Movies that (you feel) have not aged well???

[AcesandEights]

I introduced my girlfriend to Top Secret on netflix a few weeks back, as I had watched the film a lot when I was a kid and seemed to recall liking it at the time. Of course, its been 20 years since I've seen this and though I don't think I held high expectations for it, it just fell flat for me, and my girlfriend didn't go in for it either. I mean it was wretched. I got up after the first 20 or so minutes of the film, told my girlfriend I'd be back and went to bed... I don't know why, but I felt the need to make good an escape. Anyway, I was just wondering what films haven't aged very well in your eyes, or what movies you loved as a kid that you just can't sit through nowadays (probably an easier to list to come up with)?

[acealive1]

real genius, most of the friday the 13th series because it looks so dated, ghostbusters

[bassman]

ghostbusters Blasphemy.

[BillyRay]

Burton's Batman. Aged worse than Nicholson...

[clanglee]

I hear ya about Top Secret. . .It's something about those silly comedy movies that just don't hold well. But I still love to quote the movie. "Say Chowder Frenchie" or "This is our tunnel expert DeJaVu. . . ." "Have we not me before?" I can't think of any badly aged movies offhand right now.

[bassman]

Oh yeah....I forgot to take this opportunity to be the honest fan here: Dawn of the Dead. I still love it. For some reasons I can't really explain. But aged well, it has not.

[darth los]

The truth he speaks.

[krakenslayer]

I think Dawn of the Dead has aged badly in some respects and very well in others. Visually, it does look quite dated. But the actual plot, characters, dialogue, etc. is still very gripping even today. Ironically, in my experience, newcomers to the film now tend to accept it as a film of its time (thanks, I suppose, to the increased awareness and understanding of 70s exploitation movies in the modern mainstream due to the likes of Tarantino) and overlook the imperfections more willingly than hardcore fans. Superman 1 & 2 are another couple of movies that have aged poorly in certain respects while still remaining extremely watchable and powerful. I'm sad to say, I think Halloween has aged quite poorly. I saw the original film quite late in my horror-watching life (at about 16) and I did not find it scary, shocking or even very suspenseful at all. Don't get me wrong; it's an entertaining film, and Donald Pleasance is awesome in it, but it just didn't affect me much at all. I can understand why it was considered quite ground-breaking at the time, but to me, The Fog, The Thing, EFNY and Assault on Precinct 13 are the true early-Carpenter classics. Those four films are virtually timeless. Ghostbusters hasn't aged at all. The effects still look great, the comedy is as sharp as ever. We still sometimes use the Blu-Ray at work to demonstrate how great Hi-Def looks on a big screen TV.

[JDFP]

Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will". I always get a kick out of the subtle things in older films that just don't happen anymore... -- People smoking EVERYWHERE (elevators, freakin' hospitals man, around children, etc.). -- 70's films with 70's fashion/style, man. I find it so groovy, you dig? Honestly, you can tell if a film is made in the 70's or not just by looking at stuff people are wearing (this includes "Dawn" '78). If they have clothes on that people in any other decade would find atrociously appaling (or look back at with a grin saying: "Wow, awesome velour sports jacket, man! I bet you get all the chics with that!") or just strangely interesting then you know it's a 70's film. Same thing goes with 70's fashion. Good God, there was some ugly carpet and furniture made in the 70's. This is why "Dawn" has aged so badly (more so than the original "NOTLD" if you ask me) -- because of the clothes/style. -- Films where all women do is scream when confronted by a monster and freeze in terror relying on valiant men to save them from the evil whateveritis creature. (This goes hand in hand with films where women actually defer to their husband's/man's better judgement ). j.p.

[MoonSylver]

Hurm. Don't get the lack of love for "Top Secret" at all. If I found it funny back in the day, I still find it funny now. Caught the 1st hour of "Airplane" the other night (which is a move that is MUCH more dated than Top Secret) & it still cracked me up. There are a tone of 80's comedies I still feel this way about. I'm pretty tolerant of the way a move ages, IF it's one that I'm "into". So Dawn, Phantasm, etc, while I can recognize that certain aspects of them are "dated", I've seen them so many times, that it doesn't affect me. All this recent discussion of "Superman" did make me think of this very subject though. I saw it for the first time in a long time last year, and was pretty shocked how dated & retro it seemed.

[clanglee]

Ooohhh I though of one. . . Bachelor Party!!

[triste realtà]

The Boogens TCM October 22 is what I am going to see about. I found it very creepy way back then on TMC. Other than that Beyond and Back's single hell scene didn't freak me out as much as it did on Suspense Theater. Invasion from Inner Earth was a little less weird but not much.

[DjfunkmasterG]

Dawn hasn't aged well... but it is still enjoyable to watch. Meatballs hasn't aged well, neither has a majority of the horror flicks we grew up on. However, I will say the horror that has aged very well... Day of the Dead still works, Return of the Living Dead still works. ANOES 3 works... But a great majority of the flicks we grew up on haven't aged well at all. However, their age shouldn't stop your enjoyment of those movie in the least.

[LouCipherr]

Day of the Dead still works, Return of the Living Dead still works. ANOES 3 works... But a great majority of the flicks we grew up on haven't aged well at all. However, their age shouldn't stop your enjoyment of those movie in the least. ANOES 3? Are you on dope? If you had said The Thing, I might agree with you, but ANOES 3?

[bassman]

Day of the Dead still works, Return of the Living Dead still works. These two haven't aged well for their music alone. If Day had a different score, you could probably convince someone that it was made last year. Return would be a bit more tricky because of it's 80's "punk" thing, but the music is what really dates it. Ghostbusters hasn't aged at all. The effects still look great, the comedy is as sharp as ever. We still sometimes use the Blu-Ray at work to demonstrate how great Hi-Def looks on a big screen TV. Couldn't agree more with the first two sentences(obviously, if you know me). But I would be careful with that Blu Ray. It IS the best looking version of the film yet, but it's still really grainy. I think that would probably turn some people off. You should show them The Dark Knight, Wizard of Oz, Caino Royale, Godfather or something like that. Those picture qualities are enough to turn even the most stubborn BR-hater over to our side.