Overrated films part 4.

The wild success of 'Forrest Gump' baffles me. It really does. This has to be the corniest Best Picture winner since 'The Greatest Show on Earth'.

I'll never forget the day I saw that movie. I was working at a movie theatre and went to a screening of it. For those of you unfamiliar the employees would screen the movies the night before they opened to make sure the projectionist put the film together correctly and to make sure the print didn't have any flaws. Of course we all enjoyed getting to see the films before anyone else.

The movie started and for the first few minutes I found it mildly amusing. Then came the "run Forrest run" scene all set in slow motion with deep classical music pounding in the background. That sequence alone sums up the entire film. The rest of the movie waxes philosophic with humor that seemed only destined for bad sitcoms. Some scenes don't even make much sense and really didn't have a point at all.

The general public loved it. For many months afterwards media outlets and public speakers quoted the wisdoms of the fictional shrimp tycoon. I would stand there at my podium at the movie theatre while people exited the theatre crying and/or praising the film as the second coming of 'Citizen Kane'. People often asked me if it was a true story. Yes that's the power of film. People will believe that if you show Lyndon Johnson your ass he would just crack a smile. I guess there could've been someone who played ping pong and got lucky with a shrimp and computer investment, but even then that's a stretch.

Corny is as corny does and that's the real story of 'Forrest Gump'. Like most overrated films this one did have it's high points such as the cinematography and the acting, but it does not deserve to be in the hallowed halls of great cinema.

One of the worst scenes of this miserable film:



"Stupid is as stupid does, and this movie is, indeed, stupid." - Luke Thompson