Mondo Kane

Other price tags of a bygone era:

In Stand By Me when Gordy combines all the change that the 4 boys have, "Well, $2.37's not bad". And he's right! He gets a loaf of bread, marshmallows and other snacks that keeps them full for 2 days!

And in Midnight Cowboy, I guess $20 was the equivalent of today's $100. There's a few scenes that show how crucial twenty dollars is to Joe Buck.

Numanoid

I still don't get it. How does using a song that's 15 or 20 years old date the movie? Does that mean that Shrek is actually an '80s movie? Making references to the CURRENT time I can see dating a movie for later audiences (say a Dick Cheney shooting you in the face joke), but not references to already bygone eras.
Moving to Adult Talk.

gryffinmaster

Vanilla Ice. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II. "Go ninja, go ninja, go."

Actually, how about the "talking computer" scene in WarGames?

Gdrlv

The fact that the plot revolved around a VHS tape made it feel a bit dated the day it was released.

rw2516

Especially when set in the year 2520 A.D. or something. Also when a sci-fi movie takes place in the future. like 1997. Doesn't ruin the whole movie though. Does King still push back the dates in The Stand each time it's republished?

Groucho

Giving a year at all is usually a bad, bad idea. "Here we are, in our flying cars commuting from the moon colony, in the year 1985! Let me consult a clock for the accurate time..." [walks over to huge mainframe computer, which says in a monotone voice "THE...TIME...IS...NOW...12:15"] "Now I'll get a cup of coffee!" [walks to an even bigger computer which whirrs loudly for 15 seconds before producing a tiny cup of coffee]

Jason

I watched Robocop last night, and that did it for me. The police archives looked sooooo dated. It was even worse than the Ford Taurus police cars.

Joe Molotov

Yeah, it's going to be pretty tough to watch Battlefield Earth anymore as it gets closer to the year 3000.

dhmac

The thing that dated it wasn't merely the presence of music by Macy Gray. Her song just playing in the background over the festival scene would've been OK. Instead, it was showing Macy Gray performing onstage and having a loudspeaker announcer say "And let's hear it for Macy Gray!" and "Pick up her new album from Epic Records this Tuesday!"

(OK, I made up the last line, but the first one is definitely said in the movie)

Superboy

I thought the Shrek movies were INCREDIBLY dated, even while I was watching them in the theater. 10 years from now while watching them, it's going to be hard to understand all those cultural references - and most of them will seem stupid, because we've only seen the Matrix parodied like 100 billion times. Then, you're going to have to explain why the put in some obscure one-hit wonder.

lawyer goodwill

Speaking of songs in movies, anything with that "All-Star" tune is automatically dated for me - which equals roughly 122 flicks. Heck, wasn't that the banner song for the original Shrek. *Shudder*

Brent L

To me, things like low prices, out of date technology, and all of that doesn't keep a film from being timeless. When I think of a timeless film, I think of a flick that is just about as fresh today (and will continue to be just that in the future) as it was the day it was released, if not just as fresh. I think of movies that don't have too many specific nods to popular culture from when the flick was produced. All of the movies like Shrek, those are obviously not timeless. There are plenty of jokes in those types of movies that many people just wont get in the future. Heck, I bet there's a few gags in those movies that even people here and now might not even get.

The timeless movies to me are, generally, the truly great films. Without the risk of sound cliché and naming off things like Citizen Kane, some more recent flicks that I'd call timeless are Groundhog Day, Léon, Lost In Translation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and so on. It all comes down to theme and the such.

To me, one of the most timeless television shows of all time is The Andy Griffith Show. Sure, it may seem funny when people today go back and watch the show hearing about buying a pop for a nickel, but that doesn't matter at all because you're still able to "get" everything. I know young children who love that show, and there is no doubt in my mind that young children will continue to enjoy it.

The same thing applies to film, just look at something like The Wizard of Oz.

jeffkjoe

OK, why don't you add the NAKED GUN trilogy, and nearly every ZAZ movie before and after? Same thing. You're satirizing things that are topical only to that moment (George Bush Sr., John Sununu, Ayatollah Komeni, etc.) It seemed to work for Shrek. Doesn't seem to hurt its DVD sales or broadcast ratings on NBC.


And as long as we're accusing animated films, why not accuse TOY STORY 2? I'm sure the use of the long-used and 19 year old line "Luke, I am your father" bit with Buzz Lightyear wasn't a BIT dated.

You're making it seem as if this formula of satirizing pop culture through animation is a bad thing.

Brent L

Something like "Luke, I am your father" isn't dated at all. Anyone with half a brain "gets" that today, and more than likely will in twenty more years down the line as well.

It's just that some of the stuff in the Shrek flicks, quite a bit of it, isn't anything more than a flavor of the moment type of deal.

Jray

Actually, no... I have no freaking clue what you mean. Either I'm completely out of touch with today's lingo or you're making something up.

jeffkjoe

How can the use of "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" in Spider-Man 2 be any different that the use of "Holding Out for a Hero" in Shrek 2?


Both are dated, rather corny songs used to complement the action that's on the screen.

Someone tell me.

Hokeyboy

I don't dislike Shrek -- I actually enjoy it mostly (Shrek 2, on the other hand...ugh!). Its CONSTANT reliance on pop culture gags is grating and ultimately dates the films ("OH LOOK! There's a Matrix gag. OH LOOK! There's a Lord of the Rings gag. OH LOOK! There's a Starbucks gag...")

A dated movie does NOT automatically mean a bad movie. Yes, the ZAZ films are "dated". I wonder how kids of this generation get most of the jokes. Shit, I wonder how kids of this generation seem to love family guy when 99.9999% of their gags are aimed square at so-called Generation X-ers. Still, why break an egg when the couch is free.

Brent L

Well said. I don't dislike Shrek either, I really enjoyed watching it and I own both Shrek and Shrek 2 on DVD. I do think that both flicks relied so much on popular culture. It isn't like just one or two jokes here and there either, it's pretty much the point of both movies, and other movies like that. I can't sit back and compare the flicks to movies like Naked Gun. Yes, those movies are dated also, but not anywhere close to the same extent. There are plenty of sight gags, etc... all throughout those movies that people will forever be able to "get", and that's just not the case with the Sherk films and other films like that.

It doesn't make them bad films, instead that's just the way it is, no way around it.

Michael Corvin

Yep. Same here. Pixar has been so good about leaving pop references out like that. I wonder how that slipped by?

Exactly. Even someone who hasn't seen Star Wars "gets" it. Poor example to choose.

DVDho78DTS

Seeing Macy Gray in Spider-Man doesn't keep it from being timeless in my mind. All she represents in the film is a musical act. In 10 or 20 years when she is long gone and unknown that is how new viewers of the film will perceive her.

GeoffreyL

Exactly that phrase will be quoted for many, many years to come. If it is quoted in a movie every five years for fifty years ,then there is no way to date any of those movies from that particular quote.

Windbreaker

I lump NAKED GUN in the "can't be timeless" scene, but it's not the film maker's fault. My kids will watch it in the year 2018 and say "Dad, isn't that the guy who got angry at some caddie while on a golf course looking for his ex-wife's killer, and slashed the poor caddie 47 times with a ragged sand wedge?"

PacMan2006

The Scary Movie films due to what they parody.

Orignal Batman with Prince music

Turtles 2 with Vanilla Ice

Castaway when he writes 1999 and when he mentions the Titans moved from Houston.

Those off the top of my head.

Shazam

I don't think:

"Nice beaver"

"Thanks, I just got it stuffed"

will ever not be timeless.

Mr. Self Destruct

While I can't think of a particular scene--I always thought having MC Hammer
for the soundtrack of Addam's Family was an odd choice even then, but now it seems really out of place

I found some of the lyrics in case you blocked it of your memory:

Now I was cold coolin', you know [maxin' and relaxin']
Just kickin' it around the house [Oaktown kickin' it]
When a knock, a knock, a knock and a voice yo!
Can Hammer come out? [what's up?]
Now I don't mind [mind] being a friend
And showin' a little bit of flava [flava]
But Wednesday, Pugsley, Gomez, Fester [oh man]
Man, them some strange neighbours



whhaaaat? I bet Charles Addams is still rolling in his grave, or at least his zombie-form is in Hammer's closet waiting with a shovel.

I think this is a concrete example of why you shouldnt throw together or find popular artists of the time to fill your soundtrack, unless the movie is just a music video for the soundtrack..