Back when I was about 18, I loved Dirty Dancing. I must have watched it hundreds of times (I know this because I could recite pretty much all the dialogue along with the film last night) and never realized how terrible it is. Because it is absolutely TERRIBLE. The whole thing, from beginning to end. Not just cheesy, but appallingly bad.
Amazing that my teenage self didn't figure that out. I was a film buff, even then. But somehow I overlooked the badness of this particular film. Now I can't. Maybe it's because so much time has passed since I last watched it.
Is there any film you once adored that you've gone back to and realized it's terrible? Or a book?
This totally happened to me with the movie Tuff Turf, which I had a techie friend find for me on the internet. He spent a ton of time looking for it and had to join a German site to download it. I was so excited, but then I watched it and it was just bad. The only good part was Jim Carroll singing "These are People who Died". When I was a teen, I thought this movie was incredible and it made me love James Spader, who I had previously hated due to his role as Steph in Pretty in Pink. LOL.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if that means we're grown up now? No! No! No!
ReplyDeleteMy husband loved The Neverending Story growing up and was appalled when he learned that I'd never seen it. We rented it and...well, he had to admit that the effects hadn't stood the test of time. Or the dialogue. Or the plot. In the end, he apologized for making me sit through it. I prefer to think that my favorite childhood movie (The Parent Trap) would have fared better... =)
ReplyDeleteMaybe that can be your next experiment... Or maybe it;s better to just remember them fondly.
ReplyDeleteThere's so many things I've watched or read that are awful when looking back at them, but there are also plenty that stand the test of time, or I can just appreciate them for what they are...although I'm finding that harder lately.
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