Favorite Movies You've Watched 20 Times or More

[Kim Welch]

I am wondering if you have a favorite movie you have watched at least 20 times or more and you still love to watch it? And, what is that movie?

Update, November 2026
Rewatching a favorite film is one of the best film schools there is. Each time, watch for one thing: the cuts, the camera movement, the sound, or how each scene begins and ends. What's the film you keep coming back to, and what has rewatching it taught you?

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[Bob Kessler]

"Forrest Gump"

"Children of Men"

"Casablanca"

"The Conversation"

"Titanic"

Anything from Pixar

There's lots to learn from these films if you're into sound.

Anything by Frank Capra - I love feel-good movies and his sense of Americana.

 

[Kim Welch]

have you really watched them over 20 times

have you really watched them over 20 times

I just wonder if you have really watched them over 20 times. I have watched some great movies like Citizen Kane and others but I don't watch them over and over. Maybe I should but I don't. I am almost too afraid of what people might think when I tell them the ones I have watched over and over. Here are a few. "Matrix, The Bourne Identity, and Ground Hog Day." I have seen Million Dollar Baby about 6 or 7 times and I will watch it more so it will hit twenty at some point I am sure. "Spy Games" is up there too about 15 times so I am sure it will hit twenty as well. There are others. I just wonder what movies people watch many times and why. I have seen the Christmas movie "Wonderful Life" about 35 times or so. There are many I have seen close to twenty now that I think about it. Some old ones that I watch when they show up on TV or cable and I bought some. "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" and a few oldies like, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" I am just guessing. I don't count how many times I watch a movie. But there are some that I can watch again and again. I really like movies with the subtle camera movements. Just the slight slow pull back or push in when she is talking in Ground Hog Day is cool. John Baily, ASC was the cinematographer on that one. I am exhausted. I am going to watch some "Bourne Identity" and then read and pass out.

 

[Bob Kessler]

It's rather rude to ask the question "do you have a favorite movie you have watched at least 20 times" and then to question the veracity of my statements.

If you were paying attention you would have noticed that I said "There's lots to learn from these films if you're into sound." So they have become study material in conjunction with conversations with fellow sound designers and sound editors.

As for the Pixar films I have two young kids that watch them over and over.

 

[Kim Welch]

didn't mean to be rude

didn't mean to be rude

Just checking. I have a lot to learn and I still learn something everyday. I didn't mean to be rude.

 

[Mr Taylor]

20 is a pretty big number.

Maybe five times would be the average for the ones that I like.

(Kids on the other hand can watch NEMO over and over again).

Blade Runner is a film that I tend to watch every year or so.

Each time I watch it I see something new in the plot.

Yes, it's true, Deckard is a Replicant.

 

[Mr Taylor]

I'm thinking that Groundhog Day is an unusual film from an editing point of view.

If you consider that editing is all about continuity, then the continuity of time in GHD should present some unusual problems.

The same with Back to the Future.

What about The Sixth Sense?
The twist in that was done by causing the viewers to misunderstand the edit and film conventions.
Now that is cool.

 

[jodymichelle]

"The Lost Boys" (1987) and "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" (1971).

"The Lost Boys" (1987) and "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" (1971).

If I were to think of what movies I watched literally, 20 times (at least) from beginning to end (wow, big number); well, the 2 movies that I can think of off the top of my head right now are probably not very impressive for some . The 2 movies are: "The Lost Boys" (1987) and "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" (1971). I think both are genius. Regarding "This Lost Boys" (lol), I was in the 6th or 7th grade, I did keep count every single time I watched it, and I ended up having all the dialogue memorized but not on purpose. Same thing with "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory," except I started watching this movie when I was about 4 or 5 years old.

There are a lot of other movies that I watched from beginning to end 10 times, 15 times, maybe even 18 times, but not quite sure if I literally watched them 20 times. These include movies either directed, written, or produced by John Hughes: Sixteen Candles (1984); The Breakfast Club (1985); Weird Science (1985); Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986); Pretty in Pink (1986); and Some Kind of Wonderful (1987).

And then there's the category of movies which land under "film adaptation of musicals": I know I've watched Grease (1978) and Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) well over 15 times, (but not sure if 20).

There are a lot of great, awesome movies, movies that in my opinion are even more greater and even more awesome than the ones listed above, but maybe I couldn't bear to watch them from beginning to end more than 2 times or more than 5 times, because the drama's just too heavy to take.

If I ever watched a movie multiple times for case study purposes, I probably watched these 5 times to 10 times but prolly not 20 (because I didn't own a VHS or DVD version). These movies include "Grave of the Fireflies" (1988; aka "Hotaru no haka"; animation), Rashomon (1950), Jui kuen (1978), Secret of Shaolin Poles (1977), Butterfly & Sword (1993) and other Asian films.

I'd watch all of these movies again from beginning to end.

 

[Mr Taylor]

Ferris Bueller's Day Off!

Now that was good, I nearly cried when that sportscar went over the bank.
And the way he spoke directly to the camera, that was unusual.
The main actor did another great film called Biloxi Blues (spelling?)...
Very interesting actor.

 

[temerson]

Billy Madison, Top Gun, A Christmas Story

 

[jodymichelle]

maybe not 20, but close to it

maybe not 20, but close to it

"The Outsiders"

 

[DerekFlagge]

..

..

Billy Madison, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, The Bourne Identity, Let The Right One In, Elizabethtown, and recently I saw Paper Heart in NY for the limited release and that will be one of those 20 times movies haha.

 

[Kim Welch]

i don't know if i know

i don't know if i know

I don't know if I know when I see it the first time it is going to be a 20 time movie. Sometimes they sneak up on me. I just want to see it later again for some reason and then again and next thing you know I have seen it 20 times.

Has anyone here seen Spy Game with Robert Redford and Brad Pitt?

 

[Mr Taylor]

Ohh that sounds bad.
I think you might have film addiction.
I think they put something in the popcorn.

But seriously, are you watching the film as a punter, or are you breaking it down as a film maker?
You know...nice angle, great lighting, how did they get the camera to do that...that sort of thing?

 

[Kim Welch]

I enjoy the movie

I enjoy the movie

I enjoy the movie. I don't sit and think about how it was made. Same thing with music. I took music theory in school and I don't listen and think about the chord progressions and key it is in or if it modulates from one key to another. It is a story. I think about the story. I only notice how it was made if it is done badly.

 

[Mr Taylor]

I wish I could do that.
Unfortunately when I watch a film for the second time I have both my director's and viewer's hats on.

So my thoughts are something like this...

Good job acting as Harry Potter, Mr Radcliffe, this drunk scene shows you have some range, why is Harry going to visit the giant this time of night?... What did they just do there-to get that bleached out look?...wonder if it was the film stock...probably not...done in post...Oh there is the giant...what's that he is standing over?...that's a good prop!..is it an animatronic or is it a CG insert...creepy looking anyway... is it going to cause Harry any problems...wonder where Mrs Rowling got the idea for that creature...

and so on.

 

[Kim Welch]

Aviator

Aviator

Did you see "The Aviator" and did you like it? Also, what about the Walt Disney movie "Miracle" about the 1980 USA Hockey Team. That is a good one to watch more than once. It has those life truths in it. I like that "life's truths."

 

[Mr Taylor]

Thanks for the pointers.
My brother will have the DVD of the Aviator, he's an aircraft nut.
I will have a watch and let you know ...It should be good from what I have heard of it.
The Disney one is going to be more difficult to track down.
Will keep an eye out for it.
It's interesting what you say about truths.
That is the great thing about films (visual stories)...unlike life, they get to have a start, middle and end. Life tends to be a set of random events most of the time.
What is the very first story ever I wonder?
Gilgamesh?
Did that have truths at its heart?
I wonder.

 

[Kim Welch]

Sure the did

Sure the did

Sure they did. I think some of the first story telling was done with images painted on cave walls about 32,000 years ago. I am not sure of the exact day it started and it probably started before this time but at this time the pigments were found that would make the drawings last longer. Probably really started more like some guys entertaining each other or telling a story better with the aid of drawing things in the dirt using sticks and fingers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lascaux


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_painting

the pictures are part of our language and symbols we use to form bigger pictures. : )

 

[jodymichelle]

I won't watch "REC" or "Quarantine" from beginning to end more than 1 time each.

I won't watch "REC" or "Quarantine" from beginning to end more than 1 time each.

I can't help but notice and point out the different kinds of camera movement in movies, and the different ways that different movement and POV might have been shot. Especially if it was delivered in such a subtle way.

In "Live Free or Die Hard" (2007), I can't help but count the minutes or duration of consecutive camera movement.

I guess that's my mindset if I know that the story is not going to be that serious. Like for the movie "Quarantine" (2008), sitting in the theatre I felt like I've got to appreciate something like how scenes were lit and shot, if I don't feel like there will be a story or plot conclusion to appreciate in the end.

What I liked the best about "Quarantine" is that it led me to find out about the original movie called "REC" (2007), which although some might say it wasn't shot better than "Quarantine", the ending of "REC" was much better than the ending of "Quarantine" in my opinion.