# Ever sit down to watch a movie you've seen before, and ... "Huh?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 11, 2014, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-sit-down-to-watch-a-movie-youve-seen-before-and-huh/695334 "2014-08-11T23:07:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2014, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-sit-down-to-watch-a-movie-youve-seen-before-and-huh/695334/21 "2014-08-13T20:05:56Z")
I watched _Ice Station Zebra_ when I was young, and loved it. What did I know from subtlety - I liked the sub action. I rented the tape (not edited for TV or anything) when I was a young adult and I found an enormously annoying plot hole. Like, so bad I couldn’t believe the movie was released that way obvious plot hole. Watched it again on DVD about 10 years later. Not only _wasn’t_ there a plot hole, I couldn’t even tell what I had\* thought \*was a plot hole! Wonder what I thought I didn’t like? On the other side of the question, I have watched _The French Connection_ for the first time several times. I keep forgetting I had already watched it (and didn’t like it). I guess I keep thinking a movie that well regarded _must_ be good, and since I don’t remember it, I must not have seen it yet. But, to me it isn’t at all memorable, so I forget I already watched it. Several times. I think it has finally “took” in my brain, ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2014, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-sit-down-to-watch-a-movie-youve-seen-before-and-huh/695334/22 "2014-08-13T21:20:17Z")
Watching any number of old movies, I often look forward to a certain line, a zinger, coming up in a scene. Often surprised it’s a bit different from what I remember originally. Maybe I’m confusing the actual line with how _I_ would have preferred to say it. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2014, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-sit-down-to-watch-a-movie-youve-seen-before-and-huh/695334/23 "2014-08-13T21:31:30Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > Damn good movie, by the way. I’m glad I’ve seen it. 😃 _Did you?_ 😉 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2014, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-sit-down-to-watch-a-movie-youve-seen-before-and-huh/695334/24 "2014-08-13T21:45:24Z")
For the OP: Stephen Jay Gould wrote an essay about how he was taking his kids to see Devil’s Tower monument, and talked about how it stood out in the middle of a plain. Only when he got there, it wasn’t. He couldn’t blame that on different versions of a film, or a recut. He had simply misremembered the entire geography of the region. Intriguingly, I brought up exactly this same story when we discussed misremembered movies on this Board six years ago _But I Don’t Remember Doing That_! > **[What happened to the alternate ending to Big?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=475863)** > > I’m in a very unusual position. I saw the “alternate” ending to the movie Big. I distinctly remember the movie ending with a final scene that included the introduction of Susan as a young classmate of Josh. I remember her being introduced, taking... ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2014, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-sit-down-to-watch-a-movie-youve-seen-before-and-huh/695334/25 "2014-08-13T21:50:11Z")
I saw _Midway_ in the theater when I was a kid, in **SENSURROUND!** Pretty impressive for a kid fixated on warplanes and the like at the time. Watched it a week or so ago on TMC, and my oh my! What a utter turd that movie actually is! Bad editing, bad dubbing, bad use of actual combat footage, bad use of recycled “Tora Tora Tora” footage, bad hoakie love story, bad acting… just plain BAD! I feel like I was _cheated_ 40 years ago! ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2014, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-sit-down-to-watch-a-movie-youve-seen-before-and-huh/695334/26 "2014-08-13T22:20:49Z")
I do know that when ABC Family does their “_Harry Potter_ Weekend”, they include some of the scenes that were cut from the original film. (Like the part when Harry and Dudley shake hands before the Dursleys leave – that wasn’t included in the theatrical release) So maybe that’s it? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2014, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-sit-down-to-watch-a-movie-youve-seen-before-and-huh/695334/27 "2014-08-14T00:04:28Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > For the OP: Stephen Jay Gould wrote an essay about how he was taking his kids to see Devil’s Tower monument, and talked about how it stood out in the middle of a plain. Only when he got there, it wasn’t. > > He couldn’t blame that on different versions of a film, or a recut. He had simply misremembered the entire geography of the region. [URL=“[What happened to the alternate ending to Big? - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=475863)”] It’s not exactly surrounded by mountains, either. It stands by itself on a low rise with hills and rounded buttes in the area. There are plenty of photos that show how much space is around it. So SJG wasn’t completely out of his mind. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2014, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-sit-down-to-watch-a-movie-youve-seen-before-and-huh/695334/28 "2014-08-14T00:12:07Z")
I could have sworn that when I was a kid Greedo never managed to get off a shot. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2014, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-sit-down-to-watch-a-movie-youve-seen-before-and-huh/695334/29 "2014-08-14T01:43:24Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > I could have sworn that when I was a kid Greedo never managed to get off a shot. Mos Eiseley seemed a lot smaller then, too. ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2014, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-sit-down-to-watch-a-movie-youve-seen-before-and-huh/695334/30 "2014-08-14T01:56:11Z")
> [@bobkitty](#): > > Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe- the animated version. Watched it as a kid, decent enough. Watched it in college- WHO PUT ALL THIS MISOGYNISTIC CHRISTIAN IMAGERY IN MY MOVIE??? YES! I walked out of that movie wondering how I missed C.S. Lewis being a misogynist. How did I miss that the first 17 times I read all those books? ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2014, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-sit-down-to-watch-a-movie-youve-seen-before-and-huh/695334/31 "2014-08-14T02:50:56Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I watched _Ice Station Zebra_ when I was young, and loved it. What did I know from subtlety - I liked the sub action. > > I rented the tape (not edited for TV or anything) when I was a young adult and I found an enormously annoying plot hole. Like, so bad I couldn’t believe the movie was released that way obvious plot hole. > > , You mean the Brit spy and _armed_ military unit on a US submarine [a nuke boat at that]? [URL=“[http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/](http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/)”] ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2014, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-sit-down-to-watch-a-movie-youve-seen-before-and-huh/695334/32 "2014-08-14T03:05:40Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > I do know that when ABC Family does their “_Harry Potter_ Weekend”, they include some of the scenes that were cut from the original film. It is more common to do the opposite–to cut down movies so they will fit a 2 hour (or whatever) movie plus commercials slot on TV. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2014, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-sit-down-to-watch-a-movie-youve-seen-before-and-huh/695334/33 "2014-08-14T17:27:50Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > It is more common to do the opposite–to cut down movies so they will fit a 2 hour (or whatever) movie plus commercials slot on TV. I think the first time I saw _Superman: The Movie_ was on broadcast tv and they did an extended version. Buying it later, I squawked about scenes missing, mostly remembering the bit where he first encounters Luthor’s stronghold. In _Ghostbusters_, I think Murray’s line about “the competition” is cut when the Cardinal walks into the mayor’s office. I noticed/remembered because it was the first movie I saw multiple times in the theater. The suckiest change was the ramping up of the green in _The Matrix._ ---
**Author:** ![Kandinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a87d85/32.png) [@Kandinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kandinsky)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-sit-down-to-watch-a-movie-youve-seen-before-and-huh/695334/34 "2014-08-15T20:36:29Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I watched _Ice Station Zebra_ when I was young, and loved it. What did I know from subtlety - I liked the sub action. > > I rented the tape (not edited for TV or anything) when I was a young adult and I found an enormously annoying plot hole. Like, so bad I couldn’t believe the movie was released that way obvious plot hole. > > Watched it again on DVD about 10 years later. Not only _wasn’t_ there a plot hole, I couldn’t even tell what I had\* thought \*was a plot hole! Wonder what I thought I didn’t like? Lol, I remember when I was in my early twenties, I saw plot holes everywhere, real and imagined. It’s not so much bad filmmaking, as bad movie watching. The result of an underslept, overworked, overstressed brain. ---
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-sit-down-to-watch-a-movie-youve-seen-before-and-huh/695334/35 "2014-08-15T21:18:48Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > You mean the Brit spy and _armed_ military unit on a US submarine [a nuke boat at that]? > [URL=“[http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/](http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/)”] It’s been a while, but both the spy and the marine contingent were on the sub specifically for the (secret) mission: retrieval of the satellite camera. ---
**Author:** ![CodeB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85e7bf/32.png) [@CodeB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CodeB)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2014, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-sit-down-to-watch-a-movie-youve-seen-before-and-huh/695334/36 "2014-08-16T01:19:01Z")
Maybe but I am not so sure about that. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2014, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-sit-down-to-watch-a-movie-youve-seen-before-and-huh/695334/37 "2014-08-16T03:05:08Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > It is more common to do the opposite–to cut down movies so they will fit a 2 hour (or whatever) movie plus commercials slot on TV. Well, that’s true too. I guess it depends on how much time they have allotted, or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2014, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-sit-down-to-watch-a-movie-youve-seen-before-and-huh/695334/38 "2014-08-16T18:25:21Z")
> [@cormac262](#): > > It’s been a while, but both the spy and the marine contingent were on the sub specifically for the (secret) mission: retrieval of the satellite camera. Well, when I translated for a batch of French midis, they had to both get special permission to be aboard and all the important equipment was covered so they couldn’t see gauges/scales/whatever data … I think that foreign nationals [and _armed_ foreign nationals] on a US military vessel could be twitch-making [especially since they lock weapons away from the regular crew members … having foreigners armed on board would be seriously paranoia-making.] [URL=“[http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/](http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/)”] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-sit-down-to-watch-a-movie-youve-seen-before-and-huh/695334.md?page=1)