21 Of The Most Overrated Movies In The History Of Cinema

"Forrest Gump is baby boomers' love letter to the smell of their own farts."

Recently, Reddit user u/just_juliya posed the question, "What's the most overrated movie in your opinion?"

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And there were so many controversial responses! Here are some of the top-voted answers:

We also included responses from this thread.

1. Avatar (2009)

20th Century Fox /Courtesy Everett Collection

"Beautiful visuals but forgettable story."

—u/Terrible-Strategy-22

"I don't get why it was top-grossing. It also had no cultural impact."

—u/PitifulGrapefruit334

"And the most recent one. I saw it last month, and I don't remember a thing about it. They were swimming in the ocean, and there was a cool whale. I have more vivid and longer-lasting memories of the craps I took last year."

—u/USAIsAUcountry

2. The Notebook (2004)

New Line Cinema / Courtesy Everett Collection

"The whole idea behind the drama in that story is so manipulative. 'Let's give her dementia; that'll make people cry.'"

—u/BaldingMonk

"I don't understand people who prefer Noah to Lon. Lon was everything — he was sweet, smart, caring, loving, trusting, mature, and respectful. And to add to that, he was handsome and rich."

—u/SnooBlack

3. Black Panther (2018)

Matt Kennedy / Marvel /  Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures /Courtesy Everett Collection

"Above-average superhero movie, sure. But nothing close to, say, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King."

—u/PothierM

"Yeah, this is the answer. Not even a top-five Marvel film, IMO."

—u/vbcbandr

4. Shakespeare in Love (1998)

Miramax/Courtesy Everett Collection

"It beat Saving Private Ryan for Best Picture FFS..."

—u/Millerzeit

"And! Gwyneth Paltrow won Best Actress over Cate Blanchett’s performance in Elizabeth! Outrageous!"

—u/500CatsTypingStuff

5. Forrest Gump (1994)

Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection

"Forrest Gump is just about a guy who does stuff throughout the second half of the 20th century in America. There is no way it should have won Best Picture, especially that year."

—u/diastereomer

"Good boy who does what he’s told gets accolades and fame, while the girl who overcomes trauma and gets into radical politics dies of AIDS. Great message!"

—u/Bolshy2938

"It's baby boomers' love letter to the smell of their own farts."

—u/diastereomer

6. Jurassic World (2015)

Chuck Zlotnick/Universal Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection

"I think 30 years ago, the original idea was very creative, but there was no reason that movie should have been at the top of all-time grossing movies. It was entirely marketing and Chris Pratt that drove the numbers."

—u/Zceelo

7. La La Land (2016)

Lions Gate / / courtesy Everett Collection

"Style over substance in a nutshell. The whole movie felt just so superficial and pretentious to me. I almost cringed the entire time."

—u/iamnottheuser

"I was so excited because I heard it was so good, and I love musicals. But none of the songs resonated or stuck with me, and the whole storyline was boring."

—u/Joyma

"And it robbed the EGOT from Lin-Manuel Miranda. How 'City of Stars' beat over 'How Far I'll Go' from Moana will always be a mystery to me."

—u/darkjedi39

8. The Revenant (2015)

20th Century Fox/ Courtesy Everett Collection

"It's just Leonardo DiCaprio grunting and being tortured the entire time, and that f*cking thing got him his first Oscar? It was so boring."

—u/TheNameless00

9. Gravity (2013)

Warner Bros /Courtesy Everett Collection

"Everyone raved about it and how amazing it was. I once described the entire film to someone in 10 seconds."

—u/sfkf8486

"Or as I call it: Sandra Bullock Falls for Two Hours."

—u/keflinein

10. Crash (2004)

Lions Gate / Via youtube.com

"I saw it, and it genuinely looked like a cheaply-made film by a college student for their class project."

—u/Crazyguy_123

"Brokeback Mountain was clearly the correct Best Picture choice that year."

—u/factchecker8515

11. Frozen (2013)

Disney

"I mean, I like it, but it's kinda weird how it became SUCH a phenomenon when there are so many other better, similar Disney movies. It's, like, a 7/10, not a 10/10."

—u/badgersprite

"Moana trumps Frozen every time."

—u/Afrotopia

12. The Irishman (2019)

Netflix / courtesy Everett Collection

"I get it, it's a Martin Scorsese movie, with Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci. And the de-aging technique was first applied effectively here. But the film is slow, long, and heavy."

—u/Maso_TGN

"100%. I feel like it would have been a really good movie if it were cut down to an hour and forty-five minutes to two hours. Just unnecessarily long."

—u/BolognaFoot1981

13. Water for Elephants (2011)

David James/ 20th Century Fox/Courtesy Everett Collection

"The book was really good, but the movie barely told the story."

—u/Icy_Gap6980

"Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson had zero chemistry, IMO. Could have been a lot better with one or the other switched for someone else."

—u/cheese_hotdog

14. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection

"As a kid when that came out, it was great. As an adult watching it, it's a bunch of spoiled rich kids not being held accountable for their actions. Skipped school, hacked the school's computer system, faked a grandma's death, and destroyed an extremely valuable car."

—u/pittiedaddy

"The characters are all extremely unlikable. A friend of mine described it as being 'extremely smug,' which is a great description."

—u/SaulTNNutz

15. Titanic (1997)

20th Century Fox/Courtesy Everett Collection

"It's just a bloated, drawn-out love story whose ending was never going to be a surprise."

—u/Mmiicchhaael

16. The Greatest Showman (2017)

20th Century Fox / Via youtube.com

"Story is trash and twisted to glorify a POS guy, but the songs and choreography are top-tier stuff."

—u/tomatomater

17. Boyhood (2014)

Matt Lankes/IFC Films/Courtesy Everett Collection

"I respect the time it took and think the concept behind it was great. But, even as a very emotional person, I felt absolutely nothing and was so bored."

—paul_rudds_drag_race

"Oh my god. This movie was torture to watch."

—u/happy35353

18. The Dark Knight (2008)

Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection

"People treat it like one of cinema's greatest when absolutely nothing about it makes sense if you think more than two seconds about it."

—u/heelspider

19. Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Paramount Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

"Don’t get me wrong — there’s plenty of good movie in there — but GOD. He survives a catastrophic failure in an aircraft in the first 10 minutes of the movie. At that point, I knew the stakes simply did not matter, and I was right. I spent too much of it rolling my eyes for me to ever understand why so many respected filmmakers called it 'the return of cinema.' And if I have to hear 'Relax, it’s a movie' one more time — sorry, but I seem to remember actual high stakes in the original. Mav’s best friend died. Cut about 30 minutes of Tom Cruise cologne ads out of the flick, and maybe add real danger, THEN you’ve got 'cinema.'"

—u/TheWaykoKid

20. Wonder Woman (2017)

Clay Enos/Warner Bros. Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection

"Everything in it is so predictable and cliché. Just awful."

—u/MappleSyrup13

21. And finally, The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Columbia / courtesy Everett Collection

"It's not a bad film; in fact, it's a good film, but it's the Coldplay of cinema. If you tell me your favorite film is The Shawshank Redemption, I'm going to immediately wish I wasn't having a conversation about cinema with you."

—mrbry

Which movie do you think is totally overrated? Sound off in the comments below!

Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.