Overhated and thus, Underrated? 10 'bad' films that really aren't bad

Ryan's Daughter (1970)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 50%

Personal Rating: 8.5/10

This was really, really disliked by critics when it came out, and though it did decently at the box office, the initial response towards it resulted in this being often remarked as David Lean's 'weakest' film. It's not a perfect film, admittedly, perhaps a bit overlong, and with a lacking leading male performance, but on the whole it deserves to be recognized as a strong film by the master. It has beautiful cinematography and music, a strong supporting ensemble around Sarah Mile's titular character including the reliable Leo McKern, an uncharacteristically kindly Robert Mitchum, an underrated John Mills, and a terrific Trevor Howard as the local priest. It's a slow-moving film but also a very rewarding one that I feel was just released at the wrong time, with the wrong campaign behind it.

Rocky IV (1985)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 39%

Personal Rating: 8/10

For some reason, Rocky II and III both attained respectable levels of critical acclaim while IV proved to be a sudden turning point in critical appreciation for the series, though the box office numbers remained excellent. The turning point in quality would come later with Rocky V and dissapate with Rocky Balboa, and Rocky IV should not have been considered the junction where the franchise started becoming 'bad'. It's a bit of a step down from the previous films in some regards, yes; there's a few overly cheesy lines, the villain is perhaps a bit too one-dimensional, and the ending is a tad bit preachy. Also Rocky himself seems to be going in a bit of a strange mental wavelength in this installment. But all in all this is a pretty rousing boxing film in most regards, which really packs an emotional punch with its midsection tragedy (which helped set up the great Creed) and makes the finale really heart-pounding and uplifting. And the music this one, from the opening montage set to 'Eye of the Tiger' to of course the training montage scene, is particularly great.

Hook (1991)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 30%

Personal Rating: 7.5/10

Firstly, there's something a bit weird with the critics and children's films in this time period, Home Alone got mixed reviews which is kind of bizzare if you think about it, even if you don't really like the film is there really anything to hate on it for? Same goes for this. It's naturally not going to reflect very well on your film if, between Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and the double whammy of Schindler's List and Jurassic Park it's anything less than great. Hook is not a great film, but it's a good one that does deliver on what it promises, which is a fun, somewhat irreverent but sincere retelling of the Peter Pan tale. Robin Williams, Bob Hoskins, and especially Dustin Hoffman, are loads of fun, and the set design and costumes are all excellent.

The Three Musketeers (1993)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 31%

Personal Rating: 7/10

There's something very endearing about this film I can't put my finger on. I actually have only seen it once when it was playing on television, and it was a pleasant surprise, to say the least. In contrast to say, that lifeless 2010's version with Logan Lerman as D'Artagnan, or the disappointing Man in the Iron Mask, this is so much more vibrant and fun overall. The titular trio are actually very well cast, with Charlie Sheen and Kiefer Sutherland surprisingly convincing and Oliver Platt unsurprisingly spectacular, and though we have bland Chris O'Donnell in the lead, we have Tim Curry to more than make up for it as a very hammy Cardinal Richlieu. I wouldn't consider this to being anything near a great film, but it's some harmless and entertaining popcorn Disney fun.

Event Horizon (1997)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 24%

Personal Rating: 7.5/10

Paul W.S. Anderson started off his career making two critically panned movies and never looked back, continuing a long string of them from Alien v.s. Predator (which I've admittedly never sat the whole way through) to all those Resident Evil films (which I've only seen bits of) to the aforementioned The Three Musketeers remake, and a few years ago the hilariously incompetent Pompeii which does have entertainment value in Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje's performance, worthy of a Ben-Hur or Spartacus around him. That film seemed to hearken back to Anderson's Mortal Kombat, which is another bad film with some fun performances to bolster it. That did well at the box office, whereas Event Horizon flopped, yet I sincerely believe that Event Horizon is a pretty rock solid film that should be appreciated as such. It's an atmospheric horror, with some inventive cinematography by Adrian Biddle of Aliens fame, and two very interesting leads in Laurence Fishburne's stoic badass and Sam Neill's loopy designer. Out of all the B-movie space flicks of the 1990s, this is probably my favourite.

Riding in Cars With Boys (2001)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 49%

Personal Rating: 8/10

The film on this list that I'd say comes closest to being 'great' after Ryan's Daughter. The story of a teenage mother Bev (Drew Barrymore) who overcomes the odds against her in a very atypical fashion was criticized at the time for being tonally imbalanced, with dead serious scenes often becoming light and comedic in a matter of seconds. I'd say that was the intent of director Penny Marshall, whose similarly handled A League of Their Own had used comedy to balance out the dramatics. Here we have a surprisingly multidimensional and not glorified protagonist who feels very much like a real human being and not some perfect caricature. The scenes where we see Bev's domestic life and her higher ambitions clash are often directed in a lighthearted fashion, but with an underlying sense of regret and discontent, and Steve Zahn's terrific portrayal of the upbeat but selfish father figure whose optimism gradually crumbles is another terrific gem that encompasses the odd but effective tone of the film. It doesn't mesh together quite perfectly at the end, but on the whole is a very, very good film that should not have been written off the way it was.

Scooby-Doo (2002)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 30%

Personal Rating: 7.5/10

One of those films the critics hated but audiences clearly enjoyed based on the box office success, I've always had a soft spot for this film. It's no masterpiece and the plot is very flimsy, but it manages to hit all the sweet spots you'd ever want from a film about everyone's favourite meddling kids. All the principals are perfectly cast, with Raja Gosnell and James Gunn's script (!!!) milking the best out of otherwise bland actors like Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar, and allowing Linda Cardenelli and Matthew Lillard to excel with Velma and Shaggy, who they were born to play. As I said, the mystery isn't great, but hey neither were a lot of them in the original animated series, and there's enough corny jokes, enjoyable B-movie horror parodies, and heart to push this film through.

The Longest Yard (2005)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 31%

Personal Rating: 7/10

Adam Sandler's made a lot of crap in recent years, but he's also made a few good films. Punch-Drunk Love is great of course, and also good are 50 First Dates and to a lesser extent, Click. And The Longest Yard presents us with perhaps the last time ever where Sandler's child man schtick worked in a film. It's a really, really dumb film, but I think it revels in it, and the whole cast had a lot of fun throughout which really comes across when watching the film.

Lucky Number Slevin (2006)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 51%

Personal Rating: 7.5/10

The noir dialogue is occasionally a bit unwieldy and the final twist is a bit stupid, but overall this is a very refreshing film that tries to upend all formulae of the crime genre and does so to a mostly effective and very entertaining film. Josh Hartnett's titular trickster is quite a joy to watch as he and newfound comrade Lindsey (a surprisingly good Lucy Liu) navigate the bizzare underworld of Morgan Freemans and Ben Kingsleys and Stanley Tuccis and Bruce Willises. Paul McGuigan may not have proven himself to be much of a filmmaker after this, but this is a very strong and assured effort at crime comedy that is worthy of being mentioned along the most fun movies of the genre in recent times.

Live by Night (2016)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 34%

Personal Rating: 8/10

Really don't get the hate for this one. It moves by a bit too quickly and the ending, more specifically the last few minutes or so, is a bit lacking, but on the whole I really enjoyed this gangster flick. I'm a bit of a sucker for Dennis Lehane anyway, and this is a good example of an adaptation of his work, if not quite on the level of something like The Drop, I probably liked it more than Shutter Island and Mystic River. Joe Coughlin (Affleck) and his downwards spiral into crime after falling in love with the wrong lass (a surprisingly good Sienna Miller) is not the most consistent film overall, but when it gets going it really hits some high heights. The shootouts, cinematography, and sound editing are all pretty immaculate, Affleck's direction is superb, and though some subplots don't quite resonate as well as others, I really liked the atypical father-son realtinoship between Joe and his police captain father (Brendan Gleeson), the KKK stuff, and the story of a Sherrif's daughter who begins as angelic as can be and emerges from the tale as its most tragic, haunted and corrupted soul (a very good Elle Fanning). Again it does suffer from some pacing issues, and a misguided performance or two, but on the whole this definitely deserved much more acclaim and did not deserve to be such a massive flop at the box office.

Head-to-Head: Memories of Murder v.s. Zodiac

Memories of Murder: a 2003 Korean film based on the Hwaseong serial murders of 1986 - 1991, focusing on two detectives, the amiable Detective Park (Song Kang-ho), and the highly professional city detective Detective Seo (Kim Sang-kyung).

Zodiac: a 2007 American film that depicts the manhunt for the infamous Zodiac killer in 1960s/1970s San Francisco Bay area.

Directing: 

Bong Joon-ho 

v.s. 

David Fincher

It has to be said that both directors' work on their respective films rank among the all-time greats. Both craft such incredibly detailed and harrowing portraits of unseen and never-to-be discovered serial killers, but in such different ways. Fincher's approach is arguably more unrelenting in its darkness, but Zodiac is never one-note in this regard. It has sequences like the basement scene, and of course the murder sequences (and one lucky escape that is absolutely terrifying), which are horrifying in that they really get under your skin and make you feel like your at the scene of crime, at the moment. Fincher never cheats on the scares, and nor does Bong, who crafts everything from a rather entertaining and tense chase sequence, to a suspect's terrible and avoidable death, to a deeply unsettling rain-drenched murder.

The department of scares and chills are handled very well in both films, but where they perhaps most excel is in the procedural side of things. Bong opts for a somewhat more lighthearted approach in some ways, blending dark comedy with pure darkness to create some morbidly funny sequences, particularly on the incompetence of the cops. You really get to know the people investigating the crime as multidimensional characters, and it makes their every action resonate all the more. The 'Sad Letter' sequence is particularly amazing in how quickly it shifts from humorous interplay to a heartbreaking realization of failure. With Zodiac, Fincher presents a fascinating, broader scope of the procedural to take down the Zodiac killer. There's a touch of levity that he brings to the entertaining depiction of the media frenzy surrounding the case. But the dominant element is dread and paranoia, and Fincher masterfully creates this growing unease and terror within each investigator, and an obsession that strengthens with every passing day the killer is not found.

I always think a perfect way of appreciating what Fincher and Bong do with their respective films is to look at the opening and endings of their films. They create such a  harrowing arc in both films and reiterate similar elements/themes at the beginning and end to such different effect, with Fincher creating a surprisingly emotional conclusion within the framework of such a morbid case, and Bong crafting such a haunting ending out of a film which started in such a languid and easygoing fashion. Both films are directed impeccably, but I guess I'll give the win to Fincher by a hair for how he manages to make unrelenting dread feel so unnervingly natural within the film, without feeling over the top. 

Winner: David Fincher

The Leads: 

Song Kang-ho and Kim Sang-kyung 

v.s. 

Jake Gyllenhaal and Mark Ruffalo

Though acting may not be the most crucial element to either film, the strength of it in both films is essential to their success. Memories of Murder has a smaller ensemble and a more intimate scope and perspective of its two protagonists, Detectives Park (Song) and Seo (Kim), whereas Zodiac flits frequently beyond San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist-turned-amateur sleuth Robert Grayson (Gyllenhaal) and SFPD Inspector David Toschi (Ruffalo), in fact they could be argued as supporting as well if not for the second half of the film which gradually settles its main focus upon the both of them.

All four actors I mention here do an excellent job with their respective roles. Gyllenhaal has perhaps the more thankless role of the lot as its mostly a reactionary role as the audience's avatar into the world of the Zodiac, but he's effective as being our ostensible protagonist, conveying the growing obsession with the case with aplomb, and makes for an interesting counterpoint to Ruffalo, who plays a badass cop who never acts like a badass, he just is. Ruffalo could not be cooler and more assured as the legendary Toschi, who Steve McQueen looked to as an influence for Bullitt and who was the inspiration for Dirty Harry, and he's extremely good at slowly showing how even this cool customer gradually becomes worn down with the demons of the unsolved Zodiac cases. They also have a very interesting dynamic together that proves particularly fruitful in giving brief glimpses of hope in the second half of the film.

Song and Kim get considerably more time and focus together and thus, I'll have to concede that they made more of an impact on me overall. Song, one of Korea's greatest actors, is terrific as the hapless moronic but well-intentioned cop Park who treats the murder cases perhaps a bit too affably at the outset, and makes for a great duo with Kim's Seo who is a driven, serious and straightlaced fellow who immediately detects something bigger than just a series of random murders. They make for quite an entertaining comic duo in the lighter moments of the film, and even more effectively an affecting portrayal of how the mysterious murderer's actions cause such emotional distress in the normally stoic Seo, and a sort of emotional maturation in Park. It's great work by both actors as they manage to make such a strange coupling of characters and ideologies work in pursuit of a common good that ultimately fails.

Winner: Memories of Murder

The (Alleged) Murderer: Park Hae-il v.s. John Carroll Lynch

I have to say that while Park Hae-il's (who can also be seen in a far more likable role in Bong's The Host) Park Hyeon-gyu is appropriately creeping and unnerving, and makes for quite the convincing likely suspect, a lot of that effect is created by the atmospheric direction around his scenes. John Carroll Lynch, playing Arthur Leigh Allen who became on the primary suspects of the Zodiac case, has arguably less screentime than Park overall. It doesn't matter, because in his one big interrogation scene he's an extremely creepy creep, in such a naturalistic fashion. His delivery of the line 'I'm not the Zodiac, and even if I was, I certainly wouldn't tell you' alone is worth the price of admission.

Winner: Zodiac

The Ensemble

This is definitely one place where Zodiac trumps Memories of Murder, and not that the latter has a bad ensemble at all - Kim Roi-ha is enjoyably sleazy as one of the dumb local cops, Jeon Mi-seon is a sweet supportive figure, and Song Jae-ho has his moments as the strict superior to Park and Seo - but the former has an amazing one. Charles Fleischer, he of Roger Rabbit fame, has one incredibly creepy scene, Robert Downey Jr. is his usual spunky and entertaining self as the hotshot journalist Paul Avery, and Brian Cox, Elias Koteas, and Anthony Edwards have their own memorable moments as more minor but still very impactful characters. Best of the lot, though, is perhaps Jimmi Simpson as one of the Zodiac killer's victims. He has about a minute's worth of screentime at the very end of the film, and gives one of my all-time favourite reaction shots to a picture of 'him'.

Winner: Zodiac

Screenplay

Both films have incredibly intricate and detailed screenplays, and the one to Zodiac is particularly surprising in that it was written by James Vanderbilt who would later go on to write...the Amazing Spider-Man films, and uh, White House Down. Where those films were at the same time painfully generic and hopelessly disordered in their writing process, this film pares down any extraneous material, is respectful of the victims' privacy while giving enough insight into the murders, and provides such snappy dialogue and exposition-free handling of the case's details. I'll have to give the win here to Memories of Murder though, for its often hilarious and heartfelt, heartbreaking and deeply personal, while also very understatedly intelligent screenplay that grants so much character development on the go, and culminates in one of the finest closing words in all cinema: 'Ordinary'. 

Winner: Memories of Murder

Editing

Both films are paced impeccably, with Zodiac in particular never feeling quite as long as it actually is. Both Angus Wall and Kim Sun-min have standout sequences in this regard, Zodiac in the Lake Berryessa scene where despite the sunny backdrop manages to create an utterly horrifying sequence by how every line, reaction shot and sound effect is so unnerving, and Memories of Murder in the aforementioned chase sequence. I give Zodiac the edge here because in the wrong hands, it could have felt like a very long and dragging film due to how many different subplots it has to undergo.

Winner: Zodiac

Cinematography

As terrific as Zodiac's cinematography is, Memories of Murder has some of my all-time favourite shots. I'll let the visuals speak for themselves here.

Winner: Memories of Murder

Sound

I have to go back to that basement scene again. It manages to make a casual visit downstairs to a seemingly kindly old man's basement the stuff of nightmares, and a large part of that has to be attested to the excellent sound mixing and editing which achieves the perfect balance of horror and ambiguity. Memories of Murder has excellent sound design as well, but again Zodiac wins by the slightest of hairs. 

Winner: Zodiac

Soundtrack

Memories of Murder and Zodiac both have music playing a big part in their films. With Memories of Murder the extradiagetic score by the prolific Taro Iwashiro is eloquent and beautiful, but also so very haunting, and the intradiagetic use of the 'Sad Letter' is unforgettable. Zodiac's score is very effective, David Shire makes sure never to overplay his cards and never oversteps the boundaries between creepy and too-obviously creepy. And of course there's the use of Donovan's 'Hurdy Gurdy Man' at the beginning and end which cements it among the best uses of film music in history.

Winner: A tie

Verdict: Both are great films. I suppose I'll give the slight edge to Zodiac, but they're both downright amazing films in their own ways. Neither ever feels like an exploitative serial killer film, but rather a film that very deeply feels for its victims and investigators, and creates such compelling narratives without resorting to cheap scares or gratuitous violence.