# Worst movies you once thought good — OR — What was I, HIGH? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 6, 2000, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movies-you-once-thought-good-or-what-was-i-high/39974 "2000-11-06T18:18:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movies-you-once-thought-good-or-what-was-i-high/39974/1 "2000-11-06T18:18:03Z")
_Casino Royale_ was the first (and only until last year) movie I saw alone. It was June, 1968, and I was graduating from junior high. I went to downtown Chicago to lunch at the Berghoff with my father, bought some “graduation shoes” at Florsheim’s, then he dropped me off at a theatre to see the latest James Bond spoof, _Casino Royale_\* (apparently the only Bond novel Cubby Broccoli hadn’t optioned), starring Peter Sellers, David Niven, Woody Allen, and a host of other people who should have known better. Boy, did I love that movie! The mayhem, the totally confusing plot, the slinky costumes for the female stars (Ursula Undress and Joanna Pettet—hubba-hubba!), the Lotus Formula 2 racer—they overwhelmed my senses. A while back, when my daughter was interested in the prototypes of the Austin Powers movies, I rented _Casino Royale._ I don’t think my tastes are much more sophisticated than they were back in '68 (I was a pretentious 13-year-old), but the movie was JUST PLAIN STUPID. Not funny-stupid, either. Unfunny, incoherent, and stupid. What was I thinking? Are there any movies you used to like but can’t stand anymore? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movies-you-once-thought-good-or-what-was-i-high/39974/2 "2000-11-06T18:21:07Z")
Someday I’m going to see what happens when I click the “Preview Reply” button. Haste, obviously, makes waste. ---
**Author:** ![RocknRoll\_Killing\_Machine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5daacb/32.png) [@RocknRoll\_Killing\_Machine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RocknRoll_Killing_Machine)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movies-you-once-thought-good-or-what-was-i-high/39974/3 "2000-11-06T18:36:24Z")
That happened with Bob and Doug McKenzie’s _Strange Brew_. It was funny for a pre-teen, but now it’s godawful. ---
**Author:** ![Me\_Joe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecccb3/32.png) [@Me\_Joe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Me_Joe)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movies-you-once-thought-good-or-what-was-i-high/39974/4 "2000-11-06T18:44:05Z")
I saw “poltergeist” when it first came out at the movies. I was about 12 or 13 at the time IIRC. Back then I thought that this was the most kick-ass horror flick ever made. Then just a few weeks ago, I saw it again on t.v. and good lord did it look corny! I’m not even talking about the very dated special effects. The whole story was just plain dumb; these real estate developers build houses over a graveyard and don’t bother to move the bodies? How did they manage to hook up the houses with utiltities (like the plumbing) without disturbing any of these corpses? None of the dearly departed had still living relatives who might have wanted to know what happened to the remains of their relatives after the houses are erected? The plotholes were big enough to drive an SUV through! Even worse is “the Breakfast Club.” Another flick I saw as an early teenager and thought had some deep profound meaning. Also happened to see that just a few months ago and could only think “Boy was I an idiot.” ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movies-you-once-thought-good-or-what-was-i-high/39974/5 "2000-11-06T18:55:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Me!! Joe!!! \* > **…these real estate developers build houses over a graveyard and don’t bother to move the bodies?** It’s distressingly common. They make a show of moving some of the bodies, especially those with relatives that care, but there’s always a chance. A really GOOD chance. When I hear about another develpment going in over an old cemetary I ask, "Didn’t they see _Poltergeist?!?!?"_ ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movies-you-once-thought-good-or-what-was-i-high/39974/6 "2000-11-06T18:57:41Z")
OOH-OOH! There was one a few years back where they were developing the grounds of an old mental institution. Seems they found the graveyard by accident–it wasn’t marked. They made a show of moving the bodies they found, but I hear femurs still work their way up in gardens. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movies-you-once-thought-good-or-what-was-i-high/39974/7 "2000-11-06T19:01:24Z")
The Wall. When I saw it when I was in High School I thought “How deep!” I rented it two years ago and thought “What claptrap!” ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movies-you-once-thought-good-or-what-was-i-high/39974/8 "2000-11-06T19:03:15Z")
SCHLOCK. 1971. John Landis’ first picture. Starring John Landis wearing a monkey suit. A horror-flick parody, steeped in leftover sixties 'tude. (Promotional tagline: “Due to the horrifying nature of this film, no one will be admitted to the theatre.”) Yes, I WAS high. I saw it at a SF/Fantasy movie marathon held at the Case Western Reserve University campus on the east side of Cleveland in 1977, when I was about 16 years old, and it came on at about four in the morning on the second day and my friends and I hadn’t slept for over 24 hours but we HAD been smoking enormous amounts of cheap Mexican weed. We thought it was funnier’n shit. A couple months ago I found it on cassette at Kim’s Video, the oddball video shop in Greenwich Village, and I bought it for about twenty bucks. Good god, it’s horrible. ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movies-you-once-thought-good-or-what-was-i-high/39974/9 "2000-11-06T20:22:53Z")
Billy Jack. I saw it as a young teenager, and it held major appeal for my sense of rebellion against established mores. Seeing it again years later, I had to laugh at how truly awful it was. ---
**Author:** ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movies-you-once-thought-good-or-what-was-i-high/39974/10 "2000-11-06T20:39:29Z")
_Red Dawn_ I thought this movie kicked major ass when I was 12. I don’t even need to get into what I thought when I saw it recently. same goes for _Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins_ ---
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movies-you-once-thought-good-or-what-was-i-high/39974/11 "2000-11-06T20:44:15Z")
There was one that had 'ol Bill Shatner in it. It was called “Attack of the Spiders” or some lame god damn name like that. About a town that gets invaded by, you guessed it, Spiders (or turantula’s). It was supposed to be a horror show. When I saw it when I was about 10 I thought it was OK. I saw it again a few years after that and got did it suck. Luckily, I haven’t heard anything about it for a long time… I haven’t even thought about it again until now. ---
**Author:** ![CnoteChris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/278dde/32.png) [@CnoteChris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CnoteChris)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movies-you-once-thought-good-or-what-was-i-high/39974/12 "2000-11-06T20:55:27Z")
**Hell Night** It was an early eighties horror film about staying the night in a haunted house to gain acceptance into a Fraternity. The first time I saw it, I thought, “That’s one scary frigging movie”. I saw it again a few years ago and pretty much yawned my way through it. Apparently I’ve found scarier things in real-life than spending the night in a haunted house. ---
**Author:** ![Mauvaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mauvaise/32/11084_2.png) [@Mauvaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauvaise)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movies-you-once-thought-good-or-what-was-i-high/39974/13 "2000-11-06T21:08:31Z")
Spaceballs, and yes I was. Which would explain why I thought it was one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen. I watched a few years ago sober and didn’t laugh once _sigh_. I really miss pot sometimes \ ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movies-you-once-thought-good-or-what-was-i-high/39974/14 "2000-11-06T21:39:41Z")
When I was really little – about six I think – I saw a kiddie Halloween flick called “The Worst Witch” and thought it was great. I saw it again when I was eight or nine and thought it was pap. I guess I became jaded at a young age. I still like Tim Curry and Diana Rigg, though. ---
**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:** [November 6, 2000, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movies-you-once-thought-good-or-what-was-i-high/39974/15 "2000-11-06T21:53:31Z")
The first time I saw _Stripes_, I thought it was really funny. Years later, and after a stint in the Army, I saw it again. Hardly cracked a smile. I kept thinking how I would have kicked Bill Murray’s (et al.) asses if they had been in _my_ unit. ---
**Author:** ![Jekeira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@Jekeira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jekeira)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movies-you-once-thought-good-or-what-was-i-high/39974/16 "2000-11-06T21:58:04Z")
You know, circa 1982, the movie about the scientist who accidently falls into some sort of “scientific formula” that turns him into a gentle-but-terrifying treelike being? And later the villain falls into the same formula and it turns him into a twisted swineish monster? Loved it when I was thirteen. I remember thinking that the way the “formula” altered people according to thier inner nature was really quite thought-provoking. ::sigh:: ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2000, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movies-you-once-thought-good-or-what-was-i-high/39974/17 "2000-11-06T22:02:31Z")
For some inexplicable reason, ‘Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ was my favorite movie when I was very young (I think we got cable when I was 6 or 7). In my early 20s Evil Dead 2 was one of my favorite movies. I re-rented it not too long ago (I’m 28 now) and it didn’t have the same effect on me - still funny, but it didn’t have near the appeal it used to. ---
**Author:** ![Spoonbender](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spoonbender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoonbender)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2000, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movies-you-once-thought-good-or-what-was-i-high/39974/18 "2000-11-07T03:25:53Z")
I loved “Sergeant Pepper” too! What the hell was wrong with me?!? I also loved “Karate Kid.” _Wax on, wax off!_ ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2000, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movies-you-once-thought-good-or-what-was-i-high/39974/19 "2000-11-07T04:11:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Biggirl \* > \*\*The Wall. > When I saw it when I was in High School I thought “How deep!” I rented it two years ago and thought “What claptrap!” \*\* Will … not … flame … Biggirl … 😉 I admit to loving the original Ninja Turtles movie. Ugh. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![absoul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@absoul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/absoul)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2000, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movies-you-once-thought-good-or-what-was-i-high/39974/20 "2000-11-07T04:33:14Z")
Two words- Purple Rain. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movies-you-once-thought-good-or-what-was-i-high/39974.md?page=2)