Ten movies (or more) I’ve seen ten (or more) times

beatrice-emma-thompson

David Neiwert created this meme on Facebook, and it seemed like a good way to waste time to me. :-)

1. City Of Lost Children (1995)
2. Duck Soup (1933)
3. Passion Fish (1992, an obscure gem)
4. Mulan (1998)
5. Sweeney Todd (the Angela Landsbury version, not the it-never-happened Depp version). (1982)
6. Arthur (It was rerun on HBO at least twice a day when I was 15. The entire cast is great, but Gielgud steals the movie.) (1981)
7. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
8. Ran (1985)
9. Midnight Run (Blistering hot NYC summer, nearby theater had this movie and air conditioning. Sarah and I saw it over and over, and enjoyed it every time.) (1988)
10. Cyrano de Bergerac (1990 version with Depardieu.)
11. The Purple Rose of Cairo. (1985) Actually, there are several Woody Allen films I’ve seen over a dozen times – Bullets Over Broadway, Annie Hall, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Hannah and Her Sisters – but I think I’ve seen PROC the most. (It wouldn’t surprise me if Allison Deutsch Andersen could do an entire list of ten films she’s seen ten times or more just from Woody Allen’s catalog.)
12. Supercop. (1992) Jackie Chan climbs everything in sight, and Michelle Yeoh jumps a motorcycle onto a moving train. What more could I want?
13. Much Ado About Nothing, the Kenneth Branagh version. (1993)
14. Groundhog Day (1993)

Comments:

1) It makes me kind of sad to realize that I haven’t seen most of these films in at least ten years. I don’t watch films as intensely anymore, and certainly don’t rewatch films as much as I used to. To some degree this is because I’m more likely to watch TV nowadays (nearly done with “True Detective”), but it’s mainly because I have so much less spare time than I used to.

1.5) Half the 14 came out in the 1990s. Another five came out in the 1980s.

2) Of the 14, 3 (Passion Fish, Mulan, Purple Rose) have female protagonists. 6 have male protagonists, and 5 have female and male co-protagonists. Only 5 – City of Lost Children, Passion Fish, Mulan, Sweeney Todd, and Crouching Tiger – pass the Bechdel test.

Five of the movies have non-white protagonists or co-protagonists, but that includes some movies that were made in Asian countries.

So what movies have you seen over ten times?

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33 Responses to Ten movies (or more) I’ve seen ten (or more) times

  1. 1
    RonF says:

    None. In fact, I’ve only seen 3 of the movies on that list even once – 2, 7 and 14.

  2. 2
    JutGory says:

    Oooh. Hard to recall. Some of these may be close (not sure if it was 10, or 8, or 11), but these are the movies I enjoy repeatedly.

    I have seen all 6 Star Wars movies at least 10 times (I may be a little shy on the second trilogy, but not the first).

    Fight Club.

    Untouchables.

    Raising Arizona.

    Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

    The Adventures of Baron von Munchhausen.

    12 Monkeys.

    Pulp Fiction.

    Starship Troopers.

    Woody Allen movies, probably Annie Hall and Crimes and Crimes and Misdemeanors.

    Dr. Strangelove.

    The Negotiator.

    -Jut

  3. 3
    Jake Squid says:

    Off the top of my head:

    1) Rocky Horror Picture Show
    2) The Fifth Element
    3) The Usual Suspects
    4) Help
    5) Fast Times at Ridgemont High
    6) The Evil Dead
    7) The Perils of Gwendolyn in the Land of the Yik Yak
    8) She (1982 version)
    9) Something Wild
    10) Casablanca
    11) The Maltese Falcon
    12) M
    13) Caddyshack
    14) Pulp Fiction
    15) Killing Zoe
    16) Gremlins
    17) Back to the Future
    18) Shock Treatment
    19) Repo Man
    20) The Royal Tenenbaums
    21) Fargo
    22) Ed and His Dead Mother
    24) Scooby-Doo
    25) Talladega Nights
    26) Scream
    27) Groundhog Day
    28) Suspiria
    29) Blazing Saddles
    30) Harold and Maude
    31) Nothing Lasts Forever
    32) Sixteen Candles
    33) Escape to Witch Mountain (1975)
    34) Pippi in the South Seas
    35) Bedknobs and Broomsticks
    36) Cinderella
    37) The Fall of the House of Usher
    38) Planet of the Apes (the entire series from 60s & 70s)
    39) Lots of Japanese monster movies (Thank you, The 4:30 Movie)
    40) Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
    41) Young Frankenstein

    Oh god. I could go on and on if I thought about it. Why don’t I just stop here and ask how Amp could possibly not list a single Mel Brooks movie?

    I’m sure that there are a bunch of horror/splatter movies that I’m forgetting. I used to see them all.

  4. 4
    Jake Squid says:

    Jut lists some that I can’t believe I didn’t mention

    12 Monkeys
    Holy Grail
    Raising Arizona
    Starship Troopers
    Dr. Strangelove

    Which, of course leads me to:
    Life of Brian
    Blood Simple
    The Mouse That Roared

    I’m pretty sure I’m gonna end up with well over 100 if I don’t stop thinking about it. I can’t stop thinking about it.

  5. 5
    JutGory says:

    Oh crap.
    I forgot about John Hughes.
    Probably Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, and Ferris Bueller.
    (I am starting to get depressed about my wasted life).

    -Jut

  6. 6
    Kohai says:

    1. Star Wars Original Trilogy – every one of episodes 4, 5 and 6 I’ve seen at least 10 times.
    2. Monty Python and the Holy Grail – I used to be able to recite the entire film verbatim. I am not fully proud of this fact.
    3. Life of Brian
    4. The Dark Crystal
    5. Labyrinth
    6. Goonies
    7. Pod People (MST3K version)
    8. Space Mutiny (MST3K version)
    9. Evil Dead 2
    10. Grizzly Man

  7. 7
    ScottM says:

    Well, this confirms how weird I am. I don’t know if there’s a movie that I’ve watched 10 times–though I Monty Python’s Holy Grail is probably close. There are a number of books that I’ve frequently reread, but other than A Wizard of Earthsea, there aren’t a lot of 10 timers.

    Given a choice, I gravitate towards new. It’s unusual though–most people have a number of movies or books that they can point to as at least 10 viewings.

  8. 8
    Ampersand says:

    Reading all your answers is reminding me of more movies I could have listed.

    Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller, definitely. Life of Brian and Meaning of Life and quite probably Holy Grail. Star Wars (episode 4 and 5 and maybe 6), Star Trek 2 (Wraith of Kahn), Raising Arizona, 12 Monkeys, Time Bandits, Brazil, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Shock Treatment, Scream, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Pulp Fiction…

  9. 9
    Jake Squid says:

    Hundreds of movies accounting for thousands of hours on my list, I think. I can’t believe Time Bandits didn’t come immediately to mind.

  10. 10
    Ruchama says:

    Off the top of my head:

    1. The Princess Bride
    2. Newsies
    3. Hairspray
    4. Mamma Mia
    5. Wizard of Oz
    6. Empire Records
    7. Lilo and Stitch
    8. Goonies
    9. Clueless (not out of any particular desire to see it — it just seems to often be the best thing on TV when I just want to watch something. Sweet Home Alabama and Legally Blonde are also in this category.)
    10.

    (Just got distracted by reading the original post again. What scene in Sweeney Todd lets it pass the Bechdel Test?)

    10. Yellow Submarine (had a music teacher in elementary school who would show us this at least once every year.)
    11. Grease
    12. Pal Joey
    13. Breakfast at Tiffany’s
    14. Dirty Dancing
    15. Pretty Woman (I HATE this movie, but it’s my mom’s favorite, so I’ve ended up sitting through it dozens of times.)
    16. Edited because I can’t believe I forgot the Back to the Future movies.

    Hmm. My list is extremely musical-heavy, and a whole lot of movies that were aimed a kids. I think a lot of them are things I tend to put on as a sort of comfort thing — when I’m having a bad day, Newsies makes me feel at least a little better. Same for Mamma Mia and Hairspray.

  11. 11
    Eytan Zweig says:

    The only two movies I can say for sure –

    1) The Princess Bride
    2) Some Like it Hot

    I normally don’t like rewatching movies, but when I was in my early teens and my parents first bought a VHS player, those were the only two movies we owned. And there was no video rental shop I could reach at the time without being driven to it. So my brother and I watched one of those two movies every night more or less for six months until a video shop opened that we could walk to.

  12. 12
    Ampersand says:

    Add The Princess Bride, Wizard of Oz, Into The Woods, Fanny and Alexander (which I watched several times a year in the late 80s and early 90s), Singin’ In The Rain, and (on the “it’s mysteriously always on TV when I turn it on” principle) The Shawshank Redemption to my list. Also It’s A Wonderful Life, but probably almost everyone could list that one. (I don’t think there’s any other Christmas movie I’ve seen that many times, unless a Charlie Brown special counts.)

    Ruchama, “Sweeny Todd” only barely passes the Bechdel test, but there are a couple of interactions between Mrs. Lovett and The Beggar Woman (the BW begging Lovett for food and Lovett chasing her off) in which they don’t discuss a man. I decided that, brief as that interaction does, it should count because it’s extremely relevant to the story, not just a throw-off.

  13. 13
    Ampersand says:

    So my brother and I watched one of those two movies every night more or less for six months until a video shop opened that we could walk to.

    Thank goodness they were both good movies.

  14. 15
    ballgame says:

    10 times? Ten times?!? Wow. That’s a lot.

    *looks at Jake Squid’s list*
    *shakes head*

    I’m not sure I’ve seen any movie ten times. But movies I have enjoyed on more than a few occasions were:

    1. Plenty
    2. Primer
    3. V for Vendetta
    4. The Bourne movies. (Even the fourth Damon-less one, which was actually really good IMHO.)
    5. Housekeeping
    6. Kissing Jessica Stein
    7. A Clockwork Orange
    8. Run, Lola, Run (Watched several times, though not as often as the others.)

    I’d watch any of these again, except for Clockwork, which I couldn’t get through the last time I tried to watch it, even though I’d seen it a number of times when I was younger. (I still think it’s a great movie, though.)

    I haven’t seen most of the your movies, Amp, though I would definitely echo a thumbs up for Passion Fish and Crouching Tiger, both of which I’ve watched a couple of times.

    Interesting to me that 12 Monkeys has popped up here on several lists, and Lawrence of Arabia on none. Don’t get me wrong, 12 Monkeys is a wonderful movie I’ve watched more than once, but I don’t think anyone thinks of it in terms of the awed reverence that Lawrence once garnered.

  15. 16
    Jake Squid says:

    Movies work for me in much the same way that music does. While I’m always eager to hear new songs/artists/genres I enjoy relistening to songs I like. I’m carrying around somewhere over 3000 songs on my portable music listening device and I cycle through all 3000 before listening to any single song again. A lot of times I hear a song differently or begin to understand the song/album in a new way and enjoy it more. Movies work the same for me, only different.

  16. 17
    Ben Lehman says:

    I think I only have one movie I’ve seen more than 10 times, which is Vampire Hunter D.

    … I’m not particularly fond of it but it was the only anime the local video rental store had when I was a teenager.

    yrs–
    –Ben

  17. 18
    Harlequin says:

    Hmm. Well,
    1) The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, the Lion King, Hunchback of Notre Dame — all came out around the time I was in elementary school, and I’d just watch them over and over and over and…
    2) Cabaret
    3) Galaxy Quest
    4) Romeo + Juliet (Baz Luhrmann version) – very popular at junior high sleepovers
    5) American Pie (as a teenager; saw it recently, it holds up better than I thought, though not exactly well in an absolute sense)
    6) Star Trek: First Contact
    7) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
    8) Shawshank Redemption
    9) Muppet Christmas Carol
    10) Why Man Creates. That’s a youtube link to the first part of the film; the first 5 minutes are really fun, a sort of animated overview of major human discoveries/technologies/ideas (although of its period–1968).

  18. 19
    Chris says:

    Is it sad that ten times doesn’t seem like a whole lot to me? I’ve probably watched movies like Serenity, Kill Bill, Donnie Darko, and the various X-Men and Star Wars movies at least 30 times each. And that’s just an average number; some of them I’ve probably watched about 50 times. I was a very nerdy and sheltered high schooler who did not get out much, and found a lot of comfort in these movies. I still do for most of them (haven’t watched a Star Wars movie in ages, and Tarantino’s stuff started to wear thing after a while). And that’s not even touching the Disney movies and others I watched on nearly a loop as a young child. My viewings of those probably number in the 100s.

  19. 20
    Charles S says:

    I’m not sure there are any movies I’ve watched ten times.

    Holy Grail, Star Wars (saw it 5 times the year it came out, maybe 3-5 times since then), Time Bandits and possibly Brazil all come close. Pretty much anything else maxes out at 3 or 4.

  20. 21
    Jeremy Redlien says:

    Movies I am sure that I have seen 10 or more times
    Fight Club
    The Hours
    Jurassic Park
    King Kong (Peter Jackson remake)
    American Beauty
    Lord of the Rings Trilogy
    The Matrix Trilogy (although maybe not Revolutions?)
    V for Vendetta

    As a kid, I remember watching the following a lot:
    Beauty and the Beast
    Aladin
    An American Tale
    An American Tale: Fieval Goes West
    The Fox and the Hound
    The Land Before Time
    101 Dalmations
    Herbie the Love Bug
    Bambi
    Fantasia
    Pinocchio
    The Lion King

    I want to say that I’ve seen the Harry Potter movies prior to Order of the Phoenix 10 or more times. I want to say that the same applies to the first two X-Men movies, but again I’m not entirely sure. There are more than a few that I’ve seen in the 5-10 range but since I don’t keep strict track of such things, I can’t say for sure that I’ve seen in the 10 times range.

    Beyond that I think there are probably over two hundred that I’ve seen 2 or more times, but not nearly as many as 10 times.
    -Jeremy

  21. 22
    Ruchama says:

    Oh, another one to add to my list is Here Comes the Groom. A few years ago, when I had pertussis and was pretty much stuck on the couch, propped up on pillows and coughing like a Victorian heroine, for a few weeks, that movie seemed to be on TCM practically every day. It’s a weird movie. Got some good music, and some cute scenes, but when taken as a whole? Really weird. (Also, PSA, get a pertussis booster if you haven’t. Pertussis sucks.)

  22. 23
    Ampersand says:

    Terminator, Terminator 2, Die Hard, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

  23. 24
    standgale says:

    I’m amazed that so many people have watched so many movies so many times. There are probably only ten movies I’ve even watched more than once! I think I may have seen the labyrinth and the princess bride 3 times. Twicers include the life of brian and the holy grail (monty python), marie antoinette (sofia coppolla) and moulin rouge (baz luhrman).

  24. 25
    Hugh says:

    The only movie I can say with confidence I’ve watched ten times is Blazing Saddles.

  25. 26
    RonF says:

    I can’t imagine watching a movie 10 times. There’s a few I’ve watched twice, but that’s about it. I have watched about 15 of the 50+ movies the rest of you have mentioned. Plus, while I haven’t seen the movie “Young Frankenstein”, I have seen the musical.

  26. 27
    JutGory says:

    RonF:

    Any mention of Young Frankenstein brings this tidbit of dialogue to mind:

    Homer: Oh wow, I can’t believe my first passenger is comedy legend Mel Brooks. You know that movie, “Young Frankenstein”? Scared the hell out of me!

    Mel Brooks: Umm, thanks.

    Classic!

    -Jut

  27. 28
    nobody.really says:

    “Sweeny Todd” only barely passes the Bechdel test, but there are a couple of interactions between Mrs. Lovett and The Beggar Woman (the BW begging Lovett for food and Lovett chasing her off) in which they don’t discuss a man.

    Perhaps you’ve forgotten, but if they were discussing Mrs. Lovett’s food, they were very likely discussing a man….

  28. 29
    nobody.really says:

    Anyone who had kids since the era of the VCR has probably seen certain kid-directed movies more than 10 times without being able to remember them. A lot of Disney animated movies go into this category for me – along with a couple Barney movies, Scooby Doo movies, Barbie movies, and Xmas specials. My eldest fell in love with The Incredible Mr. Limpet, a light-hearted half-animated Don Knotts feature about killing Nazis; go figure.

    But otherwise, I’m clearly less of a movie consumer than many. So here’s my very abbreviated list of movies I have NEVER seen all the way through:

    Gone With the Wind, Citizen Kane, Laurence of Arabia, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Dr. Zhivago, Dr. Strangelove
    Star Wars (except Episode 4, a/k/a Star Wars)
    Jaws, Grease, Fast Times at Ridgemont High
    Blazing Saddles
    Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller
    [Anything] (MST3d version)
    Sweeny Todd, Into the Woods
    Annie Hall, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Bullets Over Broadway, Crimes and Misdemeanors
    Terminator (any number)

    I suspect I have seen It’s a Wonderful Life all the way through, but not at any one sitting.

  29. 30
    RonF says:

    I refused to play movies multiple times to pacify my kids. If they didn’t like what I was watching they could go read a book. Their rooms were filled with books and had no TV or video games in them – the exact opposite of their peers.

  30. 31
    RonF says:

    I’ve been getting into live theater recently. Some of my friends in the groups I sing in do regular and musical theater, and performing in the opera I was in gave me a whole new perspective on it – and on the people who perform in them. I’d always thought of theater as Broadway-style productions. I hadn’t realized there’s so many small theater productions all over the place in the Chicago area and suburbs. I may have been to more live theater events than movies in the last 8 months.

  31. 32
    Duncan says:

    I’m not sure how many times I’ve watched some films, though I’m sure that I’ve watched my top ones at least ten times.

    Heathers would be a certainty; I’ve probably watched it more times than any other single film; I have it virtually memorized. After that, in no certain order, and if I haven’t watched these at least 10 times I should have: Moonstruck; My Brilliant Career; Double Happiness; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Terminator 2; Hudson Hawk; Raising Arizona; Torch Song Trilogy; Parting Glances; The Wedding Banquet; Go Fish; My Beautiful Laundrette.

  32. 33
    Cactus says:

    The ones that would top any list of mine would be
    1. Lilo and Stitch
    2. 10 Things I Hate About You
    3. Persepolis
    4. Water (Deepa Mehta’s film from 2005, I don’t know if there’s anything else called Water)
    5. Wall-E
    6. The Itty-Bitty Titty Committee
    7. Pan’s Labyrinth
    8. Obvious Child (the short film from 2009)
    9. Homeward Bound
    10. Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, since that was my favorite as a kid (and absolutely passes the Bechdel Test)