# Movies that still hold up but only God knows why **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 4, 2019, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541 "2019-07-04T23:02:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2019, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/101 "2019-07-08T17:38:03Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > The flower children of the Sixties didn’t expect to grow old. They would have their brief bright day in the sun and then either be shot by the Man or incinerated in the coming thermonuclear war. > > ETA: has any movie ever had the chutzpah to conclude, with no presaging whatever, by having nuclear war break out? I think that’s how the TV series _Crime Story_ ended. ISTR the main bad guy and his toadie ending up at a Nevada test site right before the bomb went off. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2019, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/102 "2019-07-08T18:21:10Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > Back in the 80s my mother was excited to watching Blazing Saddles with me and was quite upset that they edited all the rude sounds from the campfire scene. The cowpokes would rise up while eating, sometimes grunt, and sit down but without the rude sounds the scene was much less effective. Oddly, they do fart jokes in PG13 kiddie films now. Now, the N-word. That _is_ a tough choice. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2019, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/103 "2019-07-08T18:48:01Z")
> [@Patch](#): > > > [@Lumpy](#): > > > > The flower children of the Sixties didn’t expect to grow old. They would have their brief bright day in the sun and then either be shot by the Man or incinerated in the coming thermonuclear war. > > > > ETA: has any movie ever had the chutzpah to conclude, with no presaging whatever, by having nuclear war break out? > > I think that’s how the TV series _Crime Story_ ended. ISTR the main bad guy and his toadie ending up at a Nevada test site right before the bomb went off. As I remember, that’s how the second season ended. But then the show was renewed and those two characters survived the blast. (Great show, by the way. I recommend it highly.) ---
**Author:** ![Snake\_Plissken\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Snake\_Plissken\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snake_Plissken_1)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2019, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/104 "2019-07-08T20:59:37Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I really didnt care for Fight Club. But I did like _Escape from New York_\*, **Snake.** > > - except the stupid ending. Snake Plissken…from Cleveland, Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2019, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/105 "2019-07-08T21:27:32Z")
> [@Snake\_Plissken](#): > > Snake Plissken…from Cleveland, Ohio. Oh. I thought you were dead. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2019, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/106 "2019-07-09T13:36:02Z")
I take issue with the claim that _Blazing Saddles_ didn’t have a plot. Corrupt governor is in cahoots with corrupt railroad tycoon (or were they they same guy? Either way.), and wants to route through a town that doesn’t want to sell their land, so he needs to intervene to make the townsfolk so miserable they’ll want to leave: That’s classic Western material, there. And the way he chooses to make them so miserable, by naming a black man as the sheriff, is great social commentary. And then it delivers on both of those premises, doing a better job of exploring them thoroughly than most “serious” movies. While also being continually hilarious. The only weak part, I thought, was the breaking-the-fourth-wall ending, but the rest of the movie is easily great enough to make up for that. And I’ll second, or third, or whatever, _The Fifth Element_. By every objective measure, it’s a bad movie. But it’s just so much _fun_. I think it’s mostly because of Milla Jovavich, who was having so much fun as Leeloo that it just rubbed off on the rest of the cast, and then it rubs off of the cast onto the viewer. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2019, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/107 "2019-07-09T13:49:40Z")
_The Wizard of Oz_ should have sent filmmakers into a dizzying spiral of one-upsmanship, the way _Star Wars_ did 38 years later. Maybe the war got in the way? I agree with an earlier post about _Multiplicity_. I think they tried to get Blll Murray to star in it, and this was the beginning of Bill Murray refusing to take Harold Ramis’s phone calls. I think Michael Keaton hit the ball out of the park, but not enough people agree with me about that. I also liked his remake of _Bedazzled_, but this was the beginning of the end for Brendan Fraser’s star power. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2019, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/108 "2019-07-09T14:03:24Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > As I remember, that’s how the second season ended. But then the show was renewed and those two characters survived the blast. (Great show, by the way. I recommend it highly.) Really? I guess I thought the show was in reruns after that and stopped watching. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2019, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/109 "2019-07-09T14:21:12Z")
Actually on reviewing the [Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_Story_(American_TV_series)), the atomic bomb blast ended the first season and then the show came back for a second season. ---
**Author:** ![PitJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9bcb4/32.png) [@PitJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PitJ)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2019, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/110 "2019-07-09T14:36:16Z")
Does anyone apart from myself know or even like “The Ice Pirates”? Made in 1984, starring Robert Urich, Mary Crosby, Anjelica Huston and Ron Perlman it is on the one hand incredibly cheesy, on the other hand it has lots of classic Sci-Fi elements that are fun to watch (the Space Herpes!) and include lots of Star Wars spoofs. I have yet to see it on TV but fortunately found the DVD a couple of years ago. Since then I put it on from time to time but sadly enough no-one else wants to watch it with me… still, it is a sort of a classic for me. ---
**Author:** ![Alpha\_Twit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpha_twit/32/265_2.png) [@Alpha\_Twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpha_Twit)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2019, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/111 "2019-07-09T14:36:46Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That’s classic Western material, there. Translation: tired and clichéd, recycled plot. It’s also complete irrelevant to the point of the movie. If Mel wanted to wrap all those outrageous and legitimately hilarious gags within an original coherent, well paced, well plotted story, I might agree with you. That’s not Mel Brooks though. “Coherence”, “plot”, maybe if he has time. “Pace”, Mel would just say “Try to keep up, sonny!” He has no interest in _cinema_. He does popcorn flicks which is a good thing because when you pee your pants laughing, you can blame the dark, spreading stain on excess zeal with the butter. This is one of the funniest movies of all time but yeah, the plot is thin at best. ---
**Author:** ![Alpha\_Twit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpha_twit/32/265_2.png) [@Alpha\_Twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpha_Twit)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2019, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/112 "2019-07-09T14:43:36Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Actually on reviewing the [Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_Story_(American_TV_series)), the atomic bomb blast ended the first season and then the show came back for a second season. Isn’t that more or less how [Sledge Hammer!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sledge_Hammer!) went? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2019, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/113 "2019-07-09T14:50:20Z")
Sure, Brooks _could_ have gotten away with not having a plot for _Blazing Saddles_, and it would still have been hilarious. But that’s not what he chose. He chose to give it a classic (OK, say “cliched” if you want) plot, and then to give it a twist that most certainly wasn’t cliched, but which worked well. ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2019, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/114 "2019-07-09T15:08:49Z")
> [@PitJ](#): > > Does anyone apart from myself know or even like “The Ice Pirates”? Made in 1984, starring Robert Urich, Mary Crosby, Anjelica Huston and Ron Perlman it is on the one hand incredibly cheesy, on the other hand it has lots of classic Sci-Fi elements that are fun to watch (the Space Herpes!) and include lots of Star Wars spoofs. I have yet to see it on TV but fortunately found the DVD a couple of years ago. Since then I put it on from time to time but sadly enough no-one else wants to watch it with me… still, it is a sort of a classic for me. Yes! I loved that movie when I was a kid. It was the first film I thought of when I first read this thread, but I haven’t seen it in like 30 years. So I didn’t feel I was qualified to say whether or not it still holds up. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2019, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/115 "2019-07-09T15:12:16Z")
Ice Pirates saves itself by being a comedy by design and by acknowledging that fact over and over with the acting. There’s quite a bit of cheek, eh. Mind you, it’s still terrible but at least it’s fun. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2019, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/116 "2019-07-09T18:11:36Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Sure, Brooks _could_ have gotten away with not having a plot for _Blazing Saddles_, and it would still have been hilarious. But that’s not what he chose. He chose to give it a classic (OK, say “cliched” if you want) plot, and then to give it a twist that most certainly wasn’t cliched, but which worked well. Chronos Johnson is right. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2019, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/117 "2019-07-09T18:15:39Z")
> [@PitJ](#): > > Does anyone apart from myself know or even like “The Ice Pirates”? Made in 1984, starring Robert Urich, Mary Crosby, Anjelica Huston and Ron Perlman it is on the one hand incredibly cheesy, on the other hand it has lots of classic Sci-Fi elements that are fun to watch (the Space Herpes!) and include lots of Star Wars spoofs. I have yet to see it on TV but fortunately found the DVD a couple of years ago. Since then I put it on from time to time but sadly enough no-one else wants to watch it with me… still, it is a sort of a classic for me. I saw it in the theater when it first came out. Cheesy fun, with John Carradine barely able to move, but obviously enjoying himself. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2019, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/118 "2019-07-09T18:29:51Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Even better is Dark Star. John Carpenter , Dan O’Bannon. Made at USC, budget around $50,000.00 I found a lot of John Carpenter films still hold up over time: The Thing Big Trouble in Little China They Live Prince of Darkness Escape From New York another late 70s/80s film I still find endlessly rewatchable: The Warriors I think that a lot of films from the 70s and 80s tend to hold up well because the use of practical effects and real car crashes, etc are realistic enough that you aren’t like WTF. Plus the setting is both gritty and cheesy. In contrast, I was watching Air Force One the other day. It was ok, aside from being a typical 90s “Die Hard on an Airplane” action film (see also Executive Decision, Passenger 57, Turbulence, Con Air). But there were some really bad CGI shots, even by the standards of the rest of the film, that pulled me out of the movie. Then again, who doesn’t love Harrison Ford yelling “GET OFF MY PLANE” and tossing Gary Oldman out the back of the cargo ramp. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2019, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/119 "2019-07-09T18:55:20Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I found a lot of John Carpenter films still hold up over time: > The Thing > Big Trouble in Little China > They Live > Prince of Darkness > Escape From New York > > another late 70s/80s film I still find endlessly rewatchable: > > The Warriors > I think that a lot of films from the 70s and 80s tend to hold up well because the use of practical effects and real car crashes, etc are realistic enough that you aren’t like WTF. Plus the setting is both gritty and cheesy. > … Good points, altho- The Warriors? And what is odd is that altho during the 60’s and 70’s a LOT of people smoked, movies filmed then didnt have that much smoking. But films made _now_, that are set in those periods- have lots of smoking.😕:eek: ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2019, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/120 "2019-07-09T22:10:53Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Even better is Dark Star. John Carpenter , Dan O’Bannon. Made at USC, budget around $50,000.00 The comment about the end of Escape From NY (though its really Escape from LA that does it) made me me think of this, but this is a good illustration too… We should do a thread about movies that have great little 15 minute movies nestled within it: Dark Star When The Bomb Activates The First Fifteen Minutes of Dances With Wolves When Snake Plisskin Gets Out of LA and Sends the World to the Dark Ages [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541.md?page=7)