Jan 07 2011
Debate of the Day: What Movie Do You Wish You Could See in Theaters Again? (or for the first time)
The Social Network is returning to theaters soon, as it’s doing a victory lap for all the piles and piles of awards it’s won/about to win. This happens routinely with Oscar nominated films, and the last big example was the Avatar re-release for all those who missed it in IMAX 3D, or wanted to see eight minutes of new footage.
But that got me thinking, what are other movies that you wish would return to to theaters for however brief a time? Some films don’t really need to be seen on a big screen, and I’m sure I can get the most out of When Harry Met Sally on a 32 inch, or a 2,000 inch screen, but others? It would be nice to see them larger than life again. Yes, you can think of current movies you’ve already seen, for example, I’d love to get to see 300 or Speed Racer or Sunshine in theaters again, or it could be movies you were too young to catch in theaters.
I’d love to see the original Star Wars trilogy or the Indiana Jones movies on the big screen. Yeah, I saw the “remastered” ones when I was really young, but I barely remember them and they were all cracked out on unnecessary CGI. I also think movies like Jaws or Blade Runner or Terminator would be great to revisit as well. Some artsy theaters have midnight showings of movies like this, but they’re hard to come by, and usually the screens are rather small. Anyone else think mainstream chains should do this more often?
What would you like to see in theaters again?
More Unreal Posts
uhm….NONE! With home televisions being far more clear than a theater screen I would rather just buy the BlueRay.
Hey Paul-
There’s a pretty cool theater on the LES in Manhattan (down on Houston Street) that has midnight showings of classic movies. I saw A Clockwork Orange there a couple years ago and it was great. What’s cool is that these midnight showings are usually pretty packed – looks like lots of people like seeing classics on the big screen.
Indiana Jones trilogy, Ghostbusters 1, Terminator 2, Star Trek: First Contact and definitely 2001: Space Odyssey.
The Matrix..
Not necessarily in theaters…but for the first time. It was so different than anything I’d ever seen before.
Movies I would want to see again for the first time:
The Matrix
American History X
UHF
Halloween
Event Horizon
Pulp Fiction
I tried to come up with some that I wish I could see in the theatre, and had trouble. Perhaps Jurassic Park, and I would love to see Star Wars EPIV again the same way I saw it for the first time. In my parents living room being projected on an old fold able screen and movie projector.
Forget seeing the Original Star Wars trilogy in theatres, I’d like to be able to watch it at home without having to find a VCR.
For me, the best theatre experience I’ve ever had was seeing a one-day-only marathon screening of the Lord of the Rings. They played the extended editions of Fellowship and Two Towers (I held off watching the extended DVD for Towers knowing I would be seeing it in theatres) followed by an 11 P.M. first screening of Return of the King. It was also the best theatre crowd I’ve ever been with. No one made a sound and not even a single person got up to go to the bathroom during a 4 hour movie. It was amazing.
The extended edition of Return of the King has never been in theatres. I’d love to be able to see it.
The Matrix (and Reloaded for the highway and mansion scenes), Sunshine, 2001, Lord of War, V for Vendetta (I begged my parents to take me to see this one. I was only 16 when it was released, though, and they were strict about the R rating rules), and Indiana Jones (all three of them). Possibly Fight Club as well. All fantastic movies that I didn’t get to see on the big screen that I wish I had.
PREDATOR – all day
Rocky IV
i would also like to see Goodfellas
i recently saw back to the future as it was rereleased, and it was pretty awesome….
I haven’t got a need for watching old classics in the theaters again, but I’d like to watch certain movies for the first time without having anything spoiled.
One of the worst examples is the second original Star Wars movie (The Empire Strikes Back) which a friend of mine watched a few days before I did. She then revealed the twist to me.
Crank 2, definitely one of the funniest, most exciting movies I’ve ever seen. What made it so good though was that all my friends were watching it together in a mostly empty theater during the last show of the day. Because we didn’t give a shit we were as loud and obnoxious as the movie was, yelling out stupid jokes and laughing uproariously, so much so that everyone else in the theater was eventually doing the same thing.
The only other movies I’ve seen that had the crowd get so involved were The Room (for obvious, hilarious reasons; by the fourth sex scene I was hearing some of the raunchiest stuff in my life) and Black Dynamite, which had so many great lines and visual gags you couldn’t help but get into it. (These kids are orphans! That means they don’t have parents!)
Agree with Madison. I went to that theater to see T2 last summer and it was packed. Also agree with og bobby j, Rocky 4 is my favorite movie ever. However, for me it isn’t so much about seeing them on the big screen as much as it is seeing then when they first came out. I would LOVE to have been in the theaters when my favorite movies had just came out. The Rocky movies especially.
2001: Space Odyssey, The Last StarFighter and The Labyrinth
Hmm…to rewatch again for the first time:
1. The Fifth Element
2. The Count of Monte Cristo
3. The Dark Knight
4. Shawshank Redemption
5. The Matrix
Def the first Matrix movie…awesome…
Independence Day. There’s few things in film as grand like seeing those huge spaceships over the cities when you’re at the cinema.
Dark Knight for sure.
And Star Wars IV back when it was re-released in 1997
- Terminator
- Terminator 2
- Die Hard
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
- The Godfather
Lawerance Of Arabia
Any Hitchcock film
Metropolis
Blade runner
The french connection
Ben Hur
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
and finally follow that bird
- Original Star Wars trilogy (although I could do without the sixth one)
- The Dollar Trilogy
- Marx Brothers movies (why the hell not?)
- Scott Pilgrim Vs The World
- Pixar
JURASSIC PARK by far. that was the greatest theatre experience ever.
We have a cinema here that plays old/er films. It’s marvellous.
I got to see many films on a big screen either for the first time or again (i.e. I’d only seen them on DVD or on the computer) on a giant screen, and will be going there many times again. Things like Once Upon a Time in the West, The Blues Brothers, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Taxi Driver, Easy Rider, Modern Times, and heaps more. It’s a treasure.
films i only saw on DVD that i would like to see on a cinema screen include
2001: A Space Odyssey
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood
El Topo
Irreversable
i can’t think of any more right now but i’m sure there are loads
I never got to see The Dark Knight in IMAX, so I’d definitely be up for seeing that.
I would give anything, ANYTHING, to be able to see Enter the Dragon on a drive-in screen. Some friends and I once had a discussion about what we would wish for if we were dying and the Make-A-Wish people granted our wish. That’s what I would wish for: Enter the Dragon on a drive-in screen.
Oh and The Landmark theater in River Oaks down in Houston, TX shows old classics at midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. I managed to make it to a showing of The Evil Dead and it was awesome.
Not a movie, but I wish I could see Lost for the first time again.
I don’t want to ruin any classic movies by converting them into silly 3D trend. I would say no to re-release in theatres.
Speed Raced, Matrix, Transformers (1)
To all the awesome unreality people I cannot suggest more strongly that you go and see Tron Legacy while it is in the cinemas.
Like Speed Racer you will never see anything quite the same again, 3D or no 3D and when its gone it probably wont make a return.
Also why rerelease the social network in a cinema when you can buy it on dvd for cheaper when it comes out? Rerelease Toy Story 3 in 3D for me again on the big screen and I can die a happy man.
The Matrix.
‘Nuff said.
Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark obviously.
i wish i could have seen lord of the rings: return of the king in theaters. that was an epic movie that would have been even more epic on a 50 foot screen.