101 Movies to Avoid: The Most Overrated Films Ever!

by Allan Smithee

The essential bible for film watchers who don’t want to be suckered into seeing another acclaimed classic, each entry will surely instigate debate and discussion. Informative and highly opinionated, this compendium steers film aficionados away from the pompous and pretentious films known as “classic movies” with biting and contrarian commentary. Films such as The English Patient , Ghost , Platoon , Pretty Woman , Ray , The Silence of the Lambs , Titanic , and War of the Worlds have been re-reviewed in this way. Chapters listing the top 10 overrated, top-grossing films, the top 10 actors to have appeared in the most overrated movies, and the top five overrated movies by genre are also included.

212 pages, Paperback

First published September 10, 2007

Reviews

[Eric]

This would be a zero if it was possible. The writer just comes across as petty most of the time and his arguments are only based on his own personal opinions rather then really going into any details on why they are overrated flicks or why they should be avoided. I can understand dislike for a popular film. I've argued that some critically acclaimed films are really not good films (see Inception and Brokeback Mountain) but I don't think my opinions deserve a book.

[Chris Lilly]

This was going to be a trivial book going in, but it’s so much worse than that. Sniggering interest in naked actors with an accompanying puerile judgement on their attractiveness, ‘pretentious’ as the gold standard of badness, no criteria for his snide critical standpoints, this book is just awful. And it tries to be superior. And it isn’t.

[Onur Yz]

Müthiş keyifle okuduğum bir kitap oldu. Çok sevdiğim filmlerin yerden yere vurulması da ayrı bir eğlence idi kendi adıma. Farklı görüşler, saygılı, ölçülü ve kendince kimi haklılıklar içerdiği takdirde her zaman kabulümdür. Azılı bir sinefil olarak burada yazmaktan bilhassa kaçınıyorum biliyorsunuz, sadece kitap hakkındaki görüşlerimi belirtip kaçayım.

[Marc]

Man with no sense of humor and no original thoughts of his own attempts to write a funny, clever book exposing classic and feted films as overrated. Oh, how he fails. Actively obnoxious.

[Katya Vinogradova]

I can imagine these reviews looking good in a weekly (or monthly) column. But combined in one book they all look the same, down to the cliches that are repeated constantly. Even though I agree with some of the observations, most comments sound petty and angry for the sake of being angry. Longer, more detailed reviews could justify the author's distaste for these movies. As they are, the reviews have little value.