# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/121 "2008-12-05T20:09:47Z")
I would have to nominate **Reality Bites** and **Singles**. Hip and relevant when they were released, embarrassingly dated now. I remember getting mad at the latter film when Bridget Fonda, who spent most of the film angsting over her boyfriend Matt Dillon’s comments about her boobs being too small, ended up taking him back anyway. I think it will be rather interesting watching these two films with my daughter a few years from now. “Hey Mom, doesn’t the guy in the tie sound just like the lion from **Madagascar**?” Maybe by then the expected 90s revival will have taken place and I will have dragged my old babydoll dresses and flannel for her to wear. ---
**Author:** ![bobthebuilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@bobthebuilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobthebuilder)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/122 "2008-12-05T20:12:45Z")
> [@Vaderesque](#): > > I’m gonna say **Pulp Fiction**. It’s reeeaaaaly slow. There’s a reason why most characters in movies don’t talk pointless shit that has nothing to do with the plot. > > I enjoyed it at the time, and for a while afterwards, but it’s lost its lustre for me. I saw this movie a couple of years ago for the first time, and I absolutely loved it. Maybe it just does not hold up on repeated viewings. ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/123 "2008-12-05T20:18:04Z")
Stupid edit window. I meant “dragged my old babydoll dresses and flannel out of storage for her to wear.” If I just dragged them she would refuse to wear them 'cause they’d be too dirty. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/124 "2008-12-05T21:04:03Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > _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. When I was in college, we used to say that **Better Off Dead** was the best piece of art ever produced in the history of the Western world. Tongue in cheek, of course. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/125 "2008-12-05T22:05:23Z")
“… throwing away a perfectly good white boy like that…” 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/126 "2008-12-05T22:08:48Z")
How about those early-90s Kevin Costner prestige films – **Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves** , and **The Bodyguard** (with Whitney Houston). These were HUGE blockbusters with nonstop media coverage that lasted for months. I think they were a hit with every demographic group out there. I even knew some bad-ass teenagers who bragged about how many times they snuck into Robin Hood without paying. Cut to today- these “masterpieces” seem to be totally forgotten. I doubt they’d show up on anyone’s top 100 list. ---
**Author:** ![Strassia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@Strassia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strassia)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/127 "2008-12-05T23:07:22Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > Hard to put my finger on it exactly, but recent movies like **Juno** or **Little Miss Sunshine** seem to ring truer to my adult ears for teens having to shoulder more morally serious responsibilities and burdens. Even going a few years back, **American Beauty** seemed to have teens grappling with more serious issues beyond simply building a movie around Molly Ringwald’s trying to afford a prom dress. Most of the John Hughes era just feels very isolated and sheltered from the “real” world of adults, while today’s movies have the real world heavily overlapping and intruding into the otherwise idyllic teen world. In _Breakfast Club_ you broken families, suicide, and child abuse. How idyllic was that? Jonathan ---
**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, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/128 "2008-12-05T23:12:12Z")
And duct-taped butt cheeks. Don’t forget the duct-taped butt cheeks! That was that movie, right? ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/129 "2008-12-05T23:24:06Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > **Pump up the Volume** seemed to be the “voice of teens”, but now just seems silly (“you just don’t understand my spoiled middle-class stresses, mom!”) compared to what today’s kids actually face. That made me think of a scene from the Brady Bunch movie (which has held up well, in my opinion.) Jan is in the counselor’s office, listening quietly. “So, what seems to be the problem, Jan? Unwanted pregnancy? HIV infection? Teen suicide?” Jan deadpans, “No. It’s my stupid glasses. They make me look positively horrible.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2008, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/130 "2008-12-06T11:01:09Z")
> [@PharmBoy](#): > > 2001: > > **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. Nothing, except for some pretty damned cool musical numbers. **Animal House** , on the other hand…for several years there, I couldn’t watch this movie without cracking up pretty much for the duration, now it’s just a lot of noisy 70s tedium except for the prime Bluto moments. And it’s not like I just outgrew it, either – I still find mindless meathead comedies hilarious, and the high school-to-college-age kids who used to dote on **AH** have pretty much gone on to other sources of yuks. If it didn’t have John Belushi in it, I think it’d be a mostly forgotten fossil flick. ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2008, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/131 "2008-12-06T23:25:52Z")
**Rising Sun**. Remember when Japan was going to conquer the United States via LA? I actually feel a little stupid for worrying about that back in the day. I saw **Empire Records** in 1996 and loved it. Bought the DVD about a year back, and had to fast forward through most of it. I don’t hate the characters the way I hated everyone in **Billy Jack** , which is the movie I usually post about in these threads, but I couldn’t identify with them, anymore. Come to think of it, I really couldn’t identify with them back in '96, but at least back then I thought they were interesting. Gotta agree that **The Blues Brothers** aged badly. Yes, there were a few laughs, and I enjoyed seeing the blues legends play, but that’s part of the problem. Belushi and Ackroyd were comedians. They were _not_ blues musicians, and it showed when they were performing with people who actually knew the blues. And to me they looked so goddamned _smug_ about it. Like they could just put on cheap suits and play a harmonica, and suddenly, they were qualified to play next to Ray Charles. I was actually a little embarrassed about watching them smirk onstage while trying to sing. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/132 "2008-12-07T00:15:46Z")
The original" War of the Worlds" holds well. The original the “Thing” is better than the new one too. Better effects do not necessarily make a better movie. I watched “Predator” last night. How often do you see a movie with two future governors in it? ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/133 "2008-12-07T04:35:48Z")
I’ll probably spend an eternity in some hell but I actually failed to watch “Blazing Saddles” recently. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/134 "2008-12-07T17:33:33Z")
> [@Strassia](#): > > In _Breakfast Club_ you broken families, suicide, and child abuse. How idyllic was that? > > Jonathan And I am continually surprised at how people forget how it felt to live in the cold war. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/135 "2008-12-07T18:16:10Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > Hard to put my finger on it exactly, but recent movies like **Juno** or **Little Miss Sunshine** seem to ring truer to my adult ears for teens having to shoulder more morally serious responsibilities and burdens. Even going a few years back, **American Beauty** seemed to have teens grappling with more serious issues beyond simply building a movie around Molly Ringwald’s trying to afford a prom dress. Most of the John Hughes era just feels very isolated and sheltered from the “real” world of adults, while today’s movies have the real world heavily overlapping and intruding into the otherwise idyllic teen world. At its core, **Juno** was about a too cool for the real world outsider having sex with her dorky best friend just to see what its like. An excellent movie, but not because of the plot. **Little Miss Sunshine** had one teenage character, a too cool for the real world outsider who’s major rebellion was _not talking_. **American Beauty** ’s kids didn’t seem to have any real problems. Yes, Wes Bentley’s father beat him, but Bentley also had a giant wad of cash that he planned to use to skip town with anyway. > [@G. Odoreida](#): > > And I am continually surprised at how people forget how it felt to live in the cold war. The Cold War was a relic by the 80s. I remember growing up and never hearing a single word about it until the Berlin Wall fell. ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/136 "2008-12-07T18:19:05Z")
Although it’s been pointed out already how tech stuff doesn’t stand the test of time, I’ll mention _Videodrome_. It’s a twisted mindfuck of a psychological thriller where you can’t tell reality from psychosis, but there are too many elements that don’t work past their era. Most obvious and least important, VHS cassettes are now quaint antiques now that you can purchase from the Salvation army store for a dollar or less. A young James Wood stars as the president and part owner of a Toronto independent television station (Civic-TV, Channel 83) specializing in sensational programming. I think all of those were bought by Rupert Murdoch’s Newscorp just a few years after this movie was released. He finds a pirate TV station broadcasting 24-hour, all-snuff flicks, (like the early MTV featuring 24-hour, all music videos) beamed via sattelite from… South East Asia?, a relatively unknown part of the world 25 years ago, now a major player in the global economy, not only in industrial production but also an emerging power in finance. The Videodrome signal induces powerful and complex hallucinations which are often impossible to distinguish from non-hallucinatory reality. Subliminal suggestion has been pretty much debunked by now. Debbie Harry stars as a talk radio pop-psychologist. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think all of them have been tools of the right wing since the late 80’s. Most of what was cutting edge and underground, and identified with the ‘forbidden’ in this film has been absorbed by the establishment, and more specifically by the conservative wing of the establishment. I’m also gonna say that social commentary stuff often doesn’t age too well either. Some material quoted from: [http://iceberg.arts.ualberta.ca/filmstudies/Videodrome.htm](http://iceberg.arts.ualberta.ca/filmstudies/Videodrome.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/137 "2008-12-07T18:34:05Z")
Two I just thought of are George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead. One of Night’s main themes is that watching TV turns people into zombies who don’t understand what’s going on right outside their door. This is very clearly a product of its times as I can’t imagine knowing that a huge crisis was happening and not checking the TV or computer for updates. How much CNN did we all watch on 9/11? Dawn’s “consumerism makes us zombies” theme is another one that seems horribly outdated now. Do some people take consumerism too far? Of course. But the heavy handed moralising makes the movie needlessly long and takes away from the real message, which is “Holy shit! Zombies! Kill 'em!” ---
**Author:** ![Strassia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@Strassia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strassia)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/138 "2008-12-07T20:28:48Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > Hard to put my finger on it exactly, but recent movies like **Juno** or **Little Miss Sunshine** seem to ring truer to my adult ears for teens having to shoulder more morally serious responsibilities and burdens. Even going a few years back, **American Beauty** seemed to have teens grappling with more serious issues beyond simply building a movie around Molly Ringwald’s trying to afford a prom dress. Most of the John Hughes era just feels very isolated and sheltered from the “real” world of adults, while today’s movies have the real world heavily overlapping and intruding into the otherwise idyllic teen world. I would point out that you are mixing genres now. It would be better to compare a movie like\*\* _Superbad_ \*\*to 80s movies like **_Ferris Bueller_.** In fact they both have the same theme, seperation and moving into the unknown. The take is completely diferent, but if anything Cameron’s problems with his parents are more serious and long term than anything the guys in Superbad had to deal with. Both movies are about the fear of leaving the known environment of high school and all the people you are comfortable with. That may not be an earth shattering social issue, but I would bet it rings true to a large number of people between 16 and 20, just as it did in the 80s. Jonathan Jonathan ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/139 "2008-12-07T20:36:33Z")
> [@Strassia](#): > > I would point out that you are mixing genres now. It would be better to compare a movie like\*\* _Superbad_ \*\*to 80s movies like **_Ferris Bueller_.** In fact they both have the same theme, seperation and moving into the unknown. The take is completely diferent, but if anything Cameron’s problems with his parents are more serious and long term than anything the guys in Superbad had to deal with. Both movies are about the fear of leaving the known environment of high school and all the people you are comfortable with. That may not be an earth shattering social issue, but I would bet it rings true to a large number of people between 16 and 20, just as it did in the 80s. The problem with that is that Ferris constantly tells the camera he’s doing what he’s doing because he’s afraid Cameron will grow up to be lame. Cameron’s real problems with his father are mostly glossed over. ---
**Author:** ![Strassia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@Strassia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strassia)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2008, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649/140 "2008-12-07T21:07:31Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > The problem with that is that Ferris constantly tells the camera he’s doing what he’s doing because he’s afraid Cameron will grow up to be lame. Cameron’s real problems with his father are mostly glossed over. True, but that is just Ferris’s perspective. And Ferris, being a teenager, kind of simplified things. I think he was worried that Cameron would be deeply unhappy for life if he did not find a way to break the pattern his parents had given him. Jonathan [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-havent-stood-the-test-of-time/475649.md?page=8)