View Full Version : Films You Used to Think Were Great....but Are Cack?
Thought this would be a good alternative to Narshty's thread. A couple came to mind recently - was round at a friend's house and decided to sit down for a viewing of "It!". I remember this being scary as hell (kept me awake many a night when I was a wee 'un) but on watching it again I found it to be plain awful! It was so linear, they just went through the gang's scarying experiences one by one, each time Penny Wise would appear normal (so to speak) then flash his teeth at the end :rolleyes:
Then they did pretty much the same thing when they were reunited! I had to switch it off half way through out of shere boredom....
Another instance was watching Topgun last week....peeeyyyooouuu....that movie stank :D It was like a night at the testosterone zone. I was trying to "get into it" but it was little more than a propeganda flick for the USAF and my girlfriend laughed the whole way through it (until I turned it off half way through).
Admittedly, I remember these being great from youth but there must be loads of films kicking about like these, so let's hear 'em :)
theblairwitch
18-10-2001, 11:32
Second your Top Gun one, also Independence Day for me. Saw it twice in the cinema - caught it again on DVD last year and thought it stank !
Spaceballs- used to love it. Watched it on DVD for the first time in ages the other week. Only funny part was Rick Moranis.
Santa Claus The Movie- Used to love watching this at Christmas. Saw it when it was last on BBC- switched over after an hour.
Lex Luthor
18-10-2001, 11:56
I remember Space 1999 (not a film I know) being brilliant when I was kid. It is, in fact, complete cack when watched now. :D
most films watched on video when growing up, including:-
Red Dawn
Screwballs
Pope of Greenwich Village
Michael Brooke
18-10-2001, 12:29
I think <I>Pink Floyd the Wall</I> (great if you're an angst-ridden 14-year-old, an embarrassingly adolescent and simple-minded self-pitying whinge otherwise) has probably fallen furthest in my affections, though I was a lot less impressed with <I>My Own Private Idaho</I> and <I>Subway</I> the second time round.
I'd agree with you on Subway though I didn't love it the first time round...but it was very stylish.
Have to disagree on the Spaceballs count Thomas - though it wasn't as good as when you were young, it's still a classic :D
The point of the thread is not films you were slightly less impressed with tho - what films did discover were truly awful after an initial viewing/s which you loved?
Krull - loved it when i watched it when it came out but was a really miserable experience when i got the DVD a few weeks back.
Preacher
18-10-2001, 13:26
Star Wars
The Breakfast Club
Excalibur
:o
Nathan-Wind
18-10-2001, 13:29
Originally posted by BigH
most films watched on video when growing up, including:-
Pope of Greenwich Village
I still think Pope of Greenwich Village is pretty damn good! The book is worth a read as well :)
I loved all the films just mentioned by Preacher & spam...dunno if I want to watch them now! (apart from Star Wars....shame on you Preacher ;) ).
I don't think I've seen any of the films mentioned by BigH :rolleyes:
I thought CE3K was very lame recently . I had also forgotten what a cheesy piece of old tosh The Great Escape was .
Dan Druff
18-10-2001, 13:49
The Rock impressed me in 1996. Now I think it is a very average flick indeed.
I loved Flatliners on its cinema release. Now I think it is poor. Very poor.
Sneakers did the business for me when it came out. Now it is one of my least favourite movies.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was a fine end to the Trilogy back when Batman was floating around the multiplexes. Now I think it is an extremely poor man's Raiders of the Lost Ark, and one of my least favourite movies of all time too. Batman is a lot better, but not the classic some people make it out to be. Good though.
amritsinghesq
18-10-2001, 13:49
Maybe we are just watching a lot more obscurer movies these days that manufactured popcorn movies of yester-year seem so crap!
What films that you thought were awful turned out to be quite good when you watched them a second or third time?
I've got to say Phantom Menace is one for me, but, I'm sure a lot of you will disagree.:)
Innuendo
18-10-2001, 13:53
Mine would be Wild Wild West. I quite enjoyed it at the cinema but I can't stand it since I've had it on DVD. When my mates come round to watch a DVD they have 100 to choose from but what do they pick? Wild Wild West, typical :rolleyes:
amritsinghesq
18-10-2001, 13:53
Originally posted by amritsinghesq
Maybe we are just watching a lot more obscurer movies these days that manufactured popcorn movies of yester-year seem so crap!
What films that you thought were awful turned out to be quite good when you watched them a second or third time?
I've got to say Phantom Menace is one for me, but, I'm sure a lot of you will disagree.:)
Forgot Narshty's thread on this , sorry.
Originally posted by Dan Druff
The Rock impressed me in 1996. Now I think it is a very average flick indeed.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was a fine end to the Trilogy back when Batman was floating around the multiplexes. Now I think it is an extremely poor man's Raiders of the Lost Ark, and one of my least favourite movies of all time too.
The Rock an average flick??!!!!?????? - that is even worse that people in the Alien thread saying Aliens sent them to sleep
The Indiana Jones trilogy is in my opinion the only trilogy which maintains the standards in all three movies - they are all superb without a doubt!
Opened a whole new can of worms :rolleyes: :D
Rgfinch, I saw CE3K for the first time recently and whilst I was loving the first hour I felt it was loosing direction (or pace) towards the end, so I understand your feelings. There's also the fact that so many films have ripped off the ending since (Red Planet, Abyss etc) so it kind of looses it's effect.
Dan Druff, you just mentioned a lot of the films I was going to include but had forgotten. I really liked the Rock on first viewing, but on recently buying the Criterion, I found quite a few parts...dare I say...boring! I've also realised I'm part of the army that dislike Michael Bay - the lighting in the Rock ometimes makes it look like an episode of Neighbours ;) Batman too - watched it recently and thought it was a real turd :D
WWW I hated the first time round and for me TPM improves on subsequent viewings (up to a point...it's still very average).
Just incase anyone wanted my humble opinions....well, it is my thread :p ;)
Dan Druff
18-10-2001, 14:19
john316
The Rock an average flick??!!!!?????? - that is even worse that people in the Alien thread saying Aliens sent them to sleep
Just to say I loved Aliens and I still do, it's a whole world of class ahead of The Rock.
A couple of things happen once puberty kicks in....
Hair starts to grow in strange places...
You grow more rapidly...
...and...
...the realisation that Roger Moore was not a good Bond and that Rocky films suck! :rolleyes:
robbiejm
18-10-2001, 14:22
Originally posted by Thomasd
Spaceballs- used to love it. Watched it on DVD for the first time in ages the other week. Only funny part was Rick Moranis.
I never liked Spaceballs apart from the bit at the end with the Alien singing and then dissapearing through that hatch :D
I liked Titanic at the cinema, but now I see it for the crap it is.
Well maybe Krull wasnt that bad, but if you can imagine every actor in it being as bad an actor as that Gurney character from the Dune tv mini series thats on now, youll just want to pour salt into your eyes.
You dont notice bad acting quite so much when your only 8.
Twigster
18-10-2001, 14:39
It has to Bloodsport !!!!
Loved it when it first came out (I was either 13 or 14).
Started to watch it on Bravo some time ago, I'd never realised just what PAP it was.
Worst film ever.
TV-wise: Monkey - great when you're 6 or 7 years old. Crap when you're 27 years old!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dan Druff
18-10-2001, 14:54
Nightbreed is another one. I remember thinking 'what a good movie' back around 1990. Now I think it is crap, only Danny Elfmans excellent music making it even watchable.
Vinyl-Pants
18-10-2001, 15:14
I've got to disagree on two things here;
Spaceballs is a classic and is more hilarious now than it was as a child.
The Rock IS a very mediocre film
And in terms of films I no longer like but now cant stand;
Close Encounter Of The Third Kind
Jurassic Park 1 and 2
ET
Scream (and the sequals...then again I never did like them originally)
IKWYDLS (see above..)
Probably a few more but these are ones ive (regrettably) seen recently and thus are fresh in my mind.
I throughly enjoyed The Ice Storm when I saw at the flicks a few years ago. However, after watching it on BBC2 on Sunday I was quite underwhelmed. It left me feeling cold, (no pun intended), I just didn't like any of the characters.
APPRIA40WR
18-10-2001, 15:30
The Superman films. Couldn't wait to get them then was very disappointed with the last 3. Complete pants.
Kept the first film for memory sake.
Actually Vinyl, you're agreeing with what I said below!
Appria, I was surprised to learn I'd never seen the 1st Superman before, and still haven't, just seems to have slipped me by! Btw, is a welcome back in order? :D
Analog Kid
18-10-2001, 15:47
I'd have to agree with 'Krull' although I did first see it when I was in my early teens so I probably shouldn't be too surprised that it's not great. I also saw 'Space Hunter: Adventures in the forbidden zone' in 3D at the cinema around the same time. It completely loses any appeal it may have had on TV in 2D and has fallen through the 'So bad, it's good' category into 'So Bad, it's awful' :)
I'm surprised that 'Subway' got a mention, it's not Besson's best film by some margin but it's enjoyable enough. I first saw this one at a local film society and still re-watch it occaisionally. I guess it does look a little thin alongside later work though.
SqueakyG
18-10-2001, 16:08
The Goonies. I truly adored the film when I was a kid, but now when I watch it as an adult I think it sucks. It's so LOUD! The kids just SHOUT all the way through it.
Ben Martin
18-10-2001, 16:11
Big Trouble In Little China
Black Moon Rising
Condorman
Flight Of The Navigator
Innerspace
The Karate Kid
Krull
Legal Eagles
The Secret Of My Success
Short Circuit
The Spaceman and King Arthur
Superman 2 & 3
Teen Wolf
Cap'n Al
18-10-2001, 16:13
Just about every bad action film made in the early 1990s (The Specialist and Terminal Velocity spring to mind); then again, I wasn't exactly a demanding audience, being quite satisfied with a film if it contained sex, violence and some funny lines.
Dan Druff
18-10-2001, 16:51
The Last Boy Scout disappointed me the last time I watched it. Some good lines, one-liner jokes, but too typical of one of Tony Scotts flashy American crowd pleaser movies. No sense of tension, no performances of note, implausible situations, daft premises, annoying camerawork, loud sound. Mediocre. Same with Top Gun for that matter.
Black Rain is another rather silly Scott film. Ridley this time.
To be fair to the Scotts Crimson Tide is very good, and Blade Runner is a major classic.
Spaceballs, I agree, it was crap the last time I watched it. I also remeber 'Condorman' being great as a kid - not so true this time round! If I remember rightly I also liked 'Care Bears'! But don't quote me on that one!
I really enjoyed Chicken Run at the cinema (why? - I don't know) when I got the DVD for Christmas last year, I hated it - with a vengence. I swapped it for Bringing Out the Dead though - amazing film...:p
No way is Big Trouble in Little China cack! It’s John Carpenter in his prime, just a shame he don’t make 'em like that anymore.:(
You're all so young ....
I remember thinking Norman Wisdom films were the ne plus ultra of cinema when I was about 5 and saw them on Saturday matinees at the flicks. Needless to say, the illusion wore off quite rapidly.
I'd always had a liking for "The Enforcer" until I saw it again and realised that the only good thing in it is Tyne Daly and she has hardly anything to do.
Perhaps my biggest disappointment was seeing "Where Eagles Dare" again and realising what a load of nonsense it is. When I saw it at the flicks as a 10 year old, I thought it was the best film ever made. Same goes for "Kelly's Heroes" but to a lesser extent, because I think that has some very good things in it even now.
I was also very put out by seeing "You Only Live Twice" again - far from a bad film, but not the masterpiece I thought it was when I was 7.
Tristan H
18-10-2001, 18:28
I'd have to admit to buying The Neverending Story on the basis of hazy memories of this being great when I was a kid. I watched it a few weeks ago and genuinely struggled to resist the urge to switch it off before the end.
I used to think the fight scenes in The Karate Kid were really great. Until I sawthe film on TV a while ago and realized they were, well, just plain crap.
You can never go back.
Boink!:cool:
My two are:
Midnight Express - I used to watch this film loads and loads of times on P&S VHS and then I got the DVD. I used to watch it quite a lot but slowly I grew to dislike it probably because the sheer number of times I watched it!
Kevin And Perry Go Large - I really enjoyed this film when I saw it at the cinema. I bought the DVD of it, and after the first viewing the film seemed to be very, very poor and irritating.
Flesh Gordon.
I saw this when I was 11 and thought it was amaaaaaaaaazing (obviously this had nothing to do with the high number of naked ladies). Saw it a couple of years later though and my fond memories were crushed, t'was well shabby...
Another thing about Midnight Express. I really liked the film. When I bought the music CD it sounded nothing like what it sounds like in the film and I still can't hear what it really should sound like.
I think that was when I started to think the film was crap.
Originally posted by Ben Martin
Big Trouble In Little China
Flight Of The Navigator
Innerspace
The Karate Kid
Krull
Short Circuit
Superman 2 & 3
Teen Wolf
That's just plain mean Ben, are you trying to destroy ALL my childhood memories :confused: ;)
I was also looking forward to seeing Goonies again - it it really that bad?
I'm adding Gremlins to my list. I used to think it's great, but now it's just average. I prefer the sequel.
Vinyl-Pants
18-10-2001, 21:38
I remember watching Big Trouble In Little China a few years ago - the bad guys all looked like Raiden from Mortal Kombat even had the lightning effects too (obviously this film was the basis of the Raiden character).
Saw it again when it was on ITV the other month - my god was it poor, thanks for reminding me, it was a struggle to watch the whole way through. Diabolical.
Another vote for Top Gun...but....the biggie for me...
...The Uk cinema release of Battlestar Galactica!!!!!! Huge arguments at school along the lines of BG is better than Star Wars....
Oh & for us slightly out of thier teens, remember when films took months/years to reach the cinema after the London release & hype? Then another few months to reach the local cinema after being shown in the nearest city?
RoboCop4
19-10-2001, 09:43
I'd have to give 'Spaceballs' another vote. Was looking forward to watching this on DVD when it came out, but ended up trading it on the forums after watching about half the film.
Another 80's comedy which hasn't stood the test of time is 'Police Academy'.
And I remember really enjoying 'Diamonds are Forever' on TV as a kid, but now I find it embarassing to watch a bewigged Sean Connery stumble through a dodgy plot...
SimonInd
19-10-2001, 09:59
Perhaps my biggest disappointment was seeing "Where Eagles Dare" again and realising what a load of nonsense it is. When I saw it at the flicks as a 10 year old, I thought it was the best film ever made. Same goes for "Kelly's Heroes" but to a lesser extent, because I think that has some very good things in it even now.
I still really enjoy "Where Eagles Dare" despite it's silliness. Top-notch matinee viewing. Haven't seen "Kelly's Heroes" for a while but used to love it.
"Convoy", "Smokey And The Bandit" and the "Cannonball Run" films I now find rather painfull/embarressing to watch. They used to be entertaining, even funny, but now they just have a sort of awkwardness about them - a bit like watching parents/grandparents dancing at a wedding disco.
"Top Gun" I like more than I did when I was twelve - I used to think it was nonsense, which it is, but now I love it for it's over-the-top gung-ho 80s-ness - never to be taken seriously, but always to be enjoyed....
Simon
Preacher
19-10-2001, 10:03
Add Tron and Weird Science to my list . :(
there's nowt wrong with Weird Science!!!
'why have we got bra's on our heads?'
'ceremonial'
:) It's a class film and Sir William Paxton is rather legendary in it.....
I reckon Weird Science improves with age - especially Bill Paxton with his receding hairline trying to pass himself off as 16 . (Same goes for The Terminator)
I saw Die hard 3 and Deep blue sea at the fliks and thought
they were great. Rented them on DVD and was HUGELY underwhelmed. Just shows what effect a great sound system and a huge screen can have on a small brain.
Originally posted by Paul490
I'm adding Gremlins to my list. I used to think it's great, but now it's just average. I prefer the sequel.
I was going to add two to my list but altho I don't now hate them, they're still not half as good as I remember - Ghostbusters ad Gremlins!
Someone mentioned Rocky. I bought the DVD recently.....it definitely has not aged well.
As kids, my brother and I would watch it, and then spend the rest of the day punching each others heads in. The climactic fight seemed so big and real.
When I watched it the other day I was FIGHTING to stay awake.
The climactic fight looks like it was filmed in a scout hut - with occasional edited-in clips from REAL fight footage.
Also, I think music has a lot to do with badly aged films. I still enjoy The Long Good Friday, but Jeeeez the music is awful now. The height of naff early 80s synth based cringe noise.
The same goes for De palma's Scarface.
Panavision
19-10-2001, 20:43
Originally posted by Vinyl-Pants
I remember watching Big Trouble In Little China a few years ago - the bad guys all looked like Raiden from Mortal Kombat even had the lightning effects too (obviously this film was the basis of the Raiden character).
Saw it again when it was on ITV the other month - my god was it poor, thanks for reminding me, it was a struggle to watch the whole way through. Diabolical.
Cos you watched it in pan and scan!!!!!!!!
:)
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