Wednesday 24 August 2016

Against the Crowd Blogathon 2016

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We’ve been following Dell on Movies and taken part in a few of his brilliant blogathons for a couple of years now, and I was so happy to see in our Blogger feed that he was hosting his Against the Crowd blogathon again, this year in partnership with KG’s Movie Rants! We somehow missed last year’s edition so there was no way I was going to let that happen again. Especially so soon after watching a ‘must watch classic’ that I actually kind of hated, and have been too scared to review…

As always, a blogathon comes with a set of rules, and here they are in Dell’s own words:

1. Pick one movie that "everyone" loves (the more iconic, the better). That movie must have a score of at least 75% on rottentomatoes.com. Tell us why you hate it.

2. Pick one movie that "everyone" hates (the more notorious, the better). That movie must have a score of less than 35% on rottentomatoes.com. Tell us why you love it.

3. Include the tomato meter scores of both movies.

4. Use one of the banners in this post, or feel free to create your own.

5. Comment on this post, or on KG's Movie Rants with the two movies you intend on writing on.

6. Publish your post on any day from Monday August 22 through Friday August 26, 2016.

Even better, check out Dell’s original post here to find out more and to check out the other banners.

Let’s kick this off!

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The Departed (2006)
Everyone loves The Departed, right? It’s ranked #42 on IMDB’s Top 250, and it features some of the biggest names in the movie industry, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg and Jack Nicholson to name just a few. There’s a cop who’s undercover as a gang member, and a gang member undercover as a cop, there’s backstabbing, deceit, lies, etc. I lost track of who was actually working for who very quickly, and boy was it a long movie!

Spoiler alert right now for the very few who haven’t seen this...was it really worth anything in the end anyway? I spent the last 20 minutes or so with my jaw on the floor because it was just such a ‘WTF’ moment. In fact, let me tell you a funny story. On the way home from our honeymoon, my husband and I couldn’t get seats next to each other on one of the flights, so we caught up at JFK once we landed. I asked him what movies he’d watched and he said he watched The Departed. ‘Ugh!’ I cried out in the middle of Departure Gate 18. ‘I hated that movie. Everyone just died in the end anyway!’. That’s the moment my husband told me he’d ‘started’ to watch the movie. He still had half an hour left. Sorry, love. He has since seen the ending, and explained (at length) the importance of it all. I smiled and nodded the whole time to make up for spoiling the ending like a jerk.



Taxi Driver (1976)
This is also listed on IMDB's Top 250 and a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes so it must be good right?  Every person I have spoken to who has seen this film has loved it and I just don't get it. I don't hate it by any stretch, I just didn't particularly enjoy it.  I think there is a chance that I am missing something that everyone else is getting because I don't understand why everyone loves it.

I have gone into depth in a full review on the blog previously so I won't ramble on too much about the ins and outs of this one but I felt like it took a long time to get into the real heart of the story and honestly in the last few scenes I actually started to enjoy it.  It just took too long to get to that point.  Maybe i'll watch it again at some point and give it another chance, who knows!

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Chappie (2015)
So I went digging through the Rotten Tomatoes website for this one. There are plenty of terrible movies that I kind of liked, but not enough to defend publicly. Once I started scrolling through the ‘rotten’ movies, I was heartbroken to spot Chappie on the list! 

The plot is a little crazy, sure, and I know a lot of people hated on Ninja and Yolandi (I still don’t know who they are) but Chappie alone made me love his movie. I always have a soft spot for the underdog, and so Chappie was loveable from the very start as the cursed robot forever coming back damaged from every mission. Then he was given artificial intelligence, he gets excited about rubber chickens, and going for rides in the car. I’d like my own Chappie please, with the orange antennae and reject sticker and everything.

It didn’t have the political agenda that District 9 had, but I thought the lessons about how impressionable Chappie was in his ‘infancy’ were well thought out, and I’ll carry on defending this movie for as long as I’m a blogger!



Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
I was not on the bandwagon with this one, I wasn't thrilled when they announced Ben Affleck as Batman and so I gave up on being excited.  I put it to the back of my mind, hardly watched any of the trailers and managed to completely miss it in the cinemas.  Therefore, I missed a lot of the negativity surrounding the film, I refuse to read reviews before making my own choices so all the negative reviews just went over my head.  

A few weeks ago, I decided it was time to watch it, so armed with a glass of wine and an endless supply of junk food, I prepared myself to be disappointed....and then I wasn't.  Don't get me wrong, it wasn't the greatest film in the world but I thoroughly enjoyed watching it.  I like all the actors that were in it and it provided a fix for my latest Jesse Eisenberg obsession (thanks Now you see me 2!!).  I do have a full review to write up for this so I won't go into too much detail but I thought the story was clever pitching Batman against Superman (even if it was only for a short time) and the introduction of Wonder Woman. Considering I am more Marvel than DC, I really was surprised that I enjoyed it but I think my lack of expectations made it that much better.

16 comments:

  1. Cool picks, Allie and Jenna! I feel the same way about The Departed. The only thing that really makes me watch it is Leo's performance. Without him, the movie would've been even worse.

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    1. Oh I agree completely! I don't think I've ever seen a bad performance by Leo :)
      - Allie

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  2. The tears in my eyes as I type this are for Taxi Driver. I think it's fantastic. I also love The Departed, but yeah, it can be a bit much to sort through. That was part of the intrigue for me, but I get how it could be a turnoff. Interesting that you both picked Scorsese flicks. He's a director who clicks with me. Not so much for you two, I guess. Haven't seen Chappie, yet, but couldn't stand BvS. Judging by me, you both perfectly captured the spirit of this particular blogathon. Thanks so much for coming back to it this year!

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    1. You know, it never dawned on me that they were both Scorsese movies until you pointed it out! I loved Shutter Island so it's certainly nothing personal against the guy :)
      - Allie

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    2. Oh no, are we Scorsese haters?!
      I need to Google all his films to make sure!!
      - Jen

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  3. I didn't like either The Departed or Taxi Driver! Scorsese's films are huge hit or misses in my opinion. I prefer Taxi Driver, but The Departed made me so confused on why it's so positively talked about.

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    1. I'm so glad we're not alone here, we were definitely prepared for a backlash when we published this post!
      - Allie

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  4. I haven't seen the two you are defending but I'll give a big YEAH!! to finding someone else who hates those two Scorsese "classics". You said in the case of Taxi Driver you didn't hate it but I loathed it, I'll admit that De Niro and Jodie Foster did very good work but not good enough to make me in any way like the vile thing.

    I was even more disappointed in The Departed since it followed the picture of his I liked the most "The Aviator". So I was lulling into thinking we had finally arrived in the same place thematically. WRONG!! Funny thing is his follow up to Departed, Shutter Island, is another of his films that I really liked.

    He's always been hit and miss for me, King of Comedy, New York, New York, After Hours, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and a few others are all films I admire but his revered films such as Goodfellas, Raging Bull and these two were excruciating to sit through even once.

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    1. Phew!! We were really expecting a backlash for this post for sure. It's definitely nothing personal against Scorsese though, I for one loved Shutter Island! That said, when a movie gets given that 'classic' status, I expect perfection :)
      - Allie

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    2. I'm really glad i'm not the only one to not like Taxi Driver, with 99% on Rotten Tomatoes, I thought everyone would give me grief (I actually considered changing my choice just in case!).
      I may have to expand my Scorsese watching to see how many I love/hate!
      - Jen

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  5. I wouldn't say that Taxi Driver is a film you're supposed to enjoy, more, I dunno, think about. Personally, I think it's terrific. Oh and the plot spoiler incident...a innocent mistake, could happen to anyone haha.


    I liked the fact you went for Chappie because I picked it too. I really enjoyed it because Chappie, as a character, really engaged me and I found myself caring for him

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    1. I tried to laugh it off like 'oh you know me, I'm just exaggerating...not everyone dies...'
      I don't think he bought it :(
      - Allie

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  6. Oh man I love both of the films you guys hated lol. I haven't seen Chappie, I just watched BvS for the first time this week. It was bad, but not the worst I've ever seen. I liked Affleck more than I thought I would.

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    1. Me too, I thought he would be the worst part but I actually thought he was quite good.
      - Jen

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  7. I have decided way back not to see Chappie because of the negative reviews. But I'd totally reconsider after reading your thoughts on it.

    As for Bats and Sups, I don't think it's the "rubbish" people make it out to be. But compared to the big ensemble Marvel superhero movies, say The Avengers or Civil War, Snyder's story is thin soup.

    And I remember liking The Departed! But I get yah, the ending was indeed MAD!

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    1. Honestly, I think B v S was just completely overhyped and everyone was disappointed rather than actually hating it. However, people have thier opinions and can rate on expectations rather than what they actaully saw. Each to their own, I left if so long that the hype had all died down and I just watched it for what it was.
      - Jen

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