Are The "Best" Films The Ones That Grow On You?

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chris kilby -> Are The "Best" Films The Ones That Grow On You? (29/8/2012 9:43:30 PM)
Some films are instant favourites, instant classics. Jaws, Star Wars, Raiders, or more recently, Gladiator and The Dark Knight, sometimes I just know in the first five minutes that I'm going to love a movie. But some films take longer to filter through your taste glands. The Big Lebowski and Zodiac are favourites of mine yet the first time I saw them I thought they were OK and, truth be told, a bit disappointing. I don't know, being a big Coen Brothers and Fincher fan, maybe my expectations were too high and initial disappointment was inevitable. Maybe some films take a bit more time and effort. Cos Lebowski and Zodiac just seem to get better with each successive viewing and only the very best films do that - Performance, A Matter of Life and Death, Blade Runner... Indeed, The Big Lebowski is that rarest thing of all - a comedy which gets funnier each I watch it. I really can't think of another comedy that does that... Well, maybe This Is Spinal Tap. But I would say that all these films have fresh layers and hidden depths still to be discovered each time I watch them. So are the very "best" films the ones which grow on you? Is it like that bit in Twelve Monkeys where Bruce Willis remarks that Vertigo is still the same film he saw as a child but he has changed? My favourite movie of all time is Performance. And I HATED it the first time I saw it. Even though I liked, co-director, Nicholas Roeg's other films. Maybe I wasn't tuned in to it. Maybe I wasn't in the mood. Maybe I was just too young to appreciate it fully. I was re-introduced to it years later by friends and loved it. So maybe a combo of peer pressure, booze and spliffs had something to do with it. Bein' ripped oot ma tits certainly made Roadhouse a more pleasurable experience the first time round but it ain't no classic! A camp classic, maybe. Do you have a favourite film you were maybe a bit lukewarm about the first time you saw it? If so, what happened, do you think? Did the film change? Or did you? Alternately, are there any films you have fallen out of love with? I loved Face/Off at the time and totally agreed with EMPIRE's five star, "Best-Action-Movie-Since-Die Hard" assessment. Yet I bought it again recently on DVD for a few quid and it was all a bit meh. Maybe I'm just getting old...

elab49 -> RE: Are The "Best" Films The Ones That Grow On You? (29/8/2012 9:49:09 PM)
I'd say no. How it got to your current place in your affections has no impact on whether it's better than a film you liked first time IMO. [:)]

MonsterCat -> RE: Are The "Best" Films The Ones That Grow On You? (29/8/2012 10:02:43 PM)
Some of my favourites are films that didn't necessarily click with me on the first viewing. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is probably my fourth or third fave of all time, but when I first saw it on VHS I really didn't like it, and as a die-hard Peakie I felt it was too dark, violent and lacking in the off-kilter humor that made the show so special. Tonally it is very much the polar opposite of the show. Basically I was a narrow minded numb nuts when I was 16.

chris kilby -> RE: Are The "Best" Films The Ones That Grow On You? (29/8/2012 10:07:31 PM)
That's interesting. I didn't like Twin Peaks at all. Too self-consciously "quirky" for my liking. Yet I really enjoyed Fire Walk With Me. Probably because it was "darker..."

Rgirvan44 -> RE: Are The "Best" Films The Ones That Grow On You? (29/8/2012 10:09:16 PM)
The Twin Peaks tv series goes way darker than even the movie. The second season in particular has a moment which is more powerful than anything in FWWE (which I do like a lot)

MonsterCat -> RE: Are The "Best" Films The Ones That Grow On You? (29/8/2012 10:12:33 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: chris kilby That's interesting. I didn't like Twin Peaks at all. Too self-consciously "quirky" for my liking. Yet I really enjoyed Fire Walk With Me. Probably because it was "darker..." Yeah, I think that's a problem most people have with anything that's Lynch related. To each their own. I get that viewpoint.

gunstar -> RE: Are The "Best" Films The Ones That Grow On You? (29/8/2012 10:14:15 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Rgirvan44 The Twin Peaks tv series goes way darker than even the movie. The second season in particular has a moment which is more powerful than anything in FWWE (which I do like a lot) Just out of interest, which moment was that?

Rgirvan44 -> RE: Are The "Best" Films The Ones That Grow On You? (29/8/2012 10:17:37 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: gunstar quote: ORIGINAL: Rgirvan44 The Twin Peaks tv series goes way darker than even the movie. The second season in particular has a moment which is more powerful than anything in FWWE (which I do like a lot) Just out of interest, which moment was that? When we find out who the killer is.

MonsterCat -> RE: Are The "Best" Films The Ones That Grow On You? (29/8/2012 10:23:24 PM)
^ This. And that emotional punch at the end of the episode is something that never fails to make me well up. A gracefully done bit of television.

gunstar -> RE: Are The "Best" Films The Ones That Grow On You? (29/8/2012 10:24:34 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Rgirvan44 quote: ORIGINAL: gunstar quote: ORIGINAL: Rgirvan44 The Twin Peaks tv series goes way darker than even the movie. The second season in particular has a moment which is more powerful than anything in FWWE (which I do like a lot) Just out of interest, which moment was that? When we find out who the killer is. Yep, that was pretty powerful stuff right there. Man, I loved that series. And FWWM. Even though both scared the shit out of me. In fact, (getting back on topic) Many Lynch films are ones that I first watch with initial bemusement, but after repeated viewings I begin to appreciate the ideas and artistry that they often contain.

adambatman82 -> RE: Are The "Best" Films The Ones That Grow On You? (29/8/2012 10:42:46 PM)
A recent Criticwire survey dealt with this question funnily enough, and I really struggled to come up with a response. The closest thing I could think of was The Magnificent Ambersons, which was a film I was hugely disappointed with the first time I saw it in my teens. When I rewatched it years later, full of the knowledge of the context within which the existing cut of the film plays out it placed the film in a completely different light for me, and now I enjoy it very much.

chris kilby -> RE: Are The "Best" Films The Ones That Grow On You? (30/8/2012 1:31:37 AM)
With The Final Cut (I hope) of Blade Runner, The Richard Donner Cut of Superman II, the newly restored version of Metropolis (stunning on bluray) and even the workprint of Alien3 and (vastly improved) Director's Cut of Highlander II of all things finally available, me and a mate were earnestly discussing what Holy Grails of the cinema (hopefully) remained to be rediscovered some day. And we both agreed that the Directors' Cuts of The Keep and The Magnificent Ambersons were top of that list. (Don't laugh, but I'd still like to see Directors' Cuts Judge Dredd and The Avengers - the Ralph Fiennes/Uma Thurman one - both of which were clearly butchered by panicking studios who, fearing they had disasters on their hands, guaranteed that they did.)

BigBreakfast -> RE: Are The "Best" Films The Ones That Grow On You? (30/8/2012 4:13:25 AM)
I don't think the movies that have to grow on you are necessarily the best movies. I think just about every movie that I consider to be on my list of best films were movies that I loved the first time I saw them, and would have been willing to watch it again the second it ended. The most recent films I felt that way about were The Dark Knight and Inception. I do believe that something can be said about a film having the ability to grow on you though. Sometimes a plot can be so intricate that it can take a few viewings to get a true understanding of the movie. Or there can be minor details in films that you didn't catch before that may make you look at the film differently when you re-watch it. There are other times though, when you watch a film and over time you realize that it wasn't as good as you once thought it was. I have experienced both of those scenarios.

rich -> RE: Are The "Best" Films The Ones That Grow On You? (1/9/2012 12:53:21 AM)
No the best ones are always good any time

chris kilby -> RE: Are The "Best" Films The Ones That Grow On You? (1/9/2012 2:45:57 AM)
What, you have never changed your mind about a film? Up or down? Surely some films are "acquired tastes"? It's easier to appreciate 2001, say, as an adult than as a child, I'd have thought.

Hotlips -> RE: Are The "Best" Films The Ones That Grow On You? (1/9/2012 10:48:07 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: BigBreakfast I think just about every movie that I consider to be on my list of best films were movies that I loved the first time I saw them, and would have been willing to watch it again the second it ended. That's the case for me too. There are certainly some films I have re-watched and enjoyed more the second time but they wouldn't really go on my best/favourite list as they didn't really wow me to start with. On the other hand, there are films I watched when I was younger, like Titanic, that I thought were great when I went to see them with school friends but would never really consider watching now as I don't think they're that great at all. Valentine was another such film.Terrible really.

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