Movies you DIDN'T like after a 2nd viewing.
 

For me, the atmosphere of the theater (which I LOVE) along with the crowd sometimes makes a movie better than it really was. one movie I did like the 1st but didn't like the second time was John Q .

Just off the top of my head, "THE FUGITIVE" with Harrison Ford was pretty lame the second time viewing. The suspense was almost completely gone.

Armageddon

Spiderman. All the non action scenes got so boring.

I loved <b>Almost Famous</b> when I saw it in the theater; but when I watched it again on DVD I found it cheesy, melodramatic, and clichéd.

[This is also my Standard Response to "Overrated Movie" threads...]

Fellowship of the Ring. First viewing was in the theater soon after its release; were I a critic, would have placed it between 2.5 - 3 stars. Second viewing was at home on DVD (by this time, at least in my mind, the hype had swelled to Star-Wars-esque proportions) - rarely have I been so totally disinterested in a film. Especially when fantasy / action / adventure is exactly the type of material I typically eat up. [Suggested comeback: "If you consider FOTR a 'fantasy / action / adventure' movie, you obviously didn't understand it."]

Black Hawk Down gets worse and worse every time I see it. Liked the first time, was lukewarm the second time. I am afraid to watch it a third time. The action sequences continue to impress, but the script is just juvenile.

Spider-Man - not half as good as I thought it was when I first saw it.

The first movie I thought of was John Q!

Signs is another. I was blown away the first time I saw it, not so much the second viewing.

Alot of M. Night Shyamalan's movies seem to be this way for me, I'll love them the first time but once I've seen the twist ending theres not alot of insentive for me to watch them again, their just not that good.

Godzilla '98

The first time I saw it, I thought it had some good FX but was kind of cheesy at times, like other Godzilla flicks. However, the second time I found myself cringing at the dialogue and rolling my eyes at how much they missed the mark with the creature and story.

Not only that, but I went back and re-watched Independence Day and found that movie to be equally as bad. In fact, ID4 was good everytime I saw it....in the theater. That was one film where once it hit video, it really lost its luster at an alarming rate.

Pearl Harbor: first time, an epic that had some great pyro FX and an okay script.
Second time: A total hunk of crap!

For the record, David Fincher's The Game is not a bad movie, but once you've seen it and know the ending, the thrill of watching it is gone. It's not like Usual Suspects where you can watch it again and pick up little clues or new things, it just ends with everything answered and no need to repeat anything.

Natural Born Killers. I liked it the first time, couldn't get through it the second. No desire to ever see it again.

Spiderman was the first movie that came to mind. I loved it in the theater, I anxiously awaited the DVD release date, ran down to buy it that morning, watched it immediately and realized that it's not such a good movie afterall.

Star Wars Ep. II Thought it kicked ass in the theater but after viewing it a second time I decided it suffers from many of the same problems as Ep. I

the one that comes to mind is sometimes highly acclaimed by dvdtalk members, but they're wrong. :) jp

donnie darko: i watched the first time and liked it, but i think a lot of it was because of all the great i heard about it on here. watching it the second time the faulty science/physics was annoying, especially with their supplements on the dvd and website which had to make its own science to tell the story.

Men in Black
Independence Day
Armaggedon
Ghost Ship

Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and any of the Superhero movies (Spiderman, Superman, Batman, etc)

MEMENTO!!!

Also, American Beauty and Being John Malkovich.

Batman, Memento, & Training Day immediately come to mind.

Jackass and Cast Away

The English Patient. First time, I thought it was an okay war movie. Second viewing, it was like watching paint dry. Kristin Scott Thomas is hot as hell, though.

Any Will Smith movie.

The Sixth Sense

I saw it at the first time in a theatre, and I thought it was so great. Then when the video was available on the store, I bought it without any doubt.

Saw it at home, got a little bored though I still jumped off my seat for certain scenes, but the ending didn't surprise me no more and it ruined the experience a lot.

Lent it to my friend, he loved it .. he wanted to have it .. I gave it away without any doubt. For free.

I've been wondering whether he had the same experience after the second viewing. Hmm .. don't know. Never ask.

Whoa that's the movie I was going to put also. I liked it the first time, then saw it several years later again and absolutely hated it.

Braveheart. I'm that amazed the first time I saw it. But after the second time it's so boring I was sinking on my seat.
Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Watched it on Madacy's DVD. Thought it was awesome despite of the friggin' transfer, but the second time I wanted to watch it, I couldn't bear it anymore. Oh well... definitely have to grab the Kino DVD.

Star Wars Episodes I & II, I was so swept up in the hype that I convinced myself that I loved them the 4 or 5 times I saw each of them in the theater. But once they came out on DVD I couldn't even force myself to buy episode I and I own episode II only because I received it as a gift. I can't even begin to explain how sad this really is since I am the biggest damn Star Wars geek in the world.... or maybe I should say used to be.

Interesting. All 3 of these movies for me get better and better every time I watch them, especially Being John Malkovich.

Bram Stoker's Dracula.

On the big screen I was really impressed with the sets. Then I saw it once at home and found the use of sets frustrating. Way too much emphasis on style. I'll take Werner Herzog's version anyday.

Austin Powers 2

Se7en.

On repeat viewings it just seems very gross and of course, all the suspense is gone.

Perhaps this might be true of any suspense based film. It's really just a one shot deal.

Ya know, not to slam or flame anybody here, but...

ARE YOU ALL OUT OF YOUR FREAKIN' MINDS???

Many of these films I consider to be true cult classics, and I can watch them time after time and see something new each time. Memento, Batman, Sixth Sense, Castaway, Braveheart, American Beauty, Almost Famous...

I know that some of these films rely on surprise and suspense to make their impact, but I can always go back to, say, The Sixth Sense and appreciate the setup and the subtle foreshadowing. Other of the films listed have so much depth and complexity to them that unless you're expecting the movie to have a lot more guns and explosives the second time... I can't imagine how you could get bored watching, say, Braveheart or American Beauty.

For me, there are some films that really need to be seen in a theater. Watching them on the small screen just does not work. An excellent example is Dead Again. I walked out of the theater saying, "Man! This is one great film! I could watch it again and again!" When it came out on VHS and I watched it on the small screen, it was more like, "This is so hokey! I cannot believe that I liked that!"



For me, the ultimate about-face has to be Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones. I walked out of the theater totally jazzed, fervently believing that I had witnessed a true visual spectacle. I proclaimed the movie one of the best films of the summer -- a point my wife vehemently disagreed with.

When I saw the movie at home on DVD, I was stunned by just how bad everything was. The writing was bad, the storyline made no sense, the acting was bad. The direction was awful, the special effects cheesy and second-rate -- this is the crowning glory of ILM?



Horrible, horrible, horrible movie. And then, to make things even worse, I had to go to my wife and admit that she was right all along.

Damn George Lucas. Damn him to hell.

Matrix

I know I might be the only person to think this way about the Matrix, but everytime I watch it, Keanu's acting gets worse and worse. Its really painful at times. When I first saw it, I was completely amazed by the movie. On the second viewing, I still liked it, but something was wrong. On the third viewing, I realized that Keanu is just plain awful as an actor and it has ruined the movie ever since.

Its funny how a bunch of movies already mentioned in this thread are some of my favorites (LOTR, Memento, Donnie Darko, etc).

The Crow - I don't know why, but I just can't seem to enjoy it as much as I did the first time around.

Might have something to do with the untimely death of Brandon Lee?

Quote from Brandon, when asked during filming if he would be signing up for a sequel -- "I need another action movie on my resume like I need a hole in the head."

I second that, though I don't blame Keanu.

-the backstory just becomes an excuse for the stunts.
-Human bodys produce energy... sure
-innocents can be killed without even thinking

The Usual Suspects. Loved it the first time, but the second time through it felt like one big gimmick, and Gabriel Byrne's character just seemed redundant. Contrast this with movies like Memento and Miller's Crossing, where I find something new every time I watch.

Thomas Crown Affair - Really liked it in the theater, kind of boring once you know the outcome.

I watched Princess Mononoke once.....didnt like it.

Watched it again to make sure I didnt like it.....I ended up really not liking it.

Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes.

The first time I saw it, I left the theater discussing the ending. Once I read that there wasn't any real logic to the final scenes, I found the film to be boring and full of stale acting. I love Tim Burton, but this is his only DVD that I can't bring myself to buy.