Poll: Premiere's 20 Most Overrated Movies.

Results of 3,100 votes:

1. 1.
   

   Forrest Gump (1994)

    

   Being There, done that — only not quite as well. Gump makes a big, sloppy show of adoring its puerile hero to the degree of adopting his idiotic notion that whatever life gives you—be it the growth of…
2. 2.
   

   American Beauty (1999)

    

   Hey, I dug Kevin Spacey, Conrad Hall's cinematography, and the reach of Alan Ball's script. But under the winkingly parodistic role-playing (frigid wife; unhappy Willy Loman character; Lolita cupcake;…
3. 3.
   

   Chicago (2002)

    

   The sequins must have blinded Oscar voters in 2003, when Chicago racked up six awards, despite its blip of a story—jazz killers charm a nation, or something—and uninspired staging; its song-and-dance …
4. 4.
   

   2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

    

   When I saw 2001 in 1968, I was occasionally thrilled, often bored, and ultimately mystified that the ending was considered a "trip," let alone that the movie was an instant classic. But ever…
5. 5.
   

   A Beautiful Mind (2001)

    

   PR can be a real bitch. On the one hand, it's partly because of Universal's relentless pre-Oscar campaigning that Ron Howard's biopic of Nobel Prize–winning mathematician John Nash became heralded as …
6. 6.
   

   The Wizard of Oz (1939)

    

   Judy Garland's appeal is undeniable, Bert Lahr ought to have been in more pictures, and most of the tunes have earned their places in the Great American Songbook, but a lot of this monument to studio …
7. 7.
   

   Clerks (1994)

    

   Kevin Smith's Clerks is a little funny and a lot boring, just like Dante Hicks, the convenience store cashier it follows for one long, pointless day. This trifle's lame acting and anemic plot were cel…
8. 8.
   

   Good Will Hunting (1997)

    

   That Will is an MIT janitor as well as a math genius is the kind of forced premise that would get laughed out of the lowest-tiered undergrad fiction-writing courses. So why did so many fall for Good W…
9. 9.
   

   Gone with the Wind (1939)

    

   The only excuse for the adoration of this bloated, nearly four-hour epic about a spoiled southern belle and the passing of the Old South is uncritical nostalgia. Yes, Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable do a…
10. 10.
    

    Chariots of Fire (1981)

     

    The filmmaking of this Best Picture Oscar winner is so uneven and unsophisticated that it has always irked me. First, the sound is so bad that it sometimes plays like a poorly dubbed Hong Kong flick. …
11. 11.
    

    Mystic River (2003)

     

    Clint Eastwood may be one of our most important directors, but even masters can fail. River's pacing feels like an overproduced episode of an underwhelming TV cop drama. What's with the ridiculous coi…
12. 12.
    

    Field of Dreams (1989)

     

    In Roger Ebert's four-star review of Field of Dreams, he dismisses its detractors as "grinches and grouches and realists." Call me all three, but every element of Dreams is just too on the n…
13. 13.
    

    Monster's Ball (2001)

     

    Everyone loves seeing pretty people in desperate situations, but this southern drama is so tragic, it's absurd. Pity Leticia Musgrove: First her husband is executed. Then her son, who in addition to b…
14. 14.
    

    An American in Paris (1951)

     

    How could something that should be so good be so bad? The film has, like a fine beef bourguignon, all of the right, delicious ingredients: Gene Kelly, songs by George and Ira Gershwin, spectacular dan…
15. 15.
    

    Fantasia (1940)

     

    To those who love Fantasia, Walt Disney's marriage of classical music and animation, I suggest skipping your daily dose of acid before breakfast. This film is a mishmash of pedantic narration and erra…
16. 16.
    

    Moonstruck (1987)

     

    First things first: Cher deserved her Oscar. She and Olympia Dukakis are wonderful as the practical, lovelorn Castorini women. But what makes this movie less than the intoxicating meditation on romanc…
17. 17.
    

    Easy Rider (1969)

     

    Why is it that movies praised for "defining a generation" never seem to age well? Granted, it's not hard to appreciate Easy Rider's cultural prescience. But for those of us who didn't come o…
18. 18.
    

    Nashville (1975)

     

    The delirious—or, too often, headache-inducing—cacophony that became signature Robert Altman reached its critical apex with Nashville, and, actually, premiere has taken part in the overfluffing, havin…
19. 19.
    

    Jules and Jim (1962)

     

    This is one of the signature films of New Wave cinema, but those who have trumpeted it as a delirious tribute to free love and bohemian bons vivants have grievously misjudged it. Let college kids fall…
20. 20.
    

    The Red Shoes (1948)

     

    The first time Martin Scorsese saw Michael Powell's Shoes, he was blown away by its visual audacity—and I won't argue that point. But weighed down by heavy-handed direction and blatant melodrama—check…