10 Beloved Classic Movies That Are Actually Terrible

Not every “classic” movie lives up with the hype. Sometimes, those “must-watch” films turn out to be more of a snooze fest than a masterpiece, and that’s if the only flaw is that it’s boring. Maybe they’re just products of their time, or maybe they were never as good as people said. Either way, they’re not for everyone, despite their classic status. Here’s our list of must-see movies that you must avoid.

1. Gone with the Wind (1939)

“Gone with the Wind” is generally considered one of the greatest movies ever made, and 85 years after its release, people are still laboring under this very delusion despite much evidence to the contrary. For one thing, it’s four hours long, defying home viewers to resist spending most of the running time on their phones playing Candy Crush. Then there’s all the problematic stuff you surely already know about, and even if that doesn’t bother you, did we mention this movie is almost four hours long?

2. The English Patient (1996)

“The English Patient” is one of those movies that won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and nobody can remember why. It’s a slow and pretentious slog about a man burned beyond recognition in a war who tells of his pre-war past in flashback sequences. At the time of its release, critics went absolutely bonkers for the movie, and it was a major commercial success. But, even the nine Oscars it won can’t make the movie interesting. Dull, dull, dull.

3. Out of Africa (1985)

“Out of Africa” is an epic romance starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, based on the 1937 autobiographical book of the same name by Isak Dinesen. The movie won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but watching it in 2024 reveals that Redford is jarringly miscast and Streep’s most significant accomplishment in this movie is her accent. The best thing in this almost three hour slog is the scenery, and you can save yourself a lot of time and boredom by looking at pictures of the Kenyan Chyulu Hills location where it was filmed on your phone.

4. American Beauty (1999)

In 1999, “American Beauty” won universal praise for its take on life in the American suburbs. The kindest thing you could say about the movie today is that it was a product of its time. In 2005, just six years after the movie’s release, Premiere put the movie on its list of the 20 Most Overrated Movies of All Time. Then there’s the fact that Kevin Spacey is the film’s star, and honestly, the ick factor from the 2017 allegations against him has not worn off. Watching him obsess over a teenager in this movie is not a welcome sight and never will be.

5. Forrest Gump (1994)

“Forrest Gump” is an adaptation of the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom, and it won Tom Hanks an Oscar for Best Actor. It follows a doe-eyed man through the various tumultuous events that shaped the Baby Boom generation, winning widespread acclaim and many Benjamins from the box office. It was even preserved in the Library of Congress. Too bad it has no story, an insultingly simplistic worldview, and mawkish sentimentality so cloying it may send you into a sugar coma.

6. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

The “found footage” genre didn’t begin with “The Blair Witch Project.” But, the 1999 horror movie was the first to cost a mere $35,000 to shoot and then make back $249 million at the box office. This windfall return on investment kicked off a rash of found footage horror movies that still plague us today. What set apart “The Blair Witch Project” from others was that many believed it was authentic footage of people disappearing into the woods and was a snuff film. But if you know it’s fake, it simply isn’t scary.

7. Top Gun (1986)

“Top Gun” was a massive hit upon its release in 1986 and was instrumental in cementing Tom Cruise’s leading man status. If you saw it in the theater, the aerial scenes could be very pretty to look at, but most of this movie takes place on the ground. It expects us to care about the rivalry between Maverick and Iceman and the dire situation foisted upon the character of Goose, who you know (SPOILER ALERT) will die from the minute he walks onscreen. “Top Gun” was the highest-grossing movie in the world when it came out, and most people love it, so maybe we’re just cranky contrarians. However, if we can save even one person from sitting through this barking, bone-burying dog of a movie, it will have been worth it.

8. As Good as It Gets (1997)

Jack Nicholson has a reputation as one of the greatest living American actors, and “As Good as It Gets,” for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, makes us ask why. His performance is a carbon copy of the one he has given in every movie he’s ever made (except for “About Schmidt”) and is absolutely identical to his performances in “Five Easy Pieces,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Anger Management,” and any other bit of celluloid you’d care to name. In “As Good as It Gets,” he plays a complete jerk who yells at people for two hours, and we’re supposed to like him for some reason.

9. Eraserhead (1977)

If you love interminable, plodding movies with no point, story, or end, you will love David Lynch’s “Eraserhead.” To the extent that there is one, the plot follows a man forced to care for a grotesque monster baby. We do want to commend Lynch on actually finishing this movie in the first place, as constant funding problems made it take years to finish. We certainly congratulate him on his mettle and finding a novel way into the Hollywood career he enjoys today. That said, the movie is torture, and there should be some cash incentive available to anyone who can successfully sit through it.

10. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)

“Breakfast at Tiffany’s” is a beloved comedy that stars Audrey Hepburn in her signature role, Holly Golightly. The movie took some significant liberties with the Truman Capote novel of the same name, but that’s a minor complaint compared to the presence of Mickey Rooney as Golightly’s Asian landlord, Mr. Yunioshi, for which the not even remotely Asian actor was given buck teeth as part of a full “yellowface” treatment. Nevertheless, Rooney himself said he never heard any complaints about his portrayal, saying, “Asians and Chinese come up to me and say, ‘Mickey you were out of this world.'” Sure they did.