Movies (Film) You Remember Being Good Until You See It Again

BuddytheReow

Moderator
Over the weekend I wanted to watch the original Blade Runner. I had the DVD in my collection, but saw it on Netflix and chose the latter. The last time I saw this film was probably 15+ years ago. I also read the book last year (the film is very loosely based on it). Honestly? I wasn't that impressed with it although I get why it's considered a cult sci-fi classic this time around. I guess I just had it built up in my head over the years that it was worthy of being on a to-watch list.

HOWEVER, there are movies out there that are SOOOOO bad that they're watchable. Those Sharknado movies were so bad they were very entertaining. They also kept my sanity a bit during my long, grad school days.

I also think your mindset going into the film and who you're watching it with makes all the difference. For me, watching a film by myself will have different results than if I watch it with my wife.

Are there any movies out there you guys remember being really good just to be disappointed when you rewatch it?
 
Last edited:
So many! I remember really enjoying cabin in the woods a few years ago and then I rewatched it and thought meh. I tried to watch X-files after 20+ years and it really doesn’t hold up. I can’t believe I used to wait all week for a new episode… what a waste of time! ;)
Edit: I know X-files is not a movie but that was really striking to me.
 
All of them except for Goodfellas and Amadeus.

Edit- Upon further thinking, I can rewatch pretty much everything Mel Brooks made. My favorite films from my younger days are all unwatchable though, Clerks being the first that comes to mind. I took a War films class in my undergrad and he had us pick apart the Rambo sequels...
 
Last edited:
I recently started watching O' Brother Where Art Thou but didn't make it very far. I enjoyed it the first time, but it lacked rewatchability.

But I don't think it means it's not good. Some movies just may not reap much reward from repeated viewings.
 
Some movies just may not reap much reward from repeated viewings.
I think that depends what your mindset is. There are films out there with a surprise ending. Rewatching it (even though you know how it's going to end) can reveal clues for the big finale.

But in general I agree. Some movies don't have a good rewatch value: they fall into the category of "I watched it to say I watched it"
 
Watched “Ernest Goes to Camp” with the kids on Saturday.

Talked that shit up to them like it was the fucking Godfather.

Was not as good as I remembered. “Ernest Scared Stupid” was WAY better.

On the other hand, recently did my annual rewatch of “There Will Be Blood” and that shit is still 🔥

Oh man, when I was a bit younger my grandma' turned "Ernest Scared Stupid" off in the middle because she thought it was "too scary" for my brother and me so we never got to see the end where Ernest saves Halloween by pouring milk on everyone (?) This meant that, as far as I knew, those kids who got turned into creepy little wooden dolls were either dead forever, or possibly trapped in their shrunken immobile form- also forever..

Anyhow, if Grandma' could've just stuck it out with us for like, 20 more minutes until the milk-squirting-montage, I totally would've avoided a handful of fairly vivid nightmares.
 
I'm talking real movies here, Like "Jeremiah Johnson" and "Outlaw Josie Wales" and "Unforgiven" and "National Lampoons Christmas Vacation" well maybe not that one

Edit: "I'm your Huckleberry" fricking "Tombstone"
 
I loved Star Wars ep 7 and 9 when I saw them on opening night in the theaters the first time. I realized how boring episode 7 was when I watched it on Blu Ray at home after the blu ray/4k release. I realized mostly how dreadful episode 9 was when I watched it in the theaters again the following day, and it just got worse each time I thought about it after that.
At least I hated 8 from the start-- I've given up on ever enjoying that movie after 5 or 6 attempts in rewatches.
 
I still don't think Indy 4 is nearly as terrible as people have made it out to be over the years (I still enjoy it for what it is– its not like the others weren't a bit campy too), but oh man I thought that movie was absolutely incredible when I saw it as a wee 9 year old. I watched that movie so many times when I got the dvd box set for my 10th birthday the following year. Rewatched it a few years later, and oh boy... It's like a later-season episode of macgyver. You'll still watch it because its fun, but somehow everything that you thought made it great turns out to be... okayish, I guess.
 
My wife and i used to watch a lot of European films back in the '80s and '90s simply because they were different from the US/Aussie mainstream. We loved Diva (which has dated somewhat!) and Subway (which has dated so much to be unwatchable now). Some, like Jean de Florette, Manon des Source, The Vanishing, hold up well and are pretty much classics now, as is anything by Krzysztof Kieślowski - the Three Colours films, The Double Life of Veronique. I can watch those films over and over and never tire of them. We watched Apocalypse Now last weekend ad it was still wonderful. I LOVE Unforgiven.

But like music, literature, anything to do with the arts most of it is crap. It always has been. A lot of those European films we thought of as so slick and cool now seem sexist, dated and embarrassing. I used to play in a rockabilly band and the people who would come and see us would say how wonderful and superior the music of the 50s was.. Nope. The songs you remember are good, but 95% was crap and has largely disappeared because of said crapness. Same with films. A lot of art is dependent on the technology of the time, and so what once looked amazing now looks tacky and dated - laughable.

We watch very few movies these days and hardly any TV drama.
 
Back
Top