One Time Movies

In My Humble Opinion
1

I don’t know if there any other people who share this peculiarity, but I have seen many movies that were what I call “one timers” That is, regardless of the quality of the movie, it is best when watched only ONCE in a lifetime. Seeing the film only ONCE, preserves something. Whereas watching it again, would totally spoil the experience. This is different from saying, “that movie was so bad, I never want to see it again.” I am saying that seeing the movie only once, was sufficient, nothing more. It’s not about good or bad filmaking IMHO. It’s sort of hard to explain, but I hope you get my meaning. I guess it’s alot like a one night stand with somebody. Maybe it was good the first/only time and doing it again would ruin it all.

I nominate:
The Blair Witch Project (effective and intriguing on first/only viewing for me)
The Lost World (JP2)
Mighty Joe Young (Disney)
Star Wars The Phantom Menace
Natural Born Killers
Arachnophobia
Starship Troopers
Event Horizon
and many many more

2

I’ll watch any movie twice (even Plan 9 From Outer Space), but the two movies I would never watch again if I could help it are:

“Schindler’s List” - It took everything out of me to watch this movie in the theater. When it was on TV a while ago, uncut, I saw 5 minutes of it, and broke down. However, I feel I have to watch it again, because I want my daughter to see it with me when she gets old enough. To borrow a phrase from Elie Weisel, this movie makes everyone a “witness” to the Holocaust.

“Michael” - This is just due to pure annoyance. As much as I’m a fan of Travolta’s work, I can’t fucking stand Andie MacDowell or William Hurt. Andie MacDowell’s voice to me is like fingernails on a chalkboard… no, more like a buzzsaw on a chalkboard. Normally, I could tolerate it. But add William Hurt (an actor from the Less Personality is More school of acting) to the mix, and it’s like washing down 20 Quaaludes with a quad-turbo latte laced with crystal meth. And poor Vinnie Barbarino stuck to pick up the pieces.

3

Titanic.

I will never, ever watch that fetid pile of melodramatic BS again. As it is, I wish I hadn’t wasted 3 hours of my life to sit down and watch what all the fuss was about.

4

I forgot Titanic. Make that 3 movies for me.

5

Saving Private Ryan: I’ll borrow a quote “The greatest movie I never want to see again.”

Generally, if it’s a good movie, I want to see it more. I like The Fifth Element, and watch it often. My wife slept through it in the theater, except for that Aria in the middle. (Geez… Wow.)

6

This is EXACTLY how I feel! I have always been annoyed by Andie MacDowell and her grating accent (she cannot pronounce the letter L - instead of saying “cold”, she says “code”). And William Hurt comes off as the biggest asshole in every single movie he is in. Hmm, coincidence or not?

7

Even if I think a movie is quality I won’t see it again if I felt traumatized by watching it. Crown Prince, I agree with you that Schindler’s List is one to knock the breath out of you, but after making an effort to watch it again when it was on television I was glad I did. Some movies that fall into the category of “good, but will never put myself through it again” are:

Kids
American History X
Terms of Endearment
Torch Song Trilogy (So sad! It was true love!)

8

“Alive” Took me weeks to get over it. It didn’t help that I saw it in the dead of winter and I was working in a butcher shop at the time.

“Cape Fear” Watching that man order that little girl to take off her clothes and get down on her knees gave me a case of the willies I’ve not experienced since.

“Schindler’s List” Almost needed therapy after that one.

9

The Matrix… Wish that first time in the theater had been the only time, because watching it again on DVD made it clear that the story wasn’t very well-structured, and the action wasn’t really very good.

10

going back in time here:
Taxi Driver
The Deer Hunter

I found both to be profoundly disturbing enough that I couldn’t talk to anyone for quite a while, and both were fiction. See, Schindler’s list can tug my heart and make me ache, but it was speaking of essentially real events.

Skipped Titanic (spare me - I KNOW most of the folks in the scenes are going to die, do I want to see James Cameron’s idea of who they MIGHT have been really only to THEN watch them die? no thank you)

rest of the films I’ve seen, mostly if I liked them, I’ll watch again, if I didn’t like them, you couldn’t PAY me to do it (though I wouldn’t mind if some one tried)…

11

I nominate ** Dead Ringers**. Those two had a bizarre relationship.

12

<<hijack>>
Have you ever seen the Saturday Night Live episode where Kevin Spacey plays WIlliam Hurt on Dave Letterman (masterfully done by Norm MacDonald)?

William Hurt (in typical asshole p[ompous tone): “Well, the movie Micheal is…about an…angel…”
Dave: “Hey, hey…ya got any gum?”
WH: “What is your trip?”
Dave: “Hoohoohooie!”

Best episode ever.
<<end of hijack>>

Regarding the pairing of Hurt and Andie MacDowell (god how I hate how she spells her first name), if they were in a movie together with Chris O’Donnell, you would have some kind of Holy Trinity of acting mediocrity and grating personality. I wouldn’t watch that movie even once!!

13

Damn, I haven’t seen that episode of SNL. It sounds like it would be great.

Speaking of being annoyed by the spelling of “Andie”: it isn’t even her real name! I don’t know how she came up with it. The name she goes by in her real life is Rose Qualley (I think. Why do I know so much when I care so little?). I find that just slightly less annoying than her speech patterns. Why do you need two names? Ooh, the pressures of fame! Ooh, I don’t want anyone in my real life to associate me with that bad actress!

I think if Andie and Sean Young ever co-starred in a movie together, it would truly signal the end of the world as we know it.

14

Return of the Jedi is a view-this-only-once movie.

I was ecstatic the first time I saw it. The second time, I realized it was like a box of sugar cubes: Kiddies love it, it makes you hyper, and it tastes really sweet at first – but you can’t live on it.

15

I can see almost any movie multiple times. I saw Braveheart fourteen times, American Beauty six times, four times each for Star Wars TPM, Being John Malkovich, and Run Lola Run. That’s only the viewings in the theater, by the way. If I like a movie, I can see it over and over.

That said, the only movie that I can think of that I liked but wouldn’t see again is Seven.

Schindler’s List is my all-time favorite, but I can only watch it once a year or so because it’s so draining.

16

I nominate Apollo 13, it was good the first time, but when I watched it again, ugggggggghhhhhhhhhhaaaack.

17

I took pains to see Apollo 13 three times before it left the theaters, and then bought the laserdisc within a week of when it came out. (I would have bought the laserdisc the same day it came out if my schedule had allowed for it.) I now own both the first-pressing laserdisc and the later “special edition” laserdisc which has a play-by-play on each of the two analog audio channels (left channel with director Ron Howard, right channel with the real-life Jim Lovell).

I watch it again whenever I get tired of viewing my laserdiscs of Ken Burns’ Baseball miniseries.

18

Big ditto on The Blair Witch Project. I saw it early, before all the hype took off, and it took me totally by surprise and scared the snot out of me. I saw it again, months later, on video, and although the final shot still gave me goose bumps, I was mystified about what I had found so frightening.

Also a big ditto on Alive. This was going to be the one I named and focused on, except rastahomie beat me to it. In fact, this is exactly what I said to myself as I walked out of the cinema: “That was a really good movie I’m never watching again.” And wouldn’t you know, it was running on HBO or something a couple of weeks ago; I tuned in, watched about five minutes, and then had to switch away before my brain melted.

I had a similar reaction to Fight Club the first time I saw it, again in the cinema (sneak advance preview). I thought it was a brilliant but unpleasant movie I’d have to force myself to watch again, if I ever did. I didn’t see it again on the big screen, but I kept thinking about it for months. I bought the DVD when it came out and watched it again, then again, and again, and again. Still brilliant, and it does get much easier to watch.

Other excellent movies I don’t want to subject myself to a second time: Jane Campion’s The Piano, the nuclear war survival movie Testament (with Jane Alexander), Paul Verhoeven’s Flesh + Blood, and others. Oh, and my number one pick is a movie I doubt many readers will have heard of – Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist. Go look it up.

And for what it’s worth, I saw Schindler’s List twice in the cinema. The second time was both easier and harder, for a variety of reasons.

P.S. There are lots of movies that sucked so hard I wouldn’t want to watch them again, but that’s a separate thread…