Why are some movies so endearing?

[DarkHelmet]

We all have them. The movies we've seen a hundred (if not a thousand) times and yet, when we find them on TV, we stop the channel surfing and watch it to the end. They aren't epics, or anything groundbreaking. We know what happens in the end, but still find refreshing with each viewing.

For me they are:

Shawshank Redemption
Parenthood (Ron Howard)
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Lost in Translation

 

[Lost in Trek]

For me it's...

Hoosiers
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Superman
Most Trek films

 

[firesprite]

Boondock Saints (though tv butchers it so badly, I wind up wondering why I bother)
The Princess Bride
Star Wars (watched two back to back run throughs of the OT on Spike during New Years)

 

[Wes R]

Transformers 1986
Airplane
The naked gun movies
robocop
terminator
Superman for me too

 

[Amish Trooper]

Breakfast Club
Sixteen Candles
Pretty in Pink
Planes , Trains and Automobiles
OT Star Wars Empire to be specific

 

[dbalschi]

The Natural
The Princess Bride
The Goonies
Star Wars
My cousin Vinnie

 

[DarkHelmet]

I was going to include SW, but it's so epic and groundbreaking, it's a given. I am talking more of movies that have nothing special about them (except a great story) but even then, some don't, yet we gravitate towards them for some odd reason.

Field of Dreams is another for me. It's an odd movie and could be considered boring and hard to understand, yet I always watch it to the end, no matter where I happen upon it.

 

[dbalschi]

Field of Dreams is another for me. It's an odd movie and could be considered boring and hard to understand, yet I always watch it to the end, no matter where I happen upon it.

Wow I can't believe I forgot to put that. I own it on vhs and dvd yet will watch it an ytime it comes on. To this very day I still feel my eyes start to water when he plays catch with his dad

 

[CB2001]

Some of my picks (about maybe a fraction of a full list)
Streets of Fire
The Warriors
Escape from New York
The Thing
Fight Club
Performance
Somewhere in Time
Tron
First Blood
Rebel Without a Cause
WarGames
The entire Back to the Future Trilogy
Chinese Box
Nadja

 

[Wes R]

The ipcress file
the odessa file
future world
west world
earth vs the flying saucers
war of the worlds (original)
the original time machine

 

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[terryr]

I call them movies with charm. I noticed they let the actors have a full range of emotions. They're not cartoons. They're not afraid to show it.

A Christmas Story is one.

 

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[DarkHelmet]

It's not a "technical" thing. It's simply when all things come together in a mysterious mix, that just captures you.

Shawshank is my example. I saw it at the theater and walked out amazed, but it was panned and considered a box office failure. It slipped from my mind until it started running on TV, then each time I watched it, it pulled me in deeper, yet nothing more was revealed. It had no other secrets to give up.

It's a simple movie about a jail break, with B-list actors (heck, I don't even care for Tim Robbins or Steven King).

Other movies are made to be bring us back over and over with special effects, or A list actors, and whatever else they can do.

 

[defstartrooper]

 

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[GotWookiee]

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Really, you just can't do better than that.

 

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[DarkHelmet]

I liked Shawshank as well.
Very much so.
I understand your point.
I also like to look at what goes into that mysterious mix .
Technically speaking, music is the second key factor.
Endearing music presses the emotions to follow the images on screen and see them in a particular way.

Agreed. I love my Shawshank soundtrack, especially "Brooks Was Here" "Suds on the Roof", "Compass and Guns" and "So was Red".

 

[Cheeflet]

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