MC Wednesday Inventory #8: The Five Films Whose Quality has Vacillated For You the Most

[dreamdead]

A teensy bit late on this one, but hockey watching yesterday slowed my brain processes.

This one is of course subjective. What are the five films you most think of when you consider how your response has changed? This might mean from thinking it utterly banal to being bewitched, or it might mean the reverse.

[Spinal]

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me - negative to positive
AI: Artificial Intelligence - positive to negative
Dogtooth - negative to positive
The Usual Suspects - positive to negative
Popeye - negative to positive

[Dukefrukem]

Avatar - positive to negative
The Game - negative to positive
Torque - negative to positive
Django Unchained - positive to negative
Total Recall - positive to negative

[Yxklyx]

Inland Empire - Positive to Negative

saw it the first time in a theater with David Lynch in attendance.

[Kurosawa Fan]

American History X - positive to negative
The Apartment - negative to positive
Braveheart - positive to negative
Natural Born Killers - positive to negative
Raging Bull - negative to positive


Most of these can be chalked up to the foolishness of youth.

[Boner M]

Playtime - :| to :pritch:
Magnolia - awesome:embarrassing ratio down from about 10:1 to 1:10 over time
The Thin Red Line - worst-ever to best-ever candidacy
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her - :frustrated: to :cool:
Requiem For a Dream - 15yo to adult

[Gizmo]

Dr. Strangelove...: From least favorite Kubrick film to least favorite Kubrick film, but now I enjoy it.
Chasing Amy: Awesome Kevin Smith film to it's still a Kevin Smith film
Garden State: OMG super indy with Natalie Portman to well, it still has Natalie
Jaws: Scary shark movie to fine piece of film making, that's still thrilling
Star Wars Prequels: OMG NERDGASM to well, they still have Natalie

[Winston*]

Life is Beautiful - Yay to Nay
Beau Travail - Nay to Yay
The Shining - Nay to Yay
Snatch - Yay to Nay
Shakespeare in Love - Nay to Yay

[transmogrifier]

Vertigo - mixed to pro
Black Narcissus - con to pro
Empire of the Sun - pro to mixed
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - con to pro
Punch-Drunk Love - mixed to pro

[Pop Trash]

Forrest Gump
A.I.
The New World
A History of Violence
Braveheart

I'll let you figure out how I feel about them.

[Ezee E]

Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels - to BLEGH
The Insider - to wow
A Clockwork Orange - to holy crap (good way)
Days of Heaven - to :eek:
Batman Forever- to what the hell was that?

[Derek]

Videodrome - con to pro
Nashville - con to pro
Bringing Up Baby - con to pro
Kids - pro to con
Top Gun - pro to con

[megladon8]

The Royal Tenenbaums - bad to brilliant
American Psycho - "didn't get it" to "watched it 5 times in 1 week"
The Shining - meh to YEAH!
Superman IV - pro to KHAAAAAANNNNNNNN!!
The Sixth Sense - spooky to kooky

[MadMan]

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe-the more I think about that movie, the more I hate it.
The Searchers-Thought it was merely good on first viewing, multiple viewings made me realize its one of the best westerns ever
I'm with meg on The Royal Tenenbaums. The first time I watched it I thought "Well this is good." Then I realized on a second and third viewing that it was amazing.

I'll have to think of a few others later on.

[B-side]

300 (Zack Snyder, 2006) - amazing to good
50 First Dates (Peter Segal, 2004) - bad to very good
Alien vs. Predator (Paul W.S. Anderson, 2004) - bad to good
Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray, 1956) - decent to really good
Borat (Larry Charles, 2006) - hilarious to meh

[Skitch]

Pandorum - shrug to decent to good
AvP:R - meh to hilariously fun
The Royal Tenenbaums - dislike to like
Magnolia - dislike to reserved like
Superman IV - LOVE (when I saw it in theater, age appropriate) to HATE (when my kid blinders were removed on second watch, 20 years later)

[Bosco B Thug]

The Muppets (2012) - Miserable to minor like
Black Swan - Ambivalence to full like
The Innkeepers - Negative to positive

[Irish]

Out of curiousity -- and I don't mean this as any kind of criticism -- for the people whose opinions went from negative to positive, what made you go back and revisit a movie you didn't like to begin with?

[Spinal]

Out of curiousity -- and I don't mean this as any kind of criticism -- for the people whose opinions went from negative to positive, what made you go back and revisit a movie you didn't like to begin with?

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me - First time I saw it was right after finishing the TV series. I wanted to see if having more distance would allow me to appreciate the film on its own terms. It did.
Dogtooth - In discussion on Match Cut, I realized that I had misunderstood a fairly critical aspect of the movie.
Popeye - I hadn't seen the film since I was much younger and I wanted to see if familiarity with Altman's aesthetic would help.

[megladon8]

Out of curiousity -- and I don't mean this as any kind of criticism -- for the people whose opinions went from negative to positive, what made you go back and revisit a movie you didn't like to begin with?


The Royal Tenenbaums - my initial viewing was with my parents, and they were quite vocal (even during the movie) about disliking it. I find that the company I'm with can really affect how I see a movie, which is why there are certain friends I just don't go to movies with anymore. Anyways, I disliked it that first time because the overall experience was kind of miserable, but decided to give it another shot because I had blind bought it, and hoped my opinion might change and thus free me of the guilt of wasting $20. Luckily, with my second viewing I adored it.

American Psycho - I was just too young to get the satire the first time I saw it.

The Shining - I have never found this film frightening and to this day find it more of a disturbing psychological examination than an effectively scary horror. However, it wasn't until I really "got into movies" and started examining them and following directors and writers, that I really began to appreciate the craft in this film. From a technical standpoint, I think it's one of the greatest films ever made.

[Bosco B Thug]

Muppets - I love muppets, they didn't deserve a movie this bad, had to watch it again. Can't explain it myself, so it's the perfect example for the thread topic.
Black Swan and Innkeepers - Both intriguing, heavily discussed, deserved re-watches

[transmogrifier]

Out of curiousity -- and I don't mean this as any kind of criticism -- for the people whose opinions went from negative to positive, what made you go back and revisit a movie you didn't like to begin with?

Punch-Drunk Love: PT Anderson kidnapped my wife

[MadMan]

I didn't hate The Royal Tenenbaums the first time I saw it, but I certainly came to realize its greatness. Wes Anderson movies always demand multiple or second time viewings.

[Skitch]

Wes Anderson movies always demand multiple or second time viewings.

Completely agree.

To answer Irish's question, several things will cause me to rewatch a movie I disliked.
- A bad theater crowd
- A well thought-out write up by a MC'er
- A friend explaining why they enjoyed it

[B-side]

Out of curiousity -- and I don't mean this as any kind of criticism -- for the people whose opinions went from negative to positive, what made you go back and revisit a movie you didn't like to begin with?

Positive reviews by seemingly trustworthy people, mostly. And my own evolution in film appreciation, which allows me to enjoy films in different ways and with a different lens that I didn't have when viewing it initially.

[Gizmo]

Was I really NOT supposed to rewatch Jaws and Dr. Strangelove? Especially since I adore Kubrick films. I still don't love Strangelove or Jaws, but I appreciate them, and find Strangelove funny now, when first time through I just didn't find more than a joke or 2 in it.

[dreamdead]

Magnolia - :pritch: to :|
Punch Drunk Love - :) to :pritch:
Shakespeare in Love - :) to :| to :)
Terminator 2 - :pritch: to :rolleyes: (still watchable, but...)
Monsters Inc. - :cry: to "it's ok" to :cry: and "so good"