Well, That Wouldn't Work Now: Things From Movies That Are Outdated or No Longer Politically Correct

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, Cobalt Stargazer said:

And The War of the Roses from 1989, where a near-divorce ends up in two deaths.

Yeah, but the discussion was of films where spouses reconcile after one or both tries to kill the other; they can't go through with it, and fall back in love.  In The War of the Roses, instead of reconciliation we get the fabulous scene where she uses her last bit of energy to shove his hand off of her.

Edited April 7, 2017 by Bastet

[Cobalt Stargazer]

Ah, thanks for the correction/clarification, @Bastet. I was following the thread of Mr. And Mrs. Smith, since they spend most of the movie actively trying to kill each other as opposed to a gradual escalation. I had this image of Kathleen Turner telling Michael Douglas, ":Every time I look at you, I just want to smash your face in" and then punching him after he tells her to go ahead and do it.

[NutMeg]

Both Ripley movies - the French 1960 Plein soleil (Purple Noon) and the 1999 The Talented Mr. Ripley - would be much more challenging to set in current times. Social media would put such a kibosh to the original plot that Ripley would have to be a master hacker in addition to his other talents.

[Archery]

On ‎4‎/‎4‎/‎2017 at 11:34 PM, kiddo82 said:

I wonder if it's because movies like Bring It On, Clueless, and Mean Girls are all satirical views of high school/teen life to varying degrees.

Clueless, at least, is a retelling of Jane Austen's Emma, so it's got great, timeless bones. 

[Silver Raven]

I saw a viewer talking about the new trailer for Steven King's IT, talking about how there are no movies these days about kids, and the most recent one they could come up with was Super 8.

[ChelseaNH]

Queen of Katwe

[Silver Raven]

4 hours ago, ChelseaNH said:

Queen of Katwe

??? Why?

[jah1986]

1 hour ago, Silver Raven said:

??? Why?

Not sure what ChelseaNH's motivation was but I would say because the movie really was about kids and how they get the opportunity to see the world outside of their small village.  I really enjoyed that movie and thought the child actors were really good.

[ChelseaNH]

Yep.  The protagonist is a child.  There are movies with kids as major characters, but I think they're mostly told from the POV of an adult character.  Queen of Katwe pretty much stays with the kids and the adults are more in supporting roles.

I did think of Gifted, but I suspect it's more in the adults' POV category.

[Ms Blue Jay]

On 4/3/2017 at 6:42 AM, starri said:

It's interesting that a lot of teen movies can hold up well--there's no reason you couldn't do Clueless or Mean Girls today--while others don't.

You might get away with Fast Times at Ridgemont High, if a bit toned down (at least the masturbation scene and the abortion), but the John Hughes films, except for Some Kind of Wonderful, probably not.

As a complete left turn, The Warriors is one of my favorite cult films, but there's no way to tell that story in present-day New York, unless they contorted it a lot, like how Marvel's Netflix shows pretend that Hell's Kitchen isn't full of luxury condos today.

Something interesting is that Clueless and Mean Girls are about women, written by women, whereas obviously John Hughes films tended to be about Molly Ringwald characters written by John.  As Clueless is one of my top 3 movies I know that it's based on Jane Austen's Emma, but I think even if it wasn't, it would be something that could work for a really long time.  The "plot" is kind of background to the rest of it which is style, pop culture, fashion, Alicia Silverstone's incredible charm, the character of Cher, the teen slang, the teen behaviour, the 1990s at large, etc.   I liked Grease when I was a kid and that was about the 50s, (I know it was made in the 70s) and I saw it in the early 90s.  It's pretty timeless I think.  

Edited May 10, 2017 by Ms Blue Jay

[methodwriter85]

I re-watched Saturday Night Fever in a revival at a theater, and it was just funny to think about how impossible it would be to update the story without twisting it beyond recognition.

1.) I mean, it's possible you could swap out disco for something else, but are dance contests at clubs even really a thing anymore? Especially if we're talking about partner dancing? Possibly ballroom, but that wouldn't fit the kind of characters these people were. The modern-equivalents of these guys would be like hitting up trance or electronic dancing and/or hip-hop where partner dancing isn't really a thing unless you're talking about grinding.

2.) The kind of house that Tony lived in would probably go for at least over a million in modern-day Bay Ridge. (It had to have at least 3 bedrooms, probably 4.) I guess you could say it's been in the family for a very long time?

3.) Tony's father is a construction guy out of work, which reflected the fact that almost a million people left New York City in the 1970's. Of course, construction is now booming in New York City.

4.) Stephanie is somehow able to move to Manhattan on a secretary's budget. I don't care if she had a former sugar daddy who decided to dump the apartment on her- she seemed to be living alone, and there's no way she could have sustained that.

5.) Tony's mother probably already would have had a job.

I'm not entirely sure if the rape scene would be still in a modern movie or not. They did do a great job of suggesting the horror without getting too gratuitous.

Of course, Saturday Night Fever is based around a very specific time and movement so it makes sense it doesn't have the bones of a timeless story.

[amaranta]

I was surprised to read that Heathers had an order for an adaptation as a TV series.  I'm going to assume there's major changes, as in drastic.  I saw it back in the day and was really uncomfortable even at that time.  A bomb in a high school, multiple murders of high school kids, and bullying to the point of attempted suicide? That never struck me as funny; not then and not now. 

I've never met anyone who didn't like the movie, so I'm a party of one in that I hated it, but I don't think Heathers would be green-lit today.

[ennui]

Clark Gable, It Happened One Night, and the walls of Jericho. Now, they'd just sleep together. 

Thinking of Clark, The Misfits would never get made because of the blatant, horrific animal cruelty.

[methodwriter85]

Re-watching Sean Young's True Hollywood story reminded me that in no way, shape, or form could the Einhorn plot from Ace Ventura Pet Detective show up today in a wide-release PG-13 American comedy especially the reveal of his/her penis.

[Joe]

The Mad Max movies, while very good, are so very white. In four movies, I can only think of two POCs. Tina Turner in Thunderdome and Zoe Kravitz in Fury Road. I can see how this happened, though. Way back in the 70s and 80s, I don't remember many POCs in Aussie TV or movies. For that matter, to judge by last names, there aren't even many people of central European descent. Australia has many people from Greek, Italian, and Croatian backgrounds especially. The vast majority in the series seem to be of British descent. Once you have a theme, should you stick to it for the new one even if standards have moved on?

[methodwriter85]

4 hours ago, Joe said:

The Mad Max movies, while very good, are so very white. In four movies, I can only think of two POCs. Tina Turner in Thunderdome and Zoe Kravitz in Fury Road. I can see how this happened, though. Way back in the 70s and 80s, I don't remember many POCs in Aussie TV or movies. For that matter, to judge by last names, there aren't even many people of central European descent. Australia has many people from Greek, Italian, and Croatian backgrounds especially. The vast majority in the series seem to be of British descent. Once you have a theme, should you stick to it for the new one even if standards have moved on?

I get what you're saying, but this seems a little more suited to Race and Ethnicity in Movies. That kind of seem seems very much like something that is still happening and still accepted. I do think there has been some progress- you could still get away with Natalie Wood playing Puerto Rican because she looked the part in West Side Story once you gave her a tan, but Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's would get dragged through the mud on Twitter.

I still think that if/when an adaption of Hamilton happens, Lin Manuel would have to fight to keep them from making the cast primarily white with a few tokens thrown in even though the race flipping is a major theme.

Although you bring up an interesting point- the news of Mama Mia getting a sequel made me think about the fact that for a musical set in the Greek Islands, the cast seemed to lack anyone of that descent. Dominic Cooper maaaybbbbe could have been playing Greek.

Edited May 20, 2017 by methodwriter85

[kiddo82]

While re-watching The Graduate last night I couldn't help but think that even if the film was remade word for word and shot for shot today, people might dismiss Benjamin's quasi quarter life crisis as  some "millennial problem." 

[Spartan Girl]

The crows in Dumbo would be a big fat no-no today.

Also, while watching Pinocchio on Freeform, it occurred to me that today's Disney would never be able to get away with using the word "jackass" in a cartoon, let alone portraying little boys drinking, smoking, and gambling.

Edited May 21, 2017 by Spartan Girl

[Silver Raven]

On 5/20/2017 at 2:23 PM, kiddo82 said:

While re-watching The Graduate last night I couldn't help but think that even if the film was remade word for word and shot for shot today, people might dismiss Benjamin's quasi quarter life crisis as  some "millennial problem." 

Benjamin was also a stalker.

[Pink ranger]

On 20/05/2017 at 3:19 PM, methodwriter85 said:

 

I still think that if/when an adaption of Hamilton happens, Lin Manuel would have to fight to keep them from making the cast primarily white with a few tokens thrown in even though the race flipping is a major theme.

 

King George is cast with a white guy in all the stage productions. Movie producers might just beef up his role and cast an A-lister.

[paulvdb]

Can you say fuck in a PG-13 movie today? Adventures in Babysitting used that word in 1987 and was apparently PG-13. There are probably also other things that could not be done today. For example, I remember reading somewhere that Playboy is no longer available as a printed magazine, so that part of the plot would have to be changed.

[starri]

I think the MPAA allows one fuck, which can't be used as a verb, in PG-13 movies.

[Lugal]

11 hours ago, paulvdb said:

Can you say fuck in a PG-13 movie today? Adventures in Babysitting used that word in 1987 and was apparently PG-13. There are probably also other things that could not be done today. For example, I remember reading somewhere that Playboy is no longer available as a printed magazine, so that part of the plot would have to be changed.

Playboy is still available in print, they just dropped nudity from the print edition, although I read that last month they reversed that decision.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

13 hours ago, paulvdb said:

Can you say fuck in a PG-13 movie today? Adventures in Babysitting used that word in 1987 and was apparently PG-13. There are probably also other things that could not be done today. For example, I remember reading somewhere that Playboy is no longer available as a printed magazine, so that part of the plot would have to be changed.

What got The Terminator an R rating back in 1984 probably would be the equivalent of PG-13 today.

[methodwriter85]

16 hours ago, paulvdb said:

Can you say fuck in a PG-13 movie today? Adventures in Babysitting used that word in 1987 and was apparently PG-13. There are probably also other things that could not be done today. For example, I remember reading somewhere that Playboy is no longer available as a printed magazine, so that part of the plot would have to be changed.

Disney did a "remake in name only" version of Adventures in Babysitting as an original channel movie. I didn't bother watching it because it sounded like they just took the concept of a babysitter spending the night in the city with her charges and nothing else. And then wrapped it up in PG-rated shenanigans.

I don't think the "Thor is a fag" line would play well today, either.

Mean Girls might be the last PG-13 teen movie where it was acceptable for the characters to say the word "dyke". (It's pretty much always censored out on T.V. viewings of the movie.) I don't watch PG-13 movies as much lately, but I haven't seen any PG-13 teen comedies/dramas from this decade where the teens are allowed to throw around homophobic slurs like that.

There was that moment at the end of Can't Hardly Wait where Peter Facinelli's character is called a fag and we're supposed to cheer at his humiliation. I can't see that happening if it were made now.

Actually, the plot where Kenny and Denise are stuck in the bathroom wouldn't make sense, either. They could just call someone on their phone. Maybe it could be changed to steel storage shed?

Edited May 23, 2017 by methodwriter85

[paulvdb]

5 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

Disney did a "remake in name only" version of Adventures in Babysitting as an original channel movie. I didn't bother watching it because it sounded like they just took the concept of a babysitter spending the night in the city with her charges and nothing else. And then wrapped it up in PG-rated shenanigans.

I don't think the "Thor is a fag" line would play well today, either.

I am aware of the Disney Channel remake, but I am not counting that because Disney Channel has its own rules and the movie could have done more if it was a theatrical release. It was also a different story although they did take some elements from the original.

And I don't think the word fag was used. I'm pretty sure it was "Thor is a homo." But that probably wouldn't work today either.

[methodwriter85]

Sarah said it when she met "Thor", I think.

[Bruinsfan]

On 4/21/2017 at 0:02 PM, VCRTracking said:

Why Sherry Lansing Threatened Mike Myers: "I'll Take Your F—ing House"

I know some people would hear that story and think "What a bitch" but I know a lot of male executives who go off into a screaming rafe for only minor reasons, hers was justified.

I don't think "poor Mike Myers" when I read it, I think "good for Lansing!"

On 5/22/2017 at 3:46 PM, Cobalt Stargazer said:

What got The Terminator an R rating back in 1984 probably would be the equivalent of PG-13 today.

I think it quite likely that Arnold's penis would either get the movie an R or, more likely, end up on the cutting room floor.

[amaranta]

Quote

I think it quite likely that Arnold's penis would either get the movie an R or, more likely, end up on the cutting room floor.

Ouch.

[SmithW6079]

On 5/24/2017 at 11:19 PM, Bruinsfan said:

I think it quite likely that Arnold's penis would either get the movie an R or, more likely, end up on the cutting room floor.

 

On 5/25/2017 at 3:15 PM, amaranta said:

Ouch.

That's quite a circumcision. 

Edited May 30, 2017 by SmithW6079

[Captain Carrot]

Lindsay Ellis posted a video essay regarding Mel Brooks, why his movies (mostly) work, and why people saying that Mel Brooks couldn't make a move in 'today's PC Culture' (or even worse using him as an excuse to make anti-Semitic jokes) don't get it.

[methodwriter85]

"Too Young To Kiss", a 1951 movie starring June Alyson as a woman who pretends she's 14 in order to pass herself off a piano prodigy to a concert broker. Predictably the concert booker falls in love with the girl he thinks is 14. How about hell no?

There's "Never Been Kissed" later on, but yeah, I can't really see that one working now, either.

[kiddo82]

I just saw Revenge of the Nerds for the first time and yeesh.  There's a lot to this one, not the least of which is "nice guy" has sex with girl while masquerading as her d-nozzle boyfriend.  Oh!  And she ends up being okay with it.

Edited June 17, 2017 by kiddo82

[Browncoat]

8 hours ago, kiddo82 said:

I just saw Revenge of the Nerds for the first time and yeesh.  There's a lot to this one, not the least of which is "nice guy" has sex with girl while masquerading as her d-nozzle boyfriend.  Oh!  And she ends up being okay with it.

Definitely yeesh in a big giant way, but I still have an irrational soft spot in my heart for the movie.  Possibly because I was a college-aged nerd when it came out -- as opposed to the old lady nerd I am now.  I love that smarts beats sports, and that instead of white saviours, we have black saviours, and black saviours who aren't Magical Negroes. 

[kiddo82]

1 hour ago, Browncoat said:

I love that smarts beats sports, and that instead of white saviours, we have black saviours, and black saviours who aren't Magical Negroes. 

That's very true.  I also liked the part where Lewis put on Swing Low Sweet Chariot to try to impress the Tri Lambs and Lamar quickly shut it down.  I think that still works because the joke was on Lewis.  We're not led to believe that he was anything but ignorant in that moment.  Also that it was Lamar, essentially standing up for himself as well as the Tri Lambs, who intervened and not one of the white members of the group.

Edited June 17, 2017 by kiddo82

[methodwriter85]

I just realized the end of The Cable Guy where he shuts off cable by jumping into the big satellite dish powering the town doesn't really make sense now given that people stream cable/wifi/whatever in many different ways now. Also, trials aren't really as much of a watercooler topic as they used to be- we had Casey Anthony and Jodi Arias but even then there were people who weren't caught up in that. The whole pop culture landscape is so much more fractured.

[VCRTracking]

I saw this tweet and laughed:

[methodwriter85]

Heh. Real-life 28-year olds tend to be drowning in student loan debt instead of worrying about being married and having kids. Not that I don't know plenty of people who have the family by their late 20's, but plenty of people aren't.

One thing I've noticed in more recent romantic comedies/stories with plots about dating life is that you're seeing more stories about people in their 30's still searching for love. I think that's reflecting the fact that more and more people are putting it off. Anecdote-wise, I work in a movie and I notice a lot of older parents with very little kids.

[methodwriter85]

I can't picture this scene being allowed on an American mainstream movie starring teenaged characters now, even an R-rated one with the actress being 19:

Movies have gotten incredibly conservative about sex, especially "teen" sex. In any event, if Fear ever got remade, they'd try to make it a PG-13 film so the sex, drug use, and violence would be dramatically toned down.

R-rated teen sex comedies or dramas seem to have disappeared from the wide-release landscape in general. If teens do have sex, it's usually something like Hazel and Augustus's love scene in the Fault in Our Stars. I can't see American Pie 1 happening now, either.

Edited June 22, 2017 by methodwriter85

[Scarlett45]

On 6/22/2017 at 5:49 PM, methodwriter85 said:

I can't picture this scene being allowed on an American mainstream movie starring teenaged characters now, even an R-rated one with the actress being 19:

 

Movies have gotten incredibly conservative about sex, especially "teen" sex. In any event, if Fear ever got remade, they'd try to make it a PG-13 film so the sex, drug use, and violence would be dramatically toned down.

R-rated teen sex comedies or dramas seem to have disappeared from the wide-release landscape in general. If teens do have sex, it's usually something like Hazel and Augustus's love scene in the Fault in Our Stars. I can't see American Pie 1 happening now, either.

I think they would make American Pie 1 now because it was rated R originally and all of the actors were actual adults when it was filmed. I always thought American Pie was a movie about teens but not marketed to teens if that makes sense. 

[Raja]

The theory is that the R-rated sex movie has disappeared because there is no longer a need to provide  legally obtainable pornography as anyone can get the actual thing if they have a phone or computer

[proserpina65]

On ‎06‎/‎15‎/‎2017 at 11:35 PM, methodwriter85 said:

There's "Never Been Kissed" later on, but yeah, I can't really see that one working now, either.

Really?  I think Never Been Kissed would work just fine, although the main character should probably be less conventionally attractive than Drew Barrymore.

[methodwriter85]

I was thinking the student/teacher thing (even though it's a pretend student) wouldn't be good but then I remembered the Ezra/Aria Pretty Little Liars storyline and figured yeah, you could totally do that now. The only really dated thing about that movie is Josie's brother working at a video store. (I do think they'd have to try a lot harder with trying to get them into the school, but it seems like people are still able to fake their way into schools.)

3 hours ago, Raja said:

The theory is that the R-rated sex movie has disappeared because there is no longer a need to provide  legally obtainable pornography as anyone can get the actual thing if they have a phone or computer

More specifically, the teen sex comedy. (50 Shades of Grey has done just fine, but in that case, they're consenting adults.) It's a combination of that, the fact that teens don't really do the movies as much as they used to, people have gotten very conservative about teen sex in movies, and movies starring teen characters just aren't made anymore unless it's a PG-13 movie because R-rated teen movies don't sell like they used to.  (Even a lot of horror movies starring teenagers/young people have become PG-13.)

[Princess Sparkle]

27 minutes ago, methodwriter85 said:

I was thinking the student/teacher thing (even though it's a pretend student) wouldn't be good but then I remembered the Ezra/Aria Pretty Little Liars storyline and figured yeah, you could totally do that now. The only really dated thing about that movie is Josie's brother working at a video store. (I do think they'd have to try a lot harder with trying to get them into the school, but it seems like people are still able to fake their way into schools.)

 

He works at a copy store, not a video store, so they wouldn't even have to change that.

[starri]

I present this thread summed up in three and a half minutes.

[AzureOwl]

On 6/4/2017 at 11:05 PM, Cobalt Stargazer said:

And The War of the Roses from 1989, where a near-divorce ends up in two deaths.

The thing about that movie is that the framing device could give the director a lot of leeway. Since it's a guy telling the story, you could change it to them reconciling just before the end and chuck up the discrepancy by saying that the Danny DeVito character is being an unreliable narrator. 

 

On 20/5/2017 at 9:19 AM, methodwriter85 said:

I still think that if/when an adaption of Hamilton happens, Lin Manuel would have to fight to keep them from making the cast primarily white with a few tokens thrown in even though the race flipping is a major theme.

The thing is, Hamilton is such a phenomenon that the producers would never risk the media shit storm that would ensue from such a drastic change to one of the main features of the musical. 

[methodwriter85]

I now agree with the people who say that they'll probably just cast a really famous guy for George and perhaps beef up his role without actually whitewashing the whole musical.

Rewatching Now You See Me 2 and thought about the locks bridge scene from the first movie. Paris unfortunately had to remove the locks from the bridges because they just couldn't handle the weight.

Edited July 6, 2017 by methodwriter85

[memememe76]

I think a teen sex comedy could still work. More diversity is needed. Gay characters. Women with more agency. Were there people of colour in American Pie except for one of the MILF guys, Jon Cho?

 

I wonder if any of those movies where a main character dies from a major illness would no longer work because there is a cure. Maybe Julia Roberts' character in Steel Magnolias? Debra Winger in Terms of Endearment? 

[JBC344]

1 hour ago, memememe76 said:

I think a teen sex comedy could still work. More diversity is needed. Gay characters. Women with more agency. Were there people of colour in American Pie except for one of the MILF guys, Jon Cho?

 

I wonder if any of those movies where a main character dies from a major illness would no longer work because there is a cure. Maybe Julia Roberts' character in Steel Magnolias? Debra Winger in Terms of Endearment? 

Maybe I'm not understanding but what major illnesses have actual cures? 

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, memememe76 said:

I wonder if any of those movies where a main character dies from a major illness would no longer work because there is a cure. Maybe Julia Roberts' character in Steel Magnolias? Debra Winger in Terms of Endearment? 

Neither of those characters died from a disease that now has a cure.  Shelby (Steel Magnolias) died due to complications of diabetes.  Emma (Terms of Endearment) died of cancer.