Highly regarded films you at first disliked but grew to like

captainarchive

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I know there are several threads like this currently running but they are black and white, 'everyone loves this film, I don't'. I thought I'd try a more nuanced approach with films people at first disliked, didn't get but eventually grew to love.

For me The Shawshank Redemption -I watched a couple of times and it didn't really click with me, I thought it was overly sentimental more than anything. However because it was one of those films that people kept venerating I watched it almost every time it came on TV and eventually I grew to love it.

Another one was Batman Begins a film I found boring, humorless, colourless. I fell asleep watching it in the cinema and the first two attempts watching it on DVD. Then one day, watching it on TV once again, it just suddenly clicked and I got it.

So over to you.
 
Quite a few mainly due to the age at which i saw them

Citizen Kane
Dr Zhivago
A Clockwork Orange
The Devils
3 Women
Deep red
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

After a few revisit’s years later i soon came to my senses.
 
Easy one for me and its 2001 A Space Odyssey. For as long as I can remeber I didn't like this film due to no small fact that when it was first shown to me in 78 ( 12 yo ) all I had on my mind was Star Wars.

This boring view of the film stuck with me for years up until I started a thread on the forum . Si-Fi is my favourite genre and after discussing the film with other members I gave the BD a go ( also read the book ) and it finnally clicked . Its now what I would call a must watch , helped by the fact that its a stunning remaster.

It was such a good feeling being able to relate to a film I'd dismissed for so long.
 
Not another thread.

What's next:

Films that I liked at first, but others didn't, then I didn't like it later, but my mate did so I did too, but then I grew to hate it.

or

Films that made me physically sick, but then on rewatch only caused some mild soiling.

Only joking, post away. :)
 
Life is too short and too many films around to watch a film again that I found dull the first time around.

I rarely have time to watch films I love more than once!
 
Easy one for me and its 2001 A Space Odyssey. For as long as I can remeber I didn't like this film due to no small fact that when it was first shown to me in 78 ( 12 yo ) all I had on my mind was Star Wars.

This boring view of the film stuck with me for years up until I started a thread on the forum . Si-Fi is my favourite genre and after discussing the film with other members I gave the BD a go ( also read the book ) and it finnally clicked . Its now what I would call a must watch , helped by the fact that its a stunning remaster.

It was such a good feeling being able to relate to a film I'd dismissed for so long.
Same here, its now one of my favorites.
Also Sunshine. When I first watched it I thought it had borrowed from other films and had no originality to it. Now I think its fantastic ! I also didn't think too much of Spielbergs War of the Worlds, but think much more of it now.
 
Life is too short and too many films around to watch a film again that I found dull the first time around.

I rarely have time to watch films I love more than once!
You're not trying hard enough.

I have a 35 min walk to work, do a 8.5 hour shift, walk home, cook the family meal every other day, do the shopping at weekends, go to the match, visit family and friends, read, surf the net, watch TV listen to the radio, listen to music, volunteer and with the odd exception, still manage to watch a film every day.
 
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2001: A Space Odyssey
Absolutely hated this for years having turned it off for being a borefest when I was younger. I gave it another chance last year and absolutely loved it. A truly stunning piece of cinema.

Blade Runner
Again, when much younger I found this slow, plotless, pointless and boring beyond belief. Now, it is one of my favourites. Everything about it is stunning.

The Prestige
Hated it in the cinema - can't really remember why. A second watch totally changed my mind.
 
You're not trying hard enough.

I have a 35 min walk to work, do a 8.5 hour shift, walk home, cook the family meal every other day, do the shopping at weekends, go to the match, visit family and friends, read, surf the net, watch TV listen to the radio, listen to music, volunteer and with the odd exception, still manage to watch a film every day.

That is a good effort! With a family, playing sport 3/4 times a week, gaming and keeping up with TV series I watch maybe a film every 2 weeks.
 
I can't think of a single one tbh.

The only films I truly dislike to the point I'll walk out the room if they are on is the likes of Rocky Horror Picture Show, Mary Poppins and any other BS musical film (except Grease and Footloose). I'd rather stick needles in my eyes then watch that tripe.
 
Not another thread.

What's next:

Films that I liked at first, but others didn't, then I didn't like it later, but my mate did so I did too, but then I grew to hate it.

or

Films that made me physically sick, but then on rewatch only caused some mild soiling.

Only joking, post away. :)
Or
Films I got up part way to relive myself but now drink nothing all day/or tie a knot in it before hand so I dont have to.
Or
What film did you see a person in that aroused you but now thinks a minger.

Not joking but being a right sarky bastard :laugh:
 
I've just bought Blade Runner again so I'm hoping to get more out of it this time. Could be my 3rd or 4th watch, can't remember.
 
I've just bought Blade Runner again so I'm hoping to get more out of it this time. Could be my 3rd or 4th watch, can't remember.
It will get you then you will wonder why you doubted it!
 
Easy one for me and its 2001 A Space Odyssey. For as long as I can remeber I didn't like this film due to no small fact that when it was first shown to me in 78 ( 12 yo ) all I had on my mind was Star Wars.
I saw it at around the same age and loved it. Mind you Star Wars wasn't around then. It's main competition would have been b&w Dr Who.

Bri
 
Ok I have a couple of recent films to put on this list:

Mad Max Fury Road. My first watch was a night when my wife had gone out. Sat down, turned the lights out and the sound up really looking forward to this film I had heard so much about. By the time the end credits rolled I was fairly unimpressed, not much of a step up from all that Transformers Dirge. However the next night my wife wanted to watch it and wow I was blown away by it in a way that I hadn't by a film probably since seeing the first Matrix at the Cinema. I don't know why the second viewing was different but everything just clicked.

Then we watched one of the extras about how they did the car stunts and once I realised most of what you were seeing was done for real, that just improved my feelings about it even more.

Interstellar. At the cinema a bit Meh, OK, a bit long, not as clever as everyone was making out and the Black Hole/Tesseract scene just seemed a bit silly. Second viewing at home and it felt like a masterpiece. A flawed masterpiece but still if Hollywood can keep allowing filmakers to follow their own vision then it makes up for all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle films (worst film in recent memory)
 
Not Planet of the Apes?

I saw that and enjoyed it but Dr Who was it. Made almost as live on a shoestring budget but it was magic. A police box bigger on the inside that could travel anywhere in time and space. Plus those incredible opening titles and music. WOW! We'd never seen or heard the like before. It gave me a love for science fiction of all kinds and I followed the US and Russian space missions.

2001 was the next step. A wonderful creation of things to come. Fantastic images of Moon bases, space liners and the like that were just around the corner. We were full of hope. I wonder if I'd have felt the same if I'd been able to see Star Wars first. It might have turned me to the dark side rating Star Wars better than 2001.

:laugh:
Bri
 
When 2001 was re-released in 1978 to cash in on the success that Star Wars was enjoying at the time I remember the tagline on the posters was : "Before Star Wars there was and there will always be 2001"

I'd find it hard to come up with a better example of how two films could be regarded as similar by the general public but yet be so different and each magical in it's own way.
 

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