Jan de Bont's venture was one of the worst films I ever paid to see.

I was disgusted by the fact that Shirley Jackson's novel could be so thoroughly trashed when Robert Wise had honored it so wonderfully in 1963.

And don't get me started about the remake of Wise's 1951 "The Day the Earth Stood Still". It'll really piss me off.

I didn't see either of those remakes, just reading the reviews when they first came out was enough to prevent me from wasting my time.

I love both of those original movies - especially 1963 "The Haunting" - what made it work was that nothing was explicit, you never could tell for sure what might be "real" or what might be solely in Eleanor's mind. It was a masterful exercise in building terror.

The remake just sounded awful. I loved Shirley Jackson's work when I was young, I had no desire to see her work desecrated by idiots.

As for "The Day the Earth Stood Still" - no excuse whatsoever for trying to re-do something that was perfect already.

It was not a ghost story, it was a psychological drama... and a damned scary one at that.

"My God! What was holding my hand?" (The biggest chill in the flick.)

To this day I avoid sticking my hand out over the edge of my bed.

But you're absolutely correct. It was a psychological drama, not a ghost story.

Hand hanging over the edge of the bed? Then I guess I shouldn't bring up showering alone.

But honestly, I NEVER got spooked out about showers the way I did about letting my hand hang over the edge of the bed.

And, yes, it was a great ensemble cast. I will always love Julie Harris for the amazing work she did in the original movie. Absolutely perfect!

Wise kept Theo's ("Just Theo&quot homosexuality as a sotto voce plot element, as it was in Jackson's novel. It was one of the aspects of The Haunting which made it work so well. Furthermore, apparently Bloom and Harris got into character so thoroughly that it caused problems. (So they say.)

It is one of my favorite flicks.

"When you're alone. In the night. In the dark..." Weird giggle.

Jebus, it gave me chills just typing that...

A friend of mine scored some free passes for a sneak preview through her volunteer work at the San Jose film fest, and we trustingly took our seats, expecting at the worst some brainless entertainment.

Wrong! Brain bleach required. Inexplicable tortuous garbage, Even for a Jim Carrey movie.

We kept looking at each other and expecting some improvement, but help never came.

I had to do a search on IMDB, because it didn't sound familiar. But when I read the synopsis, I realized I had seen it - I had just blocked it out of my memory. For good reason.

We really need some sort of warning system. Always keep your IMDB close, very, very close...

It has been bookmarked in my "Favorites" ever since.

Although I fondly recall the days of finely written film critiques by the likes of Kael, and Haskell, et al. Things moved in a more fixed path then, so something that was dissected in the New Yorker or Rolling Stone eventually showed up at your local art house. Now we are so bombarded by films in multiple media it is fortunate to have an organized search engine. Plus, people really love movies, and the discussion boards can be really engaging.

A day doesn't go by that I don't visit IMDb at least once. It is undoubtedly my most-visited site. An invaluable asset, and a good site to just navigate around and see where it takes you

Actually anything by Tarantino. I don't get him. I've tried - really I have tried. I even gave it a go with Inglerious Bastards - but I just can't do it.

I'd ever be interested in watching.

I've seen/read a few interviews with him, and it has always been abundantly clear to me that his head-space is not a place I would ever want to get into.

IMHO, Tarantino is a genius, right up there with Hitch, Billy Wilder and Woody Allen as my favorite filmmakers. Is Tarantino different! Absolutely. But, no one does what he does better. Again, it's just my opinion, but when you start compiling lists of the best movies ever made, Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs HAVE to be on the list. HAVE TO BE! A side note -- I am not a big fan of action movies or violent movies. But Tarantino brings the genres to a whole new level. As does Leon: The Professional. To summarily dismiss Tarantino's talents and accomplishments simply because of the genre in which he works is downright unjust IMO.

There's a thread - what movie can they never remake?

I'd only allow West Side Story to be made again if Baz Luhrman put his touch on it.

They can remake Charade or even Breakfast at Tiffany's on if Adrian Lyne directs.

The cinematography plays a role in it for me too. Even Lyne's Unfaithful had this beautiful imagery woven into the grittiest parts.

I could never see West Side Story or Charade remade. And speaking of I tried, I really tried. I could never get into Breakfast at Tiffany's. And I LOVE Audrey Hepburn. I LOVE everything she did, and I've seen everything she did, except Two for the Road and Tiffany. Go figure

The opening was interesting but when the cuddly little critters became evil, it turned into one long series of endless gags. It was boring as hell to me, obviously an idea that the screenwriter and producer just didn't know what to do with. One of the most tedious theater experiences I've had.

It was a low-budget knock off of Alien that also went by the names "Inseminoid" and "Voodoo Planet"

..of course, one would reasonably expect this to have been a very bad movie.

Here are films I expected to maybe like, but were huge disappointments to total bombs. I'd like these hours of my life back. Like your case with "Old Gringo", many of these have actors or directors I ordinarily like, or otherwise came highly recommended. They are in no particular order.

2001; A Space Odyssey
Eyes Wide Shut
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Wizards
High Anxiety
Jabberwocky
The Artist
The Remains of The Day
Once Upon a Time in America
Treasure Planet
Barton Fink

The two on your list that I've seen are 2001, A Space Odyssey and Eyes Wide Shut (if I'm recalling correcting that it's that weird movie directed by Kubrick with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman).

Wizards and Treasure Planet are two I can't remember ever hearing about, and I don't know anything at all about them.

Of the two I've seen - Eyes Wide Shut just seemed really weird. I kept thinking there must be some kind of profound point that Kubrick was trying to make, but I couldn't figure out what the hell it might be.

2001, on the other hand, I will always think of fondly. But I suppose it's because of the times. I saw it at a Cinerama theater when it first came out, with a group of friends and we were all tripping on acid. I saw it 4 times altogether that year, but it was always when I was either very stoned or tripping. Each time was a fabulous experience - maybe not so much because it was a particularly good movie, but it most certainly was a movie that lent itself to having an intense psychedelic experience.

Thanks for clueing me in on Wizards and Treasure Planet - it's no wonder they weren't familiar to me, I have absolutely no interest in animated films and have never gone to see one.

Regarding 2001, I'm pretty sure that being very high may probably be the only way to see it and be impressed. (the same might be said of Zardoz, the subject of my very first OP in this Group)

And I'm so out of it - popular culture-wise - that I wouldn't know Amy Adams from, well, Adam.

As for Hall Pass and Club Paradise, it seems to me that most modern American comedies are fairly vapid and dumb. The Big Lebowski excepted, of course!

I completely forgot about that movie. Owen Wilson has really fallen of a cliff. Agreed about Amy Adams also, she's fantastic. Have you seen "On The Road?" Serviceable adaptation of Kerouac, but Adams stands out, she's great..

talking.

And the masked orgy? Moronic.

...if you get my drift.

...and I generally like Kubrick, and I thought Cruise and Kidman had good chemistry in "Days of Thunder". So all of this should combine into a film I'll like, right...?


WRONG!

"Moronic" is an understatement.

It had its slow sections, but the Hitchcockian scenes cracked me up. And I loved the High Anxiety song sung in the Bancroft-Brooks dance sequence.

"The Producers", "Blazing Saddles", "Young Frankenstein" -- truly brilliant films.

Maybe it's because Brooks appears in more prominent acting roles in most of the subsequent films, or maybe it's just that the first three are so good that the others pale in comparison.

"Silent Movie" is so-so. Same with "Men in Tights". I haven't seen "12 Chairs", "Life Stinks", "Dracula Dead & Loving It" or "Spaceballs". I really didn't like "High Anxiety"; "History of the World" was uneven.

The problem with threads like this is that one is bound to trash a film that others like. I knew I'd get pushback on "High Anxiety".

I liked Life Stinks, too, although I know others don't.

To me, though, Brooks' top 2 are The Producers and Blazing Saddles. It kills me that back when Blazing Saddles was released, people of colors could laugh at this satire together. It made a mockery of racism. Today, a film like that couldn't even get made.

are like migraine headaches. Avoid.

I meant all the nightmarish Michael Bay/Shia Lebeouf catastrophes.

I understood the home-cam style going into it, but I don't see how the movie could appeal to anyone over ten.

I don't think I would have liked Blair Witch had I been lobotomized!

Anything. Make it stop.

I kind of analyze why it's so bad. But I have to agree, Blair Witch Project has absolutely no redeeming qualities and I cannot why so many people liked it.

Garbage film that my mother-in-law dragged us to see.

got the hots for Sandra Bullock. But it just screamed "stinker" to me, so I kept coming up with other things to do, like treating him to dinner at a nice restaurant or going on scenic drives when we could just simply talk about stuff together.

I live 100 miles away, so when I make the drive to spend time with him, I try to plan cool stuff to do that he'll enjoy. I kind of felt bad for not taking him to see that movie, but I made sure that the others things we DID do were things he enjoyed. And it spared me the problem of having to feign enthusiam for a turkey in order to spare his feelings for Sandra Bullock (of whom I am not particularly fond).

the film -- and Bullock -- are great.

BTW, I can imagine you had a better time doing all those other cool things.

So did I. We watched it together and sat there stunned by the sheer awfulness. Even worse than the limp script and unfunny humor was the total predictability - we both knew what would happen next. That script MUST have been written by somebody's cousin or lover or insane uncle or something. And re-written by a kindergarten class with mass ADD.

I'm 3000 miles from my family, so I usually take a bunch of new movies with me when I go back to visit.

Mom and I have to be careful. Her younger sister often watches with us, and she seems to have the odd idea that the word "fuck" was only invented around 1987, to personally annoy her. She also hates sex, violence, etc.

Mom, OTOH, really wants to see "Wolf of Wall Street." I told her she better not invite Sis to watch that one.

Except it was 3 hours.

I really think it turned me off to Altman completely.

Horrible western

Hugely overrated film, pretending to have a message. Complete dreck.

Driving Miss Daisy and Titanic. Two titanic piles of excrement that won Best Picture Oscars, no less.

P.S. I'm a huge Kate Winslet fan. What was she thinking??

I've actively avoided Titanic, but I doubt Kate Winslet has too many regrets about that film, if any.

Prior to making Titanic, Winslet had appeared in several movies, most notably Heavenly Creatures. No questionTitanic made her a star. But she's never struck me as the "star" type, having taken more character-driven roles throughout her career (other than Titanic, of course). I guess we'll never really know, but the smart money is probably on how you see it

Not quite "Old Gringo" awful - after all, Tchaikovsky's music was lovely as always - but awful enough.

Thanks for mentioning it, I guess I had blocked that one out of my mind.

for I did enjoy some of his other films. Haven't seen "Old Gringo," and think it'll remain that way.

"Nature's Grave" (aka "Long Weekend&quot - The most dislikable husband & wife characters ever, coupled with sickening animal abuse. You can't wait for them to die, and the movie to be over.

"Skyline" - A sci-fi movie which ripped off Independence Day, War of the Worlds, and others. Plus, the terrible ending was like the director just pulled the plug to euthanize the movie.

Others - About Time. The Impossible. My Afternoons with Margueritte. The remade Great Gatsby.
Quartet. Cloud Atlas.

Series - Nurse Jackie. The Big C.

Various reasons....either too loud, too fast, too "hollywood", too obvious, too boring, too overacted...and in most, "why did they make this movie"?