Brilliant.

Yes, but what about those people who remembered a time (around the time the movie was released) when she was famous...the flavor of the moment. They won't be able to view her as just a "random representation of a musical act." They'll immediately view her as a poorly chosen, momentarily popular musical artist who merely dates the movie.

I understand your line of thinking, but that'll only work for the viewers who have never heard the name, period...not for those who haven't heard the name in a decade or two. For the latter group, it'll definitely be a scene that dates the film.

-JP

I guess it depends how much you don't like Macy Gray in this particular case or the reasoning behind her casting. When I see the scene I obviously know who it is but don't really put much thought into it. I just see her as a musical act just as anyone who is a musician could have taken her part.

This is probably a bad analogy but when I see Stan Lee I know who he is and know he is only in that scene because of who he is. While he may not be a popular music artist it still is an unnecessary scene that adds nothing to the film.

I focus on the story during the film since in 10 or 20 years most of the cars, clothes, phones will be dated in films made today anyway. That is fine by me since every movie I watch doesn't have to take place in present day.

In the 1949 boxing movie The Set-up, one character stops at a snack bar type place on the street, gets a gets a couple hamburgers, cans of soup and a beer. The guy rings it up for $1.17 and she complains how high it is. I always get a laugh outta that one.

All films released now with cell phones in them. In twenty years people will be laughing at the size of them. I always thought that the scence in the original Matrix where Neo recieves the cell phone seemed dated due to its size.

Check out some of those '80s movies *cough*Ferris Bueller's Day Off*cough* where the characters are holding a portable phone the size of a shoe box.

Lethal Weapon too. That thing Danny Glover was carrying around had to weigh about 10 pounds.

The only thing that dates The Thing remake is MacReady playing chess on the computer at the beginning of the movie. Other than that, it would be easy to think it was made today and not 20 years ago. Except maybe for the guy on rollerskates. But that movie has held up really well.

Every single second of "Manhunter".

I want to point out that I think the problem with the Macy Gray scene is not that it's Macy Gray, but that the movie makes a point of saying "Ladies and gentlemen, MACY GRAY!"

If they had just shown her performing on stage and not blatantly calling it out like that, I think it would be far less distracting. I remember wincing at that line in the theater.

You know there's nothing that says a movie can't be dated and timeless both.

Ignoring period pieces and Disney animated classics, I can't think of a single "timeless" film (regardless of when it was made) that isn't dated by something. Technology and music typically being things that most date a film.

I think there have been a lot of films (although none comes immediately to mind as I write this) over the years that could have achieved "timeless" status except for their inappropriate use of contemporary (whenever "contemporary" may have been) music.

The Burt Bacharach break in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The absolute worse scene break in movie history.

I honestly think "Manhunter" is the most dated movie of all time. Everything about it, from the title to the score to the wardrobe to the production design just screams "1986".

Exactly.

When I think of timeless I envision something you enjoy & respect at any age. Films made in the 80's should have big cell phones if that is what used at that time, unless of course the film is supposed to take place in the future which requires some visionary talent. If anything - seeing clothes, funky hairstyles, & big cell phones in films helps me place a film to a specific time so I can focus on the story instead of how dated the film looks.

If I'm watching a film from the 40's or 50's without knowing the year it was made it is easy to place it by looking at the cars, buildings, clothing, etc. That way the story will be the focus and I don't have to worry about seeing something that wasn't around until years later.

The scene in Goldeneye when Natalya, in the IBM store, asks for a computer with a 14.4 modem!

The scene in The Exorcist where the doctor lights up a cigarette in the waiting room of the hospital.

Isn't the general consensus that Paul Reiser's hairstyle is the one element that makes ALIENS dated?

RoboCop may have dated computers and cars, but that scene where Clarence Boddicker places a video disc into a machine that plays a video message for Bob Morton in his home just before its blown up, is actually foreshadowing the future a bit.

My exact view too (although technically the line was ""And let's hear it for Macy Gray!"). A simple re-edit that just cuts out this one line would help the movie tremendously.

Hey, that hairstyle is coming back in style in the future!

True. I remember when The Terminator Special Edition was released on DVD a few years ago, practically every review of the release said that the movie was dated due to Linda Hamilton's '80s hairdo and other things. But the fact that the movie is clearly set in 1984 would require all of those '80s-isms to be present. If the movie was made today and set in 1984, elements of that era would need to be in it to make it feel more authentic. By that measure, a movie like The Terminator isn't really dated but instead is a movie set in a specific era.

BS. I'm still rocking the Reiser-do.