I was listening to the Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and I realized that I’ve seen that movie more times than I can count. It’s definitely my favorite thing in all Star Trek and one of my all-time favorite sci-fi films.
There are a few others I’ve seen at least a dozen times.
How about you? What are your biggest repeat viewers?
Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World
TRON
Jurassic Park
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
The Three Musketeers (1993)
The Shadow
Cool Runnings
The Thing From Another World
Hamilton
All yearly re-watches for me.
All time champ is Jurassic Park. I know for a fact I saw that movie 32 times in the theater. (Granted, it was in theaters for a year and change, but still!)
Oh- forgot one…
I always have yearly watches of certain titles for specific occasions.
For the 4th of July, I always watch Jaws. It’s also my all-time favorite movie, so it gets a lot of play in general, although I try not to overwatch it so that I don’t ruin the fun and novelty of the work by making it TOO familiar (as opposed to AMC, which ran that every other day once upon a time).
For St. Patrick’s Day, I always watch The Quiet Man.
For Halloween, I always watch my second-favorite movie, the OG Night of the Living Dead. Here and there, I’ll give it a spin as the mood strikes, because it’s such a work of art that it transcends the genre and becomes something else altogether, something far greater.
And then there’s my third-favorite movie, Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, which always gets a spin sometime in the summer and whenever it’s needed, since it’s such a pick-me-up of a movie (seriously, folks, if you have an HBO Max subscription, hunt that down as well as Jacques Tati’s follow-up Mon Oncle… and if you have the Criterion Channel, you can see all six of his feature-length movies, which, again, are crazy recommended in my book).
My two favorites are both Kubrick- 2001: A Space Odyssey and Barry Lyndon, but I can’t say if I’ve seen them both more than a dozen times because, like you, I don’t want to overwatch things. But thinking about it, I might have overwatched 2001 on video tape in my youth.
Nice!
I remember hating 2001 on my first viewing. I went back a few years later, thought “what the hell,” gave it another try in case I was wrong and/or saw it under the wrong mood, and boy howdy, it boomeranged right back around to becoming a favorite.
Although if we’re talking rewatching Kubrick jazz? It’s gotta be The Shining for me there, even though I wouldn’t put that above 2001 or Spartacus or even The Killing.
Also, one of the above was sort of cheating. I really do love Oklahoma! but the reason I’ve seen it so many times is because my daughter loved it when she was a toddler and you re-watch things with toddlers a lot.
I have personal connections to it apart from loving it as a film. Firstly, it was the first movie I remember ever seeing and one of my earliest memories- projected on my parents’ wall from a 16 mm projector with a cinemascope lens for a bunch of grad students. I must have been about 3 years old, making that 1980.
Secondly, my mother wrote what was one of only two books written about the film for about 15 years. It’s now collected in a very expensive Taschen book about the film.
I also have this poster framed behind glass on a wall in the house-
Not a reprint either.
So come to think of it, I must have watched it many more times than I thought.
Non-special occasion stuff?
I watched The 'Burbs and The Lost Boys a lot. Same deal with Rear Window.
Enter the Dragon and Bullitt were the first two DVDs I bought with my money, so I gave those a lot of spins once upon a time.
There was this great adaptation of Treasure Island that was made for TV. It starred Charlton Heston as Long John Silver, Christian Bale as Jim Hawkins, Oliver Reed as Billy Bones, Christopher Lee as Blind Pew, and Pete Postlethwaite as George Merry. The other big star of that movie was the score by Irish folk music group The Chieftains.
I loved reading Treasure Island, but the other adaptations (the Wallace Beery one, the Disney one) always presented Jim Hawkins as an adorable ragamuffin or some such nonsense. This movie? It came across as more of a darker coming-of-age movie, and hot damn, it WORKED. Also well worth tracking down.
That’s all some seriously awesome jazz, brother. Thanks so much for sharing all that!
Two films get annual rewatches, so are probably in the high ‘teens now
and (speaking of high teens)
Others that don’t get regular rewatches but I’ve seen quite a few times
Andromeda Strain
Halloween
Dawn Of The Dead
Dune (1984)
ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, HOW COULD I FORGET
I taped that off a local channel affiliate waaaaaaaaaaaay back when. This was when local TV stations had really cool film libraries.
I still have the VHS tape, which has sketches of Halloween-ish stuff on the label. Of course, I had to upgrade to the DVD, as I would continue to watch the hell out of that.
I see that Criterion has a shiny new Blu-ray transfer of the movie, and once funds become a tad more disposable, I’m-a have to snag that as well. (Same with their Blu-ray treatment of Night of the Living Dead.)
I remember watching and rewatching the absolute HELL out of this when Anchor Bay’s beautiful four-disc Ultimate Edition box set came out.
Out of the three editions - the theatrical, extended, and European cuts - I probably watched the extended cut the most.
The remake wasn’t too shabby, but I always had to go with the original version. Romero’s been a favorite director of mine for as long as I can remember, and his stuff generally lends itself well to multiple viewings.
Maybe not Survival of the Dead as much as the other entries, but yeah. Great stuff. Land of the Dead was one of the very few movies I gave repeat business to at the theater, and I watched the HELL out of it that one summer.
Pretty easy list for me:
Star Wars (no idea, but upwards of 100+, at least 24 times in the theater!)
Monty Python and The Holy Grail - at one point, I had it memorized.
The rest are seen maybe 5-20 times:
Apocalypse Now
Ghost Dog, Way of the Samurai
Slacker
Roadside Prophets
Strange Brew
Time Bandits
Alice in Wonderland (Disney)
The Dark Crystal
Memento
Resevoir Dogs
I’m sure there’s more, I’m just not remembering right now.
the extended editions of Lord of the Rings and Hobbit get an annual rewatch.
I think I’ve watched Ghostbusters Afterlife 3-4 times in the last four months.
The Marvel movies are on a constant slow rotation (I think I’m up to AntMan again this time around)
Stargate gets watched every year on its anniversary (it’s also one of the few movies I have rebought every time the media changed)
Yeah, the Star Wars movies lent themselves to a multitude of rewatches.
Especially when the cable networks would play those for whatever occasion was pertinent at the time, like for Thanksgiving or Christmas. USA Network and its affiliate channel, Sci-Fi Channel, were keen about broadcasting those once upon a time, and it was the best.
Loved loved loved catching the movies when they were hosted by someone attached to the movie. I remember Billy Dee Williams hosting a Star Wars movie marathon one year.
And then there’s the VHS box sets where Leonard Maltin and George Lucas sat down for a conversation…
Not counting MST3K episodes, which are probably all tied for #1, here’s my list:
Network
The Birdcage
Victor/Victoria
A Star Is Born (1954)
The Band Wagon
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Life of Brian
Best in Show
A Mighty Wind
Gypsy
Spinal Tap
I am not a huge fan of the film as a whole, but the Triplets number is one of my all-time favorite musical numbers.
