I loved “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” when it first came out…but we rented it a couple weeks ago so our kids could see it. Man alive, it was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud at how BAD it was.
Brat man. You must learn to buy better furniture, my coffee table never had a problem. Solid construction.
I know it has happened, but i can’t remember the movie. Trauma is easily blighted from my mind, I guess.
My favorite movies when I was growing up were Logan’s Run, Tron, and WarGames.
Nowadays, I see what the other Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans mean when they say that Logan’s Run is “prime 'bot fodder.” (Don’t tell William F. Nolan, though – he knows I have a Logan’s Run FAQ on my homepage. 
)
And Tron is, indeed, silly.
And I now realize the only reason I liked WarGames was because of this one anguished soliloquy he gave about wishing he were ignorant like everyone else. I was a teen-ager at the time and definitely felt “cursed” because I was “brainier” than the other kids. (Plus, I had the social skills of a cumquat. )
… So now, my current favorite movie is Airplane!.
I’ve noticed that most of the ‘what was I thinking’ movies are comedies, originally seen in theatres, and then watched on video.
I believe that most comedy, especially slapstick/broad farce needs to be experienced in a crowd - the humor seems to work best when shared.
I saw ‘The Gods Must Be Crazy’ in a theatre and roared along with everyone - on video it was mostly stupid gags.
I remember thinking Battlestar Galactica was the coolest TV show in the world back in the late 70’s. Now I cringe when I see the reruns on Sci-Fi. The acting, the special effects, the plots. What was I thinking?
When I saw Ken Rusell’s film of The Who’s Tommy at the age of 13, it blew me away. I thought it was the greatest rock movie ever. I saw it again the other day, and it SUCKS! The original album’s still awesome, but the movie soundtrack is laden with synthesizers, crappy orchestration, and Elton John singing “Pinball Wizard.” What was I thinking?
Tina Turner’s performance as the Acid Queen still works for me, though.
I just saw The Wrong Box with my kids the other night. I remember laughing so hard, spilling coke, popcorn flying from everyone in the audience in 1966. Brian Forbes directed this wonderful movie about two brothers trying to outlive each other so that they win a hefty tontine [L100,000]in Victorian England. The movie stars Ralph Richardson, John Mills, Peter Cooke, Dudley Moore, Peter Sellers, Michael Caine. I guess this movie provides the exception to the rule: it still is extremely funny. Most of the humor was about human behavior: sibling rivalry/hate, obnoxious personalities such as Mr KnowItAll and the drunk doctor, how greed puts blinkers on insight, love at first sight [yes, both the thunderbolt and carnal types].
Astorian - what a brilliant post. Did I mention I was thinking about how to phrase the same question?
I’ve been running into this a lot lately. My kids are 8, 10, and 12, and we have been getting a kick out of picking out old movies for them to watch. (I’ll slip past the cranky old man complaint that so much modern film is either for babies or not exactly what I consider family fare).
Man are some of my old favorites clunkers. I think Folacin’s comedy observation is right on. I remember “It’s a Mad, Mad … World” being HILARIOUS! Watching it with the kids a while back it was just long. And “A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum” certainly didn’t live up to my billing. I am terrified over what will happen when I try to share my childhood affinity for that great therspian Terry Thomas (Terryfied?)
(WARNING HERESY AHEAD) Even the Marx Brothers and Monty Python. Yes, their work has much of the funniest stuff ever. But upon every reviewing I am surprised at the amount of stuff between the gutbusters that just ain’t that funny. What will happen when I rent “Cat Ballou”? Or “The Great Race”? Or “Those Incredible Men In Their Flying Machines”?
Just rented “National Lampoon’s Family Vacation” after driving to Fla w/ the family. Not nearly as funny as I remembered, and had more sex, language, etc. than I remembered. Not that I completely shield my kids from such things, but it struck me differently watching it with my kids than when I was a college student.
Oh yeah, and scary movies aren’t that scary any more. Watched “Jaws” with my 8 amd 10 year old, and while they jumped at the appropriate places, I remember not wanting to take a bath after that sucker, and I was, not to put too pine a point on it, older than 10 when I saw it. My kids are really enjoying watching the old scary movies I grew up on on Creature Features and Svengoolie. We just watched “Frankenstein” and “Dracula”, and they are dying to learn all the facts about werewolves. What a commentary on modern education that these kids don’t know about silver bullets, garlic, vampires and mirrors and the like! What are my tax dollars going for? My son really wants to watch “Bodysnatchers.” Cool! Last Halloween “The Day of the Tryphids” was on the tube and they enjoyed that. Talk about hokey! But I thought they were a bit too young for the all time great “Night of the Living Dead.”
Now the westerns are a pretty safe bet, cause I always thought they were pretty hokey, cept for Clint who is cool incarnate. If any kid gets to high school without knowing who John Wayne is, their folks should be horsewhipped. If nothing beyond “True Grit.”
TV shows are another thing. I used to love the “Odd Couple.” Doesn’t hold up. And “MASH” always sucked after Trapper and Henry left, and Hawkeye was self-canonized. Even “The Honeymooners” (Probably my all-time fave w/ “MPFC”) has an astounding amount of filler and awkward pacing.
What holds up the best? Dinsdale’s infallible but non exhaustive list includes:
Andy Griffith
Dick Van Dyke
Seinfeld
Say, I think I’ll start a new post along those same lines (seeing as you thoughtlessly stole one of the few decent ideas I’ve had in recent days/months/years astorian.)
Hey Dinsdale, don’t rent The Great Race. You’ll never be able to understand what you saw in it the first time 'round. Watching Jack Lemmon do the whole Snidely Whiplash routine gets old before the race even starts.
I second The Who’s Tommy; thought it rocked the party when I was younger, now it’s just lame.
Also, remember that stupid “She’s a vegetarian. . .she don’t eat meat but she like to bone” song by Deadeye Dick (only remember the band name because it’s a Kurt Vonnegut book)? I never really was a big fan, but I thought it was a decent song. I heard it yesterday, and realized that it really sucks. It’s a terrible song.
Divemaster, so will I also have to forego the pleasure of introducing my kids to “The Ghost and Mr. Chicken”? Or will they enjoy it, but I will have to leave the room?
For me it was “Porky’s”. Funny the first time, sucked the 2nd time.
For my wife, it was the original “Doctor Doolittle”. She rented it and just 5 minutes into the film, I had to leave the room. She kept saying, “It will get better. I used to watch it all the time as a kid… It WILL get better,” but it never did. She also wondered why she now thought it was bad.
Dunno. Didn’t see that one. Isn’t that Don Knotts? If so, and you subject your wife(?) to it, that is grounds for divorce in 17 states. Kids might like it, though.
I think Cat Ballou would still hold up, although I haven’t see it in quite a while. Do I dare test the waters? Hmmmmmm.
Actually this happens to me a lot; so much, in fact, that I rarely make over-the-top assurances of any movie’s worth. An example: Dirty Dancing (this movie is silly and well-nigh plotless! Dancing’s still good though, so it Patrick Swayze with his shirt off. Save yourself some pain, fast forward often).
And why is the converse also true, that the ones you don’t recall as being stand-outs actually get better on consecutive viewings? This is kind of what I was getting at in my shame-faced “Bad Movies We Love Thread.” And, while there are some movies which are always good, some do fare best watched in a crowd (particularly of people who’ve already seen it). Most cult movies come under this heading: Highlander, Evil Dead II, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, etc.
The Entire Career of Robin Williams.
I so can’t stand him now that even the stuff I used to like is tainted by the fact that he’s currently so annoying. The only recent exception was “Good Will Hunting,” which I was able to watch and enjoy despite his presence.
Better Off Dead Cracked me up in high school, now just seems kind of dumb and cliched. Rats.