# What movie has changed the most as you've aged and why? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 22, 2019, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-has-changed-the-most-as-youve-aged-and-why/832891 "2019-04-22T14:38:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2019, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-has-changed-the-most-as-youve-aged-and-why/832891/83 "2019-04-24T14:32:40Z")
I’m much more of a re-reader of books than a re-watcher of movies. The only standouts in this category are things I watched as a fourth grader (or general equiv) and then saw decades later as an adult. In that vein I’ll nominate _The Absent-Minded Professor_ (the original “flubber” movie), _The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes_, and _The Shaggy Dog_. My tolerance for silly sitcoms crafted around a single farfetched premise has apparently declined with age. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2019, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-has-changed-the-most-as-youve-aged-and-why/832891/84 "2019-04-24T15:35:56Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > I wasn’t aware I needed some sort of named complex to think it was unfunny and unnecessarily offensive, but you do you. I didn’t say you did. But if you wish to take offence, you do you. ---
**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:** [April 24, 2019, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-has-changed-the-most-as-youve-aged-and-why/832891/85 "2019-04-24T17:11:17Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > When I was in second grade, I thought _ **Journey to the Seventh Planet** _ was the coolest SF movie ever. When I watched it online a few years ago, I couldn’t believe how bad it was. :eek: > > I wonder if _ **Robinson Crusoe on Mars** _ stands up any better. 😕 They bragged about Robinson Crusoe on Mars being pretty scientifically accurate when it came out. Overall, I think it holds up. Its image of Mars is completely off – no canals, the atmosphere is a helluva lot thinner than people thought it was then, and the odds of finding liquid water there – always through slim – are even slimmer now. And those oxygen-bearing rocks were outrageous even then (although I’d be willing to give them a pass for having oxygen relatively easily extracted from minerals. If you don’t allow that, then you don’t have a story, because your hero asphyxiates in a day.) But it handled the situation in a much more mature way than most other writers and directors would have. And its the only movie I’ve ever seen that handled the “self destruct” issue in a plausible and non-dramatic fashion. So I still rate it highly Journey to the Seventh Planet always was a kinda dumb movie, though. ---
**Author:** ![MDfive21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@MDfive21](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MDfive21)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2019, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-has-changed-the-most-as-youve-aged-and-why/832891/86 "2019-04-24T17:17:48Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Literally, this is the answer. It’s not even possible to purchase the original versions of the original trilogy, and whenever original film reels surface, Lucasfilm purportedly shows up like the Men in Black and confiscates them. look for the ‘despecialized’ versions on your favorite trrent site. very much worth it to watch them as originally screened. the re-releases of 97 are unwatchable with the hokey cgi beasts and the infamous re-cut of the han/greedo scene. > **[Harmy's Despecialized Edition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmy%27s_Despecialized_Edition)** > > Star Wars: The Despecialized Edition, also known as Harmy's Despecialized Edition, is a fan-created film preservation of the original Star Wars trilogy films: Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). It is a high-quality replica of the out-of-print theatrical versions, created by a team of Star Wars fans with the intention of preserving the films, culturally and historically. The project was led by Petr Harmáček, then an English teacher, from Plzeň, Czech ... han shot first! ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2019, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-has-changed-the-most-as-youve-aged-and-why/832891/87 "2019-04-24T17:21:59Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > I didn’t say you did. But if you wish to take offence, you do you. I have and I will! RAWRR!! ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2019, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-has-changed-the-most-as-youve-aged-and-why/832891/89 "2019-04-24T17:45:08Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Lethal Weapon movies - yeah, one of the lead actors is now only a disgraced antisemite, but also the entire premise wants you to root for an aggressive police officer with diagnosed mental problems that hurts people indiscriminately in vigilante justice. > > That isn’t amusing anymore. Not a movie, but similarly I’ve been watching old Law and Order, and am very disturbed by some of Jack McCoy’s actions. ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-has-changed-the-most-as-youve-aged-and-why/832891/90 "2019-04-25T18:11:19Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I’ve never seen it but supposedly rent is a film where your pov on who is the bad guy changes with age. I still like the music but Rent as a story is just terrible now that I’m older. The maturity levels of the characters, the timelines and the stories don’t make sense. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-has-changed-the-most-as-youve-aged-and-why/832891/91 "2019-04-25T18:46:00Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I’ve never seen it but supposedly rent is a film where your pov on who is the bad guy changes with age. The bad guy is AIDS, right? 😉 I think I always saw Ferris Bueller as an asshole. But he’s a fun asshole when he’s on your side. I have had friends like him (though less extreme). Yeah, they use you and they are jerks, but they sure are fun to be around for a while. I agree that most comedies do not age very well. I think part of it is that comedy is often transgressive, and it’s very easy for something that was mildly transgressive a few decades ago to become either totally beyond the pale NOT FUNNY or pretty darn tame. ---
**Author:** ![TimfromNapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TimfromNapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimfromNapa)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-has-changed-the-most-as-youve-aged-and-why/832891/92 "2019-04-25T19:38:23Z")
Vindication at last. I never cared for The Blues Brothers. I consider it more corny than funny. ---
**Author:** ![TimfromNapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TimfromNapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimfromNapa)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-has-changed-the-most-as-youve-aged-and-why/832891/93 "2019-04-25T19:53:47Z")
I saw The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai when it came out and I came out numb. I gave it another chance several years later since it is so well liked by some friends. I still did not like it. I gave it one more chance when I saw that it was streaming on Netflix. That time I guess I had the right mind set for it and I liked it. I still have a feeling that a good half hour of it ended up on the editing room floor, so I hope to see a director’s cut of the film. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-has-changed-the-most-as-youve-aged-and-why/832891/94 "2019-04-25T19:59:08Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Both _Caddyshack_ and _Animal House_ don’t seem that funny to me anymore. Animal House and Revenge of the Nerds both have scenes that were funny when we first saw them, but gross us out now. In AH, the scene where Tom Hulce’s character goes out with the cashier from the grocery store. They’re drunk, and about to have some fun, when she confesses she’s only 13. This startles him but things progress anyway. And in RotN, when the main character wears a mask, and encounters the cheerleader in some kind of maze. She, thinking it’s her boyfriend, has sex with him. Afterward, he pulls off the mask and confesses that nerds are good at sex because it’s all they think about. They wind up together. Errr, no… rape (even if she consented, she consented to sex with someone completely different, so it IS rape) ain’t funny. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: Well, I can’t say my opinion has _changed_, as we saw it shortly after it was in theaters, but we found it to be one of the least funny movies ever. Here’s this entitled, narcissistic kid who wants to have his fun no matter whose life he wrecks - and we’re supposed to be sympathetic? I could imagine others thinking it funny at the time and realizing later how awful it really was. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-has-changed-the-most-as-youve-aged-and-why/832891/95 "2019-04-25T22:38:35Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > I agree that most comedies do not age very well. I think part of it is that comedy is often transgressive, and it’s very easy for something that was mildly transgressive a few decades ago to become either totally beyond the pale NOT FUNNY or pretty darn tame. Another way is for the jokes to be so funny they get constantly repeated and circulated to point they become overly-familiar and trite. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-has-changed-the-most-as-youve-aged-and-why/832891/96 "2019-04-26T16:36:39Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > Another way is for the jokes to be so funny they get constantly repeated and circulated to point they become overly-familiar and trite. True. Although it seems to me that the _very best_ comedies manage to dodge this despite the repetition. The Marx Brothers are still funny. Monty Python is still funny. Airplane! is still funny. Despite the jokes in those movies being _so often repeated_. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-has-changed-the-most-as-youve-aged-and-why/832891/97 "2019-04-26T23:45:24Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Yeah, Real Genius is still genuinely enjoyable for me. Me, too. It really holds up. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-has-changed-the-most-as-youve-aged-and-why/832891/98 "2019-04-26T23:52:31Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > How about Woody Allen’s **Manhattan**? > > Gorgeously shot in black and white, exceptional score. For fans at the time it was peak Woody Allen. For me as a college-aged viewer when it came out, the older man/teen girl relationship didn’t stick out so much because I had known a few girls in high school in similar relationships. > > But viewed today? Now that I am well into adulthood? Even setting aside the allegations against Woody - hoo boy. I only watch it for the dachshund. Well, and the score. Also the only reason I watch _Love and Death._ The score, not the dachshund. I don’t believe there were any dachshunds in _Love and Death._ ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2019, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-has-changed-the-most-as-youve-aged-and-why/832891/99 "2019-04-27T00:03:10Z")
> [@TimfromNapa](#): > > I saw The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai when it came out and I came out numb. I gave it another chance several years later since it is so well liked by some friends. I still did not like it. I gave it one more chance when I saw that it was streaming on Netflix. That time I guess I had the right mind set for it and I liked it. I still have a feeling that a good half hour of it ended up on the editing room floor, so I hope to see a director’s cut of the film. I’ve always loved it. A friend of mine took his daughter and her friends to see it when they were around 12, and they didn’t get it, so it influenced him. Years later he saw it again and really liked it. ---
**Author:** ![cieskokid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cieskokid/32/5374_2.png) [@cieskokid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cieskokid)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2019, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-has-changed-the-most-as-youve-aged-and-why/832891/100 "2019-04-28T03:44:40Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Actually, although _1941_ is still a prime example of a self-indulgent mess with its main cast smirking their way through, I actually laugh more at it than I did when it first came out. So serendipitous! I just got this movie on DVD from my local lib’ary branch [it IS Steven Spielberg’s 2nd movie, y’know] but for 2reasons only - 1]the opening scene of a nude female bather & her ocean “encounter”; ie Spielberg masterfully spoofing himself & his previous film, a li’l thing called “Jaws”; 2}the scene near the end, the town square a mass of chaos & Belushi’s character Wild Bill Kelso knocks a soldier off his roadhog motorcycle 2get outta town. He kickstarts it up but the soldier tries to hold him back; Belushi points in the other direction & says, “Oh, look…a baby wolf!” & when the soldier looks away, he smirks in that Belushi way, hunches down & motors away. Because,the rest o’this flick is indeed a vague mess! But if u see it somewhere, GET IT! simply 4the above scenes! ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2019, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-has-changed-the-most-as-youve-aged-and-why/832891/101 "2019-04-28T04:55:32Z")
It’s still a good movie but I don’t think _ **The Crying Game** _ has aged particularly well. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2019, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-has-changed-the-most-as-youve-aged-and-why/832891/102 "2019-04-28T14:33:50Z")
> [@TimfromNapa](#): > > I saw The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai when it came out and I came out numb. I gave it another chance several years later since it is so well liked by some friends. I still did not like it. I gave it one more chance when I saw that it was streaming on Netflix. That time I guess I had the right mind set for it and I liked it. I still have a feeling that a good half hour of it ended up on the editing room floor, so I hope to see a director’s cut of the film. Pretty much the opposite for me. I’ve seen _The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai_ described as a geek culture homage before geek culture even existed. When I first saw it, it was so full of crazy-cool ideas, and went off in so many unpredictable directions, and referenced so many tropes that I recognized emotionally but not intellectually, that I couldn’t help but love it. I recently re-watched it and…meh? It just seems like a confused, underdeveloped mess, and Peter Weller just sucks the energy out of any scene he’s in. The end credits heroes’ dance procession is still awesome, though. Beats 90% of the credit cookies in recent movies. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2019, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-has-changed-the-most-as-youve-aged-and-why/832891/103 "2019-04-28T14:55:33Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Not a movie, but similarly I’ve been watching old Law and Order, and am very disturbed by some of Jack McCoy’s actions. Seconded. Even the first time around, I referred to McCoy as the Grand Inquisitor of New York. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-has-changed-the-most-as-youve-aged-and-why/832891.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-has-changed-the-most-as-youve-aged-and-why/832891.md?page=6)