Groucho

Spider-Man felt aged on release day, between the Macy Grey appearance and the forced "New Yorkers stick together!" sequence.

hanshotfirst1138

The Bond films almost always look outdated by the time next one arrives, they follow trends and topics of the times and very rarely age well. The difference are purely cosmetic; they almost all have the same plot and structure. Action films in particular are almost always reliant on FX, trends, and techniques of the time and as a result, tend to show their age quickly.

Time is the ultimate critic; very few films stand the test of time, and fewer still improve.

Hokeyboy

That disco sequence in NIGHTHAWKS never gets old. NE-VER.

dan30oly

I actually really loved the music during that scene. It has a great beat.

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Michael Corvin

Tough crowd. Love a lot of what's posted. I think the Crow is just fine due to the stylistic directing choices/setting. The only thing that really dates it, IMO is the soundtrack. Love it all, but it definitely dates it.

On the flip side, I'll agree with Spider-man. Burton's Batman and Raimi's Spider-man both felt dated shortly after they came out. Both, to me, feel dated due to the heavily stylized nature of them. Green Goblin just looks absurd and always did.

Acting, charisma, chemistry... all reasons the film holds up despite dated effects. And yes, even some of the 'cutesy' humor/camp is still just that. What I don't think holds up is the 30-45 minute build up on Krypton. The same thing MoS will suffer from in years to come.

I also disagree with the notion that Superman/Reeve fans hold that against MoS. I love Donner's Supes/Reeve and liked MoS. One has nothing to do with the other. MoS's issues have nothing to do with the Donner flicks.

One of my favorite films and favorite scenes. I don't think age has anything to do with this one, only taste or it's 'overplayed-ness.'

Just watched ET a couple weeks ago with the kiddos. Still fantastic. It may be slower paced, but any older film by today's quick cutting ADHD standard would feel that way. The film is deliberately paced so you fall in love with ET with Eliot, feel his pain during the second act, and hope during the final act. It's a finely crafted film that's just as magical as it was in '83.

Hokeyboy

You didn't think it was, oh, a *tad* manipulative and cliched? Make everyone happy with a song, because of the "healing power of rock and roll"? There's much to like about Almost Famous but that scene makes me nauseous I could just kick a pigeon.

joliom

I saw Masters of the Universe with Dolph Lundgren recently. Boy, has that aged poorly. I remember it being pretty terrible when I first saw it as a kid back in 1987, but let me tell you, it has only gotten worse since then.

I'd also have to nominate any 80's movies with punk rock-inspired street toughs as well. It's really hard to find a jagoff with a purple Flock of Seagulls hairdo, torn jeans with colored bandanas tied around their thighs, converse hightops, and a spiked choker necklace intimidating.

Michael Corvin

Again, that has nothing to do with age though. It was just as manipulative in 2001 as it is today. Nothing has changed.

chowderhead

WarGames
Hackers

good movies but technology looks really dated.

Rockmjd23

American Werewolf in London has aged better than Paris.

hbilly

My Bloody Valentine (1981), one of the few slashers I think didn't age well. I blame mostly the cast looking like dated borderline porn actors, and some of the fashion/hair styles. Compare MBV with Friday the 13th shot one year earlier, F13 looks fresher and almost timeless.

Nick Danger

The Breakfast Club has the same problem. All those kids in detention, and not one has a cell phone. Who's going to believe that?

PhantomStranger

Comedies can age very quickly if they rely on cultural norms that have passed on. I think most people today would be bored to tears by most Fifties' comedies, even the ones featuring big stars. The tone of comedy was much more conservative in film before the cultural changes of the 1960s. Dramas are much more timeless since what drives them haven't changed in people that much over the years.

Abob Teff

Many of you are pointing to the use of technology in a film (i.e., WarGames) as contributing it "looking dated." I don't agree with that. It may date the film, but it doesn't change its look.

I think Scarface is a great example ... I watched Scarface and The Godfather for the first time a number of years ago. As Sven said, Scarface looked like a crappy made for TV movie and I hated it. The Godfather, however, has held up wonderfully.

It seems as if the 1980s were the worst for producing movies that now appear dated. Special effects from decades earlier look better than most of the stuff produced then.

Nick Danger

Instead of looking at hair styles and technology, I think movies are dated when their message becomes obsolete.

Alphaville. Computers will take over the world. But if you ask the computer about love, it will blow up.
The Green Berets. We're here to help the Vietnamese.
Easy Rider. If you try to be yourself, hillbillies will kill you.
Network. Television will become a wasteland of reality shows and guys shouting at the camera telling you what to think.

Whole genres are dead, like space procedurals, cold war paranoia, and yellow peril. They wouldn't make a movie today where the first 30 minutes are lectures about how a rocketship works, or communist infiltration, or sly orientals.

fumanstan

I agree with the Reeve Superman movies being dated too, but i've been on that train for awhile now.

GoldenJCJ

Jim Carrey's The Mask is extremely dated. I guess that's what happens when you base half your movie off the resurgence of swing dancing that only lasted a year or so.

Why So Blu?

That cuban pete number can go in the other thread about music in movies.

TimeandTide

The Last Starfighter

mike7162

This might reflect my own personal bias that the 80's were culturally our worst decade, but so many movies from that period ( hair, fashion, synthesizer scores) are unwatchable now.
Someone mentioned that fashion, tech, etc. don't annoy in other decades, and this is true. I just think we got it all wrong in the 80's.

Hazel Motes

Raimi's Spiderman trilogy. (even though it was pretty terrible to begin with).

fight scene's in basically any film noir ever made.

AaronHernandez

It's not dated at all it was always pretty awful. In fact it's the movie that killed Wynona Riders short lived leading leady status.

hanshotfirst1138

Many comedies, especially now in the post-sitcom postmodern world, rely on near-nonstop rat-a-tat-tat pop culture references and routines borrowed from other films or currently topical concepts. Rarely does that age well. Airplane! is an exception because it's good enough and funny enough, but even then there are a lot of jokes my dad explained to me because they were before my time.

mcnabb

I've kind of gotten caught up in the hype of Star Wars Episode 7, so I thought I would watch the Original Trilogy the past few weekends, and Return of the Jedi is the only one that did not age well! Star Wars and Empire are still great, but Jedi was a borefest for me. And the Special Edition changes by Lucas make it even worse!

It does make me wonder about Episode 7 and can they recapture the excitement because if you think about it now, Jedi was really when the Star Wars movies took a tumble, and then the Prequels just fell over the cliff!

EddieMoney

The Lawnmower Man