the 50 movies that boxedjoy can remember having watched

Is Hairspray the John Waters one or the Travolta one?

Romy and Michele's High School Reunion without a 2nd thought!

It was a comfort movie for me when I had ... various problems.

The Travolta one, although I describe as "the Pfeiffer one"

I'll post some thoughts on these films later but I want to be very clear: this is films I have seen and not just films I have enjoyed

whoa, thought I was Not A Movie Person relatively speaking (least satisfying art form out of music/TV/narrative fiction/visual art) but this has me feeling like Roger Ebert

Mulholland Drive followed by 10 Things I Hate About You

gonna go for Heathers

Leprechaun in the Hood (also known as Leprechaun 5 or Leprechaun 5: In the Hood) is a 2000 American black comedy-horror film directed by Rob Spera and the fifth installment in the Leprechaun series. The film follows Warwick Davis as the evil leprechaun Lubdan, who searches for his magic flute that three hoodlums stole and kills anyone who gets in his way.

The film was released direct-to-video on March 28, 2000, and is the last entry to be released by Trimark Pictures, which disbanded in 2001. It was followed by Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood (2003).

I very much appreciate the fact that this is one of the only films you've ever seen. Anyway my vote goes to Speed 2, which I have seen about 20 minutes of - but what minutes they were.

Ah, then my vote goes to Clueless which is just a perfect film in every way.

I think your experience is going to become more common in the next few decades as movies lose even more ground to youtube and video games. I kinda wish I had the discipline to close off a medium as "not my priority", lord knows it beats struggling to keep up in every one. I guess my equivalent is I don't think I'll ever start following wrestling.

Leprechaun In The Hood and Birdemic show that even if you are not a movie person you are still liable to get roped into a bad movie night.

My friends and I rented LITH in high school, did not realize that was Warwick Davis. A friend in weed is a friend indeed! Awful awful rapping musical sequence at the end iirc.

tbh i was close to this level of not a movie person until like 5 years ago. i've finally gotten into watching old movies at home but i still don't go to theaters

Voted for Romy and Michelle

cool that in 50 movies you managed to see the best movie (Romy and Michele)

Mulholland Drive, Grease, and Clueless are the clear medalists in my estimation. Admittedly I haven't seen Leprechaun in the Hood. Or Romy and Michele for that matter, which I might even like.

Heathers vs Hairspray vs Hedwig is very tough but I went w/Hairspray assuming we are talking about the John Waters og

oh no xp

that's what I get for not reading, minus one Hairspray and plus one Heathers

I would never have enjoyed wrestling because I don't do well with violence but I would definitely have enjoyed this storyline from the peak WWE era:

Saturn immediately underwent a significant gimmick change and, possibly as punishment for his actions, was involved in storylines about his becoming infatuated with a mop. After receiving head trauma in matches against The Acolytes Protection Agency (APA) and Raven, Saturn began acting eccentrically and speaking nonsensically, allegedly as the result of a concussion. Saturn began uttering the phrase "you're welcome" at inopportune intervals, and then fell in love with Moppy, an inanimate mop which he believed was alive, similar to Wilson the volleyball in the 2000 film Cast Away.

(the mop was fed to a wood chipper by a love rival female wrestler)

Very evocative of a specific time span and vibe:

Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion
10 Things I Hate About You
Mean Girls
Clueless
Heathers
The Craft

All are fun but Heathers is pretty hard to deny, icon-wise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzWlhLSitJ8

this is the final scene from LITH. You don't need to worry about spoilers, because a) this scene gives nothing away; b) it is the kind of movie that cannot be spoiled

also LITH was not from a bad movie night it was a gift from a friend! They bought in a Poundland iirc

always a guarantee of quality that :)

I started writing my thoughts on this list, then I got interrupted, but I've finished them now:

1. love actually

I HATED this one. Grossly misogynistic and troubling so, but also just really boring and unfunny and not entertaining.

2. toy story

We went to see this in the cinema and I remember vividly a little girl crying and loudly asking if the film had ended when Buzz failed to fly. Every time the "falling with style" scene comes up I get a little teary-eyed, I love this one.

3. lion king

We also went to see this in the cinema, we had to travel about 20 miles because it was sold out locally but it felt like it was essential we saw it. I don't remember much about the first time I saw it. I love hearing Can You Feel The Love Tonight in the wild but tbh I think Mufasa is a camp icon and Timon & Pumbaa are annoying af.

4. american psycho

Loved the book, film fails by not having the same disorientating effect, but Christian Bale running naked with a chainsaw is top entertainment.

5. promising young woman

Watched this hungover recently with a cinephile friend who thought I would either love it or hate it. Really enjoyed it but also felt it was very obviously going to appeal to the people who don't need to learn anything from this movie, a redundant but entertaining experience.

6. romy & michelle's high school reunion

Charming, goofy, and funny. The wheels come off a bit by the end but the two leads are so charismatic and likeable that I'm willing to forgive the forced wackiness of some of its elements.

7. 10 things I hate about you

Another hangover-with-the-cinephile watch. I really did not enjoy this, everyone was so unlikeable and bratty and obnxious, even Alex Mack who I will always hold dear in my heart.

8. barbie

If it wasn't for the songs I would have loved this, instead I just really liked it.

9. 17 again

Surprised at how much I didn't hate it, but it was also very predictable and unchallenging, a great movie for a hangover or doing housework to I guess.

10. mean girls

This movie is great right up until the assembly. I don't want to see people get along, I want to see more insults and bitchery!

11. clueless

LOVE this. Great performances, likeable characters, excellent soundtrack, visually fun and sweet without being annoying.

12. gbf

I know I watched this and I know it's a pastiche of teen comedies through an LGBT lens but I cannot remember anything about it.

13. heathers

I adore this one - great dialogue, totally appeals to my sense of humour. The "I'm not like other kids" angle of the leads would annoy me in any other context though.

14. angus thongs and perfect snogging

I've never set out to watch this movie but every time it is on TV and I accidentally stumble on it I watch the whole thing end-to-end and think it is still the perfect capture of shitty UK teenage life in the 00s. The utter patheticness of the main girl is very relatable.

15. showgirls

Really wanted to like this, enjoyed it and would even say I loved it... until THAT scene. I wanted campy, OTT and kitsch, but the whole thing is spoiled by a gratuitous and unecessary plot device.

16. gigli

Terrible movie, as bad as its reputation. But I watched this "ironically" as a teenager with my "cool" pals and we laughed our heads off for months after this, quoting its ridiculous dialogue at each other for laughs. Fondly remembered but objectively bad.

17. coyote ugly

A wet t-shirt contest with classic rock songs and the thinnest of plots, absolutely no surprises or intrigue, but I also like this film a lot, whether that's despite or because of my own taste. This came on the weekend after my boyfriend's father passed away while we were up visiting the family, and my mother-in-law and aunt-in-law had a fabulous time watching it at a point when things were otherwise terrible, so it will now always be a favourite.

18. speed

This film is so stupid in the best possible way.

19. speed 2

This film is so stupid in the worst possible way.

20. miss congeniality

When I said to my boyfriend we could do anything he wanted for his birthday a few years ago this is what he picked. I thought this was bland Hollywood fare but elevated by the charisma of Sandra Bullock.

21. the room

People say this movie is the worst and it is hilariously bad. By the time I saw it properly I had seen enough of the "big" scenes in memes so maybe I lost something there. But I didn't think this was as side-splittingly hilarious in its awfulness as it is made out to be. It's a total wreck, but to me it feels like internet culture forcing something rather just being the worst.

22. birdemic

This on the other hand. Wow. Everything about this movie is terrible and I never ever fail to crease myself laughing thinking about some of the low points of this movie. The CGI, the acting, the dialogue, the plot, the cinematography - everything about this is wretched but so much more entertaining in its awfulness.

23. leprechaun in the hood

Warwick Davis plays a leprechaun who goes to the hood to fight Ice-T over a magic flute and shag a prostitute to death. Coolio is in this film - as in, someone shouts "there's Coolio" and he's there, and that's his cameo. At the end the leprechaun raps. There are two types of people on this earth and you will know exactly if you are one of the other within the first five mins when Ice-T pulls out a baseball bat from his afro.

24. problem child 2

We had a corner shop that rented movies where we grew up. The other movies it always had on the shelves were Hellraiser and Striptease which were not appropriate when I was a single-digit age. So this was rented out quite a few times because my little brother loved it. I hated it then and I imagine I will hate it now.

25. mulholland drive

Laura Harring was beautiful in Sunset Beach and in Frasier and in this, but I do not remember much of what happens in this and I remember feeling confused but entertained by it.

26. the craft

The soundtrack to this is excellent. My boyfriend says there are two types of gay man: Hocus Pocus fans, and The Craft fans. I saw this when I was 14 and nOt lIkE oThEr bOyS!!! so this really spoke to me, and I do think Fairuza Balk is excellent in this. Great soundtrack too.

27. girl interrupted

More from the canon of I'm Deep And Interesting And Nobody Understands Teenage Me. I really enjoyed this when I watched it but I imagine I would hate it now.

28. life of david gale

We had to watch this repeatedly for a Higher Media Studies class we did at the local college because our school didn't offer it. Our lecturer was a Tory-voting pseudo-hipster who also didn't believe me when I told her that I thought Smash Hits was still the best magazine of my life. She called her child Hat and was always late, and I hope her life is as dull as this dreadful movie was.

29. romeo & juliet

I'm the right age to have loved this movie and it's probably no surprise that I do. It's not that it's Shakespeare made interesting, it's not the two main leads, it's not even the visual appeal or the soundtrack - it's the way it all works together. When I was 14 I went to stay with a pal at his Gran's house for a week and we must have watched this about twenty times, it was a good holiday for other reasons but I always think of him and this film as linked.

30. snow white

This film has what I consider to be the scariest scene of any movie on this list. When she is running around in the forest and it's dark and everything is grabbing at her and she cannot find her way - it's nightmare fuel. I hate animals.

31. dumbo

Watched this one New Years' Day with my boyfriend, my brother and his partner. We were all very tender. We all cried, very hard. Even though this film can really only be described as "problematic" at best in 2024.

32. just my luck

Some workmates suggested this to me after I said I barely watch movies and I like daft/camp/sweet films when I do watch things. I struggled with this - Lohan is terrible, the male lead is joyless and every beat of this movie was beyond predictable.

33. irish wish

I'm really rooting for Lohan as you can probably tell but this was abysmal. They could not have made any less effort making this film and it shows.

34. transamerica

Watched this with an ex and his two pals at their house. I remember really enjoying it in a discomforting way but now I would probably have strong feelings about the casting choices.

35. hairspray

Watched this while drunk with my cinephile friend and really enjoyed it, especially Michelle Pfeiffer. I have no desire to see it in any of its other formats.

36. hedwig & the angry inch

I really wanted to like this movie that's meant to be weird and LGBT+ but it was so contrived and bloated. I watched this with an ex and a few of his pals, they are all slightly older than me and they thought it was the best thing ever, which I guess shows how having the internet in your life really shapes your sense of humour.

37. grease

Amazing songs, but for years I thought only Olivia Newton-John had been restyled at the end - the difference in John Travolta seems so slight - and thought this film was sexist guff. I was not perceptive at all when I was young.

38. star wars

Watched this on my 10th birthday with my five best pals from primary school who all loved it. I did not get it and ended up falling out with everyone and my sleepover turned into a difficult chat with my parents about why can't I be a normal lad. People are allowed to not like things and I think this is a dull movie.

39. star wars ep 1

Went to see this in the cinema with my mother and stepfather and hated it and got a telling off for it. I guess you shouldn't ask smart-alec brats like I was to give honest opinions. But wow is this movie bad! Boring and racist!

40. final fantasy

The only time I went to the cinema with pals to see a movie between primary school and university. We giggled through the first twenty minutes, then got ssh'd and realised we were being rude, and agreed we would be better just going for walks to the park instead. I do not remember anything else about that day, including this movie.

41. wild child

Another recent watch based on colleague recommendations - but I really enjoyed a lot of this! It is not a clever or challenging movie but it has a charmingly stupid scene where children attempt to buy wine that I'm still smiling at months later.

42. twilight

Some very pale people look at each other for 2901783278 hours and then play a game that isn't Quidditch. Maybe one day I'll watch the sequel where he eats a baby out her stomach. My best friend loves this and this is why we do not watch things together.

43. dancer in the dark

The Twilight-loving friend hated this. I really loved it the first time I watched it, then the second time I watched it I thought it was miserable, over-emotional and very obviously manipulative.

44. harry potter & the chamber of secrets

There was a guy I was seeing for a few months who seemed to always have this on when I was arriving for a visit. I hope nobody else has a ever had a Pavlovian response to the title of this movie like I did for a few weeks in my 20s. Fuck JK Rowling forever.

45. pride

An important story and a film worth watching but also VERY cheesy. The pal who took me to see this swears it changed their life and went six times. Once was enough for me.

46. crouching tiger hidden dragon

I loved this but I will never forget my stepdad nearly storming out of the cinema when he realised it was a movie he was going to have to read.

47. pirates of the carribean

The very last time I went with my family to a cinema. I hated this movie. I hated everything about it. It is barely a story. There is barely any performing in it. It feels like it exists so they can build a new ride at a theme park.

48. twister

When I was unemployed and depressed in my early 20s I could find myself watching the same episode of Friends three times in one day thanks to E4 showing it at 9am, 5pm and 8pm. Luckily ITV2 was always showing this to break up the day. I don't think I've ever watched it from start to finish but I must have seen the entire thing while doing nothing.

49. dirty dancing

I've only seen this once but I thought it was really bad - it feels like a Lifetime movie in terms of plot, pacing, setting and star magnetism. There are movies I do not enjoy but I understand why other people do, but this is one I cannot understand the enduring popularity of.

50. inception

This was the last time I was in a cinema. I walked to it with a friend and we walked back together and had a lovely time. I liked the film but I only really remember that it was "clever" and had some cool camera angles so it didn't make much impression on me at all.

dirty dancing bad???? i’m sorry

I did not format that correctly at all, apologies, anyway feel free to explain why my opinions and reactions are wrong and recommend me further things to watch!

Watching Problem Child 2 but *not* 1 is interesting. Forgot there was a sequel.

Angus Thongs & Perfect Snogging is the Georgia Nicholson books right? I saw that randomly on TV a few years back and thought it was good for what it was, except for the ending, which went waaaaaay over the top with the wish fulfillment.

the pfeiffvolta Hairspray is v fun and I think, were you to accidentally encounter the Ricki Lake / Debbie Harry one on ITV one afternoon, you would totally appreciate it as a different and sincere take on the material

Voted before reading your write-up, but Pride is a pitch-perfect evocation of the life I was leading in the 1980s, so it's that. How often do you get to see your actual lived experience on a big screen, etc (OK I didn't visit any mining communities, but I lived adjacently and my first ever DJ gig was a miners' strike fundraiser, which some strikers attended). There's a scene after the Pits & Perverts gig where they all go to a gay club, and the Proustian rush of recognition was overwhelming.

the best movie on the list is the one where two women have a preternaturally close relationship and difficulty connecting with other people in the world, those other people are drawn as abstracts or archetypes more than deep, fully-inhabited characters, the entire thing has a heightened tone that shifts with locations, and there’s a weird, dreamlike sequence more than an hour in that casts the essence of the leads’ characters in a different light thereafter

second best is the other one that does that

the corner shop with the rentals did not have Problem Child 1 on the shelves. I hope I didn't miss out on any crucial backstory for having not seen it

It feels like it exists so they can build a new ride at a theme park.

Did you know that it's literally based on a Disney ride?

I'm curious how many Lifetime TV movies you've seen and if you rate any of them up with these 50

my friend's brother is a script doctor for Lifetime/Hallmark dramas, that's what he does for a living... at Thanksgiving, he admitted that was not what he hoped to do in Hollywood

Was hoping 17 Again was actually meant to be the George Burns body-swap comedy 18 Again, but nope—it’s a millennial-era Zac Efron thing that I barely remember existing.

Anyway, Heathers.

the best movie on the list is the one where two women have a preternaturally close relationship and difficulty connecting with other people in the world, those other people are drawn as abstracts or archetypes more than deep, fully-inhabited characters, the entire thing has a heightened tone that shifts with locations, and there’s a weird, dreamlike sequence more than an hour in that casts the essence of the leads’ characters in a different light thereafter

second best is the other one that does that

― et a earwig (sic), Wednesday, December 11, 2024

I think I voted for the first of the two

it's a pretty rando selection of films I mostly ignored or were unaware of

Betty and Rita's High School Reunion?

voted Dirty Dancing, a perfect movie. But I almost voted Dumbo

Gigli

Deserve a purple heart for this one

letterboxdjoy

I like daft/camp/sweet films when I do watch things

You might enjoy Bottoms!

<3 boxedjoy

I'm curious how many Lifetime TV movies you've seen and if you rate any of them up with these 50

The split of movies here I enjoyed vs movies I didn't is probably 50:50. Some of them I would need to watch again to be certain.

I don't go into a Lifetime movie with the expectation that it will be capital-G Good. I go in hoping that something called "Deranged Granny" will be silly, mindless and distracting. The question isn't always "was this movie good?" it's often "did watching this distract me and make me smile" and I can only honestly say I've had Lifetime hatewatches I've enjoyed wayyyyyy more than some of the dreck on this list. I don't really think comparing afternoon movies to cinema blockbusters or cult classics is fair - they're both working in the genre of "film" but the purpose and function is so different that they might as well be different genres.

Some movies I forgot that I have seen:

51. spiceworld

Victoria is hilarious in this but otherwise a bit of a dud - not kitsch enough or funny enough to really succeed at what it seems to be going for.

52. snakes on a plane

Fanservice for the chronically online. I really wanted to like this because everyone involved said they wanted to make a dumb ridiculous movie, but it didn't really deliver on the remit. It could and should have been far more silly.

dirty dancing i think

Voted Dumbo

US politics thread is thataway ahahahaha

Saw Heathers, voted Heathers.

Everyone itt who hasn’t seen Romy & Michelle needs to do so ASAP

Since I doubt Problem Child 2 is likely to come up in many other threads, I have to post this tidbit here, from the film's Wiki:

In 2014, during an interview on Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast, screenwriters Alexander and Karaszewski revealed that the studio was reluctant to rehire them, only doing so because they wanted to shoot a sequel before Michael Oliver could noticeably grow and, as the writers of the first film, could produce a script quicker than writers new to the story and characters.[3]

Frustrated with the criticisms of the first film, they deliberately increased the poor taste, intending to make a Pasolini or John Waters film for children, and went so far overboard that the first cut received an R rating from the MPAA, a secret kept until their 2014 appearance on the podcast. Dubbing over Junior's use of the term "pussy-whipped" got a PG-13 on appeal, but the studio was still so nervous that, at the last minute, they added the 1947 Woody Woodpecker cartoon Smoked Hams to its theatrical run, to reassure parents that it was suitable for children.

As for recs, DEBS is the one from the teen girl canon that's missing there on yer list so you might enjoy.

I also feel like bollywood could be for you? Some female-centered, light hearted films of varying degrees of quality include Queen (2013, 146 min, a few songs - young woman left at the altar decides to explore Europe, almost a reverse Eat Pray Love but much better), Crew (2024, 124 min, no songs - trio of airline hostesses played by iconic Indian actresses plan a heist) and Thank You For Coming (2023, 117 min, couple of songs - woman gets laid during her engagement party, has her first orgasm and does not remember who she was with; the gay characters in this would prob lead to some discourse in a western film but fwiw I think the portrayal is explicitly positive if sometimes somewhat clumsy).

Problem Child 2 was bizarre in that Amy Yasbeck returned to the cast to play Ritter's new love interest, but she played his (now ex-)wife in the first movie

I'm puzzled why I have no memory at all of this Problem Child series.

One of the posters for the [first] film showed the cat Fuzzball in a tumble dryer, with the implication being that Junior had put him inside.[17][6] A group named In Defence of Animals organized protests against the posters, and some cinemas took them down in response.[17] Director Dennis Dugan later issued a disclaimer saying that the "kitty in the dryer" was metaphorical and never an actual scene in the film. The protests sparked the inspiration for the sequel, this time with a poster of John Ritter inside a dryer looking out, while Fuzzball stands by it.

Is "Ritter in the dryer" also metaphorical?

two teen movies with numbers in the title yet none of them are 13 going on 30

they shot both here back when movies still got made in Orlando. Shaquille O'Neal leaving really wrecked this town.

xpost

my vote goes to Crouching Tiger in any case cos I feel like it's one of the most beautiful movies I've seen.

I was listening to some cinema podcast a few years ago and felt so out of touch because I hadn't seen so many of the movies that the hosts were name-dropping, seemingly as cultural touchstones. So I made a Letterboxd account and added in every movie that I knew I had seen and had more than a vague memory of. The initial list was about 350 movies long. Since then, I've made a hobby out of movie-watching, and that list has grown to 645 movies! But I've still been kicking the can down the road on a lot of those "why haven't you watched this important movie" movies that I remember them recommending on that podcast, so like, maybe I'll just never see Moneyball or whatever.

Anyway, I voted Mulholland Drive. It was my introduction to David Lynch (other than an abortive attempt to watch Fire Walk With Me without having seen the rest of Twin Peaks when I was in my early teens). Mulholland Drive's disjointed weirdness really appealed to me as a young pseudo-intellectual, but also its unearthly beauty. I've rewatched it several times over the years, and it made increasing sense to me.

Mean Girls is up there for me, too. I haven't seen any of the other big teenage girl-oriented movies on the list (10 Things, Clueless, etc) but probably should. In recent years, Happy Death Day and its sequel, Happy Death Day 2 U, have become my go-to comfort/put-on-in-the-background movies. They're campy, good-hearted PG-13 horror/scifi/romcoms.

my favourite line from Problem Child 2 is "Can we go Dad? These people are dicks"

I remember being very confused on process as a kid and I assumed Ritter's wife in the first one merely stayed in the truck w/ the pigs and never returned or was declared dead in absentia rather than like Ritter divorcing her off-screen.

the Amy Yasbeck thing is confusing yeah especially cos the 2 characters are polar opposites

“Stay Tuned” is a much better John Ritter vehicle. It’s like a wacky Videodrome.

Duane's Underworld