10 Movies That Seriously Don't Deserve Their Critical Acclaim

2. Lincoln

Like Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg often gets a free pass to direct an average-at-best movie and have it praised left, right and centre by the critics. The most egregious example of this in Spielberg's case is Lincoln, his long-winded biopic of America's favourite president. A number of critics probably didn't need to actually watch Lincoln to judge it the best film of the year - a biopic directed by Spielberg and starring the great Daniel Day Lewis in an iconic role was bound to be truly amazing. Right? In truth, Spielberg somehow managed to make one of the most fascinating periods in American history a sleep-inducing slog from one exposition-heavy scene to another. Like Selma, there's a sense that critics don't want to lambast the film out of fear of being seen to lack respect for the historical events being (often inaccurately) depicted. But in depicting Lincoln with near-total reverence Spielberg strips away his humanity and replaces it with a history book icon - and we all know how tedious they can be.