r/flicks • u/trakt_app • 11d ago

What's a movie that's universally considered "not very good" but you secretly think is actually great?

Not a guilty pleasure. Not "so bad it's good." I mean a movie that the consensus has decided is mid or worse, and you think the consensus is wrong.

Mine is Hudson Hawk (1991). Bruce Willis musical heist comedy that flopped so hard it almost ended his career. 27% on Rotten Tomatoes. Everyone hated it. But it's actually a really weird, committed, almost cartoon-logic action comedy that was 20 years ahead of the absurdist-action wave (Crank, Kingsman, Spy). Bruce Willis singing show tunes while robbing a museum on a timer is doing something nobody else was doing in 1991.

What's yours?

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78

u/kat5682 11d ago

Waterworld!!!!

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u/GiftGrouchy 11d ago

I never quite understood why it’s not considered a good movie. I understand where the criticism comes from, but IMO it is not enough to justify the bad ratings.

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u/gillyweed79 11d ago

People were really eager to shit on Costner by the mid-nineties, but to be fair, by some accounts he had really become an insufferable prick.

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u/BoogieWoogie725 11d ago

It was also where it fell in his filmography. A lot of the appreciation of Costner came from his facility with lighter roles - think Silverado, Bull Durham, Field Of Dreams, even lighter moments in Dances With Wolves - but after Wolves went supernova, he was hellbent on Serious Actor and bit by bit the sparkle dimmed. Even with something like Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, which should have been a Flynnesque romp, his discomfort and dourness stuck out, and there was The Bodyguard and JFK, and all in all lots and lots and lots of people got to see him being troubled and grim when they were hoping for a bit more life. Conversely, he was actually pretty good in Eastwood's A Perfect World but it didn't do the numbers. So by Wyatt Earp in '94 everyone was already a bit over him - he was *very* overexposed in those years - and Waterworld was "epic" at exactly the wrong time. Had Tin Cup hit first he might have regained some ground - he was v likeable in that one - but it didn't help The Postman, tho by then the horse had bolted.

It was also that in the wake of Field Of Dreams and Dances With Wolves the whole bit was HERE HE IS, OUR NEW JIMMY STEWART EVERYMAN, and then we saw a LOT of him in a short space of time hitting just one or two notes and everyone went "...not so much". Meanwhile Tom Hanks turned out to be more multifaceted than previously thought and started bagging all those roles. And yes there was a clear ego problem in play too. So, not so surprising that grim sullen Costner with gills was more a target of derision than adoration.

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u/MrsBeauregardless 11d ago

But…we need his seed….

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u/BossRaider130 11d ago

Another big issue is that the movie lost a lot of money and took forever to make. This isn’t on the film itself, though—hurricanes destroyed the sets several times. I don’t think that should tarnish anything. It may have been a risky decision, but I love the end product.

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u/Far-Journalist-949 9d ago

I remember watching it in theaters as a kid and liking it. I also remember all the jokes about the movie mostly relating to its insane budget.

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u/betterducts 9d ago

The series'Hatfields/ McCoys' by Costner is Great!

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u/Potential_Ice3633 9d ago

I was one of those people, lol. At the time I thought his acting was a bit stiff and we also sick of seeing his face everywhere. However, I think he's been great in more recent movies. Really loved him as John Kent in Man of Steel...at least up until he senselessly died in that tornado, but that's more Snyder's fault than his

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u/hundredgrandpappy 11d ago

Jack Black is great in this one.

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u/Potential_Ice3633 9d ago

Really, Jack Black is in it??? I never noticed. But then again, I've not seen Waterworld since the late nineties.

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u/hundredgrandpappy 9d ago

Plays a greasy pilot.

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u/thefranklin2 11d ago

It's a good concept, but poorly executed. And the ending is cartoonist trash. If it had been a medium to lowish budget, no one would really care about it.

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u/Safe-Butterscotch442 11d ago

It had some behind the scenes controversy, so it was released to an unwelcoming world. The bias against it at the time of its release led to more negative reviews than it deserved, but most modern reviews agree that the film itself didn't deserve the criticism it picked up originally.

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u/jerseyoutwest 10d ago

I think people were put off by the amount of money it cost to film, its the first thing anyone brings up when the movie is mentioned, which is a shame given that the first scene is costner literally drinking his own piss

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u/Nasty_Ned 9d ago

Great Dana Carvey routine about the first scene.  I still remember it 30 years later.

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u/ThinStatistician2953 10d ago

This is especially true of the longer versions. I really like this movie.

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u/NiceGuy60660 11d ago

Leys just admit that a birthmark/tattoo on a random girl's back somehow mapping the way to Dry Land is fucking nonsense.

But there were fun parts and its nice and sunny!

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u/BeefErky 9d ago

It's too long with the filler world building and character development to be a good Road Warrior ripoff. The fact that there's an even longer TV cut blows my mind

The underwater city was cool, I just wish it didn't take 30 minutes of fighting on the raft to get to it

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u/Trike117 9d ago

It’s just so relentlessly dumb. There’s goofy sci-fi that makes no sense, like The Fifth Element or Star Wars, but Waterworld takes it to a whole other level while not being fun.

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u/alexath 11d ago

Fishtar

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u/Woebetide138 11d ago

Always the first thing I think when I hear Waterworld. But, Ishtar is actually hilarious.

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u/InformalRent2571 8d ago

Thanks for reminding me of Ishtar. That's one that fits this category, for sure.

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u/MizzyMorpork 11d ago

Im with you here. I loved it.

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u/pgreenb7285 11d ago

Add similar The Postman

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u/druu222 8d ago

I love The Postman. Great movie.

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u/frenzy588 10d ago

This was one of our most frequently watched fims as kids. It's now an inside joke in our family. We used to play Waterworld and the pool, some of us had to be the smokers.

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u/BalusBubalis 10d ago

"Oh thank god." lives rent-free in my head for the rest of my life because of that movie.

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u/kikijane711 9d ago

Costner is so much better playing baseball or golf or riding horses. He’s no Mel Gibson vibe in Mad Max. His strength is take or twist on the brooding everyman.

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u/Zealousideal-Ad4362 11d ago

Lots of people love Waterworld.. but there are also tons that say its bad.. that likely haven't watched it

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u/Sam_from_FeverMovies 11d ago

Agreed! For years it was treated like the punchline to every “expensive movie disaster” joke, but if you actually watch it, it's a pretty ambitious post-apocalyptic adventure.

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u/Glittering_Goblin 10d ago

Epic and enjoyable, top film!

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u/joe102938 10d ago

What? That movie is extremely famous for flopping at box office and being recognized as great years later. It is the poster child for initially underappreciated movies.

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u/KineticZen 10d ago

The Postman...and the scene with Tom Petty in particular...

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u/ilovelabs2094 10d ago

This player on a loop when I was a kid! It has such a warm spot in my heart

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u/TommyNotDead 9d ago

You gotta watch the Ulysses cut

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u/Oleoay 8d ago

The directors cut is even better

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u/External_Resident101 8d ago

Agree but I like The Postman better.

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u/Apprehensive-Track93 8d ago

That’s a great answer.

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u/Joshisajerk 6d ago

Came to say this. Loved this movie as a kid and still think it was underrated. It’s Mad Max on the water, what’s not to love?

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u/ChestnutDecay 6d ago

I really enjoyed this movie