Chris Elliott, Cabin Boy

I'll tell you something strange.

Chris Elliott's movie Cabin Boy was a terrible disappointment to his fans. It wasn't shown in theaters here, so I had to see it on videotape.

First time I saw it, it wasn't funny at all.

But the SECOND time----

Something possessed me to watch it again and the second time I saw it, it was great. Every joke worked. Funniest movie I'd seen in years.

I made some other people watch it again, too, and they had the same experience. It was very funny but only after you had seen it once.

It wasn't a case of lowered expectations. It may have been slightly different expectations. But I can't explain it. It was a brilliant movie and think of how Chris Elliott's career would have changed if you could see that the first time you watched it.

Chris Elliott said in an interview that it takes people time to start liking stuff he does, so maybe this observation about Cabin Boy isn't new or interesting. I would have blogged it in 1994, but I didn't have a computer then. Or maybe I did. I don't remember.

But it's still strange that even his fans didn't like it at first.

It should be very disturbing to any aspiring filmmaker, that you can make a brilliant, funny, well-made movie, do everything more or less right, and people will just sit there staring blankly at it, and you'll have no idea why.