I've had this reaction to a few things. Casablanca, Citizen Kane, a few others.

Okay, Citizen Kane bored me. I'm really excited that the sets had ceilings, less so about anything that happened between the start and finish of the flick.

Love Casablanca, though, for the most part.

The really funny thing, Tep, is that I also have that book. It's fab.

Whoa.

Casablanca

I think I liked this one straight-off.

Citizen Kane

I liked this too, and wrote a paper on it for my film class. I forget why; I saw them both in high school. I liked the structure of it, I think; finding out the man's life via his interactions with all these other people.

My tastes are personal and peculiar, as most tastes are. Despite effectively minoring in film, were I to translate my credit hours to real school standards, understanding != liking, or caring to watch something again.

Yeah.

Hec, a lot of the things you cite are hallmarks of a revolutionary or iconic movie. I think P-C is more concerned with why it's a good movie.

And yeah.

I don't see the up side to Forrest Gump. It's a Magical Negro movie, where the black guy doesn't even get to be the negro.

It's the related Magical Retarded Person trope.

I saw it because someone I was friends with at the time worked on it, we had it in the house, and I'd just dumped my boyfriend of two years in a messy way. I cried all through the movie, and when I thought about it with my rational brain, realized just how much I actually hated it, even if I was in the PERFECT emotional space for it at the time of viewing.

It's the related Magical Retarded Person trope.

And we have to applaud Cuba for going for the two-fer in Radio. Or the three-fer, if you include sports as metaphor for life.

I've had this reaction to a few things. Casablanca, Citizen Kane, a few others.

I definitely had this reaction to Casablanca. Also Bladerunner.

Citizen Kane, though, I adored, and I didn't expect to, because it is so iconic. (And after hearing it called The Greatest American Film EVER about a thousand times, I thought there was no way it wasn't going to be horribly overrated and disappointing. But it wasn't! And I was all, yay!)

Okay, Citizen Kane bored me.

CK is very much an "if you get into the story" movie.

Welles's follow-up, The Magnificent Ambersons, is pretty similar. Technically brilliant, but not a story for everyone. Well, plus the last half hour really should be about 20 minutes longer (but that leads into the whole "the studio cut about 45 minutes out of Welles's cut, and then the film was destroyed" matter).

I haven't seen Forrest Gump. I've yet to hear a reason why that should change.

I haven't seen Touch of Evil or Triplets of Bellville. That probably will change, sooner or later.

And back to the hot fellas discussion:

Clive Owen: Meh.

Tobey Maguire: I like watching him act and can easily see myself doing his Peter Parker or that jockey fella. But I have to avoid watching him in the DVD extras. Re: Peter Parker and MJ, he said something along the lines of, "She has to get past her need to be with the popular guys." Uh, no. She has to get past her need to be with guys who actually, you know, show up occasionally. Bring your personal issues to the set if they help your performance, but leave 'em off the commentaries, sweetie.

Jake Gyllenhall: Creepy pretty.

Matt Damon: I like him more with every performance. Still not at the stage where I need to lick him, but that's not out of the question some day.

James Franco: Hot like a hot thing full of chili powder. Mmmmm.

Colin Firth: Meh.

Guy Pearce: Way too bland.

Orlando Bloom: Mmmmmmmm. Yes, please.

Johnny Depp: Also, mmmmmmmmm.

Jack Davenport: Mmmmm, with a side of yummers.

Hugh Jackman: I've been of "I see why ya'll like him" opinion for ages. Liked his work, didn't feel the lust. Then I rewatched X-Men the other day and something clicked. Now I need to lick him as he reads Stoppard monologues to me.

Citizen Kane

I liked the structure of it, I think; finding out the man's life via his interactions with all these other people.

That's exactly why I love it....

I think Forrest Gump was the movie where Gary Sinise first revealed that, although he is not bald, practically every wig put on him during the course of a movie makes him look like he is.

As for Touch of Evil, I think that it's a movie easier to love if you read Cahiers du Cinema than if you don't. It is often hard to love a movie if its appeal lies only in form and revolutionariness.