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Were movies better in the 80s and 90s or is it just nostalgia?

AmuroChan

Member
Jackie Chan is my favorite actor. His best movies IMO came out in the 80s and 90s. So yes, I would agree. As far as western movies go, that's probably true as well. Top Gun and T2 are still two of my favorite movies of all time.
 

Soltype

Member
They were better, not to say there aren't good movies now.Movies always had high spots, but movies today telegraph too much.
Example in Force Awakens-skip to 1:05


This scene lingers way too much on the beam reaction, the audience gets it immediately yet they linger on it after the awe is gone.They used a wideshot for too long and have him look at it to show us again.They should have shown Poe fire, show his reaction, then the frozen beam.
 

Dark Star

Member
Some of my fave films have come out this past decade.

Interstellar
Whiplash
Wolf of Wallstreet
Birdman
What we do in the Shadows
Mad Max Fury Road
The Social Network
Inception
Annihilation

And many more.

Whiplash is easily one of my favorite films as well. It's perfect in every way.

Drive is some next-level stuff, too.

Drive2011Poster.jpg


Some obvious (and not so obvious) picks IMO :

 
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C4lukin2

Banned
I would say 1992 to 2002 was a great period.

I grew up in the 80’s, a teenager in the 90’s. As much as I appreciate Goonies, ET and so on as a child, we got Jurassic Park, Pulp Fiction, Boogie Nites, Saving Private Ryan and so on.
 
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slugbahr

Unconfirmed Member
next weekend is a Goonies/Beetlejuice double feature at the drive in near me. i'm like, damn, that is 4 hours of heaven.

yes. it's important to look at the history of the industry too. the 60s-70s had the collapse of the studio system, the rise of the independent filmmaker. this occurred with had the first generation of trained people who went to "film school". which itself was kind of a new thing, and not yet blanded down into formula-and-software based filmmaking like the corporate culture we have today.

the interesting thing is, none of this was "totally new never before seen" but in a way it was. Close Encounters and ET and Alien are basically 70s big budget prestigue movie updates on the UFO b-movies of the 50s and 60s that these filmmakers grew up watching. Star Wars is a mix of a bunch of Lucas's childhood (meaning ages 0-early 20s) like spaghetti westerns and Flash Gordon all rolled together.

the trick is, they took something old, then told THEIR OWN VERSION OF IT. George Lucas didn't just drop Frankenstein's monster in there, he made Darth Vader. Harold Ramis didn't just remake Abbott and Costello Meet the Wolfman, he combined horror and comedy into something new. Joe Dante didn't just remake and old monster movie, he created Gremlins. they mined the dead body of nostalgia for new works but they didn't fall into the trap of trying to necromancer the corpse itself back to life.

the new people just straight up use the original IP, characters and all, without bothering to reinterpret them through their own eyes and actually make something new. i think this is one reason the Mary Sue or fan insert is so popular. the creator has done no creating, there is nothing of themselves in the work if he makes, say, another Star Wars. so they use the IP to glorify their own egos, whether that be reliving their childhood (JJ making Han Solo like his favorite version of him and rebooting the ST to have the same plot as the films of his childhood) or "subverting expectations" (Rian Johnson doing the opposite of what you expect in a desperate attempt to look original). the end result is hollow and soulless and i would argue not really creative at all.

I think the "reinterpretation" happens, it's just that their "modern" take on the tale involves present era politics and social views. Or even things like "subversion", instead of telling a good story. The monster movies of the middle of the century did sequels and connected universes well before most of us were even born. They got on with telling the story though, and entertaining the viewer. Instead of throwing shit at the wall and seeing what would stick. Or using diversity checklists etc etc
 

Rickyiez

Member
There were no Chris Nolan movies back then so I cannot agree.

Also try expand outside of Hollywood like the Korean ones. The Handmaiden, Parasite and The Wailing are some of the best movies made in recent times.
 
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Skyr

Member
Whiplash is easily one of my favorite films as well. It's perfect in every way.

Drive is some next-level stuff, too.

Drive2011Poster.jpg


Some obvious (and not so obvious) picks IMO :

I mean no doubt that there were amazing movies in the last 20 years.

Denis Villeneuve, Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino. They all made fantastic movies during that time period.

The problem is that these are a couple of peanuts you have to pick out of a steaming pile of shit.
 
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hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
70 and 80 is still my personal golden age for film. But yes movies were better. Script writing in particular seems like a lost art these days.

Came to say this. The 90s are missing something for me compared to the art that came out in the 70s and the bombastic 80s.
 
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hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
Partly Nostalgia, there was plenty of shit released, you just don't hear about it and it's been forgotten outside of Wikipedia and iMDb.
Plenty of shit, there always is, but the god stuff is so far ahead of what we see today.
 

Woo-Fu

Banned
It's just nostalgia, people born in the late 90's or early 2000's don't care about those films.
So you're using the opinion of the people least likely to have a valid one as the basis of your argument?

The 80's had the best high school/coming of age movies, it isn't even close.
 
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Starting in the 00's it seemed like most movies decided to take themselves super seriously. This is what people talk about when they say 80s and 90s movies were much more fun.

There's still a lot of great stuff from 00-09 but the last 10 years have been absolutely terrible. I can think of MAYBE 4-5 movies from the last 10 years that would make my top 100 list. The complete lack of originality really sucks. I remember about a year or so ago I drove by one of the local theaters and every movie playing was either a sequel, remake or something in an existing franchise.

There's still some good stuff here and there but it's nothing like how it was when I was growing up.
 

SantaC

Member
Interstellar was shit. Why people like that movie is beyond me.

Love me some good space movie, but most of it wasnt even about space travel.
 

teezzy

Banned
It's weird because film as an art form has definitely evolved. Which makes sense, art forms standards are intended to progress over time.

Technology has improved, camera techniques have improved, movies are more quickly paced and attention grabbing these days.

The problem is that ever since the big bang of the modern blockbuster, that style of film making has proven too effective and now studios are less willing to bank on anything more artful to guarantee an ROI.

In theory, movies should be better - and the great ones now are just as awesome as the classics, if not better - but the problem is that everything now feels like one long toy commercial aimed at a social media attention span - because it absolutely is.

An independent film renaissance really needs to comes and wash over the industry. The technology is too available, and with theaters dying, and digital being our obvious future - we need to get these more earnest creative types able to make what they'd like with less financial risk so that they don't have to bow to focus tested nonsense.

I'm rambling, as per usual, but I have a point.
 
H

hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
It's weird because film as an art form has definitely evolved. Which makes sense, art forms standards are intended to progress over time.

Technology has improved, camera techniques have improved, movies are more quickly paced and attention grabbing these days.

The problem is that ever since the big bang of the modern blockbuster, that style of film making has proven too effective and now studios are less willing to bank on anything more artful to guarantee an ROI.

In theory, movies should be better - and the great ones now are just as awesome as the classics, if not better - but the problem is that everything now feels like one long toy commercial aimed at a social media attention span - because it absolutely is.

An independent film renaissance really needs to comes and wash over the industry. The technology is too available, and with theaters dying, and digital being our obvious future - we need to get these more earnest creative types able to make what they'd like with less financial risk so that they don't have to bow to focus tested nonsense.

I'm rambling, as per usual, but I have a point.

Nice in theory but independent cinema is just pure wokebait these days.
 

Super Mario

Banned
I don't necessarily think the 80s and 90s had better movies. However, I do agree that it was a time where creativity was different than it is today. Movies like the Godfather couldn't happen today. With today's technology and techniques, there is the chance to do a whole lot more than they could before. Internet movie elitists piss on the CGI, but to say the Marvel stuff has been anything other than a monumental success is just dumb. You couldn't do those movies 30 years ago. Anyone who tried sees how embarassing they are today.

There are stinkers now. There were absolutely stinkers before. Some of the oldies are definitely nostalgic. Try releasing those same movies today and see if people go as nuts for them.
 

xrnzaaas

Member
Many 80s and 90s movies movies had very cheap looking sets, I'm not a fan of heavy CGI and I know that some older movies actually profited from the lack of CGI, but it can still be noticeable. Other than that they were way superior - many original and interesting storylines, cool likeable characters, no current politics involved, making fun of people and other things without having to worry about offending anyone.
 

carlosrox

Banned
I think there were more great, classic movies, yes.

I don't think movies are as consistently great as they were then?

Obviously there's great stuff now but where are the landmark movies like the Terminators, Aliens, and Back to the Futures? All the 80s horror. Classic comedies.

Movies just aren't the same these days. Feels like really excellent movies are sort of far and few between these days. And they don't have the personality of the old stuff.

Arnold Schwarzenegger alone is a good example of something missing from movies today.
 

Woo-Fu

Banned
I'd rather watch Big Bang Theory than stream or torrent any of these. Golden Girls (not pictured) is probably the best one lol
Watchu talkin' 'bout, Willis?

Back on movies:

Red Dawn
Big Trouble in Little China
16 Candles
Breakfast Club
Say Anything
Ferris Bueler's Day Off
John Carpenter's The Thing
Pretty in Pink
The Lost Boys
Better Off Dead
Aliens
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Full Metal Jacket
Weird Science
Risky Business
The Terminator
Die Hard
Ghostbusters
Stand By Me
Blade Runner
The Princess Bride
When Harry Met Sally

The list is practically endless.
 
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Darkmakaimura

Can You Imagine What SureAI Is Going To Do With Garfield?
Interstellar was shit. Why people like that movie is beyond me.

Love me some good space movie, but most of it wasnt even about space travel.
It was a bore fest.

Plus that whole 'talking about love' scene was horrendous.

Contact from the 90s was great. I don't even care for Jodie Foster but loved that movie.
 

sol_bad

Member
I don't know, I think movies are still great after 2000.

2001
Gladiator, Traffic, Erin Brockovich, Memento, The Devils Backbone, Amelie, Mulholland Drive, Dornie Darko, Artificial Intelligence, Shaolin Soccer, Training Day, A Perfect Mind, Oceans 11, Black Hawk Down, The Others, Zoolander, Kiss the Dragon.

2002
The Pianist, Minority Report, Secretary, One Hour Photo, Infernal Affairs, Catch Me if You Can, 28 Days Later, The Bourbe Identity, Panic Room, Changing Lanes, Punch Drunk Love, Spirited Away, Gangs of New York, Spider-Man, Blade 2.

2003
Monster, Mystic River, Lost in Translation, Kill Bill 1, X-Men 2, Finding Nemo, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, School of Rock, Elf, Oldboy, 21 Grams, Bad Boys 2, Paycheck.

2004
Team America, Anchorman, Spider-Man 2, Million Dollar Baby, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Kill Bill 2, The Life Aquatic, The Aviator, Collateral, Hellboy, National Treasure, Troy, The Terminal. Harold and Kumar go to White Castle

2005
Memories of Murder, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Batman Begins, Munich, King Kong, A History of Violence, Brick, The Island, Memoirs of a Geisha, Mr & Mrs Smith, The Descent.

2006
The Drparted, Pan's Labyrinth, The Fountain, Children of Men, The Prestige, Apocalypto, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, Blood Diamond, Deja Vu, Hot Fuzz.

2007
The Assasination of Jesse James, There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men, Zodiac, The Bourne Ultimatem, Gone Baby Gone, Superbad, Ratatouille.

2008
Hellboy 2, Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Slumdog Millionaire, The Wrestler, Wall-e, Doubt, Frost/Nixon, Milk, Burn After Reading, Step Brothers, Cloverfield, Tropic Thunder, Gran Torino, Taken, The Hurt Locker, King Fu Panda, Pineapple Express, Let the Right One In, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Rambo, Changeling, Ip Man, Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay, Body of Lies, Speed Racer, Red Cliff

2009
Avatar, Mother, District 9, 500 Days of Summer, Up, Inglorious Basterds, Zombieland, Fantastic Mr Fox, The Blind Side, Coraline, Moon, State of Play, The Road, Drag Me To Hell, 9, Watchmen, Knowing,

2010
Shutter Island, Toy Story 3, Winter's Bone, 127 Hours, Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The Social Network, The King's Speech, The Town, Buried, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Insidious, Salt, The Book of Eli, How to Train Your Dragon, The Other Guys, The Expendables, Kick-Ass.

2011
The Help, Moneyball, The Descendants, Drive, The Artist, Fast Five, Bridesmaids, Shame, I Saw The Devil, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Warrior, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Adventures of Tintin, Super 8, Sucker Punch, In Time, Paul, The Raid.

2012
John Carter, Avengers, Moonrise Kingdom, Argo, Silver Linings Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty, Life of Pi, Django Unchained, Cloud Atlas, End of Watch, Flight, Prometheus, Dredd, Jack Reacher, Looper, Ted, Wolf Children, 21 Jump Street

2013
Gravity, Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Prisoners, Warm Bodies, The Conjuring, Saving Mr Banks, Iron Man 3, Captain Phillips, Under the Skin, Spring Breakers, American Hustle, The Wolf of Wall Street, Fast and Furious 6, Inside Llewyn Davis, Pacific Rim, Oblivion, Rush, Frozen.

2014
A Most Violent Year, The Rover, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Interstellar, Birdman, Whiplash, Guardians of the Galaxy, 22 Jump Street, Nightcrawler, Gone Girl, Boyhood, Chef, The Raid 2, The Lego Movie, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Edge of Tomorrow, The Equalizer, The Interview, Noah, Ex Machina, John Wick.

2015
The Revenant, Bridge of Spies, Joy, The End of the Tour, The Gift, It Follows, Mad Max: Fury Road, Creed, Room, Inside Out, Spotlight, Sicario, The Martian, Straight Outta Compton, Steve Jobs, Kingsman, Furious 7, Trainwreck, Crimson Peak, Ted 2.

2016
The Handmaiden, Don't Breathe, Hush, The Nice Guys, Arrival, The Lobster, The Witch, The Wailing, Swiss Army Man, Zootopia, Silence, La La Land, Deadpool, Doctor Strange, Passengers, The Founder, London Has Fallen, Hacksaw Ridge, 13 Hours, 10 Cloverfield Lane, The Accountant, Central Intelligence, Eddie the Eagle.

2017
Alien: Covenant, Lady Bird, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Okja, I Don't Feel at Home in this World Anymore, Dunkirk, Bladerunner 2049, War of the Planet of the Apes, Get Out, Colossal, IT, Split, Your Name, Wind River, Logan Lucky, Coco, Logan, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Wondoe Woman, Thor: Ragnarok, The Disaster Artist, Baby Driver, I Tonya, Mother!, The Post, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing in Missouri, The Shape of Water, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Spider-Man: Homecomming, John Wick 2, Life, Blade of the Immortal, The Hirman's Bodyguard.

2018
The Mule, Mission Impossible: Fallout, You Were Never Really There, Annihilation, Ready Player One, Unsane, Green Book, Creed 2, Deadpool 2, Avengers: Infinity War, Upgrade, First Man, Isle of Dogs, Crazy Rich Asians, Black Panther, Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, Roma, Blackkklansman, A Quiet Place, Bumblebee, Searching.

2019
Joker, Us, Parasite, Marriage Story, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Farewell, Knives Out, The Lighthouse, 1917, Jojo Rabbit, Midsommar, Dolemite is my Name, Alita: Battle Angel, Spider-Man: Far From Home, John Wick 3, Avengers Endgame, One Cut of the Dead, Ford V Ferarri, Dark Waters, The Kid Who Would Be King, Ready or Not, Hustlers, Crawl, Long Shot, The Report, Good Boys, Little Monsters, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Doctor Sleep, Hotel Mumbai.
 
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Happosai

Hold onto your panties
Came to say this. The 90s are missing something for me compared to the art that came out in the 70s and the bombastic 80s.
I agree, my defense would be stronger for 80's and 90's it was just the 80's. The movies and TV shows of the 70's were far better than the 90's. Early 90's wasn't too bad, though. Ever watch Spontaneous Combustion with Brad Dourif? That was a good one from about 1990.
 

Rickyiez

Member
Bullshit, get them to watch Terminator 2, Jumanji, Jurassic Park, Alien, The Thing, The Shining, Indiana Jones, The Goonies... my son was blown away by T2, he's 10. Young John Connor is as awesome to them as he was to us growing up.

Great movies are great movies, period.

Only Terminator 2 , Jurassic Park , Aliem and The Thing are still great if I were to rewatch these .

I mean no doubt that there were amazing movies in the last 20 years.

Denis Villeneuve, Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino. They all made fantastic movies during that time period.

The problem is that these are a couple of peanuts you have to pick out of a steaming pile of shit.

There are also a huge pile of shit from 80s and 90s .

I'm born 87 and honestly it's really just the nostalgic factor . Movies are just as good nowadays and there are a lot of masterpieces in 2000s and onward .
 
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diffusionx

Gold Member
Movies in the 80s/90s were far better. The action movies were better. The sci-fi was better. The dramas were better. The romcoms were better. The comedies were better. I can go on. I’ve been watching a bunch of older movies, including ones I never seen before, and I am struck at just how much better they are. They look better, the stories are more interesting, the characters are more relatable, etc.

Now I’ll say this with a caveat, Something weird happened to the movie industry probably in... 2011 or so. Even a lot of 00s movies, if I’m not personally crazy about them (something like Eternal Sunshine) I can see the obvious craft, truth, and beauty in many of them. But the 10s have been a complete catastrophe with very few exceptions.
 
Bullshit, get them to watch Terminator 2, Jumanji, Jurassic Park, Alien, The Thing, The Shining, Indiana Jones, The Goonies... my son was blown away by T2, he's 10. Young John Connor is as awesome to them as he was to us growing up.

Great movies are great movies, period.

While I love Jumanji, it's mainly because of Robin Williams. I actually like Zathura more overall then I do Jumanji.

I loved Favreu's use of practical effects in Zathura.
 

GAMETA

Banned
While I love Jumanji, it's mainly because of Robin Williams. I actually like Zathura more overall then I do Jumanji.

I loved Favreu's use of practical effects in Zathura.
I watched it with my son, it's fun but the og Jumanji is in another level, much higher production value.
 

GAMETA

Banned
Only Terminator 2 , Jurassic Park and The Thing are still great if I were to rewatch this .



There are also a huge pile of shit from 80s and 90s .

I'm born 87 and honestly it's really just the nostalgic factor . Movies are just as good nowadays and there are a lot of masterpieces in 2000s and onward .
Dude, you trippin. Alien and Aliens are still amongst the best horror and best sci-fi ever made.

Indiana Jones is as entertaining as ever, so is Jumanji (despite the dated CGI). Goonies is a weird one and maybe it drags a bit too much, but the structure there is still solid. The Shining is awesome as well.

From what I can tell, you haven't seen much of these stuff, at least not now that you're an adult or in high quality.
 

Rickyiez

Member
Dude, you trippin. Alien and Aliens are still amongst the best horror and best sci-fi ever made.

Indiana Jones is as entertaining as ever, so is Jumanji (despite the dated CGI). Goonies is a weird one and maybe it drags a bit too much, but the structure there is still solid. The Shining is awesome as well.

From what I can tell, you haven't seen much of these stuff, at least not now that you're an adult or in high quality.

I've only seen them during childhood , perhaps I couldn't appreciate them well enough back then . Alien was a masterpiece no doubt , but to say movies like The Prestige , Inception , The Dark Knight , The Wailing , The Mist and so on weren't as good or if not better subjectively is just plain false .
 
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sol_bad

Member
My wife doesn't want to watch Alien again and she only got half way through Indiana Jones 1.
eh

She loves the hell out of Prometheus though.
(Y)
 
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