If you read the books, Mary Poppins was precisely that!
Living in Hawaii, we see some of the kids who were surfing back then - they are all old geezers!! 
When I was a young teen, one of my favorite movies was Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus. Lawsy, how I loved that movie. I read the Howard Fast novel, I bought the soundtrack LP, I filled my life with Spartacular stuff. Big poster of Kirk Douglas on my bedroom wall. Spartacus memorabilia, including an ashtray depicting Tony Curtis looking extremely limp-wristed.
A few years ago, I bought the VHS widescreen version of Spartacus, hoping to recapture the magic. Unfortunately, the magic had gone away. It’s not a terrible movie, but it’s one of Kubrick’s weakest efforts, and it just doesn’t thrill my middle-aged self the way it did my adolescent self.
I kind of wish I hadn’t watched Spartacus again. I also kind of wish I still had that Tony Curtis ashtray. I bet it would be worth a boatload o’ cash on eBay.
Oh I know. I met Robert August a few years back in Santa Cruz and I had that exact feeling. He had been immortalized in my head as this 20-year-old SoCal surfer through repeated viewings of the movie. Imagine my shock when he turned out to nearly 60 and balding!!!
Not that there aren’t plenty of reasons to dislike Gremlins and not that the “wise Asian, stupid whitey” trope isn’t hoary, but in this instance wasn’t it the grandson who sold Gizmo after the old man refused?
Anyway, I’ll put Gladiator on the list. I was very impressed with it when I saw it in the theatre. Bought the DVD and have never been able to get through it again in one sitting.
Angry Red Planet. I refuse to see it again because I know that the rat-bat-spider thing is going to be lame. I don’t want that to happen to my memories.
I did watch the original **The Fly ** recently, with Dave Hedison. That film gave me nightmares for months when I ws eight. Now, not so much. (It doesn’t help that Help Meeee has become such a cliche.)
Silver Streak. I definitely loved that one when I was a kid. I saw it again maybe a year ago, and boy was it hard to watch. Gene Wilder gets thrown off train, gets back on, gets thrown off again, gets back on again, Richard Pryor shows up out of nowhere and then keeps inexplicably showing up, train goes out of control and crashes, the end.
Throw in some ludicrous early scene where Gene Wilder successfully picks up Jill Clayburgh and gets a hummer in about two hours. Talk about stretching credibility.
And they still had time to cover Gene Wilder in shoe polish and have him perform a painful “Steppin’ Fetchit” routine.
Another One - The Graduate. When I first saw it I thought it was great - they got on the bus and lived happily ever after! When I saw it recently I was more like “Those two idiots deserve each other.”
I bought a DVD of **Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ** on the strength of how much I had loved the movie after my one viewing of it as a kid.
Ouch!
Yeah, it has some great scenes–jumping off the cliff and stuff–but nothing can bring it back from the depths it plummets to when, out of nowhere, the “Raindrops Keep Fallin” on My Head" sequence happens.
And the repetition of “Who ARE those guys” is irritating rather than clever.
I still haven’t watched it all the way through again.
I knew the animated Rankin-Bass The Hobbit couldn’t be as good as I remembered it being when I saw it in 1978 or so but I was unprepared for exactly how much it was going to suck. This got me into Tolkien? I was embarrased I got it out of the library for my five year old.
The “Raindrops” song inclusion in the film is just inexcusable.
Lagomorph: Wanna know what sounds even worse than the RB Hobbit?
Their version of Return of the King: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079802/#comment
Gad, even the video cover looks ridiculous.
I see from the link that Casey Kasem voices Merry.
“Zoinks! It’s, like, a talking tree!”
Krull was clearly aimed at my demographic when I saw it. Well, I ain’t in that demographic anymore. And they inexcusably dubbed the wonderful Lysette Anthony, which ruins it completely.
What?! Snooty, or a dyke? 
You totally read my mind! I loved Labyrinth as a kid and I rented it a while back. Hooo boy, good thing I was too young to realize exactly what I was seeing. I could have been scarred for life. And yes, I second the observation that there are a lot of muppets in the movie. I guess it just seems so much more real when you’re young. I always liked the muppet guy who used a big shaggy sheepdog as a horse, though. He was sweet.
independence day
Billy Jack
Wow, people seem to be listing only things that they first saw in their childries, while I’m listing stuff that I first saw during my adultery.
Like Jurassic Park. What a stupid, horrible movie that was. Richard Attenborough went way down in my book for that. Same with Jeff Goldblum.
Laura Dern is still a major object of my lust, however.
High Road to China
I saw it in the theater when I was 10. Loved it.
Saw it again in college. Awful.
Maybe I should watch it just one more time, just to make sure.
Spice World. 'Nuff said.
I think I’ll have to disagree with those of you wanting to spare Spielberg’s blushes in ToD. During the dinner, the prince and his entourage are on their best behaviour - see the Prince’s fake shame and embarressment concerning the thugee past.
I think the scene is included as yet another excuse to make Kate Capshaw squirm and make faces. In addition to being a borderline racist movie, it’s also pretty misogynistic throughout.