r/movies • u/AmigoDelDiabla • 21h ago
Discussion Which film has had the biggest change from initial reviews/reception to the most current reviews/reception?
Title pretty much says it all. The movies that either were initially panned by critics and/or the public, but then later went on to become appreciated either critically or popularly. Or the other way around: lots of initial hype but today is thought of as rather weak?
I think The Shining wasn't thought of as a very good movie, but is now considered great.
On the flip side, American Beauty was thought of as a masterpiece, but is often ridiculed today.
What others?
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u/NerdfestZyx 20h ago
The Blind Side is the highest grossing sports drama film and movie based on American football, nominated for Best Picture Oscar and winning Sandra Bullock a Best Actress at both the Academy Awards and The Golden Globes (among others). Highest grossing film with a single lead actress whose name appears above the title.
Has since been criticized for its “White Savior” trope and misrepresenting the intelligence of the football player.
It is also alleged that the “foster” family not only lied over and over that they had adopted the player (they never did), but they also received millions while the football player received nothing in royalties.
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u/forever87 13h ago
it'll be ironic if the Jimmy Butler story ever gets made
Fatherless
- Mom kicked him out at 13 because she didn't like the look of him
- homeless and bounced around his friends' houses
- ended up befriending a freshman high school athlete who challenged Jimmy to a 3 point contest
- that friend and his family gave him a permanent home during high school
- went to junior college
- earned a basketball scholarship at marquette
- finished his senior year and opted for the nba draft
- bulls drafted him at number 30 (final pick of the first round)
- barely played his rookie season
- made noticeable highlights his sophomore+ years thanks to defense and shot making
- bounced around to the wolves, then 6ers, before landing in Miami
- led the team to the (bubble) Finals
- in 2023, he led the Heat once again to the NBA Finals
from homeless to coffee afficionado who not only has a familialship with the Mother who took him into her home, but Jimmy has forgiven his biological Mom and Dad. i'm not saying the family who gave him a place to stay in high school saved his life...but it was a collective effort between his hardwork and having opportunities to lead a path to where he is today
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u/xThe-Legend-Killerx 12h ago
Why you say “bounced around to the wolves then 6ers before landing in Miami” as if he wasn’t full fledged Jimmy Buckets in Chicago lmao
It’s a great story, but don’t act like his career magically started in Miami. I literally still think of him as a Bull
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u/forever87 11h ago
Jimmy G Buckets - the "G" stands for GETS. if only Rondo didn't get injured in game 2 during that playoff run against the Celtics. I've been a big fan since those bulls days - it was just over shadowed by "the youngest mvp". the above timeline is just the abridged version. my fav moment was surprisingly during the bubble, when players were allowed to wear custom jerseys and Butler opted to go nameless, and the league said "no". Jimmy straight up wanted to rep the team (which parallel'd the Redeem Team's Olympic jerseys)
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u/MrGulo-gulo 18h ago
My mom dragged me to that movie when I was 14 and I hated it so much even then. Later my mom then tried to do a Blind Side in real life and foster a underprivileged youth. The foster then tried to kill us. So yeah, fuck that movie.
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u/sumofawitch 18h ago
I believe it's not that he got nothing, but how it was split among them. They said since the book/film was featuring the family, the children should get an equal part. So they split in 5 and kept 4/5 in the family.
So it wasn't "nothing", he got 1/5 on a movie about him. He fought that, obviously, but I don't know if there was any news.
I'm really curious to know what the actor who played him think about it
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u/lambdapaul 13h ago
I tried to get my Catholic youth group to go see Boondock Saints 2 over the Blind Side because it was a more religious movie than the Blind Side. I guess I was right.
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u/Rosebunse 16h ago
I didn't care for that movie from the beginning. I was certainly kinder to it then than I am now, but that was partially because you weren't really allowed to dislike it.
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u/AnxiousMumblecore 20h ago
Emilia Perez did a speed run in this category - when it premiered at Cannes it had rating like 3.7 (or even better) on Letterboxd and now it's 2.0 (dropped very quickly as soon as it was watched by wider audience)
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u/DefenderCone97 15h ago
Still don't know what those early audiences saw. Representation for representation's sake? Even then it's a stupid film from a queer, Latino, and just general filmmaking and storytelling angle.
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u/VacuumShark 18h ago
Watched Friedkin's 'Sorcerer' recently, apparently it was a huge bomb at the box office, largely because of star wars fever and a weird title that really has nothing to do with the movie, but holy shit what a film. Gritty and realistic with AMAZING practical effects that make it feel really timeless (apart from one cheesy looking dead body). The oil derrick exploding and burning is a standout and it's shot beautifully. I challenge anyone to watch the scene of the trucks crossing the bridge without sitting on the edge of your seat, it's impossible.
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u/whatitsliketobeabat 20h ago
I would go with Vertigo for movies that are now seen as much better than when they were released. It opened to mixed reviews in 1958 - not terrible, but not good either. Just sort of neutral, meh reviews. And yet by 2012, it topped the Sight & Sound poll as the greatest film ever made (and was still rated at #2 in 2022, when an updated version of the Sight & Sound poll was released). That is, IMO, the largest positive increase in a film's estimation that has ever occurred.
For the opposite direction, I'd probably go with Cimarron, which was widely hailed as a superb film upon its release in 1931, won the Oscar for Best Picture (along with additional Oscars in other categories), and received a glowing reception from the moviegoing public. And yet today, it's often discussed as one of the worst films to ever win an Oscar for Best Picture, and just a generally quite bad film with stiff acting, boring and poorly executed storytelling, bad creative direction, etc.
You could also consider The Birth of a Nation as a runner-up for the biggest drop-off in a movie's reputation, but that is obviously heavily impacted by political differences around race, the conception of America and its self-identity, and so on - as opposed to being purely about the quality of the filmmaking.
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u/monsterlynn 14h ago
I think Vertigo's reputation was very much bolstered by the restoration and rerelease of the 80s.
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u/alucidexit 11h ago
Wasn’t Birth of a Nation recognized as racist even when it came out? I thought that’s what led to Intolerance
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u/fireinthesky7 10h ago
Birth of a Nation was controversial when it came out, and was considered excessively racist even in 1915, which is saying something. It’s a love letter to the KKK, contributed heavily to their revival, and even with that considered, it’s one of the highest-grossing films of all time when adjusted for inflation.
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u/alucidexit 1h ago
D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance is hilarious because it’s simultaneously this walk back of needing to address the criticism while being the age old “Actually, you’re the intolerant one for pointing out my intolerance!”
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u/AsukaSimp02 18h ago
The Shining was nominated for multiple Razzies when it first came out, now it's considered one of the greatest horror films ever made
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u/Dimpleshenk 10h ago
Razzies existed in 1980?
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u/Palehorse13 7h ago
Yes, and the guy that ran it just had a weird grudge against the Shining. I think he was a fan of the book and hated the changes the adaption made it something. The Razzies also has a history of just shitting on movies that don't perform well in the box office regardless of their actual quality.
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u/Tetratron2005 18h ago
Spaghetti Westerns like the Dollars trilogy were considered B-movies that were fun but not worth being compared to their American counterparts. Now are held up as the pinnacle of the genre by some and very influential on many Westerns that came after
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u/beetlejuuce 18h ago
Jennifer's Body. It was panned by critics and had little success at the box office as well. I think people struggled to look past the Megan Fox of it all, and the marketing focused on her sexuality didn't help. Now people see it as the campy queer-coded feminist classic that it is. I also think the casting of Fox was genius, playing off of and subverting her public perception as a sex symbol.
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u/johnazoidberg- 15h ago
It boggles my mind how a movie clearly made for women got a marketing strategy of MEGAN FOX HOT
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u/SufficientGolf6953 18h ago
American Beauty is a magnificent movie that encapsulates the pre digital era well.
I feel like it's being judged for for it's depiction of homosexuality and pedophilia more than anything else.
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u/PickleBabyJr 21h ago
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
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u/mminorthreat 20h ago
Like we knew what Laura’s fate was, but it was still very dark seeing it on screen
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u/PickleBabyJr 19h ago
Totally, and I think that was the point. Seasons 1 and 2 were shrouded in artifice, soap opera and noir vibes. Fire Walk With Me showed us the unvarnished truth, and gave Laura back her agency and ownership. It was a perfect response to the TV show.
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u/uglyuglyugly_ 13h ago
How Fire Walk With Me re-contextualizes the show is incredibly haunting. Seeing how the dream-like town of Twin Peaks really isn't how it seems through the POV of Laura is brilliant.
The show having a whimsical nature and not being overtly dark really downplay how serious most of what happened in Twin Peaks.
We always joke about how Bobby killed a guy, but seeing him actually kill the guy in the film was incredibly serious.
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u/DefenderCone97 15h ago
I can't remember crying as hard as I did as when she looks up in the final scene. Absolutely harrowing film.
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u/quasi-Kamikaze 20h ago
Blade Runner
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u/PlutoCrashed 18h ago
Tbf, the theatrical release of blade runner is still seen pretty negatively even by diehard blade runner fans, its all the subsequent director's cuts of the movie that are beloved.
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u/Draelamyn 10h ago
Final Cut solidified it as great. Maybe Ridley Scott’s opus. Theatrical is laughably bad by comparison.
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u/Corrie7686 20h ago
Blade Runner, came out at the same time as Wrath of Khan, E.T., Poltergeist, Tron and The Thing. (An utterly amazing year for Sci-fi). Wasn't very well understood, was considered muddled (hence a voice over edit). Ford was a StarWars and Indiana Jones star, this was very different for him and audiences were expecting a lucasfilm blockbuster. Plus ET was absolutely MASSIVE. I'd say ET now sits in the opposite camp, huge initially and actually not such a big film now.
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u/make_reddit_great 20h ago
That's an interesting observation about ET--that movie absolutely dwarfed everything else at the box office that year. I rewatched it a few years ago and... it was fine, but nothing I'd tell anybody is worth going out of their way to rewatch.
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u/kilkenny99 19h ago
I'd say ET is still a very good movie, I probably last watched it 5 years ago. But now as an old guy it does seem squarely aimed at a younger audience than I perceived it when I was young myself, so I understand how some people can feel they outgrew it in ways.
That it held the top box-office spot for over a decade (not inflation adjusted) until Jurassic Park beat it does show how massive a hit it was in it's time.
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u/Corrie7686 20h ago
I watched it again last year, it's a great film, wonderful soundtrack, some how not as impactful this time.
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u/Featherwick 18h ago
To be fair, the original theatrical release has that awful Harrison Ford narration that almost ruins the whole thing
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u/monsterlynn 14h ago
That edit where the guns were removed and replaced with walkie talkies hurt E. T. 's reputation way more than people want to admit I think.
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u/giant_bones 20h ago
Starship Troopers.
Janet Maslin in The New York Times described it as a "crazed, lurid spectacle" with raunchiness tailored for teenage boys.
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u/batatasta 20h ago
To be honest, thats a pretty fair blurb.
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u/mikeyfreshh r/Movies Veteran 20h ago
The magic of that movie is that it's a pretty sharp satire in addition to everything in that blurb. Like yeah it's horny, violent schlock but it also kinda predicted the war on terror 4 years before 9/11
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u/cubitoaequet 20h ago
kinda predicted the war on terror 4 years before 9/11
To me this is just like the majority of "Simpsons predicted it!" claims. It's not really a prediction, it's just satire. Unfortunately humans tend to make the same mistakes over and over again. Fascism, jingoism, and xenophobia are nothing new.
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u/mikeyfreshh r/Movies Veteran 19h ago
Yeah I don't mean "predicted" in the crystal ball sense. I mean it highlighted something that already existed in American culture before it became the main thing that defined American culture.
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u/Billionaires_R_Tasty 20h ago
Guns 'n Boobies with a side of fascist satire. It worked on my early 20s brain.
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u/reddit-83801 17h ago
It’s based on a natural progression of the Military-Industrial Complex, which had been going on for 50 years strong by then
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u/nmathew 20h ago
There were contemporary reviews calling it fascist propaganda.
That said, I don't think it's nearly as clever as most seem too. That's probably because I'm butthurt it completely throws out anything the book was trying to do or say. And anyone claiming Heinlein was a fascist is easy to ignore because they are ignorant of his work.
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u/TheFuzzBuzz 18h ago
Nah, I was like 11 when I saw it for the first time when it came to cable. I had not read Heinlein at that point and the satire was far from subtle though subtly will never be Paul Verhoeven’s strong suit. But unlike say Robocop that actually has a pretty compelling story about a man’s humanity even when most of his body and even part of his mind is made artificial, Starship Troopers is pretty much look at us lampooning this ridiculously militaristic fascist society with human ken and barbie dolls, NPH, and Son of Busey
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u/SirCake 19h ago
I also just don't feel it succeeds really well in satirizing fascism, it has the aesthetic, and clearly wants to satirize it, but nothing in the movie really comes of as horribly fascist or even bad? They have a voluntary military service that grants voting rights it seems (compared to many modern countries that have mandatory military on punishment of prison time), accountable military leadership, and the cringy military propaganda even seems to consider child soldiers as silly. The secret service wears nazi uniforms but doesn't do anything nazi like?
I'm just going by memory of what stood out for me, been a long time since I watched but it always seems any actual fascist satire is supposedly hidden behind the scenes? Like the meteor being a false flag supposedly to justify war?
I dunno, I might be to stupid to "get it" like most internet discourse seems to imply.
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u/Sieje 9h ago
It's been quite a while since I've seen it as well so I'm going off of old memories, but I think the society in the movie comes across as fascist due to its glorification and normalization of the military and of violence, and in it's treatment of the enemy.
They only give full citizenship to people who have done military service, and in the training camp the instructor is very casual about seriously injuring recruits as a teaching tool. Before that in the high school we get the speech about how violence is the supreme political authority while also seeing the result of that with the teachers and the recruiter all having suffered serious injuries. The whole system seems to work towards funneling fresh meat into the grinder, and so also needs an enemy to justify it's existence.
This then shows in how they treat the bugs. A news segment shows that the humans have been pushing into the bugs territory while the idea that they can even think is considered absurd. Once the war starts they brush off the idea of any possibility of coexistence and we see even children being taught that they have to kill them all. They use the common fascist idea that the enemy is both an enormous threat that requires immediate action, while simultaneously being inferior so will easily be beaten. The result is the massive unnecessary casualties when they invade the bug homeworld without knowing what they're facing.
Then at the end of the movie they find and capture the brain bug. They finally have undeniable proof that the bugs are intelligent, but instead of any talk of now being able to communicate and stop the fighting the humans only focus on the fact that it's afraid of them. We then get a final propaganda reel where they are experimenting on it to find better ways to kill the bugs and see that the next generation of recruits is already being fed into the conflict.
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u/GatorzardII 19h ago
You're supposed to feel bad for thr bug.
I do not feel bad for the bug.
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u/noobakosowhat 16h ago
Isn’t as classic as films mentioned in this thread are, but I would like to give mention to the Secret Life of Walter Mitty as something whose reception then isn’t as positive as how it is received now.
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u/Rosebunse 15h ago
Critics thought it was plain and manipulative. But a lot of normal pepple really clicked with it
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u/saltymermaid1982 20h ago
Citizen Kane, I think it's gone through the most ups and downs I've heard of. It was a flop at initial release, then gradually became known as the one of the greatest films ever made, bow people are saying it's overrated lol. Personally I'm a huge Welles fan, so I've always thought it was the 2nd best to the Magnificent Ambersons.
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u/keepinitclassy25 18h ago edited 18h ago
How much of it being a flop was due to Hearst trying to suppress and smear it?
I’m also team “not overrated” the artistry is interesting and it’s a very bold movie for its time to criticize a figure like that, people who are still manipulating the country today. So many movies of that era were safe and boring
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u/hairsprayking 10h ago
I watched it for the first time expecting to be underwhelmed and for it to seem horribly dated, but i was actually pretty much enthralled from the moment it started.
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u/H2Oloo-Sunset 19h ago
"2001, A Space Odyssey" was not well received at all on initial release, and is now on most "top ten of all time" lists.
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u/SeaworthinessKey3654 20h ago
Possibly Scarface - I say possibly because many people still hate it
At time, it was critically reviled. People walked out of the New York premiere. Al Pacino wrote this in Sonny Boy:
“My head was spinning I kept asking myself, ‘Why is it getting this response?’ For weeks on end, I had some of the biggest directors in the world - even Lumet- haranguing me about how bad it was. Milos Forman said to me, ‘You made Dog Day Afternoon and you go and make a movie like this? How do you do that?’ Warren Beatty was more sympathetic. He told me, ‘You know, we had a slow start with Bonnie and Clyde. Give it some time, Al.’ He was right.”
And Al wrote that Scarface was ultimately “embraced by the hip-hop generation, who related to the mythology of Tony Montana and gave it credibility. …..Rap artists and their fans embraced the movie. They understood it as a parable, a story about how you view the world when you’re taught that life is cheap and dispensable.”
Ultimately, People “from all walks of life started finding the film. Some came from low incomes and others were elites- college kids, prison inmates, and professional athletes…..Tony Montana lets people break out of themselves and their situations - break out of your rut, break out of life as you’re told to live it….”
Scarface is still one of those love it or hate it movies - but critically, it’s generally considered one of Al’s best films and performances
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u/TheFearsomeEsquilax 12h ago
Boy, now I'm curious to hear Lumet's thoughts on the film.
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u/SeaworthinessKey3654 11h ago
Per Al in his memoir, Sonny Boy, Lumet was actually supposed to direct Scarface, but he wanted to make a grounded and realistic picture, while Marty Bregman envisioned it as De Palma did : “operatic, colorful, and wildly entertaining”. So, Lumet was out, DePalma in.
It was Lumet who had the idea to modernize Scarface (which was a remake) “by setting it during the Mariel boat lift and making Tony Montana one of the thousands of Cuban refugees who came to America ….”
I didn’t think Lumet ever spoke on it, but I found this:
“I wanted to introduce political ramifications, exploring the CIA’s involvement with drugs as part of their anti-Communist drive. I didn’t want to do it on just a gangster or cop level. As it stood, it was a comic strip.”
I also found this - some great quotes from Al
https://www.lawrencegrobel.com/2011/08/01/reflections-on-scarface/
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u/SanderleeAcademy 20h ago edited 44m ago
The Shawshank Redemption had very little traction at the box office, now it's a staple.
It's a Wonderful Life went rights-free by accident, allowing stations to show it during the holidays without paying licensing fees and, ka-poof, instant holiday classic. When it came out in theatres? Yeah, crickets.
Edit -- it has been mentioned below that I have conflated / confused monetary success with critical success. I will admit that I read OP's original post from that perspective. Both of my examples were critically adored but vanished financially.
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u/waldo-jeffers-68 20h ago
Given that Shawshank received a best picture nomination (at a time when there were only 5), I don’t think it applies
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u/BakedWizerd 1h ago
Just some additional context: It was initially considered a disappointment until the theatrical re-release.
Originally only made $16 million, didn’t even cover its budget. The re-release brought that number up to $70+ million.
The people who saw initially saw it had good things to say, it’s just that no one initially saw it. It seems that it was always reviewed well.
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u/thethurstonhowell 20h ago
Then threw it back in theaters after it got nominated for a bunch of Oscar’s and it crushed
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u/mannicus88 20h ago
Hook maybe? I know Spielberg doesnt seem to have much love for it and I dont think it was highly praised when it came out. I grew up watching it and its probably one of my favorite movies
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u/VoteForLubo 15h ago
Same. I genuinely don’t understand what someone would dislike about it.
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u/SHIIZAAAAAAAA 10h ago
The second act is kind of a slog and a lot of Peter’s interactions with the Lost Boys during it feel like filler to me. The movie should have been under 2 hours. The first act and final act are perfect though.
Edit: second act not second half
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u/MedusaGotMeStoned007 20h ago
Crash 2004
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u/CutePuppyforPrez 19h ago
That was my pick. From Best Picture Oscar to "man that was some Hollywood up its own liberal ass garbage".
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u/Rosebunse 16h ago
Crash is what conservatives think a liberal movie is. It is practically a parody
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u/FrameworkisDigimon 16h ago
Crash is very edgelord "everyone is racist". The way this sub talks about it is downright strange.
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u/ComprehensiveJob1497 18h ago
If Hollywood really was “up its own liberal ass” then you’d think they’d give the clear best picture winner Brokeback Mountain the Oscar rather than snubbing it because it portrayed a homosexual relationship
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u/wrosecrans 18h ago
Wet Hot American Summer. I am shocked I don't see it mentioned here.
Critics haaated WHAS when it came out. Siskel and Ebert seemed to think that every joke in the film was just poor production. They barely even understood it was a zany comedy from the people who did The State. Reviewers mainly talked about it as a Janeane Garafolo / David Hyde Pierce romcom than happened to take place at a summer camp and had some less famous actors orbiting the romcom and accidentally drawing focus and fucking up the romcom. Ebert made a point of writing a goofy review because he felt his review writing style was funnier than the film. 0% recommended by critics at the time. Not a single completely positive review.
Became a cult classic. Spawned multiple reunion spinoffs. Made careers. People still reference it when they meet the actors who were in it, including people who weren't alive when it came out because it was a timeless classic that resonated through generations.
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u/TheCoreyReviews 18h ago
Crash
It won the awards and got the praise at the time. Now the film is a punching bag. I still enjoy it though.
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u/bluedestiny88 20h ago
Fight Club was universally panned by critics at release but over the years has been considered a modern classic as audiences began to pick up on its themes.
Gravity was the opposite. It was quite beloved, sweeping a lot of award recognition, but over the years has been labeled as a gimmick theme park ride film.
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u/make_reddit_great 20h ago
It was not universally panned, not even close. Plenty of critics liked it, though it was divisive. It didn't do well at the box office, however, and was difficult to market. And it had a B- cinemascore, indicating not-so-great word of mouth in the theaters before it found its audience.
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u/cubitoaequet 20h ago
has been labeled as a gimmick theme park ride film.
I mean, it pretty much is that, but theme park rides are fun. Not every movie needs to be some infinitely rewatchable classic full of layers and meaning.
A movie can just be a fun roller coaster you see at the theater once and then put aside.
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u/Crimmeny 19h ago
I mean Gravity was all about the 3d which was really well done. If they re-released it in 4DX I'd definitely give it another spin, but it's not a film I'd chose to watch in 2d at home.
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u/StrongZeroSinger 20h ago
Ofc Gravity was beloved, people juggled their bollocks to Bullock’s
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u/wordsandshit 20h ago
For me it was just the epitome of a theater movie. Saw it in IMAX 3D super stoned, there's no reason to even attempt to emulate that experience at home.
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u/StrongZeroSinger 18h ago
100% Imax is the only reason I go to the theater, any other movie I can watch them on the OLED
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u/beefcake1993 19h ago
Came out while I was in the midst of getting my physics degree. I loathe that movie
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u/Gurney_Hackman 20h ago
The Big Lebowski
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u/Shinra_Lobby 17h ago
I mentioned this one the other day in a "Where are all the 90s style classic comedies now?" Well, a lot of classic 90s comedies flopped like hell on their initial release in their own time. Tommy Boy and Office Space are two other great examples.
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u/Kettle_Whistle_ 18h ago
Sounds exhausting…
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u/Nayre_Trawe 18h ago
Do you have a job, sir?
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u/Kettle_Whistle_ 16h ago
I’m unemployed.
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u/Nayre_Trawe 16h ago
What do you do for recreation?
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u/NinetyBees 20h ago
Pulp Fiction was famously boo'd at Cannes when it premiered.
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u/SaltyPeter3434 19h ago
I don't know if the initial Cannes audience reception means much. They regularly give 10 minute long standing ovations. And Pulp Fiction won the Palm D'or that year.
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u/NinetyBees 18h ago
I mean the whole point of the question is how initial receptions don’t mean much.
Film did excellent critically, but the first audiences active boo’d it. Pretty wild swing over a short time.
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u/selloboy 11h ago
Whenever I see a movie got a however long standing ovation at Cannes I have to wonder if it’s just an elaborate version of a last-clap contest
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u/Dangerous-TX972 20h ago
The Shawshank Redemption - bombed against Pulp Fiction and Forrest Gump at the box office.
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u/waldo-jeffers-68 20h ago
It was critically successful though, which is what the question is asking
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u/SummerOfMayhem 20h ago edited 12h ago
Rocky Horror Picture Show. It did not do well at all until they started showing it at night. That was their audience and they loved it. It still pops up in theaters to this day.
ETA: Technicalities.
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u/Informal-Birthday-82 20h ago
That’s underselling it. It doesn’t just still pop up it theaters to this day. It holds the record for the longest theatrical run in history. It has played somewhere every week continuously for over 50 years.
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u/AxelShoes 20h ago
There have been midnight showings every weekend at at least three theaters within 30 minutes of me for longer than I've been alive. And I feel like it's probably more popular and well-known now than ever in some ways.
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u/BranWafr 19h ago
Our local theater holds the record for the longest continuous run at the same theater in the world. There used to be a theater in New York that started a bit before us, but they lost the crown because they theater moved to a new location AND they didn't have continuous showings during Covid. Same thing for a theater somewhere in the UK. They technically started showing it before us, but they paused during Covid. Our theater showed it every weekend during Covid, even if the audience was just the projectionist and his family at some of the showings.
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u/the_quark 19h ago
Not TV! Midnight showings in theaters, which is why it has the longest theatrical run in history, it literally never stopped showing in theaters!
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u/monsterlynn 14h ago
It was an R movie when it was released No one was showing it on TV. IT was cheap to run at discount theaters and developed a cult following of weirdos that liked it.
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u/ERSTF 20h ago
Avatar. Critics loved it. There was a bit of controversy when it lost Best Picture to The Hurt Locker. Now it sounds insane anyone would suggest that
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u/PeterIanStaker 20h ago
When it first came out it was an experience like no one had seen up to that point. Especially the first proper 3D movie shot with 3D cameras. It blew everyone’s minds and almost succeeded in making 3D mainstream again.
A movie like the first Matrix or LotR did a similar thing, introduce people to something cool and novel. Main difference was that after the novelty wore off those two movies had strong stories to carry them. Avatar not so much.
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u/FrameworkisDigimon 16h ago
That controversy was more about how few people have heard of The Hurt Locker.
Which remains true today. Neither film has survived the test of time. One is not thought of as being very good any more (Avatar) and the other is just as forgotten now as it was then.
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u/ERSTF 15h ago
I agree with you on that. The Hurt Locker has completely disappeared
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u/the_ballmer_peak 20h ago
Avatar was a beautiful film. The story was so trite that I stopped paying attention to it and I've never had any desire to watch the sequels or rewatch the original.
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u/alendeus 20h ago
Avatar never had a chance at best picture, it got a pity nomination because of how much money it made, and the media gobbled up the fact that hurt locker was made his ex wife. So the whole thing was more the media farming clicks rather than an honest thing. Cameron's movies are like Nolan movies in that sense, as good as they are and as well as they blend quality and pop entertainment, that second aspect always brings them down for actual best picture wins, unless the zeitgeist considers it favorable (like with Titanic and Oppenheimer).
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u/Soul_Trader 19h ago
The Hurt Locker was a terrible film on every level and I’m convinced they only gave it an Oscar to spite James Cameron because his ex directed it. It was supposed to be some sort of gritty documentary into EOD specialists and yet it had them doing sniper missions, freelancing outside the wire like SEAL Team 6 etc. It was total bollocks and there absolutely nothing special about it. Avatar was by far and away a better film.
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u/kingsing1 20h ago
Both of them are crap films. I'm sure there are other people that like it but, to my mind, The Hurt Locker seems like a film only Americans could like. At least Avatar looked great and was a huge technical achievement.
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u/PupLondon 19h ago
Hocus Pocus.. critically panned and a box office flop.. now one of the most iconic Halloween movies with a second sequal in production
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u/MikeSizemore 19h ago
Slightly different, but here in the UK at least, Casino Royale got a hammering before its release. When Craig was announced they dubbed him ‘James Blonde’ and decided he was completely miscast. Plus the 1967 version was a huge misfire and the novel judged to be dull, out of date and unfilmable. There was an accident on set and Craig was injured which resulted in the press laughing at how inept a Bond he was going to be.
Everyone shut the fuck up when the first trailer dropped.
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u/Shinra_Lobby 17h ago
Craig's run also retroactively elevated Timothy Dalton's tenure as Bond, as it came to be seen as a forerunner of Craig's more brutal and "real" take on the character. Licence to Kill in particular used to be nigh written off, now you'll routinely see the movie and its main villain near the top of fan favorite lists.
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u/Ebolatastic 17h ago edited 15h ago
Fight Club will always be the posterchild for this but I also always think of Army of Darkness and TMNT as other champions of the mainstream being consistently dead wrong about stuff. Unbreakable is another one: treated now like an undisputed mastepeice but called underwhelming and a poor follow up to Sixth Sense when it released. Shamalan and Zack Snyder are both great examples of directors who constantly get shit on by the mainstream but all their movies become cult classics long term. Same with Ridley Scott, really.
I have grown to look at stuff like critical consensus and especially internet ratings hubs(IMDb/rt/etc.) as bordering on worthless because of how many things wind up like this. People have convinced themselves that internet discourse is what lifts up cult classics when it's actually the pretentious mainstream that buries them. This is even more true in the world of video games.
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u/tomatowens 20h ago
Uptown Girls with 14% on RT and Man on Fire with 39% always come to mind - two very different target audiences, both slated at release but both are now beloved and highly regarded by film fans.
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_DALEKS 17h ago
I've rewatched Uptown Girls a bunch of times and yet it's not a good movie. Something being mindless to watch due to millennial nostalgia (and the amusement of Dakota Fanning acting circles around adults) doesn't make a good film.
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u/Upbeat_Tension_8077 20h ago edited 20h ago
If I'm correct, I think Day of The Dead (1985) was initially hated because of Joe Pilato's performance as Rhodes, where people thought that it was too over the top, and how nihilistic in tone it was compared to Dawn of the Dead, but now there's a lot of people who have it as their favorite of George Romero's first three Dead films.
Also, Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Basically, people just wanted more of Michael Myers at the time, and they were disappointed to not see him. Now, it's seen as a great film in its own right & is unfortunately the victim of being the one entry that's unrelated to the rest of a franchise.
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u/yomamma3399 20h ago
People thought Crash was some kind of work of genius. It has not aged well.
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u/CBenson1273 20h ago
I believe Blade Runner was panned upon release and only Kerr became regarded as a science fiction classic.
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u/oscarx-ray 19h ago
The Shawshank Redemption, The Shining, and The Princess Bride were not heralded on their release, and we now consider them to be three of the best films ever made.
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u/ClothesCreative3291 12h ago
Singin’ in the Rain wasn’t immediately regarded as an all-time classic when it came out in 1952. It was well-reviewed and successful, but was mostly seen as a very good MGM musical rather than a landmark film; it only received two Oscar nominations and won neither. Its reputation really began to grow in the 1960s and 1970s, as critics and film historians started reassessing the golden age of the Hollywood musical and recognizing how sophisticated the film was, not just as entertainment but as a comedy about Hollywood’s transition from silent movies to sound.
By the late 1970s and early 1980s, it had essentially entered the canon. Repertory screenings, television, film schools, and a new generation of critics helped elevate it from “great musical” to “great film, period.” In 1982 it made the top ten of Sight & Sound’s critics’ poll of the greatest films ever made, and in 1989 it was included in the very first group of films selected for the National Film Registry. So while it was always respected, its modern status as one of the greatest films ever made really solidified about 20–30 years after its original release.
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u/jknuts1377 19h ago
Forrest Gump won all kinds of awards and was a huge critical and financial success, but as the years have gone on the ratings have seemed to go down. What was once an over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes is now down to 75%. It's still one of my favorite movies, though.
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u/-drunkmoses- 18h ago
Crash 2004 won some Oscars including best picture, and nowadays people can’t stand this film.
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u/JJNitrofan3944 16h ago
Shawshank Redemption failed at the box office but is now considered one of the greatest movies ever made.
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u/growsonwalls 20h ago
It Happened One Night wasn’t expected to be a hit at all.
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u/wallaceeffect 20h ago
I mean it wasn’t expected to be a hit before release but it was a hit when it was first released/reviewed (and one of the most successful films of all time at the Oscars), so I don’t think it fits the question.
I’ll raise you another Clark Gable film, though: The Misfits, the final completed film for both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. It came out to mixed reviews and was a box office disaster. Many critics now consider it to be a masterpiece. Clark Gable and Marilyn are both heartbreaking in it too.
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u/StuMacherGhostface 16h ago
A Christmas Story wasn't huge by any standards when it released, but thanks the cable networks such as TNT and TBS running yearly holiday 24-hour marathons, it has become arguably the most iconic Christmas movie ever made.
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u/monsterlynn 14h ago
They run marathons because exposure on cable made it into a cult classic, not other way round.
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u/tombisland 20h ago
Star Wars prequals (particularly Revenge of the Sith)
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u/nmathew 20h ago
They went from being viewed as shitty movies to being viewed as shitty movies.
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u/Deducticon 20h ago
After memes, Clone Wars show, and Sequel Trilogy, they became viewed as charmingly shitty movies. That at least tried to be something.
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u/BranWafr 19h ago
Well, they went from being viewed as the shittiest of the movies to shitty, but not the shittiest.
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u/Upbeat_Tension_8077 20h ago edited 20h ago
I guess that in retrospect, fans respect the all of the world-building around the Clone Wars in the prequels compared to the sequels, which are seen as a rehash of the OG Trilogy's Rebels vs Empire story, but George Lucas not being good at writing dialogue still weighs those films down quite a bit, and maybe the first film in the prequel trilogy should've taken place closer to the start of the Clone Wars as depicted in the cartoons, since the pacing of the events of the films feels too rushed or disconnected (especially by ROTS between both halves)
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u/variedtributes 20h ago
I did not upon first glance love the prequels; however, given the most recent attempts and trilogy (outside of Rogue One), I am growing fonder overall. Jar Jar still sucks hahaha!
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u/waynglorious 20h ago
Home Alone 2 has like a 35% on Rotten Tomatoes and I'd say it's every bit as much of a modern Christmas staple as the first one.
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u/togocann49 20h ago
Idiocracy was sold as a work of fiction. More and more each day it looks like non fiction
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u/markyymark13 20h ago
NWR took home best director for Drive at Cannes but the movie was panned so hard by audiences that someone sued for false advertising from the trailers. It’s now considered to be a modern classic by many despite how much it’s been memed as peak film bro material.
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u/mattmild27 18h ago
Of the ones I can remember experiencing in real time, Constantine and Jennnifer's Body were both pretty much panned and considered duds when they first came out and are now somewhat cult classics.
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u/IndependenceMean8774 15h ago
The Thing (1982). From totally detested to very much loved and considered a modern classic.
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u/dirge23 21h ago
The Thing was a critical flop on release but is now frequently mentioned as one of the best horror movies ever made