By any reasonable measure, "Being There" deserves to be among the 400 movies nominated for the American Film Institute’s "100 Greatest Films" ever. Not so. "Hannah and Her Sisters" was also excluded. So was "The Americanization of Emily," "Barfly," "The Bad News Bears," "Crimes and Misdemeanors," "Ghost World," "Lolita" (the original), "Lone Star," "Miller’s Crossing," "The Player," "Sid and Nancy," "Straw Dogs" and "Zelig," to name a few very worthy flicks.
"American Beauty" — the second most overrated film of the last 10 years — made the cut. So did the first Austin Powers movie, "As Good as It Gets," "Apollo 13" and Martin Scorsese’s most boring film, "The Aviator" (though not as boring as Ron Howard’s most interesting movie). And that’s just the A’s.
What else qualifies as an AFI classic?
"Big," "Boogie Nights" — the most overrated movie EVER, " "Born on the Fourth of July," "Chicago," "Dead Poets Society," "The English Patient," "Erin Brockovich," "Finding Nemo," "Ghostbusters," "Jerry Maguire," "Love Story," "The Matrix," "Moulin Rogue!" "Mystic River," "Philadelphia," "Pirates of the Carribean," "Shrek," "Spider-Man 2" … I could’ve named more.
Obviously the AFI doesn’t take its list very seriously, opting for popularity over art. Do the people who made this list really believe "Shrek" is a better flick than "Being There?" Maybe if they’re an idiot, a prepubescent or a publicity whore.
