Repeat Performances
We all moan about repeats on TV, but we also all love to sit down and watch our favourite movies again and again. Some are more rewatchable than others.
There are comedies so densely packed with gags and pop-culture references you keep seeing more each time. There are some with great soundtracks you never tire of. Some films have action sequence so brilliantly choreographed theyre fresh every time. Even films with twist endings sometimes deserve repeat viewings so that you can see how all the pieces fitted together.
And some films simply put you in a good mood no matter how many times you watch them.
50. Avengers Assemble (2012)
Why It’s Rewatchable: Joss Whedon brings a lifetime’s experience in tickling fanboy nerves by ensuring a formula that is one-third character comedy to two-thirds kick-ass.
If You Only Rewatch One Scene: Hulk vs Loki.
49. Face/Off (1997)
Why It’s Rewatchable: The absolute joy of watching two of Hollywood’s hammiest, most OTT actors playing each other.
If You Only Rewatch One Scene: Woo unleashes carnage in a gangster hideout, and then gets all sentimental by playing Somewhere Over The Rainbow over the top.
48. The Sixth Sense (1999)
Why It’s Rewatchable: First time, to witness a multitude of ‘aha’ moments; nowadays, to ponder where it all went wrong subsequently for Shyamalan.
If You Only Rewatch One Scene: Bruce’s wife drops a wedding ring, and everything clicks.
47. Starship Troopers (1997)
Why It’s Rewatchable: The guiltiest of guilty pleasures, as Verhoeven has us rooting for the Fascists. Want to know more?
If You Only Rewatch One Scene: Yeah, you’re saying ‘nuke the bugs,’ but why have you paused the DVD on the shower scene?
46. Clueless (1995)
Why It’s Rewatchable: The dialogue’s witty invented slang, which raises the IQ of the chick-flick several notches above the norm.
If You Only Rewatch One Scene: Cher goes soul searching or, as most people would call it, retail therapy.
45. Point Break (1991)
Why It’s Rewatchable: As one character puts it, it’s “young, dumb and full of cum,” revelling in its have cake / eat cake attitude to the clichs of the action genre.
If You Only Rewatch One Scene: The heart-pumping Steadicam foot chase, rendered more unusual because the escapee is wearing a Ronald Reagan mask.
44. Donnie Darko (2001)
Why It’s Rewatchable: A film that takes several goes to properly understand, even without the pleasure of the genre mash-up between 1980s teen movie and hardcore sci-fi.
If You Only Rewatch One Scene: The moving, bravura Mad World-accompanied montage of the characters.
43. The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966)
Why It’s Rewatchable: A compendium of great set-pieces, tenuously linked by Clint’s cool and the wolfish wit of Eli Wallach’s disreputable Tuco.
If You Only Rewatch One Scene: The climactic triangular showdown in a graveyard, all extreme close-ups of suspicious eyes and Morricone’s music going crazy.
42. The Third Man (1949)
Why It’s Rewatchable: Thanks to its noir lighting, Orson Welles’ iconic presence and that slithery zither soundtrack, this is cinematic style to luxuriate in.
If You Only Rewatch One Scene: Welles’ self-penned ‘cuckoo clock’ speech, the most poetic justification of evil in the movies.
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