I actually mean movies that you thought were really good or decent, but when you re-watch them(maybe years later), you realize they are not good at all. I suggest, but by no means require, that we avoid movies we liked as kids that we now realize suck. I was happy to see anything as a kid and now have a lot stricter standards.
I’m kind of talking about movies where you think, “No, wait. I was just plain wrong about this movie in the first place.”
I’ll go first.
Timeline - it got bad reviews, but my wife and I thought it was great. We excitedly re-watched it and were blown away by its badness. We…were just wrong. What’s odd is we both felt the exact same feeling upon both first and second viewings.
Thor 2 - I loved this movie. Saw it again and was bored for about half of it. I was surprised how wrong I’d been. It was actually still an OK movie.
I have plenty more, I’m sure, but I’ll leave it there to get started. What movies did you like only to realize you were in a daze or just plain wrong about?
**Valley Girl > it was sooooooo totally cooooool and Nic Cage was suuuuch a fox! Fast forward 25 years: wow, is this film ever dated and wasn’t Cage a horrible actor (YMMV, I don’t find that his skillz have improved much over the decades).
**
Purple Rain > this is trickier, cuz I still think it’s cool in some ways. Watching it after 25 years passed = wow, could Prince’s ego get any bigger?
Alien, the original one. I saw it again recently, for the first time in a long time. Don’t get me wrong, it was still awesome, but the characters were way, way stupider than I remembered (and not only because they were smoking indoors, on a space ship).
“Right, so I’ve just found this unidentified alien life form, resembling an egg, on this here planet. I could treat it with a sensible amount of caution, keep a safe distance and do some science-y observations. Or, screw that: I’ll just put my face right up here next to it. It’s not like anything might happen.”
Then again, Caligula was never the brightest crayon in the box. That was another surprise, BTW: Since the previous time I’d seen Alien, I’d become a big fan of I, Claudius, but it hadn’t occurred to me that that was the sameguy (John Hurt).
I always get this feeling from James Bond films. When they are new in the theater, they just seem awesome! But a few years later, when I see them on TV, I think, wow, was this a piece of crap!
I was watching Lord of the Rings: Return of the King yesterday, and I’m not sure if it got that much worse since I saw it when it came out, but it was certainly very, very bad.
There’s barely any story, but the huge number of characters apparently makes up for that. And the fantasy setting makes that anything can and will happen as required by the plot. So the only things you get are emotions (all the characters spout is pure evil or the highest nobility) and eye candy.
In general, movies and TV shows that I saw when I was young haven’t aged well. OC & Stiggs is a good example. Or 1970s sci fi shows such as Space 1999.
Babes in Toyland. The 1961 Disney version with Annette Funicello, Tommy Sands, Ed Wynn, and Ray Bolger (The Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz!! Wasn’t that made a geologic age before this movie?) as Barnaby, the villain. I thought it was halfway decent as a kid, but upon watching it again, I couldn’t believe what a disappointment it was. And the Disney special effects were atrocious.
It’s the film debut of a very young Ann Jillian, who also appeared in a Twilight Zone episode.
Saw the original “Endless Love” when I was a senior in high school, after reading the book. I remember that I liked it, although critics savaged it. And rightfully so; I had a chance to see it on TV a few years ago, and didn’t even make it to the first commercial break.
I also didn’t think “Kentucky Fried Movie” was as funny the second time around - less than 5 years after I saw it the first time. The second time, I was in college, and my roommate came home after my friend left and I had fallen asleep. She put it in the VCR (early 1990s) and even though she finished it, for some reason, she kept thinking, “I cannot believe NWH would watch something like this.” (the shower scene in particular, which does not resemble the shower scene in “Psycho” by any stretch of the imagination)
Superman II - Loved it as a kid. Watched it on TV a few years back and was shocked at how over-the-top cheesy it was and how dated the special effects looked. I was also surprised at Margot Kidder’s gaunt appearance and her chain smoking. And although I still enjoy Christopher Reeve’s portrayal as Superman, his Clark Kent is atrocious.
I saw 9 1/2 Weeks as a college junior and was impressed because I thought it was a sophisticated look at adult relationships or whatever (it was big in France, man, say no more!) Saw it again later and had to turn it off- I couldn’t go 30 seconds without cringing in embarrassment at all the sleazy nonsense.
Also, we had a “movie day” in one of my high school classes, and one guy campaigned hard for us to watch Stripes with Bill Murray, insisting it was awesome. The teacher did go with that suggestion, but we ended up watching the entire thing in uncomfortable dead silence, and often through our fingers as it was loaded with gratuitous cursing and nudity. The guy who picked it out admitted he messed up when it was over.
Several of Chuck Norris’ films. I really liked them when they came out. I got nostalgic and rented 4 for a three day weekend. (this was around 2000 when video rental stores were still popular).
Gee they were cheesy and bad. Norris is so wooden and stone faced. Watching them one after another its obvious they used the same formula over and over again.
I’m pretty sure these were the four. I had planned to rent the two Missing in Action films and Delta Force another weekend. But lost interest. I did watch Walker Texas Ranger but never have rented his old movies again.
Good Guys Wear Black
An Eye For an Eye
Octagon
Forced Vengeance
The Birds. What a total stinker of a film. The leads can’t act, Tippi Hedren is egregiously miscast, the pace is stilted, the dialogue sounds like a first year creative writing student penned it, and there are no satisfying answers about the fate of the characters or the cause of the birds’ behavior. My husband, who hadn’t seen it before, actually yelled from frustration when it ended, while I sat in the corner of the sofa feeling meek.
Rod Taylor can’t act? Wow. Its still a masterpiece about mass hysteria. I still love it.
I nominate Scarface. What a borefest colored with a few electrifying scenes. And Pacino is horrible. I expect some will react to this the same way I reacted to The Birds.
