Author Topic: Rewatching movies from our pasts -- still good?  (Read 41066 times)

Offline serious crayons

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Rewatching movies from our pasts -- still good?
« on: June 07, 2009, 03:22:30 am »
I don't know why we don't already have a thread devoted to movies we liked in the past and are rewatching. Sometimes, I find, they are just as wonderful as I remembered them. Other times .... not.

So tonight my baseball-besotted son and I watched Bull Durham. We're on a baseball streak and will probably report on a few others as we go along. Anyway, this is one I always loved, and I would say it held up pretty well. I think my son liked it from a baseball perspective, and I could still enjoy it as a character-drive romantic dramedy. At times it's a bit schlocky and heavy-handed in ways that might not have seemed obvious in 1988 (or at least, didn't to my 31-year-old self), but kind of are 21 years later. Not so much so as to wreck it, though.

As I've said here elsewhere, I really like Kevin Costner in light roles. This, Tin Cup, Field of Dreams, The Upside of Anger. He can be so light and natural and sexy. I usually don't like him in dramas, where he can be too ... too. However, one of his best roles was in A Perfect World, which is kind of in between. That movie is underrated. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it. I'm putting it on my "Rewatching movies" queue as we speak.

It's so hard to believe that Tim Robbins is about my age, because here he plays the dewy sexy newbie, but nowadays tends to get typecast as the crazy codger. Does that mean I'm a crazy codger?


Offline min

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Re: Rewatching movies from our pasts -- still good?
« Reply #1 on: June 07, 2009, 03:51:12 am »
I've never seen any of the movies you've mentioned so can't comment on them.  I do like Kevin Costner and he has acted in some pretty awful movies.

Tim Robbins...I've only seen him in 'The Shawshank Redemption' - brilliant.  Does he do a great 'crazy codger'?   :laugh:  Doesn't mean you are just 'cos you're close in age.   ;D

'Back to the Future' is one movie I like to rewatch, mainly because I've always enjoyed Michael J Fox's acting.  It captured my attention when it came out and I couldn't get enough of it, as well as BttF 2 and 3.  I like the idea that you can change your future by changing things in your parents' past.  The sins of the father.... ;D


Offline Berit

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Re: Rewatching movies from our pasts -- still good?
« Reply #2 on: June 07, 2009, 03:52:48 am »
I loved Hair when it came - and still does  :-* Treat Williams, oh so  :-* :-* :-*

I laughed at Smokey and the Bandit but that didn't last when I saw it again  :( :( :(

Many more has passed, I'll be back "waves"
Ennis.....always Ennis.....

Offline Berit

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Re: Rewatching movies from our pasts -- still good?
« Reply #3 on: June 07, 2009, 03:54:51 am »

'Back to the Future' is one movie I like to rewatch, mainly because I've always enjoyed Michael J Fox's acting.  It captured my attention when it came out and I couldn't get enough of it, as well as BttF 2 and 3.  I like the idea that you can change your future by changing things in your parents' past.  The sins of the father.... ;D



My son, born 1994, loves Back to the future, all 3 of them.We watch them quite often  :)
Ennis.....always Ennis.....

Offline serious crayons

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Re: Rewatching movies from our pasts -- still good?
« Reply #4 on: June 07, 2009, 04:05:09 am »
'Back to the Future' is one movie I like to rewatch,

Of all the movies I've ever rewatched years later, I would say Back to the Future may be the most successful of all. It was every bit as good as I remembered, and my sons loved it even more than I did and watched all of the sequels numerous times.

Another really good one that I liked seeing again and they liked too was Big. What a delightful movie. Even though those back-to-the-past movies have become a cliche, they're almost always pretty watchable. I also liked 13 Going on 30 and, more recently, 17 Again. But "Big" and BTtF really set the bar, IMO.

On the other side of rewatched movies is Raiders of the Lost Ark. I remembered that as one of my favorite movies. But when I watched it again with my (then pretty young) sons, they hated it and even I did not enjoy it as much as I remembered. It seemed surprisingly slow moving and, from their POV, too scary and gory, even though I thought by then they had seen far worse.

It's weird how movies age well, or don't.



Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: Rewatching movies from our pasts -- still good?
« Reply #5 on: June 07, 2009, 10:02:25 am »
On the other side of rewatched movies is Raiders of the Lost Ark. I remembered that as one of my favorite movies. But when I watched it again with my (then pretty young) sons, they hated it and even I did not enjoy it as much as I remembered. It seemed surprisingly slow moving and, from their POV, too scary and gory, even though I thought by then they had seen far worse.

Raiders "slow moving"?  :o

Quote
It's weird how movies age well, or don't.

That's probably as subjective as taste in moves to begin with, don'tcha think? I mean, whether a movie has aged well or not?

I guess I haven't noticed this phenomenon that much. I have an entire bookcase full of movies (most on tape). I seem to have so little time to sit down and watch a movie--and I hate watching movies on video in a stop-and-start fashion. If I don't have time to watch the film the whole way through, I usually just channel-surf TV. (There's always a Law and Order episode on somewhere!  :laugh: ) When I do have time to watch a movie, I tend to reach for an acknowleged classic, like Sunset Boulevard or All About Eve (Lord have mercy, how gay are those choices?  :laugh: ) But I find that films like those stay just as good as the day they were released--which, I suppose, is at least one attribute of a classic movie.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Katie77

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Re: Rewatching movies from our pasts -- still good?
« Reply #6 on: June 07, 2009, 02:28:30 pm »
Yes I have to agree with all the fans of Back to the Future....I love it.  In fact I love most movies set in the 50's because I love the music that goes with them. There were some great sounds from that era. Grease is another one I have seen more times than I can remember.

I guess, sometimes, re-watching a movie that you saw years ago, is a little bit like hearing a golden oldie song on the radio. It can often bring back the memory of when you first saw it, who you saw it with,and how you felt when you first saw it.

Grease, for example, was the first video we ever owned and so it was played non stop when we first got it. My kids were in their early teens,and knew the script off by heart, and started using some of the phrases like "cruisin for a bruisin" and loved to get up and do their own rendition of Grease Lightenin. Whenever I watch Grease, those times come rushing back.

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Offline serious crayons

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Re: Rewatching movies from our pasts -- still good?
« Reply #7 on: June 07, 2009, 04:11:27 pm »
Raiders "slow moving"?  :o

That's probably as subjective as taste in moves to begin with, don'tcha think? I mean, whether a movie has aged well or not?

It's partly subjective, yes. But for instance, the reason Raiders didn't age well, for me, was that a lot of its initial appeal came from its snappy pace and nonstop action, because when the movie first came out those things were novelties. That was around the time when movies were still transitioning from '70s-style character dramas to flashy, comic-book, special-effects spectaculars.

But now the pace of action flicks has picked up SO much -- too much, one might argue, but still -- that Raiders no longer seems novel and original. And a movie whose entertainment value lies mostly in its pacing and thrills can no longer afford long talky scenes that drag a bit, which, surprisingly, Raiders has.


By the way, one thing I noticed about Bull Durham was how the characters swear a lot, but there's no graphic sex or nudity. That would never happen now, I don't think. Movies rated PG-13 can't have more than about one "fuck." Bull Durham probably has a dozen or so -- but just the word, not the act. I think now filmmakers either tone down the language and go for a PG-13, or they include sex and nudity and get an R.


Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Rewatching movies from our pasts -- still good?
« Reply #8 on: June 07, 2009, 05:03:45 pm »

Another really good one that I liked seeing again and they liked too was Big. What a delightful movie. Even though those back-to-the-past movies have become a cliche, they're almost always pretty watchable. I also liked 13 Going on 30 and, more recently, 17 Again. But "Big" and BTtF really set the bar, IMO.

Do I detect a trend here, friend??

Lately I enjoy watching select old movies in director's cut or Blu-Ray...I really enjoyed watching The Shining in Blu-Ray just before visiting its filming location, the Timberline Lodge in Oregon!! A few of my favorite movies are now being issued on DVD, such as Bertolucci's The Conformist and di Sica's The Leopard. Watching the latter set me off on a major Claudia Cardinale movie hunt, which culminated in seeing her in Once Upon a Time in the West. Outstanding movies...they just don't make em like that ennimore.

Oh, and Katherine, better a crazy codger than a dour dowager!!
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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: Rewatching movies from our pasts -- still good?
« Reply #9 on: June 07, 2009, 07:51:05 pm »
It's partly subjective, yes. But for instance, the reason Raiders didn't age well, for me, was that a lot of its initial appeal came from its snappy pace and nonstop action, because when the movie first came out those things were novelties. That was around the time when movies were still transitioning from '70s-style character dramas to flashy, comic-book, special-effects spectaculars.

But now the pace of action flicks has picked up SO much -- too much, one might argue, but still -- that Raiders no longer seems novel and original. And a movie whose entertainment value lies mostly in its pacing and thrills can no longer afford long talky scenes that drag a bit, which, surprisingly, Raiders has.

Sorry, I still say that's subjective, and not just "partly." Even if you time a scene with a stopwatch, what seems "talky" and draggy to one viewer may still be something that another enjoys--and doesn't tind talky or draggy at all.

All add one caveat (if that's the correct term here) with specific regard to Raiders. From the very first release I thought the sequence where Indy tries to commandeer the truck taking the Ark back to Cairo was too long. But that's not something that I would find changed with the passage of time. I thought it was too long in 1981.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.