Rules of Attraction being way overrated among fanboys....

[The 8 Ball]

Alot of people consider this film underrated, I beg to differ. It deserved it's minor box office earnings and zero attention outside the fanboy hype.

Among the fanboys, and even some of the fratboys....it is overrated. Why any type of mass of people finds this film great is beyond me.

First off, I didn't care about the characters....i know they were suppose to be lonely and distant.....but thats no excuse..... Wong Kar-wai can make you feel for the most weird, lonely, odd characters out there. Just that Roger Avary can't, because he has no talent or merit outside of his work on "The Golden Watch" for Pulp Fiction.

I'm no prude, but it was overly vulgar with no excuse or substance to it.

Infact the film had no substance, no pay off of any sort. "Life sucks and you can never really connect with people. THE END"

Everybody goes on about how great the Kip's european vacation montage scene was.....and it was impressive......but the film didn't need that scene at all......infact it was very abrupt and out of place. This came more apparent, when as the film ended.....it didn't go into any depth behind Kip Pardue's character......the scene was just a good way to waste six minutes and impress people.

That's what i feel Roger Avary was trying to do throughout this film.....impress people with how edgy, flashy, and stylistic the film is....... The Scooby Doo Movie had more depth though....

Maybe Roger Avary is just an artist beyond his time??? Maybe I don't get it...? What do you guyz think?

[Scarface98.9]

If you posted this before March of 2003, I would've went against your opinion with a passion. But when seeing it a second time, my eyes were opened a bit in seeing just how bad the movie was. James Van Der Beek doesn't play a great character. It's a cardboard thing resembling a character who's only emotions are that he's horny, a jerk, feeds on other's emotions, and gets high/drunk. That's about it. It's really just some guy you know and meant to be "deep." But all we get is Beek trying to act as fucked up as he can, and putting on his "brooding badass" face (like when he drinks from the JD bottle in the snow near the end. Whoa, you're really into it now!). Scenes come and go with no real purpose (the Dick scene, the European trip, the drug dealer subplot, etc.) and the endless, pointless voiceovers just sit there.

First time viewing: 9/10
Every viewing after: 4/10

[KcMsterpce]

Well, I hate to sound like an "it's overrated/it's underrated" bubble burster here, but it's very easy to label the same movie as overrated or underrated. It doesn't matter WHAT kind of movie it is. It can be a huge blockbuster success, or a box office failiure. It can find an audience on video through word of mouth; whatever. If you didn't like it, it's overrated and if you DID like it then it is UNDERRATED.

I liked Rules of Attraction. I show it to my friends that I think will enjoy it. I tell them first off that when I saw it in theaters I didn't like it all that much, but there were things about it I did like. It plays just like I was reading an Ellis novel (I hate reading Ellis), so I don't understand why I like it so much. I tell my friends that the characters are despicable. - But I laugh a lot and think it's got a subdued kind of energy that some people dig, and others don't (or they fail to see it the same way I do).
And I loved James Van Der Beek. I thought he was f'n awesome.

I don't think it's under- or overrated. I think it sits just fine where it's at; in the middle, kinda exposed enough to be found by an audience that will enjoy it, and under the radar enough to be missed by the wider audience of people who probably won't it enjoy it too much. It's not loud enough in the mainstream to be annoying to the general audience of haters.

I'm sure there are people who constantly applaud it as something more than what I think it should be considered as, but there will always be a clique of fanboys for any genre, film, comic, card game, or TV show - whatever. When you hang around these people enough, or go to their chat boards, it seems like anything that they talk about is 'overrated'.


I try to avoid labelling movies as 'overrated' or 'underrated'. It gets tiring hearing it used as a disguised way of saying that you did or didn't like a movie.
If anything, I might mention a movie as being underappreciated, but even THEN I try to use it sparingly.

That's my opinion, though. :(

[BorderEevilIII]

Rules of Attraction was awright. I just reminded me of ANOTHER film that was just done prior titled GO. I do give props to ROA for some AMUSING moments and Van Der Beek can act outside of the box. :D
The ending well.... lets not go there ;)

[Jas]

My opinion on this movie has always been strange to me.
When watching ROA, even for the second time, I liked it scene by scene and I was impressed, but then when I looked back at it I didn't care for it much.
James Van Der Beek was alright, nothing amazing though.

[Raoul Duke]

I thought the movie was decent. But I just got through the reading the novel, and liked it a lot. You get a longer period to know the characters better. And even though they're all depraved and greedy just like in the movie, you kind of get attached to them by the time the story is over.

[Mandrake]

I liked it a lot. What I liked it about though was that it was true to the novel. It had to cut things out for time, such as Patrick Bateman's role, but it did it in the best way possible. I think that Avery definitely is a less talented version of Tarantino and watching this did remind me of a movie you would watch from a senior at some film school, but the material he was working with told such a good story that it still went over fine. I disagree with the comments about the acting. I thought that the four main stars did a great job. Definitely a lot better than I had expected when I first heard of their castings. I gave it a 4/5 on my imaginary scale and look forward to Glamorama.

[The Postmaster General]

Bubba's theory: It's not overrated among fanboys.



Proof: It's rated below a 7 on the iMDB, the quitessential voice for fanboys where Lord of the Rings becomes the number one movie the day of its release.



Boo this rant!

[HHH123007]

I thought it was "blah" and didn't really go anywhere.....I only really saw it because of the buzz from the internet.

I love the ending though.

[Saruman]

The movie wasn't true to the original story. Therefore, it sucks ass.

Besides, everyone in the movie was an asshole. Am I supposed to relate to them or feel sympathy?

[JCPhoenix]

i dunno, it's strange. i liked it a lot in theatres and even bought it on dvd the first week it came out but after another viewing it just wasn't anywhere near as good as i remembered it to be so i ended up trading it in at a pawn shop if i remember correctly (or i might have traded it on here)