Saturday, July 02, 2022

Weekend Post

And you are under no obligation to say VOLUNTEERS. 

For me, some would be:

What is THE GODFATHER?
What is  THE GODFATHER Part 2?
What is AMERICAN GRAFFITI?
What is CASABLANCA?
What is THE GRADUATE?
What is BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI?
What is PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM?
What is BLAZING SADDLES?
What is THE HEARTBREAK KID?
What is ROMANCING THE STONE?
What is NETWORK?
What is GUNGA DIN?
What is BANANAS?
What is ARTHUR?
What is SOME LIKE IT HOT?
What is THE LADY EVE?
What is ALL ABOUT EVE?
What is YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN?
What is GOLDFINGER?
What is DR. NO?
What is GIDGET?
What is TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN?
What is ANNIE HALL?
What is DR. STRANGELOVE?
What is STAR WARS?
What is PULP FICTION?
What is ON THE WATERFRONT?
What is THE INCREDIBLES?
What is THE LITTLE MERMAID?
What is SUNSET BOULEVARD?
What is CITIZEN KANE?
What is CHARADE?
What is NORTH BY NORTHWEST?
What is PALM BEACH STORY?
What is MY MAN GODFREY?
What is VALLEY OF THE DOLLS?
What is CHINATOWN?
What is THE BIG SLEEP?
What is LOVE AND DEATH?
What is MY FAVORITE BRUNETTE?
What is BULL DURHAM?
What is HOOSIERS?
What is FRENCH CONNECTION?
What is BUTCH CASSIDY & THE SUNDANCE KID?
What is ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN?
What is ALL THAT JAZZ?
What is THE IN-LAWS
What is THE HOT ROCK?
What is FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH?
What is BROADCAST NEWS?
What is THE THIN MAN?
What is SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS?
What is PINOCCHIO?
What is RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK? 
What is WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
What is THE BIG PICTURE?
What is FIDDLER ON THE ROOF?
What is HUD?
What is HARPER?
What is COOL HAND LUKE?
What is HIS GIRL FRIDAY?
What is THE PHILADELPHIA STORY?
What is DINER?
What is TOPPER?
What is THE STING?
What is BODY HEAT?

So what are some of yours? 

123 comments :

Mighty Hal said...

For me, I've watched several on your list multiple times. Three that aren't (unless I overlooked them): The Back to the Future trilogy.

Anonymous said...

The Dirty Dozen.

Tim Rifenburg said...

Movies I have purposely gone out of my way to watch (and not just because they showed up on
Cable or I was filling time while HBO or some service was on). There are probably a lot more but these are the ones that came to mind:

Broadcast Mews
Almost Famous
Tootsie
Arthur
The Fugitive
The Goodbye Girl
The Apartment
Jerry Maguire
Every Mission Impossible Movie (except 2)
Iron Man
The Maltese Falcon
Knives Out
Rear Window
In The Heat of the Night
Cool Hand Luke
The Sting
Coming Home
Murphy's Romance
Romancing the Stone
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Jaws
The House Bunny (A guilty pleasure)

BillS said...

Bad Day at Black Rock. The message is still valid.

Bob Waldman said...

Some Like It Hot
North by Northwest
The Errand Boy
Singing in the Rain
The Graduate
The Godfather
Funny Face
E.T.
When Harry Met Sally
Citizen Kane
Hellzapoppin

Susan Bell said...

Family tradition is to watch The Blues Brothers whenever we’re together. Also A Christmas Story.

John Wilson said...

Fun post! Certainly some of yours, but here are some that come to mind for me — see if you can discern the year I was born from these. (Answer at the bottom):
When Harry Met Sally
City Slickers
Three Little Words
Top Hat
Swing Time
Sound of Music
Top Gun
Wizard of Oz
The Princess Bride
Romancing the Stone
Dances with Wolves
The Apple Dumpling Gang
The Pink Panther
The Silence of the Lambs
LA Confidential
Whiplash
Forrest Gump
Gladiator
Round Midnight
The Sixfh Sense
Braveheart
A Few Good Men
Unforgiven
ET
12 Angry Men
Wayne’s World
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Toy Story
Moana
Beauty and the Beast
The Little Mermaid
Frozen (can you tell I have a daughter?!)
Star Wars (a New Hope)
Star Wars (The Empire Strikes Back)
Star Wars (The Last Jedi)
Solo (A Star Wars Story)
Star Trek Wrath of Khan
Out of all of these, I’ve seen Star Wars a New Hope the most — I was born in 1968 and was 9 when it came out and I saw it 7 times in the theater —I was so mesmerized by the story and space action.
Happy 4th of July Ken and friends! Go Mariners — there’s still time to make the playoffs for the first time in my 17-year-old’s lifetime!

N. Zakharenko said...

Every Disney movie (animation & live action) released prior to 1982
Every James Bond prior to Pierce Brosnan
All Rodgers And Hammerstein theatricals

Others include:
Around The World In 80 Days (1956)
Blame It On Rio (1984)
Brigadoon (1954)
Bus Stop (1956)
Camelot (1967)
Darling Lili (1970)
Day Of The Triffids (1963)
Earthquake (1974)
Fly (1959)
Ghost And Mrs Muir (1947) Natalie Wood
Inside Daisy Clover (1965) Natalie Wood
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956)
Journey To The Center Of The Earth (1959)
Laura (1944)
Live A Little Love A Little (1968)
Lost Horizon (1973)
Love Is A Many Splendored Thing (1955)
My Fair Lady (1964)
My Tutor (1982)
MacKenna's Gold (1969)
Oliver (1968)
Pal Joey (1957)
Picnic (1955)
Poseidon Adventure (1972)
Razor's Edge (1945)
Rome Adventure (1962)
Showboat (1936)
Slipper And The Rose (1976)
Snow White And The Three Stooges (1961)
Steptoe And Son (1972)
Summer Of 42 (1971)
Time Machine (1960)
Titanic (1997)
Towering Inferno (1974)
Valley Of The Dolls (1967)
Where Eagles Dare (1968)
Wolf Man (1941)
World Of Suzie Wong (1960)

slgc said...

Airplane!
Ruthless People
The Naked Gun
Johnny Dangerously
La La Land
Movie, Movie
The Producers (1968 Version with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947 Version, B&W only)
Hail Caesar!
Burn After Reading
Bend It Like Beckham
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Little Miss Sunshine
Yellow Submarine
JoJo Rabbit
Chicago
Annie Hall
Take The Money and Run
Radio Days
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Pulp Fiction
The Birdcage
That Thing You Do

Jeff Boice said...

Monkey Business
Duck Soup
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
It's a Gift
The Bank Dick
Dr. No
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
The Maltese Falcon
The Music Man
The King and I
Back to the Beach

Griff said...

What are...

2001. FANTASIA. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. NASHVILLE. DUCK SOUP. IT'S A GIFT. CITIZEN KANE. THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER. BANANAS. CASABLANCA. THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD. STOLEN KISSES. VERTIGO. SECONDS. BONNIE AND CLYDE. PINOCCHIO. BOB LE FLAMBEUR. THE WIZARD OF OZ. BREWSTER McCLOUD. NORTH BY NORTHWEST. THE BLUES BROTHERS. TROUBLE IN PARADISE. National Lampoon's ANIMAL HOUSE. NOTORIOUS. DOCTOR STRANGELOVE. HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING. ON THE WATERFRONT. THE GODFATHER, PART II. WAY OUT WEST. JAWS. HAROLD AND MAUDE. DOUBLE INDEMNITY. McCABE & MRS. MILLER. CHINATOWN. SONS OF THE DESERT. THE MUSIC MAN. RULES OF THE GAME. 8½. AMERICAN GRAFFITI. ANNIE HALL. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. REAR WINDOW. MILLION DOLLAR LEGS.

Yes, there are others.

Nate L. said...

I'll say the Kevin Smith movies, with "Clerks" leading the pack.
Hell, I own three copies of Clerks in various formats!
All the Mel Brooks movies.
Most of the Star Wars, the last two not there yet, but will be.
Many others already listed in other comments or main post.

Mike Barer said...

What are Wall Street and Top Gun.

cd1515 said...

Risky Business
Shawshank
Talk Radio
The Player
Swingers

Jim, Cheers Fan said...

I'd break the blog, but off the top of my head and reminded by what I'm seeing here: Godfather 1&2 * The Producers * Animal House * The Blues Brothers * Young Frankenstein * Casablanca * The Matese Falcon * The Lady Eve * My Man Godfrey * Gosford Park * A Christmas Story * Remains of the Day * Halloween * Arthur * Harold and Maude * Caddyshack * Back To School * Stripes * Ghostbusters * The Grifters * Lonesome Dove (does that count?) * Defending Your Life* Lost In America * Mother * Duck Soup * Desk Set * The Last Seduction * Dogma *

Lemuel said...

BOB & CAROL & TED & ALICE for one. The DVD commentary has Mazursky and the three remaining characters laughing their asses off like it was a family reunion. Never get tired of revisiting it. It's the jet-set 1969 LA world Tarentino adapted for his recent movie.

D. McEwan said...

Well, 31 of the ones on your list would be on mine. 20 of the ones on your list I own. 1 of the ones on your list I watched (for the billionth time) last night. (And Godfather III would be on my list with its big, more-respected, brothers.) There were only four on your list that I've never seen, Hoosiers, The In-Laws, Diner and Cool Hand Luke, though you had a couple I will never watch a second time. For example (Not the only one), I saw Harper in a theater when it opened and deeply hated it. And to be perfectly frank, I don't remember if I ever saw Gidget at all. I may have, but if I did, it was once, 60 years ago. I know I saw Tammy.

For me to even begin a list it would have to be which movies have I seen so many times I've lost count, or what movies do I watch at least annually.

On my list you'd find all Marx Brothers movies (Even The Story of Mankind), most of Mae West and most of WC Fields, all Laurel & Hardy sound films at Roach, with Way Out West and Sons of the Desert on the "At Least Annually" list. For Chaplin: The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, The Great Dictator and Monsieur Verdoux are all in my collection and watched many times. For Keaton: all of his silent shorts, The Three Ages, Sherlock Jr. (My favorite), Our Hospitality, The Navigator, The General and Steamboat Bill Jr. are all in my collection, and watched more than the Chaplins. (I also own Keaton's The Saphead but it was such a disappointment that its third viewing has not yet occurred.)

With Hitchcock, it would be easier to list the ones I have not seen so many times I've lost count, with the trio Vertigo, North By Northwest, and Psycho on the "At Least Annually" list, and North By Northwest at times nearly monthly. I can not tire of it.

The major Universal monster movies of the 1930s and '40s all would make the "Long Ago Lost Count" list. (I wrote a book about them.) Same for many of the Hammer Horrors, especially if Cushing and Lee are both in it. (I last watched a Cushing & Lee horror movie last night.)

The six Peter Jackson Tolkien movies are on the "At Least Annually" list. And if I dare mention TV series, I've watched all of Lost and all of Game of Thrones over three times each. Those DVDs do not gather dust on my shelves. And frankly, for the last year, I've watched Peter Pan Goes Wrong almost weekly.

The three movies I give as the answer to "What is your favorite movie?" are, in no particular order, Bride of Frankenstein, A Night at the Opera and Psycho

Wouldn't Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and The Wizard of Oz be on everyone's list?

Pat Reeder said...

"Citizen Kane," "Duck Soup," "Radio Days"...oh hell, there are way too many to list. If you raised it to 10 times, it might be manageable. But I will mention one that I bet nobody else will: the 1967 version of "Casino Royale" with David Niven and Peter Sellers. I know it's considered an overlong mess, but there's just something about it I like. Whenever I'm flipping channels and land on it, I have to watch it to the end, even though I now have it on DVD. Maybe it's that Tijuana Brass theme song. Or Woody Allen's appearance at the end. Or a naked Daliah Lavi strapped to a lab table. It's all golden to me.

tavm said...

What is Grease? What is The Sound of Music? What is Singin' in the Rain? What is Airplane!? What is It's a Wonderful Life (My all-time favorite!)?

D. McEwan said...

Jeff Boise, your entire list, except for Back to the Beach (Once was enough) are on mine. In fact I own copies of your entire list except the aforementioned BTTB and The King and I. The more I read and learned about the real adventures of Anna Leonowens (who was Boris Karloff's great-aunt, his maternal grandmother's sister) and that king, the more its whitewashing in Rogers & Hammerstein repels me. There's no "Something Wonderful" about a man who had slaves BURNED ALIVE AT THE STAKE for the crime of loving someone other than him. That's what really happened to Tuptim. Burned alive at the stake for not being in love with that MONSTROUS king!

Griff, great list. Most (not all) of yours would be on mine.

Philly Cinephile said...

If I like a movie, I'll watch it several times, but these are some that immediately come to mind:

Rosemary's Baby
The King of Comedy
House of Dark Shadows
Nashville
Night of the Iguana
Mommie Dearest
Red Line 7000
Legend of Lylah Clare
Inside Daisy Clover
Suddenly, Last Summer
1776
Planet of the Apes (the original, along with the four sequels, which I usually watch as a miniseries on five consecutive nights)
The so-called "Karnstein Trilogy" of Hammer films (The Vampire Lovers, Lust for a Vampire, and Twins of Evil)

Every November/December, I rewatch a number of Christmas favorites as well as Funny Girl, which I associate with the holiday season due to Gimbels department store presenting it one Thanksgiving night on Channel 29.

Every October, I revisit my favorite horror movies, usually picking a theme of some sort (film studio, horror actor, decade, etc.)

VHS Village (Formerly The Beta Barn) said...

BACK TO THE FUTURE TRILOGY
E. T.
EYES WIDE SHUT
PSYCHO
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
TAXI DRIVER
MULHOLLAND DRIVE
JAWS
BLUE VELVET
THE GODFATHER
ROSEMARY'S BABY
THE TERMINATOR
TERMINATOR 2
SUPERMAN
SUPERMAN II (Both the theatrical cut and the Richard Donner cut)
GOODFELLAS
ROBOCOP
BASIC INSTINCT
GHOSTBUSTERS
ROMANCING THE STONE
THE SHINING
CHILD'S PLAY
2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY
DIE HARD
INDIANA JONES TRILOGY (Yes, I said trilogy)
STAR TREK II THE WRATH OF KAHN
STAR WARS
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
RETURN OF THE JEDI
THE FORCE AWAKENS
JURASSIC PARK
HALLOWEEN (1978)
GET OUT
FULL METAL JACKET
LICENCE TO KILL
DR. STRANGELOVE
PULP FICTION
GREMLINS
THE GOONIES
POLTERGEIST
TAKEN
BATMAN (1989)
BATMAN RETURNS
AIRPLANE
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
ALIEN
ALIENS

And now some of my guilty pleasures. Don't judge me.

COMMANDO
BAD BOYS II
ROCKY III
ROCKY IV
HARD TO KILL
EVIL DEAD II
GHOSTBUSTERS II
DEATH WISH 3
FREDDY VS JASON

Donald said...

There are, likely, hundreds of them. A good number are on the lists already presented. I would add these more obscure films:
Head (The Monkees movie)
French Postcards
Starstruck (Gillian Armstrong New Wave musical)
Black Orpheus
My Man Godfrey (William Powell/Carole Lombard)

Joseph Scarbrough said...

I'd be here all day if I listed off any movie I've seen more than three times.

However, what is one movie that I have only seen once, and will never see again?

What is AVATAR?

Mibbitmaker said...

Imagine a "What is...?" surrounding each one. Also, the movies listed are the originals.

And although Forrest Gump is tied with the 1st on the list as my favorite movie of all time, I've don't believe I've watched it enough times to make the list. It's one of those "Watching it is a special occasion" type movies. There are a few favorites I haven't watched enough times as well.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Animal House
What's Up, Doc?
(By now every movie contained in classic Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode, and at least a couple from modern day MST3K. Esp. "Manos: The Hands of Fate" since 1993)
The Jerk
Airplane!
The Wizard of Oz
A Hard Day's Night
Yellow Submarine
This Is Spinal Tap
Take the Money and Run
A Shot in the Dark
Return of the Pink Panther
The Pink Panther Strikes Again
Planet of the Apes
The Odd Couple
Head
Possibly a couple of the Disney Live action comedies of the early '70s. It's been a while.

There are a few I'm not sure about, like Dick, Naked Gun, and National Lampoon's Vacation. I'm a movie fan for sure, but I'm more of a TV person, ultimately - MST3K notwithstanding...

D. McEwan said...

"Pat Reeder said...
I will mention one that I bet nobody else will: the 1967 version of "Casino Royale" with David Niven and Peter Sellers."


Oh, I've seen that at least three times. In fact, it may be four times, including in a theater when it first opened. It is entertaining for all the wrong reasons. It's not merely a bad movie, it is ASTOUNDINGLY bad, mind-bogglingly bad! It's like three or four different bad movies in different bad styles all stapled together, and then thrown into a mixmaster for the beyond-belief finale.

But it has wonderful music, and would be worth it just for Dusty Springfield singing The Look of Love alone. Where else can you see Deborah Kerr so enormously embarrass herself? What other movie changes leading man three-quarters of the way through because the star quit? Peter Sellers, a highly-talented but DEEPLY neurotic man, was so intimidated by the mere presence of Orson Welles that he refused ever to be on the set with him. You'll notice that they are never in the same shot. Then Sellers couldn't take the imaginary pressure of his fear of Welles, and walked off the movie, never to return. (The source of the fear is clear. Sellers was highly insecure, feeling himself to be a fake deep inside, a hollow man, and he felt that Welles could see into his inadequacy like an X-ray, an inadequacy that existed only in Sellers's mind.)

I even have it on DVD, though I have it primarily for the 1954 TV version of Casino Royale with Peter Lorre, which is included as a bonus on the disc. My DVD of the Daniel Craig Casino Royale sits beside it on the shelf and laughs at it.

I have never seen any Pierce Brosnan Bond film a second time.

Fed by the muse said...

Outside of Star Wars and Citizen Kane, both of which I've seen more than a dozen times:

3-10 times:

A Hard Days Night
Time After Time
Field of Dreams
House of Games
The Front
Take the Money and Run
Broadway Danny Rose
Superman: The Movie
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Cocoon
Jaws
Silver Streak
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken
Logan's Run
Planet of the Apes
Our Man Flint
In Like Flint

Scottmc said...

I agree that five, or ten, viewings might be the better standard. A THOUSAND CLOWNS Is the one movie that I have seen the most that hasn’t been mentioned.

Daniel said...

All the President's Men
Bad Manners
Broadcast News
Bull Durham
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Deathtrap
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
The Fabulous Baker Boys
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
A Fish Called Wanda
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Funny Farm
Hannah and Her Sisters
House of Games
Husbands and Wives
Metropolitan
Moonstruck
Mr. Jealousy
No Way Out
Rear Window
Roxanne
The Russia House
Say Anything...
The Secret of Kells
Shirley Valentine
Song of the Sea
Talk Radio
The Third Man
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Tootsie
Truly Madly Deeply
Wolfwalkers
Dune (2021)
Infernal Affairs
Infernal Affairs II
Infernal Affairs III
Justice League 1: Man of Steel
Justice League 2: Batman v Superman - Ultimate Edition
Justice League 3: Zack Snyder's Justice League
Worricker 1: Page Eight
Worricker 2: Turks & Caicos
Worricker 3: Salting the Battlefield

DwWashburn said...

Any Marx Brothers movie, Safety Last, Head, Girl Happy

N. Zakharenko said...

D. McEwan

Finally someone else who finds The Story Of Mankind a fun film.

So what if the Marx Brothers are featured separately?
It's an enjoyable romp.

(this title would also feature on my list)

Anonymous said...

I loved Risky Business, but watching it again, why does the guy who has everything, have his life run by those dorky friends?

Anonymous said...

Also Singles and The Doors

Anonymous said...

Groundhog Day

Jim, Cheers Fan said...

oseph Scarbrough said...

However, what is one movie that I have only seen once, and will never see again?


along those lines, movies that everyone you know loved, and while you didn't hate it, you thought it was, like Joyce Randolph, "fine". Mine would be "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "Muriel's Wedding", which was not un-interesting but was sold to me as a comedy and I found it really bleak.

I can't believe I forgot the original Star Wars trilogy-- I think they're called the prequels now. I was right in their target demo and saw every one, in the theatre, at least five times.

I can believe I forgot Grease, which when you were twelve years old in a leafy, boring suburb (and in middle age I miss all that quiet leafiness) with one old school theatre, was something to do, so I think I saw it, in that theatre, more than three times.

Nick Danger said...

Three Stooges - Punch Drunks - Curly’s entry into the MCU universe
Alfred Hitchcock - Steps; Lady; Train; Window; N x NW.
W C Fields - Dick; Sucker
Orson Welles - Citizen Kane Mutiny on the Bounty...the Better Picker Upper
Buster Keaton - The Two Jrs
Harold Lloyd - Safety Last! (with its inside joke title)
Preston Sturges - The Palm Beach Story; Easy Living; Sullivan’s Travels; Unfaithfully Yours; Remember The Night
Sidney Lumet -Twelve Angry Men
Ernst Lubitsch - To Be or Not to Be; The Shop Around The Corner
Laurel and Hardy - Block-Heads; Way Out West etc
George Cukor - Holiday
Charley Chase - The Rat’s Knuckles
King Vidor - The Wizard of Oz
Michael Powell - A Matter of Life and Death; The Red Shoes
Keenan Wynn - Dr Strangelove
Max Davidson - Pass the Gravy





Moot said...

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Babes in Arms
Dances with Wolves
Empire of the Sun
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
North by Northwest
Rear Window
Cool Hand Luke
Gunga Din
The Lost Weekend
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Sleepless in Seattle
The Night of the Hunter
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
A Christmas Story
The Last of the Mohicans
Wonder Boys
Jojo Rabbit
American Beauty
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Some Came Running
Days of Wine and Roses
Glengarry Glen Ross
A Bronx Tale
Goodfellas
Sabrina
A Star is Born
Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House
The Searchers
Lawrence of Arabia
Captains Courageous
Boys Town
Pulp Fiction
Desk Set
Lord Jeff

BGVA said...

What is Fast Times at Ridgemont High?
What is Pulp Fiction?
What is Forrest Gump?
What is The Sandlot?
What is Coming to America?

maxdebryn said...

As a Canadian, I would like to add two Cancon classics that I have watched many times: "Strange Brew," and "Goin' Down the Road".

Oscar Solis said...

Ken, your list shows real taste. Here's mine:

THE HIDDEN BLADE
BLADE RUNNER
DAYS OF HEAVEN
ALIEN
APOCALYPSE NOW
ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD
WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS
GOJIRA
GOODFELLAS
AMERICAN POP
WIZARDS
ALTERED STATES
TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE
DRACULA (1979 VERSION)
THE CHANGELING (starring George C. Scott)
BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN
MARTY
THE WOLFMAN (1940)
PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE
CITY LIGHTS
ON THE WATERFRONT
BARRY LYNDON
STAR WARS (none of this new hope jazz, the original as it was released in 1977
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE
HAIRSPRAY (John Waters)
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
THE FAST RUNNER
SON OF DRACULA
VAMPYR (Carl Dreyer)

and, even though they aren't feature films, every Three Stooges short with Curly Howard

I could add a lot more but I think I'll just leave it at those

Anonymous said...

Bull Durham and Fabulous Baker Boys great. The 80s were great to Kevin Costner and Jeff Bridges

Kevin FitzMaurice said...

The Paper Chase--1973
Tribute--with Jack Lemmon, 1980
The Graduate--1967
Hannah and her Sisters--1986
Crimes and Misdemeanors--1989
The Big Chill--1983
Diner--1982
Same Time, Next Year--1978
MASH--although I fast forward through the too-long football game, 1970

D, McEwan said...

"Anonymous N. Zakharenko said...
D. McEwan
Finally someone else who finds The Story Of Mankind a fun film."


And not just for the Marx Brothers. Right off, any movie with Vincent Price clearly having fun playing Satan is OK in my book. And so much of it is almost as mind-boggling as the Peter Sellers Casino Royale. The spectacle on a budget that would be inadequate for a high school play! Peter Lorre as Nero, chanting, "Burn! Burn! Buuuuuurrrrn!" Dennis Hopper as Napoleon, acting in a wholly different acting style than the entire rest of the cast. Sets that are just drapes. Everything about Groucho's scene as Peter Minuit, with Groucho's then-current wife Eden as an Indian maiden. Seeing Harpo in color!

Plus the whole thing is so Eurocentric that it should be titled The Story of White People.

Yes, I have a DVD of The Story of Mankind, whereas I do not have one of Love Happy. I dislike The Big Store quite a bit, but I have it. Love Happy is a bridge too far for me.

D. McEwan said...

"Anonymous Anonymous said...
Groundhog Day
"

So you're going to watch it, and just it, over and over and over and over, until you get it perfected, and then find you can move on to other movies?

(My late beloved Grandfather's birthday was Groundhog's Day. I wish I could have him over.)

Buttermilk Sky said...

Double Indemnity
Ninotchka
Singin' In the Rain
Casablanca
Dr. Strangelove
The Band Wagon
The Asphalt Jungle
Billy Liar
Kind Hearts and Coronets
My Man Godfrey
Holiday
Defending Your Life
Casino
Slap Shot
Nobody's Fool (Paul Newman)
Absence of Malice
Vertigo
Sullivan's Travels
The Bishop's Wife
Zelig
Radio Days
The Big Easy
A Private Function
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Modern Times
A Place In the Sun
The Heiress
One Week (Keaton)
The Life of Brian
White Heat
The Mummy (Karloff)
The Third Man
A Christmas Carol (Sim)
Gods and Monsters
Million Dollar Legs (Fields)
(oh, all right) Citizen Kane


D. McEwan said...

Another interesting list would be movies most people loved that you hate.

Topping my list would be Woody Allen's Manhattan. Yes, it is funny. Yes, it is gorgeously photographed. Yes, the Gershwin music is wonderful. (I have the soundtrack album on vinyl.) But all that artistry and talent is laid in service of a movie which is about a pedophile's lust for a high school girl, told, like Lolita, from the P.O.V. of the pedophile. But Lolita knows Humbert Humbert is a disgusting perv. Manhattan is like Lolita if Humbert had made the movie himself, in order to defend his own perversion.

I remember seeing Manhattan with three friends, two of the women. I remember us walking back to the car after the film and the three of them praising the movie to the skies, and my objecting that it was creepy and disgusting, a movie by a child molester justifying himself. One girl told me "But she was the most-mature and intelligent of the characters, and he saw that and connected with it." I replied "It's still STATUTORY RAPE!

So when, years later, the Soon Ye scandal hit, I was saying, "I've been waiting for something like this ever since Manhattan, when he applied all his talent and genius to justifying statutory rape. He told us who he was way back then. When folks tell you who they are, believe them"

Tim G said...

So interesting to read others' choices and reasons.

The first that come to mind for me are
The Wizard of Oz
The Last Picture Show
New York, New York
The Sergeant
Cruising
Hexed
The Brady Bunch Movie
Can't Stop the Music (in a horrible class by itself, at one point an annual Christmas tradition)
Lone Star
Limbo
Psycho
Vertigo

Brian said...

The Blues Brothers (the first one)
Office Space
Airplane

tavm said...

What is The Wizard of Oz (from annual CBS airings)? What is The Ten Commendments (same for Easter showings on ABC)? What is Stripes (from frequent HBO airings in '81)? What is Back to the Future (from theatre/VHS/rerelease during 2017 with sequels of which the last one takes place in that very year with the Cubs win World Series prediction!)?

VHS Village (Formerly The Beta Barn) said...

Can you do a future blog post about movies you couldn't get through? I once tried to watch 1941 but I gave up after ten minutes.

Mibbitmaker said...

Some I didn't think of in my earlier post that apply:

A Christmas Story
The Sound of Music (like Oz, an annual staple of childhood)
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
The Blues Brothers (1980)
FM

When it comes to movie parodies in MAD magazine, I've "seen" those thousands of times over the years (esp. if illustrated by Mort Drucker).

Mike Bloodworth said...

I'll try to keep this short. To avoid redundancy I won't mention movies that other people already have.

Ken, I'm surprised that "Splendor in the Grass" was the only NATALIE movie you mentioned.

This movie the majority of people have never heard of, yet I have seen it more times than I can remember: "Phantom of the Paradise" starring Paul Williams and Jessica Harper. It is truly a cult film. "Eating Raoul" and "Joe Verses the Volcano" are others.

My number one guilty pleasure is "Smokey and the Bandit." I also like the "Godzilla" movies especially the first* one with Raymond Burr and "Godzilla vs the Astromonster." AKA "Godzilla vs Monster Zero."
*@Oscar Solis mentioned "Gojira." That was the original Japanase version. The "Godzilla" we know was cut together from that film.

Yes. I know. What is I didn't answer in the form of a question?

M.B.

Mike Doran said...

Ah yes ... The Story Of Mankind!
The most lavishly expensive High School history pageant ever made!
Ronald Colman's final film! (That he died just before its release is likely not a coincidence ...)
But most above all -
- the triumphant performance of Nick Cravat as the Devil's Assistant!
You all remember Nick Cravat, don't you?
Little guy with a heavy dark beard?
Never said a word, just reacted to everybody else's profundities?
Here's a note for the Twilight Zone fans in the house:
Remember the show where Bill Shatner sees the furry gremlin on the airliner's wing?
That's Nick Cravat!
See it next time it turns up; you'll wonder why they bothered with a rubber mask and furry suit, when all they had to do was use dark clothes and his own furry face for a Perfect Gremlin!
THE STORY OF MANKIND!
Don't Miss It If You Can!

Wendy M. Grossman said...

No one else for ALL THAT JAZZ?

wg

Lorimartian said...

Chicago, The Birdcage, Cats (I know, sigh), Les Miserables, Midnight Cowboy, Citizen Kane, Gone with the Wind, A Place in the Sun, The Misfits, The Sound of Music, The Princess Bride, The Grifters, October Sky, The Fisher King, L.A. Story (Sarah Jessica Parker NEVER stops moving throughout and the name of the hotel, Pollo del Mar, still makes me laugh), West Side Story (original), Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Bambi, Beetlejuice, Bowfinger, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind

flurb said...

Three times and counting. List from off the top of the cranium:

What are
The Best Years of Our Lives
Miracle at Morgan's Creek
The Lady Eve
The Palm Beach Story
The Heiress
Blithe Spirit (David Lean's production)
La Belle et la Bête (Cocteau)
Fanny and Alexander
The Adventures of Robin Hood
All the President's Men
The Shop Around the Corner
Trouble in Paradise
To Be Or Not to Be (Lubitsch)
North by Northwest (well into the double digits by now)
Rear Window
The Birds
Rebecca
The Sound of Music (yes, and I mean it)
E.T.
Jaws
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Indiana Jones (all of them, including Crystal Skull, which was just as much a kick as the others)
The Color Purple
Casablanca
They Might Be Giants
The Last of Sheila
Murder on the Orient Express (Lumet)
Network
The Fanny Trilogy (Pagnol)
Singin' in the Rain
The Bandwagon
Oliver!
The Maltese Falcon
The African Queen
The Music Man (perfect)
Sounder
To Kill a Mockingbird
Avalon ("An elephant just vent by the vindow.")
The Miracle Worker
The Accidental Tourist
The Ice Storm
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Citizen Kane
Swing Time
In the Heat of the Night
The Age of Innocence
The Godfather Parts 1 & 2
Cabaret
The Court Jester
Wonder Man
The More the Merrier
Pocahontas (Disney's down on it now, but it has terrific music with the best lyrics of any of the hand-drawn epics, and a story that breaks the usual rules in a beautiful way)
Dead End (not as good as the play, but...)
The Little Foxes
The King and I
Oklahoma! (it's always better than I remember)

There's at least a dozen more, some of which just count as re-watching with kids.

How nice to have a positive thing to think about this weekend! Thank you!

Steve Lanzi (f/k/a qdpsteve) said...

A Man For All Seasons (forgotten Best Picture Winner, 1966)
Jumpin' Jack Flash (great Bond spoof from the 1980s)
National Lampoon's Vacation
Vertigo
"10"
Predator
A Boy Named Charlie Brown
The King Of Comedy
Poltergeist
The Good The Bad And The Ugly
Tootsie
Elvis' 1968 Comeback Special (not a movie, but still love it)
Special Bulletin (fantastic nuclear terrorism TV movie from 1983)

And, because I'm a Stanley Kubrick fanatic:
Paths Of Glory
Spartacus
2001 A Space Odyssey
Dr Strangelove
The Shining

JED said...

I have enjoyed almost all of the movies you and your commenters have mentioned. Most of those I've watched multiple times.

One of my very favorite movies is not on anyone's list yet. I like The Natural as much for Randy Newman's score as I do for the spectacle of its baseball story (although Glenn Close and Robert Redford playing teenagers in the beginning is silly).

Another movie I've watched multiple times is Das Boot (The Boat) the German submarine story.

DBA said...

tavm, Back to the Future II predicted the Cubs would win in 2015. They actually won it in 2016.

DBenson said...

On the excellent movie history site Greenbriar Picture Shows it's come up how the most re-watchable movies are rarely the great classics. They're comfort food, friendly and familiar rather than challenging and emotionally demanding.

I've been through the Rathbone-Bruce Sherlock Holmes movies several times each, and likewise many other B detectives (Even Boris Karloff as Mr. Wong). Silent clowns, cartoons, short subjects, cozy Universal horrors, boomer-era Disney, classic comedians, tidy Jane Austen adaptations, Ray Harryhausen, light fantasies and musicals, etc.

A few nights ago revisited "In Search of the Castaways", a very Disney item about a bunch of characters braving exotic locales to find a missing captain. Most of it is shot indoors with matte paintings and miniatures; in one scene natives climbing a rope are supported by visible wires. Hayley Mills is cute as heck, Maurice Chevalier works to be even cuter, and George Sanders turns up late in the game as a cheery villain. This weekend may dig out "Johnny Tremain", which does an honorable job of American history while still chin-deep in classic Disneyness.

Matt said...

I was surprised you mentioned Young Frankenstein but not Blazing Saddles.

My list would include

The first Star Wars Trilogy,
All but the last Indiana Jones Films,
Get shorty,
Wizard of Oz and Willy Wonka (largely because they were on every year),
Most the James Bond films led by Casino Royal,
Knives Out,
All the Harry Potter Films, hard to avoid them,
Fast Times,
Dirty Dancing because my college girlfriend,
Fletch,
Die Hard series,
Lethal Weapon Series,
Excalibur
Monty Python and the Holy Grail,
The Life of Brian,
First two Godfathers, not the third,
Goodfellas

I have made a tremendous effort not to see Its a Wonderful Life that many times.

Big Ray said...

I'll only mention a couple that I haven't seen listed so far (unless I missed them):
Philadelphia
The Verdict
Lord of the Rings trilogy

71dude said...

Animal House
Antwone Fisher
Apollo 13
Back to the Future
Bad Boys (Penn)
Blues Brothers
Caddyshack
Christmas Story
Cliffhanger
Dead Zone
Deliverance
Die Hard
Escape from Alcatraz
ET
Evil Dead
Fast Times
Field of Dreams
Friday the 13th 1 and 2
Ghostbusters
Godfather 1 and 2
Halloween 1 and 3
Hooper
Hoosiers
Iron Giant
It's a Wonderful Life
Jaws
King of the Hill
Mask (Cher)
Memphis Belle
Million Dollar Baby
Miracle
Mr. Holland's Opus
My Bloody Valentine
My Bodyguard
October Sky
On Golden Pond
Pulp Fiction
Raiders and Last Crusade
Revenge of the Nerds
Road to Perdition
Rocky
The Rookie (Quaid)
Rudy
Sandlot
Searching for Bobby Fischer
Shawshank Redemption
Smokey & the Bandit
Sounder
Speed
U2 Rattle and Hum
Untouchables
Vacation
Valley Girl
What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Wizard of Oz
Yours Mine and Ours

Pilot Joe said...

Best years of our lives
12oclock high
Meatballs
American graffiti
They were expendable
Back to baton
Stage door canteen
Hollywood canteen
4jills in a Jeep

Brian said...

What is "Funny Bones?

Oscar Solis said...

Forgot to add KING KONG, the 1933 film (all others are pretenders)

and kudos to @DBenton for mentioning IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS.

I have to add the Doug McClure films he starred in during the 70s:
THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT
AT THE EARTH'S CORE
THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT
WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS

gottacook said...

Limiting myself to films seen in a theater with an audience:
2001: A Space Odyssey
Fellini's Casanova
Star Wars (1977)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (one was the 1980 "special edition," a disappointment)
All That Jazz
Back to the Future

D. McEwan: "Love Happy is a bridge too far for me" is the funniest thing I've read all week, and I sorely needed the laugh. (I've seen it, on broadcast TV in the 1980s; once was enough.)

Kevin from VA said...

I'll just mention three that so far I not sure have been mentioned: Hombre (1967), Hard Times (1975), and The Thing (1982).

Three that many critics and viewers loved that I strongly disliked: Taxi Driver, walked out of the theatre, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, should have walked out of the theater, and The Deer Hunter, waited forty years to finally watch it on tv, should have waited forty more.

iamr4man said...

My Neighbor Totoro
The Castle in the sky Laputa
Nausicaa in the Valley of the Wind
Spirited Away
Kiki’s Delivery Service
Grave of the Fireflies
Only Yesterday
Pom Poko
Probably the rest of the animated films of Studio Ghibli

Key Largo, which has one of my favorite lines in film. What does Johnny Rocco want? “Rocco wants more”. I’ve referred to that line many times seeing the rampant greed of so many in the political and business world. Will they ever get enough? Never have, no I guess they never will.

Leighton said...

I'm seeing most of mine already listed.

Others (likely listed before)...

The Haunting (Robert Wise)
The Bells of St. Mary
Imitation of Life (Lana Tuner)
Black Narcissus
The River (1951)
Mildred Pierce
Grey Gardens
Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Dressed to Kill (De Palma)
The Apartment
The Gay Deceivers
The Sterile Cuckoo
Executive Suite
Mirage
The Bad Seed
Blair Witch Project
No Down Payment

Tom from Massachusetts said...

Rock and Roll High School
Valley of the Dolls
Beyond The Valley of the Dolls
Eating Raoul
Diary of a Mad Housewife
Harper
Network
Animal House
Casino Royale (1967)
Night of Dark Shadows
Whatever Happened To Baby Jane

Tom from Massachusetts

Tom from Massachusetts said...

Rock and Roll High School
Valley of the Dolls
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Eating Raoul
Diary of a Mad Housewife
Harper
All About Eve
Legend of Lyla Clare
The Love Machine
Doctors Wives
The Carpetbaggers
Lonely Lady
Once is Not Enough
Animal House
House of Dark Shadows
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane

Mitch said...

I've seen most of the movies listed by others at least once or twice. Since nobody listed the following, I'll put them in and add that I've seen all of them at least a half-dozen times:

City Lights
Laurel & Hardy silent and sound two-reelers
Buster Keaton (shorts and silent features)
Charlie Chase silent one and two-reelers
Harold Lloyd features and two-reelers
In a Lonely Place
Lonely Are the Brave
The Bandwagon
1938 Robin Hood

Jahn Ghalt said...


Recognition is generally more reliable than retrieval - so it really helped to review the comments to enlarge my list.

For instance - The Wizard of Oz - shown annually from 1965 (?) well into the 70s.

Or "A Star is Born" - but which one??

As a teen, Carrie Fisher in Star Wars was close to my personal Natalie Wood - SHE is the ONLY reason I have watched Star Wars so many times.

I go right along with Scarbrough about AVATAR, which was entertaining in "normal-D". Others said to see it in "abnormal" (3D) - but I thought it unremarkable - predictable the first time - not worthy of the time.

COCONUTS
DUCK SOUP
A NIGHT AT THE OPERA

THE WIZARD OF OZ
Gone with the Wind

HIS GIRL FRIDAY
THE PHILADELPHIA STORY
CASABLANCA

SOME LIKE IT HOT

LOLITA
DR. STRANGELOVE
2001: A SPACE ODYESSY

MY FAIR LADY
THE SOUND OF MUSIC
FUNNY GIRL
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF
THE BLUES BROTHERS

THE GRADUATE

YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN

THE GODFATHER
THE GODFATHER Part 2

ANIMAL HOUSE

LOVE AND DEATH
ANNIE HALL
MANHATTAN
HANNA AND HER SISTERS
CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS

AMERICAN GRAFFITI
STAR WARS

BLADE RUNNER

This Is Spinal Tap
Ferris Bueller's Day Off

BULL DURHAM

Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan

TAMPOPO (an outlier here)

TERMINATOR 2

RESERVOIR DOGS
PULP FICTION
JACKIE BROWN
KILL BILL #1
KILL BILL #2
INGLORIOUS BASTERDS
THE HATEFUL EIGHT
ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD

American Beauty

Jahn Ghalt said...



PS - all THAT NOISE about STATUTORY RAPE. In this case the writer says that a "rose by any other name" is....

RAPE!

How interesting that a young lady in 1979 could see what rape really isn't and a much older man in 2022 still does not.

Luke Keyes said...

Tampopo is a very funny film. I only saw it twice, though.

Stu R said...

Many movies on your list and the comments list. One I didn't see on any list (but might have missed) and just watched this morning...Murphy's Romance.

Peter Aparicio said...

In no particular order:
Brain Donors
The Naked Gun
A Few Good Men
Star Treks 2,3,4,6 (Original cast)
Die Hard
Star Wars 4,5,6
Coming to America
City Slickers
Mississippi Burning
I reserve the right to revise and extend my list.

Mark said...

What's Up, Doc? Every time I watch it I see something new.

John said...

That list has lots of favorites I've seen a million times and never get tired of watching. Plus these:

A Star is Born
All of Me
Auntie Mame
Baby Boom
Coal Miner’s Daughter
Dave
Fail Safe
Funny Girl
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
Gypsy
Heaven Can Wait
Lost Horizon (1937)
MASH
Mommie Dearest
Moonstruck
My Favorite Year
Norma Rae
Rear Window
Roman Holiday
Rosemary’s Baby
Saboteur
Spartacus
The Bad Seed
The Birds
The Exorcist
The Man Who Knew Too Much
The Time Machine
The Verdict
West Side Story
What’s Up Doc?
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
Working Girl

Lorimartian said...

I neglected to include The Cider House Rules and Lilies of the Field on my list.

Joyce Melton said...

I have a huge list of movies have seen twice but three times is much smaller.

Little Big Man
The Good the Bad and the Ugly
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Groundhog Day
Heaven Can Wait
Star Wars, A New Hope
Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back
Star Trek the Motion Picture
The Wrath of Khan
The Search for Spock
The Producers
Young Frankenstein
Blazing Saddles
Sleeper
Paleface
The Wizard of Oz
It's a Wonderful Life
The Egg and I
Terminator 2
Blade Runner
The Magnificent Seven
The Blues Brothers
Some Like it Hot
Kiki's Delivery Service
Il Porco Rosso
Back to the Future
Toy Story
Wall-E
Iron Man
Guardians of the Galaxy
Halloween
Guardians of the Galaxy 2
Beetlejuice
2001, A Space Odyessy
King Kong (original)
Frankenstein (with Karloff)
Ghostbusters
Miracle on 34th Street
The Great Race
Rio Bravo
Jaws
Die Hard
Friday the Thirteenth
Peter Pan
Alice in Wonderland
Cinderella
The Sword in the Stone
Fantasia
Dumbo
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Die Hard
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Ghostbusters
The Princess Bride
The Maltese Falcon
Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Big Sleep
Singing in the Rain
Camelot
My Fair Lady
The King and I
South Pacific
Tea House of the August Moon
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Superman the Movie
Batman
Rear Window
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Mad Max
La Cage aux Folles
American Grafitti
Bad Bascomb
The Glass Bottom Boat
The Pajama Game
Follow That Dream
No Time for Sergeants

I'm surprised the list is this long and I know I am forgetting a dozen or so.

tavm said...

Some other movies I saw at least three times: For Your Eyes Only (theatre, HBO, DVD), Poltergeist (theatre, HBO, VHS from recording HBO), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (HBO, VHS from recording HBO, DVD with commentary by Amy Heckerling and Cameron Crowe. No, I didn't do slo-mo on Phoebe Cates when she undid her bikini top!), Sixteen Candles (theatre, MCA VHS which had altered music score, HBO), and Meatballs (edited NBC airing, HBO, DVD).

Lorimartian said...

One more: Ghost

VHS Village (Formerly The Beta Barn) said...

Since I can see there are fellow horror/action fans in the comments, these are more of my pleasures that I won't feel guilty about, dammit!

CHILD'S PLAY 3
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 1, 3, 4, 5
All ten FRIDAY THE 13THS
HALLOWEEN II, III, IV, H20
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (Both the 1974 original and 2003 remake)
THE OMEN TRILOGY
THE EXORCIST
SCREAM 1, 2
TIMECOP
YOU'RE NEXT
I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER
URBAN LEGEND
HOSTEL PART II
SUDDEN DEATH
TOTAL RECALL
TRUE LIES
END OF DAYS
RAMBO 2, 4
MARKED FOR DEATH
OUT FOR JUSTICE
UNDER SIEGE
HELLRAISER I, II, III
PSYCHO II
THE KARATE KID I, II, III

-bee said...

Shop Around the Corner
Singing in the Rain
Godfather II
Kubrick: Dr Strangelove, Paths of Glory, Barry Lyndon, The Shining
Ozu: An Inn in Tokyo, Tokyo Story
Sansho the Bailiff
Pennies from Heaven
Children of Paradise
Night on the Galactic Railroad
Fantasia
Keaton: The Navigator, Seven Chances, Steamboat Bill Jr
Chaplin: The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times
Glory
Swingtime
Andre Rubelov
Satantango
Three Days, Two Nights
Toy Story II
Lady and the Tramp
Draftee Daffy
Days of Heaven
Various Astaire/Rogers movies
Satyajit Ray: Apu Trilogy, Charulata Two Daughters
Cabaret
Three/Four Musketeers (Richard Lester's version)


Gary said...

Too many to list so I'll go with this: every Feb. I watch Groundhog Day. (But only once!)

Pat Reeder said...

Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors" and "Radio Days" would probably make my 10 favorite films of all time list, and "Love and Death" and "Sleeper" would be among my top comedies. But I agree with Doug McEwan about "Manhattan." I never understood why critics kept claiming it was his greatest film. I love the Gershwin and the cinematography, but I found all the characters to be shallow, obnoxious and repellant.

Someone suggested the topic of movies everyone loved but you hated. I can't think of any beloved movies offhand that I despised (I thought "The Deer Hunter" was wildly overpraised, but I don't think it's beloved), but there have been movies other people built their lives around that I just don't get. I'm pretty certain that when I die, it will be without having ever sat through the entire "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. I also remember seeing the original "Star Wars" as a teenager, coming out of the theater and saying, "That was really cool!," then never giving it another thought. Well, except for when I watched "Hardware Wars." Now, that I've seen numerous times!

VHS Village (Formerly The Beta Barn) said...

bee, you've seriously watched Satantango more than three times?? I loved Bela Tarr's Werckmeister Harmonies, but the prospect of watching his 8 hour Satantango is intimidating. Obviously no one watches it in one go, but it's still daunting.

Leighton said...

Oh, the actual title of the film is "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" It is "correct" to say "what ever," as well as "whatever," grammatically. The two-word “what ever,” isolates and underscores the “ever” part of the compound, further accentuating the note of surprise, bewilderment, or disbelief. As in, "What EVER happened...."

Spike de Beauvoir said...

My misspent life? This is embarrassing and there are many more. Well, I did technical editing for many years and played DVDs to keep my energy up as I worked. And many thanks to the TCM cinematheque that introduced me to so many forgotten classics.

*

Jean Arthur:
History Is Made at Night
Easy Living
More Than a Secretary
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
The Talk of the Town
The Whole Town's Talking
If Only You Could. Cook
The Public Menace
Too Many Husbands

Irene Dunne:
Theodora Goes Wild
The Awful Truth

Marie Dressler and Polly Moran (story/script by Zelda Sears):
Politics
Prosperity
Reducing
Emma

Mae West:
I'm No Angel
Belle of the Nineties

WC Fields:
It's a Gift
The Bank Dick

Eddie Cantor:
The Kid from Spain
Forty Little Mothers

Norma Shearer:
The Divorcee
Her Cardboard Lover
Idiot's Delight
The Women

Powell and Loy:
Double Wedding
Love Crazy
I Love You Again
The Thin Man movies

Kay Francis movies:
Trouble in Paradise
Jewel Robbery
Man Wanted
Comet Over Broadway
In Name Only
I Found Stella Parish

Carole Lombard movies:
True Confessions
The Princess Comes Across
Hands Across the Table
Lady by Choice

Warren William:
The Dark Horse
Skyscraper Souls
Lady for a Day
Gold Diggers of 1933

Loretta Young:
Employee's Entrance
The Doctor Takes a Wife

Edward G. Robinson gangster comedies:
A Slight Case of Murder
Larceny Inc.
Brother Orchid
The Little Giant

Claudette Colbert:
Midnight
Without Reservations
It's a Wonderful World
The Gilded Lily

Fred and Ginger:
The Gay Divorcee
Top Hat
Shall We Dance
Carefree

Preston Sturges:
Christmas in July
Miracle of Morgan's Creek
The Great McGinty
Remember the Night

All the Miss Marple movies with Margaret Rutherford

The Dinner Game (Veber)
Odette Toulemonde (Catherine Frot)
Autumn Tale (Rohmer)
Summer (Rohmer)
Celine and Julie Go Boating
Big Deal on Madonna Street
Daisies (Czech)

A Majority of One (Alec Guinness and Rosalind Russell)
Auntie Mame

Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis:
Artists and Models
Hollywood or Bust
The Errand Boy
Bells Are Ringing

Doris Day:
Pillow Talk
Lover Come Back
Send Me No Flowers
Romance on the High Seas

The Apartment
Avanti!
A New Leaf
The Fortune Cookie
The Sunshine Boys
Continental Divide
Lost in America
The Muse
French Kiss
In & Out
Baby Boom
Something's Gotta Give
First Wives Club

Jack West said...

Well, last night I happened upon watching The Mask of Zorro (1940) and was reminded of its great cast and score... which they redid as a TV movie in 1974 with Frank Langella, Gilbert Roland, Ricardo Montalban and Yvonne DeCarlo, so I watched some of that... all of whom Langella drops some naughty, naught shade in his memoirs, which I then turned to reading.

Parson Tom said...

One for each decade since the Talkies started:
Captain Blood
It's A Wonderfull Life
Singing In The Rain
Bullitt
The Outlaw Josey Wales
The Big Chill
Jerry Maguire
Road Trip (low-brow, I know)
Sully


Anthony Adams said...

I know I'm late to the party but I wanted to mention a couple of favorites that certainly made no one else's list:

The Adventures of Don Juan: arguably Flynn's last good movie Definitely his last pairing with Alan Hale.

Donovan's Reef: The last pairing of John Ford and John Wayne. Mark me up as insensitive but I like the humor.

LaurentV said...

I have cultivated a video library for the precise reason of re-re-rewatching great movies. I'm afraid three times is chump change. I'd have to list my entire collection.

Now, if we want up the ante to, let's say, watching a movie ten times...

JS said...

Frankenstein
Ghostbusters
The Naked Gun
Alien
Psycho
It's A Wonderful Life

JS said...

While we are on the subject of movies - my Friday question - what is a movie where the sequel was better than the original? I thought Superman 2 was better than Superman. That's the only one that comes to mind.

Donna said...

Bringing Up Baby

Anonymous said...

THE MASK OF ZORRO
THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD
TARZAN THE MAGNIFICENT
WEST SIDE STORY (original)
SINGIN' IN THE RAIN
42ND STREET
THE THIN MAN
MALTESE FALCON
THE BIG SLEEP (still can't follow it)
BULLITT (still can't follow it)
IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD
BLAZING SADDLES
THE PRODUCERS
THE GODFATHER
GOODFELLAS
CITIZEN KANE
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
SUNSET BLVD
ACE IN THE HOLE
MAGNUM FORCE
CHINATOWN
GUNGA DIN
THE SEARCHERS
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
THE D.I.
PATTON
THE FRENCH CONNECTION
TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE
HIGH NOON
ANIMAL HOUSE
ROAD TO UTOPIA


-30-

Spike de Beauvoir said...

A few more to add:

Peter Sellers:
I'm All Right Jack
The Smallest Show on Earth
Heavens Above
The World of Henry Orient

Bob Hope:
Ghost Breakers
My Favorite Blonde
Nothing But the Truth
The Facts of Life (with Lucille Ball)

Jean Harlow:
Bombshell
Libeled Lady
Personal Property
Wife vs Secretary
Dinner at Eight
Hold Your Man

Joan Blondell:
Union Depot
Footlight Parade
Traveling Saleslady
Desk Set

Torchy Blane series with Glenda Farrell

Janet Gaynor:
A Star Is Born
Three Loves Has Nancy
The Young in Heart
Small Town Girl

Leo McCarey:
Duck Soup
Love Affair
Make Way for Tomorrow
Ruggles of Red Gap
Big Business (Laurel and Hardy)

Scottmc said...

spike de Beauvoir included two movies that had completely slipped my mind. I have seen every Billy Wilder movie at least three times, with the exception of The Emperor Waltz and Fedora. Avanti! is one of my favorites.. Continental Divide is my favorite John Belushi movie. I have the poster from the movie, signed by Blair Brown, framed and hanging in my living room.

D. McEwan said...

"Matt said...
I was surprised you mentioned Young Frankenstein but not Blazing Saddles."


Well, Young Frankenstein is a considerably better movie than Blazing Saddles.. I've seen BS a few times. I've watched YF countless times. I have YF on both DVD and on Blu-Ray. I may have an old VHS BS around here somewhere, unwatched for 30 years.

Maybe we need to find a way to shave the category down, since we have so many, many movies we watch and rewatch. How about movies you've seen three times or more in the same week?

I would claim it on behalf of my late mother. In 1935, MGM's musical horror movie Naughty Marietta starring the hideous Jeanette MacDonald and the sexless stiff Nelson Eddy, played for a week at the one and only theater in Hinsdale, Illinois, where my then-14 years old mother saw every screening. In a small town like Hinsdale, there is one showing a night, and on weekends, one matinee and one evening show. So for one week that would be 9 screenings and my mother saw every one of them, falling madly in love with Nelson Eddy. They stopped charging her after the third screening. Meanwhile, I imagine the poor projectionist, who also had to see it 9 times that week. That he managed not to shoot himself before the end of the week shows a remarkable stoicism.

D. McEwan said...

" JS said...
While we are on the subject of movies - my Friday question - what is a movie where the sequel was better than the original? I thought Superman 2 was better than Superman. That's the only one that comes to mind."


THAT is the only one that comes to mind? So you've never seen Bride of Frankenstein?

Michael Lively said...

Citizen Kane
Star wars 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6
The marathon man
THE 1138
American Graffiti
Visions of 8
Last Temptation of Christ
Taxi driver
Apocalypse now
The conversation
Godfather 1, 2 & 3'
Raging bull
Alice Doesn't live here anymore
Universal monster movies
Magnificent Albertsons
F is for fake
2001 space odyssey
Barry Lyndon
A. I.
Jaws
1941
Duck soup
Night at the opera
French connection
High plains drifter
Richard lester 3 & 4 marketeers
Hard day'insight.
Taking of Pelham 123


Spike de Beauvoir said...

Loved "Flawrence," hated "Lawrence."

Can't recall the title but still remember fondly the MAD parody of "My Fair Lady" set on Madison Avenue. But I think that was George Woodbridge?

The Archetypal Republican said...

Yeeehaw! I love me them movies with wholesome heterosexual stars and patriotic stories with none of that liberal stuff about women getting a job or helping poor people!

These done be them movies that I watched lots of times.

The Passion of the Christ. I like the cut of that Mr Gibson's jib. He and me have the same thinkings about women, the Jews and the gays. He a good man.

Smokey and the Bandit

Smokey and the Bandit number 2

Smokey and the Bandit. I don't remember what the third movie was called.

The Birth of a Nation. I showed that to my kids when they was 5. One of my boys wants to be a cop when he grows up.

Every Chuck Norris movie. He a good man. I like the cut of his jib about the libs and the gays.

The Green Berets. This done told the truth. We won the Vietnam War and it was great.

We Were Soldiers. This done told the truth. We won the Vietnam War and it was great. And I like the cut of that Mr Gibson's jib. He and me have the same thinkings about women, the Jews and the gays. He a good man. Except when he done made those Lethal Weapon movies with that other guy. I don't like that other guy. That's why my son gonna be a cop.

Troy said...

Gods help me, LIFEFORCE...

"She's not going to tell us! She wants us to hurt her! Do you want to stay? Otherwise, wait outside!"
"Not at all, I am a *natural* voyeur."

What a stinker. Why does my entire friend group keep recommending it to one another.

Bob Zirunkel said...

Let's leave the comedy to Ken.

Buttermilk Sky said...

D. McEwan, your account of your mother sounds like the plot of THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO. Luckily McDonald and Eddy -- a/k/a the Iron Butterfly and the Singing Capon -- didn't come down off the screen.



Craig Gustafson said...

More than half of your 66 choices were on my list. I'll skip them for variety's sake.

What is The Strawberry Blonde? (James Cagney. My favorite movie)
What is Diplomaniacs?
What is M?
What is Animal Crackers?
What is Hair?
What is Dark and Stormy Night?
What is Frankenstein?
What is Monty Python and the Holy Grail?
What is Monty Python’s Life of Brian?
What is Who’s Minding the Mint?
What is The Ruling Class?
What is The Abominable Dr. Phibes?
What is He Who Gets Slapped?
What is Start the Revolution Without Me?
What is Roxie Hart?
What is The Princess Bride?
What is The Freshman? (Brando, not Lloyd)
What is The Tall Guy? (Emma Thompson & Jeff Goldblum - most hilarious sex scene ever)
What is The Music Man?
What is The Producers?
What is Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein?
What is The President’s Analyst?
What is Bedazzled?
What is Head?
What is The Mark of Zorro?
What is Li’l Abner?
What is Reefer Madness? (The 2004 musical)
What is Monkey Business?
What is Duck Soup?
What is My Favorite Year?
What is The Wolf Man?
What is The Public Enemy?
What is Sherlock, Jr.?
What is Sons of the Desert?
What is Way Out West?
What is S.O.B.?
What is Angels with Dirty Faces?
What is Waiting for Guffman?
What is The Bride of Frankenstein?
What is Evil Roy Slade? (TV movie, but it belongs here)
What is The Great Race?
What is International House?
What is Skidoo?
What is 20th Century?
What is Road to Utopia?
What is Man on the Flying Trapeze?
What is Prizzi’s Honor?
What is The Time of Their Lives?
What is Yankee Doodle Dandy?
What is Miracle on 34th Street?
What is Horse Feathers?
What is A Mighty Wind?
What is Chimes at Midnight?
What is Cinderella? (1977 X-rated musical. Some good tunes)
What is Freaks?
What is Airplane!?
What is Son of Paleface?
What is A Fish Called Wanda?
What is Road to Rio?
What is The Party?
What is What’s Up, Doc?
What is Beach Blanket Bingo?
What is Million Dollar Legs?
What is I Married a Witch?
What is The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra?
What is Pandemonium? (Carol Kane, Tom Smothers, Paul Reubens)
What is Robin and the 7 Hoods?
What is The Cat’s Paw? (Harold Lloyd talkie)
What is The Adventures of Robin Hood?
What is Death Takes a Holiday?
What is The Old Dark House?
What is All Through the Night? (Bogart in a Runyonesque New York comedy-action picture, dismally marketed as a straight Gangsters vs. Nazis film. With Phil Silvers and Jackie Gleason. And Peter Lorre.)
What is Darby O’Gill and the Little People?
What is Cold Turkey?
What is Bombshell?

VincentP said...

Nice lists from you people (and for Ken and those who cited "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," my Facebook friend Kelli Maroney thanks you). Now, my list(semi-chronologically):

* Girl Shy (Harold Lloyd's best, capped by a frantic race through 1924 Los Angeles on all sorts of vehicles)
* Show People (Marion Davies was no Susan Alexander Kane, and this King Vidor-directed silent proves it)
* The Smiling Lieutenant (Ernst Lubitsch! Maurice Chevalier! Claudette Colbert! Miriam Hopkins! Jazz up your lingerie!)
* One Way Passage (Bill Powell, Kay Francis and paradise cocktails to all)
* Twentieth Century (Carole Lombard proves the equal of John Barrymore in this early screwball)
* Top Hat (Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers; "Isn't This A Lovely Day" is pure bliss)
* Libeled Lady (a literal four-star newspaper comedy -- Powell, Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow, Spencer Tracy)
* My Man Godfrey (my all-time favorite actor and actress -- Powell, also from his career year of '36, and ex-wife Lombard -- in the greatest screwball on them all)
* Nothing Sacred (this comedy made me a Lombard fan; make sure you watch a print showing Carole's beautiful genius in restored Technicolor)
* Stagecoach (an incredible John Ford ensemble headed by John Wayne in his breakthrough role)
* The Shop Around the Corner (Lubitsch subtlety guides James Stewart in my favorite role of his, and Frank Morgan's finest hour)
* Mr. & Mrs. Smith, 1941 (an Alfred Hitchcock marital comedy? Lombard, alongside Robert Montgomery, makes it work, and she was never more lovingly photographed)
* Citizen Kane (ever heard Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring"? This is its cinematic equivalent, breaking all the rules)
* To Be Or Not To Be, 1942 (Jack Benny's best, Lombard's last and a Lubitsch dark comedy now fully appreciated)
* Casablanca (romance, then sacrifice, change a cynical Humphrey Bogart)
* The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (incredibly subversive Preston Sturges wartime comedy with Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton)
* Double Indemnity (Fred MacMurray leaves behind his light leading-man persona, lured by Barbara Stanwyck and director Billy Wilder in the greatest of film noirs)
* Singin' in the Rain (among the best musicals ever made, with a wonderful feel for the silent-to-sound transition; Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds shine)
* Marty (Ernest Borgnine emphasizes the title character's humanity, and shows there's hope for us all)
* The Incredible Shrinking Man (thoughtful sci-fi film; any remake should literally adapt from Richard Matheson's book, which plays up Scott Carey' sexual frustration as continues to diminish)
* The Apartment (MacMurray's a Wilder baddie again -- shut up and deal!)
* A Hard Day's Night (captures the spirit of the '60s better than any film I know)







0

MikeKPa. said...

North by Northwest
Good Fellas
It's a Wonderful Life
The Best Years of Our Lives
Casablanca
Kingpin
Charade
The Ringer
Love With the Proper Stranger
Hard Day's Night
Goldfinger
From Russia With Love
Arsenic and Old Lace
The Graduate


Spike de Beauvoir said...

@Scottmc

Have you seen Only You (1994)? Gianfranco Barra (Bruno in Avanti!) plays a desk clerk at a hotel in Rome, and he's delightful in scenes with Marisa Tomei and Bonnie Hunt. It's one of my favorite romcoms, enhanced by the wonderful cinematography of Sven Nykvist.

JonCow said...

I agree with (most of) the previously named movies.
Not mentioned yet:
What is "We're No Angels" (1954)?

But, back in the day when you had to pay admission to see a movie again (and again), mine would be:
What is "Diva" (French film)?
What is "Cabaret"?

Unknown said...

Most of the above plus: What is Jaws? Dog Day Afternoon? Scarface (both versions)? After Hours? The Road Warrior? Die Hard? The Apartment? Bull Durham? Rosemary's Baby? The Untouchables? Something Wild?

D. McEwan said...

"Buttermilk Sky said...
D. McEwan, your account of your mother sounds like the plot of THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO."


In The Purple Rose of Cairo, Mia Farrow's character was at the movies seeking escape and respite from a hellish home life and a brutal husband.

My mother was a fairly-typical high school freshman living happily in a beautiful upper-middle-class neighborhood (Except in Winter, when all of Illinois is the First Circle of Hell) with an unfathomable crush on Nelson Eddy. She wasn't "escaping." She was swooning. She was her version of those teenage girls we saw screaming for The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. (While Mother sat on the sofa complaining that the Beatles were "just noise," like the tastes and opinions of someone who got moist at the sight and sound of Nelson Eddy are worth anything.)

Not the same thing at all. And Nelson never came off the screen. It would not be for another 24 years before Mother came face to face with Nelson Eddy in the flesh. By then she was like his last, living fan. I suppose that is the reason that in 1959 he took the time to write her a one-page, entirely hand-written letter after they met backstage at a concert of his. (Yes, Dad was there also. So was Edgar Bergen.) The hand-written letter, and the very large photo of Nelson inscribed "To Iris," are in a frame in my hallway. I couldn't stand Nelson, but these were her most-prized possessions.

-bee said...

@VHS Village
"bee, you've seriously watched Satantango more than three times?"

I think i have seen 5-6 times. The first time I saw it I didn't know what was going on half the time but still loved it - I kept going because the more I saw it, the more I put the pieces together and the more I got from it.

And I always saw it in a movie theater, so saw the whole thing through (it has 2 intermissions built in) - can't imagine seeing it on a TV because you sort of have to be forced to really sit there and concentrate (no putting it on pause to talk to someone on the phone). For some people I'm sure its torture because its so sloooooow - but for some people like me, its almost like entering a 4th dimension and a sense of time changes and you just flow with this filmmaker's different sense of time.

Last time I saw it though, a little of the magic was gone. There is a sense of diminishing returns if I over-expose myself to something so I am not intending to see it again any time soon, if ever.

But I'm glad someone asked me a question because there were some serious omissions on my previous list:

Citizen Kane / Magnificent Ambersons/Touch of Evil

Psycho / Strangers on a Train

Sunset Boulevard/ The Apartment

Make Way for Tomorrow

Lawrence of Arabia

Dryer: Passion of Joan of Arc, Vampyr, Day of Wrath

Solaris (Tarkovsky)

The Strawberry Blonde

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

A Night at the Opera/ Monkey Business

Mary Poppins

The Bicycle Thief

Peeping Tom

Mutiny on the Bounty (Galble/Laugton/Tone version)

Spike de Beauvoir said...

Thought to add two crackling Lee Tracy movies:

Blessed Event
The Half-Naked Truth (with Lupe Velez!)

D. McEwan said...

"Jahn Ghalt said...
PS - all THAT NOISE about STATUTORY RAPE. In this case the writer says that a "rose by any other name" is....
RAPE!
How interesting that a young lady in 1979 could see what rape really isn't and a much older man in 2022 still does not.:


So you're OK with Statutory Rape? In 1979 and in 2022, sex between men in their forties and highs school girls is still statutory rape. That a young girl will fall for flattery from a famous man doesn't make it any less statutory rape. Remind me never to hire you to babysit, not that I'd let someone whose fake name is taken from one of the most repellent and disgusting novels ever written near any kids.

David G. said...

I'll confine to "In A Movie Theater".

Star Wars
The Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
Batman (1989)
Back To The Future
Back To The Future Part II
And (nobody else is going to bring up this one): They All Laughed

Spike de Beauvoir said...

Ken, you mentioned The Heartbreak Kid on your list, I assume you meant the 1972 film directed by Elaine May and starring Charles Grodin and Jeannie Berlin. A recent article in Vanity Fair discusses how it's a "Missing Movie": https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/07/film-preservation-missing-movies

Fortunately A New Leaf pops up often on PlutoTV on demand. Elaine May also was featured with Marlo Thomas in a rare film In the Spirit, which is a fun watch if you can find it.

AaronW said...

The Godfather and Apocalypse Now and Taxi Driver and The Conversation and the original King Kong and Dracula and Frankenstein!

chuckcd said...

What is Who's Minding The Mint??
What is Raiders Of The Lost Ark?
What is Lord Of The Rings (Extended cuts)?