Overrated, Underrated

[Ignatz]

Well, let's run this up the old flagpole and see who salutes it.
For the last five or six years, American Heritage magazine has been running an article each year collecting opinions on the most overrated and underrated people, events, ideas, inventions, etc. in U.S. history. The topics range from generals and presidents to rock bands and sex symbols. Let's see if anybody here wants to rag on some overhyped icons and pump up some neglected heroes. The only catch is, if you submit an overrated whatever, you have to provide a corresponding underrated thingie in the same category.
(I'm going to bed now. When I wake up around midnight, I expect to read dozens of posts on this thread.)

 

[gila67]

How about this one?

Horror Novels
Overrated: The Shining - Stephen King
Underrated: Some of Your Blood - Theodore Sturgeon

 

[Goodieluver]

overrated-the chicago cubs
underrated-the 1st place in MLB standings chicago whitesox

 

[nessonite1]

Overrated - Star Wars
Underrated - Spaceballs baby!!

 

[Goodieluver]

i cant think of someone overrated but

underrated-Ness

 

[Ignatz]

Actor

Overrated: Marlon Brando. He had his moments, of course, in Streetcar, Waterfront, and, surprisingly, Julius Caesar. But more often he was self-conscious and distractingly quirky...and, of course, in his later years turned into a lumbering joke. Greatest American Actor? Not in my book! Runner-up....James Dean. I have never understood the worship of this guy.

Underrated: Thomas Mitchell. Arguably the best character actor in Hollywood in the thirties and forties, he was not underrated then, winning Oscars and earning nominations. But he is something of a forgotten man now. You've seen him as Scarlett's father in "Gone With the Wind," as the drunken doctor in "Stagecoach," as Uncle Billy in "It's a Wonderful Life," or as Clopin in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." Funny or tragic, virtuous or villainous, he could do it all.
Runner-up...Boris Karloff. Justly celebrated for the pathos and power he brought to Frankenstein's monster, typecasting prevented him from showing his full range for most of his career. His finest performance? The grave-robbing cabman John Grey in "The Body Snatcher."

 

[Goodieluver]

Overrated: Marlon Brando. He had his moments, of course, in Streetcar, Waterfront, and, surprisingly, Julius Caesar. But more often he was self-conscious and distractingly quirky...and, of course, in his later years turned into a lumbering joke. Greatest American Actor? Not in my book! Runner-up....James Dean. I have never understood the worship of this guy.

Underrated: Thomas Mitchell. Arguably the best character actor in Hollywood in the thirties and forties, he was not underrated then, winning Oscars and earning nominations. But he is something of a forgotten man now. You've seen him as Scarlett's father in "Gone With the Wind," as the drunken doctor in "Stagecoach," as Uncle Billy in "It's a Wonderful Life," or as Clopin in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." Funny or tragic, virtuous or villainous, he could do it all.
Runner-up...Boris Karloff. Justly celebrated for the pathos and power he brought to Frankenstein's monster, typecasting prevented him from showing his full range for most of his career. His finest performance? The grave-robbing cabman John Grey in "The Body Snatcher."

whats wrong with his acting in apocalypse now and godfather?

 

[Ignatz]

whats wrong with his acting in apocalypse now and godfather?

Neither performance was horrible. I just find that when I watch "Godfather," I am always conscious that it's Marlon Brando acting. I wish the title role in that movie had gone to Anthony Quinn as (so I hear) was originally planned. I like Brando's Kurtz better, because the mannered, studied performance does suggest insanity. But I still think his is the weakest performance in that film.
(Mine is a minority opinion, I admit, especially on "The Godfather.")

 

[jts963]

Overrated - The Twilight Zone
Underrated - Boris Karloff's Thriller

 

[Horus]

Overrated....Philadelphia Phillies
Underrated...Washington Nationals

 

[Violetta]

Overrated - Thread necromancy
Underrated - Leaving old threads to lie

 

[melanie2]

What happened to Ignatz anyway? I always liked him.

 

[Tom Tickle]

Just a few British additions.

Overrated: The Sex Pistols
Underrated: Depeche Mode

Overrated: David Lean
Underrated: Matthew Vaughn

Overrated: Jane Austen
Underrated: Will Self

Overrated: David Walliams
Underrated: Peter Serafinowicz

Overrated: Judge Dredd
Underrated: Calamity James

Overrated: British weaponary
Underrated: British troops