Some movies just don't hold up.

Batutta

Batutta

Major Contributor
Just watched Time Bandits. I used to love that movie as a kid. Now I see it as the collection of loose Monty Python-esque skits patched into a story that it is. It's not a terrible film and has its amusements, but much of it is kind of shrill, the story has no point, the kid serves no purpose in the story, and a literal act of god saves the day at the end...And my daughter hated it.
 
like you, i loved it as a youngster (i don't know your age, but i'm 33)...the end of TB has always bothered me. not sure why, but his parents touching the rock and blowing up?....just stupid. but you're right...it's a skit film, and being about time travel made each "story" just stand separately from one another...a little too much.
 
Invasion USA, to this day I still don't know how Chuck Norris knew where the terrorist were. It think you were suppose to assume he had super secret intel. Seriously wherever they were doing something wrong, Chuck Norris would drive a pick up truck through a window and stop them. I LOVED THAT MOVIE AS A KID! LOL. Watch it now it's quite laughable.

Saw some things recently that made me say, "What the hell was I watchin'?" but I don't remember exactly what it was. Something I'd seen and enjoyed greatly as a kid, but watching it now made me shake my head at how bad it was. Any eighties hip hop movie fits into this category including "Breakin'". TV shows fall into this too, the old "Knight Rider" for instance, but once you start watching an ep, with The Hoff and Kitt that's it, you're glued to screen for an hour.

The irony is things like TMNT still holds up today simply because the film was the comic basically, no other reason and if you excepted the "science" and story the rest holds up, but once anything comes off as not making sense (beyond the initial concept itself) that's the head scratching starts. And that thing that was so cool back then, you go, "What?"

And old cartoons are even worse, "Turbo Teen". "Kids Super Power Hour w/ Shazam" and let's add "Kid Video" to that list..."from my video to my raidoooo." Right. My beloved "GI Joe" has to take some heat too and "Mask" when they became a "racing team". ("Wacky Races" was a better concept, they at least had my boy Dick Dastardly). Don't let me get on "Power Rangers" which will steal 30 minutes of my life if I come across a new episode based on the fact along this show lasted 17 years and I'm simply enthralled by the evolution the Power Rangers. And honestly this cornball show could've continued but they chose to shut it down, I would've like to see it go for twenty.

By the way, have you seen the Wiki on "Wacky Races"? It's massive for a cartoon. The only one with 24 reoccurring characters every episode.

-Nate
 
Last edited:
I don't know if Invasion USA ever held up, even back in the day.

As for films that don't hold up, there are some effects shots in The Terminator that look pretty awful. I still love the film though, and will take its low grade effects and awesome story over a lot of the underwritten and over-hyped stuff we get these days.

Then there are B-horror films like Evil Dead, Dead Alive, Bad Taste, etc... that were always so low budget but were still awesome, and still are great flicks.
 
Yes, for some reason "Evil Dead" still works, as well as "Ghost Busters", but consider the type of movies they were. Invasion USA was a big film back in the day, but looking at it now it's laughable. It's funny how there's a lot of these films but none of them are coming to mind right now.

-Nate
 
I Loved Time Bandits as a kid and have not seen it years. Evil Dead still holds up for sure. So does Predator, Robocop and many others. Commando is one that is hilarious now. so is Invasion USA, and Cobra. One movie I still watch and love is Marked For Death. Don't know why though.
 
I know it's considered a classic... but the original Star Wars has, over time, completely lost it's luster... at 13 it was the best thing since sliced bread, but the older I get the less it is even charming to me, and it's downright bad in areas... Effects still hold up well though.
 
Just a few that come to mind.

Still good to me:

Die Hard
Predator
Total Recall
Dead Poets Society
Rasing Arizona
Demolition Man
First Blood
Return of the Jedi
Evil Dead 1 and 2
Marked For Death
Coming to America
Red Dawn
The Breakfast Club
Beverly Hills Cop
Legend


Not as good as I remember:
Commando
Day of the Dead
Invasion USA
Hard Target
The Golden Child
Another 48 hours
The Last boyscout
The last starfighter
 
phudsontx said:
I just saw Pulp Fiction again. It was not nearly as good as I thought back then.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I opened this thread with that at the front of my mind, thinking I was gonna get flamed for saying it. I thought it was brilliant when I first saw it, and I still think there's good stuff in there. But mostly I just keep saying "get on with it already"
 
Last edited:
Brandon Rice said:
I know it's considered a classic... but the original Star Wars has, over time, completely lost it's luster... at 13 it was the best thing since sliced bread, but the older I get the less it is even charming to me, and it's downright bad in areas... Effects still hold up well though.
Click to expand...


Thats why I dont buy dvds & music cd's etc....it becomes old very quickly and ofcourse predictable..forget about them, ignore them and then one day you wil be sitting in front of the tv and cable shows one of your favourite movies..all of a sudden its like reliving an old memory.

People ask me why I dont have cd player in my car , the radio is just better you dont know what's coming up next.

Personally I dont even have to see a trailor.
I like it better when I know nothing about a movie ....the first camera moves or non moves should say it all.

Invasion USA rocked....Nathyn did you just see it before you posted :kali:
 
Last edited:
It's funny, the original theatrical cut of Star Wars still holds me in my seat...but none of the re-jiggered versions even interest me in sitting down to watch.

There are movies and tv shows that I avoid because I know that seeing them now as an adult will wreck my childhood memories of how awesome they were, at the time.

Although Time Bandits still works, for me. Can't say why exactly, but it still does.
 
Actually, now that I think about it there are very few films or shows that make a much poorer impression on me in review, than the first time I saw them - it's more usual for a given show to grow on me, where I didn't care for it the first time (or for me to just keep on disliking it as much as I did on the first viewing). Excepting stuff that I really used to dig when I was a kid and not sophisticated enough to be distracted by the kind of things that would derail those shows for me now.
 
I'm watching the 1990 release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with my kids tonight.

I actually like it better now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top