Our individual opinions on movies are defined by a lot of things, such as our upbringing, our life stories, the movies our parents liked, and what our friends say. One notion that is undeniable, however, is that those tastes and opinions will change over time. It's a simple fact that movies we loved as a kid probably aren't as enjoyable to us as adults, after all. And in a similar way, we often find ourselves revisiting movies we hated as a kid, only to realize that... holy cow, this movie is amazing! To provide some examples of instances where this might be true, I built a time machine and went back to the year 1999, and asked little eight-year old me to write a review of some of my most hated movies from that period, after which I devised a review written by a present day, twenty-two year old me. On board? Let's begin, then, but do be warned: eight-year-old me is awful when it comes to giving away any spoilers...
10. Casablanca
8 Year Old Me: This movie sounded so cool. Set in Morocco during World War II, around a bar owned by an American, and it gets visited by Allies and Nazis alike. Doesn't that set-up sound awesome? Tense, suspenseful, and all? Well it's not. Just talking and boredom. And somehow, romance? How did they get that in there? Seriously, they really missed the mark on this movie. 22 Year Old Me: Wow, it's simply incredible how I could have completely missed the point of this film. The movie isn't about the battle between the two factions in the bar, or even necessarily the war. Sure, war is a central theme, but you could set this film during any war and it would still work. That's because the movie is about the struggle one man has with his neutrality, especially once his former love gets involved with it. And while there's walls of dialogue in here, there's no boredom to be found. Many scenes are powerful, and even moving. A particularly powerful scene is when the German army begins singing a patriotic song, and then one Frenchman begins defiantly singing the French national anthem. The scene slowly builds as the entire bar divides into two sides singing one song or another, until finally the French singing overpowers the Nazis. Due to that and many more incredible scenes, this movie is typically regarded as being one of the best films of all time, and with good reason.
Armed with a laptop, a Pepsi, and a swivel chair, J.D. sets out to uncover the deepest secrets of the film world.
Or, ya know, just write random movie-related lists. Either way....
