The Neverending Story

If anything I enjoy it even more as an adult, now that I can appreciate just how unique it was, especially compared to most fantasy films that've come after.

And NO, as far as I'm concerned there where NO sequels. Let me have my illusions, goddamn it.

There is only one sequel to Neverending Story: Shadow of the Colossus. Seriously just play that game, and you'll be living the best parts of the movie (IMHO).


Um... for me...
Animated Movies:
Secret of NIMH (there are NO sequels)
The Last Unicorn
I don't want to list the Disney ones because they always hold up.

Live-action:
Aliens (yes I was a kid)

Someone
Live-action:
Aliens (yes I was a kid)

Indeed, add to that Predator, Terminator, robocop and many others.

Actually
Ghostbusters
Beastmaster
Gremlins
The indy films
starwars original trilogy etc.
BTTF films
Goonies
These all stand up very well.


Still if we are talking about kids films...
The ones Mlai mentioned for sure, especially secret of nimh.

Also
Flight of dragons
The last starfighter

I am sure there are many more but right now I can't think of them.

Toy Story

If I made a list of my favorite films of all time, this would still be in the top ten. If I ever get an Ipod, I'm sure "You Got A Friend in Me" will be on it.

The Goonies
Better Off Dead
Ghostbusters
The Princess Bride
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
The original Star Wars movies
Back to the Future movies

Then there's these:
Harry and the Hendersons
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Karate Kid

I'm not sure if those last three still hold up because they're good, or because I simply have a nostalgic connection to them. Oh well. I can still watch them over and over again.

Movies mentioned which I don't think still hold up (for me nowadays):

Beastmaster
starwars original trilogy
The last starfighter
Karate Kid (this one a thousand times this one)

Except for Star Wars (originals), those movies were hokey even when I first watched them.

I always had a soft spot for beast master even though it's a bit hokey. far better than the sequels.

Karate kid... yeah I have seen that assloads recently.


I'm sure there are other but for the life of me I cannot think of them.

I really couldn't come back to the Neverending Story. I appreciate what it tried to do, but when I rewatched it as an adult, it was far too hokey with bad acting and worse puppets. I should have left it as a memory.

Animated films have a tendency to hold up a lot better than live action. Most live action movies are more closely tied to the times when they were made. I can still watch something like the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but I'm not sure someone from the younger generations could appreciate it as much as I do. I grew up when Disney was in the shitter and Bluth was making all the big movies. Stuff like Secret of NIMH, Land Before Time (the original, not the 2 billion sequels), and an American Tail were all pretty big and still work pretty well today. After those movies, Disney got back into the game with Little Mermaid and Bluth's movies kind of went downhill.

There are a number of European animated films that also stand the test of time, provided you can find them uncensored. When it comes to the live action films, however, it just seems like the adult and teen oriented films hold up much better than the kid films. At least for the most part. What kids are into these days isn't the same as what I watched back in the 80's, that's probably why we get all these horrible mutations of classic franchises in the theaters today.

The Dark Crystal
The Goonies
Wizards
Big Trouble in Little China
Spaceballs
Robin Hood: Men in Tights
Rambos 1-3 (Guilty pleasure.)

I will admit that except for a few jewels, my movie taste is pretty bad (it has loud explosions? Overstylized Wire Fu? Car chases? Yes? I'm there!!!) o, so I pretty much still love the same movies that I loved when I was a kid.

Some of you have mentioned a few ones that remain in my top 20 of ALL TIME (Star Wars Trilogy, Indiana Jones Trilogy, Big Trouble in Little China, Aliens, Back to the Future Trilogy, An American Tale) but these are the ones that I came up with.

-Almost the entire Schwarzenegger 80's filmography, specially Conan The Barbarian, Commando, Predator and both Terminators. Arnie was DA MAN!!!

-While I didn't have the same appreciation for Stallone movies until I reached my teen years (it's been 10 years already?!?!), I loved Rocky IV and Cobra back then and I still love them now. Yes, I understand now the pseudo fascist overtones on Cobra, it still has one of the most cool one liners EVER ("This is where the law stops, and I start" EPIC!!!) and besides, Marion Cobretti is THE 80's hero along with John Matrix (Commando). At the same time, while I now understand the Cold War political nonsense on Rocky IV, it still has THE BEST training montage in the entire series.

I mean, how can anybody expect me to go for the fucking Na'vis when Col. Quaritch is basically the kind of hero that I had when I grew up?

Hm, I suppose it depends on how far back you mean. For the most part, my list would agree with most of the other movies thrown out there already.

But if I were to go back to where I was much, much younger: The Land Before Time. I can still watch that today and appreciate the story it tells.

Like Dark Pascal my taste sucks, so the bad stuff I put up with as a kid is still enjoyable.

But my real favorites remain the same and on DVD uncut and in original aspect ratio? It's like a whole new movie.

isukun
What kids are into these days isn't the same as what I watched back in the 80's, that's probably why we get all these horrible mutations of classic franchises in the theaters today.

I'm not sure I get that one.

I mean, I can't see how kids of any generation would not like the 80's action-hero cartoons like the kickass GI Joe week-long arcs (the Weather Dominator etc) etc, and instead like the crappily-Flashed, nonsense comedy cartoons of today. ALL kids like action heroes! What happened to them all these days, I have no idea. Surely the popularity of Avatar Airbender attests to that hunger.

Hawk
The Goonies
Better Off Dead
Ghostbusters
The Princess Bride
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
The original Star Wars movies
Back to the Future movies

Then there's these:
Harry and the Hendersons
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Karate Kid

All of those, plus the Bill & Ted Sequal. Great movies still!

Dark Pascual
-Almost the entire Schwarzenegger 80's filmography, specially Conan The Barbarian, Commando, Predator...

These, plus Raw Deal, Red Heat, Running Man, and Total Recall.

Chernobog
The Dark Crystal
The Goonies
Big Trouble in Little China
Spaceballs

Yup.

Add to those:
Ferris Bueler's Day Off
A Dog's Tale
Charlote's Web
Weird Science
National Lampoon's Vacation
Stripes
Revenge of the Nerds 1 & 2
Police Academy 1
Time Bandits
Cannonball run 1 & 2
Ground-hog day
Flash Gordon
Condorman

This very quickly turned into a "what's your favorite movie?" thread instead of it's original intent.

"Still hold up" is an extremely subjective POV. Something still holding up FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT is completely different from still holding up to entertainment immortality. If it is the latter, then sorry, not much of this page meets the list.

If you want proof sit a 9-year-old in front of the TV to watch "The Goonies","The Last Starfighter", or even "Star Wars". They'll be bored in 2 minutes. There are reasons for this.

First, seeing it on the BIG screen is a completely different experience. That's how YOU remember it, whether you realize it or not.

Second, attention spans are even shorter now. Something has to happen every minute to keep peoples' attention. Blame TV and it's forever pushing of the envelope, or computers/video games and their interactivity. But these are the same reasons you think 'Psycho' is not scary, and people that saw it when it first ran thought it was.

Third, the once original idea has been re-hashed over and over again, and the young kid has only seen the re-hashes. So the original is perceived as a re-hash. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial is a good example of this. Disney REALLY, REALLY gets this point, which is why even old animated films are still in peoples minds as "The originals". They make theme parks, re-release the videos with special features, and ohmygod the merchandising. No one will ever be able to think of "Snow White" without thinking of the Disney film, even now - what 50 years later?

So, yeah, I could tell you my favorite movies that I will always look back on with nostalgic fondness just like everyone else, but they don't withstand the test of time - like most of your lists. ;)

I guess that's why the movies I truly loved as a kid and still hold up are all considered true classics of their genre.

March of the Wooden Soldiers
Waterloo
The Battle of Britain
Kelly's Heroes
Zulu
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Star Wars (I really have to differ about this as I've seen two generations of kids watch it enthralled since I saw it in 1977.)

For some You have to watch the films in widescreen on DVD so they match that original memory? Not for me as I saw most of these originally on small black and white televisions.

I mean, I can't see how kids of any generation would not like the 80's action-hero cartoons like the kickass GI Joe week-long arcs (the Weather Dominator etc) etc, and instead like the crappily-Flashed, nonsense comedy cartoons of today.

Try actually going back and watching some of the old GI Joe episodes. Most of it wasn't long story arcs and the vast majority of it is bogged down by ridiculously hokey characters and writing. The current Saturday morning lineup is dominated by anime, CG, and Disney produced shows, none of which really fit into the "crappily-Flashed, nonsense comedy cartoon" category which seems more common in adult and tween animation. The action series of today take themselves far more seriously and have a greater focus on continuity than those of yesteryear, and I doubt kids would really get into something like the old GI Joe off of the kind of action series they watch today.

For the same reasons you can't relate to the shows they watch, they won't be able to relate to the kind of crap we watched.

SpANG
So, yeah, I could tell you my favorite movies that I will always look back on with nostalgic fondness just like everyone else, but they don't withstand the test of time - like most of your lists

They're not my fave movies! :(

Those are films I can enjoy just as much now. I took the question to mean movies that didn't only look good because you were a kid, you know? A lot of films just look painfully stupid when you watch them again as an adult. For instance; any of the rest of the Police Academy films, But something like Bueler's day off or Conan the Barbarian I can warch over and over and they still hold up.

I wouldn't kniw how to compare them to modern films... I think that 99% of modern films don't hold up even when they're made. Most try to be far too slick, overproduced, clean, and general in appeal so they're basically like forgettable advertisements- watch them once and forget about them, move on to the next one.

@ Ozone:
Yeah, but did you actually like to watch movies like Ferris Bueller or Stripes or Groundhog Day as a kid? I'm talking about 9-13 years old. Those movies would have bored the crap out of me at that age.

@ Isukun:
Which are these "action series of today" which "take themselves far more seriously and have greater focus on continuity"? Do you mean Batman, JLA, Spiderman, etc? In general I don't like to count Marvel/DC superhero cartoons as a whole, because they're their own subgenre with their own cultural influences and quality oversight, although even superhero cartoons have definitely improved over the years.

@ bravo1102:
I think you raise a good point regarding animation and SFX quality. Ofc such things have improved over the years, but I don't think they really matter when it comes to capturing the attention/imagination of kids. If that's true then bedtime storybooks would have become extinct when the TV was invented. Just because many adult filmmakers of today have replaced their sense of storytelling with SFX, it doesn't mean that that's what kids demand.

SpANG
So, yeah, I could tell you my favorite movies that I will always look back on with nostalgic fondness just like everyone else, but they don't withstand the test of time - like most of your lists. ;)

You make some great points about what "still holding up" truly is, but I think you're selling a lot of people short here when I can at least see some general effort to select the more time-proof movies. You may not agree with all of them, but then nobody ever completely agrees on movies... just ask the internet.

There's a very subjective nature to the question being asked, in that we first must have liked the movie when we saw it as children, and we also must like the movie as an adult. There's no way to tell how much of a factor nostalgia plays. Thus, we can only do our best.

By the way, just who are these supposed kids who get bored of The Goonies and Star Wars? That's just craziness.

But more in line with your point, it's actually a lot easier to discern whether or not a movie doesn't hold up, because that seems to be more obvious. It seems like the opposite is far more debatable.

mlai
@ Ozone:Yeah, but did you actually like to watch movies like Ferris Bueller or Stripes or Groundhog Day as a kid? I'm talking about 9-13 years old. Those movies would have bored the crap out of me at that age.

Yup. Watched them all as a kid and loved them then :)

I should add Raising Arizona to that list!
Definitely holds up!

But say something like Top Gun or Royal Flash for example... I loved those as a kid, but now I can't even watch them without getting bored... It's just so silly.
So that's the difference.


------------------
I really think Spang looks at the question a different way. Like I said, the way I took it is:
"Are those films actually good films now that you watch them as an adult, or was it just the inexperience of childhood that made you think they were?"

Honestly I don't think the idea of comparing older films to current films is very valid anyway. What criteria are we meant to use? Technical advances like effects and image quality? I don't think those matter too much at all really. I still think The Thief of Baghdad and The Jungle Book (both with Sabu) are great films, and the effects in there are ooooooolllld. Digital effects aren't really that much of an improvement, it's all still make believe and suspension of belief is a mandatory requirement in watching ANY film anyway so you're predisposed to accepting effects as real, even if they're not smooth.

What it comes down to is how well the film immerses you into its world as to how well you accept the effects and that is just as much a problem as it has always been in film.

As to image quality, on a big screen etc- all those films were done on 35mm, which means they're way more "HD" than any digital only film. For all of them you can do HD version for Blue Ray or whatever and even if they were just reformatted for standard definition most DVD players up-scale them now anyway. And don't forget- they were all made to be shown on gigantic film screen originally.

Hawk is right, the subjective take is really the best way to do this I think ^_^
At least as far as I can see.

I could always be wrong though! :)

Someone
Honestly I don't think the idea of comparing older films to current films is very valid anyway. What criteria are we meant to use? Technical advances like effects and image quality? I don't think those matter too much at all really. I still think The Thief of Baghdad and The Jungle Book (both with Sabu) are great films, and the effects in there are ooooooolllld. Digital effects aren't really that much of an improvement, it's all still make believe and suspension of belief is a mandatory requirement in watching ANY film anyway so you're predisposed to accepting effects as real, even if they're not smooth.

I have introduced my kids to a lot of the films I loved as a kid and for the most part they love them.

My kids or younger than 9 though.


The films I mentioned are ones I can still watch and enjoy as an adult. so in my opinion the still hold up.

Which are these "action series of today" which "take themselves far more seriously and have greater focus on continuity"?

Most of the anime aimed at kids these days fits that category and all of it has a much greater focus on more serious large scale story telling and continuity than shows from our era. Even the stuff we consider to be garbage like Pokemon, Yu-gi-oh or Beyblade still push personal relationships, season long story arcs, and feature characters that grow and change throughout the series. Those kinds of shows were a rarity in the US in our time.

isukun

Which are these "action series of today" which "take themselves far more seriously and have greater focus on continuity"?

Most of the anime aimed at kids these days fits that category and all of it has a much greater focus on more serious large scale story telling and continuity than shows from our era. Even the stuff we consider to be garbage like Pokemon, Yu-gi-oh or Beyblade still push personal relationships, season long story arcs, and feature characters that grow and change throughout the series. Those kinds of shows were a rarity in the US in our time.

Of course it is all a marketing ploy to make sure you don't miss an episode and thereafter be totally lost and that you'll run out and buy the DVD boxed set at the end of the season.

When I was growing up in the unenlightened Dark Ages a show with season long story arc was called a serial.

Recently rewatching them on DVD I was struck by how much all the stuff we think is so great today was done in serials and Poverty Row movies back in the 1930s-40s. Movies that don't hold up for kids because they're in black and white and don't have CGI. But the best stories are recycled endlessly.

I blame my parents for introducing me to the re-re-re-runs of the stories they grew up watching in the 1930s.

bravo1102
Movies that don't hold up for kids because they're in black and white and don't have CGI.

Those aren't factors. When I was a kid I was addicted to the three stooges , The Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy etc. I've spoken to people from other countries and it's the same story. :)
Effects are just garnish, It's how the finished product hods together that matters.

Of course it is all a marketing ploy to make sure you don't miss an episode and thereafter be totally lost and that you'll run out and buy the DVD boxed set at the end of the season.

All kids shows are simply marketing ploys, whether they intend to sell a physical product like toys or simply advertising space. Hell, you could make the argument that all video media is simply a marketing ploy to sell videos, movie tickets, or advertising space. Besides, when I was a kid, continuity was something the networks frowned on when it came to kid's shows. For domestic series, they still tend to favor episodic content since kids can jump in at any point and they don't have to air the episodes in any particular order for kids to "get it". Most kids shows make more money from advertising revenue than from DVD box set sales, anyway. Parents are more likely to plunk down $10-$20 on a movie than they are to drop $40-$100 on a box set.

ozoneocean

bravo1102
Movies that don't hold up for kids because they're in black and white and don't have CGI.

Those aren't factors. When I was a kid I was addicted to the three stooges , The Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy etc. I've spoken to people from other countries and it's the same story. :)
Effects are just garnish, It's how the finished product hods together that matters.

But it is a factor for kids today. They won't watch anything that isn't color and think models versus CGI is so hokey. You're not going to find too many nine year olds who love the three stooges anymore. Considering that my last two workplaces I was surrounded by kids and now senior citizens there are light years of difference. I've had trouble finding anyone below the age of 30 who likes the Marx Brothers or who have even heard of Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, Burns and Allen, Jack Benny etc. How about the Ritz Brothers? Try to get a kid to sit through A Night at the Opera let alone The Gorilla

In fact most of the Marx Brothers movies didn't hold up for me. I bought all of them a few eyars back and they just weren't the same as I remembered them. Maybe I should have watched them on a BW TV with 1970s period commercials for Bonanza or Life Cereal.

It was sarcasm Isukun. However, I recently picked up the 1950's Robin Hood series and was surprised to find an ongoing story arc. However, it can't be discerned because the episodes are in the order they were boardcast in the USA, not in Britain. So they make no sense until after you've seen all of them. However the story arc in Commando Cody can be understood in almost any order even if each episode goes directly into the next in classic Hollywood serial fashion.

bravo1102
But it is a factor for kids today. They won't watch anything that isn't color and think models versus CGI is so hokey.

All it takes is for them to be introduced to the stuff young enough.

The progressive argument for things like that never holds up. When something is good entertainment, it's good. The only way that changes is when community standards move on to such an extent that the form of entertainment is not appropriate anymore (considered too racy or violent) and even then it makes no difference to a kid.
This is why when I was a kid I loved all those great Warner Brothers cartoons from the 50's and 60's. :)

I re-watched a lot of Marx Brothers stuff a while ago and it held up marvellously. But you really have to be in the mood to watch it.

Small Soldiers. For the most part, the combination of CGI and animatronic puppetry still looks great and overall it remains to be an entertaining family/action film.

All it takes is for them to be introduced to the stuff young enough.

Technically if all you show a kid is Jerry Lewis movies, they will appreciate the kind of comedy in them. That doesn't mean they are timeless masterpieces that work with modern audiences, it just means they were never exposed to modern equivalents.