Gorging Yourself On A Movie

Phil, do you want a movie that we take the effort to watch the most (i.e., we take an active action like putting it in the dvd player) or would a movie that endlessly loops on cable be fine (i.e. Bloodsport)?

1) Raiders of the Lost Ark
2) This is a tough one. I have watched it all the way through probably 50+ times. But there are films where I've watched just a single scene or sequence hundreds of times. I've probably seen the truck chase close to 1000 times now. I watched the film all the way through twice this past weekend, and the truck chase 7 or 8 times.
3) Fun, excitement, thrills, chills, nostalgia, and sometimes when I am lucky, a fresh perspective on old scenes
4) Usuallly I sit and watch it.
5) The film holds up spectacularly, and sometimes seems BETTER than the last time I saw it.

This will end badly, I'm sure. But I'll play.

1. The Fellowship of the Ring
2. :: sigh :: 13 times in theaters, a few more since then. 8 times in the first 6 days. It was the first winter break back from college, I was a huge Lord of the Rings fan growing up (still am). Friends were trickling in and I was watching it with them a lot. Heck, one time I walked out of one showing, saw some of my high school friends waiting in line and got right back in line. I'd love to say each viewing was with a different group of friends, but there were a few solo efforts as well.
3. RotK has definitely supplanted it. I haven't seen the theatrical in years and use the EE only when we're doing a marathon, which happens like...once every 18 months or so. Again, a marathon occurs only with new players involved (mostly).
4. I'll be sitting and watching it. Oddly enough, if it's on tv, I'll change the channel to something else.
5. It does still move me. I know all the notes, the beats, the lines, but it's still exciting, powerful and wonderful. Maybe the shine has dulled, but it has never gone out and for that, I will always love it.

DAWN may be mine as well. Do you have the Blu-Ray? The color correction is a godsend - the zombies are no longer smurfs.

I have several. Pulp Fiction, T2, and The Matrix.

Too many to count. I watch every time I come across them on TV and watch the DVDs at a minimum yearly, but at times more often.

Depends on the day. Comfort food some days. Other times, a discussion on CHUD or with friends makes me see them in a new light. Having seen them over the course of decade, my perspective is different now than when it was 10 years ago as well.

Again, depends on the day.

Yes. For whatever reason, these movies never grow old to me. I'm excited to view them today as I did when I first saw them.

1. Evil Dead 2
2. I have no idea. but Evil Dead parties were a common occurrence during my High School years (getting laid wasn't obviously).
3. I still find that watching this with a group of people is a hell of a lot of fun, and even by myself I still get quite a bit of joy out of it.
4. Weirdly, I've watched this quite a bit before I go to bed. I guess I find the tortured screams of Bruce Campbell soothing.
5. As a pretty big Raimi fan, I find it a lot of fun to revisit this and compare it to many of his recent works, and I like to watch a lot of his recent films and point to the moments that are reminiscent of this film.

To be honest, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is probably the film I've watched the most times in my life (daily viewings as a child), but I haven't watched that in years and I still throw in Evil Dead 2 occasionally.

Not that this is going to surprise ANYONE, but why not:

1. Duh. Ghostbusters.

2. Easily over 1,000 times. Most of those were in childhood--remember when you could spend all summer not doing a goddamn thing--but since turning 18 and striking out into the world I've logged a good hundred or two viewings in the last seven years.

3. Like Phil, it's comfort food. Bad breakups, sick days, days when I want the TV on but don't have time to devote full attention--times like these I bust it out. I've also had down-in-the-dump days about my chosen career path, and watching this reminds me why I love movies and why I've decided to try and make them for a living. Also, every girlfriend I've had has used "let's watch Ghostbusters" as code for "put a movie on so your roommates won't hear us screwing." I'm quite OK with that.

4. Most of the time I do watch it, but there are several cases where my answer in #3 applies.

5. There are still tons of moments that work like gangbusters for me, but one in particular is the moment where it always re-affirms how great it is: "See you on the other side, Ray." "Nice working with you, Dr. Venkman." These guys are about to potentially kill themselves to save the world, and for all the outlandish goofiness about this movie, that moment sells. And little moments, honest character moments, are sprinkled throughout the film, and that's what keeps me coming back.

LOL. That is great.

1.) Oldboy.
2.) Probably around forty at this point.
3.) Oh, plenty. The joy of showing it to friends who still haven't seen it, be they new or old; the visceral thrills of the movie's physical elements; the beauty of Park's color palette; the emotional sucker-punch of the movie's climax, which still works on me even after that many viewings.
4.) Sitting and watching, though the last time I saw it was probably in early '09.
5.) See three, but in short, absolutely.

1) It's a tie between Pulp Fiction, ROTLA, and Army of Darkness.
PF - one of the first movies I saw as a teen that catapulted me straight into film fan-dom.
AoD - Mostly just due to the re-releases/being high/being bored.
Raiders - Duh, it's Raiders.

2) I've seen each of them six times.

3) Nothing, really, aside from nostalgia. I comfort myself with the fact that they're not Transformers.

4) The last three times were background for each, first three were active watching.

5) Not really with PF and AoD. If anything, they've started to show their seams over the years but that's just because I've seen better product from both of the respective directors.
ROTLA is still great, though. Just tons of fun.

Also, the fact that Greg has fucked to Ghostbusters makes me laugh. I wish I had picked better movies to bang to when living with other people.

1. Raiders, probably.
2. Don't really know, I've never counted. I don't think more than a few dozen, though.
3. Just base enjoyment.
4. Sometimes one, sometimes the other. If I'm going to watch it, it's usually on some cold, rainy afternoon/evening where I just don't feel like doing anything that requires brainpower.
5. I still just think it's an exceptionally well made adventure film, and Indiana Jones is probably my favorite fictional character ever, so I guess it's still a little special to me. I've never really overdone it on the franchise, though. At most I think I watch one or two of the movies once or twice a year.

I think mine is Dawn of the Dead as well, at least since I hit 16. It's really hard to say how many times I've seen it. I think I've actually watched the extended cut more times than the regular cut, which makes the Blu-ray a slightly strange experience.

Then again, we only owned three movies when I was a kid - Empire Strikes Back, Ghostbusters, and the Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai. There's a good possibility I watched those three more times, as that was all there was to do on a sick from school day. Funnily enough my mother taped Ghostbusters off TV for me, so it was the censored cut, and to this day I'm surprised by the blow-job scenes and the 'dickless' exchange (Venkman calls Peck 'Some kind of creature, I'm not sure what' in the TV edit)

Edit: Sorry, I'll follow the rules.

1. Dawn of the Dead (I think)
2. Something around 30 times?
3. I don't get a lot, but I make friends watch it, and they all like it in spite of themselves.
4. I've run the commentary while doing other stuff, but usually I watch the movie.
5. Yep. It doesn't get better every time, but it's still there to hold my hand.

1) "Blade Runner"
2) Between all cuts? 16 times (director's and final cut get the majority of viewings)
3) At this point, just comparisons between the two above mentioned versions.
4) Always sitting and watching, although i do sometimes skip scenes I have engraved in my brain...also, sometimes i've watched it while reading a book on the film (Future Noir).
5) Roy Batty's final lines are something i could watch for hours in a loop and never tire of it.

I do find however, that one thing I can watch over and over again and never get tired of it is a good nature documentary. I can pop in any given episode of Blue Planet or Planet Earth and be just as interested in it as the first time I watched it. It could be that David Attenborough is a hypnotist.

I'm not sure where in the cycle of backlash/acceptance this movie is these days but...

1. Shawshank Redemption
2. Probably 30 - 40 times
3. Along with The Princess Bride, Cinema Paradiso, Groundhog Day and FOTR EE (probably second in regards to this thread) I think it's a perfect film. I love every minute of it.
4. I watch it start to finish every time. I never watch movies on TV, as they are broken up by ads most of the time and that makes me want to cry with fury.
5. Everything about it still gets me - I literally love every frame.

You might want to look into a white noise machine. I've used one to sleep every night since I was 5. Personally, I think I'd find Ghostbusters dialog really distracting in a situation like that. That is why white noise is preferable. It is loud, blocks out other sounds, but is non specific enough that the white noise itself never draws your attention.

This is the exact one I have. You spin the sides to adjust the volume and pitch of the noise.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...KWZ1HDSC0JVCXB

1. Do The Right Thing
2. Over 100 times.
3. For one thing, a warm sense of nostalgia, but more than that, I feel like I've grown up with DTRT. I was 12 when it came out, and though I instantly loved it, it was mainly because I'm a life-long hip-hop fan and just dug the movie's whole aesthetic. As I grew older and kept watching the film (whilst expanding my interest in both Spike's work and movies in general), I gained an ever-growing appreciation for everything about DTRT, from its politics, to its referencing of Hollywood history, to Spike's writing and technical finesse. And that appreciation grows a little bit more every time I hit play.
4. Both - I can still sit and admire every frame, or I can write / draw / clean up / whatever whilst keeping an ear on the dialogue (or commentary track) and looking up occassionally.
5. The quotables, Ernest Dickerson's cinematography and Bill Lee's score all keep me entertained, but more broadly, the sheer freshness of DTRT is, if anything, more potent than ever to me. From the second Public Enemy's 'Fight The Power' drops and we see Rosie Perez gyrating against West Side Story-esque backdrops, the movie's combination of the oh-so-real and the vibrantly theatrical continues to mesmerise.

I think Total Film or Empire once did an article that identified all of the "kisses" from "Cinema Paradiso"...please tell me you've read that one.

1. What movie have you watched more than any other movie?

"Dead Poets Society"


2. How many times have you watched it?

If I have to guess, I'd say roughly 50 or so. There was a point when my cousin and I would watch it once a week when I would visit for the summer, I watched it in High School several times, and lots more independently.

3. What can you possibly be getting out of it at this point?

I love watching great actors act. There isn't a bad performance in this film, and Robin Williams is nothing short of amazing in this. I was shy when I was a kid and I give this movie credit for helping me get over that. It also sparked my interest in theatre and acting. Also, the last scene in that film is one of the most emotional, well earned endings of any film. All this stuff is timeless for me, and I never get tired of it. It's definitely not the best movie on my top list, but it remains my favorite.

4. Are you sitting and watching it, or just running it in the background while you do other shit?

If I start this movie while I am doing stuff, the stuff falls by the wayside after the first English class in the film.

5. Can anything you once found special about the film still work for you?

See above answers. Also, the first time I ever saw this was when I went to the movies with my brother. I saw "Spaced Invaders" while he and his date saw DPS. My movie finished way earlier and I caught the last forty five minutes of this movie when I sat in on it with my brother. It was the first "grown up" movie that I liked, so it will always hold a special place in my movie watchin heart.

....What the fuck.

ETA: Not only would this just be...weird, but if I time it right I can finish right when Peck gets creamed (cause everyone really wanted to know that!). Who doesn't prefer that to some white noise thing?

1. Definitely Halloween.
2. I'm sure I've seen it well over 50 times.
3. Just base enjoyment. Halloween is ol' reliable for me.
4. I'd say it's 50/50 nowadays. If I haven't watched it in some time I'll watch it beginning to end. If I happen across it on AMC I'll probably just keep it on in the background.
5. Oh yeah. The scare factor is certainly gone, but I still enjoy the hell out of how exceptionally well made it is. And I still get the chills when Donald Pleasence looks over that railing and The Shape is gone.

bet that's what they use at Mental Asylums.

1. Blade Runner, The Shining and David Lynch's Dune

2. I'll put it this way. I nearly drove my college roommate to the brink of insanity by playing The Shining at full volume around 3 a.m. at least 3 times a week.

3. Blade Runner has never been equaled for straight up eye candy and all three films are great to fall asleep to. For my tastes, all three films are a near perfect amalgamation of sight and sound (mainly music).

4. Blade Runner and The Shining are the only two I continually revisit at least once every 6 months and I usually make it a point to actively watch them in their entirety. Dune, because it is so mired in incoherence and unforgivable flaws, will only get a cursory glance--but it still makes for a great bedtime story to put you asleep.

5. Nothing can ever come close to the transcendence of watching these films for the very first time but I usually always find something new to savor in The Shining. Also, Rutger Hauer's Tears in Rain monologue still gets me everytime.

They're really useful. Never seen one at any psyc ward, and people from all walks of life find them useful (they block out street noise, or help you relax and sleep by helping you not to focus on a dripping faucet, etc)

I won't turn this into a simple list, but if I was going to include childhood here, there would be too many moments to list. Watching movies over and over was what I did when I was a kid. Pathetically, the family getting our first VCR is one of my most cherished memories. The idea of being able to watch my favorite movies over and over again was the source of great joy.

To be boring, I can't tell you how many times I've also seen Dawn of the Dead since my first rental in October of 1988. I'll go with a movie that I've been crazy about ever since its release, but absolutely obsessed with since I found a VHS copy at one of the buy-sell-trade joints around town.

1. Extreme Prejudice (1987)
2. All told, I've probably seen it at least thirty times.
3. I still do notice little tics and nuances. The cast, especially for an action flick, is impeccable. Great character work from everybody- William Forsythe shines, as well as Clancy Brown and (of course) Michael Ironside. Lovable scoundrel Cash Bailey, portrayed by Powers Boothe, is one of the all time screen villains, as far as I'm concerned. As an action movie fan, Walter Hill is the gift that keeps on giving. Every viewing reminds me that they don't make 'em like this anymore. Refreshing.
4. I just watched it again two weekends ago, however I had the good fortune of introducing it to a great friend. Or finally showing it instead of running my mouth about it all the time. It is a movie I can put on when I'm about to sleep.
5. Yes, I still find it special. It's not the greatest movie ever made. It's not even Walter Hill's best movie. But it hits a sweet spot. I'm not quite sure I can even logically explain my attraction. I love it.

I did indeed man - can't remember which mag either, I used to buy both for nearly 20 years (Christ that just made me feel old. My first Empire was 1990). That scene crushes me every time man. Without fail.

edit: fucking uber-moronic inquiry removed.



1. Fellowship of the Ring. And Christ, at 3 1/2 hours, what a film to run into the ground, eh?

2. I stopped "counting" (god help me, I geeked out hard for that one) at 47. I shudder to think how many DAYS of my life have been consumed actively watching that and the other two (which I've seen just about as many times).

3. I haven't watched any of them for over 2 years now. Been saving up for a marathon this winter when I finally get my projector/106" screen. As many times as I've seen them, I still get such a magical rush of wonder from them.

4. I sit and watch, or I don't bother. The only time I've had them on to "do other shit" was when I was watching commentaries. Much like Doc, if they're on Tv (which is doubly rare for me, as I haven't had cable in 8 years) I skip right past. Especially since the initial gorge. I try to save it until I'm craving watching them again, and then wait a few more months.

5. Yes, everything.


Also of note with me on these films, the real bulk of the gorging, actually all of it, came before ROTK came out. The anticipation of seeing the trilogy completed was what kept me trotting them out over and over. Once it was complete, I felt like I could "rest" and only watched the EE of ROTK twice since it's release.

Glad to hear it...I was amazed by how many of those were "unknown"; and yes, its easily the best "montage" ever made.

I' sure Jake was referring to Return of the Living Dead. And that might have been mine, too, if it weren't for The Thing. I had The Thing running on a constant loop back in college. I don't gorge anymore, although I did recently go through a weird spate of multiple Sideways viewings. Thanks to the score and Phedon Papamichael's cinematography, Sideways is a good ambient movie, besides having some great characters. As for The Thing, I could say it was just my favorite movie, but I think it had something to do with my Dad, with whom I used to watch it as a kid. Maybe it was a dumb comfort thing.

Nono, Raiders. Sorry for the confusion, though Trash's stripping scene WAS a hallmark of my adolescence.

1) Before Sunset
2) 30 times all the way through, most likely. What is unusual about this one is unlike alot of films that I watch and rewatch, this one has no scene or sequence that I've seen more often than the film itself. If I sit down to watch it, I watch it all the way through
3) I love spending time in the company of the characters, and the dialog and acting never wears out its welcome
4) This one I more often than not DO leave running in the background as I do other things
5) "Baby, you are going to miss that plane.." and the part where Jesse talks about having seen Celine on the street in NYC still break my heart

edit: The fact the film takes place in real time is what does it for me. I feel like I can relive that hour and twenty minutes of their lives over and over.

My brain read read ROTLD.

1) Die Hard
2) Too many to count.
3) I think the comfort food argument is the best description. I never get tired of watching Bruce Willis be John McClane. It's still just a great ride.
4) If it's on TV it would usually be a flip back. But the last time I watched it I watched it all the way through.
5) Yippie Kay Yay Mother Fucker.

1. Robocop

2. 2, maybe 3 dozen times.

3. Probably comfort. The movie has seemingly always been around and as I was growing up into movies this one has been a joy to watch at various stages of my understanding of film. Whether there is anything new to be had from watching the movie is doubtful but I love it still.

4. Oh, I am definitely watching it. When I turn it on I immediately zone into the movie. It would be a movie I didn't care about as completely that I would get distracted away from.

5. It may very well be a hollow, masturbatory process at this point but I still love every moment of this movie. This movie still gets me every time.

Alternate answer would be Dawn of the Dead for much the same reasons.

1. What movie have you watched more than any other movie?
Big Trouble in Little China

2. How many times have you watched it?
At least 300 times. If not more.

3. What can you possibly be getting out of it at this point?
It's still as fun as the 1st time I saw it.

4. Are you sitting and watching it, or just running it in the background while you do other shit?
Mainly watching it. Though I lost my virgininity with this movie in the background. It's all in the reflexes.

5. Can anything you once found special about the film still work for you?
Nearly everything.

EDIT: The original Star Wars trilogy, Raiders and recently, The Matrix all got the treatment. Especially the Trilogy when I would build an X-Wing with the couch's cushions while watching it.

1. Not sure, but 'Star Wars', 'Fletch', 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail', 'Aliens', and 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' are easily the films that I've watched/rewatched the most in my lifetime.
2. Way too many times on all of them.
3. Not much, unfortunately. I'd put all five of them in the 'movies that I've killed' category.
4. I can't just sit and watch them anymore. If they're going in the background, that's fine.
5. I certainly hope so.

1. Batman (1989)

2. I'd guess in the 40s

3. Nostalgia mostly

4. I never really leave movies on in the background. If it's on, I'll devote my attention to it.

5. Despite it's shitty script and pacing, I still get a kick out of batshit Keaton and Nicholson.

1. What movie have you watched more than any other movie?
Tombstone.
2. How many times have you watched it?
Dozens and dozens and dozens. Enough to need several VHS and 2 DVD's.
3. What can you possibly be getting out of it at this point?
Two hours of unadulterated bliss.
4. Are you sitting and watching it, or just running it in the background while you do other shit?
Both. If it's on TV, I absolutely stop to watch it, no questions asked. I usually pull out the DVD at least once a month as well. And my friends and I quote it nonstop.
5. Can anything you once found special about the film still work for you?
Everything works. Every line of dialog, performance, set piece, horrible Priestly mustache. I don't care much for the Oscars, or get up in arms about their selections, but I have only been upset about two snubs for performances. Sean Bean as Boromir, and Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday.

Red Dawn

As a kid when my dad bought a used Betamax it came with 1 movie and that was Red Dawn. I watched it perhaps a hundred times over a period of little more that a year. It only stopped when the tape was so used it was practically unwatchable. Later I got my hands on First Blood and the V movies, and those I watched almost as much as RD.

1. Jaws
2. I've honestly lost count - at the very least 50+
3. It's always that movie that has it all, as far as I'm concerned. Excitement, fabulous acting, suspense, endlessly quotable. I still get goosebumps during the opening strains of the music, when the camera is giving us the shark's eye-view as he swims forward through the water.
4. Both - if I have nothing to do and it's on, I normally drop what I'm doing to watch it. But if I'm cleaning my apartment and it's on, it's great to keep my mind occupied. Yes, I've caught myself scrubbing the stove and yelling along with, "Michael! Did you hear your father? Out of the water now! NOW!"
5. Everything. There's nothing that's not special about that movie. The fact that most of the extra roles were just local people from Martha's Vineyard, never knowing they were becoming a part of cinematic history - my eyes still well up when Mrs. Kintner confronts Brody on the pier, yet the local woman who played her never acted again. To say nothing of the more famous cast members - there's no one who doesn't work in the role they're in. Every person, every scene is just perfect.

EDIT: This is my cat (taken about a year ago, so I do watch this movie as often as possible), totally engrossed with the scene where the girl is being eaten at the beginning. Aaahh, Mommy's little blood-thirsty monster.

"Goddamn, that's a big fish!"

1. Probably Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
2. Four times in 1982 alone, used to run it once or twice a week when I was working in video stores. No accurate count.
3. "Young. I feel young."
4. Technically both, due to the video store thing. But at home I sit the hell down.
5. I find the whole thing special, and I keep noticing new details. If there's one thing that hit me right out of the gate that still hits me, it's the score.

1. Probably Animal House or The Blues Brothers; maybe The Wizard of Oz or A Fistfull of Dollars.
2. Probably 20-30 times all the way through.
3. Brain candy. It's been a long time since I've watched any of them, though.
4. I get sucked into AH, BB, WoOz and FfoD almost every time. There are lots of others (from Die Hard to The Wall to The Matrix to any of Eastwood's spaghetti westerns) that have been on in the background hundreds of times, I'm sure.
5. One reason I love them is that they somehow don't wear themselves out for me.

1. Street Fighter
2. Thirty, forty times?
3. It's literally still as funny as the first time I ever watched it.
4. Both really, my friend and I watch it as we get drunk/high and talk/giggle/laugh at random shit. There's also silences though, in which we'll actually watch the movie.
5. Raul Julia and JCVD's performances are fucking magical. I've also really come to appreciate Andrew Bryniarski's Zanghief. That guy knew what he was doing!

1-2. As a kid, family friends owned a hole-in-the-wall theatre. Star Wars played for like three yrs. straight, so between ages 4-7, who knows how many times I saw it. No other movie comes close. Runners up, The Blues Brothers, True Romance, 48 Hrs., The Great Escape, Die Hard, Lebowski, and Night of the Living Dead. (Almost every Halloween for over twenty yrs)

3. I like to keep mixing in old faves with new discoveries. But Star Wars I went away from for over 15 years. It was so of my childhood, I almost didnt even bother with the SE re-releases.
4. I hate using movies as background. That's what music is for.
5. If the magic is there, it is there.

1. Die Hard

2. I've watched it at least once a year since I was about Eight years old and I think I saw it several times when I was younger. It's essentially mine and my mothers Christmas movie and it's become my one Christmas tradition. Therefore it's got to be at least 30-40 times.

3. It's an impeccable action movie and watching it in 70mm last Christmas really made me notice some dialogue, moments that I'd never seen.

4. I can't have films on in the background, just seems disrespectful.

5. Because I discovered it as a kid each subsequent viewing has made me appreciate more adult jokes

1. Monty Pythons Life of Brian.
2. No idea. Not fifty times but more than 30ish.
3. I can't possibly be getting anything out of it at this point so I haven't watched it in more than eight or nine years. I have been meaning to stick it on and watch it again now for awhile, just coz.
4. I've always sat and watched it. Maybe I won't turn it off if I need to go to the loo or pack a bong while I'm watching it or something; never during the crucifixion though.
5. The Crucifixion scene is always special. And the space alien bit. Never gets old.

The film I saw in the cinemas the most was Beetlejuice. Watched that about five or six times as a kid. Loved the shit out of that film at the time.
Some of you guys have a lot of free time on your hands. 13 times for Lord of the Rings in the cinema? Jesus christ.

1. Ghostbusters

2. No idea but in the hundreds...easily. I mean AMC runs that damn thing ALOT plus the recent blu-ray.

3. Really just enjoyment. The jokes still work, it's really well put together. Plus sometimes I still notice small little shit I've either forgotten about or hadn't noticed before.

4. Both

5. Yep, the whole sequence of the first call from Ray's line about the last of the petty cash to Egon and Peter writing out the bill.

1. Maybe The Wizard of Oz and Mary Poppins. I used to watch a double feature of those two movies as a kid, along with a nice PB&J sandwich. I now watch each movie about every couple of years.

2. Somewhere around 40 times, 1/4 of that before the age of ten or 11.
3. Don't get as much from them now other than nostalgia and the enjoyment that comes from a great movie.

4. I can never have a movie on in the background. To me, it's almost the equivalent of talking in a theater.

5. I think pretty much everything I enjoyed as a kid, I can still enjoy. The songs are still magical and I now what a tuppence is and what a run on a bank means, making the ending to Mary Poppins make much more sense.

I love reading people's responses. Sorry if I've missed someone but it's interesting to see that nobody has really worn themselves out.