Movies far worse than you remember

[Charlie_Wayne]

@madsircool

Marnie was very good. Its a twist on unlikely live with the usual Hitchcock twist. Sean Connery was excellent, stepping away from Bond.

I’m surprised to hear you say that because I have read many of your previous posts and I liked them very much and usually, I find myself in full agreement with you when it comes to your opinions of movies.

So much so that I think I should give Marnie another look. It was about 20 years since I saw it. Maybe I missed something?

[Charlie_Wayne]

FYI,

I just watched The War Wagon Again and confirmed that it was full of silly events and plot items that just didn’t make any sense.

In fact, I’m convinced that whoever was the “show runner” or equivalent decided this film would be targeted to young boys. That would be one reason why I liked it so much when I saw it the first time as a teenager.

Spoiler info follows:

You can see the ending coming from a mile away. The ending was largely a ripoff of the ending of The Treasure of The Sierra Madre. The final straw for me was the very last 5 seconds of the movie. They showed yet another cheap and stupid slapstick joke. I guess they felt the movie was not good enough as it stood and perhaps they added this stupid joke at the very end to ensure it would appeal to young children? I’m not really certain. All I know is the more I watched it, the worse I felt about it.

[Maus_Magill]

@jsc1953

I used to think I loved Excalibur, and watched it repeatedly, anytime I stumbled across it on TV. And although it’s a very stylish-looking film, it really is stupid and full of wooden performances, and wreaks havoc with the Arthurian legend.

But I thought…it’s really just the scene at the end, where Percival returns Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake. I love that scene.

And then I realized that I don’t, really…I just love Wagner’s Siegfried’s Funeral March (the music on the soundtrack at that point). So I got a Wagner album and don’t bother watching the movie anymore.

I have Excalibur sitting in my DVD cabinet. Every once in a while, I’ll take it out and look at the disk. Then I’ll put it back, because I’m afraid that I’ll like remembering it more than I’d like seeing it. You’re right about the soundtrack, though. I think I may get s Wagner album. (Fantastic composer, shitty human)

@typoink

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.

This was the first movie my wife an I saw together. Both of us are huge Star Wars fans. I don’t think I’ve ever tried (and failed) to like a movie so much in my life before.

[madsircool]

@Charlie_Wayne

I’m surprised to hear you say that because I have read many of your previous posts and I liked them very much and usually, I find myself in full agreement with you when it comes to your opinions of movies.

So much so that I think I should give Marnie another look. It was about 20 years since I saw it. Maybe I missed something?

Imagine it was directed by Alan Smithee and it will likely suck. That way expectations wont ruin it for you.

[Jophiel]

@Maus_Magill

I have Excalibur sitting in my DVD cabinet. Every once in a while, I’ll take it out and look at the disk. Then I’ll put it back, because I’m afraid that I’ll like remembering it more than I’d like seeing it. You’re right about the soundtrack, though. I think I may get s Wagner album. (Fantastic composer, shitty human)

Speaking of (sorta, it reminded me anyway), I remember thinking Ladyhawke was awesome as a kid but the one recent time I tried to watch it I couldn’t get past the horrendous 80’s soundtrack.

[Charlie_Wayne]

@madsircool

Imagine it was directed by Alan Smithee and it will likely suck. That way expectations wont ruin it for you.

I found the following review that may explain a few things. Apparently, a great many people are divided about this film:

The 25 Best Alfred Hitchcock Movies, Ranked

13. “Marnie” (1964)
    Though the efforts of The New Yorker’s Richard Brody, among others, have gone some way to reclaiming “Marnie” from the ash heap of Hitchcock’s misfires, this portrait of a damaged con artist (Tippi Hedren) and the man (Sean Connery) who marries her remains one of the director’s most slippery, challenging works. With wild splashes of crimson and Bernard Herrmann’s lush, piercing score, it turns up the four-hankie melodrama to a full boil—and, intermittently, allows it to curdle. Nevertheless, “Marnie,” anchored by Hedren’s stricken performance, is a dauntless attempt to render psychosexual trauma in the syntax of film form; even when it stumbles, Hitchcock’s obsessed near-masterpiece bristles with bold, expressionist fervor. —Matt Brennan

The movie reviewer above ranks Marnie 13th on his list of Hitchcock’s best films.

When he wrote it was on “the ash heap of Hitchcock’s misfires”, I thought maybe he agreed with me. But no such luck. He goes on to call it a “near-masterpiece”.

[Boggette]

I’m a tad ashamed to admit it, but when I was young I loved Xanadu. I ordered it online to have a copy, watched it, and hid it in the back of my collection in shame.

[nearwildheaven]

@Boggette

I’m a tad ashamed to admit it, but when I was young I loved Xanadu. I ordered it online to have a copy, watched it, and hid it in the back of my collection in shame.

When I lived in my old town, I was involved in their Christmas project for needy families, and there was a kid who WANTED “Drop Dead Fred” on DVD. He’s probably adopted that attitude by now.

I saw a post when that movie was in theaters from a girl who said she and her friends thought they wanted to see it, until they arrived at the theater and saw a sign that said “We are not giving refunds for ‘Drop Dead Fred’” at which time they decided to see something else.

[Morbo]

@Boggette

I’m a tad ashamed to admit it, but when I was young I loved Xanadu. I ordered it online to have a copy, watched it, and hid it in the back of my collection in shame.

Oh yes. I watched not too long ago On Demand, because it was free. In the beginning, the guy meets Olivia Newton John on the beach, they kiss, then he watches her roller skate away, at about Mach 2, leaving a trail of glowing orange light. He sees Gene Kelly playing the clarinet and tells her he just met this cute girl, keeping the Supernatural stuff to himself, I guess.

Then they watch the sun rise out of the Pacific Ocean.

[lisiate]

@Salad_Smell

Almost every movie from the early nineties alt/grunge era - “Reality Bites,” “SFW,” “Singles,” etc. has aged TERRIBLY. The characters that seemed so jaded and world-weary then appear now as the last people on the Titantic, the last generation that actually knew no inconvenience compared to the socioeconomic disaster that followed. They’re rolling their eyes and sighing over having to “settle” for jobs that any Gen-Y’er would kill to have. There’s literally a scene in “Reality Bites” where Winona is upset that she gets her parents’ hand-me-down BMW. Unbelievable.

Well said, the faux-existentialism in these films now seems insufferable these days.

@nearwildheaven

When I lived in my old town, I was involved in their Christmas project for needy families, and there was a kid who WANTED “Drop Dead Fred” on DVD. He’s probably adopted that attitude by now.

I saw a post when that movie was in theaters from a girl who said she and her friends thought they wanted to see it, until they arrived at the theater and saw a sign that said “We are not giving refunds for ‘Drop Dead Fred’” at which time they decided to see something else.

Drop Dead Fred really suffers because it appears those involved in its creation seemed to have no real idea what sort of movie they were trying to make. It’s far too silly to be a serious film but the things the main character is going through (divorce, mental illness and losing her job) are far too serious for it to be just a silly comedy. The end result is a really weird mishmash that doesn’t fit any genre at all. A quick google brings up this review by the Nostalgia Critic which pretty much nails it.

[Battle_Pope]

1941 - I recall seeing it when it came on TV, probably in the mid '80’s when I found it amazingly funny.

I would have been about 12 at the time, I hadn’t seen it since and picked up the DVD cheap a few years back. What a pity.

[Wallaby]

I’ll second the James Bond (non)-recommendation.

First time, you get dazzled by the car chases, the effortless cool of Mr Bond, and the eye candy. Plus ‘it’s James Bond fer chrissakes’!!!

But watch closely and they are really poor.