Magnolia - The reason I don't care for Magnolia is because of its over the top rambling nature that tries to convey the theme of the movie. It is very similar to Requiem in that it doesn't give the watcher any break or relief. All the stories seem like such a train wreck. Most of all however is that I, as a viewer didn't care. I did not find any reason to care about any of these characters or any of the plot points and how they play into each other. The whole film is too high concept for its own good and I feel director Paul Thomas Anderson either did not have a clear cut enough vision of the final product or could not manage his ideas into a coherent single piece. Anderson's weakness as a director is that he is not good at striking any emotional points or crafting a strong enough theme to make you sit there and think. I believe this is also true of his much greater film There Will Be Blood, but that film has absolutely stunning cinematography and atmosphere, an amazing soundtrack and one of the best performances by an actor of all time in my opinion.
Slumdog Millionare - I realize I'm not the only one who feels this is overrated. The easiest piece of criticism to make about this movie is that if it were to take place in a western nation, nobody would have given a rat's ass about it. The movie hangs so much on its foreign setting. We've all seen the rags to riches story of a young man who proves himself and rescues the attractive empty-shell-of-a-character girl done before, and much better. Audiences and critics loved it because it was so 'cultural'. If people weren't so pretentious maybe they would look over that fact and realize that the movie itself is kind of dumb.
Sorry if that was a bit long. What acclaimed movies did you not enjoy?
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