Masterpieces that were initially hated by critics.

Space Jam has got 38% on rotten tomatoes.

38%!
 
Dark souls I'm guessing, since it's become more talked about as years have gone by.
 
Blade Runner and John Carpenters The Thing were both slated by critics on release and are now regarded as classics.
 
Don't think it was slated, but it was only a while after it was released that the first Predator movie started to gain cult status, looking forward to the latest one coming out soon.
Considering it came out 30 years ago, I don't think Predator looks dated the way some 80s movies do.
 
Black Sabbath's early albums were dismissed by pretty much all music critics back in the day. Particularly their third album Master of Reality, which is now widely regarded as probably the single most important record in the history of heavy music and a timeless masterpiece. Hindsight is easy of course, but it's still funny to look back at comments such as "just like Cream but worse", "the worst of the counterculture" and "a dim-witted, amoral exploitation".
 
Kubrick's The Shining took a while to catch on.
 
If you look at the Sight & Sound and TSPDT lists for the greatest films ever, only a small fraction of the films were met with unanimous critical and public acclaim.
 
Oaencha said:
Eyes Wide Shut is definitely not a masterpiece but I actually really liked it. In my opinion there are two reasons why it was so poorly received by critics.

1 - It was Kubrick’s last film and expectations were crazy high.

2 - Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman being cast.

Interesting fact. Even though Cruise and Kidman were married at the time, their sexual chemistry was apparently so bad that Kubrick hired couple counsellers and sex therapists to help them seem more plausible in the romantic scenes. Needless to say their marriage didn’t last.
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It was one of the worst films I have ever had the displeasure to see. I'm not a Kubrick fan but this is by far his worst film (of the ones I have seen). In fact this is the first time I have ever seen anyone like it at all. When I saw it half the theater walked out through boredom.
 
I don't see many masterpieces listed.

Blade Runner, Apocalypse Now and 2001 (even though I hate it) maybe.

But Con Air and Showgirls?

Even Shawshank is just many peoples favorite film, but surely nobody thinks it is a masterpiece?
 
Wibble said:
It was one of the worst films I have ever had the displeasure to see. I'm not a Kubrick fan but this is by far his worst film (of the ones I have seen). In fact this is the first time I have ever seen anyone like it at all. When I saw it half the theater walked out through boredom.
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I completely understand why most people don’t like it. I am a Kubrick fan and it obviously goes without saying it’s nowhere near his best but there’s something about the omnious atmosphere which really drew me in. I got the same kind of feeling with The Ninth Gate as well.
 
During his lifetime, Franz Kafka burned an estimated 90 percent of his work. After his death at age 41, in 1924, a letter was discovered in his desk in Prague, addressed to his friend Max Brod. “Dearest Max,” it began. “My last request: Everything I leave behind me . . . in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others’), sketches and so on, to be burned unread.” Less than two months later, Brod, disregarding Kafka’s request, signed an agreement to prepare a posthumous edition of Kafka’s unpublished novels.
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Ian Reus said:
Shawshank Redemption.

Bombed at the cinema so went to video not long after.
Word of mouth got it where it is now.
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Better than straight to video but I have no idea why it is so popular. Thta said it got positive reviews when released and didn't do that badly at the cinema albeit brilliantly. A decent simple film from a very good Stephen King short story.
 
There's a few films: Touch of Evil was poorly received and Peeping Tom was so widely reviled that it ended up finishing Michael Powell's career. Similar thing happened with Night of the Hunter.

All 3 have ended up becoming regarded as absolute classics.
 
was not serious about Con Air guys, I thought it was bad enough for that to be obvious but my bad
 
Wibble said:
Better than straight to video but I have no idea why it is so popular. Thta said it got positive reviews when released and didn't do that badly at the cinema albeit brilliantly. A decent simple film from a very good Stephen King short story.
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It's also incredibly well shot. So much so, that you could make 1000 different posters from the scenes.
The way the story is told is almost poetry too.
 
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