But, it's a nice feeling too. As you get older, you get wiser and have experienced more. Only then does such a film become relevant to you.

Back when I was a child, I loathed 2001: A Space Odyssey. I thought it was boring wank for boring wankers who failed space academy.

But, in my late teens, as I was struggling with my religious identity (I was Catholic but I'm now atheist), I saw the film again and I loved it. I hesitate to say I "got" it, but I understood what Kubrick was doing. Here was a film that chronicled man's struggles with science, faith, and evolution.

I needed to have lived to truly watch 2001. And, I like that. Revisiting these films tell me that I'm becoming a "better" person as I get older.

Then again, I still laugh at Deuce Bigalow so maybe I'm talking out of my arse.

Both Awesome, if you don't like A Christmas Story after seeing it you need your head testing! You'll be saying "You'll shoot your eye out" for days afterwards :lol:

Weathered is putting it mildly. Will clean it when I get home etc.

It is a nice feeling and I think tastes always evolve - I hesitate to say 'mature' as that almost implies that you leave a lot of your childhood favourites behind and replace them with more 'adult' fare, which definitely isn't the case.

In the case of 2001, luckily(?) I only managed to catch it when I was in my late teens so loved it from the outset. I think if I'd caught it early teens / pre-teens I probably would have had a similar reaction to you initially did and it would have been a struggle for me to revisit it despite the amount of praise it got from others around me.

I don't necessarily see myself becoming a 'better person' as I get older (the opposite in many ways most probably) more so that my tastes have broadened as my horizons have also. I grew up with 4 (later 5) terrestrial TV channels, a small video rental store and a couple of local cinemas. Now I have the world wide web of rentals/streaming/shopping as well as many film related forums, blogs and review sites at my finger tips so the amount of film information and product available to me is monolithic and I do enjoy drowning in this excess whenever I get the chance, what with film being one of my primary enjoyment outlets.

I can get pleasure from obscure Japanese art-house cinema to fart jokes on Family Guy and a vast amount in between so as long as you're enjoying the experience of what you're watching at some level then I say it's all good. :nod:

When I say a "better" person, I mean one who is more open-minded (in terms of new ideas and concepts), and wiser by having experienced and solved (or at least survived) the many crises that life throw at you.

Not that I suddenly have a hankering to wrap myself in a sheet and go full-on Mother Teresa.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BzatfcwIMAAFmni.jpg:large

I think most of us have those films that we go back to and as far as I'm concerned shouldn't be a cause of shame. I love ridiculous comedy such as Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion, I love teen movies like She's All That and Clueless and I absolutely love beyond all doubt Grease and Grease 2. However last night I was more than happy to sit down and watch The Enigma of Kasper Hauser!

Speaking of developing tastes, this also works in reverse much to my displeasure when I last tried to watch a firm childhood favourite of mine The Goonies and really struggled to get through it!

I'm hearing that a lot lately. It's making me scared to revisit it. I know I still love The Monster Squad though (having Shane Black as the writer probably helps it a lot).

The Monster Squad holds up way better, but that's more of a proper horror film but for kids! I just like to pretend that I never watched The Goonies last year and that I still love it ;)

Very true. Life experiences after all shapes the personality which in turn effects your film tastes - even to some very minor degree.

Yeah, I think Ted is one of the very few who can pull that look off to any effect ;)

Everyone has their favourites which conventional (or 'cult') society thinks must be deemed a guilty pleasure, but there should be no guilt in terms of what we like (and that goes for all walks of life) as it just breeds repression.

Plus, I think our very own Stephen may have found a kindred spirit in yourself due to your love of Grease 2! :D

Totally emphasise with this one - I'm the same in reference to The Monster Squad though... which I notice has been posted about above. I watched it as an 'adult' and didn't rate it much at all (I actually recently revisited it as part of my Halloween viewing this year and just can't buy into it as much as the people who grew up with it must do). Some films are just a product of their time or targeted towards a set age group which sometimes if watched outside of the this age/time just doesn't translate for a lot of folk.