Critics are professional opinion-vendors and as you all know, sometimes opinions are wrong.
Oscar-week generally celebrates the movies that were universally loved by critics, but here at JOE we’re not afraid to do things a little differently.
So without further ado, here are nine great movies that received bad reviews on release.
Ghostbusters
“This film hasn’t gotten very far past the idea stage. Its jokes, characters and story line are as wispy as the ghosts themselves, and a good deal less substantial” – Janet Maslin – The New York Times.
This is one of three Bill Murray movies that appear on this list. You’d have to wonder, ‘do the critics just dislike him?’
Psycho
“There is not an abundance of subtlety… in this obviously low-budget job” – Bosley Crowther – The New York Times.
A budget isn’t important when you tell your story as well as Alfred did.
The Breakfast Club
“Mr. Hughes, having thought up the characters and simply flung them together, should have left well enough alone” – Janet Maslin -The New York Times.
We could go on about why The Breakfast Club is a great movie, but Tony Cuddihy does it much better than we ever could here.
Scrooged
“An appallingly unfunny comedy, and a vivid illustration of the fact that money can’t buy you laughs” – Variety
We’re beginning to wonder, ‘did the critics watch the same movies we did?’
Harold and Maude
“Death can be as funny as most things in life, I suppose, but not the way Harold and Maude go about it— Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times.
Ebert worked as a critic from 1967 until his death in 2013. It’s only natural that he got it wrong on occasion.
Fight Club
“The second act is pandering and the third is trickery, and whatever Fincher thinks the message is, that’s not what most audience members will get” – Roger Ebert
Ebert didn’t hate Fight Club, he just felt it was ordinary. Millions of people throughout the globe couldn’t have agreed less.
Apocalypse Now
“Apocalypse Now is emotionally obtuse and intellectually empty” – Frank Rich – Time Magazine.
It’s amazing to think that a movie which was considered ‘intellectually empty’ by a critic is now being studied by film students everywhere.
The Graduate
“The screenplay, which begins as genuine comedy, soon degenerates into spurious melodrama” – Time Magazine
♫ “So here’s to you Time Magazine, people loved it more than you will know, oh, oh, oh.” ♫
Groundhog Day
“Groundhog Day gets stuck in non-progressive repetition. (It) will never be designated a national film treasure by the Library of Congress” – Desson Howe – The Washington Post.
The United States Library of Congress voted to preserve Groundhog Day through the National Film Registry in 2006.
There you have it, 9 great films that were panned by the critics on release. An opinion is just an opinion and sometimes they’re wrong.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
