It's hard to be the voice of dissent. We know all about it after that ill-advised dolphin rant at last year's Christmas party.
So we can empathise with the solitary movie critic who dares to defy the consensus and profess their love for a film that everyone else has poured acid all over. Here are 30 brave/stupid/bravely stupid examples.
(Main image: All Star)
Catwoman
"It's an odd, idiosyncratic movie -- dark in look and dark in spirit -- that plays as a kind of pop culture investigation into the meaning of feminism and the options open to women in the modern world."
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace
"Though I've been bored senseless by the Star Wars phenomenon for over two decades, I found The Phantom Menace something of a pleasant surprise."
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
The Love Guru
"It's vintage Myers, with an outrageous, broadly played character borrowed from Peter Sellers, silly makeup, bad puns, innuendo, the occasional pause for song and dance and Myers' ongoing obsession with little people."
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel
Norbit
"Absolutely adorable. Murphy plays a big black woman who is not a victim of America's unrealistic ideal of beauty."
Victoria Alexander, Films In Review
The Happening
"Shyamalan's approach is more effective than smash-and-grab plot-mongering. His use of the landscape is disturbingly effective. The performances by Wahlberg and Deschanel bring a quiet dignity to their characters."
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Pearl Harbor
"For my money a much better heartbreaker, thrillmaker and tear-tweaker than Titanic.
Stephen Hunter, Washington Post
Speed 2: Cruise Control
"Movies like this embrace goofiness with an almost sensual pleasure. And so, on a warm summer evening, do I."
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Sucker Punch
"The story's true "sucker punch" is the way it lures its audience in with the promise of simple eye candy but then hits you in the guts with something deeper and more complex."
Tim Martain, The Mercury
Spider-Man 3
"To place a sensitive story in a male-epic genre -- to dramatize feelings of angst and personal betrayal worthy of an Ingmar Bergman film, and then to dress them up in gaudy comic-book colors -- is to pull off a smartly subversive drag show."
Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine
Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son
"It seems fair to point out that of all the cross-dressing comedies of recent decades, none has channeled Some Like It Hot quite so thoroughly."
Mike Hale, New York Times
Daredevil
"Boldly and brazenly larger-than-life, a rock-the-house popcorn flick propelled by thunderous waves of vengeful obsession and faux-operatic passion."
Joe Leydon, San Francisco Examiner
Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen
"It's bigger. Badder. Boobier. And many other words beginning with B, including boneheadedly brilliant."
Robbie Collin, News Of The World
Eat Pray Love
"The movie is aware of its own riches; it fills up your plate and dares you not to eat."
Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out
Dungeons & Dragons
"For visual thrills and fairytale themes, this fantasy feature kicks the stuffing out of Star Wars."
Liz Braun, Jam! Movies
Phat Girlz
"There's a lot to laugh at and cheer for in this rousing comedy."
Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle
I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
"It's a modern classic. By comparison, Hollywood's most celebrated gay comedies -- In and Out, Chuck and Buck, Blades of Glory, even the laughable Brokeback Mountain -- were all failures of nerve."
Armond White, New York Press
Eragon
"Eragon is a fun film that is certain to join the ranks of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings in the world of fantasy films."
Michael A. Smith, Nolan's Pop Culture Review
Freddy Got Fingered
"Fearless and culturally resonant...a Dadaistic sendup of knee-jerk moralism and teen comedies in general."
Mark Palermo, Coast
Boat Trip
"In its frenetic, good-natured way, Boat Trip is a trip."
Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
Rollerball
"For those with the stomach and stamina for its heartbeat-quickening intensity and body-slamming action, Rollerball delivers exactly what it promises: A people's hero you can really get behind."
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post
Speed Racer
"Speed Racer is a masterpiece of its kind...the moment when the Wachowskis went from wunderkind directors to true auteurs."
Todd Gilchrist, IGN Movies
Patch Adams
"Director Tom Shadyac and screenwriter Steve Oedekerk have sleekly outfitted a sudsy feel-good formula into an entertaining holiday comic tear-gusher."
David Bartholomew, Film Journal International
Clash Of The Titans
"Leterrier certainly shows a better sense of meaningful, economic narrative than the mess that Peter Jackson made of the interminable, incoherent Lord of the Rings trilogy."
Armond White, New York Press
Righteous Kill
"It's an effective whodunnit but - more importantly - it poses refined, complex questions about how the law operates in a so-called civilised society."
Tim Evans, Sky Movies
Crossroads
"Strangely, while watching this, one is reminded of another wartime pop goddess, Betty Grable, whose popularity and talents were about on a par with Spears'."
David Noh, Film Journal International
Get Rich Or Die Tryin'
"A film with a rich and convincing texture, a drama with power and anger."
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Get Carter
"A stimulating visual showcase of stylish filmmaking that keeps a viewer's attention."
Rob Blackwelder, SPLICEDWire
Valentine's Day
"Just like true love, a good romantic comedy is hard to find, but Valentine's Day is sure to be one of those classics that will become a tradition this time of year for many years to come."
Jeffrey Lyles, Gazette (MD)
Psycho
"To my absolute astonishment, I enjoyed the remake more than the original."
Eugene Novikov, Film Blather
The Wicker Man
"Profoundly disturbing, blood-chilling suspenser, fantasically creepy performances"
Kyle Smith, New York Post
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