My Unpopular Movie Opinions

For those of you on here who do not know, I have some pretty strong and unpopular opinions about films. From what I thought was actually a good film and others think isn't, to the exact opposite - I have been through it when trying to explain this to people. Again, as I said with my unpopular literary opinions article, these are just opinions and in no way represent facts at all.

10. Interstellar (2014) is by far, Christopher Nolan's worst film

The Prestige is the most rewatchable film, The Dark Knight Trilogy is one of his greatest achievements, Oppenheimer is his best film, Memento made him who he is and there are so many others such as: Tenet, Insomnia, Following and Dunkirk. Interstellar has a really strange thing in that the writing is absolute rubbish. I've got to say this but it doesn't feel like it's written in a Nolan-esque way. It seems to be too soppy. I don't really like soppy films and the melodrama ruined it for me. Sorry Nolan but this movie is trash.

9. Barbie (2023) is entirely watchable, but only once or twice

I absolutely adore the Barbie movie, but if you told me to watch it more than twice (or even watch it at home) I'd probably say no. I realise that a lot of that movie was the hype of my inner-child and though it is still pretty amazing as a film, I'm not going to lie to you when I say I won't be watching it again. 1) It was a momentous experience in the cinema and 2) I'm scared of over-watching it and ruining it for myself.

8. The Academy Awards went boring about ten years' ago.

Thinking back to the time that Robert Downey Jr as Charlie Chaplin lost out on the Academy Award for Best Actor to Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman, and the time that Grace Kelly, Dorothy Dandridge, Audrey Hepburn and Judy Garland were all up for Best Actress in 1954, the Academy Awards seemed much harder to win when there was real competition because of the huge talents involved. Who would win would be largely unknown until the night, making the entire thing a lot more fun. Since about ten years' ago, there has been a downfall of excitement and talent involved in the Academy Awards, where they go to basically anyone and most of the time it is already well known who is going to win. I mean where is the fun in that?

7. Horror films with an entirely unknown cast are usually 10x better than horror films with a 'star-studded' cast

A star-studded cast in a horror film more than usually ruins it altogether because of how familiar you are with the actors. Except for if those actors are Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga then please proceed to carry on. However, many films in the horror genre benefit from a mostly unknown cast because it feels more realistic. One superstar is alright but many of them kind of ruins it. Let me explain: having unknown actors means that it doesn't feel like an actor acting in another role but people experiencing real horrors. Having a star-studded cast of lots of lost people in a horror film just screams 'we had a great budget, wasted it on lots of a-list actors and now the rest of the film is gonna be s***.' From horror fans everywhere, please spend your money on developing a good story, something like Midsommar by Ari Aster in which Florence Pugh was yet, still relatively unknown.

6. Damien Chazelle not having a good budget is the best decision Hollywood has made in a while because 'Babylon' was a huge waste of money and time

Damien Chazelle recently stated he was going to set about making another movie but knows for sure he won't be given a good budget. Good. Not because he's made too many bad movies (we know that already, yet Hollywood are happy to dish out more money for rubbish films), but because he seems to waste money. In the film Babylon, there was so much wasted time and money putting together that garbage truck of a film that I think he should probably be given a fiver and a packet of microwave popcorn as the budget for his next film. As a man from a super-privileged background and a super-privileged education, he should have more manners before making the tripe movies he has made. Here's my message to Chazelle: if you want to spend money on another film like Babylon, don't bother because nobody will watch it.

5. Anne Hathaway's Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress

I will not apologise for this one for in a year where Sally Field portrayed Mary Todd Lincoln (and so damn well) on screen, the Academy Award went to a good actress who spent most of the 20 minutes of the movie she was in coughing up and dying. If this is not a slap in the face for Sally Field, it is definitely a slap in the face for Anne Hathaway who's career has had much higher moments than frantically hurling and falling over for many moments before she just dies altogether. To give her an Oscar for this role is basically saying that Sally Field did not matter and it was more than clear that Sally Field should have received it. Anne Hathaway being in Brokeback Mountain and not getting the Best Supporting Actress Oscar - now that's a real slap in the face. I would like to know who was judging this thing because if I'm being perfectly honest, I'm offended.

4. The older version of The Man Who Knew too Much is better than the remake

I know that this is an unpopular opinion even from the viewpoint of the director. But honestly, I cannot get over how good Peter Lorre is in this thing, without him the movie seems kind of bland. I like the black-and-white nature of the film, the edgy horror-esque vibes and honestly, it seems less polished that the newer version but that's the whole point. The Man Who Knew Too Much is not supposed to be a polished film and though I do enjoy both versions, the earlier one is so much better and so much more watchable for me. I have definitely seen the older one more times than I've seen the newer one.

3. La La Land (2016) was awful and boring

What other way to bore me to death is there than a badly acted and poorly written film filled with cliché? La La Land is probably the worst film directed by the man who brought us timeless failures like Babylon and First Man. His writing skills really let the film down and his understanding of jazz (as I have heard from jazz musicians) is sickening and underdeveloped. La La Land was a film made by Hollywood, for Hollywood and about Hollywood at a time when it was probably in Hollywood's best interests to save their reputation. Personally, what Hollywood does is make entertainment and La La Land fails to be entertaining in any way. It does not fulfill the very purpose that the film seems to be about. With a shoddy romantic subplot that doesn't make sense to the bland and empty acting by its stars (shocking as it is because both of them are fairly good in other movies), this film's problem is its script and its director.

2. Joker (2019) didn't work for me

In the cinema, Joker was a great experience of watching something quite different for the year but the Gary Glitter track completely ruined that for me. However, the other things that this movie didn't do well was portraying the very message it was trying to convey. I'm still confused over what that is and whether Joaquin Phoenix was the best guy to deliver that message. There is no doubt whatsoever that Phoenix is one of the greatest actors of his generation but he seems almost too popular and too good to play a joker that is so disengaged. For example, the whole point of Ledger's legendary joker was that he was charismatic so who better than a really charismatic guy to play him and let him go wild? Phoenix feels too charming and charismatic to play the kind of Joker the 2019 film was portraying and so, it felt all disjointed for me.

1. Leo isn't a great actor - he's just alright

I am not apologising for this one but we have to agree that the vast majority of the time, this man not only plays the same character over and over again but also has one or two facial expressions. I used to be convinced he was a really good actor, then films like The Wolf of Wall Street, The Great Gatsby and even yes, Killers of the Flower Moon came out. Especially the last one, it seems like the guy has been running out of steam ever since Gangs of New York. The issue is that there is always a better actor in the film who gets no attention just because Leo showed up. I'm sure he's a nice person but as far as acting goes, he is not actually that great - he's just alright.

Conclusion

These are opinions and don't reflect facts. Please do not seek to verbally abuse me in the comments or social media. I am also willing to discuss my opinions with anyone who wants conversation. I don't think I have covered all of my opinions so if this is interesting to you then I would wait - part two is coming.