What Movies Have You Seen The Most?

[Leo656]

Another thread got me curious. If this has been done before, I halfheartedly apologize, you pedantic Slapnuts, don't @ me. Anyways.

So anyways, some of us like to watch our favorite movies over and over again. For many of us, this thoroughly enhances our enjoyment of the film and gives us something new to appreciate every time. In truth, it's the ability of a film to still capture your attention and emotions after numerous viewings that reinforces its value; after all, anything can be good Once. But something that retains or even increases its enjoyment factor over time is what usually elevates a movie from being one of many, to a beloved favorite.

So I'm curious what some people's most viewed films are. I'm guessing we'll see a lot of the familiar ones like Star Wars and whatnot, but I expect there will be a few "odd duck" choices, as well, and that's what stands to make it interesting.
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I don't keep track of how many times I've seen any movie, but there are a few that I'm positive I've seen at least 100 times and some probably way more than that. Part of that came from growing up semi-poor with only a few VHS tapes handy and cable TV only sporadically, but part of that is just because I really, really like the movies. This list is just off the top of my head and I'll probably think of more later. Aside from "Young Guns" being the clear "winner" as far as the ones I've seen the most, this list is in no real order, I'm just listing movies as I think of them.

- Young Guns I and II. I generally only ever watch them as one long movie, the way they should be seen, but sometimes only the first one is on cable. I own like three or four copies of the first one across various formats, and for my wife and I it's mandatory viewing if ever we catch it on, no matter what else happens to be on at that moment, or if it's already in progress, or what. If I've seen them less than 200 times each, I'd be shocked. But I stopped keeping track somewhere around 1992.

- Superman: The Movie, Superman II, and Superman IV: The Quest For Peace. The first one was generally more of an "event" movie when I was a kid, something that would come on TV once a year and they'd market the hell out of it, like "The Wizard of Oz", but I still managed to see it a lot, and II and IV were on HBO, ABC and WPIX constantly up through 1994 or so. Oddly enough, despite being a huge Superman fan, I never owned any of the VHS tapes as a kid, settling for versions I'd taped off the TV since they were "free". Superman III, for some reason, was almost never on TV, so I didn't even see it until 1993. Maybe because it ain't good.

I've cooled off significantly on the Reeve Superman films in more recent years, partly because I've seen all of them to the point that it's mind-numbing but also because as I've gotten older I can't overlook their many flaws the way many others can. I hardly ever look at them now but I've still seen them more over a lifetime than most people have.

- Back to the Future Trilogy. I spent many weekends as a kid renting all three of them on one'a those "3 Movies for 3 Days for $3" deals the mom and pop video stores used to run. I still put 'em on if I see them while I'm surfing channels. My brother-in-law and I used to kill time at work by doing Random Quotes and Trivia since we'd both seen the movies so many times we could recite the entire thing by heart, chapter and verse.

- Karate Kid Trilogy. I managed to tape II and III off TV and the first one was on TV a lot even though I somehow never recorded it, so I pretty much grew up watching these movies, most recently getting a good buddy of mine from high school to watch them for the first time in his life (after I jabbed him with a cattle prod for being 30-whatever years old and never watching any of the goddamn "Karate Kid" movies). Point of fact, Karate Kid Part II was definitely one of the very first movies I'd ever seen in a theater, if not the first one. I barely remember it but I remember seeing Kreese punch out those windows and my life changing forever in that moment.

- Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure / Bogus Journey. Another common weekend rental. Me and my good buddy essentially WERE Bill and Ted (or Wayne and Garth, six of one ) back in those days, so we'd rent and watch those movies whenever we could.

- Wayne's World. See above.

- Who Framed Roger Rabbit? The first VHS tape I owned when my Dad brought home our first VCR. I played that tape to death.

- Masters of the Universe. Another very early theatrical experience. My Dad got just as big a kick out of it as I did, but then he always did think He-Man was awesome. This is another "I will watch this movie no matter what else is on" flick, for me.

- Ghostbusters I and II. My best friend and I were absolutely steadfast in our conviction as little kids that we were going to grow up, prove that ghosts were real, and become millionaires by essentially applying the movies to Real Life. So we watched those movies a ton because we were planning for our future, y'see. Another couple of flicks I've seen at least 200 times if I've seen them once. Whenever we got together for a Birthday or Christmas or New Year's or whatever, we would always, always watch Ghostbusters, and then both films back to back after the second one came out. To this day, whenever we see each other, Ghostbusters is inevitably a topic of conversation. It became one of the thickest roots of our entire lifelong friendship, it's pretty cool.

- Batman '89. Another one I saw in theaters, and then watched to death because I taped it off the TV. The FIRST movie I ever taped off TV, if I recall correctly. The first ever blank tape I owned, I recorded Batman, Ghostbusters II, and Karate Kid Part III, and that was my default "I'm bored, I'll put this tape on in the background while I play with my action figures" tape for a good few years.

- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Possibly the second "real" VHS of a movie I owned, I can't quite remember. I remember that after being enthralled watching it in the theater I watched it every day on video for I don't know how long.

- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. McDonald's ran a promotion one Christmas season where you could buy VHS copies of the Indiana Jones movies with your meal; for whatever reason my Dad brought home Last Crusade first so that's the one I saw the first and have since seen the most times. Again, when you only had less than a dozen movies on video and you could only afford cable like half of the year at best, you kinda made due with what you had a lot of the time. I never complained, though.

- Rocky I-V. True story, I initially didn't care much about Rocky and only rented III because Hulk Hogan was in it. That's obviously the best scene in the entire saga, BUT, I genuinely fell in love with the movie, then went back and rented the others to get caught up. I will never skip them if I know they're on, and they're on A LOT so I've seen them a ton by now. I wish I could include "Rocky Balboa" but it's almost never on TV by comparison to the others, and most marathons don't include it, so it's like for every time I've seen that one, I've seen each of the others like 50. So it's never gonna make the list even though it's terrific.

- Dick Tracy. This is one of the coolest goddamn movies ever made and I could write a book about everything great about it. Another one I taped off TV and wore the tape out.

- Star Wars Trilogy (Special Edition). I didn't see these "properly" until the late-90s theatrical re-release, but I do remember seeing the first one in its entirety once on HBO or Showtime some time around 1989, and snippets of "Empire" and "Jedi" when they'd sporadically air on network TV. But I got pretty heavy into Star Wars after 1997 until right after Episode III so I watched my tapes a bunch. I've seen them all a lot but not even close to the "fanatic" numbers some people brag about. Like I said, my "Star Wars" is "Young Guns". I don't watch them much unless they're on TV anymore, though, on account of the series sucks now and the "good" movies don't even matter anymore, so it's a little less fun to watch them than it used to be.
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That's a good chunk off the top of my head. Again, a lot of these movies benefit from having been on TV a lot, and are movies I just refuse to skip if I know that they're on, even though I own all of them and can watch them anytime I want. Just about any movie on this list, if it's on I will make it a point to watch, so some of them I've easily, easily seen over 100 times and others probably twice as many. There's definitely more that could and deserve to go on this list but I'm tired and this is already pretty long.

In about 10 years both "Man of Steel" and "BvS: Dawn of Justice" will be somewhere in the middle of the pack, along with "Superman Returns", "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight"; they're all recent entries compared to most of that list but quickly gaining ground, and I'd rather watch them than about 3/4 of the ones listed above, maybe more.

So yeah, I don't expect too many people to have similar "I've seen that movie 500 times" stories but I'm curious at which movies keep you coming back over and over again. I'm especially interested in the "Dark Horse" type of stuff, the non-blockbuster stuff. That's much more interesting to me than the standard "I've seen Star Wars 1000 times" stuff, although if that's the case then it's the case, I'm simply more intrigued by the more "quirky" and personal favorites than the predictable stuff.