What's a movie that feels out of its era? Either ahead or behind of its time. Or movies that don't seem like they would've been made then
I still can't believe The Matrix is from '99. The themes and the effects hold up incredibly well, it feels far more modern.
I strongly disagree, Matrix was very much a product of its time, if it had released a decade before or a decade after it would not have had the same impact.
In the 80s as a general rule people didn't know of the internet nor were they very computer savvy.
In the late 00s cellphones started to be ubiquitous and people were using broadband almost exclusively.
So there was only a small period of time when people were familiar with the idea of telephone lines carrying data, which is a core concept of the movie (exiting the Matrix through your cellphone or laptop is a lot less cool and less prone to plot hooks).
Not to mention that the 90s were extremely gothic and grimdark about the future. I don't think a movie that the base premise is in the future humans are enslaved to machines and hooked to a large simulation to keep them from realizing they're slaves would work in any time period besides the 90s.
It's for sure a product of its time, but it really doesn't feel like a 1999 movie. Around that time we had
Matrix has such a stark level of visual and thematic modernity compared to those. Maybe Fight Club comes near, but the other movies look like they're from a different decade.
There was also that short sliver of the late 90s through early 2000s where the slick black trenchcoat and sunglasses look was considered unironically cool.
The Matrix, Blade, Underworld, and Equilibrium all being in this era. Any movie where characters dress like this to be cool and it isn't treated with at least a wink to the audience probably either came from this time or is a sequel to something from this time.
Agreed with all that, but still, don't forget how mind blowing it was in 1999. One of the only movies I ever saw twice in the theaters, two nights in a row even.
Even the trailers were wild. First time we saw one in the theater my gf and I looked at each other like, "What the fuck was that all about?!"
The Matrix was to science fiction in 1999 about what Star Wars was in 1977, so far ahead of the game it was like nothing before it.
It was from the era when choreography mattered. You could roll through an entire fight scene and see what every punch was supposed to be doing. You had some situational awareness where everyone was.
Now we keep getting that stupid crap where they're changing the scene every punch, with so many scenes per second that you can't follow through, actually just like the fight scenes and matrix 4.
You’re not gonna believe this but there were movies that are even older.
Surely not?
Day After Tomorrow was about two days before its time
Actually, I believe you'll find, if you refer to the title, that it is a movie about two days after its time
¿Por qué no los dos? (a phrase that itself is both of the 2010s and also timeless)
Metropolis might be the ultimate "ahead of its time" movie. It's nearly 100 years old and still looks mind-blowing.
When I heard about megalopolis I thought Coppola was remaking this movie
Holy crap yes, I watched it a few years back and couldn't belive not only how good it looked but how good it was in general.
Citizen Kane.
Yes it is circle jerked hard by film lovers... For good reason.
This is what I might consider the first movie shot in what would be recognized as a modern movie format.
It is told non sequentially, the composition of shots is absolutely incredible.
It's a movie shot in 1941 that looks nothing like the other movies of the time. Literally decades ahead of its time. It looks like it could have been shot a few months ago as a period piece.
There's good reason for it being one of the most acclaimed movies of all time.
It's hard to overstate how important the film is to cinema. It pretty much established what the modern movie is.
That said, based strictly off of entertainment value. IMO it is just absolutely terrible.
That's interesting. I'm not a film guy at all, and it certainly never occurred to me that it pioneered some of the key stuff in modern movies (although that totally makes sense). But I remember enjoying it! The pacing felt quite good, there were some mysteries and character drama. Not a top movie for me personally, but pretty watchable for a B&W movie.
While filming Citizen Kane, director and star Orson Welles likened making a movie to playing with a toy train set, and that playful inventive spirit shines all throughout the movie.
Clue is an interesting study. It's a movie set in the 50's, made in the 80's, and it bombed in theaters in the 80's, but the television cut became popular in the 90's and 00's. It definitely is a product of the 80's, I don't think they would have made it in 1995, but that's when it landed.
One of my favorites
"Mystery Men" seems to have a lot of themes on super hero fatigue in it that feels like it would be a better commentary in 2019 than 1999.
The first "War of the world's" movie from 1953.
It's based on a genius, but quite challenging science fiction novel.
I am sure the people in 1953 liked the movie.
When you watch it today, after you have already seen Spielberg's version from 2005, then it feels like they were way ahead of their time in 1953 (and you would never believe anyway that the book was written even back in 1898).
One of the many little details I love about that movie is Pacific Tech, the university where scientists studied the alien hardware. I noticed they used that as the name of the college in Real Genius. Apparently it's has been in many movies and tv shows.
Brazil - Made in 1985, feels like post 9/11.
Brick. By Rian Johnson with Joseph-Gordon Levitt and Lukas Haas was very deliberately a throwback to good ol’ hard boiled detective noir.
I thought it worked quite well. It has an excellent on-foot chase sequence, if nothing else.
Love when he takes off his shoes
One of my favourite movies.
Turbo kid
A Mad Max-inspired romp through 80s genre film, where souped up cars have been replaced by BMX bikes and our hero fights baddies with the help of a Mega Man-esque arm cannon. A bizarre and hilarious little film that you should definitely see with an audience.
https://lamplightreview.com/movie-review-turbo-kid/
Came out on Netflix in 2016
Ohhh, this movie is magical. I love it so much!
I listened to the soundtrack for about 4 years before getting around to watching the movie. Very fun. For how slow the build-up is, Playtime is Over is one of my favorite workout songs, always gets the endorphins running.
This movie is exactly of its era. Blasting 80s nostalgia that's been filtered through a neon color grade with a snappy pace is exactly something that would come out in 2016.
The Man From Earth. It's always felt out of place to me. I'm not sure if it's too early or too late, but it doesn't feel of it's time to me.
Same vibe for The Discovery of Heaven.
I think that the beauty of it is that it is very time-period agnostic
Yeah, that's a very good way of looking at it
Best long winded movie ever!
It's honestly one of my absolute favorites
Napoleon Dynamite, but that’s intentional.
Napoleon Dynamite hits just right if you grew up at a certain time in a rural area. That movie is like watching my own childhood.
That movie is like watching my own childhood.
Hopefully without the intellectual impairments all the main characters have?
Bladerunner and the sequel
I just rewatched both Bladerunner movies with my son and, the first movie, while aesthetically it still looks beautiful and has some great individual scenes, the action and the dialogue get kind of non-sensical at times, it’s become the weaker of the two movies for me. 2049 feels just a lot more coherent and looks brilliant, it’s just an overall better movie that surpasses the original.
Blade Runner was very much a product of its time (though Syd Mead's visuals were outstanding).
There was something floating in the late seventies / early eighties zeitgeist that would become the cyberpunk genre, and it sort of condensed in several spots simultaneously.
William Gibson had just published Burning Chrome, and was finishing writing Neuromancer (which would be published in '84 and be considered a foundation of the genre).
Ridley Scott and Syd Mead independently adapted a (very different from the film) book by Philip K. Dick into a film that looked and felt like it was set in Gibson's Sprawl.
In Japan, Kasuhiro Otomo had just begun publishing Akira.
Frank Miller was probably in the process of writing and conceptualising Rōnin, which DC would start publishing in '83.
Bruce Bethke had come up with the term cyberpunk in 1980, but that short story wouldn't be published until '83.
Over the next few years many other authors would create other works clearly set in the same genre, though at this point they probably had some influence from Gibson and Blade Runner and each other.
Mike Pondsmith was drinking it all up and coming up with a role playing game with that title, to be published in '88.
And, all over the eighties and nineties, the genre exploded, and was everywhere.
Might be cheating to mention this but most/all Tarantino flicks are meant to feel like 70s movies
Falling Down takes place in the 1990's but feels like a very 1970's movie.
Maybe the color tones? You're right though.
There is also a difference in theming.
The inner city as a dangerous place of crime for white suburbanites stopped being used as a trope in the 90's while it is on display here.
The study of a broken man in the process of snapping also feels a lot like movies like Taxi Driver.
I also feel like certain locations and the dress of the main character is made to evoke older times.
"No Country for Old Men" feels like a movie from a previous era.
Jurassic Park 1
Blade runner 1
2001: a Space Odyssey
The Matrix 1
They all hold up so well and in particular their vfx. In the Matrix it's probably more the plot than the vfx, even though it had merit coining that frozen up bullet time shot aesthetic. But in general every time I watch these I can't help but marvel at how well put together they are and then I remember when they were released and then I compare them to the mediocre releases decades after that and yeah. I'm in awe.
Josie and the Pussycats was lampooning our current celebrity obsessed, "influencer" obsessed, consumer lifestyle 20 years ago. Yes, there was certainly celebrity worship back then. But the way the movie portrayed it and the consumer greed that seeks to profit from it feels even more relevant today.
Big Lebowski.
So, what you're saying is ... sometimes there's a movie... I won't say a film, 'cause, what's a film? But sometimes, there's a movie. And I'm talkin' about The Big Lebowski here. Sometimes, there's a movie, well, it's not the movie for its time and place.
Obviously, you're not a golfer.
Yeah, well, you know, that's just like, uh, your opinion, man.
As long as you're not playing the fucking Eagles man
The Love Witch is a bit of a cheat because it was literally designed to look like it was shot in the 70s (and does an amazing job of it)
Cube was ahead of its time for bizzare setting and body horror.
John Wayne's 'The Green Berets' is an oddity. While it's not out of its time, since the 1960s was packed with war movies, the fact that it's a Vietnam movie rather than a WW2 movie gives it a surreal quality. It is filmed with the same tone, style, and music as something like 'The Longest Day' but it's about Vietnam making it a million miles away from the style of most Vietnam movies.
Standout scenes include a green beret ranting at a strawman reporter, and the scene where John Wayne smashes an obviously toy rifle to pieces.
2001: A Space Odyssey.
Kubrick gave them fucking iPads. In 1968.
The Fall by Tarsem. I've been so happy the 4k remaster and theatrical re-release has been getting some love now.
Terminator 2?
Really? I'm not sure any movie feels more 90s than Terminator 2.
Eraserhead
I think Eraserhead fits perfectly in the 70s
Sense & Sensibility 🤓
Get it? Because it's a period piece?
I'll see myself out
It Follows is pretty timeless. (intentionally so, by the director.)
The anime Perfect Blue. It was ahead of it's time. 1997 but the parasocial aspect of society it explores was in it's infancy compared to current time.
Howard the Duck. That movie is wonderful