DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Movies that haven't aged well

Trying to jump on the theme of rocky's bad sports movie thread a bit, but I also see something similar pop up on my "advertised" Facebook feed. I want to see who's willing to throw on a flame-suit here. The question is: Which movies that were once considered "good", haven't really aged that well or were really not that good in the first place?

I mentioned Major League in the sports thread. Not because the movie was really that bad, but because I didn't realize how cringe-worthy they whole Jake Taylor love story on the side was until I viewed it again.

The one movie that really comes to mind for me is "The Right Stuff". Growing up, that was considered to be the quintessential Pilot/Astronaut movie. I hadn't watched it in over a decade when I saw it was on TV and decided to watch it with my wife, convincing her it was "really good!" Then we sat there and watched it, and I didn't realize how bad it was. Not to mention it was over 3 hours!

The other one I can think of that's probably flame-suit worthy is "The Godfather". I never watched it until a few years ago, and it just felt slow-paced and plot-less. You could see there was a lot of artistic cinematography to it and the special effects at the time were probably really good. But for watching it for the first time now, it didn't feel like it was all that good.

Just curious if anyone else has a movie that they loved growing up, but watching it again recently left them a little less impressed?

I questioned The Godfather too a while back in another thread. Yes, it was a bit slow and too cinematic at times, but the parts that were good, they've been copied so many times in other media that when I saw them, they weren't new or shocking, even though The Godfather did it first.

The scene reference I use...SPOILERS...at the end, when Michael's at the baptism and those murders are happening that he orchestrated, it's a chilling scene unless you've already watched Walter White do the same thing in Breaking Bad. I think I remember Vince Gilligan, the creator of BB, saying that he did it as an homage to The Godfather.

Maybe that's not how the The Godfather hasn't aged well, but that it being so good at the time, it's been copied or referenced so many times that new viewers won't get what was so special about it. If that makes sense how I worded it. Sorry.

As to the question, I'd think a few 80's flicks where a cell phone in the movie would have fixed most of the problems.

Also, age is a factor. When I first saw RotJ I thought the plot was amazing and the inclusion of the Ewoks couldn't have been a better idea. Well, I was 10 at the time. When I re-watched it as an adult (24) I thought it was trashy.

The whole first act is pointless. Why send in R2D2 and C3PO if you know they're going to be captured? Why send Lando in beforehand to hide as a guard and really do nothing? Why send in Leia by herself? Just send in Luke first. Heck, R2D2 had his lightsaber the whole time, why did he go in without it? Such poor planning and it's a huge chunk of the movie.

And the rest of the movie has them going to the Ewok planet to blow up the death star, which happened in ANH. That's it. Nothing else happens. There's no "plot".

Plus, watching the Ewok's battle the storm troopers with rocks was cringy. Sure, storm troopers are known for terrible aim, but come on.



The first Storm Trooper never even shot at the Ewok that took 3 seconds to throw that rock sling. And he's wearing a helmet, so why would a rock knock him out immediately?

You bring up points of Jedi that I never thought of actually, but the Ewoks have always been a glaring blemish on it for me. Also, Han seemed reduced to so much comic relief throughout it. Tarzan Chewie anyone?? If it weren't for Luke, Vader, & Palpatine, that movie would be a HUGE let down.

As for an addition to the discussion. The film I rewatched recently that I think hasn't aged well is Natural Born Killers. I'm sure plenty of the old farts on here will tell me it was never good, but I ate up all that hip violence of the early to mid 90s in high school & college. I thought NBK was so cool and groundbreaking.

NOW, it seems so childish. The crazy editing and flashing images is just distracting and annoying. And it's been aped plenty since, not their fault though.

Maybe just growing more mature and settling down & having kids is a factor. I don't know. I can't explain it. Pulp Fiction holds up perfectly for me. Not exactly the same but definitely the flagship film of that era.

I'm thinking and thinking and nothing's coming to me. Maybe later. I am all about getting film-geeky . . .

P.S. - The Godfather? Aged poorly?? Come ON, MAN . . .

I'm always amazed at how many of the Moive's made from the Mid 1930's to the mid 40's that are still relevant today !

My thoughts exactly . The Godfather is a cinematic master piece that will always hold up

I know what you mean. I was watching Karate Kid (the original) with the kids, and we were watching the whole wax-on/wax-off misdirection scene, which is probably one of the best ever ... and my kids were like, "Oh we knew that's what was going on, because they did the same thing in Ninjago!"

You're right about RoTJ too. I'd like to call it "Adolescence Glasses" where the things you watch growing up sort of calibrate what you think of as "good" in movies. (works the same in music and such as well too.) Then when you watch new movies, they never live up to what you watched in your younger years, even if the new stuff is essentially the same thing as the old. Or you re-watch something you haven't seen in years, and you realize how bad it actually was.

Gremlins.

I can't think of any offhand but I like the topic.

There's a ton of these types of movies.

One right off the top of my head:



I actually like this movie. But it's very, very New York City circa 1960.

What. . . the. . . guh. . . rrrggggh . . .

I remember seeing this movie called "The Desk Set", which had a plot of Spencer Tracy being in charge of computerizing the research department of a TV network, headed by Katherine Hepburn. It was from 1957. Here's the computer:



The computer actually had a second story for exhaust pipes and cooling fans, etc.

That is a fantastic movie! Tracy and Hepburn were magic together.

Children of the corn

The original Around the World in 80 Days with David Niven and Shirley McClaine.

"When a Stranger Calls" (original) was creepy when younger but didn't hold up well.

I guess "Tron" was a bad idea to begin with .

Dad took me to see "Billion Dollar Hobo" twice - we don't speak anymore.

Who's to say ??

one of my all-time favorites .. and favorite Christmas movie ... Home Alone

Still love watching it for nostalgia, but that entire plot is destroyed in today's iPhone world

Easier to remember good movies than bad.

(any) Star Trek is pretty awful all around.

Oh Forrest Gump is a terrible movie.

Was too young to experience all the better movies of childhood, and too old to appreciate all the better movies that came along after some time later.

" In Broad Daylight" They show it on Lifetime because it's a woman being abused plot, but it's not much about that, and it's a nice movie to watch, true story based.

" The positively true adventures of the alleged Texas cheerleader murdering mom" is a decent watch if you can find it, it was an HBO original.

" The day Reagan was shot" is a decent movie, These hold your attention all the way through.

" The good, the bad, and the ugly, has some intense drama in those final scenes, and others to build up the characters along the way.

Truth is stanger than fiction, search the phrase, "dog shoots man", it's always duck hunters.

'Easy Rider'

Bond movie, Live and Let Die.

The 70s stereotypes are just amazing. I just don't recall the 70s being that ridiculous, but I also didn't live in NYC.

Actually, Bond movies are good examples of this. Just the sexism and such, the ridiculousness of story-lines and even the acting. I forget the movie, but there's one scene where a group of guys die for some reason, like a poison cloud or something, and one of the guys runs around, slaps into a wall, and slowly slides down.

Throw Long says Forrest Gump was terrible.
That says a lot about Throw Long.

A good movie stands the test of time, if it was good then it's good now.
An old movie that sucks in 2018 sucked when it was released.

I tried to recall a movie to match the spirit of the thread, but I can't think of one.

Same here.

go watch children of the corn again.
I think a lot of this is because we were much younger when watching these movies the first time.

I still smdh when I recall that it beat out Shawshank Redemption for best picture that year.

Temple of Doom looks pretty bad now. Raiders and Last Crusade still hold up, but Temple of Doom looks so cheesy, especially the mine car chase.

And I agree about Forrest Gump, I didn't really like it then and nothing has changed.

You actually thought Children of the Corn was good when it came out? LOL

This is a cool topic, but like a couple of others, I can't really contribute.

I was going to type this one out, but linking the video was easier.

"The Big Bang Theory : The Raiders Minimization"

Pretty much every Kevin Costner film.

I still love Temple of Doom!

i do love field of dreams tho

You don't like Field of Dreams?

Count me as one of the guys that never liked the movie in the first place! Although, I've never been a fan of movies where "Kids get the best of adults". Rookie of the Year, Spykids, etc.

It's cool. It's a good baseball movie that doesn't include a protagonist who stalks his ex-gf. I didn't say all of his movies were bad just like 95%

j/c

This is swaying towards movies that people NEVER liked.

We're talking used to like it, now . . . not so much.

When I was a kid I loved the old Dracula (Bela Lugosi), Frankenstein (Boris Karloff), the Mummy (Karloff again) and the Wolfman (Lon Chaney Jr) from Universal studios so much - couldn't get enough of them. I even had some Revell models of them all that I glued together and painted, then left on my dresser top. Now I just think they are kind of campy and quaint reminders of a time when movies were less about special effects, and the "horror" was left to the imagination of a 7-11 year old. Kids today would probably think they were pretty boring. Who would be scared by Lugosi's Dracula after seeing Sam Raimi's "30 Days of Night"?

Police Academy movies i loved as a kid.

Watched one the other night. Just wow.

Cyborg was on here night before last (Van Damme)

Shocking.

Shawshank was a box office flop - Brilliant movie and still stands up. Didn't mind Forrest Gump either tbh

Eh, that's not always the case. Plenty of movies are thought of as "good" by a large number of people, for whatever reasons. But then as time goes by, the special effects or suspension of disbelief that worked years ago, doesn't work anymore.

An example I can think of might be Avatar. Isn't that the highest grossing movie ever? I never watched it because I heard it was basically a 3-hour Dances with Wolves in Space. I asked everyone why I should see it and it was always, "The special effects are amazing". So now, several years later, that everyone has seen some version of High-Def 3D floating things ... the movie itself is probably considered pretty weak.

Another issue might be the "facts" surrounding a movie's plot. I brought up The Right Stuff as my first example. Part of the problem with that movie is a lot of it is just plain made up. If you know anything about the actual space program, the movie is pretty garbage. They pretty much character assassinated Gus Grissom as well.

Other movies might take some pretty big artistic liberties with science, physics or technology that might not of been common knowledge years ago, but now would make you shake your head. I can't think of a movie example, but I remember seeing a McGuyver episode where he wanted to "enhance a video using a bitmap". Not only was it one of the first uses of the stupid "zoom and enhance" trope, but even the terminology is comical now.

Billy Jack