Movie which has suprisingly held its own over the years?

[Tvtyrant]

On old stuff: Most of Hitchcock is decent if rather sexist and formulaic. The formula is his though, once you watch a few if his films they tend to melt together.

Rear Window is an inversion of his own films, which is interesting. The woman is good hearted, the guy is disinterested, the good guy is rich instead of poor, the bad guy is poor instead of rich.

[Magic_Hat]

Rejected

[Hunter Noventa]

That's because he's pretty sharp and once he got big enough he picked scripts that were quite good. Then the studios would dumb them down because they wanted an Arnold dumb action movie. They were still built on good bones, though.

You can see this in Last Action Hero, Total Recall, or Running Man.

Yeah there is that.

Another great movie that never gets old is Young Frankenstein. The same could be said for a lot of Mel Brooks' work. It's a shame that style of movie has just plain vanished in recent years.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Hunter Noventa
The Princess Bride remains a perfect movie, would be a shame to ruin it with a remake.

Agreed, and I see what you did there.

Originally Posted by DavidSh
…it is surprising that a silent film from 1924 is at all watchable.

Not that surprising in context. Watch some of Buster Keaton’s work—he’s absolutely brilliant, a pillar of early cinema, and echoes of what he pioneered can still be seen today, from Jackie Chan to the Matrix.

It’s also fascinating to watch what he did with the understanding that, unlike virtually every movie today, there was no CGI, so what you see on the screen is what he actually did.

[Yora]

Another great movie that never gets old is Young Frankenstein. The same could be said for a lot of Mel Brooks' work. It's a shame that style of movie has just plain vanished in recent years.

I think Mel Brooks is the only one who ever understood how to make good parody movies.

The only other example I can think off is Austin Powers, but those are all based on a single series. Mel Brooks could make parodies of anything.

[Rodin]

I think Mel Brooks is the only one who ever understood how to make good parody movies.

The only other example I can think off is Austin Powers, but those are all based on a single series. Mel Brooks could make parodies of anything.

ZAZ (Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker) had some good stuff, either when they were together or solo.


Airplane
Police Squad
Naked Gun (1 and 2.5)
Hot Shots (1 and Deux)

Airplane 2 was also good, apparently under another director.

[Peelee]

Edgar Wright and Christopher Guest have also made top notch parodies, (Guest's in mockumentary form, which I think is every more impressive).

[JNAProductions]

Clue, from 1985, is flip-flapping HILARIOUS. I love it!

[random11]

ZAZ (Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker) had some good stuff, either when they were together or solo.


Airplane
Police Squad
Naked Gun (1 and 2.5)
Hot Shots (1 and Deux)

Airplane 2 was also good, apparently under another director.

I'd rate Top Secret above all of them.

[Peelee]

I'd rate Top Secret above all of them.

ZAZ, Val Kilmer, Peter Cushing... how have I not heard of this one?

[random11]

ZAZ, Val Kilmer, Peter Cushing... how have I not heard of this one?

Drop everything you're doing and go watch it now!
Also, it's a movie with many small details, so you might find things you missed in the second or even third time watching it.

---

Another movie I would add to the list is UHF.
As long as they keep making the same type of movies they parody there, it will still be relevant...

[Archpaladin Zousha]

The Last Unicorn: One of the most beautifully animated movies ever, with stellar voice acting, awesome music and a story that treats its audience maturely. It was one of the first films I ever watched as a kid that made me feel like I was watching a truly "grown-up" film.

Excalibur: It is, in my opinion, and always will be, the best film adaptation of Arthurian myth ever. It manages to get the entire story in there from the Sword in the Stone to the Battle of Camlann while still feeling coherent, along with a truly mythic feel!

[diplomancer]

Godfather 3, despite Sofia Coppola's lackluster acting, holds its own quite well with its predecessors. I believe it was panned at the time because of an excess of expectations.

I watched it recently and the final sequence (once the opera starts, so I would guess about 35 minutes) is probably the best sequence of all 3 movies. It was gripping, all of it. The ending could not be more fitting, moving and sad.

Excalibur: It is, in my opinion, and always will be, the best film adaptation of Arthurian myth ever. It manages to get the entire story in there from the Sword in the Stone to the Battle of Camlann while still feeling coherent, along with a truly mythic feel!

Script and plot-wise, as well as visually, Excalibur is amazing. I just wish they had better actors for the Arthur-Guinevere-Lancelot triangle. It would have been one of the best movies of all time, period, not just the best film adaptation of Arthurian myth.

[Hunter Noventa]

Clue, from 1985, is flip-flapping HILARIOUS. I love it!

Yes, another movie that's amazing! I can't believe I forgot about it myself.

I also remember loving Airplane 1 and 2, and Hot Shots back when they were fresh.

Sadly the modern parodies got us stuff like...Scary Movie and Epic Movie. Nothing like the classic parodies.

[Rodin]

Clue is weird in that it didn't "hold up" when it was first released. It wasn't very popular at the time, and only became popular years later. It's an interesting look into how tastes change over the years.

[Willie the Duck]

This is an odd one, as many of these other films are great, while this one is merely good, but it fits the premise that it holds its own. City Slickers is a movie about, in a nutshell, being a guy and turning 40. The actual plot is relatively unimportant, although Jack Palance's Curly Washburn steals the show, it is really about Mitch, Phil, and Ed realizing that they are supposed to have figured out life and what they want from it, and not really knowing what they want to do, be, or feel.

The film holds up because 1) as a bunch of tourists taking part of in a cattle drive for fun, old-timey wild west gear (but not really) would be approximately the same today as it would in 1991, 2) any movie magic that didn't appear back then because it would have been impossible/prohibitively expensive would actually detract from the movie (where a calf who you thought might have gotten lost suddenly showing up on the horizon actually is the excitement of the scene), and 3) a bunch of the references in the movie were already dated at the time, and deliberately so, since the movie was all about guys realizing that things they considered eternally important (like baseball stars of yore) were in fact relics of the past.

Mind you, there is some 'supposed to be contemporary' things that now seem out of date (the schtick about someone not being able to program a VCR), there's only token minority or women representation (and the black guy has a weird scene about being defensive about being a black dentist that seems more random than anything else), and one of the characters cheated on his wife and is treated with a lot more sympathy than modern audiences might consider normal (although, to be fair, everyone including him treats it as him screwing up and ruining his life), but overall the movie has mostly the same resonance* now as it would have then (with the slight caveat that more kids born in ~1950 would have played cowboys as kids than someone turning 40 now).
*for men, the movie is about and for men, no argument there.

[Telonius]

The Court Jester (1956 movie with Danny Kaye, Angela Lansbury, and Basil Rathbone). Watched it when I was a kid (30 years after it was made), and again recently. I had the odd experience of it being a little better than I remembered.

[Raimun]

Sure, a lot of the 80's movies. Also, some from the 70's.

However, the movie in this category that is truly remarkable is the Universal's 1931 classic, Dracula. Though it's not really surprising.

[Knaight]

The requirement for surprising cuts down on a lot of options - that Princess Bride held up well isn't exactly surprising, neither is an excellent studio with an extensive recent history of good movies also having good ones earlier (Ghibli was mentioned for this, Pixar would also fit well). So, some candidates:

Demolition Man: It's a big dumb movie, but it's a fun big dumb movie that has held up remarkably well for the most part - and I say that as someone who mostly dislikes its politics. Plus the seashells gag never grows old.

Titan AE: This wasn't particularly notable when it came out, and wasn't particularly successful. Yet it managed to be one of the best space opera movies of its decade, even the humor has aged surprisingly well, and the visuals remain stunning.

Five Deadly Venoms: There's a lot of dubious 70's and 80's martial arts movies that haven't aged well. This though? This is a straight masterpiece, and one that went tragically unrecognized in the US at the time, what with the cultural unfamiliarity towards wuxia. It's so good though, between a plot that's just intrigue filled and convoluted enough to be really fun, some downright glorious fight scenes, and one of the greatest training montages that has ever been put to film.

[Rodin]

For an older film, House on Haunted Hill is still quite good. This is despite the movie really showing its age in the special effects department, as well as the "hook" of the real-life skeleton being dropped from the ceiling in the movie theatre not being a thing. It's still a great mystery movie and Vincent Price is at his Vincent Priciest.

[Tvtyrant]

For an older film, House on Haunted Hill is still quite good. This is despite the movie really showing its age in the special effects department, as well as the "hook" of the real-life skeleton being dropped from the ceiling in the movie theatre not being a thing. It's still a great mystery movie and Vincent Price is at his Vincent Priciest.

Agreed. Price using a skeleton on strings to scare a woman into a pit is one of the best moments in horror. The remake is too gory though.

[Gnoman]

A couple of years ago, I watched the original Dracula film with Bela Lugosi. The acting is excellent, there's good use of tension, and (with a few exceptions) the visual effects hold up fairly well (monochrome helps with this, of course). What flaws the film had were due (based on research) entirely to budget cuts making it an adaptation of the play rather than the original novel.

[Palanan]

I'm going to add Dances With Wolves, which I was watching over the weekend.

This is a movie that is a journey, not a footrace, and it makes no apologies for taking its time along the way. The visual humor works as well as ever, and I'd forgotten how Kevin Costner was willing to let his character take a few jokes on the chin.

Add to that, Mary McDonnell is fantastic. By the time the new Galactica came out, I'd completely forgotten that she had played Stands With A Fist, but her performance is superb, even in scenes when she's a small part of a much larger group.

The movie manages the fine balance between a grand epic on the one hand, and a very intimate story of personal first contact on the other. Not only does it still hold its own, but it's refreshing and lovely to watch again.

.

[dps]

Let's see, 3movies not yet mentioned:

Ben Hur. The 1925 silent version. Better than the Charlton Heston remake IMO, which also holds up well IMO.

The Maltese Falcon.

Tremors.

Well, I suppose you could argue that's 4.

[Wraith]

RoboCop is still one the the best sci-fi and political satire movies ever made. The CGI is a little wonky in places, but that still happens even in modern films so it hardly counts; the rest of it, from the costume, actors and story, are still brilliant.

[5crownik007]

Alien + Aliens.
Ghost In The Shell(1995)
Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade
Star Wars: Clone Wars(2003)

The fact I have to attach dates to half of these due to similarly named titles makes me unhappy.

[DavidSh]

Let's see, 3movies not yet mentioned:

Ben Hur. The 1925 silent version. Better than the Charlton Heston remake IMO, which also holds up well IMO.

The Maltese Falcon.

Tremors.

Speaking of remakes, I suppose you mean the 1941 remake of The Maltese Falcon, rather than the original 1931 adaptation, which is not as well known, though Una Merkel and Dwight Frye nail their (relatively minor) parts.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

The 1981 The Thing probably counts. At the time it wasn't the biggest hit, seen as an imitation of Alien. A sequel was being planned but scrapped. But both the effects and the atmosphere have really helped it gain a following since then. (Which is also how this remake got its own premake.)

[LaZodiac]

The only other example I can think off is Austin Powers, but those are all based on a single series. Mel Brooks could make parodies of anything.

Austin Powers is also a really good example of a film that has not held up at all. Jeeezus.

I realize this is probably too modern for some people's tastes, but the Wachowski Sister's Speed Racer is genuinely always going to be one of the best films I've watched. It still holds up.

[Jay R]

Nobody has mentioned Gone With the Wind or The Wizard of Oz yet? Really?

Also:
Captain Blood.
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Casablanca.
Citizen Kane.
Fantasia.
Singin' in the Rain
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
The Great Race
Patton
The Sting

I didn't consider anything less than 50 years old, since they haven't been tested by time yet.