Maybe? My kids are young teens. The term ‘held up’ implies I have seen it before, liked it, watched it again recently and think other people will still like it. It’s the ‘other people’ that I am fixed on. The other people that may not have been alive when this was filmed, how do they view it? How does this new culture perceive some of the hallmarks of the culture I am familiar with.
I have no doubt Roy Orbison has ‘held up’ at any nursing home, but he won’t in 40 years so perhaps we should look ahead.
Ah, okay. If you say the kids didn’t like it, that I can understand. (Well not really. )
I enjoyed showing my kids Psycho, before it could be spoiled for them.
Heh, The Matrix is another one where its popularity mystified me on its release. It’s pretty, but that’s about as far as it goes. I was given a copy of it for Christmas when it came out on video, and I re-gifted it to my cousin unopened.
That reminds me: I was a teenager when Jaws first came out. It was generally regarded as a very good, very scary movie. A few years ago my niece (about 30 years younger than me) and a bunch of her friends saw it. They thought it was stupid, and not scary at all. I was surprised.
Shrek is one I’ll say hasn’t held up. When I first saw it when I was in college I enjoyed it. But when I tried to rewatch it I realized just how much of the humor relied on then-current pop culture references. What seemed fresh and funny when it came out made it seem really dated really rapidly as it aged.
I don’t exactly disagree that Intergenerational Staying Power has something to do with whether a movie or TV show holds up. But I don’t think you can determine whether it has Intergenerational Staying Power/holds up based on just a few kids. My son liked Wargames and my daughter would have liked Adventures in Babysitting - but that has less to do with any quality of the movies and much more to do with their individual tastes. Meanwhile I saw and liked Wargames when it was first released but didn’t think it held up at all well when my husband watched it a few weeks ago.
A few kids do not indicate a consensus for an entire generation, that is true, but I feel confident in typing that a movie considered to have ‘held up’ has the onus to prove it and it doesn’t take many detractors to snatch the title of ‘Timeless’ which lets be honest is what we’re talking about here.
For me at least it’s one of those films whose numerous parodies have kind of ruined it (such as the Simpsons one), but the kicker is that these parodies focus, of course, on a given film’s actual weak points (as they exaggerate them of course)-in this case, the hysterical overacting by the two adult leads. I now cannot watch the last 20 minutes without snickering the entire time, sorry.
Exactly. In that case it was mainly due to the Idiot Plot by the authorities in power.
I thought that was part of the point. When they were in the Matrix, they were quite literally video game archetypes, with all the fancy leather outfits and guns and kung fus and the posing…?
The Dark Crystal holds up for me. The world building is great.
Yep, same here and to me the sequels were not very good. The issue with that film is that the idea doesnt hold up. But the action is so great you dont think.
I agree.
What is still great is Quint’s speech on the )too small) boat.
My favorite line was when Smith was berating Morpheus: “the only species that reproduces to it’s maximum is a virus!” No agent Smith, every species does that. The world council of raccoons never meets to say “Hey friends, there are enough raccoons. Let’s just reproduce at replacement rate for now.”
I agree. I had only seen the first one during the original run. When my kid turned 12, almost two years ago, we watched them all. So, I can’t say the sequels “held up” for me, but they didn’t feel dated, which is almost the same (and my kid lined them all).
Interesting. I would have thought Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’ would go over well for modern younger audiences who probably haven’t read the book. I got on a Stephen King reading kick at 14, so when The Shining movie came out when I was maybe 15 I was excited to see it tn the theater, but was bitterly disappointed how much Kubrick changed the plot. I thought, what a hack of a director this Kubrick guy is
These days though, I have a little bit better appreciation for what Kubrick was doing, and just consider the book and the movie two entirely different things.
When I watched the Matrix in 1999, I thought to myself, “Hey, Hollywood is finally catching up with Science Fiction literature from 15 years ago. Not bad!” I didn’t find the story very original or deep, but it was a perfectly decent Gibson/Sterling/Stephenson pastiche, and very nice to look at.
I still quite enjoy the original trilogy, even the maligned third one, if only for the visuals. Though “bullet-time” always bugged me. It’s a cool image, but it’s not a perspective shot for anyone onscreen. The cop that Trinity kicks at the beginning just sees her jump pretty high, no circular whooshing around the room happens as far as he’s concerned.
Not controversial, but you have to judge a movie for what it is attempting to do, not for what it could have been with the combined efforts of Jean-Luc Godard, Wong-Kar Wai, and a team of philosophers.
The Matrix has its not-too-arcane religious symbolism, OK, but as you say the action held up, and the look. Personally, I saw it when it came out, and every however many years I watch it, and every time it is indeed that awesome.
A few years ago, when not thinking clearly, I paid three dollars for a used DVD of the first season of Bewitched. The show was well before my time, but I think I had recently enjoyed some other old and better written TV shows. What a steaming pile of garbage. Couldn’t make it past the first episode.
The thing that spoiled it for me is the idea that the sleeping humans were being used as a source of energy. Don’t they do thermodynamics at film school?
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