when you disagreed with everyone else

skippercollecto · June 18th, 2004, 02:12 PM

What science fiction or fantasy TV series, or a disaster, horror, sci fi or fantasy movie that the critics panned and the public ignored do you secretly love/watch over and over/collect?
Likewise, what science fiction or fantasy TV series, or a disaster, horror, sci fi or fantasy film that the critics loved and the public watched constantly did you hate or completely miss the point of?
For me, it was the movie Titanic and the original Star Trek series. I thought Titanic was waaaaaaay tooooo long, the plot preposterous and the acting mediocre. It's not a good sign when I'm sitting in the theater mentally editing the film as I'm watching it.
I always thought the acting was somewhat forced in Star Trek.
On the other hand, I loved Voyager and still watch it in reruns. It's very much a chick-flick show and the fact that the crew spent so many years looking for Earth was very reminiscent of Galactica.
Now before you throw tomatoes, send hate email, plan for lightning to strike either me or anyone else or tell us why we're complete idiots, I want to remind you that that's not the point of these questions. I just want to know when and how you disagreed with the critics.
Mary

ernie90125 · June 18th, 2004, 03:19 PM

My FAVOURITE film is called 'The Wraith' It was an utter flop at the cinema.

I think it is a fantastic film. Most people who have sat down to watch it, have become bored of all the many car chases. The problem with this film is that you had to get to the end to understand why every part of it is nessesary.

I think it is an amazing film, to give a brief plotline :

A man is murdered by a car racing gang, who wanted his car and his girlfriend. Then they moved onto other cars, and other girls...

But he came back....

In a car that could not be stopped....

One at a time he raced them, through the twisting turns of the mountain roads. Then he would accelerate away, turn round and hit them head on...

Both cars were destroyed, but he would return, with his car to find another chance to race another gang member to their death...

A 'person' also came back, making contact with the girlfriend and his brother. After a while people started to realise that he had come back, and could not be stopped....

I though it was a fantastic film, but to many people, especially those who didn't watch the end, they 'didn't get' the significane of each race and what happened in between....

PlaidSquadron · June 18th, 2004, 03:21 PM

IMHO, Buckeroo Banzai is one of the top films ever made. And the critics universally hated it

BST · June 18th, 2004, 04:20 PM

Although I can't specifically name them, at this time, I used to find myself DRAWN to movies that the "critics" panned. I felt that their opinion was no more worthy than mine. If I agreed with them, fine; if not, it was my gain and their loss.

Sorry, Mary, I know this didn't answer your question.

thomas7g · June 18th, 2004, 04:59 PM

I liked Tales of the Gold MOnkey, Man from Atlantis, Gemini Man, Salvage 1, Greatest American Hero, Firefly, Quark, And lots of really panned shows.

As long as it has a sense of fun I can watch anything.

amberstar · June 18th, 2004, 10:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ernie90125

My FAVOURITE film is called 'The Wraith' It was an utter flop at the cinema...

I remember that one, and yes you have to watch it until the end to understand it!

It has good old Charlie in it

amberstar · June 18th, 2004, 10:30 PM

I liked the night of the Comet..........but I don't think it was a big hit at the box office

gmd3d · June 19th, 2004, 03:47 AM

Quote:

thomas7g
I liked Tales of the Gold MOnkey, Man from Atlantis, Gemini Man, Salvage 1, Greatest American Hero, Firefly, Quark, And lots of really panned shows.
As long as it has a sense of fun I can watch anything

your a man after my own heart I enjoyed all apart from Firefly, Quark never got here.

Gemini1999 · June 19th, 2004, 08:31 AM

I don't know if I could pick just one film or TV series.... When I was younger, I watched pretty much everything that came under the "Sci Fi Umbrella". I heard that critics didn't like this, or didn't like that, but I found something enjoyable in whatever it was anyway. At some point, I started reading movie reviews before seeing them and if the critic called it trash, then I avoided it. Years later, I would feel brave and watch it on VHS and find myself saying "why didn't I go see that?"

From that point on, I became my own critic - at least the only one I would take viewing advice from... I still read critic's reviews, but only for information's sake, but I still go and see it if I want to. If nobody else likes it, so what? I'm not seeing it for someone else's enjoyment, just my own.

By the way.....sometimes this tactic means you have to go to the movies on your own because nobody else wants to see that turkey of a film you want to see....

I guess one of my "guiltly pleasures" when it comes to films would be Roger Corman's Battle Beyond the Stars (AKA - John Boy in Space). Yes, I know, it's loaded with more cheese than a large pizza, but I still love watching it on DVD now and then. It's a fun movie, there are a lot of old-time stars in it, some neat spaceships, an interesting score and lots of space battles and SFX. A popcorn movie if ever I saw one! It was made before Sci Fi (and the people who watch it) took themselves too seriously...

Best to all,
Bryan
________
Latin Girl Live

Krystal · June 19th, 2004, 04:43 PM

Well, is very rare when the opinion of a critic is the same as mine. So I suppose that is why no matter what I read about something is it atracts me I see it and make my own opinion. Same goes with the ratings, I always love the ones that don't get much ratings. :laugh: That goes for everything in my life books, programs, decisions.

Krystal

skippercollecto · June 20th, 2004, 12:11 PM

My sisters and cousins and I (we were all in junior high or high school) saw the 1978 musical fantasy "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" the weekend it opened in 1978. We were all blown away by it. I later watched it every time it was on TV. I've never understood the utter hatred by the critics for this film.

Ian_W359 · June 20th, 2004, 01:43 PM

Okay, time to confess - I've seen a few films in my time, some good, some bad.....

I agree with Gemini on 'Battle Beyond The Stars' - Despite its cheeziness, its got a quality that puts it well above similar films of the period (remember Star Crash, Shape Of Things To Come....... any more to add to the list????), plus the people who cut their cinematic 'teeth' on BBOS moved on to much bigger things..... (James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd, James Horner....)

One film I'll admit to like, despite being universally panned, is 'Battlefield Earth' - if only for one reason..... the performance of John Travolta as Terl - great, but probably for the wrong reasons (one reviewer described him as a 'moustache-twirling villain'... nuff said).....

As for films that were considered great but I hated - one example springs to mind - 'The Blair Witch Project'. I'm not sure why this film was feted so much in the build-up to its release, but watching it - I didn't feel much in the way of emotion (perhaps due to the difference in the way it was filmed) and I felt that it did not make much sense. On the way out of the cinema, I overheard a woman saying to a friend, 'That film was rubbish, I want my money back' - was she serious?

All the best,
Ian W359

thomas7g · June 20th, 2004, 04:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by potemkin

your a man after my own heart I enjoyed all apart from Firefly, Quark never got here.

Awww... YOu didn't like Firefly? That's too bad. But alot of people were really turned off by the western theme. And that was made worse when they didn't show the cool pilot and instead stuck us with that lame train robery episode.

Quark...was baaaad...But I was a young boy and it had spaceships. Basically a cheap comedy about garbage men in space. With Richard Benjamin as the captain. Enough said.

gmd3d · June 21st, 2004, 12:14 AM

thomas7g

Quote:

Awww... YOu didn't like Firefly? That's too bad. But alot of people were really turned off by the western theme. And that was made worse when they didn't show the cool pilot and instead stuck us with that lame train robery episode.

I did not meen to say I did not like Firefly or Quark, they just never arrived here in Ireland (as far as I know) so untill you mentioned them I have never hear of them. there is a lot of show that we never see

Rowan has mentioned a few in another thread also that I have never heard of
either

.

One show that come's to mind at the moment is "JASON OF STAR COMMAND"
I can't remember the lead actor name but James Doohan that played Scotty
in star trek was in it as the commander.

thomas7g · June 21st, 2004, 03:38 AM

aww ... tiy didn't get Firefly yet? Man that sucks! I really feel bad about how Europe and the rest of the world get short-changed on tv shows made here.

I did see Jason of StarCommand. I used to like the show alot. Did you see the show it was based after? It was a major rework of a show called Space Academy. it featured Jonathan Harris as the headmaster. Most people know him as Dr Smith from lost in space but we know him as the voice of Lucifer!

Charybdis · June 21st, 2004, 09:19 AM

Oh, I don't know. I guess I liked this little show that the critics mostly panned called "Battlestar Galactica!"

unowhoandwhy · June 21st, 2004, 11:20 AM

Generally, if the critics hate it then I love it, and if they love it then I hate it. But I've always been a bit contrary so I don't know if I just don't agree with the critics or if I like or hate it just because the critics don't or do... ;D

One movie that I thought was overrated (and please don't hate me for this) was Forrest Gump. I got so sick of hearing about it that I waited years to watch it so that I could have an open mind. When I finally watched it I was, alas, quite disappointed. It was good, but I didn't feel that it lived up to what everyone said about it.

As for a show that critics hated and I loved: The most recent would be Firefly, which had such incredible potential. I was devestated when it was cancelled. I think the critics couldn't see past the initial "space western" concept and never gave it a chance (when I saw the real pilot I was blown away even more, thank goodness for DVDs!). I'm not suprised that the network didn't give it a chance, though, networks are notorious for supporting reality TV dren (ie: cheap and full of not-so-subliminal advertising for their sponsors) and for cancelling great shows without giving them a chance to grow (let's face it, most of them are SciFi/fantasy and very good, ie: expensive).

Krystal · July 19th, 2004, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skippercollecto

My sisters and cousins and I (we were all in junior high or high school) saw the 1978 musical fantasy "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" the weekend it opened in 1978. We were all blown away by it. I later watched it every time it was on TV. I've never understood the utter hatred by the critics for this film.

Well, I love it. See I tell you, critics don't like the same thing I do.

Krystal

braxiss · July 19th, 2004, 08:27 PM

gotta go with the adventures of pluto nash, i love that movie and there are some really funny parts

Archangel · July 20th, 2004, 11:25 AM

I gotta go with a universally-panned film:

HOWARD THE DUCK

Rowan · July 20th, 2004, 12:57 PM

I loved the tv series: The Young Riders, Wizards and Warriors, The Cape, 7 Brides for 7 Brothers (staring our own Richard Dean Anderson), and Pensacola Wings of Gold.

For Movies I loved: Coyote Ugly, own it and watch it a lot! LOL!

braxiss · July 20th, 2004, 03:35 PM

howard the duck, i loved that one.

braxiss · July 25th, 2004, 07:29 PM

i just remembered one i used to watch alot,

"KISS meets the phantom"

bad movie, but as a member of the kiss army i watched it several times and it really is

worth a good laugh