Movies that hold up to repeate viewing

POSTED BY: SergeantX
UPDATED: Wednesday, April 27, 2005 00:26
VIEWED: 11686
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ARAMINA

Saturday, April 23, 2005 4:11 PM

Agreeing with:

The Big Lebowski
The Truman Show

I'm not a huge fan of films that make me think, I'm a lazy film watcher and most of the films I can watch over and over again are rubbish disaster films :)

So a completely random list of films I like to watch over and over:

Pitch Black (although this is a great film I think I'm more into it because Vin Diesel is such a sexy man! Hey, someone had to lower the tone)
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Monty Python's Life of Brian
The Goonies
Mars Attacks! (Genius, brilliant and massively over looked.)

Plus Dante's Peak, Independence Day, Ice Age, Toy Story, Twister, Airforce One and other things I just find entertaining.

When I think of an interesting signature you'll be the first to know.

ZOL

Saturday, April 23, 2005 4:28 PM

I`m going to put this movie here (as it belongs) ...
SERENITY

I`ve seen 2 previews of the "unfinished" print and to me it holds up on a 2nd viewing and maybe lots more besides.

I`m not going to go into anything about the movie but needless to say, 1st time it blows you away, the 2nd time is just as good as the 1st and I found myself jump out of my seat at one point

Darin (Zol.)

CAPTAINCDC

Saturday, April 23, 2005 4:30 PM

Just to name a few:
Movies
The Searchers
Stagecoach
Rio Bravo
The Big Lebowski
Dazed And Confused
Raising Arizona
O Brother Where Art Thou
Original Star Wars Trilogy
Star Treks 2, 4, 6, 8
Office Space
Galaxy Quest
Bottle Rocket
Before Sunrise
Before Sunset
etc, etc, etc...

Television
Buffy
Angel
Firefly
Wonderfalls
Freaks & Geeks
Trailer Park Boys

---------------------------------------

The only sovereign you can allow to rule you is reason!

FREMDFIRMA

Saturday, April 23, 2005 4:32 PM

Y'all beat me to the punch on mosta what I was gonna say, definate nods to
Pitch Black
Princess Bride

But also to

Aliens - even more so (for a certain warped humor factor Sarge there will understand perfectly) if you've ever done military service... cause in it's own way, it IS funny.

-F

SERGEANTX

Saturday, April 23, 2005 5:47 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
....I'll have to get back and think about this a bit.

Exactly! It's a tricky issue, isn't it?

We seem to have a pretty good list of movies here. I've definitely added several to my rental wish list. But I was hoping someone would take the bait and venture into the why of it all. What makes some movies get better as you watch them, while some just seem to grow stale?

For me, it's not just a question of a complex or mysterious plot. Certainly some movies are subtle enough that you'll discover new twists and foreshadowing that you missed the first time around. That's fun, but the charm of that goes away once you've 'got it'. There's something more durable in the movies that keep finding there way into my DVD player.

I keep coming back to music as an example, but it fits. The movies I like to watch over and over again play in my head almost the way a good song lyric does. In part, I think this rests on well-written dialogue that has a life beyond the needs of the story. Joss is a master of this kind of thing and his playful reverence for language is what sucked me into Firefly to begin with.

Cinematography can do this same kind of thing, but it's probably something I'm a little more oblivious to. David Lynch is someone who can hold a movie together purely with the eye candy. Some of Joss's stuff, especially in OIS, works this way as well.

There's also an issue of philosophy. Most of the movies that hold up for me lend themselves to interesting philosophical interpretations. This can be dangerous territory for a screenwriter to walk because its very easy to slide into tedious preaching. Done well, a movie invites you to take in the ideas and mull them over, even when you don't realize you're doing it. A step further and you have a movie that leaves the audience guilty that they didn't pay more attention in philosophy class ("I Heart Huckabee's" for example).

For those of you kind enough to respond, what is it about the movies you listed that really makes them work over and over again? Is it specific lines of dialogue that stick with you? Is it the way the soundtrack works with the story? Or is the way the movie makes you reflect on specific personal issues or memories?

SergeantX

"Dream a little dream or you can live a little dream. I'd rather live it, cause dreamers always chase but never get it." Aesop Rock

STARRBABY

Saturday, April 23, 2005 5:53 PM

oh! I've got one! The Boondock Saints. I never tire of it, and I catch all sorts of neat things each time.

SERGEANTX

Saturday, April 23, 2005 6:27 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by chronicthehedgehog:
...The Truman Show - Brilliant social commentary.

There's no getting around the premise of this movie as a commentary on reality programming and media culture in general, but this is one of those movies that began to take on a whole 'nother life when viewed repeatedly.

For me the real soul of the movie has much more to do with the individual than with social issues. It's pointed out in several places in the movie that it's Truman's own delusions that keep him there. It seems the theme is more about being trapped by our own assumptions about who we are and what is possible. If there is a message in this movie I think it's summed up in the call-in show sequence:

Quote:
Interviewer: Christof, let me ask you. Why do you think that Truman has never come close to discovering the true nature of his world, until now?
Christof: We accept the reality of the world with which we're presented, it's as simple as that.
(cut to two viewers nodding blankly)
.....
(later, responding to phoned in questions from a protester)
Caller: He's not a performer, he's a prisoner. Look at him, look at what you've done to him.
Christof: He could leave at any time. If his was more than just a vague ambition, if he was absolutely determined to discover the truth, there's no way we could prevent him. I think what distresses you really caller, is that ultimately, Truman prefers his 'cell' as you call it.

SergeantX

"Dream a little dream or you can live a little dream. I'd rather live it, cause dreamers always chase but never get it." Aesop Rock

CYBERSNARK

Saturday, April 23, 2005 7:04 PM

I'll list The Truman Show too, for reasons already well-explained. Also:

Star Trek Nemesis, both for the philosophy, and the interwoven threads of the story, as Picard & Data both end up in basically the same situation, but deal with it in entirely different ways. I just wish the deleted "Picard & Data toast" scene could've made the final cut.

InuYashs: The Love That Transcends Time (I will not use the grammatically-senseless title Viz gave it), because of Kikyo. I had to see this three times before I really understood everything (I think ) about her role --this is the major turning point for her, when she actually realizes that Kagome feels for InuYasha the exact same way Kikyo does, and Kikyo uses that knowledge to (try to) destroy Kagome. As soon as Kikyo opens her mouth for the first time, the entire ending of that movie becomes inevitable (but Kikyo won't realize it until much later).

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

ARAMINA

Saturday, April 23, 2005 7:54 PM

Why do my films work over and over again?

Usually because they're simple and there isn't much about them that I find annoying. They're usually something I can leave playing in the background while I'm tidying or something, and I can just watch them properly when I know there's a scene coming up that I like.

In fact...

I think I may go and watch Pitch Black right now.

When I think of an interesting signature you'll be the first to know.

Ooh and no one's mentioned Battle Royale yet.

ASTRAGYNIA

Saturday, April 23, 2005 8:56 PM

I guess it's a little-known miniseries rather than a movie, but... Neverwhere. (For those of you who haven't discovered it yet, it's a BBC series based - in fact, near word-for-word - on the book by Neil Gaiman). Ok, the stunts and special effects look like they were produced on about $5, but there're just so many little details that you don't notice the first few times through, and the witty, sarcastic exchanges between the eclectic group of characters never gets old... hmm, sounds like another series we know of...
:)

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