# Poorly-aged films that could use a "woke" (for lack of a better choice of words) remake **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [November 18, 2025, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poorly-aged-films-that-could-use-a-woke-for-lack-of-a-better-choice-of-words-remake/1024941 "2025-11-18T00:49:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poorly-aged-films-that-could-use-a-woke-for-lack-of-a-better-choice-of-words-remake/1024941/41 "2025-11-18T18:18:24Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Gotta leave _Goldfinger_ out of this discussion. You start eliminating all the problems and … you have no film left. Just keep it as a relic. Funny, I was going to post earlier about “The Bad News Bears”, which has not aged well. But the more I thought about it, if you fix all the bad behavior, what’s left? (Unless you swap in a bunch of other “more acceptable” objectionable behavior, whatever that may be…) So maybe just leave it alone. I’m aware that there was a remake of Bad News Bears some years ago, but I’ve never seen it and don’t know how it compares to the original. ---
**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:** [November 18, 2025, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poorly-aged-films-that-could-use-a-woke-for-lack-of-a-better-choice-of-words-remake/1024941/42 "2025-11-18T18:22:39Z")
I showed the original _Bad News Bears_ to my own kids a couple months ago. They **adored** the bad behavior and asked to watch it again. I agree with many of the nominations here (in particular _Revenge of the Nerds_ is and always was trash), but being concerned about BNB feels like pearl-clutching to me. When I asked my younger daughter why she liked it so much, she said, she’s never seen a movie where the kids are just as rude and stupid as actual kids. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poorly-aged-films-that-could-use-a-woke-for-lack-of-a-better-choice-of-words-remake/1024941/43 "2025-11-18T18:35:05Z")
are TV shows included in this thread? Fawlty Towers has aged , but is still a reasonably good comedy, except for one character: the Spanish-speaking servant was intended to be an over-the-top exaggeration of a buffoon. But today it would be seen as cruel racism. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poorly-aged-films-that-could-use-a-woke-for-lack-of-a-better-choice-of-words-remake/1024941/44 "2025-11-18T18:36:01Z")
B.S was very much mocking things like racism and sexism. ---
**Author:** ![Meatwater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meatwater/32/20074_2.png) [@Meatwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatwater)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poorly-aged-films-that-could-use-a-woke-for-lack-of-a-better-choice-of-words-remake/1024941/45 "2025-11-18T18:40:20Z")
Yes, but it is a popular title on a list of ‘Can’t be made today’ movies due to its extreme language throughout. Also do you think modern audiences could pick up subtly or nuance? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poorly-aged-films-that-could-use-a-woke-for-lack-of-a-better-choice-of-words-remake/1024941/46 "2025-11-18T18:41:28Z")
> [@We\_re\_wolves\_not\_werewolves](#): > > No! Those characters were assholes and their use of the word emphasizes that. Do you really think those characters would be introspective enough to consider whether they shouldn’t be using those words? Yeah, that is another aspect of the discussion, some of these works the discomfort and unease it causes was already intentional when it was made. > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Gotta leave _Goldfinger_ out of this discussion. You start eliminating all the problems and … you have no film left. Just keep it as a relic The basis for much of the humor in the Austin Powers series was how cringey some of the “classic” Connery/Moore Bond could get. And nevermind _Goldfinger_, lads: I give you _You Only Live Twice_ and _Live and Let Die_. Throw in some Orientalism and Blaxploitation into the mix. > [@Meatwater](#): > > _Blazing Saddles_ (…) > That being said I have trouble perceiving what a modern day take/remake on it could possibly be. That goes into the category of “reboot = pointless”. _Blazing Saddles_ could and need only be made _ **at that time,** _ commenting on not just blatant racism but also on racial tokenism while taking a piss on the whitewashed nature of the (admittedly by then dying) classic Western. “It couldn’t be made today” BECAUSE it **was** made **then**. ---
**Author:** ![Zoobi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/13edae/32.png) [@Zoobi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoobi)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poorly-aged-films-that-could-use-a-woke-for-lack-of-a-better-choice-of-words-remake/1024941/47 "2025-11-18T18:41:41Z")
Of course. Those lists are usually really stupid rage-bait, and should be ignored. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poorly-aged-films-that-could-use-a-woke-for-lack-of-a-better-choice-of-words-remake/1024941/48 "2025-11-18T18:47:51Z")
“You know…morons.” ---
**Author:** ![Meatwater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meatwater/32/20074_2.png) [@Meatwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatwater)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poorly-aged-films-that-could-use-a-woke-for-lack-of-a-better-choice-of-words-remake/1024941/49 "2025-11-18T18:54:53Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > _Blazing Saddles_ could and need only be made _ **at that time,** _ commenting on not just blatant racism but also on racial tokenism I wholeheartedly agree, however it seems an audience missed that memo and they need to take another jab to shine a light and poke fun on modern American racism. > [@Zoobi](#): > > Those lists are usually really stupid rage-bait Yeah that was a bad example, in hindsight the same people saying “Blazing Saddles can’t be made today” are the same people saying “Make comedy legal again”. To use a quote > [@running\_coach](#): > > “You know…morons.” ---
**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:** [November 18, 2025, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poorly-aged-films-that-could-use-a-woke-for-lack-of-a-better-choice-of-words-remake/1024941/50 "2025-11-18T19:36:39Z")
When people ask Mel Brooks whether _Blazing Saddles_ could be made today, his stock response is to say, “Hell, we couldn’t make it _then!_ But we did anyway.” Subtle wisdom inside that joke, I think. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poorly-aged-films-that-could-use-a-woke-for-lack-of-a-better-choice-of-words-remake/1024941/51 "2025-11-18T20:06:02Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > > [@HeyHomie](#): > > > > _RotN_ was a good movie at the time > > Opinions, yeah, we all got 'em. Me, too. > > I saw _RotN_ in the theater, and I thought it was an inferior teen sex comedy the day I saw it, even at the heyday of teen sex comedies. Or even comedies in general. It’s closer to _Police Academy_ than _Airplane!_. > > But it did make a lasting impression: I still refer to Curtis Armstrong as Booger, no matter what role he does, like the sleezy lawyer he played on The Closer. I saw it as a preteen in the late 80s, and it didn’t leave a good impression on me the way other similar movies of that time period did. _Police Academy (and the sequels), Weekend at Bernie’s, Caddyshack II, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,_ etc. all made a much better impression on me than _Revenge_ _of the Nerds._ It had the advantage of coming out at the right time in my life, and being the right type of movie, and I still didn’t like it. So yeah, it just wasn’t a good movie. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poorly-aged-films-that-could-use-a-woke-for-lack-of-a-better-choice-of-words-remake/1024941/52 "2025-11-18T20:51:52Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > The movie _8 Days a Week_ would be hard to remake because the entire premise is creepy. Teenage geek boy is in love with neighborhood hottie Keri Russell. His grandfather assures him the most important thing in the world is sex with women. So he decides to live on her front lawn under her bedroom window 24/7 until she falls in love with him. In the end she gives in and has sex with him Not only creepy but sends a bad message. > [@Charlie\_Tan](#): > > But you were doing so well. You dont agree that some women in the middle of the 20th century were taught to act “hard to get”? Of course that is mostly gone now, and good riddance, but there’s a lot of weird stuff from the fairly recent past. > [@Meatwater](#): > > I’m surprised no one mentioned _Blazing Saddles_ yet. Needs to be left as is. > [@JRDelirious](#): > > _Blazing Saddles_ could and need only be made _ **at that time,** _ commenting on not just blatant racism but also on racial tokenism while taking a piss on the whitewashed nature of the (admittedly by then dying) classic Western. “It couldn’t be made today” BECAUSE it **was** made **then**. Right. I always liked the ending of _Revenge of the Nerds_. There are some parts that need to go, true. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poorly-aged-films-that-could-use-a-woke-for-lack-of-a-better-choice-of-words-remake/1024941/53 "2025-11-18T22:04:51Z")
Mary Poppins was reclassified in the UK to restrict audience access (a token change, actually). The problem scene is the dancing chimney sweeps, who are referred to as “hottentots” - an archaic racial slur. You could snip that, but the whole scene looks a bit too much like a “blacking up” joke these days. j ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poorly-aged-films-that-could-use-a-woke-for-lack-of-a-better-choice-of-words-remake/1024941/54 "2025-11-18T22:13:39Z")
I could very well be mistaken, but I believe the “hottentots” line came not from the chimney sweep scene, but from a cutaway scene involving the crazed old naval officer who lived next door to the Banks’. The guy who fired his canon each morning at precisely [whatever time]. At one point in the film he exclaims “we’re being invaded by hottentots!” The chimney sweep scene screams “blackface!” But let’s be honest: it fits perfectly within its context and there is absolutely zero racist intent in it. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poorly-aged-films-that-could-use-a-woke-for-lack-of-a-better-choice-of-words-remake/1024941/55 "2025-11-18T22:15:39Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > I could very well be mistake… No, I think you’re correct. j ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poorly-aged-films-that-could-use-a-woke-for-lack-of-a-better-choice-of-words-remake/1024941/56 "2025-11-18T22:45:16Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I always liked the ending of _Revenge of the Nerds_. There are some parts that need to go, true. Here’s the thing, outside of teen me’s obsession with the naughty bits, it’s ONLY the end that has lasting meaning. The piece we probably all remember more-or-less fondly where they call out to everyone who’s felt unpopular, unwanted, or marginalized. It’s a great moment. But 80-90% of the rest? Not worth saving. It doesn’t need a remake, and we have a ton more movies these days about outcasts recognizing their own potential, which is generally a good thing. Though I consarn to heck the trope of “ugly ducking taking off glasses and getting better clothes = beautiful” despite being portrayed by an already beautiful actress. Honestly, and feel free to disagree, I think remaking most _comedies_ is doomed to failure, as much humor (slapstick and absurdist being pretty strong outliers) is so much a piece of it’s time that an honest remake is nigh impossible. If you’re going to adapt it to be more modern, better to do something fresh _inspired_ by something of the past. We have too many remakes that weren’t needed anyway. IMHO, YMMV, Different Yuks for Different Schmucks (Sorry, I really wanted the joke but most of us fine people aren’t schmucks on a daily basis!) ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poorly-aged-films-that-could-use-a-woke-for-lack-of-a-better-choice-of-words-remake/1024941/57 "2025-11-18T22:50:46Z")
> [@Meatwater](#): > > I wholeheartedly agree, however it seems an audience missed that memo and they need to take another jab to shine a light and poke fun on modern American racism. Hell, if people still don’t get _Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ after 141 years, they’ll never get _Blazing Saddles._ ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poorly-aged-films-that-could-use-a-woke-for-lack-of-a-better-choice-of-words-remake/1024941/58 "2025-11-18T22:55:40Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > Honestly, and feel free to disagree, I think remaking most _comedies_ is doomed to failure, as much humor (slapstick and absurdist being pretty strong outliers) is so much a piece of it’s time that an honest remake is nigh impossible. It’s hard to argue with this. For truly great movies, I’m fine with appreciating them as they are, recognizing where they made missteps and appreciating where they got it right. Some of them messed up so badly they ruin the film, and that’s too bad, but there are new and fresh and interesting and thoughtful films being made every day. We don’t always have to look backward. I’ll also add, I’m not really bothered by stalker tropes in romance movies. Romance is fantasy. There are exceptions that take it way too far, but honestly, John Cusack in _Say Anything_, holding that boom box over his head? Swoon. I enjoyed _Love Actually,_ also. It may have an outdated trope but it was very funny and there were a lot of great stories in there. I enjoy ensemble casts. I love _The Breakfast Club_ too, even though Bender is clearly a future domestic abuser. I’m willing to suspend my disbelief for a while, the same way other people can suspend it for cars jumping over bridges at full speed. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poorly-aged-films-that-could-use-a-woke-for-lack-of-a-better-choice-of-words-remake/1024941/59 "2025-11-18T22:58:58Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > (Sorry, I really wanted the joke but most of us fine people aren’t schmucks on a daily basis!) Which reminds me of the poster child for unnecessary comedy remakes: > **[Dinner for Schmucks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinner_for_Schmucks)** > > Dinner for Schmucks is a 2010 American comedy film directed by Jay Roach and based on Francis Veber's 1998 French film Le Dîner de Cons. > Starring Steve Carell and Paul Rudd, with Jemaine Clement, Jeff Dunham, Bruce Greenwood, and Ron Livingston in supporting roles, the film tells the story of a rising executive who finds out that his work superiors host a dinner celebrating the idiocy of their guests. He questions it when he is invited, just as he befriends a man who would be the perfect guest... ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poorly-aged-films-that-could-use-a-woke-for-lack-of-a-better-choice-of-words-remake/1024941/60 "2025-11-18T23:34:22Z")
_Tootsie_ (1982) seems impossible to redeem from the get-go, though it’s a great movie for its time, IMO. It even makes some very valid points about sexism, while at the same time its two female main characters are very badly used – particularly Teri Garr’s. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poorly-aged-films-that-could-use-a-woke-for-lack-of-a-better-choice-of-words-remake/1024941.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poorly-aged-films-that-could-use-a-woke-for-lack-of-a-better-choice-of-words-remake/1024941.md?page=4)