Roddy Lumsden, over at www.vitaminq.com recently posted this list of “films whose fans are even more annoying then the film itself”.
As the man says, if you’re told by a guy who runs a trivia site on the Internet to get a life, this should be considered as a pretty strong hint.
The films are:
1 Withnail and I
2 Rocky Horror Picture Show
3 The Italian Job (original version)
4 The Blues Brothers
5 The Big Lebowski
6 Lord of the Rings
7 The Shawshank Redemption
8 Pulp Fiction
9 The Sound of Music
10 Harold and Maude
11 This is Spinal Tap
12 Blue Velvet
13 Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
14 Life of Brian
15 The Seventh Seal
16 The Godfather
17 Star Wars
18 Wayne’s World
19 Taxi Driver
20 Fight Club
Now call me fortunate, but I don’t know anybody who’s a really strong fan of a single particular film. I imagine they might say things like “well, this is a pretty good movie, but compared to Pulp Fiction, it stinks”. I suppose that, in an extreme case, they might pretty much lose interest in all films except their choosen object of worship. Or pick fights at the pub with people who don’t realize the greatness of, say, Wayne’s World.
How do “single movie nerds” behave, and why do some people find it annoying? Have you met such a person? Is this a pretty good list of movies with annoying cult followings, or are there some that should definitely be in there?
Taxi Driver? I don’t meet many rabid fans of that movie. Well, I guess John Hinkley was pretty annoying (especially to Jodie Foster and Ronald Reagan).
Fight Club, man. I can’t tell you how many guys I knew in college who took that movie as their Personal Lord and Savior. “It’s soooo profound.” No, it’s not, you’re missing the whole point of the damned movie.
Also under “you’re missing the point”, the gangsta fans of Scarface who completely fail to notice how sad Tony Montana is. “Say 'ello to my little friend” indeed.
I don’t know enough Big Lebowski fans (such as myself) to know whether or not they (and I) are more annoying than the movie, which, of course, I don’t find annoying at all.
I strongly disagree. When someone on the Internet tells me to get a life, I assume he’s at least a minor hypocrite. If someone on the Internet who runs a trivia site told me to get a life, I would know he’s a flaming gigantic hypocrite.
The link the OP provided isn’t working for me, but I suspect the guy who made up this list is bugged by the predeliction of drunken guys in bars who imitate De Niro’s “'Ey! You talking to ME?” speech over and over and over…Which is not quite the same thing as being a fanatic of the entire film.
FTR, I actually love this movie (about as much as you can “love” a movie that’s so bleak & depressing). But I do refrain from aping “the line…” I’ve also never been able to figure out how Hinckley was able to leap to the conclusion that killing the president might actually impress Jodie Foster.
Of that list I loved six of them, liked six of them, hated four of them and didn’t see four of them. I can’t say that I’m a rabid fan of any of them.
This guy runs a trivia site, he is probably referring to the number of nitpicky, bitchy emails that he gets from fans of those movies.
Aside: I have heard over and over about how great Withnail and I is. I have tried on two different occasions to watch it and couldn’t get through more than about half an hour. What am I missing?
The most annoying single movie fans I’ve met in the last couple of years have been Matrix fans. Hearing about how deep and philosophical this OK Friday-night popcorn and beer action movie is makes me want access to Neo’s armory.
I definitely agree with The Matrix, though. The movie was about as much depth as a sheet of paper, and was boring, to boot (not the action scenes, but everything else).
I suspect he’s referring to people who take the Brad Pitt character’s philosophy as gospel, while somehow missing out that the purpose of the movie is to demonstrate that his philosophy is as hollow and nihilistic as the culture against which it is supposedly rebelling. I recall reading a “Letter to the Editor” in the Datebook section of the Chronicle from a guy who had been so inspired by the movie that he had enlisted in the army to “reclaim his manhood.”
Goodness gracious, where in the world are the Monty Python films? I love them to varying degrees (with Holy Grail easily being the best), but I cannot abide seeing the films in a rep house because of all the fans who speak/mutter/whisper the entire dialogue around me.
There’s no fan as insufferable as a Pythonite who loves regaling unwilling passers-by with extended segments of the Parrot sketch or the Lumberjack song. Guess what fellas–it’s funny because of who did it! You doing it creates a funny vacuum–the dreaded Unfunny.
Whoops–apologies for not noticing #14 (I did a search for “Monty” and came up with zilch). In that case, it needs to be much higher (a few of this choices or purely UK-specific, #1 & 3 especially). Monty annoyance is universal.
Including This is Spinal Tap on the list had me scratching my head a bit. I mean, other than the obviously overused “this one goes to 11” jokes, the annoyance level is pretty low.
Dirty Harry uberfans, I’ve always found somewhat creepy.
And I guess I’ll be the first person in this thread to admit that I’ve never even heard of Withnail and I. Its fans may be annoying, but they certainly aren’t pervasive.
