In the early 1990s, there was a Far Side cartoon depicting the “Didn’t Like ‘Dances With Wolves’ Society” - a few people standing around a punchbowl.
You and I could be the “Didn’t Like ‘The Birds’ Society”. I didn’t get the classic status either, and like most “horror” films like “Poltergeist”, “Halloween”, “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” etc. where the scary part comes from gore, I almost found it funny.
In case you’re wondering what I DO find scary in a movie, I prefer psychological thrillers like “Funny Games” or “Gaslight”.
The Phantom Menace. I mean, I knew it was messy, but I left the theater thinking it was fun, exciting, and felt Star Wars-y. Within a week or two of reflection, I realized it…just wasn’t.
I was surprised that TCM (Turner Classic Movies) now has Valley Girl in its rotation. I thought that Nicolas Cage was the weakest part, but after recently watching it again, I liked it. In fact, I always liked it.
How about movies you thought you were supposed to like. TCM just had A Thousand Clowns with Jason Robards. 4-stars! Great reviews. After watching it, I’m thinking “what a yawn-fest! When will something happen?” Bleh.
It may help if I explain the first time I saw this film, I was a teenager and I had only ever seen one other John Wayne movie and I had only ever seen about half a dozen movies in total. So, going to the movies was a very new experience for me.
But the second time I saw it, I was in my forties and I had plenty of movie-going experience to compare this film to.
As I recall, my big problem with this film is that the plot is full of holes and is just downright silly. It’s supposed to be a rip roaring adventure film. But it is laced throughout with cheap comedy bits. I got the impression that John Wayne and Kirk Douglas were having some kind of “pissing contest” about who was the bigger movie star or who was the biggest SD.
The film was released in 1967 and at that time, it wasn’t really clear which one of them was the biggest start (at least to me). Douglas had produced and starred in Spartacus (1960) and it was a big movie. He also had starred in In Harm’s Way (1965) and The Heroes of Telemark (1965), Lonely are the Brave (1962), Cast a Giant Shadow (1962), Seven Days in May (1964) and several others. He also had his own production company and he produced Spartacus. So it wasn’t exactly clear that John Wayne was the bigger movie star.
I always had the feeling that Hitchcock cast some of the female leads he used repeatedly for reason other than their acting ability. But it’s just my guess.
If you hated The Birds, you would have done something violent and illegal had you ever seen Marnie (1964). That was another Hitchcock film starring Tippi Hedren and it was much, much worse than The Birds. My oh my, talk about merde!
I still watch and re-watch Goldfinger every few months. Extremely entertaining film. I loved it the first time I saw it and every time I’ve seen it since then. Sean Connery was the best Bond. AFAIC, the others should be charged with crimes against movie going humanity.
I’m not sure about Lazenby. I don’t think I recall much about his Bond films.
TCM occasionally shows really bad movies from different eras. “Heavenly Bodies”, from the mid 1980s, is an excellent example; Len Maltin’s guide described it as “The first aerobics musical, and with any luck, the last”. Had a good soundtrack, however.
When Natural Born Killers came out, I was in college and was easily enough fooled into thinking it had some “deep message about the establishment, man” and some quotable lines. Watched it a bunch of times, owned the VHS tape. Saw it in the mid-2000s and couldn’t get through it. Just terrible.
I’m half curious to try it again and see if I have a middle ground reaction. If nothing else it had Robert Downey Jr and watching Zombieland was that much more fun when you consider that Tallahassee was basically a benign Micky Knox. Still, it’s a hurdle for me to watch something that was bad last time around.
The Matrix…I remember liking it when it came out, and the sequel wasn’t tooooooo bad, but the third was always awful. Anyway, I tried to watch the first one again a year or two ago and it didn’t hold up very well at all. The sequel was unwatchable. Didn’t even consider the third.
See if you dont think the directors cut isnt much better. It also has an excellent soundtrack and Rodney Dangerfield is brilliantly evil in a dramatic turn.
Fear and loathing in Las vegas. I thought it was one of the funniest movies ever the first time I saw it. The second time, it was terrible. I was as high as you can get the first time I saw it. Sober the second time.
See now, it took me like 3 viewings to like it. Now I watch every couple months or so. Having done 'shrooms/acid certainly help to get a lot of it, but I don’t think it is required.
I was thinking of citing this one. I watched it on cable one night and then learned it had won Best Picture. I was shocked. It had struck me as about on par with an average episode of Law & Order.
I will agree with Time After Time. It is kind of cute in a way, but kind of dated. ANY movie mentioning ‘womens lib’ makes me cringe now.
‘The Lion King’ - I thought it was awesome, taking the young 'un to see it years ago, and viewing it recently, I don’t think it was a classic for the ages after all. The music is great, still.
I happened to DVR and watch that airing of Time After Time. I hadn’t seen it since it was on HBO maybe twenty years ago. It’s funny because in my head this was Mary Steenbergen’s defining role for me since it was probably the first thing I ever saw her in. I thought the movie held up for me although it definitely has some pacing problems. I was also struck by how open they were about sex. We think morals are loser now but we only wink and joke about that stuff now in movies and TV. They were very frank and direct back then.
I recently rewatched Scent of a Woman. Holy overacting cow. Mr. Pacino has never been known for his subtlety,it’s just something we accept about him and I remembered liking the movie in spite of his hamming it up big time but I somehow forgot how contrived, unbelievable and poorly written it is. Was the “Hoo-Ah” thing supposed to become a catch phrase? If I had had to hear every other fool on the street saying it I would still be serving time. On the plus side, we got to see the lovely Gabrielle Anwar dance the tango and Philip Seymour Hoffman was at his smarmy best. Aside from that, it is downright cringe worthy.
