Ple, sorry, didn't mean to get your back up; I was responding to Nutty specifically raising the issue of ToE not being generally popular and having a Big Classic reputation that makes a lot of people keep it at arm's length.

Now I'm confused, because I didn't see in the post where you switched from the CK discussion to the ToE one. Too many movies! Argh! Brain... breaking! I was responding on a CK level.

I'm still baffled at the notion of a Big Classic Rep keeping people from seeing things, because I think that's the only thing keeping a lot of good older movies in print and the only reason most people see them. The buzz, you see. I'm not doubting it, just stating that it's foreign to my experience.

I haven't seen ToE in at least a decade, and I can't actually remember how I responded to it. (It's weird: the movie is a blank spot in my viewing history. I remember my extreme joy at, say The Ruling Class, or at Nothing Sacred, but all I remember about ToE is that I've seen it.)

the world can forgive me for not caring one way or the other for just about any of the Katharine Hepburn romantic comedies.

Does The African Queen count? That didn't do much for me. Though there was an explosion at the end. That was nice.

Ollie ollie oxen free: "classic" movies that failed to work on you. If I can forgive my brother in law for disliking Real Genius, the world can forgive me for not caring one way or the other for just about any of the Katharine Hepburn romantic comedies.

I like most of them, but can't stand her early dramas like Stage Door, which doesn't stop me from wandering about with a dull look on my face muttering "the calla lilies are in bloom again" when I'm tired.

Until I was 20 or so, it was like pulling teeth to get me to watch anything that wasn't older than me. I've seen a scary number of old movies as a result.

Does The African Queen count? That didn't do much for me. Though there was an explosion at the end. That was nice.

I don't think so. It's a different beast from the mannered patter of her romantic comedy films of the 30s and 40s (which are lampooned beautifully in The Hudsucker Proxy).

It's also my mother's fav movie for some reason.

Just saw the Batman trailer - what's up with the batlogo looking like the Nazi eagle? Are we saying that Batman's going to invade Poland? Or that Batman is as occult and psycho as Hitler? Or that he's a very well organized superhero with cool outfits?

I'm hoping that they are purposefully blurring the line between good-guy-hero and bad-ass-psychopath, but I'm scared it's just a thoughtless art choice, designed to let us know the story is set mid-century.

Or that Batman is as occult and psycho as Hitler?

I'm hoping that they are purposefully blurring the line between good-guy-hero and bad-ass-psychopath

::says nothing::

::really::

I've never seen Touch of Evil. As a non-filmy person, I can say I have heard very little about it before this discussion, certainly no Big Classic Reputation. I think it's somewhere on my Netflix queue now, for the Orson Welles factor.

I saw Forrest Gump when it came out, and didn't have a strong reaction to it. I remember thinking Robin Wright looked really different than in The Princess Bride, but that's about it. No desire to rewatch.

I love Casablanca, and greatly admire Citizen Kane.

Also, I tend to like the idea of Katharine Hepburn more than I actually like her onscreen.

I'm hoping that they are purposefully blurring the line between good-guy-hero and bad-ass-psychopath, but I'm scared it's just a thoughtless art choice, designed to let us know the story is set mid-century.

I wasn't under the impression that BB is set mid-century.

I wasn't under the impression that BB is set mid-century.

Mid-which-century, anyway?

I don't see how that car can be anything other than "near future."

I'm still baffled at the notion of a Big Classic Rep keeping people from seeing things, because I think that's the only thing keeping a lot of good older movies in print and the only reason most people see them. The buzz, you see. I'm not doubting it, just stating that it's foreign to my experience.

Remember that Animaniacs episode where Dr. Scratchensnif is on a date at the movies, and the movie is a black and white French film which consists of a bunch of people on a train, wearing berets, smoking little tiny cigarettes, and reciting the words to "Allouette" in deep, meaningful tones, while a violin plays in the background? I think that that's what a lot of people picture when they hear "classic movie." (My freshman year of college, I was bored and flipping through the channels on TV, and found one that was showing Laurel and Hardy. I settled in to watch it, because it was funny, and I'm an enormous Hal Roach geek, and my friends who were in the room started whining like I've never heard them whine before that couldn't we please watch something in color?)

The "classic" designation does bring a lot of people to a movie, but also turns a lot of people off from it.