G-S-T Top 10 – Movies I’ve Just Plain Worn Out

I so hate to say this but there are some movies on my Sacred Shelves that just don’t inspire, excite, or entertain me anymore. No it’s not because I have grown up, or I think these are sub par films (well a few could be called “guilty pleasures”). Although I’m incredibly fond of these films, I have just seen them too many times and I mean too many. If I find that I can’t sleep I’ll actually put one of these on and it’ll be fast asleep in no time.

Most film fans know their collection backwards and forwards. They can play the entire movie their head and quote dialog all the live long day. The films below are ones that I just don’t feel the urge to play the disc because know the story inside and out and it kind of bores me. It’s the fact that there are no surprises left. Sure there is redeeming value in most of these but I just have no desire to take them off the shelves and give them a spin…sad really, but here are the G-S-T Top 10 Movies I’ve Worn Out…

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Snatch. – From the few months before it was released in the States (yes I was in college and yes, I had a bootleg copy) til about a year ago, I can honestly say I have seen this movie over 100 times. For my birthday one year, Rob got me a Snatch press kit which came with a Snatch Flask and t-shirt. I bought the soundtrack from a UK dealer and was obsessed with the film. My friends and I quoted it solidly at parties, in emails and in a random text for years. However, like that old expression goes, “the more you use something” the more you wear it out. Snatch is a film I love more than most on my Sacred Shelves…but I very nearly will pick anything else when asked “what do you want to watch?”…and it pains me quite a bit.

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Half Baked – Here’s another college favorite. One thing about this film is that, despite the intro above, I do think I have outgrown this as the film (although smart in parts) is borderline low brow. Hey at least when they made it they knew what it was. I have never laughed harder at some scenes in the movie, and still today consistently crack me up. But when you know certain jokes so well and their place in the movie, some cease to be funny or surprising. So the Chappell masterpiece, from me joins the “Worn Out” ranks.

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Big Daddy – Yes, one more from my college years…I guess you can tell what era I attended University:P While I am finding less and less interest in Adam Sandler’s comedies, this was one that got more rotation than the Preview Guide…well almost. What I really loved about it was the subtly in this film as opposed to the social isolate Neanderthals he played in Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore. It’s easy to see how this could have led to Punch Drunk Love. Still, I’ve seen this so much that whenever the Columbia logo comes on-screen and the music cues up, no matter what movie I’m about to watch, my mind starts playing through the first 30 minutes of Big Daddy.

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Total Recall – Tough to admit that I would pass up this Ah-nuld movie…well there are a few stinkers I would also pass on. Yet when I’ve been watching it since I got this for Christmas in the 5th grade (yes my parents are awesome) I am just about grown out of Doug Quaid, Rekall and “See you at the party Richter“. Still, like I said it set the action bar for me and I’ve referred to this countless times when discussing my favorite action films/scenes.

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Tombstone – I know what you’re thinking. “How could anyone be tired of Tombstone?” Well I understand your concern and I frankly have seen this just too many times. Funny thing about this movie is that for a truly all-star cast, most everyone in it seems to have peaked with this film since few have had anything impressive in their resume since it was released. Don’t believe me? Then name 3 good movies with Kurt Russell, Michael Biehn, Val Kilmer, Bill Paxton after 1994. Can’t so it? Then how about just 1. Hell, even side characters like Billy Bob Thorton and Terry O’Quinn have gone on to more fame. This movie is truly perfect in all aspects. It can never be matched and I think that bugs me a little. All in all I love this movie but I just can’t seem to find the desire to pull it down from my shelves.

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Forrest Gump – Boy did this get a lot of playing time when I was a kid. Pretty much every summer on Sunday evenings it was either this or America’s Funniest Home Videos…and sometimes both. Such a great movie, an Oscar Winner for Hanks and really helped get me interested in film scores, but man did I wear out my family’s VHS tape. I guess what killed it for me was every one’s imitation of Forest’s accent that killed this for me ever so much more than over watching it…but I did invest countless hours with Forest, Jenny and Lt. Dan.

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Go – Is it weird to see a movie and want to a character from it? Is it bad to want to be a drug dealer…well that’s right, I wanted to be Todd Gaines. The teenage “Pulp Fiction” had an all around enviable cast, great writing and ending that made you wish for a sequel…well maybe just me. But when you have such interesting characters and witty writing, you can’t help but play the movie over and over and over.

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GoldenEye – Heaven forbid I ever not watch that famous Bond film. Especially when it inspired the singular video game that was responsible for more sleepless nights and missed classes in college than any other. It looks dated but that’s not the reason I’m tired of it. I’m tired of it because when ever I would get pissed off that I couldn’t beat the Egypt level on the game or had to wait too long to get in on the multi-player Goldeneye tournament being held in our dorm living room floor (which went on for months), me and who ever was waiting would fire up the DVD and wait patiently. So like Snatch, this was seen close to 100 times…but a majority of them weren’t all the way through.

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Not Another Teen Movie – Sure spoof movies usually don’t have replay value so it’s easy to wear them out after the first viewing. But to me, I found so much to love (being a more than moderate John Hughes fan) in this clever film. Low brow? In part. Crass? Yes. Funny? Totally. But after multiple viewings, does it still hold up? No. I admit there were times I’d watch it back to back to find all the hidden jokes in the backgrounds, but as funny as they were to discover, that got me burned out on the movie.

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A League of Their Own – Growing up, some movies can just captivate you even though their story is not relate-able to you in any way. Such is the case with the story of The All American League Women’s Baseball teams. Well it helped that I had a crush on Lori Petty as a kid. But again, with any great story, seeing it once is never enough…especially when they have John Lovitz in a hilarious cameo role. Tom Hanks, Gina Davis have such great chemistry and play off each other so well, I would watch it again and again…and when I was growing up, this was on HBO so in the summertime I got to see it twice a day…SCORE! But I think it was all those second helpings that sealed the coffin for me.

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Kind of hard to say that, as a movie junkie, I would have played out a movie. But it happens and that’s where I’m at right now…does anyone feel the same way? Is anyone 1 or 2 viewings away from being “burned out” or bored with your favorite titles? Please tell me I’m not alone…