I saw this on its original release 20 years ago and liked it a lot. I saw it again last night and was really disappointed in almost every aspect of it. The back story was underdeveloped. Emma Thompson was miscast. Kenneth Brannaugh's American accent was awful. Robin Williams was...Robin Williams. It was not the menacing, twisty movie I remembered. Drat. Did I change or did the times change?
What movie wasn't as good as you remembered?
34 comments:
ttwo big movies I used to love and now don't are Brazil which now seems like a mess to me. Amd Clockwork Orange which I think just isn't any fun after you leave high school. Another, still love it but with a bit more caution is The Graduate. My favorite scene now is Mr Robinson's scene in Ben's apartment.
Oh, I haven't seen BRAZIL since it was out but I can well imagine it would seem that way now. Movie making styles change so much.
A movie called "The Hidden," an SF film. I saw it the second time and thought it was really pretty lame in most places.
I have often gone back and watched an old movie that I loved at the time and later wondered why.
Ann
I would have to say THE WILD ONE(1953), starring Marlon Brando really proved to be a disappointment on the second viewing. I find method acting to be dated and the idea of a sensitive motorcycle gang leader just is not believable. At least not the way Brando plays the part. I laughed all through the movie and even thought Lee Marvin was silly as one of Brando's gang.
Oh, yes. Method acting seems stagey--the opposite of what it was supposed to be. None of his movies hold up particularly well, do they? He even seems like the off-note in THE GODFATHER to me. And more than his accent.
The early James Bond movies of Sean Connery and Roger Moore. Connery was and still is the best Bond ever but his films no longer hold. I can think of a few more off the top of my head, like INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978), AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981), HOUSE OF WAX (1953), THE FLY (1958), INDIANA JONES (1980s), THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991), and THE TERMINATOR.
I would have to add the following movies:
COOL HAND LUKE (1967)
TOUCH OF EVIL (1958)
MOULIN ROUGE (2001)
MARNIE (1964)
FORREST GUMP (1994)
AIRPORT (1970)
RESERVOIR DOGS (1992)
THE PETRIFIED FOREST (1936)
THE GLASS KEY (1942)
Patti, how about doing a post on movies that were better the second (and third) time around. I could start it off with these selections:
WALL STREET (1987)
THE GODFATHER: PART III (1990)
UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG (1964)
RIDE THE PINK HORSE (1947)
THE DAMNED DON'T CRY (1950)
TITANIC (1997)
ED WOOD (1994)
THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (1970)
GROUNDHOG DAY (1993)
DRIVE (2011)
Funny, you should suggest that because I just framed one about movies that hold up over the years. So maybe we'll do all three over the next weeks. I'll post this for next Sunday.
Blazing Saddles. King of the Khyber Rifles. Duel in the Sun.
Never did get Mel Brooks. He was too much about gags, not enough about words, for me.
THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN--a trippy sixties time-capsule starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr (and a number of familiar British faces, including some very young soon-to-be members of Monty Python). When I first saw it (in my early teens), I thought it was both hilarious and profound. Years (decades) later I finally found it on VHS and watched it again. Major disappointment. Indeed, you can never go home again--at least when it comes to the movies.
A movie that seemed better on subsequent viewings was David Mamet's HOUSE OF GAMES. Perhaps because I knew some of the upcoming twists and could focus more on the acting and the foreshadowing hints.
Very afraid to watch Seller's BEING THERE, which I liked a lot back in the way. Fear it will seem ridiculous now.
Easy, DANCES WITH WOLVES.
AMEN!!
I remember being mesmerized at MOULIN ROUGE (Kidman) when I saw it at the show. Then I watched it on a bus trip and thought, 'Wow does this suck.'
The ones that hold up are L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, FIELD OF DREAMS.
Most of the movies I have trouble with the second time around are films I saw as a child. Too many to mention. A child's perspective can never be successfully revisited.
I don't watch movies more than once for that reason.
A book I tried reading again comes to mind: Paul Goodman's GROWING UP ABSURD. What a bunch of nonsense.
I'd like to add:
APOCALYPSE NOW
QUADROPHENIA
TOOTSIE
SE7EN
SINGIN' IN THE RAIN
THE USUAL SUSPECTS
GANDHI
CARRIE
TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT
CABARET
LOCAL HERO
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
I have to admit that some of these did not hold up for me either. They seem overwrought, or dependent on a gimmick. Dustin Hoffman does not look at all like he could fool anyone in Tootsie for instance.
I'm with you on Mel Brooks, Patti. Our tastes change over time so I'm not surprised at your reaction to DEAD AGAIN. I have watched the Blu-ray versions of the STAR WARS movies and they still have that Sense of Wonder (or am I a permanent 12-year-old?). If you missed it, you might want to check out:http://www.npr.org/2011/12/04/143067020/mayer-hawthorne-a-motor-city-kid-looks-to-the-future
Thanks, George. Will do.
I can't tell you how many times I've had to fast forward through a movie I once thought I loved.
VERY disappointing when that happens. The funny thing is, it mostly only happens with movies from the 60's, 70's and 80's. Though occasionally one from the 90's will slip in.
Films during those years seemed to be so stylistically (read garish) trapped in time.
Off the top of my head:
THE PINK PANTHER is one that makes me wince. (Though I love and still love, A SHOT IN THE DARK.)
CABARET is another.
Most of SUPERMAN, THE MOVIE. Though I still adore the soundtrack.
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (though I still love seeing Yul Brynner in his short black costume as the Pharaoh of Egypt. Hubba. Hubba.
WEST SIDE STORY except for a couple of the dance numbers.
BATTLEGROUND, a war film I remembered as being very good. Not so.
FORBIDDEN PLANET.
I enjoyed Dead Again a lot when it first came out and saw it twice in two weeks with two different dates. (Ah, I was wild in those days. Not.) I remember that when ***SPOILER ALERT*** Derek Jacobi threw in a touch of his I, Claudius stammer in the climactic scene, one audience went wild, while the other missed it completely.
I haven't seen it since, and that sounds like a good thing.
REPO MAN. I greatly enjoyed the flick when I was a teen but watched it again this past year and it was average.
Oh, boy. I remember that one. My teens liked it too.
I bought the soundtrack and listened repeatedly.
BODY HEAT
HOW THE WEST WAS WON
BEING THERE (most Sellars films, really)
THE MISSION
BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID
BLACKBOARD JUNGLE
Oh, boy. The real question is what retained its allure.
'Seven Days in May' I thought was the bees' knees when a kid. Now it seems like an under-budget TV style movie. Not bad, but not the killer it was then.
I disagree with 'Brazil' -- to me, it's better than it was originally, but there are now available multiple cuts and there's quite a vast saga to go with how and why it was cut.
I think BTTLEGROUND is one of the best WWII movies ever made. The sentiments of the GI's are as close to real as anything I've seen. Your mileage may vary.
I know this is late but...I wanted to comment that I thought DEAD AGAIN was incredibly overrated when it first came out. In fact I disliked it quite a lot and would not watch it again.
Jeff M.
I must have been seduced by the young Ken.
There are many on the list I agree with and a few I don't. We haven't watched it in several years and there are parts I'd fast forward through, but I still like CABARET. We watched BLAZING SADDLES a few years ago and it was better than I'd feared it would be.
TEN COMMANDMENTS is in a special place as we never get tired of watching it, mainly for the (unintentional) laugh lines - How Anne Baxter kept a straight face while saying "Oh Moses, Moses, you stubborn splendid adorable fool!" probably deserved another Oscar.
Frankly, there are many films I loved in the past I'd be afraid to watch now. We did watch the movie I thought was the greatest movie ever when I was twelve, ONE TWO THREE, and though dated badly I did enjoy a lot of it, especially Berlin.
BODY HEAT and BEING THERE are two more that didn't live up to the hype for me, at all.
Jeff M.
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