# I'm worried...does anyone else forget movies they've seen?



## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

I'm worried that I'm possibly getting senile, have Alzhemiers or dementia, or just losing my memory. For several years I've had a real hard time remembering what movies I've seen. 

I'll go a Redbox or to Netflix and pick out a movie that looks good to me. I'll bring it home...or it will come in the mail....and WIHH will scold me saying "We just saw that movie three weeks ago! Don't you remember when the bad guy......." That's usually enough to shake my memory. Sometimes she'll have to describe two or three scenes before I'll remember.

This seems to be the only area where my memory loss is a problem. Is this common or am I in the early stages of Alzhemiers?

Does any one else forget movies they've seen? I have no porblem remembering the old classics and favorite movies I've seen years , or even decades, ago. It seems to be the more recent movies I cannot remember....until I start watching them a second time and slap my forehead and say, "Doh, I've already seen this movie!"


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## ginnie5 (Jul 15, 2003)

we do that all the time. I think there is just such a repeat of themes and plots that it hard to come up with something totally new.


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## Ramblin Wreck (Jun 10, 2005)

I don't forget the movie so much as I forget that I already bought/have the movie. At yard sales and flea markets, I'll buy a video tape/DVD I like (usually but not always an oldie) and bring it home only to find out I already have it.


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

Ramblin Wreck said:


> I don't forget the movie so much as I forget that I already bought/have the movie. At yard sales and flea markets, I'll buy a video tape/DVD I like (usually but not always an oldie) and bring it home only to find out I already have it.


Hummmmm....that might explain my five copies of Grumpy Old Men....which is an educational documentary of life in Minnesota.


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## Bret (Oct 3, 2003)

Stop worrying and just enjoy the movies. I've seen some movies over and over a few minutes here and a few minutes there. Some times I can't remember how they end until I see them again, and that makes it fun again.

And you are not paranoid either. We really are talking about you. 

Would you mind getting us all some more popcorn while your up?


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

You're normal.
It is just that when you watch a movie (and this is how I describe it) it doesn't go deeply into your head. I think of it as going into the 'temporary file' on my computer instead of into my hard drive.
Then at some point, you reboot and the temp files get tossed. That is things like last week's grocery list, all background sounds, what people were wearing at the store etc..
Some movies are really good and they sink in, but not all.
Every time I watch a movie it is like the very first time!

And you know when you lose what you were just going to say?
It is poised to be spoken, you have to wait a minute and then that thought is just gone?
Here is my deep thought on that one.
The thought grows in the depth of the brain, you go to speak it and it is moved into a 'holding tank' in the ol forebrain. There is a limited time that the thought can stay there before it gets dumped. If you are interrupted or have to wait.. poof.
You still have the thought, it is just in storage in the deep brain and it takes time to process the request for a copy to be sent into 'holding'.

And when songs pop into your head from nowhere..like 'Raindrops Kepp Falling on my Head" or "Delta Dawn" or something really obscure from the past?
The braincell that held that particular song or odd memory from childhood etc.. is dying. It flings it's information out into the ether and other cells pick it up. You now have it stuck in your head for a time.


And now you know how weird I am.


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## Guest (Sep 16, 2010)

Its OK. I see the same stuff over and over, it leaves no impact. Mostly, its for background noise, to drown out the screaming. You see, if Catherine lives, I won't wake up in the dark ever again to that awful screaming of the lambs.
Hmm. maybe there is some impact....


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## Nana B (Feb 3, 2008)

I just watched a move a couple of weekends ago that I realized I had already seen before but that was ok cause I didn't remember all of it.


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## Melissa (Apr 15, 2002)

I don't watch many movies, but I do the same thing with books. At least I get them at the library so it doesn't cost me anything.


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## Minelson (Oct 16, 2007)

I'm really like that...have been for some time. I do it with books too. I'm just happy that that I can be entertained over and over again very easily with reruns.  I always blamed it on smoking a lot of pot back in the day. Maybe that has nothing to do with it lol!!


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## Haven (Aug 16, 2010)

I do the same thing. The only movies I remember are the really good ones I loved. I think I forget most of them because they dont hold my interest and I tend to be thinking about other things while watching.


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## Ruby (May 10, 2002)

It depends on if I'm really interested in the movie. My daughter on the other hand can just about quote word for word movies she's seen only once. They just don't stick in my brain like they do hers.

My husband is like you, he will start to watch something and I'll say we've already seen that. Then he will change to something else. Or he will watch it untill it's almost over then say I've already see it.

Comercials on the other hand he can say the comercial with them. I hate most comercials so most of the time by the time it's finished I can't tell you what it was about. He gets upset at me when he tells me something about the comercial and I don't know what he's talking about.


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

Don't worry, you are not the only one that does this. ;O)


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## Ramblin Wreck (Jun 10, 2005)

Cabin Fever said:


> Hummmmm....that might explain my five copies of Grumpy Old Men....which is an educational documentary of life in Minnesota.


Yeah, with me it's mostly anything by Mel Brooks, although I think I'm up to four copies of "The Longest Yard", the original version.


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## indypartridge (Oct 26, 2004)

It seems that most movies are mildly enjoyable, but easily forgettable. Same plots made over with different faces; nothing memorable about them. If a movie is really good (or really bad), we're much more likely to remember it.


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## Kazahleenah (Nov 3, 2004)

oh heck, the corner store loves me because I never complain about their small selection of movies. I rent the same ones over and over... LOL and the ending almost always suprises me!!


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

Wind in Her Hair said:


> I agree with the rest of you that its nothing to worry about.
> 
> After all, we watch movies to "detach" and to "relax" and "let go" - so you *DO* that - you're not watching with a focus of remembering -especially in your own living room - maybe if you were in a theatre setting - it would have a greater -more memorable -impact.
> 
> ...


Do you see who I have to compare myself too!!!! Do you see what I have to live with???? Is it any wonder why I'm worried???? 

WIHH has a mind like a steel trap. She truly remembers EVERYTHING! She has won trivia contests. She has come this close >< to appearing on Jeopardy. It amazes me when we're walking down a grocery store aisle and she'll run into a dental client she saw only once, four or five years ago, and addresses them by name! Me, I can't remember a name of someone who was introduced to me 10 minutes earlier. :shrug:


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

LOL! There are hundreds of movies I'm THANKFUL I have been able to forget. Seriously, having made a living off them, I've seen more of them than 99% of the population. On other more memorable films, I can even tell you where the cue marks (visual cues for the projectionist to change projectors between reels, so the audience doesn't see the changeover) fall in some films. 

I remember my dumber brother once saying that the average human brain only has about 4 terabytes of storage capacity. That sounds about right, and a lot of stuff gets forgotten. If I didn't have photo albums and notes, I would have a very hazy view of parts of my childhood.

Like Melissa, I forget books even more than movies. I have a good-sized library of science fiction and can cycle through reading and enjoying them on about a ten year cycle. It saves buying books, and many of them are superior to what is available today anyway.


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## Tricky Grama (Oct 7, 2006)

Well, we saw "Accidental Tourist" 2-3 times-can't remember-for that very reason. Or is it "Occidental Tourist"?


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## L.A. (Nov 15, 2007)

Not to worry, it's just menopause,,,,


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## [email protected] (Feb 24, 2005)

I remember old movies better because they were an event. Going to the theater to watch a movie was a big deal to us. Movies came on t.v. only at certain times of the year. Wizard of Oz was on around Halloween, The Ten Commandments was on at Easter. Now with the ability to watch a movie at any time they aren't as exciting and don't stick with me.


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## cast iron (Oct 4, 2004)

Cabin Fever said:


> This seems to be the only area where my memory loss is a problem. Is this common or am I in the early stages of Alzhemiers?


Thank goodness I'm not the only one with this issue.

The really frustrating thing is sometimes I don't fully realize that I've already seen the movie until I get a 1/4 of the way through it. I don't ever have an interest in watching a movie more than the first time so it is absolutely maddening when this happens.

This is one of the reasons I like netflix streaming as if it turns out I've seen the movie I can just dial up another one quickly. The drawback is netflix streaming selection is usually pretty poor.


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## Kstornado11 (Mar 17, 2006)

All the time. I rarely have the time or the QUIET 
( 3 kids 15,7 & 3 - - nuff said! ) to watch movies,always getting interrupted,distracted, wander off to the computer, do house work, change a diaper,etc.. I will get halfway through one & realized I saw it before!! Just not ALL of it.


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## Mulish (Mar 24, 2005)

I don't watch many movies, but it happens to me with books!!


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## radiofish (Mar 30, 2007)

CF - It is when Hollywood does a re-make of a movie, that causes me to wonder if I have seen it before.

Then again I must have 4 or 5 copies of "Blazing Saddles" in my movie collection/ but there are 3 different edited versions of that film that I know of.. Original/ director's cut/ and two different edited for TV versions of 'Blazing Saddles'. The differences are mostly with "Mongo" (Alex Karis) and how Bart the Sheriff defeats him. There is more to it then just the 'Candygram for Mongo', as shown in the original cut for theater release.

Otherwise I hardely ever 'rent' a movie, instead I go to my video tape collection for something to watch.


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## HOTW (Jul 3, 2007)

Hey if anyone can figure out how to bottle WIHH brain capacity I'll buy some! I tend to forget ttitles and will eb watching something and remember havign seen it.I also tend to fall asleep while watching so I cannot for the life of me remember some movies! HUbby tends to zone out and forget everything I have said to him and made him repeat back to me to see if he's listening! Since my TBI I forget a lot but I still have greta long term emmory so that makes up for it.


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## Our Little Farm (Apr 26, 2010)

It's the interesting mushrooms WIHH feeds you!! 

They make you forget. It's all part of the plan! 

:run:


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## DamnearaFarm (Sep 27, 2007)

Melissa said:


> I don't watch many movies, but I do the same thing with books. At least I get them at the library so it doesn't cost me anything.


Yes! Me too! 
I'll look at the cover and be interested, read the back and decide to get it, get home and settle down and either a few pages or a chapter in, I realize- dang it! I've already read this book. 

I guess the good point is that we're consistant in our likes, huh?


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## Reptyle (Jul 28, 2005)

I wish I did, it would make it fun to watch a movie all over again and not know the ending.

My mother and I play the "movie quote game" all the time...Basically, one of us will fire off a quote and challenge the other to name the movie.


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## ronbre (Apr 26, 2009)

all the time, it is normal...

when you aren't worried about forgetting is when you are senile..people that realize they forgot are fine


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## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

Actually I have a friend who just abruptly started having short term memory loss and he goes in for an MRI soon, they think it might be a spinal cord infection or cancer(he has had cancer removed from around his spinal cord down further on his back). I don't want to alarm you, but if the ramping up of short term memory loss is noticable and isn't subject-bound(like just movies, as in WIHH sez you're just not paying attention)--I would get checked out.

BTW, the doc is certain my friend's memory loss is NOT dementia, but something else. His wife has had to take over all bill paying, appointments etc.

Or maybe you just need more exercise to get more oxygen running through your brain.  SHort term memory futzing is natural as you get older, but an abrupt escalation of it isn't good.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

Cabin Fever said:


> Hummmmm....that might explain my five copies of Grumpy Old Men....which is an educational documentary of life in Minnesota.


Thats true, it is a documentary about me and my good friend - only I moved away from MN (he is still there)


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## fetch33 (Jan 15, 2010)

I've done this my whole life. Might have something to do with the fact I fall asleep with nearly every movie I see.... LOL.


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## po boy (Jul 12, 2010)

RamblinRoseRanc said:


> Yes! Me too!
> I'll look at the cover and be interested, read the back and decide to get it, get home and settle down and either a few pages or a chapter in, I realize- dang it! I've already read this book.
> 
> I guess the good point is that we're consistant in our likes, huh?


 Same here. Now it's so bad I forget the book I am reading!


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## dezingg (Feb 25, 2010)

I have that problem most often with paperback books ... especially if they redesign the front cover!


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## Jenn (Nov 9, 2004)

Thank goodness our used book store tells me if I've bought (or brought it in) something before so I can avoid rereads.


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

I'm another who forgets both movies and books. 

But that's OK. That means I never run out of books to read or movies to see. 
They're always new!


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