re-evaluating older films....
Discussion
I'be been watching a few old, classic (and not so classic!) films and it struck me that all these films I enjoyed as a younger person are more than quite crap in some cases and in most cases insanely slooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Recently I watched (mainly courtesy of Film4):
Commando - crap. I knew it was crap back in the day but it was still enjoyable, I watched it yesterday and, some of the 'iconic' scenes apart, realised that it's actually total, unmitigated s
te! The climax of the film where he wipes out half an army was poor 35 years ago - time has not been kind!!!!
The Enforcer/The Good, the Bad and the Ugly/For a Few Dollars more - slow, with poor acting (kinda expected in the spaghetti westerns) and continuity.
Big Trouble in Little China - still fun but slow and the SFX... shockingly bad even for the period
The thing is though that I'm worried that I'll watch some other former favourite films and be disappointed (Terminator and T2 I'm looking at you here!). I appreciate that SFX have moved on but the pacing back then is actually quite laughable by today's standards (in truth I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing!) the music and background noise effects mixes have also changed out of recognition.
Any thoughts?
Recently I watched (mainly courtesy of Film4):
Commando - crap. I knew it was crap back in the day but it was still enjoyable, I watched it yesterday and, some of the 'iconic' scenes apart, realised that it's actually total, unmitigated s
te! The climax of the film where he wipes out half an army was poor 35 years ago - time has not been kind!!!!The Enforcer/The Good, the Bad and the Ugly/For a Few Dollars more - slow, with poor acting (kinda expected in the spaghetti westerns) and continuity.
Big Trouble in Little China - still fun but slow and the SFX... shockingly bad even for the period
The thing is though that I'm worried that I'll watch some other former favourite films and be disappointed (Terminator and T2 I'm looking at you here!). I appreciate that SFX have moved on but the pacing back then is actually quite laughable by today's standards (in truth I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing!) the music and background noise effects mixes have also changed out of recognition.
Any thoughts?
Eric Mc said:
I wouldn't look on those as "old" films anyway.
We are really old Eric, the 80’s is as far as this lot remember. I rewatched ‘An American in Paris’. With Gene Kelly recently, now thats a film !
Amazingly different in production, camera work, the whole street in the studio thing, it’s hilarious. Of course the dancing is amazing, but the plot is aha a little thin !
Funny to watch back
Gargamel said:
We are really old Eric, the 80’s is as far as this lot remember.
I rewatched ‘An American in Paris’. With Gene Kelly recently, now thats a film !
Amazingly different in production, camera work, the whole street in the studio thing, it’s hilarious. Of course the dancing is amazing, but the plot is aha a little thin !
Funny to watch back
Yes to me "classic" is pre 1960s. I love Hollywood movies from the "Golden Age" - which is from the start of the sound era (1926) to the late 1950s.I rewatched ‘An American in Paris’. With Gene Kelly recently, now thats a film !
Amazingly different in production, camera work, the whole street in the studio thing, it’s hilarious. Of course the dancing is amazing, but the plot is aha a little thin !
Funny to watch back
irocfan said:
Commando - crap. I knew it was crap back in the day but it was still enjoyable, I watched it yesterday and, some of the 'iconic' scenes apart, realised that it's actually total, unmitigated ste! The climax of the film where he wipes out half an army was poor 35 years ago - time has not been kind!!!!
Surely it's worth watching just for the legendary continuity error and the resultant self-repairing Porsche? te! The climax of the film where he wipes out half an army was poor 35 years ago - time has not been kind!!!!
I suspect a lot might have to do with the fact you were a lot younger when you saw them first and thus more tolerant of a jolly good romp without expecting Wildean wit or Shakespearean plot development. There were a lot of B-movies made with A-movie budgets in those days, and Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Lundgren et al were guilty of more than most. They seemed simpler times when a big name and big muscles was enough to hang an entire film around. I think if you re-watch them now you just have to accept they're of another time and not expect too much.
Films that had a USP based on a single new (for the time) effect tend to date very badly IMHO because inevitably time leaves the wow factor behind as technology overtakes it (Predator, Terminator II). With that said, I would rather watch the slow, paced art of, say 2001 than get motion sickness trying to hang on throughout an entire Michael Bay Transformers film despite the fact that the effects are eons ahead of what could be done back then. I also think that just because a film is dated it doesn't make it irrelevant. I still love Escape From New York for example because it's just a great heroic opera piece like an Edgar Rice Burroughs novel and it doesn't matter that it's now set in a future that's actually the past and Snake lands his glider on the top of the World Trade Centre
I think if the story's good enough the dated effects and fluffy filming don't matter. But, as for The Good The Bad and the Ugly being terribly acted? Have a word with yourself
. Eli Wallach especially is utterly superb. Much of what looks like bad acting comes from the terrible overdubbing some versions of the film are blighted with 
And slow? I'd argue "paced"....Edited by Nik da Greek on Friday 26th July 09:36
I find this - some films age badly, some films still have great impact. For example, for me, Jaws and Alien make the most of suspense and characterisation, its not all about the special effects, and the wobbly rubber shark aside, these still stand up very well today.
But there are a couple of iconic movies where I watch and cringe along with. Apocalypse Now and Pulp Fiction just seem to be horrendously cliched, but on release, they were originally groundbreaking. I guess other films (or TV shows, or commercials, and whacky film buffs who love quoting lines from movies) have taken lines, themes, soundtrack, characters and repeated ad nauseum elsewhere.
On first viewing these films were pretty stunning. But then I also think I was an impressionable youngster who thought they were cool and amazing. Now I'm grown up and may well have a different view on life.
A good example of this for me is Ferris Bueller. I loved this film when I was younger, and it came on TV recently so I watched it with some anticipation. But and apart from some memorable scenes, Bueller came across as a total wker (he's saving his best mate Cameron, really?), and the lines, probably due to over-exposure seemed tired and predictable.
But there are a couple of iconic movies where I watch and cringe along with. Apocalypse Now and Pulp Fiction just seem to be horrendously cliched, but on release, they were originally groundbreaking. I guess other films (or TV shows, or commercials, and whacky film buffs who love quoting lines from movies) have taken lines, themes, soundtrack, characters and repeated ad nauseum elsewhere.
On first viewing these films were pretty stunning. But then I also think I was an impressionable youngster who thought they were cool and amazing. Now I'm grown up and may well have a different view on life.
A good example of this for me is Ferris Bueller. I loved this film when I was younger, and it came on TV recently so I watched it with some anticipation. But and apart from some memorable scenes, Bueller came across as a total w
ker (he's saving his best mate Cameron, really?), and the lines, probably due to over-exposure seemed tired and predictable.Eric Mc said:
Gargamel said:
We are really old Eric, the 80’s is as far as this lot remember.
I rewatched ‘An American in Paris’. With Gene Kelly recently, now thats a film !
Amazingly different in production, camera work, the whole street in the studio thing, it’s hilarious. Of course the dancing is amazing, but the plot is aha a little thin !
Funny to watch back
Yes to me "classic" is pre 1960s. I love Hollywood movies from the "Golden Age" - which is from the start of the sound era (1926) to the late 1950s.I rewatched ‘An American in Paris’. With Gene Kelly recently, now thats a film !
Amazingly different in production, camera work, the whole street in the studio thing, it’s hilarious. Of course the dancing is amazing, but the plot is aha a little thin !
Funny to watch back
prand said:
I find this - some films age badly, some films still have great impact. For example, for me, Jaws and Alien make the most of suspense and characterisation, its not all about the special effects, and the wobbly rubber shark aside, these still stand up very well today.
But there are a couple of iconic movies where I watch and cringe along with. Apocalypse Now and [b<Pulp Fiction just seem to be horrendously cliched, [/b]but on release, they were originally groundbreaking. I guess other films (or TV shows, or commercials, and whacky film buffs who love quoting lines from movies) have taken lines, themes, soundtrack, characters and repeated ad nauseum elsewhere.
On first viewing these films were pretty stunning. But then I also think I was an impressionable youngster who thought they were cool and amazing. Now I'm grown up and may well have a different view on life.
A good example of this for me is Ferris Bueller. I loved this film when I was younger, and it came on TV recently so I watched it with some anticipation. But and apart from some memorable scenes, Bueller came across as a total wker (he's saving his best mate Cameron, really?), and the lines, probably due to over-exposure seemed tired and predictable.
Have a word with yourself. Pulp Fiction clichéd? In what way?But there are a couple of iconic movies where I watch and cringe along with. Apocalypse Now and [b<Pulp Fiction just seem to be horrendously cliched, [/b]but on release, they were originally groundbreaking. I guess other films (or TV shows, or commercials, and whacky film buffs who love quoting lines from movies) have taken lines, themes, soundtrack, characters and repeated ad nauseum elsewhere.
On first viewing these films were pretty stunning. But then I also think I was an impressionable youngster who thought they were cool and amazing. Now I'm grown up and may well have a different view on life.
A good example of this for me is Ferris Bueller. I loved this film when I was younger, and it came on TV recently so I watched it with some anticipation. But and apart from some memorable scenes, Bueller came across as a total w
ker (he's saving his best mate Cameron, really?), and the lines, probably due to over-exposure seemed tired and predictable.It was ground breaking, still is, and the original can't be clichéd only the derivative stuff that follows it.
Then again, if you liked Ferris Bueller, there's probably no hope anyway
irocfan said:
I'be been watching a few old, classic (and not so classic!) films and it struck me that all these films I enjoyed as a younger person are more than quite crap in some cases and in most cases insanely slooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Recently I watched (mainly courtesy of Film4):
Commando - crap. I knew it was crap back in the day but it was still enjoyable, I watched it yesterday and, some of the 'iconic' scenes apart, realised that it's actually total, unmitigated ste! The climax of the film where he wipes out half an army was poor 35 years ago - time has not been kind!!!!
The Enforcer/The Good, the Bad and the Ugly/For a Few Dollars more - slow, with poor acting (kinda expected in the spaghetti westerns) and continuity.
Big Trouble in Little China - still fun but slow and the SFX... shockingly bad even for the period
The thing is though that I'm worried that I'll watch some other former favourite films and be disappointed (Terminator and T2 I'm looking at you here!). I appreciate that SFX have moved on but the pacing back then is actually quite laughable by today's standards (in truth I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing!) the music and background noise effects mixes have also changed out of recognition.
Any thoughts?
Classic films?Recently I watched (mainly courtesy of Film4):
Commando - crap. I knew it was crap back in the day but it was still enjoyable, I watched it yesterday and, some of the 'iconic' scenes apart, realised that it's actually total, unmitigated s
te! The climax of the film where he wipes out half an army was poor 35 years ago - time has not been kind!!!!The Enforcer/The Good, the Bad and the Ugly/For a Few Dollars more - slow, with poor acting (kinda expected in the spaghetti westerns) and continuity.
Big Trouble in Little China - still fun but slow and the SFX... shockingly bad even for the period
The thing is though that I'm worried that I'll watch some other former favourite films and be disappointed (Terminator and T2 I'm looking at you here!). I appreciate that SFX have moved on but the pacing back then is actually quite laughable by today's standards (in truth I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing!) the music and background noise effects mixes have also changed out of recognition.
Any thoughts?
Come back when you've watched some real classics.
Things like Hobson's Choice, Colonel Blimp, This Happy Breed, Ice cold in Alex.
What you've watched is 80s pulp fiction movies. Good fun at the time, but never meant to be anything other than throwaway pap.
Ok this might not apply to the Sergio Leone films
Jasandjules said:
Yes many films that when younger were great are not so much with poor effects etc. BUT one thing that never changes is how impressive Star Wars is WRT space battles etc given the year..
Indeed, watch it and then watch Clash of the Titans.... released the same year ! Ferris Bueller remains a classic film, along with Back to the Future, Pretty in Pink, Breakfast Club, American Werefolf in London, St Elmo's Fire, American Graffiti, ET and Rambo
I think they mostly stand up ok .... certainly Rambo does.
I wouldn't worry about T2, it's still a superb movie.
Special effects just are hit and miss aren't they, production values generally. I think where they put in serious effort even with pioneering technology it still looks good, when they blew the budget on one or two elements and the rest slips it shows.
Special effects just are hit and miss aren't they, production values generally. I think where they put in serious effort even with pioneering technology it still looks good, when they blew the budget on one or two elements and the rest slips it shows.
Re-watching some old films even some that aren't necessarily favourites, I find re-evaluating them somewhat pointless, I just enjoy them for what they undoubtedly are, superbly crafted pieces of cinema often full of warmth and charm, suspense, tension and usually with a good story. I find a lot of modern stuff unwatchable with constant fast editing, overblown CGI and soundtracks which all sound the same. Films I can watch over and over again which don't lose anything from repeated watching...
The Dambusters, Ice Cold In Alex, The Colditz Story, The Hill, In Which We Serve, The Italian Job, Robbery, Day Of The Jackal, The Man Who Haunted Himself, The Servant, Victim, The Killing Of Sister George, Entertaining Mr.Sloane, The Ladykillers, Villain, Performance and plenty more too.
The most recent films I've enjoyed from start to finish are The Baarder-Meinhoff Complex and Munich, both of which I'm sure will still feel like good films twenty years from now.
The Dambusters, Ice Cold In Alex, The Colditz Story, The Hill, In Which We Serve, The Italian Job, Robbery, Day Of The Jackal, The Man Who Haunted Himself, The Servant, Victim, The Killing Of Sister George, Entertaining Mr.Sloane, The Ladykillers, Villain, Performance and plenty more too.
The most recent films I've enjoyed from start to finish are The Baarder-Meinhoff Complex and Munich, both of which I'm sure will still feel like good films twenty years from now.
The 1946 film 'Notorious' with Ingrid Bergman is memorable for me because (among other things) the famous kissing scene - on a balcony if I remember rightly - is the most sexually charged scene I have watched in any film. It involves no sex, no clothing is disturbed, and little is said, but the desire is palpable.
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