5 Stars Are Overrated — Give Me These 3-Star Movies Any Day

Rating or ranking movies is a completely arbitrary and subjective endeavor. One person’s trash is another’s treasure, and no number of stars assigned to a film can change an individual’s opinion. Regardless, many films have been minted by the general movie-going public and critical opinion makers as certified 5-star masterpieces. You’ve likely heard about these films — think Citizen Kane or The Godfather. They make up the bulk of any ranking of the best films ever made that wants to be taken even remotely seriously. More than enough physical and digital ink has been used to extoll the virtues of these great films ad nauseam. However, now’s the time to shine a light back on films that have also had a consensus formed around them that can best be summed up in one succinct three-letter word: Mid.

These 3-star movies are the ones that didn’t win any major awards, inspire a great deal of critical enthusiasm, or have yet to even garner any major reappraisal, and that’s okay. There is absolutely nothing wrong with movies that don’t reinvent the formula or break exciting new ground. They exist for two hours and entertain us to a reasonable degree, and then we move on with our lives. So much online discourse and criticism has become so ridiculously binary recently that all movies seem to need to either be categorized as absolute masterpieces or utter disasters, with little affection for the middle star ratings except by those critics too gunshy to vehemently defend a film’s merits or attack its flaws out of fear of toxic online backlash. That doesn’t leave a lot of room for nuance, and that’s the sweet spot where these movies are stuck in the middle with the rest of us who enjoy them exactly as they are. Everyone can have their 5-star gold or 1-star bombs. I’m perfectly satisfied with these six 3-star movies.

‘Running Scared’ (1986)

The ’80s were the prime of buddy cop movies. After 48 Hrs. hit big at the box office, theaters became lousy with these movies for the better part of a decade, and there have been several resurgences of the subgenre since. Some of these movies have, rightly, been promoted to action comedy classic status, like Lethal Weapon or Hot Fuzz, while others, like Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, resides exclusively at the bottom of the (gun)barrel. And in the middle, there’s Running Scared. Directed by the steady hired gun hand of Peter Hyams, and starring the charismatic duo of Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines, this action comedy is neither the most thrilling nor drop-dead funniest of its buddy-cop brethren, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun.

Set in a wintry Chicago, with some of the phoniest fake snow ever put on screen, the movie follows two reckless but talented detectives who collar a kingpin played by Jimmy Smits and decide to retire to Key West. When the kingpin ends up free and back on the streets, the two postpone becoming private citizens until they can stop him once and for all. There’s nothing groundbreaking in the plot, and most critics noted how derivative the film was while also lauding Crystal and Hines’ chemistry. The two actors are the main reason to seek out Running Scared, alongside a standout car chase on the tracks of the Chicago “L.” It’s a fun action comedy that delivers a good time and never strives for anything more, but has otherwise been far more forgotten than many of the other similar movies released in the same decade.

“Loaded Weapon 1” (1993)

Image via New Line Cinema

With the popularity of buddy cop movies like Lethal Weapon, it was almost inevitable that the subgenre would get a spoof. It did with Loaded Weapon 1, which was released under the National Lampoon banner but promptly forgotten by everyone except those who might have caught it doing the rounds on cable. Starring Emilio Estevez and Samuel L. Jackson, the movie is chock-full of sight gags, wordplay, and slapstick that were prevalent in the spoof films of the time, but it never occupies the same space as more beloved satires like The Naked Gun or Airplane! Like those gag-a-minute movies and many other far inferior efforts, the jokes in Loaded Weapon 1 are hit-or-miss, but enough find the target to elicit some genuine chuckles.

Estevez and Jackson, who could have just as easily played these roles in the serious version of this film, are a fun duo, and a ton of familiar funny faces fill out the cast, including Jon Lovitz, Tim Curry and Bruce Willis in a cameo that is worth the price of a rental alone. One of the main criticisms leveled at the film was that the movies it was taking aim at were, by and large, already very funny. Spoofing films with a generous amount of comedy to them might have been a fool’s errand, but the goofiness and carefree tone carry the movie over its dull bits. Loaded Weapon 1 is a dumb comedy, plain and simple, but it has enough clever jokes that no one should hate themselves for watching or enjoying it. Put it alongside other less adored spoofs like Last Action Hero or Hot Shots! and turn your brain off for a good time.

‘Reign of Fire’ (2002)

Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

A post-apocalyptic action movie featuring dragons and co-starring a pre-Batman Christian Bale and a scenery-chewing Matthew McConaughey. What’s not to love? Apparently plenty, as many critics derided Reign of Fire for being campy, dumb and over-the-top, but what in the fire-breathing hell were they expecting? This movie promised a bald McConaughey leaping at a dragon with an ax while screaming like he was doing the intro to a Disturbed song, and damned if it didn’t deliver. That may not be a film critic’s idea of a good time, but there’s a severe lack of even halfway decent dragon movies, so fans will absolutely take what they can get.

The movie was directed by Rob Bowman, who was best known for directing a number of solid episodes of The X-Files before graduating to films and then subsequently being sent back down to TV after several big misfires. His direction may be light on subtlety and substance, but he knows how to stage a competent action sequence, and that’s all you really need when the real stars are some surprisingly good-looking and badass CGI dragons. The muddy grey visuals are appropriately apocalyptic, and the film really picks up steam when McConaughey enters the story as a professional dragon-hunting mercenary. Liking Reign of Fire won’t win you any points with any snobbish cinephiles, but it’s an easier hang than an Andrei Tarkovsky marathon.

‘Tron: Legacy’ (2010)

The original Tron never achieved anything more than cult status. That status, along with the reinvigorated Oscar-winning star power of Jeff Bridges, was enough to get the belated sequel Tron: Legacy made, but it wasn’t enough to make it a certified blockbuster. Despite middling reviews and box office, Legacy has a strong following, but overall, it’s a film that Disney hasn’t shown much love to, as evidenced by how the more recent Tron: Ares all but completely ignored its plot and characters. To be fair, the plot and characters, other than the aforementioned Bridges, are nothing special, but fans would likely take a dozen more Trons starring them than they would one starring Jared Leto.

Legacy follows the son of Bridge’s character, Flynn, who goes searching for him over two decades after his disappearance and ends up in the digital world of the Grid, where he finds not only his father, but his evil digital doppelgänger. The villainous CLU is rendered in less-than-convincing 2010 CGI that puts Bridges’ de-aged face squarely in the valley of the uncanny, but since he’s a computer program, it’s easier to suspend disbelief. Other than Bridges pulling double duty, there’s also Garrett Hedlund as his son and Olivia Wilde as a sultry digital love interest who hasn’t been programmed with much of a personality. The bland leads aside, it’s the stunning visuals that sell this movie, with director Joseph Kosinski showing the slick action prowess he’d continue in the much more successful legacy sequel Top Gun: Maverick. Tron: Legacy is a B-movie with A-plus visuals and D-grade characters, which all shakes out to a solid C sci-fi movie.

‘Hotel Transylvania’ (2012)

Image via Sony Pictures Releasing

While it may not be anywhere near the level of a masterpiece from Studio Ghibli or golden-age Pixar or Disney, Hotel Transylvania is manic fun that fully embraces the medium. The feature film debut of legendary animation director Genndy Tartakovsky, who cut his teeth on Cartoon Network shows like Dexter’s Laboratory and Samurai Jack, this mad monster party moves at warp speed with its humor, and its characters defy physics as cartoons should, making it a brisk 90-minute gagfest perfect for any fan of the Universal Monsters. With Adam Sandler as Dracula, the voice cast is filled out by the comedian’s regular stable of favorites, including Kevin James as Frankenstein’s Monster, David Spade as the Invisible Man, Steve Buscemi as the Wolf Man, and Andy Samberg as the doofy human who has eyes on Drac’s daughter Mavis, voiced by Selena Gomez.

Robert Smigel also had a hand in the film’s script, which sees Dracula opening a hotel as a safe haven for his monster pals to get away from the torches of humanity, but which his daughter is eager to fly free from. It’s all a basic premise for a bunch of goofy gags and monster puns, which come fast and furious as Tartakovsky flexes all his animated muscles. It’s a style of animation that is well-suited to the premise and to Sandler’s brand of humor as well, far more so than his unfortunate first foray into cartoons with Eight Crazy Nights. While many of the animated films of the same era were edging closer and closer to more life-like characters that exist in photo-realistic worlds, Tartakovsky blows out his world with vibrant motion and slapstick more akin to directors like Chuck Jones and Tex Avery, which made Hotel Transylvania stand out. Even if the film didn’t get awards recognition or critical acclaim, it still found plenty of fans and has three sequels to date.

‘Halloween Ends’ (2022)

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