Now, as we all know, I just can't stop seeing Gladiator, and before that it was The Green Mile, and it tends to be because I get a massive crush on someone in the film, though sometimes I just get a crush on the film itself. What was the last film that you became obsessed with?

-- Kymm (hedgehog@hedgehog.net), June 03, 2000

Answers

I saw "Jewel of the Nile" seven times while it was at the theatre.

I'm not proud.

-- Amy Lester (amy@petdance.com), June 03, 2000.

DIVA, which I saw 15 times in cinemas over an 18-month period (for it is in 1982-83 that our scene lies, and the Nickelodeon was still an independent moviehouse). The most stylish thriller ever to come from France, DIVA is one of the best photographed movies I've ever seen. Not to mention the luminous presence of Wilhelmina Wiggins Fernandez as Cynthia Hawkins, a black opera singer performing in Paris. She sings "Ebben, andro lontana" from La Wally, and Gounod's Ave Maria, and I just wanted to melt. Fabulous soundtrack, too, and an amazing story.

/Robert

-- Robert B. Dimmick (rbdimmick@earthlink.net), June 03, 2000.

I went to see Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 7 or 8 times. Hey, I never said I had taste.

It was all about Peter Frampton...

-- Nance (nance@geeksandgargoyles.com), June 03, 2000.

Titanic, five times. Before that, Interview with the Vampire, eight times.

*shamed*

-- Saundra (scrnwrtr1@home.com), June 03, 2000.

Man! I know every single word of The Princess Bride. All of them. Beginning to end. I drive my friends and assorted loved ones totally nuts with it. I saw it three times in the theater, bought it on video when it came out, and still pull it out to watch at least once a month. I'm such a dork.

Here's the sad and sorry one: I also, many, many years ago - more years than I currently care to admit - saw Weird Science in the theatre about 5 or 6 times, because I had a wild crush on Kelly LeBrock. And it made laugh.

I was like, 13, okay?

-- Jen (maharishe@yahoo.com), June 03, 2000.

Titanic? Y'know, I tried to like it. I really did. But the dialogue...that damn dialogue. It just bugged me. It struck me as unreal and unnatural.

The special effects were pretty funky, though.

-- Jen (maharishe@yahoo.com), June 03, 2000.

Return of the Jedi. Five times. Each time it was out. Meaning ten total. I know you can all multiply but it's important to realize just how big a Star Wars geek I am. Jedi was all about Luke coming into power, though. Mmmmm.

Currently it appears to be the new Hamlet, which I've seen twice in the last week or so and hunger to see again. And again. The visuals are so interesting that I keep catching new things, and the performances (esp. Bill Murray, as the best Polonius I have ever seen, Liev Schreiber, as a heartbreaking Laertes, and Kyle Maclachlan as an incredibly sexy Claudius--rowrr).

-- Melissa (centerbeth@yahoo.com), June 03, 2000.

Well, others that I have gone through in my life are Frank Langella's Dracula, Heaven Can Wait, Stop Making Sense, Truly, Madly, Deeply, A Little Romance, o God, I do this so much. Grosse Pointe Blank. The Usual Suspects. Waterworld. Hey, back off, I loved Waterworld!!

-- Kymm Zuckert (kymmz1@yahoo.com), June 03, 2000.

Hey, in my defense, I didn't go see Titanic for the love story... originally. I went to go see it to see the ship in color, with people on it. I've been reading about it since I was a kid, and i just had to see it "real" one time.

And after five viewings, the really horrible dialogue is comforting and familiar and. . .

Okay, I have no excuse for myself!!! Can I redeem me by saying that I saw Grosse Pointe Blank three times in the theater, and Gods and Monsters over and over until my tape broke??

-- Saundra (scrnwrtr1@home.com), June 03, 2000.

Hey Kymm. . . what about Ishtar?

God, please don't let me be the only person on Earth who liked Ishtar.

-- Saundra (scrnwrtr1@home.com), June 03, 2000.

Well, I haven't actually seen Ishtar, although I saw a bit of it once, and Isabelle Adjani has a very nice left tit, that's all I particularly remember.

-- Kymm Zuckert (kymmz1@yahoo.com), June 03, 2000.

I went to a girls boarding school. We'd rent videos every weekend but for extra entertainment Girls Just Wanna Have Fun got played a lot (I think our house owned it), as did Dirty Dancing (that belonged to someone who apparently watched it at least 70 times).

Uh, I watched The Sound of Music a lot when I was little... (only once when I was big).

R. likes watches movies twice when we rent them. I don't usually join in on the second round but we did both watch The Usual Suspects twice, once following the other, and also The Matrix.

-- tracing (tracing@tracing.org), June 03, 2000.

Saundra, you're not alone: my husband also loved Ishtar. He was saddened at its lack of success.

I'm pretty sure I saw it, at some point (at his bidding), but I have no collection of it whatsoever. I probably fell asleep. That's no comment on the movie, though, because I tend to doze off even during the best flicks.

My movies? Well, number one has got to be When Harry Met Sally, which I could probably recite from memory. Of course I've also seen Rocky Horror Picture Show a gazillion times. More recently, The Negotiator; less recently, The Usual Suspects. Yeah, I really like Kevin Spacey. Other classics: Amadeus, Die Hard, Fried Green Tomatoes (I know, I know, but I liked it!)... man, I guess there are more of these than I thought!

-- Dawn (amgraffiti@superplin.com), June 03, 2000.

Saundra, I don't know that you should be forgiven. But it's good that you're terribly ashamed, and for that, I might forget. Also, I might forget in the face of the fact that you love Grosse Point Blank as much as I do.

But you know, everyone, I never saw Ishtar. It's the butt of "worst movie of all time jokes," and I always feel left out when it's brought up. I feel as if I should go see it just so I have another piece of the pop cultural puzzle filled in there for me.

And also, because I love the horrifying...can I tell you (will you hate me?) that I want to see Battlefield Earth. I do. I'm curious, okay? That is was so universally reviled just fascinates me. Maybe I am just drawn to danger's razor edge. Or I could just be stoopid.

-- Jen (maharishe@yahoo.com), June 03, 2000.

I forgot, The Little Girl Who Lived Down the Lane! Anyone ever seen that one? Jodie Forster anf Martin Sheen as a child molster and Scott Jacobi as the magician? I'm wild about that one.

-- Kymm Zuckert (kymmz1@yahoo.com), June 03, 2000.

I think I saw that, Kymm, it sounds terribly familiar, but I can't seem to pull any details out of my mind. I do know that title still gives me the creeps, though.

-- Saundra (scrnwrtr1@home.com), June 03, 2000.

Top Gun, over and over and over again. And now we have it on DVD, God help me. Does it help that I was learning to fly when it came out? I really hope that helps. Now....I have no excuse other than the fact that it's more like an old friend than a movie.

Also Goonies, and two great old movies: The Quiet Man with John Wayne and Maurren O'Hara and Yours, Mine & Ours with Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda. You have to watch the classics over and over!

-- Colleen (Rosadiuk@alaska.net), June 03, 2000.

Did you know that she just died, Helen Beardsley? That's a great book, too, "Who Gets the Drumstick".

-- Kymm Zuckert (kymmz1@yahoo.com), June 03, 2000.

Any time Pretty in Pink comes on, I must see it. I never saw it in the theater, though I think I've seen it on video. But it's the awful edited-for-television version that I'm compelled to watch over and over. I don't know why. I guess because I'm an athlete and a brain and a princess and a basket case and a criminal. The only actor-crush related movie obsession I can remember was Vanishing Point with Barry Newman. I taped it with our brand-new VCR (this was in 1980!) and watched it obsessively. I did get a little crush on Gary Sinese after seeing him in The Stand. I then had to see every other movie he was in, though I never got obsessed over one particular mov

-- Catherine (catcoicrit@earthlink.net), June 03, 2000.

Oh, wait, I just remembered...I can also recite "Stripes" from having watched the video over and over and over and...

I'm not even ashamed about that one.

I think I can recite "The Shining", too. Gawd, that's a good movie.

-- Amy Lester (amy@petdance.com), June 03, 2000.

Gladiator was the last movie I saw multiple times in the Theater. Simply put, it kicks butt!!

-- Anonymous (Anon@y.mous), June 03, 2000.

Barb, much more than I, wants to see movies over and over. We saw "SUPERMAN II" practically every week it was on. Ditto "E.T." I could say the lines in my SLEEP. She also repeatedly saw DAVE with Kevin Kline and INDEPENDENCE DAY because Bill Pullman was in it.---Al of NOVA NOTES.

-- Al Schroeder (al.schroeder@nashville.com), June 03, 2000.

I've seen Taxi Driver possibly a hundred times since I first saw it back in January. I watched the thing almost daily for about 4 months.

-- Katie Trame (mrkite@apci.net), June 03, 2000.

I think I saw "The Usual Suspects" a good three or four times in the theater, dragging along some friends who hadn't seen it each time so I wouldn't feel like too much of a dork. Lord, who didn't I have a crush on in the cast?

-- Nicole (nwillson@insomniaville.com), June 04, 2000.

Dan Hedaya?

-- Kymm (kymmz1@yahoo.com), June 04, 2000.

I guess the most recent was Hillary and Jackie, for some reason. The issues of how the music world consumes its best and brightest resonated with me.

The granddaddy of them all for me was Henry V when I was in college. It was out during my spring break, and I literally went to see it every night that week, with different people whom I dragged with me. It was a remarkable film to me, and if you'd ever told me that the same man who made it would eventually subject us to the abyssmal Frankenstein, I would have wept like a little girl...

-- Rob Rummel-Hudson (rhudson@mail.digitalism.com), June 04, 2000.

The English Patient. I saw it in the theater five times. People moan and clutch their bosoms when they hear this and insist that I threw precious hours of my life away. But I couldn't get enough. I still love it and watch it regularly, which horrifies the majority of my friends and family, who deem it "boring" and "depressing." Whatever!

I also saw Shakespeare in Love in the theater five times. I pop it in the VCR when I clean the house just to have it on in the background, because it makes me so sickly happy. I actually sing along with the background music as I dust my bookshelves.

I guess the Feinnes brothers have a strange power over me.

-- dora (dora@wordsdiminish.com), June 04, 2000.

I don't see movies more than once very often anymore (and never in the theater), but in college I saw Raising Arizona and Little Shop of Horrors an embarrassing number of times. And, of course, I saw The Outsiders over and over and over again when I was in junior high.

-- Beth (beth@xeney.com), June 04, 2000.

Both Beth and Rob have posted to my forum! All I need is Pamie and I will die happy.

I think that video has changed the whole seeing movies multiple times thing, as you don't have to be madly in love with a movie to do it, and if you have kids you can actively loathe a movie and see it multiple times!

Los Angeles got cable TV before most people--we had it since before I was born in 1964 because we lived in the Hollywood Hills and there is no TV reception at all, practically. Broadcast channels only, though, no pay. Los Angeles also had the first pay movie station, Z Channel, that I had to go to friends houses to see, and they would play a couple of movies about a billion times, so that's why I have seen Young Frankenstein as many times as I have! In 1974 at my friend Karen's house on a weekend sleepover, that was the one.

On broadcast channels, though, I think most of America had the Million Dollar Movie or something like, where they would play the same thing about five times over a weekend, and if I caught and liked it the first time, I'd catch it every other time as well. I remember Alfie, and various Beach Party movies, and the Night Gallery pilot and The Cool Ones and things like that.

-- Kymm (kymmz1@yahoo.com), June 04, 2000.

When I was about fifteen the rock opera Tommy by The Who came out. I lived only twoor three blocks from the theatre and would sneek in every morning before the noon show and stay till the end of the midnight show for just about the whole summer. I had goth skin and I lost weight but Man theat was some ride.

Pink Floyd, The Wall, was another I must have seen twenty times and then got the vidio. In university I did a paper for film class on the editing and use of cuts in "The Wall" got an A.

Apocalypse Now, can't count how many times I have seen this.

Labrynth, Loved this and I am ashamed to say had a monsterous crush on Jenifer Connelly, still do and will go out of my way to see her in anything..

Nowadays I am of the belief that The movie The Matrix has some sort of hypnotizin effect on me as I can not see it enough and after watching it I can't remeber any of it an must watch again.

-- Daniel (truth60@yahoo.com), June 04, 2000.

real genius is a never fail movie for me. the matrix, most recently in the states, and i saw the goofy british gangster comedy love, honour and obey multiple times i was in london until it closed. how can you not love a movie with jude law and jonny lee miller singing karaoke? you can't. that's why i paid outrageous prices to watch l,h&o.

-- aggie (donkara@carleton.edu), June 04, 2000.

Oh! Oh! Oh! Labyrinth! Oh my god, I was so in love with Jareth the Goblin King. I used to write sequels to Labyrinth when I was twelve or so, only of course, I was the one who got to go into the labyrinth, and of course again, I never, ever chose to leave. Ohhhhhh. . .

Goblin King, Goblin King, take this child away from me!!

-- Saundra (scrnwrtr1@home.com), June 04, 2000.

I got Labyrinth the second it came out on DVD. And I mean that day.

-- Kymm (kymmz1@yahoo.com), June 04, 2000.

The last movie I was obsessed with was either Matilda or Persuasion, I can't remember which. Although in both cases, it was less obsession and more just watching the movie a lot with various people.

In terms of watching a movie over and over and over... the current winner may be Army of Darkness. You can bring that movie to anyone's house and they all just love it.

The biggest obsession I ever had over a movie was in college, and it was the 1938 movie Bringing Up Baby. I wanted to be Katharine Hepburn in that movie. Fortunately, I'm feeling much better now.

-- Jette (jette@rootaction.net), June 04, 2000.

That's funny, 'cause in terms of Evil Dead movies, I like Army of Darkness by far the least, though I do like it. I can never decide if I or II is better, because I is much scarier, but II is funnier and better made. Army of Darkness just isn't in their league.

What's up with Raimi these days, anyway, has he forgotten how to direct?

"Gimme some sugar, baby."

-- Kymm (kymmz1@yahoo.com), June 04, 2000.

Bruce Campbell! The Evil Dead movies have made me a lover of Bruce Campbell, through all his cheesy TV incarnations (Xena, anyone?).

I is a classic. But II is the full flowering of the idea, and its inherent black humor.

The third - Army of Darkness is way, way cheesy [and should've been called Medieval Dead (ha, pun!)] but I loved it, if only because of the long drawn-out Day the Earth Stood Still jokes.

Another fabulous overandoveragain scifi/fantasy treasure: Krull. Totally incomprehensible, utterly strange and freaky, but I've watched it a million times. Has anyone but me even heard of it? "Someone's in Henrietta's fruit cellar!"

-- Jen (maharishe@yahoo.com), June 04, 2000.

"Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City to take back the child that you have stolen, for my will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom as great..."

Props to the fanatic who can complete the line. I know -- I'm sick, sick, sick.

-- dora (dora@wordsdiminish.com), June 04, 2000.

I really shouldn't have read through the answers before answering myself. The Parent trap --- I think I still know most of the dialogue - and I was far too old the first time I saw it. 'Let's get together you and me...'

Girls just want to have fun - although that one was my Dads fault - very long story but I laughed my arse off when Helen Hunter won an Oscar as I had seen THIS...

I LIKE Star wars - I missed it this summer deliberately ans was rewarded by seeing it on my own (almost) - I went back to see it the next day ans then I bought the video - although I've only watched the video twice (and at that only becasue I'm saving it for dire emergency).

Oh! I almost forgot! The muppets Christmas Carol - 'Light the candle not the rat!, Light the candle nor the rat! - Fucking classic - gotta love rizzo.

-- Caoimhe (just_s_b@yahoo.com), June 04, 2000.

I saw "The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane" once on late night TV years ago. I don't remember a lot of the details now, but I do remember that it creeped me out.

As for movies that I saw over and over in the theater, that would be "Return of the Jedi". About four times.

Vena

-- Vena (ladyv_39@yahoo.com), June 04, 2000.

"You have no power over me."

Do I get a prize? I think that's right, dora. :)

-- Saundra (scrnwrtr1@home.com), June 04, 2000.

Saundra beat me to it! Well, I was at rehearsal and I just got home.

-- Kymm (kymmz1@yahoo.com), June 04, 2000.

Last of the Mohicans. Over and over and broke the tape and got a new one (wide screen edition). Grosse Point Blank. Lots. When Harry Met Sally (yay, Dawn!). Also, While You Were Sleeping. (I know, it's dumb, but I liked it.) The Princess Bride. Too many times to count.

-- toni (toni@la-lagniappe.com), June 05, 2000.

I've watched "Pride and Prejudice" with Greer Garson and "Sense and Sensibility" with Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson about eight times apiece on video. Ditto "Dangerous Liaisons" - the one with Glenn Close, John Malkovich, and Keanu Reeves. I get talent crushes, but sometimes it's just the environment. How I'd love to live in those periods! I've never seen any movie in the theater more than twice.

-- Lucy Huntzinger (huntzinger@mindspring.com), June 05, 2000.

I think I saw Star Wars about 11 times in the theater. In my defense, we only had one movie theater in my tiny hometown, and the movie was "held over" all summer long. I did love that movie, though.

I'm with Rob on Henry V. I saw it in the theater probably four times, and I own the video.

More recently, The Green Mile, which I saw three times.

-- Laura (lbhelfrich@yahoo.com), June 05, 2000.

Saundra, your prize is the pride and respect that welled in my heart when you got the quote right. I know that means more to you than any actual token you might receive. ;-)

-- dora (dora@wordsdiminish.com), June 05, 2000.

Green Mile's coming out on DVD and video on the 13th! And yes, I've pre-ordered it from Amazon.

-- Kymm (kymmz1@yahoo.com), June 05, 2000.

Thank you dora, I truly am touched. If you don't mind, I'll share your welling with Kymm, 'cause she woulda beat me if she hadn't been in rehearsal. And, you know, it's her forum, I don't wanna be a rude guest. Tea? Biscuits? Oh, what a lovely party! :)

-- Saundra (scrnwrtr1@home.com), June 05, 2000.

Some classics like The Princess Bride and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Also The Ref (to echo the Kevin Spacey fan above) and (hanging head in shame) National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. It just isn't Christmas until I've heard Randy Quaid yell "Merry Christmas! Shitter was full!" God, I have no taste.

-- Amanda (missdufour@hotmail.com), June 05, 2000.

Speaking of Quaids, I've seen The Big Easy I dunno how many times. It just makes me roll over and beg when Dennis Quaid drawls out, "If I can't have you, can I have my gator?" Turns me into a shrieking school girl every time.

-- Saundra (scrnwrtr1@home.com), June 05, 2000.

I've seen The Muppets Take Manhattan about forty times. At least. "Something from the grill, Jill?" "No, meat makes me ill, Gil." "Ocean Breeze Soap: it's just like taking an ocean cruise, except there's no boat and you don't actually go anywhere."

I finally realized that When Harry Met Sally has ingrained itself on my consciousness completely when the other night I turned to my ex-boyfriend and said, without blinking or realizing it was a quote, "It's amazing. You look like a real person, but actually you're the Angel of Death."

Let's all get together and have a big girly journallers' screening of When Harry Met Sally. We can be obnoxious and quote the entire thing together.

-- Melissa (centerbeth@yahoo.com), June 05, 2000.

Since I can recite the entirething from start to finish myself, I'm there for that!

-- Kymm Zuckert (kymmz1@yahoo.com), June 05, 2000.

I watch, for a sanity check, or reality check, every few months, a movie about the life of a certain kind of writer: Crumb, Naked Lunch, Barfly, Miami Blues, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

-- Jack Saunders (jacksaunders@mindspring.com), June 05, 2000.

This was never at the theater but I cannot get enough of "Lolita". I'm not a sick person but, Jesus, I love Jeremy Irons in that movie. The way he growls when he talks, mmmmmm. I have also seen Young Frankenstein and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane a million times at least.

-- Amy T. (als918@aol.com), June 05, 2000.

My wife loves that line of dialogue from When Harry Met Sally that Melissa quoted. That's one of our mutual 'can't get tired of' movies. It's especially good after not watching it for an extended period of time, when you hit upon a scene or dialogue or visual that you had forgotten about.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go sing Surrey With The Fringe On Top. . .

-- Ron Collings (dragon@crescentschool.org), June 05, 2000.

All I have to say is, "Don't Fuck with Mr. Zero," and I will most assuredly be at the hypothetical When Harry Met Sally slumber party extravaganza with Melissa and Kymm. We can eat lots of dishes with things on the side and then watch Casablanca and argue over the ending. Then we can say things like, "I am the dog. I am the dog!" We can play pictionary and draw "Baby Fish Mouth." We can also eat pecan pie and paprikash with pepper on it. We can invite Harry Connick, Jr. over to play the soundtrack on the piano, and then we can collectively imagine that someone will someday recite Harry Burns' entire New Year's Eve speech to us.

Okay, so maybe I need therapy.

-- dora (dora@wordsdiminish.com), June 05, 2000.

Caoimhe: you are not alone in your affection for The Parent Trap. I watch the thing a few times a year. I'm hoping it's just evidence of my great respect for Maureen O'hara...but I can't get that Hayley Mills song out of my head either!

Saundra I thought I was the only one that found Dennis Quaid sexy! There is something about that man in the Big Easy that is just amazing. I used to watch it when I was in a man-hating mood so I could believe that there was somthing still to look forward to. Now I just watch it when my husband is working late!

Kymm...I did hear about Helen Beardsly. I have the book as well and I read it a few times a year. You know what amazes me the most? Those pictures of Helen in the book...she had ten kids and looked fabulous! It's such a great story.

I forgot to mention Parenthood with Steve Martin. I laugh my way through that movie every time! And then I always cry at the end. I also love Apollo 13. It's just another chapter in my love affair with Ed Harris.

Cheers!

-- Colleen (Rosadiuk@alaska.net), June 05, 2000.

Breakfast Club -- many, many, many times. *Loved* Judd Nelson in that movie and Andrew McCarthy. I know all the words backwards and forwards. Ferris Beuller's Day Off -- my mom took me to see this in the theater and I loved it then and have loved it ever since. Beetlejuice -- still get a kick out of this movie. Aliens -- because Sigourney Weaver kicks butt hardcore. Raising Arizona -- there's nothing embarassing about this movie, Beth, it's a classic and should be loved by all. I'm not obsessive about this movie but I do think it is a really, honestly, seriously excellent movie -- Dazed and Confused. I just bought it at the video store last weekend and it's really great. The dialogue is awesome and there are really no wasted characters.

-- amanda (amanda@gawow.com), June 05, 2000.

In highschool it was all about Dirty Dancing, Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink. These days, "So I Married an Axe Murderer" is one of my very faves; I love me some Mike Myers. The movie "Big" sucks me in everytime its on TV. Its my favorite Tom Hanks movie. I loved "Contact" and saw it in the theater twice, although no one else I know liked it much at all.

-- Julie (jefjul@athenet.net), June 05, 2000.

Ah well, since my other one true love, David Morse, is in Contact, I'm seen it a couple of times myself!

-- Kymm (kymmz1@yahoo.com), June 05, 2000.

I loved David Bowie as the Goblin King! And I remember the scifi Krull. It was cool, but I have forgotten a lot of it, looks like I'll have to look it up again. I like to watch scifi, animations, and chick flicks. Sorry, but I really like Return to Me, Duchovny was real. Wow, I am going to have to make a list and go rent some movies now. And I make the best nachos around, with my own canned jalapenos no less! But popcorn is my mainstay at the theatres, and a great big drink! Hmmmmm, I think I'll plan on a trip to the movies tomorrow. This is fun Kymm, glad you thought of it!

-- Jackie (gabbydink@webtv.net), June 06, 2000.

There's another former "Tommy" fanatic here? Yay! When I was eleven, I watched it daily basis for weeks, and didn't listen to anything except its soundtrack for several months.

I've never seen anything more than once at the cinema, but probably because it's so difficult for me to get to the nearest one. However, I have been known to watch a video of "Lock, Stock And Barrels" fourteen times a week...

My other most-frequently watched film has been "Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom" - but only the beginning and the end. I've never seen the middle in its entirety, but I saw the opening and closing sequences hundreds of times when I was eight or so. Weird.

-- Zed The Shameless Plugger (zed@swansongs.net), June 06, 2000.

I remember seeing i>Tommy when it first came out, because my parents would let me see anything. I saw it with my friend Cynthia (not the Cynthia that I live with now!), and since I was 10 I can pretty much guarantee that I didn't understand most of it, but I loved it.

Cynthia had a huge crush on Roger, and I just couldn't see the attraction, I liked Oliver Reed and Keith Moon. A portent of things to come. I got the album and just wore it out.

I saw it the second time with my friend Melanie when I was 15 or so, and I remember getting physically high off the movie, with no help from anything else. Very wild.

-- Kymm (kymmz1@yahoo.com), June 06, 2000.

Cripes, this is just a big, ol' girly forum, ain't?

Not that I'm a font of testosterone, but where are the boy movies? And I ain't talkin' Star Wars.

I must be physically restrained from getting sucked into Highlander ("There should have been only one.") anytime I surf past it on TV or cable. Ditto Blind Fury, with Rutger Hauer. More embarassingly, should I surf past the genuinely abominable yet still a guilty pleasure Bloodsport, yes, with "The muscles from Brussels" his bad self, Jean-Claude Van Damm, while I cannot physically sit through the whole thing, I do feel compelled to continually turn back to it, to keep tabs on how far along it's gotten and to watch most of the fight scenes.

What else? An American Werewolf in London, Big Trouble in Little China, um....

I'm sure I have others, probably even without a martial arts theme, but I can't think of them right now. (I did once hear a joke that if women let their boyfriends rent the movies by themselves, they'd never come back from the video store with anything besides The Great Escape. Me, I've never seen it the whole way through.)

Movies I Saw More Than Once in a Theater: Ferris Bueller's Day Off-- saw it with a good friend and when it let out, the two of us went and picked up this other friend (well, "took her captive" would be more accurate), then went and saw it again the very same evening; Big Trouble in Little China, which I believe the same friend1 mentioned above and I also saw twice in the same day (as an aside, it's much better on the big screen; not only are the fight scenes larger, of course, but the movie's final shot of Kim Catrall in the tight sweater she's wearing just does not register the same on a little old TV screen).

Movies I Saw Innumerable Times on Cable, though just out of boredom, not fanaticism: Grease, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band. What? I was a teenager in the early 80's.

I also taped this one movie, Start the Revolution Without Me, starring Gene Wilder and Donald Sutherland in a sendup of The Corsican Brothers story, off of broadcast TV and nearly wore the tape out. Talk about quoting every line, I know about every frame of that film.

Oo, I also just remembered a fascination I had with Zorro, the Gay Blade when I was maybe 13-14. Watched it over and over and over, both on cable and video; another film every frame of which I know. ("Jes, I, Zorro, have returned... to help the helpless, to befriend the friendless, and to defeat the- uh... defeatless!" "It is my destiny to help the pipples... the poor and the trodden down pipples!")

Lastly, there's It's Not an Actual Movie, But Still: waaaay back in 198Idon'tknow (maybe even '77-'79), HBO broadcast The Pee Wee Herman Show, with Paul Reubens as Pee Wee Herman. This was his original show, folks, predating the movies and the Pee Wee's Playhouse Saturday morning TV show. It was a stageshow, performed at some theatre in Chicago, and it rocked. I watched it over and over, I taped it and watched the tape, and every day at school, for months, my friends and I would eat lunch together then go out and walk around the track reciting the thing in its entirety. Every line, every part, every song (even humming the tunes). Beginning to end, in toto.

Fanaticism.

One more thing. I never saw Ishtar, so I don't know about whatzername's left tit (that Kymm mentioned), but when I saw The January Man, with the magnificent Kevin Klein, I was struck absolutely dumb by Mary Elizabeth Mastroantonio's (I believe it was also her) left breast. I recall thinking it was the single most beautiful breast I had ever seen, so much so I felt guilty as hell (like a good Catholic boy) over liking so much better than my then- girlfriend's breasts.

Too much information?

Anyway, are there any other guys reading this discussion who'll contribute?

-- Michael (mwalsh@lynx.neu.edu), June 06, 2000.

You think Gladiator is a girly movie?

-- Kymm Zuckert (kymmz1@yahoo.com), June 06, 2000.

Haven't seen Gladiator, but it ain't been the guys talking 'bout seeing it again and again, now has it?

-- Michael (mwalsh@lynx.neu.edu), June 06, 2000.

There are many beheadings and it's terribly violent, hunk-o-man-thing in the title role notwithstanding, it's got testosterone up the wazoo.

-- Kymm (kymmz1@yahoo.com), June 06, 2000.

To me, a man movie is Mickey Rourke, saying, "There are so many things I don't want to do," in Barfly.

Or Faye Dunaway, answering, "What do you do?" "I drink."

-- Jack Saunders (jacksaunders@mindspring.com), June 07, 2000.

Breakfast "Uh, I can tape all of your buns together" Club is my highest viewings to date, then Rocky Horror, then Dirty Dancing, the Willy Wonka's "Augoostoos, Sweetheart, save some room for later!" Chocolate factory, 9 1/2 weeks,Life is Beautiful and at the theatre with my mother no less, The Last Unicorn!

-- anonymously answered, June 07, 2000

Guy chiming in: Mystery Men is the last movie I saw repeatedly in the theater. For me it is: Cinematic Prozac. I get a goofy grin from frame-one and I'll walk around giggling for hours after. I feel like they got my personality and made it into a movie. I love all of these loser-misfits who work out their insecurities in their super-identities. Really speaks to fantasies I had as a kid (okay, I admit it, fanatsies I still have). The movie does slow down toward the end, keeps hitting the same notes over and over again, but I can excuse alot from a movie that gives me Ms. Garafolo as a super hero who talks to the spirit of her dead father encased in a bowling ball.

But then, what does quality have to do with the fascination certain films have over us? I went through a period where I watched The Fisher King continually, then I realized that I was totally connecting to the themes of redemption. I had to admit I was totally depressed. Not that TFK is a bad movie, but Robin Williams I can only take normally in very small doses. By the way, my super-identity? I am 'The Line Monitor'. I fight for the rights of those who got there first! I am a bitch in a que situation. (My friends ask me to become 'The Line Monitor' at concerts, plays and music festivals, wherin I'm a fanatic at getting the best, if not better, seats).

Have I said too much? My first post!

-- Tony DiModica (dimodia@iimagazine.com), June 07, 2000.

Mystery Men! Yes! I forgot Mystery Men! That's the last film I saw twice in a theater. How could I have forgotten? And both times, I loved just every frame, from the opening lightning bolt through to the rating box after the end credits!

I agree with you completely, Tony. I love that film.

And thanks for keepin it real, mah brutha. Yo!

-- Michael (mwalsh@lynx.neu.edu), June 07, 2000.

Blade Runner, thats a mans movie, Harrison Ford at his best, Did anyone notice that the promo poster for his upcoming movie is a picture of his patented "one hand reaching over top of the edge of something" very Harrison almost as much as the horse eye look is Bruce Wilis signature. I dig any Bruce movie as well, Bruno is also a mans man. I am addicted to "The Fifth Element" could a woman have a cuter name than LeeLoo ? I think not.

I am as always still searching for the reason theatre people will run the movie Princess Bride constantly at theatre camps,schools,festivals. Someone plaese tell me.

-- Daniel (truth60@yahoo.com), June 07, 2000.

I will also watch anything that Salma Heyek is in, I can not tell you what the movies are about but I only breathe when Salma breathes.

:)

-- Daniel (truth60@yahoo.com), June 07, 2000.

OK, can't let you young things think you're the only fans in the universe. I saw Lawrence of Arabia when it first came out and was just zapped. At the time, we were doing a damn good job of Julius Caesar at my college, and our director used parts of the soundtrack from "L of A" to introduce and run behind certain scenes. I hadn't seen the movie yet but was bowled over by his use of the sound track. And then when I did see the movie, the music was so deeply ingrained with our own production and was so excellent with the movie too, and those damn blue eyes and all that sand and the camels and the shootings and Omar Sharif... well, I'm sure I saw it fifteen times anyway. And then again when it was restored and re-released. Ah, them were the days, my friends.

Special note: our whole family loves Ishtar. Have our own copy.

-- Judy (tdfarre@attglobal.net), June 09, 2000.

Well, my taste in must-see movies isn't especially girly. First and foremost, always, is Blade Runner. I don't know how many times I watched it, but everytime I spot something new. Ridely Scoot apparently said he constructed it like a 600-layer cake; eventually you can stop looking at the centre of the frame, and start noticing the incredible wealth of detail all around the edges.

I adore The Hunt for Red October unreservedly. It's an almost perfect film, from casting to dialogue to every scene. I get dreadfully offended when lines to whole scenes are cut for television shows; it's perfect as it is dammit, leave it alone! (For the record, it's the first vid I ever owned.)

Word up, Aggie- I love love love Real Genius. For what was probably meant as a sweet throwaway of a summer flick, it's surprisingly rich and tastily done. That, and Val Kilmer is the biggest hottie of all time therein. (I always dug the smart boys.)

Nobody but me has ever seen it, but I loved a little flick called (I think) Making Mr Right starring Ann Magnussen and John Malkovich. Quirky, fun.

And no matter how many times I see Alien, it's still extremely bloody creepy!

-- Cameron (cameron@cimtegration.com), June 09, 2000.

Well well well, I was SO all about checking my html tags in that nice little post that it completely didn't occur to me to check my spelling.

Ridely Scoot?????

Oh, god...

I'm slinking off to watch Iron Chef now, thankyouverymuch...

-- Cameron (cameron@cimtegration.com), June 09, 2000.

Ah yes, good old Ridely Scoot, wasn't he in Pee Wee's Playhouse? I remember Making Mr. Right, which I saw because I love Malkovich so much.

-- Kymm (kymmz1@yahoo.com), June 11, 2000.

Hey, after following this thread, I rented Ishtar this weekend. Just thought I'd contribute that, while I don't know that it's the Worst Movie Ever Made, I do consider it a What Were They Thinking hall of fame-r. And by they, I mean everyone responsible-- Warren, Dustin, the producers, the director-- anyone who wielded any of the authority that brought that final product to release.

I did get some laughs from Charles Grodin's bits.

-- Michael (mwalsh@lynx.neu.edu), June 12, 2000.

I SAW MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2 SO MANY TIMES THAT 'I HAD TO BUY IT AND IVELOST COUNT. I LOVE INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE. ICANT FIND THAT. CASZE OOO TOM.

-- CASZE ES DILLON (jinxmaxdillon@yahoo.com), August 19, 2001.

Lord Of The Rings, All the way!! I saw that movie like 8 times. It was soooo awsome. Legolas is really hott :D. Well, that's just my oppenion....

-- Sophie C (SmajelC88@hotmail.com), March 24, 2002.

I saw several references to films with Rutger Hauer, but was astounded not to see anything about his best film, "Ladyhawke" I truly don't know how many times I've watched it. Awesome performances by Michell Pfeiffer and Mathew Broderick didn't hurt either.

-- (Carangul@msn.com), February 12, 2005.