Pajiba

Tim Burton's Batman

I was kind of surprised by how unmoved I was by the Indiana Jones trilogy the second time around.

But before anybody jumps on me I still like them alot.

Star Wars - A New Hope

I loved it so much when I saw it in the theater that I felt transformed in some way.
Trying to watch it now is painful because, as DR said, it's hard not to pick it apart or wince at some of the wooden performances. Even the special effects (which were SO freakin' cool at the time) seem a bit amateurish.
There are times when I wish I had never seen it
a second time.
a second time.

and thanks for givin' them outsourcers what-fer, dustin. my hardee's ad is gone.

Oh geez. Juno, definitely. Agree on Napoleon Dynamite too.

Awwwwwwww, figgy. It hurt to admit it.
It was so magical and incredibly perfect for it's time that seeing it again decades later (and completely jaded by modern cgi) took away a lot of the magic. That's why I wish I hadn't watched it again. I will always remember how I felt after that first time, though.

Um, American Beauty.

I was a sophomore in high school when I first saw it and I cried like a baby at the end because it was just OMG THE BEST MOVIE EVER. Out of curiosity, I watched it again and again to see if it would continue to make me cry (and I loved it so much the first time around). I downloaded the '70s tunes that Lester listens to.

I don't outright hate the movie now, but I feel some sort of secret shame when I see it on TV or something because I remember how much I used to revere it.

I'd have to add The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but I think it was just from a complete overload. I watched them OBSESSIVELY for years and years, and eventually it just all became too much. Now I can barely watch The Two Towers without cringing. It's a good lesson to learn...don't watch ANY movie too much. You'll just start seeing the imperfections and it'll all become too damn much.

Ooh figgy, yes I forgot about those. I watched those obsessively for ages and ages. Now I have no desire. Total LOTR overload.

The Graduate

I saw it for the first time in the middle of my Junior year at college. And may Godtopus strike me down if that movie didn't speak to me on levels I didn't know existed.

Now it's almost 10 years later, and I watched the movie again for only the second time ever a few months ago. I still recognize the quality of the film, but boy howdy it's no longer a movie aimed at me. I kinda got bored with it.

I still think it's a good movie, but I don't know that I'll be putting on my DVD player for another good decade.

Interesting diversion, Dustin. I think movies have some parallel to music in that there are popular favorites and critical favorites -- as well as cult favorites that sometimes suffer backlash when they get "too popular" (that's where I would slot Napoleon Dynamite).

I'm not averse to rewatching a movie, although I rarely do it on my own -- usually it's at someone else's behest (or when I'm introducing a favorite to a person who hasn't seen it before). I'm hard-pressed to think of a movie I've "fallen out of love with". I've seen It's A Wonderful Life dozens of times and I never tire of it. Same thing with Ferris Bueller's Day Off (thanks, TBS!). I'd say there's probably a greater danger that I'd find something I liked in a movie that I'd previously dismissed than vice versa. But I tend to dislike popular favorites out of hand, so maybe I'm just less susceptible to this phenomenon.

Apocalypse Now.

Posted by: Drew Morton at August 12, 2009 9:33 PM

Please elaborate.

That would be Tank Girl. I was so into loving it I didn't realize that it treated me pretty awfully.

I can't watch any Wes Anderson movies a second time. Sometimes I can make it through TRT's, but Rushmore the second time was ghastly.

I've fallen way out of love with the original Star Wars trilogy, too. Took too much effort to be a fan boy, and frankly none of the movies were really all that good, even the its-not-as-bad-as-the-others-so-it-must-be-good "The Empire Strikes Back".

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium made me cry both times I saw it. I really expected to hate it the second time.

I fell out of love with Blazing Saddles. It just doesn't do it for me anymore.

And, of course, Dustin there are some movies to which you won't even give that first chance for love. Peter O'Toole and David Lean are waiting by the phone for you to call!

That, perhaps, I will fall out of love with it. It’s the single biggest reason I can’t bring myself to re-watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Dustin, this is a MISTAKE! I cannot tell you how many cool new things I've discovered about Eternal Sunshine by watching it over and over again. Each time I see it, I fall deeper in love with Kate Winslet and hate Jim Carrey a little less. I also just always end up in complete awe of the whole concept of the film. Pretty pretty please with a cherry on top take my advice and SEE IT AGAIN or you will DEPRIVE YOURSELF.

Hoo, that was really fucking intense. Apologies. As for movies that I've fallen out of love with... Hm. I used to LOVE Garden State. I don't really hate it so much as I nothing it.

Stargate SG-1 and Sliders.

I loved the shows, but that was when I only got to see it once a week or so (no cable). So I got the first three seasons of each on DVD for a gift.

For Stargate, I started watching them, and I became increasingly annoyed with Samantha Carter's tendency to fall prey to the "dumb bitch" syndrome, the increasing simple-ness of the planets (anyone notice that they dropped the other planet speak something other than English about midway thru the first season).

The "dumb bitch" scenario is also easily discernible in Sliders thru Wade Welles.
Then John Rhys Davies got fired and I quit watching all together.

It's why I'm afraid to go back and watch The Pretender.

I will not let people say that the original Star Wars movies weren't that good, sure, they're nitpicky if you take them as the sum of the parts, but as a whole, the films are brilliant.

There are a ton of films from my childhood that if I watched now, I know I'd hate, the Pokémon movies being the most obvious example, but of the good films, that hasn't happened yet, since I hated Napoleon Dynamite the first time I saw it, I actually walked out of it.

However, I have noticed that some films are better on the second viewing than the first, the most notable one for me at least was The Matrix, the original, the sequels can go rimjob themselves.

Since it has been brought up today, Boondock Saints.

I fell for it the first go-round or so, and I let my love of Dafoe well...Dafoeing it up blind me just a bit further, but Eep expressed the problem exactly.

It's a papier-mâché version of the genre; it has visual style and violence but it's empty and lifeless on the inside. It's like what you would get if a talentless hack bartender calling himself a musician watched a bunch of really good movies and then tried to write something just like them. The problem is that he could comprehend and regurgitate was violence, suits, a duplo-block version of morality, and tough guy talk.

It was a shadow of what could have been a better film. Really, the actors made it more appealing than it really was.

And only now do I realize that Rorschach from Wathcmen, right down to the Kitty Genovese reference. Only Moore did it markedly better.

I'd say Star Wars 4,5,6 survive repeat viewings. But I refuse to rewatch it until I can find the un-altered versin on DVD. You know, from before the time Lucas took it upon himself to go back and CGI up the whole affair, and change a bunch of shit (like the extra sequence with Solo and Jabba on Tattoine, or changing the musical sequence and adding the weird lipped monster thing at Jabba's palace).

I think my feelings are similar to Che's - and if I really loved a movie in the first place, I don't fall out of love with it. The only thing I can think of is an old TV movie version of Cinderella. I tracked it down for my girls to watch because I had fond memories, but it really wasn't so great after they'd already seen Enchanted.

I agree with oaklandcat on Dead Poet's. I loved that movie very hard, but now I just can't make it all the way through.

I fell out of love with Blazing Saddles. It just doesn't do it for me anymore.

Bucko, please don't take this the wrong way when I say vendetta! VENDETTA!

I used to love Mallrats. I defended it tooth and nail since college. Now I realize that I was just being contrary... It's just not a good movie. Sorry Mr. Smith. Now Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back... that's a movie that gets better and better.

Awww, I feel ya Vermillion, I can't sit through an entire showing of Neverending Story either. I mean, I always got upset when the horse died and fast forwarded through that part anyway, but I tried to watch it recently and gave up. A little piece of me died inside. And then I got all angry that I still don't know what fucking name Sebastian yells out at the end.

I second Juno, I can't even watch it now without wanting to rip her little ponytail out and screaming "Talk like regular people, dammit!!"

I would still like to see a diversion where people list movies they only liked after repeat viewings. That intrigues me, and I have a few of my own.

Apocalypse Now.

Posted by: Drew Morton at August 12, 2009 9:33 PM

Please elaborate.

Che,

I just find it overlong and once you get the idea that war allows men to give into their darker instincts, comes off as trite. I don't hate it, I just think it's overrated and I'm more amazed with the scope of sequences (the helicopter attack) than the film as a whole. Hell, the making of Apocalypse Now (as seen in Hearts of Darkness) is more interesting than "AP."

I liked Chicago and American Beauty a LOT more after repeated viewings.

One rather unwelcome recent development occurred while rewatching season 2 of Mad Men -- Jon Hamm's sendup of Don Draper on SNL had the unfortunate effect of souring me on all those bolt-from-the-blue advertising soliloquies where everyone got real still and quiet while Draper expounded on the consumer id. Suddenly they all seemed like setups for punch lines which never came. I'm still looking forward to season 3, but I fear much unintentional hilarity, which isn't how I want to watch the show.

Damnit, Tamatha stole my choice.

Practical Magic was a movie I adored first off: The adorable Sandra Bullock, and witches. Must see, right?

Not exactly.

They keep airing it on TNT/TBS and I just realized how stupid it is. Bullock gets over her dead hubby in about 5 minutes for some guy with weird eyes. And is it wrong that I want the police to arrest them? I mean, they kinda murdered someone.

Bad movie. And I loved the soundtrack, too. Fleetwood fucking Mac.

Unbreakable. I hated it so much that I cursed loudly as we left the theater. I cussed all the way home. Then, my Mom bought it when it came out on DVD and I decided to watch it again. I don't love it, but I do like it now.

Oooh, that is one of the "liked it at first" movies for me. bought the special edition DVD and everything. Loved it, and really considered it a fine followup to The Sixth Sense (another contender for this diversion). But it didn't much longer, and I realized that I was more in love with the IDEA of the movie than I was with the actual product.

I would still like to see a diversion where people list movies they only liked after repeat viewings. That intrigues me, and I have a few of my own.

I nominate EVERYTHING MILLA JOVOVICH HAS EVER BEEN IN. Especially The Fifth Element and, to a lesser extent, Ultraviolet (don't hit me!). The woman is just flat-out entertaining. Oh and the near-constant nakedness didn't hurt either.

The Matrix. It did something to me the first time I watched it. A computer nerd was the chosen one, and Carrie-Anne Moss was in it (I'm probably the only person on earth who watched Models, Inc. Loved her in it).

Then they made the sequels. I gave them the benefit of the doubt after the first one. This can work out, I thought. They will tie this up. I'm still buying all this because it will be the BEST TRILOGY EVER.

I can't watch The Matrix anymore. The computer techno geek in me died. Or perhaps I should say, was murdered after having her eyes gouged out by a non-existent spoon and a weird Frenchman.

I nominate EVERYTHING MILLA JOVOVICH HAS EVER BEEN IN. Especially The Fifth Element and, to a lesser extent, Ultraviolet (don't hit me!). The woman is just flat-out entertaining. Oh and the near-constant nakedness didn't hurt either.

Yes. Oh, yes.

And Practical Magic - Nicole Kidman as a hottie bad girl. Still works for me.

I used to LOVE Corpse Bride. Not feeling it any more. The Depp character is too consumptive and the musical numbers are not that good and it's just boring. Now. Then, I had the poster on the wall.

I really loved Down with Love when I saw it in theaters and thought it was cheeky and funny and delightful. I tried to watch it again and couldn't get through the whole thing. Damn you, Zellweger!

In recent memory, Slumdog Millionaire was near-great when I watched it first and I'd now call it good-not-great.

Easy now, Jovovich was in Dazed and Confused...

Vermillion if you haven't already, you should read the book of The Neverending Story. The movie (which I liked at the time too) is the warmed-over cliffnotes of the book.

I can't hate American Beauty. I lost my virginity the night I saw that movie in theaters.

It's generally indifference that keeps me from re-watching most of the movies I only see once, not dislike or, conversely, love. Movies I love I watch over and over and they don't get old.

myysharona I've seen PCU several times and it has held up for me (in the sense that it is a solid though not perfect movie with a few flaws but a message I love).

On the flip side, the first time I saw Keeping the Faith I thought it was so formulaic and utterly boring. And the second time I found it really endearing. Maybe I have become more formulaic and boring, too.

There will be Blood. Watched it once and loved it, have never watched it all the way through again.

To go the opposite way,
http://www.givememyremote.com/remote/watch-nathan-fillion-in-pg-porn/

I could honestly watch this on a loop forever.

Major Etiquette
I'm not buying Moon Child. No way. That is just too stupid and besides, I thought he used his mother's name.
I refuse to believe this and I'm now ignoring any possibility that it might be so.

This is highly embarrassing, but when I was in high school (circa-2000) I was obsessed with the movie "Down to You". It was kind of like a second rate "10 Things I Hate About You", including Julia Stiles and the late 90's early 00's second-rate romantic teen comedy go-to, Freddie Prinze, Jr. I must have watched that movie once a week, every week, for months. I don't know what it was about that movie... has anyone else even ever seen this piece is crap?

ANYway, I tried to watch it in college and cringed my face off. I couldn't even get through the thing. Another reason why all the huge blockbuster movies suck -- teenagers are stupid.

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. I loved it in middle school but oh, you guys. it's SO BAD.
SO. BAD. Except for Alan Rickman. He totally owns the whole film.

"Pride and Prejudice" (the newer version.) I remember after the first time I watched it I was so totally enamored. The love story and cinematography combined rocked my world.

But then, after actually READING "Pride and Prejudice", as well as taking a film class that picked apart cinematography, I realized the film was pretty freaking terrible. Just the number of zooms is enough to make me laugh as I'm watching it. Guh. No good.

Fucking Dirty Dancing my sister and my mom wore the fuck out of me with that movie. Fuck staying home all summer with women. At least that you are related to.

Ooh, good subject. I think mine would have to be the Lord of the Rings trilogy also, but I got to agree with Dustin: Napoleon Dynamite is insufferable now. Hm...I really wonder how that film will be seen decades from now through the eyes of historians.

Of course, I could also talk about how much I loved Joel Schumacher's Batman and Robin back when I was 9 in 1997, but winced in agony when I saw bits of it again in 2006, but I won't. Nope, you'll never know.

Wait...

I found a great dating site_____W e a l t h y D a t e r. C O M_____. .where you have the opportunity dreaming about dating a millionaire and make it true! u dont have to be a millionaire.but u can meet one. I thought everyone needed to meet some miracle after all the terrible stuff in the news and the economy .-----------------------------------------------

Since all of Kevin Smith's "classic" movies (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma) have been listed, can we all agree that he is, and always has been, complete horse shit?

re: Vermillion's post

I totally get where you're coming from, and I understand that people do grow up and change, so I can forgive some of the older films being rethought.

In fairness, I *had* read the comments on here, and found that 'Lord of the Rings', 'Napoleon Dynamite' etc were basically canned because people 'got over the hype'.

I suppose it's as much a problem when people join the hype as when they abandon their new 'favourite film'.

Oh and on Serenity, don't let the non-believers taint your love for that masterpiece! It's near-on perfect and its few flaws, I like to think, are just Joss "aiming to misbehave".

Henry and June.
I went through this phase of my life where I spent hours skipping class and just pouring through everything Henry Miller and Anais Nin ever wrote, and then the movie came out. I watched it once & found it daring, thrilling, brilliant. Almost 20 years later I saw it in a reduced price bin, bought it, watched it, and cringed just about the entire time.
Fred Ward's still hot, though.

I exposed some friends to "Dog Soldiers" and they were not near as gaga over it as I was. This didn't really change my opinion of the movie, it still rocks ass and I'll take werewolf costumes over CGI any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

There are 2 movies that I loved in the theater but have since fallen out of favor. The first is Die Hard 2: Die Harder. With a packed opening night house that movie absolutely rocked, after repeat viewings it just doens't hold up. McClane is a dick, the plot doesn't really make sense, and it is more abrasive then fun. Some of the action scenes are still solid but that's it.

The other one is "The Ring". I still think it is a good movie, but it just really loses something after that first time through.

But I have to agree if you are not watching your so-called favorite movies more than once you are missing out. For really good movies, it is impossible to get everything the first time through, especially the little details. Sure, the experience may not be the same, but that is because YOU are not the same, if that is not too trite. For example, Eternal Sunshine is a VASTLY different film experience depending on where you are in your life. Not bad, just different.

It's those little details that make the re-watch so rewarding because you likely forgot them since the first viewing. Like the final scene in "Magnolia" where Claudia looks up directly at the camera and smiles as Aimee Mann's "Save Me" hits the chorus and the screen cuts to credits. Or on the flip side the last scene in "Spider-Man 2", which doesn't end with Spidey happily web-slinging through the city, but on Mary Jane as she watches him go, and her smile slowly fades away as the screen fades to black. As a movie lover, you are really cheating yourself by not re-visiting your faves.

As for movies I didn't like but now love: "LA Confidential". Just didn't get it at first, now it's one of my favorites.

Maybe I'll try High Anxiety. I have fond memories of nurse Deisel's boobs.

Don't. This was one I had fond memories of, but I happened upon it this weekend and, boy, was it not funny. There is a whole Mel Brooks as lounge singer scene that is painful and even the Birds bit has lost its humor for me. There may be good parts still (Nurse Diesel still kills) but you'll be disappointed overall.

Best rewatchable movies that I never tire of no matter how often I watch them:

Ferris Bueller
Goodfellas
Godfather I & II
Pulp Fiction
Young Frankenstein
It's a Wonderful Life
My Cousin Vinnie
Empire Strikes Back
Hoosiers
Boogie Nights
The Princess Bride

Easy Rider.

I tend to fall out of but then back in love with films. I completely abandoned Kevin Smith for 3 or 4 years, but then came back. Turns out I just needed a break to go and fuck other movies.

However, I would agree with the sentiment on Burton's Batman. Caught part of it the other day on TV (the art gallery scene and subsequent chase). Maybe it was time, maybe The Dark Knight, but just those 10 minutes were painful. I think perhaps Beverly Hills Cop has been unseated as the most dated film of the 80s.

A league of their own!
I LOOOVVVEEEDDDD Genna Davis and Rosie O'Donnell before she got militant
and crazy.

Also as a side note: My fiance and I have watched ; Casino, Fight Club and
Cape Fear (Nick Nolte version) more times than we can count and could act out
all corresponding scenes.

I can't believe I saw Rushmore on this list. Christ almighty, that's a bloody travesty!

For me most recently, it has to be Role Models. I loved it when I saw it in the theater. A few weeks back I watched it with a girl I was seeing and save for the first act, it just wasn't as funny. And let's not even get into the ending.

mysharona
I'm actually pretty sure Bastian shouts "Mona" out the window. I remember thinking "That's the most beautiful name he knows? Really?"
I was clearly a very cynical child...
I'll give it this, though - it's a damn sight better than Moon Child.

I've seen American Psycho probably 50 times, maybe more, and I still think it's hilarious and horrible at the same time.

A movie I used to love that I can't really sit through anymore: Total Recall

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

I fall out of love with movies because I overwatch them, obsess over the, and then realize how my love was completely out of proportion with the actual quality.

Posted by: Cherry at August 13, 2009 12:41 PM

Substitute Pink Floyd's The Wall (album not movie) for the Usual Suspects and you've described my senior year in college right down to the roommate's introduction to the obsession, the size of the apartment, and my subsequent feeling about the title.

Thanks a lot, assholes. Now I'm going to have The Neverending Story theme music stuck in my head all day. I'll be damned if that's not a catchy bit of childhood nostalgia.

"And there upon the rainbow is the answer to our neverending story...lalalalalalalalala."

I remember watching 28 Weeks Later and thinking, wicked awesome! Zomb-ayyys! Grr! Argh! Upon reflecting on the film, I realized that it was balls out ridiculous.

The only conciliation I could take from it was finding out the surreal names of the two lead actors, Imogen Poots and Mackintosh Muggleton. I like to think their families were part of a traveling Renaissance troupe, because those names just scream character. Why water down their names to Tammy and Andy in the film when their given names are soooo much better?

Just watched Chasing Amy again two weeks ago. I couldn't wait to relive my first year of college memories.

Jesus. Did not age well. Such prudery.

I have to stop reading the comments and just come down here and say a few things--it's all about how well the film ages, so that's more global, but on a more personal level, it also has to do with who you are when you view it and when you view it again.

I saw American Beauty as a married person in my 30s, not quite as far along in life and marriage and parenthood as Lester's character, but pretty damn close.

The husband and I saw it in the theater and we happened to have been going through a rough patch at the time. Close to the beginning, when you see Lester masturbating in the shower and he voices over that "this is the best moment of my day" Mr. Snuggie laughed a bit too hard and loud and nodded a bit too much. Oh my.

Our lives were never as bad as Lester and his wife, but it turns out we both came uncomfortably close to finding too much about that couple in ourselves. We were scared--when our then pre-teen daughter was in high school, as their daughter was, would we have lost touch with her, too?

Was my gardening obsession going too far and a replacement for other things? Did I maybe need to finally get help for my OCD and other anxiety issues (though in my defense I've never been much like the wife as far as her personality goes).

Had we lost touch with one another?

It had nothing to do with being smug hipsters. I STILL don't know what that is! (Would someone please for the love of God finally tell me?) We just saw too much of ourselves for comfort, which compelled us to watch it and watch it and watch it. Would this be us in five years? (Oh and Lester's obsession with the teenager made Mr. Snuggie feel sick to his stomach, so that part fortunately did not resonate at all.)

Anyway, it hit us where we live. (And we made some needed changes, not completely because of the film but it was an impetus.)

But I've seen other flicks at other times that just never connected with me or me with it. And then watched it years later and....got it, felt it.

I still like Napoleon Dynamite. The first time I saw it, I was teaching high school. So I saw it through that lens and saw some of my own students in the characters.

Now I just like it for the sheer absurdity of it. Who didn't know a kid with so few social skills that he says, in front of the person he's referencing "is that a new kid?" Little things like that make ND good for me. I think people wanted laugh-out-loud out of it and it's not that, at least not for me.

Bedazzled. The original with Dudley Moore and Peter Cook, not the remake, which I've only seen once.

I recently introduced this to my boyfriend. It was still pretty damn funny, but ... wow. '60s movies sure were paced slooooowly. Somehow I managed not to notice this during my multiple viewings as a kid.