The Internet is a breeding ground for opinions and assholes. As the saying goes, “everyone that has an opinion also has an asshole” …or something like that. These opinions can spread like a virus and permeate through all the dork communities on this web of the worldwide, causing a ripple effect of like-mindedness that poses as iconoclastic ideals. Sure, we all think how cool we are when we feel the need to piss on an easy target like Brett Ratner while the average moviegoer doesn’t know or frankly care who he is in the first place. It builds a sort of camaraderie. As we all know, however, there is another phenomenon that exists out there, especially in this Internet age.

Backlash.

Backlash is a bitch. One week everyone can sing the praises of the latest their local multiplex has to offer, the next it’s being raked through the coals and burned in effigy. This is something that I’ve seen happen to music rather frequently. A band gains some underground love, they make it on MTV or on one magazine cover too many, and their original fans revolt, hating the object of their previous affections. The band didn’t change, the song is the same, but the fans stopped giving the love once everyone else loved them, too. What was once “cool” is now utterly “uncool.” I ask you, people, “Where’s the love?”

So-called “real” movie critics do it, too. Getting swept up in a wave of jaded summer movie bashing, some movies can slip by and get railed on for being the victim of poor timing. Or, a certain talent can fall out of favor for a spell, dooming any future releases no matter how different they are from previous forays into the world of film. Therefore, consider this my humble attempt to appeal to your fine tuned sense of what is considered cool and what is not. Take the time, sit back, and try to re-evaluate some of these films that have been maligned due to overexposure. Keep in mind, none of these are going to be the tiny little art house movie that overcame impossible odds to win your heart or anything (well, that goes for most of ‘em, anyway). For the most part, these are Big Hollywood products. The movies at which the Internet film snob takes aim. Be open. Try to see them through fresh, untainted eyes. Shut off your damned computer for a while and just watch some of these films again (or for the first time for that matter). You might be pleasantly surprised.

Gladiator
Ridley Scott came rumbling back with a vengeance in this reinvigoration of the sword and sandal epic. Scott directs Russell Crowe to a highly deserved star-making performance and the public ate it up. Naturally, we’re all supposed to hate it now, but look at it. Riding the wave that Braveheart created, Gladiator is one of those epic dramas that truly has it all. Bravery, revenge, romance, family values; a ripsnorter of a movie. The ending doesn’t make any sense, you say? It’s an over the top, epic tale of Rome and big-assed blood soaked battles. Like the ending of Richard Donner’s Superman, the climax is all about viewing the whole as a tall tale. Paul Bunyon, Babe the Blue Ox and all that. An epic story needs an epic ending that somewhat defies logic. All good tall tales do.

Titanic
Stay with me, here. Stay with me. Far from deserving the Oscars which it received, and also far from finding it’s way into my DVD collection, this is still a very watchable movie. The characters are indeed cookie cutter: boy from the wrong side of town, the wealthy socialite, the jealous fiancée… David Warner. We’ve seen it all before and we sure as hell will see it again, but unless you have a flinty heart of coal the formula does work in this case. Geek fave James Cameron proves to the world that he can handle teenage love story just as easily as sci-fi action. Keep in mind, though, it doesn’t mean you have to start digging that goddamned Celene Dion song or anything.

The Matrix
Alex Winter must shake his head in amazement every time he goes to the video store; I’m sure he was on suicide watch when this sucker hit it so big. Before those damned silly sequels came to fruition, The Matrix was beloved from the action fan to the sci-fi geek to the kid that opens fire on his high school. Yes, The Matrix opened up a whole new chapter in the action genre. Later however, its shine became dulled thanks to some ill conceived “Reloading” and “Revolutionizing.” Granted, Keanu is still dumb as a bag of hammers, but to deny The Matrix is to deny any real sense of awe and wonder. Even Alex Winter can’t ignore that fact.

28 Days Later
I could have sworn everybody loved this movie three days ago. Now, all of a sudden everyone is a zombie movie connoisseur and the little zombie film that could just ain’t up to snuff. This opened up a whole new chapter in the zombie craze. Zombies that RUN!!! If you can’t appreciate it for that alone then you are beyond hope.

E.T.
Still a victim of getting too big for it britches, E.T. is perhaps one of Spielberg’s most personal movies. Underneath the piles of Reece’s Pieces and the t-shirts and all, there is a pretty honest story that concerns how deep the love of a friend can run. It’s pretty easy to get jaded over this movie, but out of all of his films, this movie’s message is something everyone can relate to. The atrocities of the holocaust and the horrors of WWII are indeed gruesome, but they are both events that most of us can only imagine and experience second hand. The unbreakable bond of a real honest to goodness friendship? Even with a large potato, the theme hits home. Still among Stevie’s best.

Spider-Man
The comic book hero finally got his big screen treatment after years of speculation, and once everyone went to see it, after everyone bought the DVD, then the movie suddenly sucked. Odd that the sequel did so well, it’s almost like people are posturing. (Wait, that can't be right. People on the Internet, posturing? Naaaaaahhhh.) A guy gets super powers after being bitten by a spider, yet all the actors involved are giving real performances here. A nice combination of human emotion and escapist adventure.

Batman
Keeping with the super hero vibe… poor Timmy Burton sure has been falling out of favor, hasn’t he? He went and “reimagined” Planet of the Apes and has been very near spiraling down the crapper ever since. To make matters worse, that Joel Schumacher asshole came along and ruined a perfectly good franchise that he worked so hard to build up thanks to all that neon and unfortunate nipple placement. Remember, when this came out, there WAS no Batman Begins, there WAS no Batman: The Animated Series. At that time, making a Batman movie with a dark edge to it took balls. Keep that in mind the next time you feel like stating, “I never really liked that first Batman movie.” You lie.

Forrest Gump
I have no problems proclaiming how heavy-handed Castaway was, with all of its obvious symbolism and weeping over a lost volleyball, but Gump has magic. Yes, “the story of Forrest Gump is the story of America” and I still roll my eyes when ANYONE says, “life is like a box of chocolates,” but the whole “gee whiz” views of these times gone by is somehow easy to take. Hell no, it’s not always the most subtle of movies, but like these others, extremely watchable.

The Blair Witch Project
A bunch of whiny young adults get lost in the woods and don’t know the standard survival technique of following the damned river. Hey folks, that’s pretty much the point. Sure, we can all look at these “found reels” and see where these oblivious goofs went wrong, but we are supposed to stare dumbfounded at the mistakes they continually made. Yup. They don’t come across as actors and most of the movie is about being lost in the woods at night. The same could be said for the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It spooked me then and it still spooks me now.

The Lord of the Rings: All of ‘Em
Here. Take my membership in Geek Union 1138 away from me. I never really liked any of The Lord of the Rings books. Enough with all of this sissy poetry and get to the good stuff, already. Peter Jackson and company, however, knew exactly where the good stuff was and how to turn a laborious read into an awe inspiring long-assed series of films. Overexposure? You bet your ass, and it’s real easy to build up a layer of calluses against them, but this is an elegant piece of work. It’ll show its age in a few more years, of course it will. Every film does to some extent. Again, however, the sheer spectacle combined with the honest emotion is quite the feat.

Look, I can be a snob like everyone else. “Stupid Pierce Brosnan-era Bond films. All those gadgets and the whole lack of spying,” I catch myself saying… yet I own them all, I watch them all and, dammit, I dig them all. One moment I can be turning my nose up at some classless schmuck purchasing Bad Boys 2 at Best Buy and the next I find myself itching to watch The Mummy Returns. My point is, sometimes it’s damned easy, no matter how independent you feel your movie tastes are, to be influenced by all of those endless opinions around you. As film buffs, we tend to root for the underdog or get off on loving that tiny foreign movie that no one ever heard of and has yet to get a release in the US. However, sometimes - and I do mean sometimes - the underdog can be that over-hyped movie that got waaaay more nominations than it deserved. Sometimes that movie can even have Ron Howard’s name attached to it in some way.

Now go watch something.