12 Previously Popular Movies That Haven’t Aged Well

Movies are a part of the era they were made in. For this reason, older movies will contain aspects that haven’t aged well.

Just because something seemed acceptable in the past doesn’t mean it ever was. Society has evolved to become more aware of troublesome tropes or disturbing plot developments.

1. Manhattan (1979)

The premise of this movie centers on Allen’s character, a twice-divorced, 42-year-old comedy writer dating a 17-year-old high school student. Manhattan is one of Allen’s most acclaimed films. Still, it’s surprising that even in 1979, no one pointed out that a romantic relationship between a 42-year-old man and a girl 25 years his junior was wrong.

2. The Toy (1982)

An unemployed writer desperate to earn enough money to stop his house from being foreclosed on agrees to be a living “toy” for a rich man’s lonely son to play with. The fact that the rich man and his son are white the broke writer is Black, and the writer was purchased as if he were an object and not a human being was as terrible an idea then as it is today.

3. 16 Candles (1984)

Back in the day when the Brat Pack was running things in Hollywood, 16 Candles was a hit with movie fans and critics alike. Looking back at the film, there’s no way it could be made today without some significant editing.

The lone Asian character in the movie was portrayed stereotypically, and the implied assault of a young woman who passed out drunk are just a few examples of why this film didn’t age well.

4. Blame It on Rio (1984)

Two fathers, who are also old friends, and their teenage daughters go on a vacation to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. While they are on their trip, one of the men secretly starts a romantic relationship with his friend’s daughter, who’s 17 years old. This wasn’t cute when Woody Allen did this five years earlier in Manhattan, and it shouldn’t have been acceptable in 1984.

5. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

It’s hard to criticize such a beloved film franchise, but the criticism is warranted in this instance. The movie is set in India during British rule, and its portrayal of Indians is woefully inaccurate. Besides the fact that they do not eat chilled monkey brains and beetles, the movie heavily relies on the trope of the white savior rescuing helpless people of color.

6. Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985)

This action movie wasn’t a success at the box office, but it has achieved a cult following in the years since its release. This movie aged badly because a non-Asian actor, Joel Grey, was cast to play Chiun, a Korean martial arts master. Having white actors perform in yellowface may have been relatively common in Hollywood, but it’s highly offensive.

7. Soul Man (1986)

When a young white man from an affluent family discovers his father won’t pay for him to go to Harvard Law School, he pretends to be Black to win a scholarship. His racial transformation required him to take excessive tanning pills to darken his skin. Anytime an actor performs in blackface, it’s always a bad look, even if the intent is to condemn the evils of racism.

8. Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989)

Despite being a critical and overseas commercial success, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! sends the wrong messages from start to finish. A recently released psychiatric patient is obsessed with a former adult film actress and kidnaps her so she will fall in love with and marry him. Romanticizing kidnapping, abuse, and Stockholm syndrome is incredibly creepy.

9. American Pie (1999)

While this movie has been depicted as a coming-of-age comedy, one scene isn’t remotely funny and would likely land someone in legal trouble if they tried it in real life. One of the main characters in the film sets up a webcam in a bedroom to secretly broadcast a female exchange student’s activities online without her knowledge. That’s just gross, period.

10. Me, Myself & Irene (2000)

Jim Carrey is known for playing slapstick comedic roles. However, this attempt at using severe mental disorders as comic fodder fell flat with mental health advocates. While this movie was a box office success, it perpetuated harmful misconceptions about people diagnosed with schizophrenia and Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).

11. Shallow Hal (2001)

A single guy who laments being overlooked by women who look like models is hypnotized so that he can only see a person’s inner beauty and not how they look. As a result, he falls in love with a woman who weighs 300 pounds. This film is both fat-phobic and sexist, spotlighting women’s looks while not giving the same scrutiny to men’s looks.

12. Wedding Crashers (2005)

Two friends who work as divorce mediators make it a habit to crash the weddings of people they don’t know to meet and hook up with women. Setting aside the rudeness of crashing someone else’s wedding and reception, it’s pretty repulsive that these grown men resort to lies and trickery to get unsuspecting women to fall for them.