Those movies of yesteryear

[borninusa]

Having been a child of the 80's (so those are the movies I am targeting)...I tend to have a fondness for what was released back then. Nostalgia, if you would.

Though I have a bit of nostalgia for many of those movies....I do remember some of them not winning any rewards and at times, frankly bombing in the theaters and not really being all that good.

I shall not mention any titles but I do find it amusing that when a movie is released on blu from that bygone era (or even the 90's), that it is 'highly recommended' on this site.

I am not trying to slam any reviews..and everyone has different taste in movies but still, I dont get how some movies garner a 'highly recommended'.

What the heck, I shall mention a title. "Dick Tracy"...now I could be wrong...but didnt this movie bomb back when it came out?

Just thinking about all things blu and this topic, if you will, popped to mind.

Any thoughts?

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by borninusa

Having been a child of the 80's (so those are the movies I am targeting)...I tend to have a fondness for what was released back then. Nostalgia, if you would.
Though I have a bit of nostalgia for many of those movies....I do remember some of them not winning any rewards and at times, frankly bombing in the theaters and not really being all that good.

There were different factors back then, eg. bad promotion, calamitous marketing, bad comparisons to a current trend (eg. The Rocketeer and Tracy being "Disney's poor-man's Batman"), poor release weeks, audiences just not KNOWING enough of a classic source material and saying "Huh?" ("The Shadow" and "Speed Racer" spring ably to mind...)

Ten years from now, your kids/grandkids will love John Carter and be envious you got to see it in a theater. And you'll have to tell them you didn't, because, well, you had heard nobody else was.

What the heck, I shall mention a title. "Dick Tracy"...now I could be wrong...but didnt this movie bomb back when it came out?

It made...enough. (Disney's marketing was going rather defensively overboard in saying "See, see, we finally broke the $100M mark, that means you're a hit when it happens, so there!" You could even mail in for a copy of their good NYTimes review--I kid you not. )
Despite being badly cut and re-cut, audiences not quite knowing at first what to make of the latex makeup and color scheme, and the marketing promoting a much more exciting thriller than we got, with Beatty deciding to make it quirky and laid-back instead.

But video is the Great Equalizer, where all movies are just Movies.

[borninusa]

I actually thought John Carter was a tad underated. I can see that one gaining momentum down the road a bit.

I could list many a titles that I have seen reviews for on this site, and a few others and I still scratch my head to some of them that were given very good reviews. I am taking the whole audio/video presentation out of the review and just am thinking of the movie itself.

[JLaw1719]

There's a bunch of different factors, but the main one to me is that it simply takes awhile for some films to stretch their legs. Sometimes, it just takes time for a movie to gain its place in history. The initial buzz around it needs to wear off. There's plenty of movies that I disliked the first time I saw them and then grew to like or even love, and a few vice versa.

[borninusa]

Originally Posted by JLaw1719

There's a bunch of different factors, but the main one to me is that it simply takes awhile for some films to stretch their legs. Sometimes, it just takes time for a movie to gain its place in history. The initial buzz around it needs to wear off. There's plenty of movies that I disliked the first time I saw them and then grew to like or even love, and a few vice versa.

Very very true...but you have to admit...there are many out there from days long gone that just plain suck, yet still get fairly nice reviews. I spoke of Dick Tracy...and over on hidefdigest it was reviewed and given a 'for fans only' bottom line. I would tend to agree with that one.

Still...like I said, everyone has very different taste. What I think sucked may be someone else's gold.. LIke I said though..I am just amazed from time to time of what gets a good review

[bigshot]

I'm not nostalgic for my youth. The 70s was an ugly decade. I know because I endured it. I'm nostalgic for my grandfather and father's youth. The best movies ever made were made in the 30s, 40s and 50s.

[Atreyu]

Originally Posted by borninusa

Very very true...but you have to admit...there are many out there from days long gone that just plain suck, yet still get fairly nice reviews. I spoke of Dick Tracy...and over on hidefdigest it was reviewed and given a 'for fans only' bottom line. I would tend to agree with that one.

Still...like I said, everyone has very different taste. What I think sucked may be someone else's gold.. LIke I said though..I am just amazed from time to time of what gets a good review

Yeah, it boils down to the fact that we all like something different. Many are willing to chance a movie on video over seeing it in the theater due to the cost, so that's why many movies that have bombed in the theater have a great life on home video.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by borninusa

I actually thought John Carter was a tad underated. I can see that one gaining momentum down the road a bit.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is already also finally getting a bit of retroactive love from cable viewers.
(There was another "What, what??" flop I could never understand, without getting lectures from rabid print-comic fanboys.)

Originally Posted by bigshot

I'm not nostalgic for my youth. The 70s was an ugly decade. I know because I endured it. I'm nostalgic for my grandfather and father's youth. The best movies ever made were made in the 30s, 40s and 50s.

I lived through the 70's, but was too young to enjoy any of it.
My 70's was Saturday morning and Happy Days, while everyone else got to enjoy Studio 57, pickup trucks, and the sexual revolution. (Although I realize I wasn't missing much, turns out everyone was 10 years old back then, even the adults.)

As a result, I find myself going back and trying to appreciate just how films were during the Nixon-Ford era. Not just the Golden-Age Oscar films--when big-studio movies had the entire burden of quality pop-culture--but the ability to sit down and watch "The Towering Inferno" on Netflix with a clean historical slate.

[Cliff]

Originally Posted by EricJ

Despite being badly cut and re-cut, audiences not quite knowing at first what to make of the latex makeup and color scheme, and the marketing promoting a much more exciting thriller than we got, with Beatty deciding to make it quirky and laid-back instead.

But video is the Great Equalizer, where all movies are just Movies.

That's not true... I sat about 30 feet from Warren Beatty when his talked about the final cut of the film ALWAYS being his cut. He said he sat in a screening room with Jeffrey Katzenberg at 6am one day screening Dick Tracy. Katzenberg had a problem with something in the film (Beatty wouldn't say what it was) and after discussing it for a few minutes, Katzenberg said, "You're probably right, leave it alone." Beatty did say many years later he thought Katzenberg may have been right after all.

Point being... the long cut is nothing but internet rumor and Beatty has no idea where that "fact" came from.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Cliff

Point being... the long cut is nothing but internet rumor and Beatty has no idea where that "fact" came from.

Probably because of Beatty's trademark song-montages looking like editing-room cleanups of scenes that were deleted for time, as they so often are in most movies (especially 90's Disney)--
Particularly the montage for "Sooner or Later", which seems to consist of most of the "exciting" scenes the trailer promised and we never got. Then again, that may have been his idea, after all.

[L-Rouge]

Sorry I've only skimmed a few posts here, but scarface and bladerunner gained traction after their VHS release. Initial theater reviews were less kind, but as soon as they hit the home market, their reputations secured. In this sense fans made them work.

[borninusa]

Its amusing to me to see certain movie's 'gain momentum' years after release. Some, I just dont get.
Each to his/her own though.