People are going to hate me for this but Star Wars. Wooden acting, dated F/X, every bit of plot stolen from old fantasy cliche’s. Watched without the glasses of nostalgia it’s a terrible film.
I watched it for the first time a year or two ago, thoroughly enjoyed it. If you want to complain about slow movies, try Resevior Dogs. So much talking. It never gets to any decent action to back up all the gore and tough guy stuff.
My nomination would be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the live-action movie.) It was waaay cool when I was a kid…
The original Planet of the Apes doesn’t hold up well at all. It’s not just that the twist at the end it no longer a twist and the satire seems much too heavyhanded. But the actual camera works screams out “arty 60s!!!” in every shot.
If you think every bit of Star Wars’ plot was “stolen” from old fantasy cliches, you don’t really get it.
I just thought of another one - The Sting. I watched it for the first time a few weeks ago. Good enough movie (Redford really outshined Newman IMO), but the twist, unfortunately, could be seen from miles away. Not really the movie’s fault, as it couldn’t have known how many similar twists it would inspire.
The Princess Bride.
One of the most beloved movies of the 80s, at least on the Internet, with many qutable lines and a great cast. But if you hadn’t seen it for awhile and go rent it, it’s shockingly cheap. It looks like it cost about a hundred and fifty bucks to make, not counting the pizza deliveries.
I think the anachronism of Oddball is really part of the joke – how would all these firm-jawed WWII movie characters react on encountering a “hippy”? And as unlikely as the character is, I think he can sort of be rationalized as a product of the undercurrents that led to the beatnik culture of the post-war era. Perhaps he was a young jazz musician before the war, who was “a bit too fond of the reefer”.
I thought the same about Shakespeare at the Globe.
When I hear his plays nowadays, sadly I realise they are stuffed full of familiar sayings. The man had no originality!
The Breakfast Club was on HBO yesterday, and I had it on for a while until it became too unbearable and I had to shut it off. Had anyone working on that movie ever smoked pot before? I was born at the end of 84 and it came out in early 85, so I’ll never understand how this movie became so popular.
You really had to be in at least that age range when it came out to fully appreciate it. I graduated high school in '85 and nearly every John Hughes movie that came out around then was just huge for people my age and we still get a kick out of them when they come on.
Holy smokes did I have the opposite impression when I saw part of the *The Sting *for about the 10th time but the first time in 20 years. I thought Newman blew Redford off the screen.
It didn’t help that Redford was playing a character who was apparently supposed to be 10 or 15 years younger than he himself was at the time. But his wide-eyed earnestness seemed really forced at times. On the other hand I thought Newman was great during the poker game scene, for example. Most of the supporting roles were great too, especially Robert Shaw, Eileen Brennan, Ray Walston and Harold Gould.
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.
I think in general, 90s movies have a timeless air about them, similar to the 70s. Everything from the 80s seems so hopelessly dated to me.
The hippy music was as out of place as Oddball. Still a great movie. It actually did seem to portray the mundane day to day life behind the lines in WW2 pretty well.
Unfortunately, many of the movies I watched growing up that were considered great at the time and even great now by movie critics, I find to be unwatchable now. I don’t know if it is the acting style, the direction, the reflection of the period’s values, etc., but they just seem silly, or stupid, or boring. I tried to watch **The Seven Year Itch **recently and could take only 15 minutes of it. The same thing with a “great” of post-war European cinema The Shop On Main Street. I was impressed by both of them when they first came out; not now.
However, if you want to restrict yourself to movies which have come out in the past 20 years or so, movies most of the posters seem to be familiar with, the one that dropped most in my opinion from first to second viewing was Gladiator. The first time I saw it, I thought it was one of the best films I had ever seen. The second time I saw it, I asked myself “Apart from the opening battle scene and the first view of Rome, what was special about this picture.” I couldn’t think of anything.
I’m not defending the movie Footloose, but I will point out that it spawned professional stage productions on Broadway and in London and is also currently a popular high school musical.
And I’m gonna say, “Amen!”
Ack! :eek: I love Taps!
Frankly, I thought that was the point of it. It sort of looks like it was shot on a children’s TV show budget, because the pictures we’re seeing are the little boy’s imagination of the story he’s hearing.
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.
As for comments about Clash of the Titans, I’d very much disagree. The FX may be very dated now but the presentation of the story, plotting, drama and action were extremely good (in fact I’m taking it on holiday to show a friend of mine who’s never seen it).
Rebel Without a Cause - Oh my God, it’s really hard to imagine why this film was so ground-breaking. James Dean is OK, but I really don’t think he was as awesome as the Baby Boom generation have made him out to be. (Sal Mineo give a better performance IMO.)
It was also really, REALLY hard to work up any sympathy for these “poor troubled youths.” Dean is disgusted because his dad briefly wears a frilly apron? Natalie Wood is devastated when her father objects to her wearing make-up? Jayzuz Kryst, you gotta be kidding! Be glad your Dads are there at all, rather than abandoning you to live with a crack-whore mother.
Airplane - It’s unashamedly broad, bawdy humor seemed quite ingenious back in 1980 (after a decade of self-consciously ‘naturalistic’ films). But the shtick has been done to death so many times it just has no bite anymore. And so much of the humor relies on surprise - you don’t really expect them to try and get away with a line “I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley.”
Slapshot, when first watched, was brilliant and funny. Many years later, it dragged and Paul Newman’s clothing was Pimptastic.
I would love to see some kind of remake for it, however.
I gotta side with Cisco on this one Jaws is still great.