Obviously, this is the opposite of this thread.
Like the other thread, this is about movies you incorrectly assessed the first time you saw them except your estimation of them has now improved. Feel free to provide for us reasons why you think your opinion of the movie made a complete 180. I’ll come in with my choices later.
Okay, maybe this thread was a mistake. Perhaps it’s not possible for anyone who was unimpressed with a movie the first time they saw it to find themselves impressed with it the second time. After all, if you didn’t like a movie the first time you saw it, you aren’t likely to subject yourself to it again.
A Fish Called Wanda
My wife and I saw it and thought it was not very good at all. I waited a few years, got a dvd of it, and re-watched it. Wow, we were obviously not in the mood. It’s hilarious. We both watched it together and my wife agreed that it was a lot funnier than we remembered.
I didn’t think much of the latest Mad Max film the first time. On second viewing, I can see the merits. Tight editing, good direction, etc.
This sorta fills the bill.
The Wiz. A remake of the OZ starring Micheal Jackson. I really did not want to see the movie when it came out but what I wanted to see was sold out.
I thought it okay at the time.
Re watched it recently. At the least it held up. Maybe even better perhaps.
It’s pretty much the case for most Coen brothers films. I know I won’t get everything the first time I see it, and they are good enough to deserve a second viewing. That was the case with The Big Lebowski.
I would put many Rainer Werner Fassbinder Movies in this category. Some like *The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant *would be on my list of candidates for best movies of all time.
I only watched the Big Lebowski last summer and I did not enjoy it or find it memorable. Perhaps I need to try again.
“The Four Seasons”, starring (among others) Alan Alda and Carol Burnett, came out when I was in high school. I liked it, and when I had a chance to see it again a couple years ago and could really relate to the characters, I LOVED it that time.
Edward Scissorhands
Dead Poets Society
Pulp Fiction
Singing in the Rain
A Bridge Too Far
Rocky I
The Fireball
The Sting
Camelot
The Sound of Music
My Fair Lady
Stalag 17
This. I recall the ads for it at the time pushed the Robin Williams jokes to make it look like a comedy. I went in expecting a comedy, was disappointed that it wasn’t.
Years later I watched it again for the drama it was and quite enjoyed.
Christmas Story. When I saw it in the theater, I was exhausted, and literally fell asleep during the movie.
Love it now.
Dead Poet’s Society belongs in the other thread for me. I loved this movie when I was young, but as an adult(and as a teacher myself), I now find that movie to be less than great. Yes, teachers should be engaging and obviously not total bores. Yes, all teachers should care about their students and not treat them like anonymous butts that fill seats.
My memory, though, of this movie is that he comes very close to encouraging at least one boy to go against his parents’(well, his Father’s) wishes. Or…he somehow encourages the kids to break some rules or something.
I may just be wrong in my memory, but I swear he makes some choices that are unprofessional and take things way too far. As a kid, I found his firing outrageous. Today, I think it was the right move.
Maybe I’m wrong, though. I’ll have to watch it again.
Same for me. Now I love it.
Also, ‘The Hangover’. It’s actually has a good story to it. (IMHO)
Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.
I have frequently been blown away by the original 1951 The Day the Earth Stood Still. It’s such a damned sophisticated and well-considered movie, especially compared to the other science fiction films of the time. And even in comparison with later efforts (including, notably, the appalling 2008 remake). The effects still stand up, especially the way Gort’s visor s-l-o-w-l-y lifts to reveal the pulsing energy within, which gives rise to those destructive beams that melt tanks and guns into slag. Even though it’s only in black and white, it’s still impressive.
I’d probably be similarly impressed by Forbidden Planet or 2001, but I always remember the good parts of those, so I don’t get to rediscover them.
That happened to me with The Usual Suspects, back when I used to go to the midnight screenings on friday evenings. I kept drifting off, it had been a busy week. At the end of the movie, I didn’t have a clue as to what was going on. Things made a lot more sense when I saw it again later.
"Rounders
In 1998 when I saw it in the theater I didn’t think much of it, but now it’s become one of those stop and stay and watch while I’m clicking around on the remote. And even though I know exactly how the final big game between Mike and Teddy KGB is going to end, I have to stay and watch it.
I fell asleep the first couple times I tried to watch 2001. I was a young girl at the time, slow 70’s movie, whatever.
Once I sat down and deliberately watched it as an adult, tho. Woah!
I once started watching the Australian movie The Castle and turned it off after 15 minutes, considering it a bad sitcom level comedy about an annoying white trash family. Later on my then-girlfriend bought a used video of that same movie and I gave it another chance… since then I watched it like 6 more times and still quote from it occasionally.