Movies that you like, but you really don't want to watch again.

Cafe Society
#1

If that makes sense.

It can be because the movie is simply draining to watch, for example, Requiem For a Dream. I really like the movie but watching it is a sure fire way to rethink whether life is worth living.

A movie you watched a lot a one point in your life and simply don’t ever want to see it again. For me that would be Fight Club. I was a teenager when it came out. It was awesome to me. Things own us man! Whatever Brad Pitt, it’s a good enough movie but I don’t want to watch it again.

Some movies are simply a chore to me…
Lord of the damn Rings. Yes they are spectacular films but probably the most boring films on the planet.

Can you help me out here?

#2

The Pianist. Really great movie with an incredible performance from Adrian Brody. I can never ever watch that movie again though.

#3

Comedies that I loved and/or quoted regularly in my high school or college days have a way of turning out to be spectacularly unfunny now that I’m 52.

It’s a pretty miserable feeling to play an old tape or DVD for a friend after telling them “this is the most hilarious movie ever,” and then spend an hour apologizing because it really sucked!

Many of my one-time favorite comedies now leave me with a stunned expression, muttering, “But I could have SWORN that was funny.”

#4

Comedies are hard a one. One of my favorite movies is Airplane! While I laugh every time I watch it. My wife moans and groans and rolls her eyes and asks “What about this is funny?” It helps to have an auidience that enjoys it though, you may have liked it more if your friend had a chuckle or two, maybe not though, it may have been cringeworthy all the way through.

#5

I think the reverse list (movies you want to see again) is much shorter. Lots of people have hundreds of DVDs–but they almost never re-watch anything from this pile.

Once you have seen the movie you know how it ends.

#6

That’s true, I had hundreds of movies I bought over the years that ended up just taking up space. I picked out my favorites, maybe 2 dozen, and sold off the rest.

#7

Last of the Mohicians was a great movie one time but it was, as you say, too draining. I loved it but really have no desire to go through all the slaughter again.

#8

Well, you named my primary one in your OP. Requiem For a Dream is the best movie I never want to see a second time. Well done, I can’t really fault it, but it’s a complete beating to watch the parade of degradation.

Along the same lines for me are Tetsuo:The Iron Man and Dancer in the Dark. Both are wonderful movies, but it’s just stressful to watch them. Tetsuo is stressful because there’s not one moment of it that’s not intense, Dancer in the Dark is because you know how it ends up.

#9

You mean, really good but really intense movies, like, say (Pink Floyd’s) The Wall, or Eastwood’s Unforgiven, that I’m glad I watched but don’t really want to sit through again?

#10

Schindler’s List. Gone With the Wind. It’s A Wonderful Life. The Wizard of Oz. All great movies, but I can never watch them again because they are too hard on my emotions.

#11

Many. There are thousands of movies I enjoyed to some degree that I wouldn’t care to ever sit through again. In general, I’d rather roll the dice on a new movie I haven’t seen or watch one with absolutely proven re-watch value than watch something meh-to-okay a second time.

#12

OldBoy - I liked it, thought it was a rather good update to an old classic. That said, I have no desire to see it again. Too dark.

The Notebook - It was a good movie, but utterly depressing. The ending really gets me on two levels - one, the sadness it engenders and two, the fact that my grandmother had suffered through Alzheimer’s Disease and died prior to my watching the film.

Brokeback Mountain - Great film, and utterly depressing.

I will see a movie once, even though it’s going to depress me afterward, but I generally hate the idea of paying to be ‘down’.

#13

Deer Hunter for me. Great movie, but it puts me in a funk for days.

#14

I remember a reviewer referring to Gandhi as a great movie you only really need to or want to watch once. I couldn’t really figure out what the meant till I watched it, but then once I saw it I pretty much agreed.

#15

Definitely Schindler’s List. I don’t want to put myself through that again.

#16

Maybe I am odd, but there are very few films I ever want to see more than once. I mean, once I have seen it, well - I have seen it.

OK, so Casablanca I have probably watched easily over 100 times, and I have seen Wizard of Oz maybe 40 or more times in my life (especially as a kid), and Rebecca maybe 10 or more times plus a few other classics multiple times (Citizen Kane, Maltese Falcon, African Queen, etc.) From recent films, LOTR is a multiple viewing film in my book, as is/will be The Hobbit trilogy.

But I don’t understand watching, for instance, The Sixth Sense or Hangover or any of those kinds films multiple times. I mean, a film can be scary with a twist once - then you know the scares and twist. And most comedies - well, once you know the joke(s) or funny scene(s), well then it starts to get like Uncle Lou telling the same damn jokes every Thanksgiving.

So yeah, I have seen lots and lots of really good films - some Oscar winners, some just great small films. But again - the overwhelming majority of them I don’t need to see again because, well, I have seen them.

My cousin, other the other hand, goes out and buys almost every damned movie that comes out on DVD and his basement looks like a Blockbuster store back in their heyday…but he rarely, if ever, watches any of those films more than once.

#17

Requiem for a Dream. Too depressing, and I’ve had a few friends go down that road.

#18

I also rarely go out of my way to rewatch a movie but in terms of good movies that I would actively avoid watching again, the first thing that comes to mind is United 93.

#19

Bad Lieutenant.

I am Curious.

Put on a black turtleneck sweater, gather with a few of your most pretentious friends, sip cappuccino, and you can discuss these films for hours on end. They are much more fun to talk about, than to watch.

#20

Similarly, for me, Braveheart and Serenity fall into this camp. For the former, it’s the entire final quarter of the movie that’s just too brutal and heart-wrenching to re-watch. For the latter, it’s the sudden losses of two of my favorite characters from Firefly.