Unforgiven is my favorite Clint Eastwood movie.
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Unforgiven is one of my most rewatchable films of all time. Magnolia is also on that list. Both amazing imo. I understand the criticisms of Magnolia, am shocked anybody doesnāt like Unforgiven!
Phantom Thread was a total snooze, but my life loved it.
I donāt super dig Dr. Strangelove either.
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Austin Powers for me is like Ace Ventura. Did it age terribly? Yes, but I also watched it endlessly and would still watch it today.
Austin Powers became my generationās Rocky Horror. It was a delight to act out each of the catchphrases. Sometimes weād drive around and just recite the whole movie.
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Same as you. I was kind of shocked how bored I was. Usually PTA is an instant hit for me.
Whatād you think of Licorice Pizza? I did not like.
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Hard disagree as a person who saw the movie probably 30 times in the few years after it came out and loved it every time. One night, we decided to break out two old standbys from around that time, Austin Powers 1 and Money Talks. Austin Powers felll very flat in numerous places (itās not a bad movie but it doesnāt hold up, sorry). Money Talks, on the other hand, stood the test of time extremely well. Even the Lalo Schifrin score that I thought was borderline cheesy at the time it was made sounded really good 20 years later, probably because of how poor a lot of movie music is done these days when back then almost all movie scores sounded amazing recorded on big scoring stages.
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Iām surprised I like Austin Powers at all considering my disinterest in comedies. I do like funny movies but broad comedies do not work for me.
Ace Ventura is a great example. LKJ was talking about them a while back. People LOVE those movies but Iāve never seen one beginning to end. I have caught enough of them to know they are not for me. Dumb and Dumber as well. I understand it is considered one of the great comedies but I just cannot do it. Hangover movies, Wedding Planner, Old Schoolā¦ nothing. I did like Happy Gilmore and have seen it more than once.
I also liked Airplane and later the Naked Gun movies back in the day but I havenāt seen them since I was a teenager. I still like Monty Python movies. I am a sucker for a funny sitcom with heart such as Parks and Rec or more absurd humor like Community and 30 Rock. Maybe comedy works better for me on a tv screen.
And I would never turn my nose up at anyone who loves comedies, I get itās a me thing. I watch plenty of horror and sci-fi that normal people would kindly call subpar but Iām all in on them.
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I watched this not too long ago and agree, and think I came up with a reason why, which I think is twofold. 1. Obviously timing is very important in comedy, but it seems even moreso in AP. Nearly every joke relies on a āHey look over there!ā And then when you turn back the funny is on screen. Its incredibly well edited, but after one or two watches you know what the surprise is and it goes to ruining the comedy. 2. Is just about the same. Being a spoof, its most important tool is subversion, but once your expectations of a scene have successfully been diverted, its really really hard for it to happen again. If you know all the punchlines before a joke, is the joke funny anymore? Sometimes, if its told correctly. Some of my favorite spoofs suffer from the same problem. Airplane, Robin Hood, Spaceballs, Naked Gun. They all come highly recommended from me to someone on their first watch, and they worked on multiple watches to my 90s baby brain, but a lot of them are a chore to sit through now.
Shows how much better satire is for an adult brain than spoof. The Simpsons golden years are still genuinely funny and interesting to rewatch even though I could likely close my eyes through most episodes and still see the animation. Satire is evergreen, spoof is deciduous
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I couldnāt get past the premise and actually erased it from my mind until just now. The age gap romance is a huge deal breaker for me.
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That all makes sense. I guess you need the comedy to be complex instead of a light hearted spoof?
Canāt just be me, but isnāt it common to go back for the jokes we know the best just to anticipate the beginning, middle, and end? Like I love to laugh at THE PRICE IS WRONG, BITCH so much that Iāll start laughing before the joke happens. Some movies are so much fun to play along with, itās like a new Rocky Horror. Standup comedy even more so easy to rewatch.
Maybe it only works for subversive jokes then. Or a certain number of times. But like, generally I dont listen to the same standup set multiple times
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Yeah, I mean I loved Casablanca with zero context when I first saw it, but no question the historical context boosts it further and helps it somehow find another level still. Iāve got it as my #6 all-time. Elite film.
Totally agree. Itās still wonderful.
Errā¦
The second one is a bunch of hacky encores and a boatload of gross bathroom jokes.
File Ace Ventura under āembarrassed that I ever though this movie was hilarious,ā though I once did. Ace impossibly spotting the tiny face of Ray Finkel in a picture from way across the room is still hilarious though.
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I donāt think your explanation works well due to how rewatchable AP1 was when it first came out and for at least several years after. You knew the punchlines were coming but it just worked better then (āwho does number 2 work for?ā was elite, especially with the topper). I really just think comedy has really upped a bunch of levels since then and think the source of a lot of that upping was that movie. It becomes a challenge to watch the original when stuff has moved past it even if it was groundbreaking at the time. Itās also a problematic movie on a number of levels, but it was spoofing problematic movies, so itās hard to say thatās a major problem in why it might not hold up today.
An interesting connection I have to that movie is that I knew the sound designer of it. The sound design in that movie was wacky and he was actually a Re-Recording Mixer at a different company that was down the hall from the first company I worked at that was owned by Barbra Streisand (we worked in tandem with them a lot exchanging mics, sound effects, etc.). Weād both moved on to different companies by then. It was shocking seeing his name on the movie but he was a really cool guy so it was fun to see his name on it.
Another off the wall movie comparison about ānot holding upā is the movie A Civil Action. I remember in its day thinking, āwow, what a snappy change of pace, fast, etc.ā movie. I then watched it again about 20 years later and was like, āyuck, doesnāt hold up at all and feels like antiquated pacingā. I think people kind of forget how much movies have changed in the last 25 years or so. What we once thought of as fast paced is now like molasses. Part of that is technology, part of that is influence, and part of that is that the makers/studios of a lot of movies treat the audience better now, especially in comedy.
My favorite part about Marx Brothers movies is that the joke pace was relentless (holds up in any era). They didnāt give a s*** if you missed a joke, they were just gonna keep rolling them out. And because of how many jokes there were, you almost always could catch something you missed on future rewatches.
My favorite trivia about that movie is that Sean Young also played Ray Finkle. Thatās her in a wig and mustache.
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Iāll let others chime in. Maybe itās me who is unique, but I love listening to a great standup set multiple times. Iāve listened to a specific Dana Carvey special at least a couple of dozen times.
Same for movie comedies. If itās funny for me, itās probably rewatchable.
Same. Seems normal.
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Believe me, I donāt need anything I watch to be complex. I enjoy complex but, trust me, I watch plenty of junk as well - good junk to me but junk nonetheless. Iāve just never been drawn to broad comedies. There are a few that break the rule but in mostly skip them.
Iād say my least favorite genres, in order:
The Family Trauma Drama - Memory, Jessica Chastainās recent film is the most recent one I actually watched. Usually itās a previously addicted or otherwise dysfunctional adult child (or children) returning home to the parents who did everything wrong raising them and they need to hash it all out. They are mostly trope upon trope upon trope ( I did find Skargaardās character interesting in Memory). Exception for me would be The Meyerowitz Stories.
Biopics - way too manipulative and we rarely get the warts and all story. An exception would be Walk the Line which was very good.
Comedies - As previously discussed. An exception would be Happy Gilmore. Also The Cable Guy but they were going for something more sinister here that caught the audience off guard. Austin Powers, of course.
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LKJ - I donāt necessarily disagree about Austin Powers 2. In my post I was mostly trying to connect the second to my love of 1990s Heather Graham - just didnāt do it well. Iāve only seen the second a couple times while Iāve watched the first a ton.
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An awful lot of dust in the room. Canāt imagine how bad itāll be watching the full feature.
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