Star Wars and the other films of the original trilogy are far and away the leaders, for me. They just never get boring to me; I can watch them again and again and never get tired of them. I remember when the Sci-Fi Channel ran the trilogy all weekend; I sat through the whole thing twice, enjoying every minute, just because it was there.
In the theater, the movie I’ve seen most was Tim Burton’s Batman, with 5 times. A close second is Jurassic Park, with 4 times. The Usual Suspects is the only movie I’ve seen in a theater on two consecutive days; we were so awestruck by it the first night that my friend and I dragged more friends to see it the very next day.
Here are a few that come to mind. I’ve seen all of these many, many times. Some because they’re good, some because they’re so bad/campy I can’t get enough. Some because they’re on TV all the time.
“Mommies Dearest” (1981). Funny and campy. Dozens of hysterical quotes. Anyone who watches it with me at home knows I’m going to speak the dialog line by line. And you haven’t lived until you’ve seen it with an all-gay audience in a packed theater. A wonderful piece of fiction. Likewise, “Valley of the Dolls” (1967) and “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane” (1962).
“Boys in the Band” (1970) Epitomizes the cliché, “like a bad auto crash, you can’t look at it, and you can’t look away”
“Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects” (1989). Bronson at his best or worst depending on how you look at it. Macho camp of the highest order. They meant to make a good movie. But it’s laughable (in the best way possible). Highly entertaining. Another one I know line for line.
“Marty” (1955) Heart and soul to the 10th power. A delight. No gimmicks. Just a simple slice of life, that always makes me feel good after I see it.
“House of Games”. (1987). One of the finest films ever made. Reminds me of “The.Gambler” (1974). One of the most overlooked movies in history. James Caan’s best performance ever.
“Casino” (1995) Decent movie, and USA shows it 112 times a year.
“Heartbreak Ridge” (1986) More macho camp. Is it supposed to be a comedy? A drama? Homage to an old John Wayne movie? Who knows? It just works.
“I’ll Cry Tomorrow” (1955) Susan Hayward playing Lillian Roth playing Susan Hayward. Great film about addiction and all that goes with it.
‘Midnight Cowboy” (1969) A little dated, but one of the great films of all time.
“Varsity Blues” (1999) Friday night football in Texas. Artwork.
Muppet Family Christmas because I watched it almost every day when I was little, regardless of proximity to the holiday season.
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Ghostbusters** probably comes close, though.
Well, you beat me. I would’ve seen it maybe 30 times because my sister loved Michael J Fox and she always got home from school first and would put it on.
Mo’ Better Blues - 15 or 20 times. The music is tops and its funny. Wesley Snipes and Denzel Washington are very, very cool in this.
The Sound Of Music - at least 12 times. I can’t explain why I keep fronting up for it.
I’m really surprised that nobody has mentioned The Great Escape. I saw it in the show when I was a kid and, probably, 50 or 60 times since (I have to watch it if I stumble upon it on the tube).
Star Wars (the original, in the theatre) 7 or 8 times. Would have been more, but I was only 15 and lived 15 miles from the theatre. I think I have seen it once since then.
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Groundhog Day
Quigley Down Under
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
The Princess Bride
The Mask
Spiderman** (The new one) Pretty Woman
LOTR Trilogy
The Indiana Jones Movies (All 3 of them) Ghostbusters
The Shawshank Redemption
Couldn’t begin to tell you why I like seeing these movies over and over. But I keep watching them when I see them on TV and I own DVDs (and VHS) of almost all of them that I will put in and watch. Except for Star Wars.
Jurassic Park: The year this came out I went to see it every weekend for several weeks, just 'cause I loved it so much. After the DVD came out I pull it out every once in awhile, and if I catch it on TV I always watch it.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory: I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen this one. I love it. It’s my favorite movie. I can recite large chunks of the dialog, complete with proper inflection, from memory. I fully expect that the new version will join this list as well, when the DVD comes out (I’ve already seen it twice).
Rocky Horror Picture Show: Probably 5-10 times. I didn’t get to see it in the theater in high school, so I made up for lost time later.
Rose Red: The TV miniseries. For some reason the spouse seems to have an uncanny knack for finding this playing on TV, and we also own the DVD. I never pass up a chance to stare at Julian Sands.
Silence of the Lambs: Great movie. Seen it probably 5 or 6 times.
The Manitou: So-bad-it’s-good horror movie from the '70s, with Tony Curtis as a charlatan mystic fighting real Native American elder gods. My guilty-pleasure favorite movie.
Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone: 5 or 6 times.
The Langoliers: Another Stephen King miniseries I’m quite fond of. Mostly because of Mark Lindsay Chapman, but it’s a good story that suffered a bit in the implementation.
The movies I’ve watched over 3 times are…
(I’m sure I’m forgetting some)
[ul]
[li]Animal House[/li][li]Princess Bride[/li][li]Kill Bill 1 & II[/li][li]Major League[/li][li]Raiders of the Lost Ark[/li][li]Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom[/li][li]The Last Seduction[/li][li]The Godfather[/li][li]Shawshank Redemption[/li][li]Unforgiven[/li][li]Heartbreak Ridge (I know, I don’t get this one either, but I really like it)[/li][li]Ferris Bueller’s Day Off[/li][li]Adventures is Babysitting[/li][/ul]
I’ll go with all the Sean Connery James Bond movies. They’ve been a fixture on tv so often and I’ve seen the first generation dvds several times as well. I’m not sure when the tradition began of showing Bond movies at Christmas began, but I’m sure I’ve been watching them for at least ten years.
On that note, I’ll say that *National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation * must be the movie I’ve seen the most. I’m sure I’ve seen the movie at least 100 times.
The Gospel According to George:
The 1st three Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies, along with Willow and American Graffiti. I used to watch these over and over as a youngling, and still pop them in when I need a fix, or I meet a heathen who hasn’t seen them.
Lost count long ago, but easily 100 times each
High Fidelity: 30ish times, generally in bursts. This is also the only film I love that I cannot watch on TV. They butcher it.
A Knights Tale: 28 times. It might be the English Major in me, but I love any movie with Chaucer in it.
Chasing Amy, Return to Me, Back to the Future, Pulp Fiction are all around 25 times
While they aren’t movies, I’ve seen the entire run of Sports Night 15 times, and Firefly 12 times.
Now I’m beginning to count up hours of my life wasted and…damn!
