Live Poll: The Most Overrated Movies of 21st Century

"Moonlight", too.

3 Billboards really? What's so overrated? I mean it was original to say the least, the film's premise, the unexpected evolution of characters who were 'archetypal' ... I'm not saying everyone should find the film terrific but so many films play on the safe side, at least 3 BB tried to show something new and unusual.

True, 3 BB tried to something in a fairly unusual way, but I agree with Stephen. The writer and director is the playwright of one of my three favorite plays so I hated to be disappointed, but I was. The performances were great, especially McDormand and Harrelson, the cinematography was often lush, and the dialogue was usually excellent but there were errors that seemed so unnecessary, such as the fact that there just-so-happened to be a fire extinguisher in Mildred's car, just so Mildred could immediately be seen taking action that was futile, anyway. My larger problem, however, was how quickly and dramatically Dixon's character evolved. It was not believable in the least and it also tended to dismiss the seriousness of his deeds (crimes, even). I also thought the usually-spot-on Sam Rockwell's performance was more of a caricature, something I suspect had more to do with the direction (by a huge talent that wrote one of my most beloved plays) than Rockwell. You make a good point about the archetypal characters, though. I did like it more the second time that I saw it because I think was able to enjoy the positive aspects and the entertaining pace, events, and dialogue, since I knew, going into it, that there were disappointing aspects so I was able to ignore them, and I do really like much about the film but I still am shocked that McDonagh would make such mistakes and still think it is overrated. 

I do agree with you, ElMo, though, that so many movies play it safe, so it is important to recognize the movies that take risks but there were films from that year, which was, I think, a very good year in cinema, that took bigger risks and avoided the pitfalls. 'The Florida Project,' of course, comes to mind, as well as 'Kedi,' 'Loveless,' and 'Disobedience.' 

I did appreciate much about the film but it got so much hype, was so popular, and received an Oscar nom for Best Picture so I too think it was over-rated. There are other films on this list that were even more over-rated, though, and Stephen mentioned a few of them, although I think 'No Country for Old Men' deserved every high rating it got, and think 'Spotlight' was very important. I didn't see more than a few minutes of 'Hurt Locker.' 

But I think we need to define what "overrated" means and the standards to call something overrated like for example if our rating differed 1.5/2 points from the critics or the overall imdb users rating.

Don't you agree?

Yes. I think Moonlight is highly overrated (Metascore: 99). Although we can't argue its high-level cinematography or production, it felt quite empty and incompetent to tell the story it intended to. I gave 6 stars (IMDb: 7,4). So for me, it is enormously overrated by critics (almost 4 points difference from Metascore), but also by IMDb users (more than 2 star difference). I wouldn't call movies with difference less than 1.0 "overrated", but more than 1,5-2 is definitely "overrated".

If we attend this standard it will be better to distinguish what is overrated or not but in the end of the day it will be subjective to our tastes.

Gladiator and Slumdog Millionaire for me are absolutely overrated, I can rewatch this movies many times but they will not come even close to the ratings that they have... and thinking that they won the Oscar for best moction picture blows my mind.

The King's Speech and 12 Years a Slave I think I need to give them another a chance and re-watch again. Although I think they are a bit overrated by the critics and for the ceremony awards, both are good movies I admit but I don't think that they are the best movies from their specific years. About their rating on Imdb, I think that is more reliable than the critics. Both are 8/10 at best contrasting with the rating critics that are (88) and (96).

Summing Up:

Gladiator and Slumdog Millionaire fit in my opinion in the essence of the word "overrated". They are not good... reasonable at best.

About Moonlight, I haven't see so I can't say much about but yeah it seems quite overrated by the critics

I wouldn't call it arbitrary but maybe some 'rational' parameters wouldn't hurt the poll, say a spot on IMDb Top 250, a number of awards nominations or win.... something like that.

Exactly. I used several other lists to create this list: IMDb Top 250, Oscar winners and nominees and Metacritic's and BBC's list of top 21st century movies.
BBC's list is very interesting. You can find it here: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160819-the-21st-centurys-100-greatest-films

I feel like you should choose one criteria and stick with it, at least for this list. The biggest question I'm asking while looking through this is "Overrated by whom?" Sometimes it's based on the critics, sometimes it's based on the audiences, but there's no real consistent reference perspective presented in this list, and hence it feels a bit arbitrary. And sticking to 32 titles instead of going the full 35 also suggests that they were picked by hand/preference rather than objectively selected from clearly defined parameters.

For example, you have Inglorious Basterds on the list, but not Pulp Fiction, which is more highly rated from both critics and users alike. On the other hand, films like The Revenant are still on the list despite not being rated extraordinarily highly by critics or audiences. Yes, it's rated highly, but it doesn't have a metascore of 95 or a user rating of 8.7 or anything. It's arguably not rated highly enough to make it an interesting candidate for an overrated movies list. 

Instead of using three separate reference lists for this poll, I think you should settle on one (i.e. IMDb's top 250 or Metacritic's list or BBC's). You can always create different polls based on different lists, but settling on one source would really make it feel less arbitrary/stitched together.

This is just some criticism, feel free to take it or leave it, no hard feelings. 

Pulp fiction is not from 21st century. I put Revenant because it was one of the Oscar nominees and because of many critics who overpraised it. Also, I think some may find 8.0 to be overrated...
It is hard to make this kind of poll just from referring to one list. I think, in that way, many possible choices would not be included in the final poll . For example, Moonlight is not included in the BBC's list but I think it must be included on this. That list has some titles that Metacritic's doesn't have, so I considered both.
But, maybe I can try creating a poll just from one list and see how will it go. I wanted some general list here. Maybe it doesn't work...

Pulp Fiction is indeed not from the 21st century, that's an oversight on my part. Sorry about that. :P

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that because you're using a broad set of criteria, the selections don't really add up to a consistent outlook besides what you think is overrated, even if you think others share your assessment. You might not like The Revenant that much, but 76 is only a moderately high Metascore, and that's for what is objectively (more or less) one of the most technically accomplished films of the decade. That's not to say the story or other elements of the film will please everyone, but it's an odd movie to pick on when there are numerous options more fitting.

Meanwhile, I would argue that Avengers: Infinity War shouldn't be touching the top 250 with a 50-foot pole, and that's not on your list (unless you're taking suggestions, in which case that's a suggestion). But if I made a list of what I thought was overrated (selected broadly from Oscar nominees, user ratings, and aggregated review site lists, which mind you is a massive sample size to mash together), and then proceeded to select titles non-systematically, then it's really more of a personal list than an objective list. 

Perhaps you could go down Metacritic's list and add the top 35 titles with 100,000 user ratings or more on IMDb (to ensure a decent audience size). Perhaps you could even compile all the best picture nominees/winners and choose the highest rated 35 (using user ratings or Metascore). You can go fewer than 35 of course, but omitting titles without clear parameters would make the list seem less credible. The only clear parameter for omission currently is that it has to be from this century. 

And clear parameters are what I'd argue this list needs. I know I'm being somewhat stiffy about it, but I think it's a good poll idea and would like to see it improve. I think it can work, but it does need some clarifications (in my opinion). You don't have to make it objective if you don't want to I suppose, but if you're not I'd suggest making it clear in the description.

I hope what I'm trying to say is coming across. If you'd like me to stop I can, I don't want to stress you out or anything. Otherwise, I hope you find this helpful in some way.