Why the low ranking ...


I'm sure there have been similar topics on this board, I just couldn't be bothered to go looking for them. I'm befuddled that this movie is rated with a mere 6.2 when some of the absolute trash in the comedy genre being relentlessly spawned from Hollywood these days is being rated higher than that. This movie is literally one of the absolutely funniest comedies I have ever seen, and I've seen a fair share of movies. The plot is extremely amusing, not to mention clever; the acting is seamless (aside from "What About Bob" definitely my favorite Bill Murray film) and the combination of the two is overwhelmingly funny.

Anyone who does not get a kick out of this movie has a terrible sense of humor ... The absolutely only two things that slightly bothered me about the movie were the elderly anniversary couple and the somewhat unnecessary nature of their anniversary as well as the ending of the movie which was a little overboard in my opinion. But these mild criticisms pale in comparison to the brilliance of the movie as a comedy. Absolutely underrated ...

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YES, there have been MANY topics about this movie's low ranking. Sadly, some comedies, while hysterical, are rated very low usually do to a lack of plot or flow. Like this one, most hilarious comedies are just joke after joke after joke, and use the plot as something to base the jokes on, instead of move the movie in some kind of direction. One of my favorite comedies is Jim Carrey's Fun With Dick and Jane. I don't know if I've ever cracked up so much during a movie. However, when you think about it, Fun With Dick and Jane is mostly just a man and a women running around performing outrageous acts time after time after time.

What I don't see is why people must rate comedies like this. If a movie obviously strives to make the audience laugh over and over again, but not bring them to tears and astonishment, then it should be rated accordingly. Comedies that move in a constant flow like, say, The Holy Grail, are bound to be rated higher than those that flood you with jokes, but have an abrupt ending, and really no "middle".

I hope that answers your question :)

Idiot: "There is no such thing as absolute truth."
Idiot Debunker: "Is that the truth?"

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[deleted]

It's simply really ... the kind of people to whom this movie really appealed are the same kind of people who simply are not inclined to vote or make an issue of it.

That's also the same reason why some absolutely astonishingly dreadful movies get high ratings. They appeal to a group of people who are the voting type.

That's not to say that all voting-type people are of the same cloth ... not by a long shot. In fact they can be and often are opposite ends of the spectrum ... those in the middle, us, let them decide for us. It's a shame really. This was why Siskel and Ebert hated it ... they aren't ... or weren't "normal people".

This is one of my favorite of all times, along with Galaxy Quest ... another horribly-underrated comedy.

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Yo dave, you alright!

I thought I was the only person that goes out of their way to bring up Galaxy Quest. That and TMWNTL are two of my most endeared comedies of the 90s. Those two and Bullworth and Friday are pretty much my whole list.

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I see someone else already gave a nod for the Galaxy Quest line, but your right it was another great underrated movie. I think what i like about TMWNTL so much is that there aren't jokey jokes in the movie. Its more of a situational comedy. But who knows, I'm no expert.

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I haven't seen TMWNTL yet, but as you people compare it to Galaxy Quest, I'm sure going to watch it...



--
Grammar:
The difference between knowing your sh**
and knowing you're sh**.

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I watched it and I didn't see what was so funny. The movie bored me. I wasted my money on the DVD.

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I ranked it a 10 and I mean it.

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6.2 is too low. But considering the mind set and taste of middle america.........heehaw watching, the folks that keep low brow sitcoms in circulation forever.......its pretty close to what i'd have predicted.

I wish there were a few studios willing to pull the trigger on projects like this.

9 from me.

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I have no idea why this movie is only a 6.2. I rated The Man Who Knew Too Little a 10/10; it is the ultimate comedic farce.

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My wife and I saw this in the theater when it was newly released and thought it was a riot. For years we thought we were the only people who saw it. We could not imagine why it did so poorly.

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Don't put so much emphasis on the voting polls in IMDB.com. Bcs the demographics do not accurately represent the movie watching public. So the final figures will be skewed.

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Well actually I find the ratings on IMDB pretty accurate for the most part - mostly due to the large amount of raters which usually leads to an average close to what could be considered the objective "quality" of the movie.

But there are some odd exceptions to that observation. And as said, this is definitely one of those - easily one of the most underrated movies on the site. This is one of the finest comedies around and I'd challenge anyone to come up with even just five or ten comedies better than this one.

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