Movies you loved and later realized were horrible (2 Viewers)

jbutler

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i saw someone describe Almost Famous as "a PG-13 version of the 70s" and thought about that movie for the first time in a long time. i rewatched about 30 minutes of it before i realized how awful it is. of course, that's in retrospect. for whatever reason, my 20-year old self thought it was good (i mean, even then i knew it wasn't the greatest, but i liked it quite a bit).

it's tough, though, because plenty of terrible movies still have such nostalgic value that i love them even though i know i wouldn't if i saw them now for the first time. and others i look at and feel nothing but sickness thinking that at some point, i watched this on purpose and enjoyed it.

my list:

Almost Famous - discussed above

Chasing Amy - people still tell me this movie is great, but they are wrong. when the writing in Kevin Smith movie doesn't work, there's a problem because it's needed to cover up the bad performances as it does in Clerks and Mallrats. it doesn't here, however, and the result is a disaster.

Garden State - i must have originally watched this in some kind of depressed mood because it is so obviously too full of itself and dramatic to be tolerated.

Return of the Jedi - i know it is candidly admitted by some nerds, but all nerds everywhere should just be open about how awful this movie is.

American Beauty - basically rewrite Ordinary People and get Kevin Spacey to talk about jerking off and this is the movie. add in some rose petals for people who thing they're artsy and abstract. evidently i thought i was artsy and abstract in 1999 because i was totally sold. i was a chump and this is terrible.

i'm sure i will remember more, but those are prob enough to start it off.
 
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I never really get around to rewatching movies except those I really, really love - I liked Chasing Amy a lot back in the day, but I wonder how I would see it now.

What really comes to mind are the cartoons we loved as kids - I (tried to) watch episodes of the original He-Man and Transformers fairly recently, and it was sad and painful how horrible they were.

Although, I'm almost ashamed to admit how much I do enjoy some of today's kids content - Despicable Me is f*cking hilarious - I don't care what anybody says. Frozen is a tearjerker, and Big Time Rush is the best comedy on TV... period. :oops:
 
What really comes to mind are the cartoons we loved as kids - I (tried to) watch episodes of the original He-Man and Transformers fairly recently, and it was sad and painful how horrible they were.

i recently rewatched the Transformers movie, the GI Joe movie, and the live action Master of the Universe. Master of the Universe was fucking horrific (but i didn't even like it back in the day), but the other two actually held up i thought. maybe i'd feel differently about the episodes, but the movies were fun.
 
i recently rewatched the Transformers movie, the GI Joe movie, and the live action Master of the Universe. Master of the Universe was fucking horrific (but i didn't even like it back in the day), but the other two actually held up i thought. maybe i'd feel differently about the episodes, but the movies were fun.
When you say Transformers are you talking the cartoon with Orson Welles and Leonard Nimoy?
 
I was never a fan of GI Joe even as a kid, don't think I ever saw the movie. The original Transformers movie would be interesting now - I watched it so many times from the ages of 7-12 I could probably still quote along with it.

I did see American Beauty several times in the couple of years after it came it out and was always pretty "meh" about it, but wouldn't have said it was bad.

And I've always though RotJ got less respect than it deserved (which doesn't necessarily mean it deserves a ton, but in comparison to the others I always enjoyed it just as much if not slightly more.)
 
That movie ruled in my childhood. Orson Welles as a robot/god planet devourer. GTFO!!!!

there are some pretty amazing apocryphal stories about his time on that movie. i'd have to search my memory (or the internet) to find them, but i recall them being very entertaining.
 
Just saw Netflix has "The Warriors" available for streaming. One of my favorites from the 70's. I hope it still holds up.
 
i recently rewatched the Transformers movie, the GI Joe movie, and the live action Master of the Universe. Master of the Universe was fucking horrific (but i didn't even like it back in the day), but the other two actually held up i thought. maybe i'd feel differently about the episodes, but the movies were fun.
That's the movie I was gonna post!
F@ckin' Masters of the Universe! Man I sweated that movie so hard back in the day (like 25 years ago haha)
But the original Transformers and G.I.Joe movies totally stand the test of time!
 
Never was in to MotU but I was a HUGE Transformers and GI Joe fan... was the perfect age for both as well, 10-12 for their prime run of 84-86. Still remember exactly what stores I was in when I saw my first Insecticon (which I had no idea about until that moment) and when I found and bought my final Constructicon (Hook) Agreed with most everyone on the cartoons, Transformers and GI Joe movies are still very watchable but the TV episodes are bad. Transformers are worse than GI Joe.

Back to OP, Chasing Amy is horrible (and yes, I loved it my first time). I still like American Beauty a lot and I've always been a fan of RotJ.

I have a shocking number of movies I've seen at least 25 times (some many, many more than that) and can't really come up with much that I once loved and now hate unless you count "one night stand" viewings but that wasn't really love anyways ;)

Only one I can think of offhand that I loved as a kid (best in the series to my idiotic self as a kid), and probably on my mind because it's the middle of Shark Week (which has also gotten baaaad over the past few years) is Jaws 3. What a piece of shit.
 
oh man i haven't seen this in years and LOVED it as a kid. not sure i want to rewatch it now...

Well, "horrible" might be a bit strong. Let's just say I LOVED it when I was younger too, and last time I watched it...not so much.
 
A lot of movies come to mind, but Jaws: The Revenge takes the cake. A granny battling a vengeful great white? :rolleyes:
 
When I was little I was in love with sharks and the Jaws series.

You must've loved sharks pretty hard - Jaws: The Revenge is spectacularly bad!! :)

I was reading that Jaws: The Revenge had a budget of $20m.

Aliens had a budget if $18.5m

I'd love to know more about how the script for the former came into being. My money's on all night acid/coke bender
 
One that doesn't hold up but I still love is Boondock Saints. The sequel is unwatchable and the first one isn't leaps and bounds ahead of it. I still love watching it every now and then though. :)

Stargate is another one I still love to watch, but was a terrible movie. The series is excellent up to around season 6-7, but the movie is just not good. Still has the nostalgia factor though and I will watch it from time to time.
 
Two movies come to mind -
Disorderlies - I though this was one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. After re-watching it with my Dad it occurred to me I may not have said no to drugs that day :oops:.

The original Evil Dead scared me so bad as a child that I would not rewatch it until I was well into my 30's. Turns out it is super cheesy by today's standards.
 
I remember loving Disney's animated Peter Pan as a kid. We got a boatload of cheap kids' VHS tapes a few years ago and it was included. I threw it on for the kids and was pretty horrified by it -- probably the most racist thing produced by Disney. That tape never ended up back in circulation.

Also, not a movie, but I loved Family Ties as a kid and watched a few episodes on TV Land awhile back and found myself thinking "Huh, that's not really that great a show." As a kid/teenager, I would have put it up with The Cosby Show, but in rewatching some old Cosby episodes (currently controversy notwithstanding) at the same time, I found Cosby to hold up quite well, especially in comparison to FT.
 
The original Evil Dead scared me so bad as a child that I would not rewatch it until I was well into my 30's. Turns out it is super cheesy by today's standards.

It was supposed to be cheesy, it's a horror comedy........

My wife was first introduced to Bruce Campbell via the USA tv series Burn Notice, and became a fan. So I made sure she saw the Evil Dead series and fortunately she loved them. I mean, how can you NOT love the scene where his possessed hand is smashing dining plates over his head?

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