As new age connected internet movie film nerds I am sure all of us have seen a variety of movies throughout our illustrious consumption of entertainment daily lifestyles. Movies that run the gamut from great friggin movies to god awful terrible movies. Somewhere in that spectrum however there are a bunch of hidden sub-categories for movies that do not fit conventional ratings of good, bad, so so, great etc. When you rank these movies you often have to start with a conventional ranking, but also add a descriptor or an asterisk (*) to feel like you have served designation justice to it’s final ranking.
I often do this myself for bad movies. As a bad movie aficionado I often will give two rankings when discussing one of my favourite terrible twos (roughly two hours of your life that you do not get back). Ranking one is based on how I think the average viewer will react, ranking two is how much it entertained me despite it’s best efforts and how much I would recommend it to other like minded movie viewers (there are like dozens of us right?). Like for me to recommend Bats for most people I would say 1/5 starts, but the select few might hear 4.5/5. So ranking Bats I say it is a Bad movie that is really entertaining for people who love bad movies, rather than the simple it’s a bad movie. I mean that seen where Lou Diamond Philips has a pistol in the street and shoots like 12 bats out of the sky at night with a stampede riot happening all around him and he rolls under the truck BLAM, BLAM, hey didn’t he have a pistol with six bullets… but I digress…
The diametric opposite to a bad movie you enjoyed is a good movie you did not. There are movies out there that are really great stories with really great acting, perhaps some really great film-making involved, costumes, sets, music. These movies often have a lot going for them but just not enough to overcome one major hurdle: The Rewatch Factor(tm). There is no set Rewatch Factor that applies to everyone as we are all somewhat different and have slightly different tastes, life events, responsibilities, motivating factors, sand/time demons chasing us to restore the timeline, but it is there for everyone nonetheless. The Rewatch Factor is simply what it will take to get you to rewatch a movie somewhere down the line… or not. Maybe that good movie was a slog to get through and even though you enjoyed it at the time? Maybe you just do not have the time, maybe you don’t feel you will ever find that rare gem again? It can be anything, everything and a complete mix of all minor factors coming together.
So, this week’s prompt is simply: What is a movie(s) you have liked, love or enjoyed that you may never watch again? I say may never watch again rather than never watch again because I watched Never Say Never Again and I said never again to Never Say Never Again and then by chance I watched it again. So I learned never to never say never again to Never Say Never Again. This however is not my pick for the prompt. Surprisingly I came to the realization that my pick for this prompt is quite possibly the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. Right up front I love these movies, the achievement of everything here is off the scale. But in today’s day and age I am busy. I have movie watchlists on like 7 streaming services, DVDs and physical media to get through, TV show watchlists in the hundreds of hours. Books, comic books, video game back logs, D&D 1-2 nights a week, organizing a sizable sci-fi/comic convention, writing pages here (thats right pages plural, branching out baby). And this does not even factor that I have a wife and two kids to do stuff with. If I am going to watch LOTR that means I am going to watch all 3, and also extended editions as well, which is nigh 12 hours and I am not sure I have the time. The caveat to this and the reason I am not saying never is the kids are about 3-4 years away from possibly being interested and if so I will watch it with them for sure, otherwise I think I may be done, it is sad but I have come to terms with it.