Somtimes your favorite movie/book was only good in retrospect

[GeorgeParker]

We all have movies and books that we totally loved when we were a child, or a teenager, or twenty-something. Have you ever rewatched one of your favorite movies or reread one of your favorite books 20-30 years later, and it was so stupid or so boring or so badly made that you can't imagine why you ever liked it, and maybe you end up not even watching/reading it all the way through?

I've found a number of movies like that and a few books. My prime example is the motorcycle gang movies made in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I was in my late teens and early twenties then and I loved all of those movies. Rewatching them now, most of them were actually pretty bad. The only two I still like enough to buy the dvd are Easy Rider https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLdTZaKMQ9c and On Any Sunday https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoEKHkvJIkQ

What are some movies or books you used to love, but when you rewatched or reread them years later they weren't as good as you remembered them being? (tv shows count too)

[Yppej]

I do not listen to Michael Jackson anymore after watching Leaving Neverland nor do I watch Roseanne since her racist comments.

[bae]

Whatever you do, do not track down "Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp" to rewatch - let it remain a fond childhood memory.

[GeorgeParker]

I do not listen to Michael Jackson anymore after watching Leaving Neverland nor do I watch Roseanne since her racist comments.

But that's because you no longer like the person who made those things, not because the things they made were bad.

I'm well aware of how an otherwise good thing can become contaminated by bad outside events and you can't enjoy them anymore because of that bad mental association, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about things you once loved but now you don't because your tastes have changed as you matured.

[herbgeek]

All I remember from Lancelot link was that he talked like the get smart guy, the lip sync was so awful that I as a kid noticed it, and the girlfriend sounded like Edith Bunker with her "in lancelot!"

[rosarugosa]

I loved Catcher in the Rye so much when I was a teen. I thought Holden Caulfield was the coolest thing ever and I was just amazed by the book. I re-read it several years ago, and I mostly just found him annoying.

[catherine]

Yes, I have definitely found that to be true!! There have been a number of movies, probably mostly movie musicals that hold no sway for me anymore. It's so disappointing to have that perception completely dismantled!!

But just a few months ago, I was talking to my kids about PeeWee's Big Adventure. I LOVED that movie back in the 80s. It was so clever and campy--and Tim Burton's direction with the weird music and set direction--I thought it was genius. So when my daughter told me she always thought it was too bizarre and completely unappealing, I pulled it up on the internet so we both could watch, and..

Sadly, she was right.

House on Haunted Hill hasn't stood the test of time, either.

[iris lilies]

My film discussion buddies said American Beauty has not stood the test of time, So I watched a bit of it after that discussion and they may be right. I didn’t watch the entire thing, but it wasn’t as mesmerizing as it was in the theater. It used to be on my top 10 list but I’m not so sure I would put it there now.

[happystuff]

Whatever you do, do not track down "Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp" to rewatch - let it remain a fond childhood memory.

ROFLOL! I used to watch that show all the time. Too funny.

[Teacher Terry]

I hated American Beauty and I never watch a movie or read a book twice.