What Movie Evokes the Most Passionate Response When You Tell People You’ve Never Seen it?

by Howie Decker @HowardTheDeck on July 11, 2014

in Movies

A while back I shared an embarrassing list with everyone.

In 2012, I published a post detailing ten of the greatest pop culture failures of my life – a list of the ten biggest movies I had never seen. Since publishing the mea culpa in 2012 I’ve seen three of the ten films, intending to right my nerdy wrongs, like Earl Hickey crossing items off a list as he addressed his past transgressions.

A person who had never (and still hasn’t) seen films like The Godfather, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Jaws really has no business blogging about nerd culture or speaking on a pop culture podcast at all. Since I’ve already undoubtedly drawn your ire, I’ll keep admitting things: until 2005 I hadn’t seen a single Indiana Jones or Back to the Future movie. (A week with the flu helped right those unspeakable wrongs. And yes, I’ve seen them all now.)

I showed you mine, now show me yours.

What movie evokes the most passionate response when you tell people you’ve never seen it?

It doesn’t necessarily have to be that it’s a big time, classic film. It could elicit shock because it’s a movie that everyone would assume you’d have seen based on your personality and interests (like if we found out Nick Cage had never seen Superman, despite naming a son Kal-El).

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Lamar the Revenger July 10, 2014 at 11:32 am

I got a couple: The Big Lebowski, Dumb & Dumber, First Blood..

Jason G July 10, 2014 at 11:56 am

I hadn’t watched Lebowski until last year, eh it was okay. I doubt Dumb and Dumber will be worth your time now. I think First Blood is still a great movie. Start there…

HowardTheDeck July 10, 2014 at 3:04 pm

you can add Lebowski to my list too. I fear Dumb and Dumber may be one of those that you had to see at the time to get full appreciation (like Top Gun and Goonies), but could be wrong.

Jason G July 10, 2014 at 6:30 pm

I have Dumb and Dumber pretty much memorized and probably wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who hasn’t seen it. I don’t know, it just seems to engrained in that early 90s stupid comedy era to me.

Add Me Myself And Irene to the list along with just about every Jim Carrey movie since Bruce Almighty. 23, Eternal Sunshine, even Christmas Carol I haven’t seen.

The Walking Cuban July 10, 2014 at 4:06 pm

I have to disagree with them concerning D&D. Not the board game, the idiotic classic. It’s timeless. Trust me, if you ever watch the sequel and on that basis don’t watch the original, you will…. Never know what you’re missing? So yeah it wouldn’t be so bad, but I would know you did that, if you told me, and I would shake my head, probably. So watch it.

Jay Malone July 10, 2014 at 4:42 pm

Lebowski is probably my favorite comedy ever. Can’t stand Dumb & Dumber.

HowardTheDeck July 11, 2014 at 9:08 am

I really need to get on Lebowski. Any fear at all that people who’ve not seen it at this point will be disappointed?

Jay Malone July 11, 2014 at 9:44 am

Oh, most assuredly. It’s not like it’s a straight comedy – it’s a weird fucking movie with funny moments (So, in other words, a Cohen Bros. film.)

It’s worth watching, at the very least, for the scenes with Jesus, and the hallucinated bowling dance number.

Jason G July 10, 2014 at 12:07 pm

Ohhhh, good topic! Most of the ones I haven’t seen from the ’80s are the teen Brat Pack type movies (except Breakfast Club, 16 Candles, and Pretty in Pink) and most horror movies.

Here’s a few off the top of my head: Lost Boys, Escape From New York, St. Elmo’s Fire

HowardTheDeck July 10, 2014 at 3:03 pm

see, those are perfect. No egregious selections there by any means, but based on who you are and what you love, they are surprising.

Jason G July 10, 2014 at 6:34 pm

Netflix has helped on some I’ve missed. Just watched Big Trouble in Little China and Less Than Zero this year for the first time.

But there is a fine line between being satisfied with knowing like the main parts and catch phrases or whatever of movies and having to sit thru some that don’t hold up just to say you watched it.

William Bruce West July 10, 2014 at 2:33 pm

Never seen Titanic, Lethal Weapon, any Rambos, any Predators, any of the Alien movies, Dumb & Dumber, Wayne’s World

HowardTheDeck July 10, 2014 at 3:05 pm

I’ve seen about 25 minutes of Titanic. At this point I don’t see any reason that I’d ever see the rest. I’m with you on Lethal Weapon, never seen any. I do like the Predator films that I’ve seen. See above for my thoughts on Dumb and Dumber, which apply to Wayne’s World now too.

The Walking Cuban July 10, 2014 at 4:09 pm

Nah Wayne’s World is way more of a period piece than dumb and dumber. Queen, hair, mike Meyers and Dana Carey, these things are dead. But the comedy isn’t. While D&D doesn’t have something really pinning it down to the 90’s. Fart jokes? If anything, that’s quaint these days.

The Walking Cuban July 10, 2014 at 4:10 pm

Black Swan.

HowardTheDeck July 10, 2014 at 4:25 pm

If the only movie that people are surprised you haven’t seen is Black Swan, you win this game.

The Walking Cuban July 10, 2014 at 5:04 pm

Ok I’ll try harder…. Prometheus and pacific rim, Brick, lock, stock, and 2 smoking barrels, bridesmaids (my sisters love it), the Road, any paranormal activity, or, this is a bonus one, breaking bad.

HowardTheDeck July 11, 2014 at 9:09 am

Ok, that’s better. Have you avoided Prometheus for fear of massive disappointment/anger ?

The Walking Cuban July 11, 2014 at 10:06 am

I don’t get angry, but disappointed yeah. It looked so good too! Not avoiding though, just missed it. Hopefully I’ll watch it eventually, now that the expectations are moot. Pacific rim I simply missed. No expectations, and I know people who liked it and people who didn’t. Still wanna watch it.

Classick Material July 11, 2014 at 6:10 am

Here are the flicks that have me branded as an oddball when I reveal I’ve never seen them:
Jurassic Park (seen none of them!)
Love and Basketball
Love Jones (according to my twitter followers, this is a prerequisite for membership in the black community)
Heathers (nope, never watched it, even though I once wrote about it)

HowardTheDeck July 11, 2014 at 9:11 am

I had a girl once lose her mind at the fact that I had never seen Love and Basketball. As if my entire persona to that point in her eyes lent itself to the assumption that that would be in my top 10 movies all time. It was odd. I’ve never seen Heathers either. And get on the Dinos dude.

Jay Malone July 11, 2014 at 9:52 am

Awright – just going down a list of top 100 movies of both the 80’s and 90’s, here’s mine: The Shining, Robocop, Scarface, Lost Boys, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street (ANY), Platoon, The Thing, Footloose, Poltergeist, Anything involving Rambo, Fargo, Silence of the Lambs, American Pie (any of them), Usual Suspects, Se7en, Goodfellas, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List, American History X, Dazed & Confused, Trainspotting, Reservoir Dogs, Good Will Hunting.

But, hey, I’ve seen She’s All That, so I’ve got that going for me.

Dex July 11, 2014 at 3:57 pm

I just saw the first two Mad Max movies & Escape from NY this year in my quest to finish (or start) a franchise every month. Also on that list is Matrix Revolutions but I don’t think anyone will fault me for waiting this long to see it and I don’t give a damn if they do, it sucked.

I can’t really think of anything I haven’t seen that might challenge my geek cred, but there’s probably something.
I’ve never seen an entire episode of the original Star Trek series.

Kevin Hellions July 12, 2014 at 10:55 pm

No mob or mafia movies. Godfather, Good Fellas, Scarface. Nothing against them, just haven’t yet.

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