Pajiba

Off the top of my head, I would have to say Natural Born Killers. I loved that movie when it first came out. I saw it like 4 times in the theater. I was an impressionable 20 year old. I had posters. The soundtrack. I even had a pair of those round, red sunglasses.

Times have changed. And while I still enjoy certain songs off the soundtrack, the movie just doesn't do it for me anymore.

My brother and I grew up hearing about a movie called "Monsieur Hulot's Holiday." Each of my parents saw this movie as children and remembered it as the most hysterically funny thing ever; it made them weep and their sides ache with laughter. Then at some point the movie was shown in a local theater, and my parents took my brother (I was out of town) so that he could experience the hilarity.

Instead, the three of them just sat there, staring at the screen, wondering what had been funny at all a lifetime ago. It wasn't the funniest thing ever. It wasn't even mildly amusing.

And then there are the movies (also books) that may hold up only if you saw (or read) them at the right time in your life and at the right moment for society in general. Mr. Nonymous loves "The Blues Brothers" and "Big Trouble in Little China." I didn't see them until recently, and I just don't get the charm of either one. I'm not saying he's wrong--but this is not the point in life at which they should be discovered, I think.

"The Burbs". Used to love it, now not so much.

jt, that comment is blasphemous. I just watched that movie twice last week! The 'Burbs is love.

1. Short Circuit-I thought that Number Five was sooooo very funny, with his mimicking the Stooges and, you know, not wanting to be dead. I watched this recently for funsies and Ally Sheedy is so annoying that I want to strangle her with her baggy sweater.

2. Beastmaster-I still love this, but only because I am drawn to stupid things, like Rip Torn as an infanticidal priest and Marc (fucking) Singer talking to a ferret.

3. Nothing But Trouble-John Candy in drag! Dan Akyroyd as a weird fat baby man and an old balls judge! That rap group that gets eaten by the roller coaster! Oh how I loved it, and oh how I can barely stomach it now. I'll still watch it if it's on though, because I'm an idiot.

I hadn't seen "Willow" in about 10 years and I was so excited when I found it while cleaning out my stash of vhs tapes.
The movie was still a great time. I just wish that Val Klimer was as cool as he was back then.

Well Crocodile Dundee for starters, though that is a bit obvious (I suspect everyone between the ages of 35-40 feels the same way). Also, Terminator 2. The original still holds up extremely well, but T2 is just... meh. Maybe its Furlong or maybe its the lame exposition, I dunno. I just can't bring myself to watch it whenever it comes on TV.

And I'll throw Starskey & Hutch (2004) as well. I laughed my socks off when I saw it in theaters (sue me) but I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to see it again.

I remember watching the Hitchcock movie Suspicion with Cary Grant when I was pretty young and loving it. I even insisted that my Hitchcock movie class in college watch it. Boy was I wrong. That movie is both boring and nonsensical. Consider my bubble burst.

Katenonymous, you're gonna raise the wrath of TK with that BTILC comment :)

Twig-so true! I tried to rewatch Braveheart recently and didn't like it, whereas Rob Roy is really bad ass and well acted. Damn you Tim Roth and your evil ways!

I also would add Gladiator, but that came out when I was 20. I can't stand that movie now though.

Much to Ranylt's consternation, I must submit my own: Dark Crystal.

When I was in my early teens, I remember thinking that the Faces Of Death films were the be all, end all. Now? L. A. M. E...

ajax19 ditto on NBK - I thought the movie was friggin' awesome and disturbing and kick ass at first... I saw it again about three years ago and... guh.

For some reason or another, when I read the intro to the diversion, I immediately though of the video game Dragon's Lair... I though it was absolutely amazing when it came out in the arcades - people would line up to play it - there were television screens on top of the game so the crowds could see. Now? I wouldn't drop a quarter on that hunk of shit...

Ms Doubtfire. Nuff said.
My first exposure to a live Williams and I loved him (look! Look how many voices he can do! And he's wearing a fat suit with boobies!). Then I saw Alladin again and realised he was doing the exact same thing!
Just the thought it paved the way for Norbit.

I was diggin' St Elmo's Fire when it came out. I thought I was cool and edgy, emulating the Brat Pack in the high-flying eighties. But the movie now is pretentious and whiny. Not that I've aged any better.

On the flip side, I hated Harry and the Hendersons when it came out and watched it recently with the family and we were out-and-out cracking up. Great family fun.

For some reason or another, when I read the intro to the diversion, I immediately though of the video game Dragon's Lair... I though it was absolutely amazing when it came out in the arcades - people would line up to play it - there were television screens on top of the game so the crowds could see. Now? I wouldn't drop a quarter on that hunk of shit...

Amen, Skit. I remember playing that game over and over. Looking back, I just don't understand it. It was a horrible game. It was just about pushing the joystick the right way or hitting the button when the screen flashed. It was frustrating, boring, and lame.

jt, you are hereby cordially invited to shut your filthy, lying hole. The 'Burbs was, is, and will always be everything that is great and wonderful. You may now totally suck one.

I used to love Cinderella as a child, the girl who got a beautiful dress and went to the ball! Now I despise her, not only for being very anti-feminist, but for being just a plain bad movie.

I'm going to have to go with The Ring on this one. It was pretty much the first of of all the americanized J-Horrors, so when I first saw it (I was what, twelve?), I was in love. Then I was practically bombarded with Grudges, and then I finally watched Ring 2 and thought "Ugh, no". So I went back to the original for comfort, but it was too late.

Uh oh, Shadows has been drinking the blood of the innocent again.

I just though of another that I'm ashamed to admit to liking in the first place...ahem...Only the Lonely. Man, lots of John Candy and Ally Sheedy in my picks. What a cheesy cheesy movie.

Julie, I'm right there with you on the Nothing But Trouble front. My brother and I used to annoy our mother to no extent when we'd recite lines over and over from that one. "No, Bobo wins 'cause Bobo's hand is on tooooop!" I even own it on DVD. Tried rewatching it recently... it was not pretty!

Little Shop of Horrors. Still love it, but after seeing the stage play and realizing how much more awesome the original ending is, it just drives me crazy when I see the hollywood version. The movie version is probably better for little kids, but at this age I prefer the story as a tragi-comedy instead straight up comedy. Also, they filmed giant plants destroying New York and it didn't even make it into the dvd extras?!?!?! (it is however - or was - on youtube, in a very rough version)

Blair Witch Project

Saw it in theaters and vowed never to hike or stand in corners again. The first movie to ever, ever scare the bejesus out of me. Loved it and proclaimed my love to all.

Rewatched it recently in my home and found the fighting between the three main characters to be SO annoying that I kind of wished the Blair Witch was a code name for an immending nuclear missile test that would incinerate the cast and their wobbly, wonky camera.

Have to agree on RR and the Batmans. Loved 'em for a while, but they wore thin. Same with Mrs. Doubtfire and Good Morning, Vietnam Look, it's Robin Williams! Doing wacky Robin Williams schtick! He's funny! Oh, he's in drag! Oh, he's a soldier! Oh, he's a dad, and he's tugging at my heart-strings! Oh, he made friends with a Vietnamese boy who just blew up half the base! Pretty much anything Robin Williams now turns me off. How he ever managed to do Good Will Hunting without shitting himself is beyond me.

Hate to say this, but some of my favorite 80's teen movies grate on me now, too. As a teen in the 80's, I thought a lot of them were, like, way wicked, dude. But, looking back, a lot of them really blew goats, you know?

Yes it is Miss Jodester. "I can see!" :walks into tree: "Nope. I was wrong."

I'm going to count out movies from my childhood that I see now as hokey and goofy (like The Black Hole) because times have changed, movies are more sophisticated, and I was a kid, dammit. Expectations tended to be a little lower back then.

As for movies from my adulthood, I thought Forrest Gump quite charming and sweet when it came out. Then everyone went ape shit over it, turning the film into some sort of cultural phenomenon. That got seriously annoying seeing Tom Hank's blank face everywhere. And that whole "Life is like a box of chocolates..." Grrrr. After the movie won a boatload of awards, I re-watched it and realized it was a bunch of gimmicky, tearjerker hooey. Not worth the hype.

Still, the ending with sick Jenny and Little Forrest tears my shit right up.

And the soundtrack's a lot of fun.

I'm going to have to say Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I mean, seriously, how could you not love (and fear) that movie as a child. A room full of candy, a fat kid getting sucked up into industrial piping, and etc. I would watch that thing over and over again, only pausing to rewind the tape.

I happened to catch it on TV the other day and I couldn't figure out why I liked it so much. I mean, the fat kid getting sucked into the piping is still funny, but the rest....eeeeesh.

I was obsessed with "Before Sunshine" when I was 14/15, I watched a lot back then and loved everything about it. I happened to grow obsessed with other movies and didnt watch ethan hawke and julie delpy talk about philosophy of life while looking for a good spot to get laid until I was about 23, and I felt like Romy seeing Billy Christiansen. I seriously loathed the movie. cant really stand it anymore. the way those two talk to each other makes me wanna take them out with a shot gun. in their face, and I love/d Ethan Hawke's face.
I also second twig's feeling for both moulin rouge and strictly ballroom.
and to end this and say something that will probably get banded from pajiba land forever and ever, I loved American beauty when I saw it in the theater but a second view found me very much annoyed with it. it felt like Donna Reed meets david lynch and cuts him open then cleans all the blood and makes a martini while waiting for the police to arrive.

I'm gonna get a lot of shit for this, But I gotta say Goonies. Loved it as a kid, but now? I can't even finish watching it. If I had to pick one reason, I'd say it was the cartoonish villans. Although I do love me some Joey Pants.

Thanks Boo!

"We're men! Manly men! Men in Tights! Tight tights!"

I love Men in Tights.

The Neverending Story. AS a kid, I could not function unless I saw it at least once a week. Once I got older, I realized that the movie was not working anymore, even with the suicidal horse. I can throw Burton's Batman movies and Beastmaster on that pile as well.

One film that still works thought: The Last Starfighter. And I will kneecap the first person who says otherwise.

Meanwhile, if one were to ask me my all-time favourite movie, I'd say without hesitation that it's Robin Hood: Men In Tights. I haven't seen it in over a decade, and am afraid to watch it again for fear of it falling from that (oh, so hilarious) pedestal.

I just rewatched that this weekend, actually. Despite the dated humor and pervalence of Mel Brookisms...it held up pretty well. Good for some great chuckles, anyway.

three amigos

and it's not because i matured or anything like that. i mean, "going berserk" is still one my favourite movies of all time.

Alright. I'll admit it. When Titanic came out I was still in high school and I had a huge crush on Leo (his face wallpapered my entire room) and I loved that movie. I now realize that was very wrong.

I refuse to stop loving Romeo and Juliet. I'm only human. And The Basketball Diaries is awesome.

Heee...my favorite part of Robin Hood: MIT is the fight with the ever breaking sticks ending with Little John falling into the stream. "I can't swim!!"

tamatha, Practical Magic is easily my guiltiest of all-time guilty pleasures. I still dance around my kitchen with a fifth of tequila when I put on the soundtrack...

Movies I loved and why, and why I hate them now:
1. Howard the Duck:
Love - Cool looking monsters, lasers cannons, and a Duck that knows Quack-fu.

Hate - Wait, is she fucking a duck? Ewwwwwwwww!

2. Predator 2
Love - Well, cuz it's the freakin' Predator, man! Beheadings, cool weapons, and the Predator ship tropy room. Gary Busey.

Hate - There wasn't a piece of scenery that was not chewed up and spit out by every character with more than 2 words of dialogue.

The first movie I can remember my father taken us to see was " All the President's Men." as a little kid I was like wtf!, but to this day I love that movie.

rio, I am with you on American Beauty. Enjoyed it when I first saw it. After subsequent viewings, however, it got all wet noodly on me, and I stopped thinking it was such a big deal.

I still love Kevin Spacey in it.

My sister and I LOVED Girls Just Wanna Have Fun with SJP and Helen Hunt. I watched it with my cousins recently, and although cute, not really that good. Well, my sister and I were also obsessed with the Scarecrow and Mrs. King and Quantum Leap, which doesnt account for taste. I still have a thing for Bruce Boxleitner and Scott Bakula. Although as an adult, I find Dean Stockwell much more charming than either.

Oh, and vermillion, my dad made us watch The Last Starfighter as kids because he dated the girl in it in high school. What ever happened to her?

E.T.

I was excited to show this to my kids (ages 9 and 12) when the 20th anniversary dvd came out. "This is great," I said. "You'll love it." But no, they found it just as boring and lame as I did upon rewatching it. What a disappointment. But on the other hand, they loved Jaws.

I totally agree with Alabamapink regarding 'Forrest Gump'. That movie just blatantly yanks at your heartstrings & is sickeningly exploitative, almost daring you to dislike it.

For me, it would have to be 'Pulp Fiction'. Guess I saw it so many times that I've noticed all the imperfections, loose ends and poor continuity, and some of the dialogue I once thought was so cool just makes me wince now. Also, Tarantino is such a dickweed that I could barely stomach 'Kill Bill 1 & 2', just knowing the actors were using his words.

Another disappointment is 'Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid'. I remember it as being the perfect trifecta with 'The Jerk' and 'Man with Two Brains', and boy, was my memory really off-base on that one.

I'm both surprised and pleased at all the 'Men In Tights' love here! I never would have guessed..

Louis, I HATE ET. I did as a child, and I hate it more now. And your kids are awesome for loving Jaws.

I am also throwing in Drop Dead Fred. I want to borrow Christopher Lloyd's Dolorian so I can go back in time and beat the hell out of my 11/12 year old self.

Ooh, and Candyman. I was so scared of this movie in 6th grade that I would shower with the curtain open so I could watch the mirror. I finally got the courage to rewatch it a year or two ago, and laughed hysterically. So not scary.

I second the Mrs. Doubtfire. Loved it as a kid. Now? Ugh.

When I was in elementary school, three movies featured prominently at every slumber party: My Girl, Watcher in the Woods, and Crybaby.

As an adult, My Girl still tugs my heart strings. Watcher in the Woods is NOT scary and actually fairly blah. (Though it was the scariest movie any of our parents would let us watch.) And I tried to watch Crybaby the other day. I watched bits and pieces. It was cheesy and corny, sort of a low-rent Grease. Way over the top, and could only be appreciated as camp and satire. Except that I just flat out loved it as a kid. Of course the kids now flat out love High School Musical which I appreciate as camp and satire. So there you go.

Loved The Breakfast Club when I was 16. I can't get through five minutes of that crap now.

I saw Indepencence Day when I was kid and absolutely loved it! After repeated viewings though, it lost its luster and its awesomeness. However, a couple of years ago I randomly sat down and watched it and loved it more than ever! I think it's because as a kid I loved it as a blockbuster, and when I grew to love it again I realized that it's a really good, really fun B movie. And I've come to love it again, especially in the light of what were Godzilla and The Day After Tomorrow.

Poltergeist.

My husband had never seen it, I both loved and was simultaneously terrifed by it as a child watching it many times out of pure masochism. Bought it a few years ago and was decidedly underwhelmed.

Wendy Whitebread, Undercover Slut

EridD, you are SO right! The movie itself is still good, but the music makes me want to rend the flesh from my bones. I wish someone would re-score the movie, because I'd certainly watch it.

Butch and Sundance.

Damn, it's just one long chase scene. I couldn't believe how vapid that movie is. There just isn't any story at all.

This one is a double whammy- The Prince of Tides, both the movie AND the book. I read the book and thought it was the most lovely thing I ever read, like a love letter to the region in which I was raised. Then I saw the movie when it came out, and I didn't like The Babs in it but Nolte was okay. I recently read the book again, and... meh. So then I had to see the movie again, and.... no. That sucked, I want to love Pat Conroy but I think it's just roont.

I'm going with Pirates of the Caribbean. Yeah, I know, I'm a tool for liking it in the first place. To be honest, I still do. Just...not so much.

The one that worked in reverse: Spice World. That movie is fucking rondo and I love it for that reason. It's so damn stupid/funny. And Tosh is in it (Torchwood? Anybody? Anybody? Nobody? Fuck). It came out when I was in third grade. I was all about Hole and the Smashing Pumpkins at that point. I had the ZERO shirt and everything. The Spice Girls were a horror show that I wanted nothing to do with. Now they're funny. Also there are drinking games to be played (take a drink every time Posh delivers a stilted line, two drinks whenever Baby breaks character, three whenever Richard O'Brien appears, and yell "TOOOOSH" and drown your sorrow in alcohol whenever Naoko Mori appears on screen).

"Take a drink every time Posh delivers a stilted line"

Sooooo, how long did you spend in rehab?

Yes, we loved Tosh, RIP.

Oh, Paddy, I am so there. I LOOOOOOOVED that movie as a kid. Anything with Astaire..I mean, he's FRED FREAKIN' ASTAIRE!!! HE DANCED UP A WALL AND ON THE CEILING (suck it, Lionel Ritchie!) He danced with a coat rack, a broom, whatever, he was awesomeness!!! But now, blech!

I also used to love "1776" but now I just cringe when the old fart from "Northern Exposure" sings "Rum, Tobacco to Slaves" or whatever the name of that is. Jesus....But, ya gotta love Gwyneth's mom getting busy with the White Shadow and Kitt singing about salt peter. Good times in the old revolution, yup.

Zardoz.

I don't need to say anything else.

Finally, a comment diversion I can get into!

Unfortunately, my choice is a very sad one indeed.

When I was in 6th grade, my aunt took me and my younger sister to see Ghandi, and we were totally swept away by the sumptuous cinemetography, the breadth and width of it's epic, timeless quality, and the depth of this remarkable, historic man's journey to spread true peace, love and understanding to the world. And all those beautiful, dark-skinned extras filling the screen (and my little-boy heart) from end to end! That leading dark-skinned actor came pretty close to making it borderline boring, but nevertheless we were so very sad to see it finally end.

Later on, when our mother got a free rental coupon at Blockbuster, sis and I kept screaming "Ghandi! Ghandi!! Ghandi!!!" and she had no choice but to relent to our demands. Even at that tender young age I remember thinking, "Is there ANY motion picture experience that will ever come close to this?", and after seven straight viewings that one memorable weekend alone, I decided that, no, there would not be. Aah, the innocence of youth.

Now, many years later, I realize I kind of went overboard with my love for the film, and upon a recent viewing of it, I (quite dramatically and unexpectedly) found it to be the tedious, overlong piece of shit everyone had been telling me it was for years.

But hey, who doesn't get embarrassed at some of their quaint childhood memories?

Worry not, though: I grew out of that puppy-love phase and re-validated my sense of good taste when I finally got turned on to the film that has yet to be toppled from my New Number One position, The English Patient.

Just takes some of us a little longer to grow up, I guess.

In my younger days, I loved The Mask with Jim Carrey. (I was 10!) Now it's just painful. And Cameron Diaz has not held up either.

As for recently, Garden State and Gladiator just get worse and worse the more I see them.

Movies from childhood (like, 7-9): The Three Musketeers (the one with Charlie Sheen and Chris O'Donnell - quality.); White Fang; Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken.

10-12: Dead Poet's Society - it's not a bad movie, just nowhwere near as awesome as I'd thought; almost any Cary Grant movie - back in the day, I thought Cary Grant's presence in a movie automatically made it good. Now - older, wiser - I've realized the just how many exceptions there are to that rule.

Pretty much all of Kevin Smith's repertoire (with the exception of Clerks), but particularly Dogma. When I first saw it in high school, I thought it was clever and irreverent. The last time I saw it, I was just annoyed by the overly-self aware, psuedo-intellectual dialogue, the ham-fisted attempt at deeper meaning, and the tired jokes recycled from previous Kevin Smith films.

lateformyfuneral, you are reading my mind. I'm going to go further though - EVERY single Melanie Griffith movie I can think of has not aged well.

There's a cosmetic surgery joke there somewhere, but I'm too lazy today.

On the upside, I watched When Harry met Sally the other day on TV, and found it as funny as ever.

Dead Poet's Society makes me cringe. It's a chick flick for the emotional man. An ex forced me to watch it with him once and he teared up when Red Foreman's son committed suicide and straight up CRIED when the boys saluted Robin Williams with snippets of Whitman. What a pussy.

I actually had the urge to rent Patton this past weekend after dwelling on it and good ole' George C. Scott's performance. I was quite surprised that it held up as well as it did. I even had a friend watch it who wasn't even born yet when the movie first came out, and he enjoyed it too.

Will wonders never cease?

Jen shouldn't worry about ruining Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Though it can feel a bit dull/long at times, its moments of brilliance (e.g., Alan Rickman seeing the statue of himself with a scar to match his fresh, Costner-inflicted wound) more than compensate.

Oh yeah, almost forgot: "A Shot in the Dark."

I second The Craft! Talk about teenage female "empowerment" films that do not age well when you're ...ahem...no longer a teenager. As an adult I dug the subplot where Rochelle (black friend) rains down revenge on the racist blonds (of course) who torment her about her nappy little pubic hairs or whatever, but then it was all about Robin Tunney and her creepy face and obsession with fucking Skeet Ulrich? Um, no. Also, I would have loved for Nancy to triumph and rain down the power of Manon on everyone, because again, waaaay more interesting than whether Skeet Ulrich really loves Robin Tunney or if it's just the lame spell she put on him. Like, hello, if you are really the Best Witch Ever, could you please find something better to conjure? God.

Speaking of the evil powers of Manon, the 'Burbs ages like a fine wine. Satan is good, Satan is our pal!" I compare people to Dr. Klopek on a regular basis and judge their merit by whether they know what I'm talking about.

Practical Magic.

Ok, don't go apeshit on me. Sandra Bullock was still in her cute girl next door phase, and Nicole Kidman was rocking the red hair. But it keeps airing on cable and now that I've seen it again, it really is a dull piece of shit. It's dumb. And silly. And...dumb.

Cara, I still love The Craft, and Nancy & Rochelle were kinda my role models. I still think Nancy got screwed in the end.

And Drop Dead Fred is still cool! Mega-Beast is a phrase that never gets old.

flight of the navigator, yo.

i contended all through college that it was far superior to E.T. as far as alien-movies-from-the-80s go. upon rewatching a few years ago, i discovered that while the premise still rocks, the spaceship's voice is just too annoying to tolerate for 90 minutes. (ah, that's why. imdb tells me it is none other than paul reubens)

Hmmmm....what did I used to like that hasn't aged well?

I'm going to go with all of my old girlfriends.

ha Pendarvis! I had a similar relationship with Ben Hur as a kid. Favorite movie ever. (although I still think Ben Hur is totally awesome to this day, and I will cut anyone who says otherwise.)

KateNonymous: Big Trouble in Little China is fundamentally about a man who considers himself a tough guy (but gets beaten up everywhere he goes) getting mixed up in all kinds of Chinese mystical mumbo-jumbo and the only thing he can bring himself to be concerned about is finding his missing truck.

You can't hate a concept like that.

A lot of films from the 80's do not hold up well. But for me "Back to the Future" (Marty McFly's mom tries to make out with him and that is NOT okay) and "Sixteen Candles" (didn't Anthony Michael Hall's character have sex with a girl while she was sleeping? Was that the movie?)are the worst.

Also, I still watch "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". But now I think he's a smarmy little brat and I wish he had gotten caught. It's just a different movie for me now.

I've long had an obsession with all things medieval and Arthurian, so when we watched Excalibur in junior English, I swore it was the best movie I'd ever seen or ever would see. I still carry a brightly-burning torch for Nigel Terry, and Helen Mirren is, of course, lesbolicious as Morgana (as she is in just about everything else, even Oscar presenter speeches).

However...

I own it on VHS and DVD, and I'm absolutely terrified to watch it again, because I know in my heart of hearts that it's truly awful, and I just don't think I could handle that kind of rejection.

Now that I think of it, I've had a lot of movies ruined for me not because I didn't like them the second or third time around, but because I recommended them to someone else, and that person wasn't as enthralled as I was. Kind of a "You actually liked THAT?" reaction. It stings.

For example, my mother doesn't like sex or violence in movies, so it's hard to find soemthing I don't think will offend her. I rented "Almost Famous," figuring it was pretty safe. Her reaction? "That's not what the 70s were like, and it gave me the creeps."

Ugh.

But, libraryliz, have you seen the alternate ending to Watcher in the Woods?! It was so scary when I was younger and, I agree, incredibly UN-scary as an adult, but the out-of-control alternate ending made it worth the watch.

I too love Men In Tights. I made my friends watch it twice during my 10th birthday sleepover and consistently tell people that "A roll is a roll. And a toll is a toll. And if we don't get no tolls, than we don't get no rolls...I made that up myself."

Everyone in this comment thread needs a paddlin'. Pretty in Pink? The Goonies? American Beauty? Pulp Fiction?!?!
ET? WHAT! This is Spinal Tap?! No. No. That's a paddlin', good sir.

Yeesh. Aside from never really caring about E.T. that's why I haven't read most of these. Let me die the day Spinal Tap goes sour on me!

The Fugitive- dear god that movie kicked ass when I saw it in the theaters! Now...just....meh.

And I'll go there with my next one. TITANIC. Yeah, so what??? I was a 19 year old swoony hetero female when it came out!! Now, let's just say I've seen the light.

And "magnificent bastard" gets a double.

Plus it provided MST3K with half the jokes in "Sidehackers". I ran across a book last week called "Unbeatable Tanks" or something lofty like that with a picture of a Sherman on the cover. "Not at the Kasserine Pass!" I tutted aloud to be bemused friend.

Yes, I'm like that.

Oh Georges, how I love you (egad, I don't think I've ever recommended Rick Atkinson's "An Army At Dawn" here! I do everywhere else."

Dear Pajibans,

Robin Hood: Men in Tights is not good movie - It was never a good movie and it will never be a good movie.

Carry on.

Lannie and Jay -- I will be the first do agree that I need a paddlin', whether it be for not liking Spinal Tap anymore or any one of number of reasons. But what can I say, it just doesn't make me laugh anymore.

I bet Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is still good though I don't have the courage to follow up by watching it. I always thought Kevin Reynolds could direct he was just doomed by his friendship with Costner. I also thought that about Renny Harlin, but you can add Die Hard 2 to my list of movies that didn't last (though Deep Blue Sea kicks ass).

My movie will earn me scorn: Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I teach now and I brought it in to show my kids and was thinking, oops, I am as old as they think I am. Synthasizers and post-modern quirkiness are not enough to save a movie. And the part I used to hate, the dancing/singing sequence now seemed like the greatest. How odd to grow old. It's still a great flick, but it's not as great as my 14 year-old self thought it was.

I think I have to go and watch Robin Hood: Men in Tights right now! I had completely forgotten about it, I too haven't seen it in years, but I am fairly certain that it will still be 24 carat AWESOME.

Thanks MO!

The only one I can think of right now is Return of the Jedi. It was the first Star Wars movie that I watched (and I saw it possibly nine times before I watched the first two, I don't really remember why though), so it kind of ruined the whole 'I am your father' thing (as well as the twin sister thing....and pretty much everything else), but I still loved it to death as a kid. Now I watch it, and I still love it and treasure it, but man are those battles on Endor painful.

Damn...late to the party:

1. [b]Space Camp[/b] - I LOVED this movie as a kid. The idea of getting to ride the Space Shuttle into space and take a spacewalk? 80s kids' dreams are made of such things.

2. [b]Goonies[/b] - yeah, looking back it makes no sense now. But damn if at the time it wasn't epic and great.

Oh and I'm excluding [b]Flash Gordon[/b] from this discussion because it was cheesy then, it's cheesy now and I still love it for its flaws.

Tron. I saw this as a space age whiz kid five or six times when it was first released in theaters. I thought it was the most amazing thing I've ever seen.

Now? David Warner's headgear is still cool. And Jeff Bridges was finally starting to smoke enough pot to get his Lebowski on. But Bruce Boxleitner with a frisbee? Not exactly hero material.

Jen & Jay Excalibur is the freakin' awesomest, coolest, hottest, rockinest, sexiest, baddassiest Arthurian flick EVER!!!! Bangin' with codpiece? Check. Helen Mirren naked? Check. Sex in the forest? Check. Lots of blood and gore? Check. Great music? Check. Just everything, check, check, and quadruple check. Nicol Williamson is freakin phenomenal. I have been looking for that headpiece he wears for years, and he totally has the best lines. I can watch that movie over and over again. End of lesson.

Mel Brooks' movies; specially Robin Hood: Men in Tights; I loved it back when I was 13 but now it seems so childish, pointless and unfunny (except for the Men in Tights song, that was mildly funny)

"Debbie Does Dallas." The second time around I noticed those guys really couldn't play football for shit. Ruined it forever.

All the Men in Tights love makes me happy in my heart. Now I really want to watch it again. But I need to sleep.

If I think on it long enough, I can come up with an actual contribution here...

I recently saw Shakma again, a big fave of mine about a homicidal baboon locked in a university with some nerds playing the red-headed stepchild's version of D&D. (That's much lamer than the poor man's version.)
Suffice it to say that the dialogue did NOT hold up well. Neither did the acting, even from the sparkly Christopher Atkins. Sad.

When I was about nine I had my pants scared off by Summer Of Fear, a very early Wes Craven film with Linda Blair. I saw it again recently too, and dang! Not scary at all! What the hell?!

I'm going with the Back to the Future sequels. I still really enjoy the first one, but the other two aren't as awesome as when I first watched them on VHS about 15 years ago...

Prince of Darkness scared the bejeesus out of me as a child

"You are receiving this broadcast in order to alter the events you are seeing".

http://youtube.com/watch?v=OGsv0pJemTY

Man, tell me about it. Terrrrified me.

Top Gun, I even checked out a few air force training schools because of it, yeah it was that cool

Now it's all gay and shit... what's up with that?

Ok, there's a couple I can think of that didn't hold up to recent views and two I can think of that held up suprisingly well.

The not-so-good:

Braveheart. I can remember me and my friends gushing about it to our 10th grade history teacher and being crushed when he said, "It's ok, but Rob Roy is better." How right he was.

Armageddon. When I saw this in theaters I actually squirted a few tears. When I saw it recently I wanted to beat the crap out of the cast and directors and force Steven Tyler to listen to that God-awful song until his head explodes.

The Suprisingly-Good:

Labrynth. I was sure this movie was not going to hold up to recent views. I can remember being scared out of my mind that David Bowie was going to come and take my little brother away and I'd have to go chasing through this fucked up maze to find him (I was all of 6 and it seemed a damned inconvenience). But I'll be damned if this movie still isn't pretty frickin' sweet. I actually had trouble concentrating enough to write this comment because I had "Dance Magic Dance" stuck in my head.

Plus, David Bowie in Spandex and a cod piece. Classic.

Flash Gordon. Granted, I always knew (even as a wee lad)that this movie was awful, but it had such a sense of fun about it that it was hard not to like it. I ended up watching it last week and lo and behold, still awful but just as much fun as I remember. As a bonus Mrs. ASterisk watched it for the first time with me and liked it so much she went out the next day and bought the DVD (Savior of the Universe Edition, natch).

Paddydog, Finian's Rainbow is an infamous film. For one thing, it was directed by Francis Ford Coppolla (!). That should make it interesting. Except that late in the production, after a lot of the song and dance sequences, the studio (iirc it was Warners) decided the thing should be in 70mm widescreen, so they took what had been shot in 1:1.85 and cropped it, top and bottom, to fit the widescreen aspect ratio. As a result, Fred Astaire's feet (and everyone else's) were chopped off in several of the dancing scenes.

Coppolla was somewhat out of his depth. At that point he only had a couple of decidedly flaky movies under his belt for the likes of Roger Corman. When he took this on he wasn't in a position to exert any real control, and he didn't know how to film musicals (it's harder than it seems because the length of the song dictates the pace of a lot of things - and this was well before music videos so it was all quite novel). Add to that some foreign non-actor stars (Petula Clark, Tommy Steele) and an ageing star (Fred Astaire), and a studio that was bleeding money so that the executives kept interfering - by all accounts it was the nightmare shoot from hell.

Anyway, as a consequence the film is all over the shop. If I recall correctly the score is actually much older than the movie, dating from about 20 or so years earlier. It shows in the overall concept of the film, which was so far out of touch with public sentiment when it finally aired that it pretty much sank.

My mother loved it and owned the soundtrack on record, so some of the songs are etched into my memory. But it's never struck me as a classic.

And no fourth Indy movie...

When I first saw "Interview With a Vampire", I loved the movie. I thought it was ground breaking and tom cruise was the most brilliant actor. I also really debated whether brad pitt was a woman.

I saw it a couple of years ago, again, and yea the movie is crap. I had to change it after the first 15.

also, "the last unicorn". I watched it when i was a child and it pretty mch traumatizedm me. I found the music moving and the love story between the horse turned human and the prince so beautiful.

again i saw it recently, and somehow i cant capture the same feeling again. the song is annoying, and Bestiality is nothing romantic.

I've seen Howard the Duck 3 times...

1) Loved it... and I was probably in 6th grade

2) Loved it... and I was high... probably 2 months ago

3) Hated it... and I was not high... probably 1.5 months ago

Oh god libraryliz! I am so with you on the Watcher in the Woods. It seemed so creepy and awesome when I was a kid. I would check it out almost weekly from the Music Vision Records (which was the only place you could rent videos in the early days of VHS). My mom got it for me on DVD a while ago and I watched it with my roommates. We were both yelling at the screen. It's the eclipse, THE ECLIPSE. God those characters were dense. And the female lead was much more shrill than I remembered.

King illegal forest, to pig wild, kill in it a is?!

I still love Spaceballs and Men in Tights, but I can't fucking STAND Blazing Saddles anymore. I dunno why.

Also, I want to defend Ghostbusters II. There are some damned fine Bill Murray lines in there.

I'm dating myself here, but as a kid I loved "Song of the South" after seeing it (probably on Disney's Sunday night movie)....I'm pretty sure I might be a bit skeeved by it now, happy slaves and all that.

On the other hand I still love Disney's Robin Hood and I do pull out RH:POT just to see Alan Rickman.
Good times.

I used to watch Smokey and the Bandit over and over on video at my cousin's, when I was between six and nine, and then I watched it again when I was twenty-three and by God(topus; I'm new to this) it's boring. I can't think of a single thing that would have made me like it at the time, either. What was I thinking?

My sister and I LOVED Girls Just Wanna Have Fun with SJP and Helen Hunt. I watched it with my cousins recently, and although cute, not really that good.
My sister and I still love that movie, but in a guilty pleasure/I still want to watch Annie and sing along kind of way. I know GJWHF is SO dated with the hair and the makeup and the dancing, but damn it, I still love it. "Don't throw a mental, dad!"

My shameful childhood love was this really horrible movie that I think was called Teen Witch. There is a scene where this suburban white girl raps and I'm embarrased just thinking about it.
We used to watch this at sleepovers. Teen Witch is one of the reasons why I watched Savannah (get swept away).

And I just re-watched Dirty Dancing and I admit, I still love it. Yeah, I said it.
I still love it, but I now cringe at some of the dialogue. Most of all, I'm scared of walking out of this room and never feeling again the way I feel when I'm with you. Seriously?

One movie that I recently saw again for the first time in probably a decade was Boomerang. I originally saw it in the movie theater because, hell, Eddie Murphy was in it and that was reason enough (hey, this was before Norbit). I thought it was just okay. A few months ago, I saw it on cable and realized that it was a lot better than I remembered it being. I'm not saying he needs a retroactive Oscar or anything, but it was much better than I remember it being, despite the presence of Robin Givens.

ET scared the crap out of me when I saw it. Granted, the theater was so crowded that we had to sit in the first row so it was that much scarier when the guys in space suits burst into the house. I screamed like the six year old girl that I was and then spent the next years trying to avoid any references to ET, which was impossible. I had to watch it again in middle school when I was babysitting and realized that it wasn't as terrifying as I remembered it being. I haven't watched it since though.

One movie that did not hold up well for me was Legend, and not just because Tom Cruise is a freakazoid now. I remember loving that movie as a kid. Between the unicorn, Mia Sara, and all those flower petals floating down from the trees, I thought it was awesome. I saw part of it a few years ago and thought WTF? How did I sit through that entire movie as a kid? I feel the same way about several other 80s movies, like The Neverending Story. I read the entire book after college and realized it was WAY better.

On the upside, I watched When Harry met Sally the other day on TV, and found it as funny as ever.
A thousand times YES! Despite the dated 80s outfits (the maid of honor dress is a classic example), the dialogue holds up.

Dick Tracy. I collected every action figure, read the rereleased comics and had that little toy light-up "radio" watch, and I absolutely adored that movie...when I was 10.

Then I watched it a couple of years ago, and basically, the best part of it is the ridiculous use of color, the most brilliant obviously-fake backdrops, and Madonna's pre-"Hard Candy" rack. Unfortunately, it's also the beginning of the end for Al Pacino's credibility.

Ladyhawke --

Oh. My. GAWD. I knew I couldn't be the only one out here who felt this way.

If they were to re-release it with a new score, I'd be first in line to buy the DVD.

Christ, that fucking score SUUUUUUUCKS. Ruinous.

Thanks to the magic of Netflix, my roommate and I are being disappointed by our former favs on a regular basis. Anybody remember Breakin or Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo? All I can say in my defense is I was around 5 and my parents smoked a lot of pot.

Way late to the party, but what the hell:

Spaceballs- Funniest movie ever when I first watched it at age 15. Quoted it constantly, i.e. "Your Schwartz is as big as mine!" The years have not aged Lonestar and friends well, I'm sad to say. Although I still like Dark Helmet...kind of.

Scent of a Woman- Pacino's bellowing, so dramatic and intense in 1993 (when I first saw the flick), becomes overblown melodrama circa 2008. ...I'D TAKE A FLAMETHROWER TO THIS PLACE!! Blahh.

Good Will Hunting- I liked this pretentious piece of shit until I watched it again on VHS about five years ago. Fuckin' Affleck. Annoying Bahstan accents. Tangent--when I saw this in the theater my idiot friend loudly clapped during the scene where Damon told Minnie Driver he didn't love her. About five people turned around and looked at ME like I had grown another head.

Alien 3- This one hurts..I love the first 2 Alien movies and thought Fincher's bleak take on the franchise kicked all kinds of ass upon initial viewing. Watched it again via Netflix about six months ago and I concluded that it pretty much sucks ass. Sigourney's great but the dialgoue is painful and the action scenes are poorly shot. Crap. (Happily, Aliens has suffered no such diminishment of value. Watched the director's cut last month and it's still the most genre-bustlingly awesome sci-fi action movie ever. Fucking Paul Reiser is awesome in it.)

Platoon- Ooh, this one stings, too. Charlie Sheen's voiceovers are really cheesy. Why didn't I recognize this first two or three times I watched Oliver Stone's overbaked Nam pic?

Tango & Cash- My first R-rated theater experience. 13 years old. Violence. Swearing. Of course I loved it. Do I need to tell you that this movie is in fact wretched? Nope, I didn't think so..

Alien 3