UKC

I just watched 'Twelve Angry Men' again. What a great film. And it's all set in one room! But I just cant bring myself to watch 'Kes' again. Even though I havn' t seen it for over Forty years. Strange how films can have this effect.

In reply to Slackboot:

'Absence of malice'  starring Paul Newman. 

In reply to brianjcooper:

Is it one you can or cant? I've never seen it.

In reply to Slackboot:

Can't watch Pan's Labyrinth again but can seemingly sit through Cliffhanger indefinitely 

In reply to Slackboot:

Films I watch over and over include Withnail and I (every New Years Day with a bottle of very dry white wine); The Big Lebowski; Living in Oblivion and The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Films I can't bring myself to watch again include anything by Lars Von Trier. Although I might watch Maderlay again, when I can face it.

In reply to Slackboot:

"Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb." Have watched it many, many times and never ceases to amuse and disturb. Peter Sellers at his best.

In reply to Slackboot:

Always:

Fight club, apocalypse now, the usual suspects. 

Never again:

Eden Lake, Mama Mia, Human centipede.

In reply to Slackboot:

I usually have a pretty low tolerance to repeats but I can apparently watch Hot Fuzz every time it comes on.  I have a soft spot for About Time too.  Great cast and best dramatic use of a Nick Cave song.

Good films I just wouldn't want to watch again include Schindler's List, Event Horizon and Green Mile (at least not one scene in particular). 

As for really bad films that I wouldn't waste two hours of my life watching again - one stands head and shoulders above the others; All is Lost (Robert Redford disappointingly failing to kill himself with improbable levels of sailing incompetence).  Never was a film more aptly titled.

In reply to Slackboot:

I assume you mean can't watch again while still being a ridiculously good movie?

I propose "Grave of the Fireflies". Watched it 18 years ago, bought the dvd 12 years ago, never watched it again.

In music, it's like Gorecki symphony 3.

In reply to Slackboot:

Tombstone.

I will be able to watch it till I have the entire dialogue off pat.

In reply to Slackboot:

Sorry. Not sure if it can be retrieved from archives.  Definitely worth trying though.

Watch Absence Of Malice Online | (1981) Movie | yidio.com

In reply to HansStuttgart:

I took the same from the OP and I nominate for now “ Hunger” (the Alex McQueen film starring Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands).

There are others (probably Grave of the Fireflies whose reputation has deterred me from even watching it ONCE but at least I now own it) but Hunger stands out as one that it is hard to imagine ever coming back from work and fancying a bit of chill out with a movie and thinking “yeah I’ll watch Hunger again” 

In reply to Slackboot:

I watched Game Night nine times in 18 months 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

It must be good then. I will look it up. ☺   I darent watch 'Come and See'. I know it will have a bad effect on me.

In reply to Slackboot:

Films I watch over and over: In Bruges, Boat that Rocked, Chicken Run. Also various disney movies but not by choice.

I would watch The Deer Hunter again but somehow I never do.

In reply to Slackboot:

More: Point Break (original); Blade Runner

Less: Sophie's choice (too upsetting); any number of really crap films

In reply to Slackboot:

Original "the Producers" with Gene wilder and Zero Mostel, it just makes me cry laughing everytime.

In reply to Slackboot:

Watership Down - horrific

In reply to cander:

The funniest film ever made, in my opinion. 

In reply to Slackboot:

Local Hero, Into The Wild, Lawrence of Arabia, The Eiger Sanction.

All over and over again (especially Local Hero).

In reply to Slackboot:

I'd agree with your two plus

Again: Apocalypse Now, The Outlaw Josey Wales

Never again: Requiem for a Dream

In reply to HansStuttgart:

I second that proposal.

Saddest Film Ever. 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Not like a stickler such as yourself to slip up like this but it was Steve M who directed Hunger, wasn't it?

In reply to Slackboot:

I definitely do not wish to see Nuit et Brouillard again - once at school was enough.

I can definitely enjoy Withnail and  I again. I could probably see Mars attacks again but not Independence Day.

I've only ever seen 2001 a space Odyssey once, on TV but would go and see it again in a cinema.

12 years a slave was a very good film but too harrowing to see again

In reply to Slackboot:

I think the films I've seen most (and would always try to see again if they appear at the cinema) are

Casablanca

Blade Runner

Delicatessen

The Draughtsman's Contract

Pulp Fiction

Oh Brother Where art Thou

Dancer in the Dark (saw this 4 times in a week when it was released)

I started trying to list films that were good but which I wouldn't see again, but realised that I probably would see all of them given a chance!

In reply to Tom Valentine:

Yes, thank you. My brain was slightly oxygen-starved and I muddled up my "McQueens who have the same name as a more famous but dead McQueen" (there is the actor Alexander McQueen who you may know from The Thick Of It, always fun to think of him as a fashion designer!)

In reply to Steve Jones:

I've seen that three or four times. Once as a late treat on Christmas Day!
I like the energy of it and the performances.

In reply to Slackboot:

That's the point. It makes Schindlers list look like Watership down.  I have watched it several times and it gets no more watchable yet more necessary as the years go on. I'd urge you to watch it, it will haunt you, but so it should.  It's not without flaws, but it could never have come from Hollywood, the use of live ammunition alone makes it unique in film as far as I know, and lends it a truly horrifying and immersive immediacy. I remember seeing on the big screen and it remains the only film I have had any kind of visceral response to.

In reply to Steve Jones:

Oh my god that film left me with scars.  Being an engineering/science type with no understanding of music I thought, ah something classical, Mozart, Bach and something to do with dreams.   :-0))))))))))  I like a happy ending

American werewolf in London.  Seemed like a comedy but I've never felt the same being out at night on moors since.

Black Swan.

All good films but huh.

Cheers

Toby

To watch again, Waynes World.

In reply to HansStuttgart:

another vote for this. Beautiful; but sad beyond endurance. 

In reply to Slackboot:

Timeless classics (to me anyway) - Big Wednesday and Point Break (Keanu version)

Never to be repeated - Most Tarantino movies, I just don't "get" them

(still never watched Withnail and I, don't really fancy it either)

In reply to Slackboot:

Can watch most things repeatedly apart from dark stuff...  Like certain Darren Aronofsky films.  I mean Requiem for A Dream is great.  I just don't want to watch it twice. 

In reply to Slackboot:

I watched David Lynch's Eraserhead when I was very very young.  I think my mam had fallen asleep and it just came on, and I watched it.  Terrified wasn't the word, more like disturbed and I remember dwelling on certain scenes in it and replaying them over and over on my head (the little worm / foetus things dropping onto the stage and the woman crushing them underfoot) for a long time afterwards

I love to watch it now just to give myself The Fear , but I think if I was only seeing it for the first time I'd probably think it was a load of ****cks.

In reply to Toby_W:

I can beat this. I have probably told this on here before but anyway...

Around 1999-2001 I was in the habit of, instead of trying to herd cats and get everyone to agree on a mutual film choice and date for group outings, simply choosing a film and day and time for myself and then emailing a bunch of people to say "I'm seeing this on day X at time Y at cinema Z. If you fancy it, I'll be in the pub over the road half an hour before". Often very little response, maybe sometimes one or two friends came. 

For some reason, for Requiem for a Dream, an old mate of mine brought his flatmates, another old friend, and various partners of flatmates. Eleven of us saw this film in the cinema, like it was an outing to Star Wars or something. 

Nobody felt like going to the pub after for a social natter. 

I was the only one out of the group who had any idea of what was in store. The rest of them had just felt like going to the cinema and, like you, thought the title sounded nice. 

Four of those eleven people were strangers to me and I never saw them again, so there are four people out there whose sole memory of me is "the guy that made us watch that film"

In reply to Slackboot:

First time I saw 'the boat that rocked' I thought it was funny but I tried to watch it a second time and was bored after 20 minutes. 

Also couldn't face watching Trollhunter again

I will happily watch any of the fast and furious movies again apart from Tokyo Drift 

I can watch these over and over ..

Love actually

Notting hill

Stardust

LOTR

The Hobbit trilogy

Denzel's Equalizer. 

(and loads more).

In reply to Slackboot:

Another vote for Apocalypse Now, which I have seen scores of times and certainly every time it goes on a cinematic release. But for one film that is perfection and no matter that you can recite every line:

Some Like It Hot

In reply to Robert Durran:

yep local hero is my all time favourite movie, I watch it every Christmas. The ending just leaves you with a strange emotion of happy and sad all mixed into one. Fulton McKay is outstanding as Ben in it as are all the other characters.  

In reply to Slackboot:

I am currently watching the extended Lord of the Rings for the 4th time, I always spot something new.

Usually the films I can't watch again are because they are terrible films. Highlander II springs to mind.

Or just downright weird and impenetrable with metaphors laid on with a trowel. Zama fits this bill

In reply to BnB:

Jello on springs... mmmmm

In reply to buzby:

Magnificent lungs 

In reply to Slackboot:

Never,  For Sama way too heartbreaking, which I knew it would be, but I think I owed her a watch.

There's a bit in the middle with a premature baby, bring your hankies.

In reply to Slackboot:

Watch again (and again, and again): any Marx Brothers; The African Queen; The Maltese Falcon; Casablanca (well, in fact - anything with Bogart); One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Plenty of other classics too - they never pall.

In reply to Slackboot:

A lot of good films suggestions here - most ive never heard of, maybe my age? Ill be sure to check them out.

For me i can watch Inception and No Country For Old Men over and over again.

For some reason there seems to be a glut of utter trash British football hooligan/gangster films around online, complete garbage.

Nothing comes to mind for making me sad or having any lasting emotional effect apart from the odd supernatural film, some just stir up the imagination i suppose!

In reply to ThunderCat:

Never saw Eraserhead, but blue velvet really shocked me...

In reply to Deadeye:

again: Any original that has been made into a remake.

Never again: Any remake ever

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Whilst you are mentioning Steve McQueen films, my wife and I went to see 12 Years A Slave and both said it was very good, but didn’t want to watch it again.

As it’s nearly Christmas, I will have to get my Escape to Victory DVD out.

In reply to Slackboot:

The same film fills both criteria for me. Men at work. 

When it first came out I think in the late 80's / early 90's I thought it was the funniest film ever and went to the cinema about 8 times to see it. In a fit of nostalgia I recently bought it on dvd, totally crap. 

In reply to Slackboot:

I will watch the following every time they are on:

Total Recall (Arnie version)

Robocop

Starship Troopers

Hot Fuzz

A Clockwork Orange

Carry on Films (not Columbus!)

Films I would struggle to sit through again:

Star Wars apart from the original trilogy and Rogue One

Martyrs

Hostel

The Care Bears Movie

In reply to Slackboot:

Films I can always watch not yet mentioned: Kelly’s Heroes, The Running Man (still satire, just about), Starship Troopers, Beverley Hills Cop, and the Ben Stiller version of Walter Mittie (who knew stiller had it in him?), My Wet Hot American Summer.  The original Point Break.  Commando and Predator. Ice Cold in Alex.  Dambusters and Top Gun.

There’s no films I’ve seen and found “good” I couldn’t rewatch.   I’ve quite deliberately avoided Threads.  I’m going to re watch When The Wind Blows with Wintertree, Jr when she’s 12 or so.  Well unless we have full global nuclear disarmament by then.

Some movies I have seen and won’t rewatch if you paid me include Beverley Hills Cop 3 and Donnie Darko.

I’m undecided about rewatching The Truman Show and have been procrastinating there for two decades.  I have re-watched Casino Royale - the one with Peter sellers and David Niven and Orson Welles - since I was 8; it used to be a favourite but I’m not sure it’ll hold up now...  Similarly Hot Shots! did not survive my growing up.

Edit: Now I think about it some more, I enjoyed the original Mad Max but I’m in no hurry to rewatch it.

In reply to buzby:

Yes, flawless cast, every scene is perfection, it yearns for almost everything I hold precious and that bittersweet combination of happy, sad and funny. I struggle to hold back tears just thinking about the scene with the phone box and the northern lights........... and of course the ending.........

In reply to Robert Durran:

Ones I can re watch - Bladerunner(the original one), Beetlejuice, North by North West, Leon, Ghostbusters(original one) are a few.

Dave

In reply to Tringa:

I failed to watch that to the end. It just seemed dreadful, tedious nonsense to me. 

In reply to wintertree:

I need to see this, I avoided it like the plague when it was released because I didn't realise it wasn't just an "American Pie" bandwagon thing. It keeps coming across my radar now, described as charming nostalgia (with slapstick thrown in) and honestly if Paul Rudd and Janeane Garofalo are involved, I guess it is worth a look. EDIT - ooh blimey a young Bradley Cooper and Elizabeth Banks too! And Amy Poehler!

My advice, leave it well alone. I used to think it was funny and misunderstood, and watched it quite a few times through my adolescence and early-mid 20s .

Revisited a few years ago and it felt like such a slog. It is indeed the incoherent mess that all the critics said it was, and the production difficulties (six directors! Welles and Sellers unable to bear each other in the same room! etc etc) are all there on screen. It is like watching two films clumsily melded together. 

At best we could say that Joanna Pettet and Deborah Kerr and David Niven come out of it well enough, and the theme music is great. These things don't salvage a 135 minute film!

In reply to GHawksworth:

Really? So you would for example happily and repeatedly watch the Ricardo Cortez version of The Maltese Falcon?

Really? So for example you are ruling out the Bogart version of The Maltese Falcon?

In reply to Slackboot:

The Fifth Element. I've lost count of how many times I've watched it.

In reply to Slackboot:

Ghostbusters I would watch right now if it was on. Bill Murray and Dan Ackroyd on fire from start to finish.

Mother! and Blue Velvet. I love both, but stay with you like cinematic PTSD.

In reply to Slackboot:

Watch again (no limit): Airplane!, Life of Brian, Blazing Saddles. Never watch again: Pulp Fiction, Eraserhead. Ambivalent: Blade Runner 1, Lawrence of Arabia - disappointed with the latter two on recent viewings

In reply to Slackboot:

Films I would watch (have watched) numerous times: Gladiator (obviously), Dead Man's Shoes, Fight Club, Point Break (1991), True Romance, American History X, Last Exit to Brooklyn.

Films I enjoyed, for whatever reason, but wouldn't watch again: Leon, Snatch, all Harry Potter, Brokeback Mountain, Black Hawk Down, Shawshank Redemption, Tron, A Clockwork Orange, Touching the Void.

Films watched but didn't enjoy so won't watch again: Bored of the Rings (any of the trilogy), Donny Darko, any animated film.

In reply to Tony the Blade:

Blimey, we've had the "Tony likes brutally violent fighting films" discussion before, but numerous viewings of Last Exit to Brooklyn is really some next-level stuff  

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:

Funny thing about Blue Velvet is that the first 45 minutes are so, are HILARIOUS (deliberately so) - the over-the-top heightened "small town soap opera" way it plays out, replete with deliberately stiff acting. 

In reply to graeme jackson:

I couldn't get through the Hobbit trilogy once let alone repeat!

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Yeah it's brilliant. Makes the juxtaposition with what follows even more violent.

In reply to Slackboot:

Well I have watched the Bourne Identity about twenty times (it was always on telly) but it's appeal may be running out now.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I saw it recently on Netflix, very good and a film I'd happily rewatch... which reminds that I really should do so.

In reply to GHawksworth:

Casino Royale

True Grit

Scarface

Show Boat (the original was a silent movie!)

The Wizard of Oz (the 1925 original starred Oliver Hardy as the tin man)

and apparently Some Like It Hot is a remake of both an obscure French film and subsequent obscure German film.

In reply to Slackboot:

Again: Bourne series, Apocalypse now, Once upo a time in the West, almost all Arnie films except the intentionally funny ones, in particular Conan, Commando, Predator, Terminator I, Hunt for Red October, most Monty Python film, Iron Sky 2 (seen it four times with different people), and just for laughs Sharknado 1 to 573, Zombeavers, Snow Sharks,.....

Never again because too shitty: Anything by Tarantino, anything by Lars von Trier, anything from the Star Wars franchise, any of the Lord of the Rings series, pre-Craig James Bond films, Mamma Mia, ...

Never again, at least not soon, because much to good: Be there to love me, Come and see, ....

CB

In reply to cb294:

I want to watch Come and See but I just can 't bring myself to do it. Blue Velvet put me in a strange mood for ages.

In reply to DubyaJamesDubya:

I just ordered it

In reply to Slackboot:

I find Con Air oddly compelling every time I come across it. Also Black Hawk Down, mostly to see if I can spot any soon-to-be stars I've previously missed - though it's also just a good film

In reply to cb294:

Didn't have you down as an Arnie fan...

Unfair. He's made some absolute atrocities, but Melancholia is good, for a start.

Might check those out!

In reply to pasbury:

"'D'you take care of this car?" and what follows has only been betterd by one film and that is Ronin.

In reply to Tom Valentine:

I still think the one in To Live and Die in LA, just because of the context of what goes on just BEFORE it, takes some beating (also the handling of those awful cars in that film looks a lot more gnarly than the admittedly impressive driving of the high-end cars in Ronin! I'd still agree that what unfolds in Ronin is probably the best, and really still not beaten 21 years later)

I still have not seen Fear is the Key which is meant to be excellent....

In reply to cb294:

Thanks. That reminds me. In my opinion and experience (ha-ha) Mamma Mia is THE WORST FILM ever made. If I sat through the whole thing I'd certainly have an aneurysm or a stroke*

*Personal opinion/ comment only, I know some people must love it

In reply to Slackboot:

Are there not a couple of (pointless) exterior shots at the very beginning and the very end?

In reply to Dave Garnett:

pffff. Although About Time is the least objectionable of Richard Curtis' output, that is not even the best dramatic use of THAT SPECIFIC Nick Cave song. That honour goes to the obscure and unsung "Zero Effect", a very good quirky little detective comedy-drama 

In reply to Slackboot:

Ones I can watch again and again, even if I just turn a telly on and they are already 40 minutes in, aside from Game Night....

Once Upon A Time in the West

The Long Kiss Goodnight

For Your Eyes Only

In reply to Slackboot:

Will always watch:-

- In Bruges (which I adore.  This has been showing regularly over last week or so on the local cable channel here in the Baltics and my other half keeps catching me watching bits of it and shouting at me 'but you've seen this before!' She just doesn't get it! )

- Black Hawk Down ('it's all in the grind')

- The Big Easy (Don't ask me why but I think it stems from being stuck in Addis Ababa over Easter in the early 90s with everything closed and this film showing on constant repeat in the hotel) 

Please no, never again:-

- Any Superman movie from any era

- Any of the Fast and Furious films

- Approximately 80% of the entire US and UK film output from the 70s and early 80s (particularly the 'Carry On' type stuff)

- Pretty much any musical (sorry, not my bag)   

  

In reply to Slackboot:

Unparalleled 2 - Free world.  Converted me from snowboarding to telemarking Would watch again and again if I could but have only ever seen it exist on VHS.  Not what you were meaning I think though.

Couldn't watch Rambo last blood again. It's so bad. Was expecting cheese but it was far too much too often.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

You're a hard man.  There's quite a bit in the film that I identify with, so it gets me every time.  Nick Cave is the cherry on the top.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I can see why “Wet Hot” isn’t to everyone’s tastes but it’s a bit different regardless.

One thing I enjoy to this day thanks to Casino Royale is my discovery of Herb Alpert.  There’s a video of him and the band playing (Rise?) where the camera zooms out and they’re all atop one of the big rocks surrounded by the giant swell of the waves at a beach in Big Sur.

Re: your edit - yes a lot of “before they were famous” appearances in wet hot.  They lived on camp during the filming and spent the whole time off their faces it seems, bonded enough that the whole cast committed enough time to the follow on Netflix series which is also quite something.

In reply to Tom Valentine:

I also find the hunt after the dog goes missing to be absolutely gripping.

The other Bourne's are not so good.

In reply to Slackboot:

Gladiator: It may be violent but the script has so much that is quotable. After multiple, multiple watchings much of it became a catchphrase used at home somehow or other: 

eg

Me as my wife watched me attempt to mow my mum's  lawn in straight lines: 'Are you not entertained!'

(but she could have got in first with 'Hold the line!')

Both of us, for no reason, whenever: 'My name is...'

@Dave Garnett: The Green Mile is a hateful film. It's not just one scene. Beside the ludicrous magic, it's the whole premise of Tom Hanks as the nice warder on death row, cosseting men with a death sentence towards a gruesome death. False from one side to the other.

@Robert Durran: Local Hero: +++1. Although I think remember more vividly a word from the director's  other film that I know: Caracas.

@Blue Straggler: My powers are not up to preventing Love Actually coming on again and again in this household, so I know it well and don't mind looking in whenever it comes on. However objectionable you may find it, I can watch Billy Mack, and, especially, his manager, again and again.

In reply to Dave Garnett:

Fair enough. By “least objectionable” I did mean that I kind of liked it. I like almost anything that features Domnhall Gleeson, and Rachel McAdams is always a bonus albeit underused there. Then there’s the novelty of having young Margot Robbie and Vanessa Kirby just in it a bit, and it’s always good to see Lindsay Duncan (NB I highly recommend “Gifted”, she is awesome and terrifying in that).

But seeing Bill Nighy once again just phoning it in for Curtis, saddens me. He’s squandered his talent for nearly 25 years, playing minor variations on his “Still Crazy” character. He has a bit more depth in About Time, I admit 

In reply to Simon Caldwell:

I have probably seen the Judy Garland version more than any other film, for some reason.

"it'll totally work this time dude - just press play when the lion roars for the third time... "

In reply to mbh:

Yes, I think "Unleash hell!" comes second only to Lawrence of Arabia's "Tonight we shall dine in Wadi Rum" (whenever I do just that) as a film quote I actually use myself .

Ah yes, Gregory's Girl - almost as good as Local Hero!

In reply to hokkyokusei:

Yes! Weirdly addictive isn't it?  So stylised and camp but somehow it works.  

In reply to Robert Durran:

They have used it somewhere on R4 I think, probably Dead Ringers. In the voice of one of their core  announcers: 'At my signal, unleash the news!'

In reply to mbh:

Also (in)famously seen as graffiti on a toilet door at York railway station (and probably copied a million times by now) 

In reply to Robert Durran:

ps you misquoted me. I said +++, not ++.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Gladiator is probably my post watchable-again film. Bit if we are going to graffiti-ize it, that is not up to the most memorable line I have ever seen actually spray-painted on a wall:

CORNISH LADS ARE FISHERMEN AND CORNISH LADS ARE MINERS TOO BUT WHEN THE FISH AND TIN ARE GONE WHAT ARE THE CORNISH BOYS TO DO?

In all caps, like the original. On South Crofty mine wall. It's gone now.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Yes thats true. 

In reply to OP

Great films like Kes that I can't bring myself to watch again:

Whistle down the wind

Saturday Night, Sunday Morning.

Midnight Cowboy

In reply to ThunderCat:

I say this when I was about 16, I couldn't make head nor tail of it, but agree it was disturbing.

Might be worth having another look at it though, just to see.

One I can watch again and again, Midnight Express.

In reply to mbh

Gladiator

One of my climbing mates when leading a pitch always puts his clenched fist to his heart and says “ Strength and honour “ before he sets off.

He normally fails to lead it.

In reply to Slackboot:

The Shawshank Redemption.....

Ive seen it a hundred times or more...but would watch it a hundred more.

In reply to Slackboot:

Blue Velvet isn't as good as Twin Peaks: Fire walk with me which is a movie I used to identify with a long time ago and must have watched a half dozen times.

Come And See is a must watch, to me it is easily in the top three movies made, must have watched 8 or 9 times, it will never leave you in so many ways.

For nostalgia and sentimentality I also go for Local Hero but more to To Kill A Mockingbird (which for me is in top 5 ever made) which I must have watched a dozen times.

Must have watched There Will Be Blood 6 or 7 times for the acting, bleakness/soundtrack and era: it's like a very dark little house on the prairie.

A Touch Of Evil, Night Of The Hunter, Treasure Of The Sierra Madre, Rebecca, Citizen Kane, Black Cat White Cat, Underground, again probably 7 or 8 times. 

When fired up with socialist revolutionary fervor then- October:Ten Days That Shook The World(Russian 1927),  Stalingrad (Russian 1949),The Fall Of Berlin (Russian 1950), Освобождение(Liberation) Russian series of WW2 movies which are excellent from 1970-71. The Communist (Russian 1957), The Anarchists (Russian early 60s I think), Battleship Potemkin(nuff said) and Der Badder, Meinhoff Komplex (German) all watched at least 7 times. 

Touching The Void about 4 times. At Xmas we always watch Jack Frost (Russian: Морозко, Morozko 1964) and the must see No1 for Xmas is the Zeman classic -

Čarodějův učeň (The Sorcerer's Apprentice) Czechoslovakian socialist made animation (1977) made when Czechs did amazing movies. Other Karla Zemana animations from the 60s and 70s are good as well especially his Baron Munchausen and The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (Czech: Vynález zkázy). 

Also Taxi Driver, Rob Roy, Cape Fear, and Trainspotting must have seen 6 times and for specific Scottish Street gang 1960s nostalgia although very brutal, Small Faces, is good. 

In reply to Slackboot:

I think some films that are great are so intense that they don't need to be watched again.

I watched Midnight Cowboy twice (once when I was quite young so perhaps didn't fully get it) but I don't think I could ever again unless it was with someone else. (Vicarious pleasure/interest in their reaction) I thought Schindler's List was great and bought the DVD with the intent to  watch again but haven't to date. Every time I think of it it seems too soon.

In reply to krikoman:

I love the "In heaven, everything is fine" song from the women behind the radiator.  The music still kicks me in the feels in a melancholic / anxious sort of way.

In reply to Jon Stewart:

Not as big an Arnie fan as my wife! At our wedding do I was actually forced to take off my suit and stand in a row with my brothers and other guests, all wearing muscle shirts with Arnie characters written on them, while my wife was blindfolded and asked to pick me from the lineup by feeling each candidate"s biceps.

First go she picked me and my brothers (body odour IS largely genetic), and then my youngest brother.

Come and see is absolutely terrifying.

CB

In reply to Slackboot:

Watch again and again

"Ice Cold in Alex" - the lovely young Sylvia Syms !

"Zulu"

"Zulu Dawn"

"Dam Busters"

"The Good the Bad and the Ugly"

"The Magnificent Seven"

"Battle of Britain"

1958 version of "Dunkirk"

"Lawrence of Arabia"

"Gallipoli"

"Longest Day"

In reply to Albert Tatlock:

Gladiator. Titanic for boys. At least that was the selling point when all the men in the lab were roped in for a men's lnight at the cinema.

CB

in reply to Pefa:

At Xmas we always watch Jack Frost (Russian: Морозко, Morozko 1964) and the must see No1 for Xmas is the Zeman classic -

I heartily recommend 'The Flint Street Nativity' for Xmas if you havn't seen it. Its so funny.

In reply to Slackboot:

I must have seen The Blues Brothers a hundred times. All the Monty Python films and The Princess Bride many times. Apocalypse Now I could watch over and over.

One film I'm glad I saw but hope to never see again: Man bites dog.

In reply to Slackboot:

The film I watch again and again is Groundhog Day, not sure why.

For a Christmas film, I love Terry Pratchett's Hogfather, a rare film that improves on the original book, more irony than Tony Stark, and is jammed full of quotable lines and rofl moments. Happy Hogswatch, readers.

Despite being a Tolkien fan, or perhaps because of it, I can't be doing with the Lord of the Rings films. There are too many battle scenes, and none of the characters have the depth of those in the book.

In reply to Slackboot:

For a rewatch at Xmas it has to be 'It's a Wonderful Life'  for me

In reply to freeflyer:

Have to agree about the Tolkien films. Read the book (LotR) three times but I don't think I'll watch the films again (or the Hobbit ones at all after giving up part way through)

In reply to DubyaJamesDubya:

I have a problem with this film!
I always thought the version of Bedford Falls that had all the brothels and casinos and seedy bars, looked way more fun than the "gated community" version, so I sit thinking "go on George, JUMP!"

In reply to Hooo:

How could I have missed Life of Brian from my list!

In reply to DubyaJamesDubya:

That one's a tiny bit too schmaltzy (and much too christmassy) for me, so I'll go with "A Matter of Life and Death". 

It might make an excellent double-bill with 'It's a Wonderful Life' for you.

In reply to Slackboot:

Never get tired of: Hitchcock's North by Northwest & Rear Window, Coppola's Apocalypse Now (all versions), Scorcese's Goodfellas, Altman's The Long Goodbye: "It's OK with me..."

Once is enough: pretty much any Brit romcom

Unlike many respondents, I'm a huge Tarantino fan and I've watched Pulp Fiction many times - I just wish I didn't find Fabienne so irritating.

In reply to Andy Clarke:

I am somewhat puzzled by the number of people seemingly making special effort to let us know that they don’t like Tarantino. I don’t know if it is a kind of virtue-signalling or an attempt to go against the grain. Fine if you don’t like his style (I personally don’t click at all with Wes Anderson aside from Rushmore and The Grand Budapest Hotel, but I don’t make a big point of it). 

In reply to Steve Jones:

Agree. To quote Jake Yapp, "all the subtlety of a snooker ball smashing into a row of front teeth". Dreadful. 

That said, I can watch The Wrestler again and again. 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I hate both of them.

In reply to freeflyer:

I must say I'm surprised at your comments. I thought Peter Jackson did a superb job  with the cast, the script, the CGI, the location, filming, sound track etc etc. As much as could be reasonably expected in turning a classic English fantasy tale into 10 hours or so of very impressive cinematic enjoyment.

In reply to Jon Stewart:

Hate's a strong word Jon

In reply to Robert Durran:

Culloden.   

In reply to deepsoup:

Actually that one too! I got the Bluray a little while ago as I'm a bit of a Powell & Pressburger fan and I need to watch it. I think 'It's a Wonderful Life' actually a little darker than it gets credit for (at the heart of it is a man driven to the brink of suicide) and if you think about it, and the villain gets away with it scot free, happily convinced he is right.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I've heard that argument before (and accept its principle) but surely the point is more that everyone is being exploited by the super-rich and all the wealth is being hoovered up by a particularly nasty version of one of those. 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I like them both of them (a lot when good) although I'd say both of them are a bit 'up and down'.

In reply to brianjcooper:

That is a brilliant groundbreaking film, I saw it as a child on when it was first shown on the BBC.

The second time was at my school's film club when in the 6th form; it was part of a Peter Watkins double bill with "The War Game", 12 years before the latter was eventually shown on TV.

I've managed to catch "Culloden" several times since on TV and still find it compelling.

Not sure I'd want to watch "The War Game" again, far too chilling!

In reply to Gone for good:

I thought he veered a bit too much towards 'twee and soft-focus hamery', as opposed to the 'dark and gritty' I had in my head when reading the books. But I suppose it'd have been harder to get such a broad audience if it was more bloody and grim.

Not really films for my 'always watch' list, anyway

In reply to DubyaJamesDubya:

Sure, I was being a little playful there and I don’t know the film inside out. But some of those “good-time gals” looked nice

In reply to Slackboot:

Christmas treat for the Eraserheads

Sorry I had a right old faff on with the videos as they output in wmv and I don't have tools/skills at hand to convert them nicely so I've had to put them on YouTube which has compressed them horribly but it will have to do!

youtube.com/watch?v=_ncYc777ZdY&

In reply to Slackboot:

And another

youtube.com/watch?v=VbwUm3wPCJE&

When we were shown that at school in the late 70s I actually vomited.

In reply to wintertree:

of all of the Bond films the one I can watch again and again is OHMS, possibly because of the fantastic setting and ski chases.

And far far from the worst Bond performance

In reply to wercat:

It is one of my favourite four Bond films and Lazenby is really good in it. 

In reply to Gone for good:

That's interesting, because I don't fundamentally disagree with your remarks; I can accept that the film made the cinematic best of its material, but I was rather overwhelmed by the CGI.

For me, the book's strength lies in its amazingly detailed characterisations and never-ending levels of fantasy, from the relatively mundane Hobbiton to the ethereal elves, scary wizards, and the earth powers (Fangorn and Bombadil), all of which are weaved into the power battle story of the Ring. Those things are difficult to translate to the screen.

But not impossible. What I'm getting at is the sense that you get from Star Wars for example, where Lucas gives you that total immersion feeling, a sense of mission, as well as top-notch action.

May the force be with you.

In reply to freeflyer:

I enjoyed the LOR films the first time I saw them at the cinema but watching them again is so disappointing; I can only describe them as lumpen.

So annoying that Guillermo del Toro didn't get to direct the subsequent Hobbit film (there should only have been one!)

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I don't know him well. The aura of sadistic violence in his movies, confirmed by repeated, brief veiwings between a palm full of fingers has put me off. However, I watch the off-plot dance scene in Pulp Fiction, particularly the second or two where Travolta is on his toes, again and again. That is wonderful.

Despite that, he is an arse for this interview with the admirable Krishnan Gurumurthy:

   youtube.com/watch?v=GrsJDy8VjZk&

He thinks the whole interview must serve as an advert for him, regardless of what he says. Gurumurthy does his job very well.

In reply to Slackboot:

A Christmas Carol with Alister Sims I watch it every Christmas, I read the book last year and was outstanding

In reply to robert-hutton:

Humbug! 

In reply to Slackboot:

Hayao Miyazaki’s “Laputa the Flying Island” aka “Castle in the Sky” I can watch again and again. 

In reply to Slackboot:

I would watch something called Artemis 81 again as I found it incomprehensible then and would try again to make sense of it.

In reply to wercat:

I found this helpful synopsis for you:

”Sting is an Angel! Or perhaps some kind of alien! Hywel Bennett is in love with him! Or vice versa! Hywel Bennett descends into Hell or some kind of parallel world which is like Liverpool only they speak Estonian backwards and there's constant tannoy and posters warning you about crab monsters! There's a long-haired musical genius with this statue of a goddess who causes suicides all around him and is going to play a song that will end the world!” 

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Watched this again while I was cooking earlier. I had forgotten just how good it is - Shrek.

Dave

In reply to Blue Straggler:

that sounds like a description given out in a noisy pub after a few pints

In reply to wintertree:

I was about to say “i just don’t get this film” but I realised that I DO get it, it’s not hard. I am stony faced. I know it’s not meant as pure comedy etc but it’s all just - excuse the expression - “meh”

Having said the above I am weirdly intrigued by the prequel series etc !

Edit, I wrote this at 42 mins into the film and now at 1h07m I see I have 25 minutes to go. Sorry but this is dull and I almost wish I’d gone to see Cats for a laugh 

In reply to Slackboot:

Films I’ll watch every time they come on TV:

Any of the Bourne films, Fight Club, Blade Runner.

Films I bring with me on my laptop where ever I go:

Before The Rain, Statement Of Youth

“Good” films I can do without watching again:

Anything by Tarantino, anything by Oliver Stone

Films I paid to watch and still want my money back:

Death Becomes Her, Titanic, Avatar

In reply to robert-hutton:

Watching this yesterday I was struck by how young Alistair Sim now appeared, how the years march-on.

Some great suggestions and reminders of films enjoyed but forgotten.  So many films, so little time ! 

A couple I have never tired of, Trading Places and Paulie, favorites for our family Christmas Eve 'reveillon'.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Well good on you for giving it a go.  As I said, I can see why it’s not everyone’s kettle of fish.

I was rather non plussed when I watched the movie, but it drew me in to the Netflix series which I think is more engaging.  However, after watching the series the movie drew me back in and was a lot more enjoyable.  That’s a lot of time to invest when there’s many better films out there however!

In reply to Slackboot:

Again and again:

"The Sting"

"Unforgiven"

"Blazing Saddles"

"An American in Paris." Yes, it's dated, with some terrible national stereotyping and silly clowning, but it's still Gene Kelly at the height of his powers, driving the Hollywood musical to new levels. I prefer it to "Singin' in the Rain".

Never again:

"Eraserhead". The product of a sick mind IMHO.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Ah but if he jumped Bedford Falls would still remain the sleepy little town because the seedy fun looking version only exists in a world where George was never born. As George was born then his death wouldn't change the town physically to the fun seedy version.

In reply to mack:

Yes of course you are correct, my “go on George JUMP” would not have created that change, I was urging it more in the general spirit of the thing rather than thinking it would effect a change. “Go on George don’t be born” doesn’t have the same ring to it  

In reply to Slackboot:

I regularly watch Lavender Hill Mob particularly but any of the Ealing comedies will do, especially the ones shot on location as the pictures of early post war Britain seem beautifully nostalgic.

Renaldo and Clara is my never again, life is too short to go through that again.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Ha ha yes true. I've always thought the film could do with an 'option' ending like 'Bandersnatch'.

Will George jump?.... 'Yes'... 'No'

*clicks yes

Will George... 'Die'...'Survive'... 'Be unborn'

*clicks 'Unborn'.

In reply to overdrawnboy:

Kind Hearts and Coronets for me. I find it almost impossible to look round a small church without feeling the need to compare part of its architecture to Chaucer but adding the rider "without, happily, its concomitant vulgarity"........

In reply to Slackboot:

It took ages for me to find a copy of Pulp Fiction in a charity shop (Kill Bill was common but not wanted), but since buying that for £1 or £2 a few years ago, I somehow haven't managed to bring myself to watch it again. Funny because I think it's a brilliant film.

Maybe it's because I somehow know that I can never recreate that "wow" moment when you realise how all the bits fit together.

In reply to Slackboot:

Misery - wouldn't watch it again, i mean great movie but naaaah, way too realistically creepy

In reply to Slackboot: Pretty Village Pretty Flame, I chanced upon it on TV in my parent's home when in my 20's when I still lived with them, and watched it until it finished at about half 2 in the morning. I think that I came upon it by accident and watched it by myself until the small hours could have allowed me to be particularly affected by it, in a way which may not have happened in other circumstances - though I notice this review talks about it having an emotional power. I went to bed feeling rather quiet, and I think I wouldn't want to spoil how powerful my memory of watching it is.

This review from the Washington Post is quite good. The film definitely gets 4 stars out of 5 from me.

FILMS ABOUT the Serbo-Croatian-Muslim conflict have been surprisingly few and far between. But one of the most remarkable is "Pretty Village, Pretty Flame" ("Lepa Sela, Lepo Gore"), a Serbian-made movie in which the members of a Serbian patrol and an American journalist find themselves trapped in a tunnel besieged by Muslim militiamen.

Srdjan Dragojevic's film is full of the elements you'd expect in an Eastern European film. It's loaded down with flashbacks, symbolism, surrealism, anti-communist satire and almost-gratuitous lapses into music (no European film can escape without music, it seems). But the movie, which was scrimped together and shot despite the ravages of war, is anti-war and humanistic. It also embraces the new American cinema, the blood-and-guts, laugh-all-the-way-to-hell storytelling of Oliver Stone and Quentin Tarantino. Given the filmmaker's nationality, it's astonishingly candid about Serbian involvement in the horrors of the war.

This is not to say that "Pretty Village" is littered with bodies in unmarked graves or the horrifying Nazi-style atrocities conducted on all sides. But it shows Serbs burning villages (hence the title), shelling towns and demonstrating systemic disregard for their enemies. Brutally frank about its own culture, the movie refuses to follow the rah-rah party line. Even the drama's most sympathetic character, Milan (Dragan Bjelogrlic), refuses to let his wounds stop cultural enmity. Lying in a hospital bed, he becomes obsessed with killing a wounded Muslim lying next to him. His method? To stab him with a fork. Any movie that was boycotted by Bosnian Serb leader Radovic Karadzic and his government officials on its opening night must have been on to something.

Variously bizarre, touching and overwrought, "Pretty Village, Pretty Flame" has such emotional power, all excesses and shortcomings are almost beyond the point. And if it seems overly schematic -- as Serbs and Muslims kill each other even when many are old friends -- that's inevitable. No depiction of the Serbo-Croatian-Muslim conflict -- surely one of mankind's most politically convoluted and ironic wars -- could be otherwise. This thing is for real, no matter how strangely it comes at you. 

In reply to Timmd:

Have you seen the film “Savior” starring Dennis Quaid? It is set in that conflict and it might be easy to assume that a Hollywood star (and a couple of crossover Euro-Hollywood standbys, Nastassja Kinski and Stellan Skarsgard) in a film made by Oliver Stone’s production company, might be a bit cheesy, and in fact when you read the plot synopsis you might roll your eyes, but it is superb, powerful, harrowing, compelling, tense and unpredictable. And weirdly “rewatchable”. I am a big fan of Quaid and this is easily the strongest acting performance he’s done. The writer-director was a POW during that conflict iirc. I have not seen Pretty Village Pretty Flame but I remember its release and I don’t doubt that it is more powerful (and harder to choose to watch a second or third time) than Savior. 

I am only here to recommend Savior, not to say it’s “better” 

In reply to Blue Straggler: No, I haven't seen it, I'll keep it in mind. I suppose what makes a film affecting can be a subjective thing, which is what makes things interesting. I guess what happens during one's formative years once entering one's teens may be a factor, too, when I look back I was old enough to appreciate the awfulness of what was happening, but not old enough yet to understand human nature as fully as I now do, and deal with the world as it is more ably. That may account for the impact of Pretty Village Pretty Flame, and Savior too potentially.

In reply to Blue Straggler: Savior too, in relating to that time and those events, that is.

In reply to Slackboot:

Vertical Limit.

In reply to bouldery bits:

I am guessing this is both can and can’t