Classic Movies it's ok to hate!

http://www.avclub.com/content/node/49630

By Noel Murray, Keith Phipps, Nathan Rabin, Tasha Robinson, Scott Tobias
June 21st, 2006

It's a glorious time to love movies. TVs have gotten bigger, thousands of great films have hit DVD, and online rental services like Netflix have given viewers unprecedented access to classics that the local video store often doesn't bother stocking. But something funny happens when a film gains classic status: It becomes hard to criticize it without seeming sacrilegious. Still, sometimes a little sacrilege can be healthy. Below, The A.V. Club's film writers give you permission to hate the following movies—then explain why their fellow film writers might be wrong.


Star Wars (1977)

Reputation: Even before it evolved into a secular religion for nerds, Star Wars was revered as a swashbuckling space epic that brilliantly united the cliffhanging heroics of old-time serials with revolutionary special effects, just as director George Lucas, teaming with Steven Spielberg, would later do with the Indiana Jones movies.

Why it's okay to hate it: You know what else the Indiana Jones movies had? Clever dialogue and snappy pacing, two elements Star Wars sorely lacks. Remove Harrison Ford's swaggering charisma from Star Wars, and what's left? The Phantom fucking Menace. And has there ever a soggier slice of white bread than Mark Hamill? The prequels didn't violate the timeless genius of Star Wars; their awkward dialogue and stiff performances simply carried on the wooden tradition of Lucas' 1977 original.

Dissent from Tasha: Flawed as it is, and overhyped as it's become, Star Wars still manages to establish a big, sloppy, fascinating universe, populate it with quirky, memorable characters, and still tell a complete and reasonably tight stand-alone story. None of the subsequent entries have lived up to that standard.


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Their list in a nutshell is

Star Wars
Network
A Clockwork Orange
Shawshank Redemption
Exocist
Fantasia
Caddyshack
Roger & Me
Carrie
The Big Lebowski

Citizen Kane
Chariots of Fire
On the Waterfront
Giant
Life is Beautiful

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Reputation: Joel and Ethan Coen's shaggy-dog story about an L.A. slacker who gets mistaken for a millionaire has been hailed as one of the 250 best movies of all time (by IMDB users) and one of the hundred funniest films in history (by the Bravo network). It's also been critically praised as a brilliant modern pastiche of Raymond Chandler's dizzying, character-heavy mystery noirs.

Why it's okay to hate it: The film contains a lot of amusing character business, but all in service to a protagonist who comes across as barely present and a bunch of intriguing plot threads that go nowhere. Compared with the Coens' usual energy and the tautness of their best work, Lebowski feels unfocused, uncommitted, and amateurish.

Dissent from everyone else: No. This is just very, very wrong.

when I finally saw it in the theater and there was an intermission, I thought the movie was over and started to leave until the Movie usher told me there was a second half.

TO this day I'm still disappointed I just didn't keep on leaving!

and Chayevsky was a fucking genius. The author is dissing this one for the sake of dissing.

:thumbsup: