"Overrated" is an incredibly subjective word, one which denotes a singular person's opinion that something popular or acclaimed isn't worthy of the attention or praise that has been heaped upon it. As a result, the term gets branded around a lot, and pretty much serves as a definitive buzzword for starting arguments among peers, family members or people on the internet you've never met but want to punch in the face for not sharing in your opinion. What does "overrated" mean really? In the grand scheme of things, nothing. But sometimes it's a necessary evil. Which is to say: this year, as with every year in cinematic history, the critics (in their masses) have offered up their two cents on those films that have been released theatrically for everyone to see, branding them with star ratings and whatnot, which has - in turn - helped to formulate their scores on critical aggregator sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. Where Rotten Tomatoes is concerned, critical reviews are complied to provide a percentage score, gifting every picture with its own rating on a scale of 0 to 100% - the higher the percentage, the better the movie. Looking at some of these scores, then, we were shocked to find that some noticeably awful or average movies from across the span of 2014 have been certified "fresh." Join us as we take a look at 10 films from this year that have been embraced by the majority of critics, or have earned a general reputation for being movies of good quality, despite being overrated in every sense of that very enigmatic and elusive word. In a lot of cases, we're not trying to say that the movies mentioned here are bad... just that they're not quite so deserving of the praise they've received. Please note: all movies mentioned here are according to their US release dates.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
