Critical Errors: 15 Bad Reviews Of Beloved Films

Pauline Kael, Vincent Canby, and, yes, Roger Ebert — not only have film critics of their caliber and popularity done much for exposing the best of cinema to a mainstream audience, through both their positive and negative reviews and rigorous analyses of film, they've immeasurably improved how we watch movies — and how they are made, as well.

Still, nobody's perfect, right? Even the best critics sitting in front of the best movies sometimes get it flatly, positively, monstrously, dead wrong. Now, whether these otherwise respected experts were distracted by personal issues, had axes to grind with directors, were suffering from low-blood sugar, or happened to sit on something very sharp when they watched, judged, and condemned these cinematic faves, we may never know. Whatever the case, at least you can all look back on these critical misfires and laugh. Hey, you can't be right all the time.