in Cameron's version (together with dialogues).

Yet other than the updated effects (which were good), there were at least two features that made Cameron's version really worthy of its own:
1. The undersea submarine scenes with WTF THE WRECK OF THE REAL THING.
2. The ship broke into two halves before sinking. This was never reproduced in previous attempts due to conflicting reports and other complications.

[milkanannan]

Birdman - The filming style and stage-within-a-stage stuff seemed cool, and the characters seemed interesting, and a New York theatre troupe is a cool setting...but I've tried twice and can't make it through this movie. I don't even know why. I just cannot get myself to care about the plot.

[Mandle]

I think the love story was a necessity at the time,

Especially because, in possibly one of the worst decisions ever made in movie writing history:
SPOILER ALERT I GUESS

Spoiler

Their love story directly causes the sinking of the Titanic!
This is a fact that not many people remember about Titanic, but, if the two main characters had not fallen in love, the ship probably would not have sunk.
The sailor up on watch in the crows-nest is secretly spying on the lovebirds kissing down below on the deck and that is why he doesn't see the iceberg looming up behind him in time to sound the alert so the ship can turn and miss it, or not hit it as fatally.
(Actually, if he had never seen it and the ship had hit it front-on instead of a side-swipe, the ship would not have sunk, but that's a different story.)

[close]

[dactylopus]

Titanic. I so wanted it to be a historic drama, and it partly is. I just didn't want the love story. And the love story isn't exactly bad either, it just kept interferring with me wanting to see the ship sink.

The sinking ship was the best part of the movie.  I gave it an ovation in the theater.

Another "good" movie I hated is Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.  Now there are some valid criticisms of this movie, but it's otherwise well received by regular people.  I just didn't care for it.  It was ordinary.  Then again, I haven't seen it in decades, so maybe it deserves another chance.  I'm sure my wife would love it if I tried again.  Anyways, Men In Tights is the all-time best Robin Hood movie.

[Mandle]

These choices are probably going to be unpopular, but keep complaints to yourself: 

The Neverending Story

Probably because I didn't read the book and see the movie until I was an adult, but I just couldn't make myself give a shit about anything that was happening in the movie.

I disliked the book because the main character was such an obnoxious little shit for most of it, and just wasn't interested in the movie at all.

Labyrinth is a very similar kind of movie and story but I absolutely loved that. Something about The Neverending Story just rubbed me the wrong way.

I think it just felt too "hippy" to me in its philosophy... "Love Dragon"... gimme a break! 

The Dark Crystal

If this had been an animated movie I think I would have loved it.

But I just can't make it more than 20 minutes into this movie before the dead faces of the main puppet characters drive me up the wall.

Puppet shows where the characters only have their body language to express their feelings are fine for 15 minutes, but not for me for a full length movie.

[Creamy]

Birdman - The filming style and stage-within-a-stage stuff seemed cool, and the characters seemed interesting, and a New York theatre troupe is a cool setting...but I've tried twice and can't make it through this movie. I don't even know why. I just cannot get myself to care about the plot.

I have it on my laptop but haven't finished it either.

Another "good" movie I hated is Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.  Now there are some valid criticisms of this movie, but it's otherwise well received by regular people.  I just didn't care for it.  It was ordinary.  Then again, I haven't seen it in decades, so maybe it deserves another chance.  I'm sure my wife would love it if I tried again.  Anyways, Men In Tights is the all-time best Robin Hood movie.

The "good" Robin Hood that I don't like is the one with Russell Crowe - too serious.  It may not be a masterpiece but I had a good time with Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves as a child, thanks to Alan Rickman notably.

[Babar]

The "good" Robin Hood that I don't like is the one with Russell Crowe - too serious.  It may not be a masterpiece but I had a good time with Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves as a child, thanks to Alan Rickman notably.

I'm not sure that many would consider it a good Robin Hood. In fact, my preference is where Prince of Thieves (and thus by osmosis, Men in Tights) took much of its inspiration from: Robin of Sherwood. Some might be turned off by the cheese today, but I still quite like it, although that's probably a topic for the other thread.

[TheFrighter]

I have to add the Kick-Ass movies. The comic book draw by John Romita Jr. is great, but on the screen looks too exasperate

_

[KyriakosCH]

2001 A Space Odyssey has very nice cinematography, yet its pace felt off in the latter part of the movie.

[Mandle]

I don't hate it but:

Midsommar

After Hereditary being the most disturbing film I have probably ever watched I really expected a lot from this one.

I avoided all spoilers and even blocked the DVD menu images with my hand while booting it up.

But it just turned out to be

Spoiler

The Wickerman remake we should have gotten. Although it still did have a guy dressed up as a bear by the end.

[close]

It was gripping while I was watching it, and very well filmed and acted and I was invested right up to the end and then just felt let down with nothing much to think about or take away from it once it was over.

[lorenzo]

I avoided all spoilers and even blocked the DVD menu images with my hand while booting it up.

Why do they have to put spoilers in the DVD menus, it's beyond me. Some DVDs that I have even show photos from the ending!

[Mandle]

I avoided all spoilers and even blocked the DVD menu images with my hand while booting it up.

Why do they have to put spoilers in the DVD menus, it's beyond me. Some DVDs that I have even show photos from the ending!

Have you seen the cover of the original Planet Of The Apes movie DVD?

They show

Spoiler

The Statue Of Liberty sticking up from the ocean. I know that movie is kinda spoiled for 99% of people currently, but do they forget that there are new people being born all the time?!

[close]

[Cassiebsg]

That's the same problem with the:

Spoiler

"Luke. I am your father!"

[close]

People just forgot that no matter how old the movie is that "everybody" has seen it a million times, there are new viewers that haven't seen it! So no matter how old and well known a movie is, FFS, please use spoilers when talking about movies/shows!

[heltenjon]

That's the same problem with the:

Spoiler

"Luke. I am your father!"

[close]

People just forgot that no matter how old the movie is that "everybody" has seen it a million times, there are new viewers that haven't seen it! So no matter how old and well known a movie is, FFS, please use spoilers when talking about movies/shows!

Oh no! How the West was Won spoiled! Darn if I'll ever click on an unmarked spoiler tag again! 

When The Two Towers was coming in movie theaters, the trailer was showing something everyone who had read The Lord of the Rings would know,

Spoiler

That Gandalf wasn't dead and would return

[close]

. My wife hadn't read the books and didn't know. I actually successfully distracted her for months during the key moment of the trailer, offering pop corn or something to make her look off screen. She got the surprise when watching the movie, as everyone should, if possible.

[Mandle]

That's the same problem with the:

Spoiler

"Luke. I am your father!"

[close]

ALERT!!! ALERT!!!

MANDELA AFFECTED SUBJECT DETECTED!!!

INTER-DIMENSIONAL AGENTS ON ROUTE!!!

E.T.A. 15 MINUTES!!!

[TheFrighter]

Michel Hazanavicius's The Artist.
Yeah, the nostalgia of the silent era. The actors are good, The setting is fine.

But... it don't add nothing new.

_

[Mandle]

Michel Hazanavicius's The Artist.
Yeah, the nostalgia of the silent era. The actors are good, The setting is fine.

But... it don't add nothing new.

_

I would have loved that movie if

Spoiler

they hadn't tacked on a happy ending. It should have ended with her trying to pull him out of his depression and alcoholism and failing. That would have been unexpected and interesting.

[close]

[Jared]

The only one leaping to mind is The Maltese Falcon. It was an odd progression. On a whim I read some Raymond Chandler novels and absolutely fell in love with his style and how wonderously overblown-to-the-point-of-camp the colourful hardboiled metaphors were. Now, every man and their dog on the internet seems to be agreed that Raymond Chandler is an absolute laughable amateur compared to Dashiell Hammett. So, given Maltese Falcon is by far and away Hammett's most famous novel it was the obvious one to read. I was pretty excited.

The book sucks. Oh my god does it suck. Sam Spade is the most godawful boring Mary Sue lead I've ever read, who effortlessly overpowers every crook he meets and bangs every dame. There's no real mystery - the four characters you meet near the start are about it, and they're all trying to double cross one another to get the stupid bird statue that they have no reason to believe is real. They just constantly meet up in different configurations, point guns at one another and get beaten up by Sam until... I dunno, they get arrested? Now, Chandler plots aren't Dickens but he wrote them well. But I didn't find any piece of Hammett's prose vaguely memorable. It was a staggeringly dull wash.

So I reasoned "Aha, it must be the film! The famous iconic film by John Huston must be so good that it made the book good by association!"

Well, the film is beautifully shot and the cast are excellent and the music is great... really, everything superficial is great but... it's a pretty faithful adaptation. And seeing Humphrey Bogart in live action just constantly, non-stop, with no effort at all overpower all these dudes who have guns when he's unarmed can't really be made not ridiculous. It's like if a weasel-faced uncle of yours made a vanity project film where he gets to be Jackie Chan. I guess these kind of pulpy pseudo-heroics were more passable at the time, but I found it hard to take seriously. The film is unarguably a classic, though, and it launched everyone's careers into the stratosphere so I'm an outlier.

[Marcin K.]

I hate "Joker". It's a decent film. Well done rip-off of "Taxi driver". As standalone film - technicaly really good. Phoenix as always - great. But makes no sense as comic book character adaptation. It ruins Joker. Has nothing to do with comic book insane criminal mastermind. All that explaining how did he became the one he is, blaming the "system", making him an icon and symbol of social unrests... this really sucks. That part is thick a wooden malled and designed for millenials who got excited when they see Gut Fawkes masks and need "message" written with huge letters and repeated few times just to be sure. In other words: another fascinating case about how corporations makes money and get critical acclaim selling anticapitalism as a product. As a former comic book fan - disappointed as hell. Yet camerawork really good (shameless copy of the "Taxi Driver" style but good)

[Mandle]

In the case of "Joker", you can always just assume that the main character was a comic book fan who fantasized the whole thing about living in Gotham City and meeting Bruce Wayne and his dad, and eventually becoming the Joker. He was really just a delusional dude living in New York. Kinda like the guy who thought he was the Joker and shot up that movie theater, although I believe the claim that he thought he was the Joker has since been thrown into doubt.

[Mandle]

Legends Of The Fall

Beautifully shot with jaw-dropping scenery and fairly decent acting all around, this completely humorless movie is one of the biggest downers of all-time.

Every scene exists only to drip tragedy and melodrama from every frame. Even when the characters appear to be happy for a few brief montage moments, you have to wonder why. They should have learned by now that, in their universe, happiness is just the setup the writer is using to make it sting more when they snatch it away in the next scene.

I actually started laughing about halfway through when the body count from war, tragic accident, and suicide started to approach that of a Rambo movie and only kept watching to see how each scene was going to try and top the last with even more over-the-top ghastly tragedy.

Oh, and did I mention it's looooong? They could have thrown in at least one chuckle or even moment to smile at somewhere but NO! The movie must continue taking itself seriously for what feels like at least 6 hours of runtime.

Truly a film for lovers of Misery-Porn. For me though, it's more a Legend Of The Fail.

[milkanannan]

Sorry, I've probably misinterpreted this thread (again), but Japanese Netflix film 'Mother' (2020). Wonderfully casted. Beautifully shot. The story moves along quickly but it is not disjointed in any way. But Christ, that was depressing. So depressing I wish I hadn't seen it, and actually I completely hate that I saw it. I will never watch this good movie again!

[Mandle]

Sorry, I've probably misinterpreted this thread (again), but Japanese Netflix film 'Mother' (2020). Wonderfully casted. Beautifully shot. The story moves along quickly but it is not disjointed in any way. But Christ, that was depressing. So depressing I wish I hadn't seen it, and actually I completely hate that I saw it. I will never watch this good movie again!

I've heard that about that movie. I will never rewatch One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest for the same reason.

[LimpingFish]

Sorry, I've probably misinterpreted this thread (again), but Japanese Netflix film 'Mother' (2020)...

I was just about to be all pedantic and point out that Mother is Korean, before I stopped myself and realized it was an altogether different film to this one. Equally disturbing to watch, but fantastic and highly recommended. Which is the opposite of what this thread is about, so...

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Everything about it screams quality, yet I found it equal parts tedious and (unintentionally) hilarious.

[------]

-------

[Monsieur OUXX]

If anyone writes "Raiders" I'm taking out the flamethrower.

[milkanannan]

I suppose this is going to sound very odd but I couldn't stand Spirited Away I'm not saying that it's a bad movie, because it's obvious that it isn't, but it was imposible to me to enjoy it 

Why was it impossible for you to enjoy it?

[------]

-------

[Creamy]

Michel Hazanavicius's The Artist.
Yeah, the nostalgia of the silent era. The actors are good, The setting is fine.

But... it don't add nothing new.

I respectfully disagree. I found some bits inventive.

Spoiler

[close]

I would have loved that movie if

Spoiler

they hadn't tacked on a happy ending. It should have ended with her trying to pull him out of his depression and alcoholism and failing. That would have been unexpected and interesting.

[close]

Spoiler

That's what she does. Giving him a new success is a little easy but I don't see how she could have pulled him out of his depression without helping him find new meaning to his life. Surely, the success of their dancing act would fade over time and problems would start again. Hopefully, he'd cope better next time with the help of his friends.

[close]

[Babar]

I suppose this is going to sound very odd but I couldn't stand Spirited Away I'm not saying that it's a bad movie, because it's obvious that it isn't, but it was imposible to me to enjoy it 

Why was it impossible for you to enjoy it?

It's difficult for me to answer this question. I suposse it was a mix of expectations, my mood when I watched the film and some kind of feeling about I wasn't understand what the film was talking about sometimes. But as I said I feel that it's a very subjective appreciation (and possibly a wrong one) 

I can't really say I ever had strong enough feelings to hate them, but so much of the Studio Ghibli filmography blurs together for me into this unmemorable mass of children having adventures with supernatural creatures in idyllic settings.

[Mandle]

I can't really say I ever had strong enough feelings to hate them, but so much of the Studio Ghibli filmography blurs together for me into this unmemorable mass of children having adventures with supernatural creatures in idyllic settings.

For me, "Spirited Away", is my favorite Japanese animated film of all time. I love the main character for her honesty and clumsiness in everything she does. She has one goal and she sticks to it, but she never tries to betray anyone who trusts her to get to that goal. In fact, she causes a shit-load of trouble by just being kind-hearted enough to let the faceless banned spirit to come in from out of the rain. The faceless spirit gobbles up everyone else when they accept more and more of its treasure, but then gets confused when our main character only wants one of the hot-water keys that it has to give her. It tries to give her more and more, just like it gave more and more gold to the toad, but she doesn't need them. This confuses and fascinates the faceless spirit, that someone is unselfish, and he goes with her on her journey to the island of the mistress' twin.
I could honestly write for page upon page about how deep these moral themes are, and I haven't even mentioned the metaphor of how everyone trapped in this world is somehow lacking something they need to find, represented by their forgotten names.
Even if taken as a literal story, it has one of the greatest open-endings of all time for me.
Our main character knows that their car has been sitting there for at least a few months, or years,, as evidenced by the leaves and mud caked on it. But she doesn't tell the parents anything as they drive off to their new home they think is still waiting for them.
I have always wondered what the police process would look like after it was realized that this family that had disappeared months or years ago had suddenly shown up again.

[Danvzare]

I can't really say I ever had strong enough feelings to hate them, but so much of the Studio Ghibli filmography blurs together for me into this unmemorable mass of children having adventures with supernatural creatures in idyllic settings.

As someone once told me, they can all be summarized as "fish out of water" movies. Ponyo being quite literal in that regard.
Personally, I like them all. But I can definitely understand how them might "blur together" if you've watched them all. Then again, the same can be said with Disney and Pixar.

[cat]

I love "Spirited Away", mainly for the setting, the visuals but also the story and the weird characters.
However, I didn't like "Princess Mononoke" or "Nausica". I just couldn't get into them.

[Galen]

Mononoke needs acknowledging for being the nightmare fuel that it is, horrifying worm boars, vengeful nature gods, and a somewhat doom filled story. Feels more akin to something like Neverending Story with its mix of surreal nightmares and general doom.

[Mandle]

Mononoke needs acknowledging for being the nightmare fuel that it is, horrifying worm boars, vengeful nature gods, and a somewhat doom filled story. Feels more akin to something like Neverending Story with its mix of surreal nightmares and general doom.

It is a great movie, but would also belong on my list here for me personally. I don't hate it, but I wouldn't probably watch it again. It feels like an attempt by Gibli to do something epic like Lord Of The Rings, as much as Naushika felt like a Dune ripoff at times (lookin' at YOU giant mystical worms!). Mononoke had me snoozing a bit during the long story-building scenes but the amazing action scenes did wake me up, especially the Princess' ninja-style attack on the industrial town. But, yeah, Gibli does much better focusing on smaller and more personal stories.

[Stupot]

Ghibli don’t have a bad movie in their catalogue. But I do think overall they are a little over-rated. Spirited Away is one of my favourite films but I wonder if that’s just because it was my first Ghibli, and came to me at a time when I was just developing my interest in anything to do with Japan.

There seems to be an expectation that all foreigners in Japan should be at least Ghibli fans, if not outright anime otaku. But in honesty, I’m sort of with Mandle. Naussicca, Mononoke, Totoro. These are films I’ve only seen once. I enjoyed them at the time but they’re not top of my list for a rewatch. The only one I rewatch from time to time is Castle of Cagliostro but I’m coming to that for Lupin III, not Ghibli.

Which reminds me of another film for this list. Grave of the Fireflies. Great, beautiful movie. Not for me, thanks.

[Mandle]

Which reminds me of another film for this list. Grave of the Fireflies. Great, beautiful movie. Not for me, thanks.

For me, that falls into the same category as One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest in that everyone should watch it once, absorb its message into the way they look at and live life, and then probably never watch again or risk suicidal depression.

Grave Of The Fireflies should be required viewing for Junior High students in any country, with guided discussion from a history teacher that this shit actually happened, so that it may never happen again.

[Danvzare]

Which reminds me of another film for this list. Grave of the Fireflies. Great, beautiful movie. Not for me, thanks.

For me, that falls into the same category as One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest in that everyone should watch it once, absorb its message into the way they look at and live life, and then probably never watch again or risk suicidal depression.

Grave Of The Fireflies should be required viewing for Junior High students in any country, with guided discussion from a history teacher that this shit actually happened, so that it may never happen again.

+1
It's the best film I have ever watched, and I will never ever watch it again in my life.