# Not-the-greatest movies you watch over and over **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 18, 2011, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-greatest-movies-you-watch-over-and-over/606654 "2011-12-18T18:35:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-greatest-movies-you-watch-over-and-over/606654/41 "2011-12-19T15:59:20Z")
One of my favorites is **Groundhog Day**. Of course, it has a problem in common with several movies mentioned in this thread that a lot of people think it is a very good movie. I might as well mention **The Princess Bride** as well. Some of the other movies are improved a lot if you skip ahead. **The Matrix Reloaded** is a lot better if you skip ahead to where they go to meet The Merovingian and watch it through the Freeway sequence. For **True Lies** , watch the scene in the Mansion and then skip to the restroom scene and the chase sequence and then skip again until they get to the island. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-greatest-movies-you-watch-over-and-over/606654/42 "2011-12-19T16:02:00Z")
I’ll nominate _Twister_, which it so happens was on last night just as I was first reading this thread. Can’t. Shut. It. Off. Also, _Drumline_ for its sheer eccentricity and general over-the-topness, particularly the drumming duels, and when Orlando Jones gets all Yoda-like over the holy calling of playing percussion instruments in a college marching band. Otherwise, I’ll endorse _Bring It On_ (Drumline with cheerleaders, or maybe vice-versa), _Reign of Fire_, _Always_ (I love vintage aircraft and Richard Dreyfuss as much as Speilberg obviously does), _The Mummy_, and the most awesomest movie of all time, _Red Dawn_ (“Wolverines!!!”) ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-greatest-movies-you-watch-over-and-over/606654/43 "2011-12-19T16:12:46Z")
I’m gonna say [Mars Attacks!](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116996/) I know it’s not a great movie, but it sucks me in every time. The Martian disguised as a _[femme fatale](http://fandomania.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/20-mars.jpg)_ just slays me, as does [this image](http://alicia-logic.com/capsimages/ma_144BrosnanParker.jpg). Plus, we get to see a relatively svelte Jack Black fried down to a skeleton. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-greatest-movies-you-watch-over-and-over/606654/44 "2011-12-19T16:25:16Z")
This thread is not complete unless someone mentions: Tremors. (One summer it was on TV, once a week, for what seemed months.) Rita McIntyre is in it, and Kevin Bacon was at the height of cuteness - plus hideous giant sandworms! ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-greatest-movies-you-watch-over-and-over/606654/45 "2011-12-19T16:36:47Z")
I’m offended at the claim that some of these movies are “not the greatest”. 😉 A couple of my “favourites”: Congo - A perfectly serviceable action film. And it has Tim Curry! And Ernie Hudson! And apes vs. lasers! Stakeout - A perfectly adequate comedy. I think they used to show it quite often on CBC on weekend afternoons. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-greatest-movies-you-watch-over-and-over/606654/46 "2011-12-19T17:02:12Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > This thread is not complete unless someone mentions: Tremors. (One summer it was on TV, once a week, for what seemed months.) Rita McIntyre is in it, and Kevin Bacon was at the height of cuteness - plus hideous giant sandworms! Tremors is disqualified for being the greatest fucking movie of all-time!!! ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-greatest-movies-you-watch-over-and-over/606654/47 "2011-12-19T17:04:02Z")
**Demolition Man** is far from Stallone’s greatest. But if I happen to catch it while flipping through the channels, I become physically incapable of turning away. \*\*Rock Star, \*\*in which Mark Wahlberg plays an '80s metal icon, is pretty schlocky, but I’m a sucker for this “Behind the Music”-type tales. Also I get a kick out of seeing Dominic “Detective McNulty” West in a long curly mane and full hair metal regalia. And **On Deadly Ground,** which features Steven Seagal as a spook turned asskicking environmentalist. It’s pretty bad, but it’s worth a viewing if for no other reason than to see Michael Caine chewing the scenery as a sinister bolo tie-wearing oil man in one of his “I’m just here for the paycheck” roles. It also has some really unintentionally hilarious dialogue in it, including this musing from R. Lee Ermey about what a bad ass Seagal is. > [@](#): > > My guy in D.C. tells me that we are not dealing with a student here, we’re dealing with the Professor. Any time the military has an operation that can’t fail, they call this guy in to train the troops, OK? He’s the kind of guy that would drink a gallon of gasoline so he could piss in your campfire! You could drop this guy off at the Arctic Circle wearing a pair of bikini underwear, without his toothbrush, and tomorrow afternoon he’s going to show up at your pool side with a million dollar smile and fist full of pesos. This guy’s a professional, you got me? If he reaches this rig, we’re all gonna be nothing but a big goddamned hole right in the middle of Alaska. So let’s go find him and kill him and get rid of the son of a bitch! ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-greatest-movies-you-watch-over-and-over/606654/48 "2011-12-19T17:08:03Z")
Quite a few of these are true for me as well (_Drumline_ in particular), but I’ll put _Tombstone_ on the list as the one movie I’ll watch just about whenever I see it on the guide. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-greatest-movies-you-watch-over-and-over/606654/49 "2011-12-19T17:09:11Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > This thread is not complete unless someone mentions: Tremors. (One summer it was on TV, once a week, for what seemed months.) Rita McIntyre is in it, and Kevin Bacon was at the height of cuteness - plus hideous giant sandworms! The scene where Reba McIntyre and Michael Gross kill the monster by pumping it full of lead is _ **FUCKING** _ awesome. ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-greatest-movies-you-watch-over-and-over/606654/50 "2011-12-19T17:14:15Z")
**The Fifth Element** - Rudy steals the movie \*\*Spaced Invaders \*\* - C’mon. Nothing tops a Martian equivalent of Jack Nicholson. **Holes** - Fantastic Supporting cast from the adults **Sahara** - Speedboat and Seventies Music with explosions - can’t miss ---
**Author:** ![psiekier](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psiekier/32/116_2.png) [@psiekier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psiekier)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-greatest-movies-you-watch-over-and-over/606654/51 "2011-12-19T17:34:49Z")
> [@Janetda](#): > > Big Trouble in Little China. I’ll second that one. **Jack Burton:** Won’t solve anything, Dave. People around here been droppin’ like flies, and where’s that gettin’ us, huh? Nowhere. _Fast._ Yeah, it’s times like these, I always remember what ol’ Jack Burton used to say. **Thunder:** Who? **Jack Burton:** Jack Burton! _Me!_ Yeah, ol’ Jack, he always says ‘What the hell!’" My wife and I occasionally joke about particularly unpleasant experiences as being “the Hell of Boiling Oil” (Keep Out!) or “the Hell of the Upside-Down Sinners.” > [@Washoe](#): > > The one where Natalie Portman plays the pregnant girl who lives in the Walmart. I’ve watched it a zillion times. This was based on a book called _ **The Walmart Baby** _. The name of the movie is _ **Where the Heart Is** _. My personal guilty pleasure, from this [other, similar, thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=7822561#post7822561), is _**[Robot Jox](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102800/)**_. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-greatest-movies-you-watch-over-and-over/606654/52 "2011-12-19T18:21:50Z")
> [@psiekier](#): > > This was based on a book called _ **The Walmart Baby** _. The name of the movie is _ **Where the Heart Is** _. 😕 The book has always been published as Where the Heart Is. > **[Where the Heart Is (novel)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_the_Heart_Is_%28novel%29)** > > Where the Heart Is is a 1995 novel by Billie Letts. It was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection in December 1998. > Where the Heart Is follows the lives of Novalee Nation, Willy Jack Picken, and their daughter Americus Nation for a period of seven years in the 1980s and early 1990s. Above all, the book dramatizes in detail the tribulations of lower-income and foster children in the United States. > The novel opens with seventeen-year-old Novalee Nation, and her boyfriend Willy Jack, travelin... ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-greatest-movies-you-watch-over-and-over/606654/53 "2011-12-19T19:02:06Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Ace Ventura - When Nature Calls. Really stupid, but I can’t help laughing the stupider it gets. Oooh, that reminds me of my secret shame: for my 24th birthday, I opted to go see _Dumb and Dumber_ on its opening night after enjoying Jim Carrey’s earlier two films, _The Mask_ and _Ace Ventura: Pet Detective_. Several of my friends wanted to go see _Pulp Fiction_, which most of us hadn’t seen yet (including myself), but I swayed the day by saying (a) we should go to a movie we ALL hadn’t seen yet, and (b) it was my birthday, so _c’monnnnn_. I did eventually see _Pulp Fiction_, on tape. No doubt a better film. And in fact, any time I channel surf and see it on, I often watch it for at least a little while, as the OP specifies. But the same is also true with me of _Dumb and Dumber_. (must… wash… hands…) ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-greatest-movies-you-watch-over-and-over/606654/54 "2011-12-19T19:39:48Z")
I like [Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0366174/reviews) It sounds like just another creature feature flick, but it’s actually a serviceable little B-movie that zips right along. Sort of an actual successor to the old Republic serials in movie form. Excellent film to have on in the background while you are doing other stuff. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-greatest-movies-you-watch-over-and-over/606654/55 "2011-12-19T19:48:27Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > The scene where Reba McIntyre and Michael Gross kill the monster by pumping it full of lead is _ **FUCKING** _ awesome. “Consider it stepped on.” (Different scene and characters. But still.) I also respectfully disagree with Tremors being in this thread. It really is a great film. . ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-greatest-movies-you-watch-over-and-over/606654/56 "2011-12-19T20:00:33Z")
> [@psiekier](#): > > **Jack Burton:** Jack Burton! _Me!_ That’s the line my wife and I often quote. “If I’m not back in (x) minutes…call the President.” is another. Kurt Russell’s swaggering-but-inept John Wayne performance is pure gold. _“Son of a bitch must pay.”_ . ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-greatest-movies-you-watch-over-and-over/606654/57 "2011-12-19T20:02:31Z")
_Legally Blonde_. I have a huge soft spot for Reese Witherspoon, even (or perhaps especially) in campy cinema. ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-greatest-movies-you-watch-over-and-over/606654/58 "2011-12-19T20:40:50Z")
**Mamma Mia!** The songs are just so infectuous, and the girl is so cute, and seeing Streep and Brosnan obviously enjoying themselves. I had never heard an ABBA song in my life before this movie. But my god, what fun songs! (which lead to fun choreography in the movie) ---
**Author:** ![applebetty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4af34b/32.png) [@applebetty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/applebetty)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-greatest-movies-you-watch-over-and-over/606654/59 "2011-12-19T21:34:14Z")
_The Man From Snowy River_ - A nice little romance/coming of age, great scenery, awesome horse scenes, and Kirk Douglas also plays his estranged brother. It’s sweet and funny without being too stupid. _Hot Shots_ - I practically fall over giggling every time. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-greatest-movies-you-watch-over-and-over/606654/60 "2011-12-19T21:43:36Z")
For a long time _Top Hat_ was my go-to movie if I was depressed or wanted to escape the world. I think it was my first purchased movie, pretty close anyway. _Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion_ - I love this one. It’s just…I don’t know, appealingly goofy. _Weekend at Bernie’s_ always makes me laugh. And _Big Trouble in Little China_. I don’t even know why I like it; it’s not my kind of movie at all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-greatest-movies-you-watch-over-and-over/606654.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-the-greatest-movies-you-watch-over-and-over/606654.md?page=4)