# Movies that haven't stood the test of time. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 4, 2008, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649 "2008-12-04T10:27:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/81 "2008-12-04T22:55:36Z")
> [@Jolly\_Roger](#): > > 1915? How old are you? Not sure if you are serious but I am pretty sure **Baldwin** was not. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/82 "2008-12-04T22:58:12Z")
Yep, **Wargames** looks pretty bad now… I probably couldn’t even watch it, and my kids (6 & 9) would probably laugh their asses off… ditto with **Tron**. I also graduated from high school in 1985, and the John Hughes-era films were so big for us (I loved the edgier Cameron Crow, though- I still want to marry Lloyd Dobler). Now, however? Embarrassing, like my big hair, big earrings and parachute pants… **The Dark Crystal** holds up very well, I think. I showed it to my boys not long ago, and explained that there was no cartoon or computer animation in it- they were predictably stunned. 😉 I had forgotten how much magic Jim Henson could create with foam, rubber and talented people. Ditto with **Labyrinth** - but then again, I always loved [this look](http://www.davidbowieisverydisappointedinyou.com/) for Bowie. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/83 "2008-12-04T23:02:15Z")
> [@EJsGirl](#): > > I also graduated from high school in 1985, and the John Hughes-era films were so big for us (I loved the edgier Cameron Crow, though- I still want to marry Lloyd Dobler). Ah, now see there is a perfect example. I’d argue that **Say Anything** still holds up just fine, despite ostensibly belonging to same general genre and era as Hughes’ teen movies. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/84 "2008-12-04T23:11:14Z")
> [@Lizard](#): > > Your last sentence reinforces MY point How? My point was that people would be more likely to look back at movies from the 1890s to 1989 as vapid and shallow than ones from 1990 to present. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/85 "2008-12-04T23:14:01Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > _Five Easy Pieces_. I’m way too young to have seen this in original release, but it’s considered a classic. On cable recently, it was completely incomprehensible. The pacing was choppy and weird. Nicholson’s “rebellious” attitude that apparently seemed so cool at the time now just makes him seem like a jerk. We’re supposed to admire him because he harasses a diner waitress? I did see it when it first came out, and I totally agree, and did so at the time. It is no accident that the clip they show is always the waitress scene, which is a small set piece with very little to do with the rest of the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/86 "2008-12-04T23:18:16Z")
I’d just like to say that I think War Games is still good. Any technology in an old movie, whether it’s 8-inch floppies in War Games or a wagon train in a western, is just part of the story. I like the story of War Games. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/87 "2008-12-04T23:26:01Z")
These movies aren’t exactly what the OP seems to be referring to because I only saw them recently after wanting to for a long time. But I was really disappointed in: ‘Marty’ - I was all set to enjoy it, but I found it sappy and unmoving. ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ - I’ve always admired individuality and resisting oppressive institutions. But McMurphy just struck me as an asshole who I couldn’t scare up a shred of sympathy for. Has there ever been a hero who proudly joked about committing statutory rape? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/88 "2008-12-04T23:29:08Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > I’m also going to have to disagree with **Star Wars**. Not a favorite of mine by any means but it does age well. The characters don’t wear 70’s hairstyles and the wise decision of a John Williams score keeps it timeless. Compare it to a 70’s episode of Battlestar Galactica or Buck Rogers with Erin Grays big hair and CHiPs inspired funkadelic soundtrack. Agree with your larger argument, but disagree with the hairstyle point. Luke and Han’s mid-part shags were _all about_ 1977, and lend themselves well to comparison with those worn by Apollo and Starbuck in the original _Galactica_. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/89 "2008-12-04T23:34:47Z")
> [@Illuminatiprimus](#): > > I nominate **Escape from New York** , mainly because we know for a fact that the New York that contained the World Trade Centre didn’t get turned into a huge prison. That and the fact that the overall crime levels in the US dropped steeply during the 90s so the vast population of criminals that NY prison housed never actually came about. Nitpick: the premise of the movie (or at least the novelization of it) was that the US and the USSR had fought a war, and not wanting to go nuclear had resorted to mass use of nerve agents. These had left literally millions of Americans violently psychotic, and the hopelessly contaminated New York City was used as a dumping ground for them. Still plot holes big enough to count as a pass through the Rockies, but at least there was a shred more logic than just “they bricked up New York after the crime got too bad”. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/90 "2008-12-04T23:53:42Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > **Natural Born Killers**. Ye Gods. > > I even own a copy on VHS and the only parts of it I can still find watchable are the scenes with Robert Downey Jr which are still a hoot. I just watched it for the second or third time last week, still seemed fine to me. ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/91 "2008-12-05T00:19:13Z")
> [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](#): > > Not sure if you are serious but I am pretty sure **Baldwin** was not. I’m too trusting or gullible. Probably both. 🙂 I thought if he was serious, I’m impressed. Everyone I know around that age is either completely baffled by computers or not interested in them at all. Plus they tell me to saty off of their lawns. ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/92 "2008-12-05T00:50:09Z")
Hackers, while it has some great lines and a scrumptious Angelina Jolie the tech and tech speak hurts my brain. “they gave (something or other) a virus what should I do? give it a flu shot” w t f that and the laptop with the 28.8 modem, good og a lot of my students dont even know what dial up is. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Superhero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Superhero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Superhero)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/93 "2008-12-05T00:50:12Z")
> [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](#): > > The other thing I noticed was how, even though the period aspects were meticulously attended to, it still seemed very “70’s” to me, similar to what someone said about \*Bonnie and Clyde \*above. I think it was some of the clothes, they had not quite enough Depression servicability and a little too much disco flair. The funny thing is, as I understand it, it was the popularity of _The Sting_ that helped bring back wide lapels and ties, and then the '70s just kind of took the idea and ran with it. To the topic at hand, I think that _M_A_S_H\* hasn’t aged particularly well, but Altman’s never entirely been my cup of tea anyway. I think my pick for the King of “Hasn’t Aged Well” Movies has to be _Easy Rider_, which I can see how it was, “Like, whoah, that’s deep, man…hey you gonna pass that pipe?” at the time, it seems kind of ponderous and silly today. I’d second the nominations of _Rebel Without a Cause_ and _The Graduate_, too. And I think it’s an immutable fact of the universe that, just like Your Kids (in a generic sense) will always wonder why you’re listening to that dinosaur music from the Chevy commerical, Your Kids will always think the movies that meant the most to you when you were younger are stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/94 "2008-12-05T01:40:24Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > I’d just like to say that I think War Games is still good. Any technology in an old movie, whether it’s 8-inch floppies in War Games or a wagon train in a western, is just part of the story. I like the story of War Games. Ditto this. “Mister Potato Head. MISTER POTATO HEAD!” ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/95 "2008-12-05T02:20:17Z")
> [@The\_Superhero](#): > > The funny thing is, as I understand it, it was the popularity of _The Sting_ that helped bring back wide lapels and ties, and then the '70s just kind of took the idea and ran with it. > > … That’s an interesting idea…the timing would certainly be right, unfortunately I know essentially nothing about the history of fashion. I was specifically struck by the fancy duds Robert Redford buys himself early on after they shake down the mob courier, the outfit looked too modern to my admittedly non-expert eyes. But then I just found out the costumes were apparently done by [Edith Head](http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3715340288/tt0070735), the multiple Academy Award winning costume designer who was famously parodied as Edna Mode in _The Incredibles_. I could certainly see her setting trends. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/96 "2008-12-05T02:54:06Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > **Natural Born Killers**. Ye Gods. Wow, great call. I LOOOOOVED it when it came out - I was about 20-ish. Tried to watch it just 5 years later, and couldn’t believe the awfulness. Who the hell did Stone think he was fooling? Kids, I guess… Joe ---
**Author:** ![PharmBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/74df32/32.png) [@PharmBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PharmBoy)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/97 "2008-12-05T03:18:16Z")
2001: - 45 minutes of spaceships flying around, zzzzzzzzz Blues Brothers - I saw this when I was about 18 with my cousin, and we thought it was just the best. Rented it a few years ago, and boy is it a bad movies. There is about 5 minutes of funny surrounded by nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Windwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/5e9695/32.png) [@Windwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Windwalker)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/98 "2008-12-05T03:26:59Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > While _Jaws_ is scary as shit IMO, I wouldn’t lump it in with “most old horror movies” by any means. Have you watched it lately, or did you just throw it out there as a random example? It’s a great movie whose reputation was sullied by its cash-grabbing sequels. Without those, I believe Jaws would get a lot more respect today. > > For me, Kevin Smith’s movies from the '90s are starting to age, and not in a good way. Especially _Dogma_, which I liked enough to see 3 times in the theatre and buy the DVD, seems pretty weak now. Smith’s strongpoint is dialogue, and that movie has some pretty awful dialogue. Even so, I think I’ll always be nostalgic for these movies. This. Kevin Smith’s dialogue made sense when it was just two Clerks who hated their jobs and could just shoot the shit all day long, every day. It doesn’t make sense for two fallen angels or most other non-Clerky characters, really. I used to really dig the guy, but now I just find his dialogue to be really staged and unentertaining. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/99 "2008-12-05T04:17:36Z")
> [@kelly5078](#): > > **The Graduate** doesn’t hold up too well. The idea of a kid being seduced by an older married woman doesn’t seem all that outrageous now. And it’s pretty obvious that Hoffman and Bancroft are almost as close in age as Hoffman and Ross. > > The idea that being middle-class is ucky doens’t play well anymore, either, particularly as said class is struggling to hang on. A rosy future in plastics is no longer in the offing, unless you like doing slave labor in Indonesia. > > I will say that the closing scene in the bus still plays well, and I still like that Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack. Came in to say this one. The _really_ astonishing thing is that in 1998, when the movie was already way past its sell-by date, the AFI listed it as the seventh best American movie ever made!!! Incredible! Even when they updated the list last year it still made the top twenty. I think people are just so nostalgic for it… > [@KneadToKnow](#): > > For me, it would be _Bonnie and Clyde_. Saw it for the first time just a few years ago, and I could not for the life of me think of it as a period piece. I’d have to see it again to try to put my finger on it exactly, but it was just a little slice of 1967 to me. Really? I saw it again recently for the first time in about ten years and thought it was still fantastic. I’m also surprised people are saying **Ferris Bueller**. Granted, I haven’t seen it in a while, but do you think you think it doesn’t hold up anymore because YOU are no longer a teenager, or that it just doesn’t hold up for anyone anymore? I mean, I don’t know if I would have patience for it nowadays, but I would have expected high schoolers would still get a kick out of it. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/100 "2008-12-05T06:04:27Z")
A few years ago, Netflix sent me _Better of Dead_ and _Real Genius_. I was like, “WTF? Why did I order these?” Then I vaguely recalled a conversation in #straightdope about 80s movies and someone had told me I HAD to see them. I think I may have been drunk. _Real Genius_ was awesome. I thought it was hilarious and just the right amount of weird. _Better of Dead_ has NOT held up nearly as well. I thought it was terrible. Apparently I am alone in this opinion, although everyone I know who has disagreed with me was a teenager in the 80s (I was eleven in 1989) and identifies with it in some way. The plot is stupid and the stalking and suicide attempts are just creepy, not funny at all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649.md?page=6)