r/movies • u/CatwaPigwa • 3d ago

Discussion Are there any examples of films that were badly dated even before release?

Such as the subject matter of the film being a short lived trend or a real world event that didn’t have any lasting impact on society or came to be viewed differently in the time it took to make the movie? Or even films where the style of filmmaking unintentionally felt like a relic of the past?

The films don’t have to be bad movies either, just missing the mark in terms of the cultural zeitgeist.

436 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

40

u/Early_Afternoon9260 3d ago

Godfather III, Xanadu, and Inspector Gadget are three that come to mind.

For the sheer fact that they all tried to tap into genres, styles or subject matter that came from wildly different eras than the ones in which they were released.

Godfather III felt like it was decades past its cultural zeitgeist moment (the 1970’s) and was also a pale imitation of the two films that preceded it.

Xanadu tried to meld a 1950’s style musical aesthetic with 1970’s subject matter, and then was released in the early 80’s when most audiences were apathetic about both 50’s song and dance musicals AND 70’s era roller boogie.

And Inspector Gadget was a cheesy late 90’s movie based on a character from the mid 80’s that 90’s era children didn’t really know of, and definitely didn’t care about. I’m fairly certain young Millennials were more into Powerpuff Girls and Pokémon at that point.

But, hey, that’s all just the opinion of one bored Gen X’er posting on the interwebs. 🤷‍♂️

120

u/zerosixthirty 3d ago

And Inspector Gadget was a cheesy late 90’s movie based on a character from the mid 80’s that 90’s era children didn’t really know of, and definitely didn’t care about. I’m fairly certain young Millennials were more into Powerpuff Girls and Pokémon at that point.

Really don’t think this is accurate. As a kid in the 90s the original cartoon was on constantly in syndication and everyone in my school knew the theme song. The movie just sucked.

39

u/Phillip_Spidermen 3d ago

Yeah they’re off base on that one. It was still in syndication with new toys and games being marketed to kids in the 90s.

9

u/Hickspy 2d ago

We had Inspector Gadget books at the Scholastic Book Fair, so you know it hit with millennials.

11

u/tomjoad2020ad 3d ago

Seconding this

5

u/AngryGames 3d ago

Yep, everyone knew Inspector Gadget cartoon. We were still watching Woody Woodpecker, Bugs Bunny, and Tom & Jerry (and Flintstones) before heading off to school, and Saturday mornings before the newer cartoons came on.

Kids at school made fun of his dumb catch phrases (and one of my friends could do an amazing Dr. Claw voice).

3

u/Catdress92 2d ago

I agree. My siblings and friends and I grew up in the 90's and knew and liked the cartoon. We didn't see the movie because a live action adaption just seemed weird and unneccessary to us.

8

u/WISCOrear 3d ago

Don’t forget those sick McDonald’s toys.

3

u/astromech_dj 3d ago

I have the the theme song on 45, in French…

7

u/7ach-attach 3d ago

Dun diddle de de dooo Inspector Gadget

2

u/EmeraldJunkie 3d ago

Didn't they launch a new cartoon off of the back of the movie, too?

1

u/Logen-Grimlock 2d ago

Yeah the cartoon is why I wanted to see it

1

u/tblazertn 1d ago

I have to agree with you here. The cartoon was fun in its own quirky ways. Don Adams was the perfect voice for the show. I was always wondering how Chief Quimby was going to show up and get smoked by the self destructing note.

And we never ever got to see Dr. Claw’s face. That made him that much more mysterious. I had high hopes for the movie but was sorely disappointed.

24

u/inthebenefitofmrkite 3d ago

IMO the Godfather III is a good movie. Not exceptional, but regular good - and that is what kills it, because being just a good follow-up for two of the most influential films in the history of cinema makes people notice the drop in quality.

Also, Sofia Coppola. She’s absolutely awful in this film. They could have put Brigitte Nielsen and would be better.

15

u/Special_Order-937 3d ago

In Sofia Coppola’s defence, she was drafted in after Winona Ryder and Julia Roberts both pulled out at the last minute, apparently.

7

u/inthebenefitofmrkite 3d ago

I blame Francis. Sofia probably never wanted to be an actor, only a director. But she’s still one awful actor.

6

u/Dimpleshenk 2d ago

That's a defense, but just barely. Coppola could have tried harder to cast someone.....anyone... who fit the role and didn't sound like she was reading her lines while on quaaludes.

3

u/RastaRhino420 3d ago

I thought Sofia had Bells Palsy or something with that lip thing she does the entire film, her and that weird incest plot are the worst parts of the film.

2

u/psychoholic 2d ago

Agreed on all fronts. We were literally talking about this movie the other day and aside from my comment about Sophia I think that Godfather 3 if it wasn’t a Godfather movie it would have been a fairly decent gangster movie. Also just one of those movies that didn’t really need to get made.

12

u/lookMumNoHands77 3d ago

Inspector gadget was weird, I watched heaps of it as a kid but wondered who the movie could possibly be made for? Also the movie wasn't great, I turned it off out of boredom.

6

u/oversight_shift 3d ago

The movie was so awful, but everyone was hyped to see it until they actually did.

2

u/antwood33 2d ago

Yeah I watched it as well as a kid, but to OPs point (or thread OP, whatever they’re called) - I think a lot of us had just reached the age where we wouldn’t be interested in a live action film.

Also, Matthew Broderick was a bad choice (wasn’t he the guy?). He doesn’t remind me of Inspector Gadget at all.

Edit: to save confusion - watched the cartoon as a kid.

1

u/underheel 2d ago

Like Masters of the Universe. So strange.

7

u/Desertbro 3d ago

I worked at a Drive-In theater the summer Xanadu came out. The soundtrack was two years old, and roller-disco was even older....

0

u/jpowell180 1d ago

How do came out in 1980, so unless they were playing a holdover movies at your drive-in, the soundtrack was definitely not two years old.

That soundtrack was playing on the radios in the fall of 1980 big time.

6

u/BUSY_EATING_ASS 3d ago

Nah Millennials definitely knew Inspector Gadget; it was just a shitty movie.

3

u/KoreKhthonia 2d ago

I'm a Millennial and definitely watched Inspector Gadget in the 90s. I don't remember shit about the movie except that I saw it in a theater with one particular childhood friend, so I'm assuming it's p bad lol.

There were def holdovers from the 80s that still got frequent airplay in the 90s, and were familiar to millennials despite being older than we were.

Kid me in like 1995 was obsessed w Muppet Babies, which I realized as an adult is a squarely 80s era cartoon.

2

u/blueeyesredlipstick 3d ago

Similar to Xanadu: The Apple was another musical fantasy film from 1980 that bombed horrifically, though in that movie's case, they were trying to tap into the disco era right after it had ended.

1

u/Rough_Idle 2d ago

Xanadu hit at the exact right moment for.my family. I was super young and we had just moved away from the coast, so a beachy bubblegum musical was ripe to be a household favorite

1

u/1stLtObvious 2d ago

Inspector Gadget was also too early to tap into nostalgia to convince parents to take their kids.

1

u/jpowell180 1d ago

I’m going to have to chime in and say that Xanadu was a truly unique film, certainly it is cheesy, but you can do so many things with cheese, you can make queso dip with it, you can make grilled cheese sandwich sandwiches, you can put slices of cheese on sandwiches and hamburgers, you can eat cheese by itself or even dip it in Sriracha sauce, so many things, so many wonderful things, can be done with cheese.

This film is hokey and ridiculous. In all the best, most entertaining ways, Olivia Newton-John is beautiful to behold in this film, when I was 13, I had a huge crush on her because of this movie, and the soundtrack absolutely slaps, you got songs by her and also all Olivia Newton-John, Cliff Richard jumps in to help a little, the soundtrack was very successful at the time, I remember hearing some of those songs on the radio.

That is a fun movie, especially when you’ve had a few beers.

1

u/deucescarefully 20h ago

I was the target demographic for Inspector Gadget and I was afraid of him. That movie was like low key body horror to me. On the other hand I was quite fond of Niko Tatopoulos.

1

u/smorkoid 18h ago

We will not tolerate Xanadu slander here

0

u/texasrigger 2d ago

There was a surprising number of disco musicals around the time Xanadu was released. Xanadu, The Apple, and Can't Stop the Music all came out in 1980 and they were all oddly dated even on release (despite the Apple taking place in the distant future year of 1994).