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Friday, September 24, 2010
Which movie...
...have you (or had you) borrowed for the longest without watching. Maybe a friend loaned it to you or it clogged up your Netflix queue or you paid a zillion late fees back in the days. Did you ever get around to watching it?
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I borrowed "Spirited Away" over a year ago from my 95 year old grandmother. It is still sitting beside the DVD player waiting to be viewed. One of these days, I swear!
Spy Game. My pop culture soul mate lent it to me when I broke my foot...in 2008.
A FEW GOOD MEN.
A friend lent it to me when I was on an Aaron Sorkin high. All of WEST WING, STUDIO 60, AMERICAN PRESIDENT, CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR, hell I even watched MALICE! But for some reason I never got 'round to watching this one.
When I moved countries, it got put with all the rest of my DVDs and stored at my Mother's house. I guess it's still there. So nobody's watching it!
I have yet to watch "Grizzly Man," which I've had for a few years now. I also have never gotten past the first twenty minutes of "The Red Violin."
Once. I have put in in my netflix more than once and when I get it I just can't bring myself to watch. Funny since the soundtrack is on repeat on my playlist.
To Die For. My professor lent it to me in college. I graduated in 2006.
I just got around to watching Garden State after having it loaned to me well over a year ago. There was just something about it that made me resist opening the case and putting it into the DVD player! In the end I watched in on IFC one night so technically I never even watched the DVD.
It was a good flick though. I was just being stubborn I guess...
My sister's friend lent me Tristan & Isolde and I promised I'd watch it. That was in January...and I still haven't.
I've had a friend's VHS copy of Lars Von Trier's The Kingdom sitting on my to-watch for so long; when he lent it to me VHS was actually a viable format.
I have two (from Netflix): F For Fake and There Will Be Blood. My PTA blind spot is pretty disgusting, actually - I think I've only seen Magnolia all the way through? Maybe Boogie Nights too, but the fact that I can't remember probably speaks for itself. Watching Miss Congeniality for the umpteenth time is just always so tempting!
"Theatre of War" it's a wonderful documentary about the making of "Mother Courage" a play that La Streep did a couple of years ago. My sister had tape it for me & it took me a year to watch it. Since then I watch it & re watch it again & again. The woman is even MORE amazing than we all could possibly think!
a very nice lady in my building insisted on lending me An Inconvenient Truth shortly after it came out on video - so sometime in 2006, I guess? I have never watched it, and she abruptly moved out of the building without leaving a forwarding address so I was never able to give it back to her.
I think I had "Reds" on my drive for more than 1 year; first time I started watching it I fell asleep by the time she invited Warren to her place to show him her work; much later in time I tried watching it again, I think I managed a whole hour this time but I fell asleep again. Eventually I just deleted it I was angry with that movie, very very angry and I think this is the only significant Diane Keaton performance I haven't seen yet.
Has anyone else had the same problem with "Reds" ??? Isn't it just painfully long and painfully boring at times?
The only netflix titles I've let linger around and then sent back before watching are Badlands and Three Kings. I just never felt like I was in the right mood, but I really want to see both.
@Murtada You must watch Once asap. I think it, There Will be Blood, No Country, Zodiac, 7 Months... and Atonement are all modern classics contenders and Once is my favorite 2007 film of all them.
Godfather and Godfather II.
Got both of them from Netflix. They sat there for about 2-3 weeks (I was on vacation for 10 of those days). When I finally got home, they just lingered there and had to send them back without watching.
Put Godfather back into my queue a couple weeks back. Got it. Sat there for a week. Sent it back without watching.
One of these days...
My aunt borrowed me about 15 vhs 10 years ago or so...
I lost them 5 years ago, and found them last week!
The funny thing is that I've seen some of the films she borrowed me, but on other formats. I've never touched the vhs'.
The funniest thing, though, every time I see her for my bday she asks for them again. I should surprise her this year.
I still have Hard Candy in my damn desk drawer!
Have to say, I have had David Cronenberg's Spider for years and it looks at me saying: Watch me, watch me! almost everyday when I open my drawer.
I have a copy of SEXY BEAST that's been impatiently calling me back for years, at least 4 now.
I also have a copy of the extended version of LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING that cost me about $60. i've never quite understood why that movie should be extended!!! When I saw it in the theatre, i thought it should have been edited more. Now they sell it for $5.
I recently watched the 1933 and 2005 KING KONG and it comfirms my thought about Peter Jackson's need for a stronger editor. Those folks at Weta are creative and fabulous, but they like their own stuff too much. King Kong 2005 could have been at least an hour shorter. The original KONG still rocks.
A History of Violence has sat atop my Netflix queue ever since its release in DVD a gazillion years back. Despite the promise of good performances and unconventional storytelling, I always manage to suffle it down the list. I can't bring myself to erasing it. I know I must, and I will, in maybe another five years.
My best friend let me borrow her boyfriend's copy of a direct to DVD horror comedy called Otis that I never watched. I think it's about a guy who kidnapped a girl from prom and her parents decided to take matters into their own hands? All I remember was that Illeana Douglas was one of the leads according to the DVD case, but I never watched it in the year-ish that I had it.
According to my DVD activity on Netflix I had Gone With the Wind for almost two months, but I watched it two times.
In the REVERSE situation, I lent a friend Eternal Sunshine and Fight Club, and he had them for over eight months and then LOST them when I asked for them back. He bought me another copy of Eternal Sunshine but said he couldn't find Fight Club. Still don't have a new copy of it...
I've been sitting on a library copy of Tender Mercies since January. Eventually, maybe.
everyone -- some of these answers. haha remind me never to lend movies to any of you ;)
Trey --- trey, trey, trey,... how can we convince you? Step away from the Sandra Bullock.
Leo -- but its so good!
Ryan T -- i've had that with several movies. I like to keep the queue in motion and if that means sending back without watching... currently though my queue is clogged with stuff i promised to write about here that i still haven't. argh.
I think I borrowed my sister's copy of Rohmer's 'The Green Ray' about a year ago, and I've still not watched it. I blogged about this unfortunate habit of mine once: http://victimofthetime.blogspot.com/2008/07/i-have-finally-climbed-my-movie-everest.html
All that said, films I've lost to people over the years include Blue Velvet, A Star Is Born ('54) and Shadow of a Vampire, so my sister's getting off easy.
dave -- oh i've lost some too. but i also accidently won a vhs tape of a Judy Davis movie in a friend's breakup. never saw the boyfriend of friend again to return it.
I borrowed Mildred Pierce from a coworker. It took me a year to get around to watching it.
I don't remember any movie I borrowed and didn't watch in ages, that happens quite often to me with books though, and if there ever was one, it must have been something my father insisted I watch. Because he always thinks he can force his taste in movies upon me.
But I have four or more things I recorded from TV on my DVD recorders hard-disk, that I wanted to watch, was not at home when it aired, and never watched until today, including Michael Moore's "Sicko", Marcus H. Rosemüller's "Beste Zeit" and "Beste Gegend", and some documentary about how money rules the world.
It reminds me of two other experiences. I rented "Babel" from my local video store, wanted to bring it back after watching it, but the videostore was closed. So I forgot it in the car. Some weeks later the video store called me that I still didn't return it, and I had to pay some 120 euros. Another time I rented "Der Baader-Meinhoff Komplex" and tried to (illegally *coff*) copy it with some computer program, but it didn't work. It copied it only the pictures, not the sound. I tried every day for a week, than I gave up and returned it. I paid as much that I might as well have bought the DVD.
I borrowed "Good Will Hunting" from a friend. I had it for several months and had to return it before she moved away. Still haven't seen it, and I'm not that sad about it.
"Time of the Wolf" by Haneke. I just couldn't get around to watching it for months, then sent it back unseen. Years later, just recently really, I got a random opportunity to watch it (the person I was housesitting for happened to own it) and I did and now I feel so dumb for putting it off. It's great, like a version of The Road that feels like an apocalypse rather than an apocalyptically-themed Hallmark card (okay okay, The Road wasn't that bad.....but it did feel somehow studied in its "rawness," which ended up distancing in its beauty, right? And the ending? You know what I mean.). Anyway, it's great, Isabelle Huppert is great in it blah blah why couldn't I make myself see it? Just see it.
Brazil. I still haven't seen it, actually. Shameful
Midnight Express --- can never bring myself to finish. I rarely get the desire to watch it and when I do it’s usually late at night and defeats the point of watching it when I know it’ll put me fast to sleep.
Off Topic: I finally saw Broken Embraces! The best movie of 2009 wasn’t even nominated. Add-on Where the Wild Things Are (which I had the luxury of seeing theatrically).
I borrowed 'Holocaust' from my Mom years and years ago. I still haven't watched it yet. This was first Lead Actress Emmy for Meryl Streep way back in 1978/79.
I just returned The White Countess to a friend today after about 3 months. I watched the first part but just could NOT make it through it. The women were great (Natasha Richardson, Lynne & Vanessa Redgrave) but Ralph Fiennes just drives me crazy, insisting that the part be changed to a BLIND person (so he doesn't have to interact with the other actors), using that extremely patronizing American accent some English actors do, as if their IQ drops 30 points with the accent. And sorry, Ralph Fiennes is the worst movie boyfriend ever. You just KNOW the woman is going to die.
I didn't say this to my friend, but I felt that I'd done my best because the OTHER movie she lent me was Evening. (Some of the worst reviews of the year, and not entirely unmerited). I like it that people lend me things, but... well, at least they're returned. (I gave her one in exchange though, so maybe she's now looking at that one with dismay...)
Great topic.
For reasons in this thread, I tend not to borrow films from people, and I don't have netflix. The scary corollary is the number of films I OWN without having seen. That approaches triple digits.
This is so bad, but I borrowed "Gone With the Wind" from a friend and literally had it for a year, before it coincidentally played at a local arthouse theater and I watched it there instead. So, technically, even though I returned it after that long year, I never did "watch" the dvd she lent me...haha!
Sunshine. I've had it since Christmas and still haven't watched...
one of the craziest things about this thread is that so many of the movies are very good ones. Is it just easier to watch junk and get it over with ? ;)
I've had my co-worker's copy of "Amazing Grace" for nearly a year.
I borrowed Day for Night and My Own Private Idaho from a friend 2 years ago and I still haven't seen it. Its still on my shelf somewhere.
I have borrowed 'The Constant Gardener' from the local library more times than I can count. I love Rachel Weisz and the I've always wanted to watch the film but something always gets in the way (or I just can't be bothered).
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