It Takes All Kinds

We all have unpopular opinions, and film is such a subjective topic that there’s gonna be division somewhere (Last Jedi, anyone?). Ergo, the idea of coaxing a few secrets out into the open is fraught with intrigue. Here are two of my possibly unpopular opinions, and there are plenty more where these came from.

*Impish eyebrow wiggle*

For now, though, here we go…

Hate: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84% Critics, 81% Audience

OK, little disclaimer: I normally love Indiana Jones. He’s so cool. It was obvious to so many of us from the first few minutes of Raiders Of the Lost Ark that the character was something special. However, I felt like Lucas and Spielberg slumped hard in Indy’s sophomore outing because they didn’t take the character in an accessible direction.

It starts strongly enough, with a James Bond flavor and Kate Capshaw singing Cole Porter, but that’s where the fun ends for me. While the first Indy has derring-do and old-fashioned suspense, Doom has gore. Lots and lots of gore. We’re talking eyeballs floating in soup, monkey brains, and a priest pulling a beating heart out of a poor sacrifice victim, among other horrors. Plus the story us just plain depressing–stolen children and cults.

I guess Spielberg and Lucas were going for bigger, better and not too formulaic with this movie, and it feels like they overshot the target.

Love: The Happening (2008)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 17% Critics, 24% Audience

Ah yes, angry plants emitting toxins to the evil humans who have the audacity to occupy Planet Earth. It’s gold. Amazingly enough, director M. Night Shyamalan meant for The Happening to be a great B-movie.

And…he got his wish, only I don’t think he intended for The Happening to be as funny as it is. Sure, it’s still a horror movie and there are still some gory bits, but there’s also the clunky dialogue, the uncharacteristically shoddy acting, the meaningless filler (“What kind of tree is this?”) and of course the Hot Dog Guy. Oh, and we can’t forget Mark Wahlberg trying to butter up a fake plant because he doesn’t want to give off bad vibes.

I’d say more about this movie, but I want to do a full review of it sometime (the next So Bad It’s Good Blogathon, perhaps?) because it deserves to seen in all its hilarious glory.

Anyone else got some unpopular movie likes and dislikes? Feel free to comment below! Even if we disagree, it’s still fun talking about it.

For more great Against the Crowd posts, please see Dell at Dell on Movies. Thanks for hosting this, Dell–I’m so glad to have found this blogathon (hat tip to Gill Jacob for telling me about it). Thanks for reading, all, and hope to see you on Friday, when we look at the wide world of rare books and the people who sell them…

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (DVD and Blu-ray) and The Happening (DVD and Blu-ray) are available from Amazon.

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