But was True Grit considered a classic when you originally watched it? That’s the question. You can’t help if a movie you watched as a kid became a classic by the time you were older.
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It was pretty well received, I don’t know how glowing the reviews, was it considered a good movie, a great one, fair to middling? Not sure. But it is, for certain, one I have a lot of nostalgic feelings for (father/son bonding type of thing)
If we’re judging nostalgia by age or in some sense emotional impact well…
these are from my childhood, three from the same year, though one uh I didn’t see til later. I thnk they all hold up.
Jaws, Star Wars, Slap Shot, Close Encounters, Raiders, ET, Star Trek II.
From a bit earlier, 2001 and American Grafitti.
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I have this a lot in the reverse: At the time, I didn’t particularly enjoy a lot of movies that, in retrospect, don’t seem so offensively stupid. A lot of that has to do with the expectations set up at the time.
Jaws, e.g., wasn’t particularly scary so I was disappointed until I re-watched it recently and realized, “Oh, it’s an adventure picture and a fine one, not a horror picture.”
Star Wars bored me to tears. (The Tatooine stuff, particularly.) And it was dumb and full of bad acting (which I think in retrospect we can all agree on Lucas’ effect on otherwise capable thespians.) But I got over it a few decades later. It’s pretty fun.
Raiders of the Lost Ark was fine until he gets on the submarine and…IDK…just hopes it doesn’t crash dive? At that point, it’s like, “Well, okay, this character cannot possibly be in any danger, ever, no matter how stupid he acts.” I liked Temple of Doom because at that point, I went in thinking, “OK, this is gonna be dumb.” In retrospect, having taken my kids to see them, I cannot tell them apart.
I have stayed strong in refusing to watch E.T. again. (I may have read the book at my mom’s insistence? lol)
Oh, I did take the kids to American Graffiti and…I mean, yeah, it’s…fine. Just about how I remembered it.
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The first 3 Rocky movies. Admittedly the 2nd one doesn’t hold up as well as the other two, but I still love these characters and want them in my world (all but Paulie. Paulie can choke on his own vomit).
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Did you hate The Wizard of Oz when you were a kid? I did … I called BS on the “it was all a dream” thing somewhere in my single-digit years and have never looked back.
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No, but I agree the “it was all a dream” thing is BS.
I used to constantly do that with Scooby-Doo. "No rubber mask is convincing enough to fool anyone. And have you ever seen a projector that could project anything that looks convincingly like a ghost?
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Paula Poundstone used to talk about The Wizard of Oz in her act, pointing out that a lot of the contemporaneous reviews called it dull and unimaginative.
Then she would say, “What if it turns out that Rocky IV was really, really good?”
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Tell that to the Mission: Impossible team.
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Gave this a rewatch on Showtime recently.
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Hey, even they only fell back on the mask when there wasn’t someone on the team who was the identical twin of whomever they were trying to impersonate.
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The Mad Baker!
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I don’t know about “nostalgic,” but I just saw a 35mm (kind of dull, crappy) print of the modern classic The Conversation. Projectionist fouled up a reel change, which sucked, but that’s OK.
I think Gene Hackman’s character, Harry Caul, is one of the more important protagonists in film to me, for reasons that have to do with my own personality and sensibilities.
It was an astonishing experience, regardless of how many other times I’ve seen the picture.
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Jurassic Park
The Princess Bride
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I was having an idle moment thinking about Nightmare Alley having been remade.
You know, in sort of the same style, while I approve of NA having been redone, and splendidly, is what I hear, I’d not be pleased with a remake of Lady Fr Shanghai.
The cast alone, nonpareil. Yeah, I watch it pretty often, and it never fails. Not a “great” movie, but I love it.
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I felt this. I watched a lot of live-action Disney growing up. Happy to report that ‘Blackbeard’s Ghost,’ at least, is still an absolute hoot. It’s funny, the effects aren’t bad, the matte paintings are gorgeous, and it’s even genuinely spooky at times. On the other hand, there’s probably less in there to run the risk of crashing and burning than, oh, say, the globe-trotting ‘In Search of the Castaways’…
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I recently wanted to share my TMNT love with my tweenage daughter, but -for some reason- I was convinced I would be disappointed as an adult rewatching the original movie. I decided it was worth the sadness, but as we were watching it I realized just how f**ked up that movie was in terms of being a “kid movie,” but it sure does hold up as a move for grown ups (term used loosely). It’s probably one of the grittiest movies of the decade, haha. Solid stuff. If you haven’t recently watched it, or ever watched it: I highly recommend.
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Watch these two every year for tradition.
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