I’m not talking about guilty pleasure movies here, like Southpark, or Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I’m talking about movies that you sincerely thought were good when you first saw them.
I actually liked Dragonheart, with Sean Connery as the voice of the dragon. When I rented it to watch with a friend that never saw it a few years later…oh Jesus, was I embarassed. Seriously, what the hell was I thinking?
Another big one was Star Wars, episode 1. I thought everyone was being overly critical, until I took my little brother to see it (my 2nd time, his first). Gungans? Little Anakin? Freakin’ terrible! What a BAD movie!
But the WORST movie I ever liked was First Knight. I remember excitedly chattering about it to a friend of mine, basically telling the whole plot. Except that when we finally watched it, I realized I had made up the whole thing. I specifically remembered lines that weren’t even IN the movie. I blame an overwhelming subconscious desire to like Connery (even though he may be the worst “big” actor of all time) and the medeival fantasy setting. I’ve never been so embarassed to see a movie as I was then.
So what about you? Have you loved any movies that you realized later were serious stinkers?
Dune. Tried to watch it recently, and could not get through it. Same with Frankenstein (Branaugh/DeNiro version). And The Goonies is seriously flawed on many levels.
When I was 10 my dad took me and my brother to Flash Gordon on opening day.
I thought it was so awsome that I couldn’t wait to get back to school on Monday and tell all my friends how it was going to be the next Star Wars.
I found a copy the other day on the “so crappy we can’t rent it anymore” rack of the video store and bought it ($2 and tax). I remember it being one of my favorite movies as a young’un. I remember telling people about it, proclaiming it’s virtues, trying to get others to watch it with me.
My young self had no taste.
Although it must be said that some of the lines were pretty damn funny. The robot twirling and screaming “BAY-BEE! MOM-MEE! BAY-BEE! MOM-MEE!” had me in stitches both then and now. But the movie itself was a stinker.
Another one: Caveman. I hear Shelley Long wouldn’t even admit to being in it, later on.
(Hrm… I just realized, if I include Goonies, I seem to have had an affinity for movies with John Matuszak in them… creepy.)
Edited to add: Oh yeah. I also liked Super Mario Bros. and Dungeons and Dragons. I am ashamed.
Ice Pirates. Was that the one with Robert Urich? I remember that being a pretty funny movie, but that was twenty years ago. Maybe I need to rewatch it. (Or not.)
Mine would be Excalibur. I saw that back when I was in high school and thought it was a really cool movie. A couple of years ago a coworker mentioned that he had a copy of it on DVD so I asked if I could borrow it. I have no idea what I thought was so great about that movie back then.
I still like Dragonheart, but I take it that we’re talking about movies that we liked at first viewing and now think suck. Well, I loved Superman (the first Christopher Reeve one) when I was a kid and when I rewatched it as an adult it sucked royally (I even started a Cafe Society thread about it). I’m guessing there are a lot of movies I loved as a kid that I would now simply shake my head at. Not a movie, but V comes to mind.
When I first saw it, I loved Inspector Gadget. I think Matthew Broderick was in it. Now keep in mind that I was seven or eight.
It came on the Disney Channel when I was eleven and I was like, “Oh my God! This movie is the worst movie I’ve ever seen!!”
But I hadn’t seen Major League yet.
EVERYONE yells at me for hating that movie, but I just think it sucks! What is so funny about it? Maybe it’s just because I hate Charlie Sheen.
Escape from New York and the Fog. Both by John Carpenter. Both I loved as a kid. Both I rented not too long ago. Both have dated terribly, and were not that interesting to begin with.
Legend of the Lone Ranger was one of the greatest movies ever made when I first saw it in 1981. When I saw it again a few years ago, it was a shocking piece of crap. Apparently, someone has removed all of the good parts since I was 10 years old.
Hey! I loved Ice Pirates. Of course, I haven’t seen it in 25 years…
When I was a kid I loved all the Roger Corman EA Poe flicks, holding The Raven in particular esteem. Mostly now I just feel so sorry for how low Peter Lorre had fallen. And he’s still the best thing in it.
That reminds me of this “Simpsons” moment from “The Joy of Sect”:
To answer your question, I felt the same about “The Lost Boys.” I even created a thread about how wonderful it was, here on the Straight Dope, when I first saw it. It may not be great, I objectively recognize. I still refuse to stop loving it.
There are definitely other movies like this that I declare I will not watch and end up seeing because they air on TV. When I first saw “Devil Wears Prada,” I thought it was light, bland fluffy crap, but after seeing it ad nauseum on HBO, it’s grown on me. (Sort of the opposite of what you’ve asked.)
Go ahead and watch it again. With a critical eye. After that, I dare you to threaten me.
Why do Sloth’s ears move? How does an anchored ship in a cave suddenly set sail all by itself? How do the gangsters manage to avoid all the traps that the kids stumbled on? Are the chattering teeth really strong enough to hold a kid up? In what way can a statue fall so that only the penis breaks off?
