Regardless of their Oscar status, which movies do NAPA Net readers think hold up after multiple viewings?
Specifically, in this week’s reader poll, we asked readers to name a movie that they have watched over five times that they still find to be entertaining.
We started by asking readers if they thought that any of this year’s candidates for Best Picture would pass muster under that test. Fewer than 5% thought so, while roughly one in five said none did, and another quarter said, “heck no!”
‘Crop’ Tops?
Still, that meant that more than half (57%) were in the “maybe” category — since they hadn’t been able to watch any of this year’s crop of best films five times. One reader noted, “I guess I need to get out more — I haven't seen any of them even one time yet” — and that reader had a fair amount of company in a subset best described as the “haven’t seen them even one time yet” category. One reader explained, “Although ‘The Martian’ was a good movie, it was exceedingly stressful. That guy should be dead!” Indeed — and more than once, it seemed.
But “The Martian” wasn’t one of this year’s nominees that readers cited; “The Big Short” and “The Revenant” were most often named by readers from this year’s Best Picture crop, with “Spotlight” also standing out. “I made a list to see on video ‘The Big Short,’ ‘Bridge of Spies, ‘Spotlight’ and ‘The Martian’ sometime in the next year,” said one reader.
As for what makes a film hold up through multiple viewings, readers had the following observations:
- “I only watch a movie multiple times if there is a chance of finding nuances that I missed the first time.”
- “The movie has to be a great story, first of all, and complex enough that it holds your attention or forces you to think about the issues from a different perspective.”
‘High’ Five
So, which films pass the “five times” test? Well, among this week’s respondents, some films showed up more than others. The top cited films were:
Caddyshack
Casablanca
Forrest Gump
Gone With the Wind
Groundhog Day
The Godfather
The Lord of the Rings (the entire trilogy)
My Cousin Vinny
Rocky
The Shawshank Redemption
Star Wars (A New Hope)
The Wizard of Oz
The Best of the Rest
But while those were the most often cited, there were other nominees by members of the NAPA Net reader “academy” — in no particular order:
Arthur (starring Dudley Moore)
Big Trouble
50 First Dates
The American President
Roman Holiday
Sabrina (the original)
Any and all of the Harry Potter movies
Blazing Saddles
Breakfast Club
Dirty Dancing
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Field of Dreams
Grease
The Sound of Music
Fiddler on the Roof
Madagascar
Father of the Bride
Home for the Holidays
The Wedding Singer
Reservoir Dogs
Romeo and Juliet (1968)
Monster House
Now Voyager
Office Space
Weekend at Bernie's
Pirates of the Caribbean
King Kong (the original and Peter Jackson version best)
The Ten Commandments
Pulp Fiction
Sleepless in Seattle
The Apartment
Where The Boys Are
It’s A Wonderful Life
The Big Chill
Die Hard
Die Hard 2
Princess Bride
The Fugitive
Witness
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Holiday
The Replacements
The Searchers
Dirty Dozen
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
The Red River
Imitation of Life
The Sting
The Way We Were
Titanic (and this from a reader who said, “I'm the type who refused to go see it in the theater because ‘we already know the ending’”)
Date Night
You've Got Mail
Thanks to everyone who participated in this week’s NAPA Net reader poll!
Got a question you’d like to run by our readers? Curious what people are thinking about? Post it in the comments below, or email me directly at [email protected].
