do you ever stop loving a film you loved?

[madhair60]

case in point: my all-time favourite film The Blues Brothers, had that on recently and while it still means an enormous amount to me, I did find myself thinking "hmm, this is a bit long, really"

i also used to adore the Robert Rodriguez Sin City movie and watched it a ton, then after a fairly long gap without seeing it I watched it again and went "hmm, actually, this is cringe". but then after that i watched it once more, later, and went "I think it is supposed to be very silly actually so I like it again". I floundered. I'm wishy washy.

have you ever had a moment where you questioned your love for a movie like this?

[holyzombiejesus]

I really liked Lost In Translation but think I'd feel quite uncomfortable watching it nowadays.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Not especially but I try to avoid rinsing films I really like.

Videodrome might be an exception because I feel like everytime I watch it I have a slightly different interpretation of what's going on. The last time I saw it was a late-night showing after they'd premiered Crimes of the Future. I'd gotten a bit stoned beforehand and remember having an epiphany along the lines of 'I finally get it, it makes sense'.

Could I remember my interpretation the next day? Could I fuck.

I could probably be fine with not seeing The Big Lebowski again, but I'll almost certainly rewatch it at some point.

[curiousoranges]

Buzzcocks consider rewrite.

[hermitical]

I can't watch Southern Comfort any more, the pig slaughter is too much.

[13 schoolyards]

There's a bunch of films I absolutely loved on first viewing but then thought "hmmm, probably shouldn't ruin it by watching them again". Fortunately I have undergone absolutely no personal growth since my teens so all my favourite movies then - Robocop, The Terminator, King of New York, Once Upon a Time in the West - remain my favourites now.

One film I do go back and forth on hard is Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - first time I saw it I hated it, second time (don't ask me why I was watching it a second time) I came away thinking I was wrong and it was brilliant. Third time it went back to shit, I've left it there.

Come to think of it, I've been too scared to rewatch Brazil for the last decade or so, as I absolutely loved that film in my teens and 20s but now am worried if I watched it again I'd find a flaw in it somehow

[LordMorgan]

Total Recall. I loved it when I was young.

I think me being an early teenager helped.

But I thought going back into it in adulthood. It wasn't just the gory killings and Sharon stone looking sexy that I liked as a teen.
It was quite high concept

Went and watched it , with my partner who I also excitedly told about it , and when I watched it. Felt nothing.
Not even a ping of teenage nostalgia

Just didn't click and I don't think i will ever do a rewatch again in my life

[Magnum Valentino]

Kevin Smith stuff. I can remember being halfway through the second Evening With Kevin Smith DVD, the London recording, I thinking 'fuck - do I HATE this guy?' and ever since I've been largely unable to go back to that pre-realisation feeling of appreciation. The last time I watched Clerks, Chasing Amy and Mallrats I hated almost every second of them, yet Dogma I actually like MORE than I used to. It all came together on that one and I think he made a genuinely great picture.

Keep meaning to rewatch Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back to see if it taps into some teenage pleasure center and also because I remember Will Ferrell being really good in it.

[bgmnts]

Nope.

[Noodle Lizard]

In Bruges really hadn't aged well the last time I watched it, and that had probably been one of my Films of the Decade.

[chutnut]

Kevin Smith for me too, or Mallrats more specifically. The really clunky 'clever' dialogue is just too much for me nowadays

[Funcrusher]

In Bruges really hadn't aged well the last time I watched it, and that had probably been one of my Films of the Decade.

Never understood the rave reviews for that on here. It's fine, as I recall, until the last 15-20 minutes, totally falls apart at the end.

[Zetetic]

I knew I'd never enjoy Only Lovers Left Alive as much as the first time, even as I was watching it. I knew I was enjoying something about the reflection of the world in lockdown, my self-pity and the challenges of the relationship particular to that time, and that these things would pass.

I think I love the experience of that first watch and the film as I had it then, even if I'm not entirely convinced about it the film itself.

[selectivememory]

Until very recently I would've considered Magnolia to be a great film, even though I probably last saw it when I was still a teenager. But I did finally rewatch it a few months back and thought it was really quite bad and annoying. So overwritten and overwrought. Some nice ideas and directorial flashes, but overall a big old mess of a film.

Do love PTA in general, and The Master is right up there with my favourite films ever made, but I am a bit wary of revisiting some of his other earlier efforts now.

[Memorex MP3]

Not exactly love but I thought Take Shelter was pretty great at the time and there were various parts I gave the benefit of the doubt to as to whether it was really stupid or not.

10 years on and having seen Mud and Midnight Special I'm no longer able to give the benefit of the doubt to those parts and some of the other parts don't hold very well together either.


Thought Requiem for a Dream was great when I was about 15; even by 20 I thought it was at times hilariously stupid.

[Glebe]

case in point: my all-time favourite film The Blues Brothers, had that on recently and while it still means an enormous amount to me, I did find myself thinking "hmm, this is a bit long, really"

'Twas on the other night, it's a blast but that horrific Twilight Zone: The Movie incident casts a shadow over John Landis's work, and of there's a ton of extremely dangerous stunt work in TBB.

[Endicott]

case in point: my all-time favourite film The Blues Brothers, had that on recently and while it still means an enormous amount to me, I did find myself thinking "hmm, this is a bit long, really"

Theatrical release or directors cut? Because the DC is too long.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Thought Requiem for a Dream was great when I was about 15; even by 20 I thought it was at times hilariously stupid.

Good shout, bet PI's still decent.

[Mr Vegetables]

Well, Lost in Space. The second time round, I thought "Wait, this is as terrible as everyone says!"

[Icehaven]

American Beauty (1999) is the most obvious one for me. It's famously not aged well of course (even leaving aside Spacey being a wrong 'un) but I last saw it probably about 7 or 8 years ago and couldn't really enjoy it even as a period piece or for nostalgia, it just seems so wafer thin and pointless compared to how much I liked it when it was first released, plus the cinematography that won it acclaim at the time actually looks a bit shit now. I suppose that's the difference between being a slightly navel gazing 20 year old living in 1999 when middle class white people having a midlife crisis seemed a perfectly legitimate basis for a major Hollywood film, and being a hopefully slightly less navel gazing 40 something in the 2020s where having a midlife crisis would be an indulgent luxury and making a whole film about it would get you laughed out of town. 

Also The Fan (1996). Saw that for the for the first time in ages the other week and I remember really liking it 20 years ago but it's actually just not very good.

[notjosh]

Rewatched Groundhog Day the other day. While I still enjoyed it for the most part, the Murray/MacDowell relationship is absolute madness from her perspective. Known the cunt one day before he's telling her he loves her, and then the next day he's suggesting they move to this town together.

Her character is basically just a plot obstacle for him to overcome. Like the joke about her judging him for not drinking to 'world peace', so that he can come back and get it right the next day. She's a cipher, not a credible person at all.

So much to enjoy about that film, but this stuff just left me feeling a bit queasy.

[Mrgeebus]

The Usual Suspects (1995) was one of my favourite movies when I first saw it (around 1996/97), and I still think the story was well told. Spacey being a wrong'un, coupled with Bryan Singer being an über-wrong'un has left it unwatchable for me.

[non capisco]

Rewatched Groundhog Day the other day. While I still enjoyed it for the most part, the Murray/MacDowell relationship is absolute madness from her perspective. Known the cunt one day before he's telling her he loves her, and then the next day he's suggesting they move to this town together.

Her character is basically just a plot obstacle for him to overcome. Like the joke about her judging him for not drinking to 'world peace', so that he can come back and get it right the next day. She's a cipher, not a credible person at all.

So much to enjoy about that film, but this stuff just left me feeling a bit queasy.

Yeah, beyond the initial high concept stuff which is still entertaining it's pretty much a film about a dickhead bloke gaslighting a woman into loving them via magic realism.

[Jim_MacLaine]

I really liked Lost In Translation but think I'd feel quite uncomfortable watching it nowadays.

I re-watched this recently and was thinking the same. There are definitely misjudged moments/portrayals but on the whole I still really enjoyed the flick for it's atmosphere.

[ProvanFan]

Memory a bit vague on this as I was a child then an older child, but The Shawshank Redemption

[thenoise]

My brother and I loved Dances with Wolves. I found its length and seriousness and grim violence a pleasing challenge and I wasn't at that age troubled by the white saviour/noble savages narrative (seemed quite progressive to my simple mind), or Kevin Costner.

[greenman]

Kevin Smith stuff. I can remember being halfway through the second Evening With Kevin Smith DVD, the London recording, I thinking 'fuck - do I HATE this guy?' and ever since I've been largely unable to go back to that pre-realisation feeling of appreciation. The last time I watched Clerks, Chasing Amy and Mallrats I hated almost every second of them, yet Dogma I actually like MORE than I used to. It all came together on that one and I think he made a genuinely great picture.

Keep meaning to rewatch Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back to see if it taps into some teenage pleasure center and also because I remember Will Ferrell being really good in it.

Yeah wouldnt disagree with that, the rest I'v not bothered with for a very long time but Dogma has aged very well. I think having some strong central drama to the film makes the "smithness" around it far more tolerable, I think switches the humour from snarkiness for its own sake to something which humanises the characters.

Memory a bit vague on this as I was a child then an older child, but The Shawshank Redemption

I would say really a hell of a lot of 90's style "prestige drama" I remember thinking was at least decent at the time but I just can't stomach it at all, shmaltzy often conservative(Gump espeically) nonsense.

[Sonny_Jim]

Dogma has aged very well

Decent cast who gave a shit, unlike most of his other movies.  I have a feeling next time I watch Mall Rats I'll sit there thinking 'I would rather be watching Biodome'.

I remember really liking 'The Butterfly Effect' the first time I watched it.......

[greenman]

Until very recently I would've considered Magnolia to be a great film, even though I probably last saw it when I was still a teenager. But I did finally rewatch it a few months back and thought it was really quite bad and annoying. So overwritten and overwrought. Some nice ideas and directorial flashes, but overall a big old mess of a film.

Do love PTA in general, and The Master is right up there with my favourite films ever made, but I am a bit wary of revisiting some of his other earlier efforts now.

Yep I'd agree with that, I think its one of the better examples of it but generally that era seemed to have a lot of rather self important anthology films.

I do think PTA really found his feet with There Will Be Blood and the following two Phoenix films especially, the earlier stuff I do still like but they do feel rather sub Coenish to me. Even though Inherent Vice obviously has a very Lebowskish plot I think it manages to have much more a style of its own.

[Minami Minegishi]

I watched Mike Leigh's Naked a couple of years ago. Not sure if it's me, the film, or a hit of both, but I found it far less exhilarating than my memory of it in the cinema on release.

The things I disliked became impossible to ignore, and all the things I liked fell flat.