Hot take: Was nostalgia-bait WORSE in the 90s?

One thing I would note different about today’s nostalgia-fest is the cult-like characteristics of the current era.

The Addams Family movies (which I liked) came and went and we were happy with them. Nowadays, we would demand more sequels or at least a Wednesday/Pugsley standalone movie.

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Addams Family
The Brady Bunch
Casper
The Little Rascals
Flipper
Leave it to Beaver

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GOATS movies for 90’s kids

Yes, but the difference is outside of Mission Impossible, they were one offs and love letters to the original material (Mission Impossible was in fact much better).

But those weren’t the crutches we’re seeing today. All our current media has is taking over these properties as if they were Yerks from Animorphs and just intentionally bastardize them. They do not like these properties and want to destroy them to indoctrinate the audience into their political views.

I’ll get back to The Last Jedi later, but I think the best comparison is the Female Ghostbusters reboot vs the current Ghostbusters. The later is clearly a love letter to the originals, but the former has nothing but disdain for it. When it was announced that they were doing a female Ghostbusters and the fans were concerned, their response was to make the most vindictive and unfunny villain ever made. Baldwin’s Trump is a hundred times less vindictive and more funny towards Trump’s fanbase than that villain is toward Ghostbuster’s. It is the single worst villain of all time since all it does is call the fans a bunch of basement dwelling virgins that deserve to be despised and alone and that the fanbase as a whole has no redeeming features. If you want a fanbase to like your movie, literally do the opposite of this.

Plus the only decent male in the movie is dumber than shite and disparaging which is yet another sexist comment.

All that movie shows is we your elites are better than you, buy the fricking ticket, you’re a fricking moron and we won’t give you what you ask for and simply make fun of you throughout the entire film, and shut the frick up. It is the most vindictive movie ever made towards its own target audience IMO, even blowing TLJ out of the water. At least there they were putting some effort into it and the characters as much as I disagree with it. This movie has absolutely no redeeming features.

We should have known better that any of these reboots/sequels outside of Blade Runner we’re going to be any good after this image:



But I think there is a franchise worth revisiting and it’s got a lot of producers all over Hollywood involved in it, and I think they may go along with this: Gremlins 3. Just make it to where either Billy Peltzer or his son makes it into Hollywood, Gizmo shows up, and then everything goes to hell with the Gremlins popping out and just destroying all the reboots and sequels of famous properties like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Marvel, DC, Harry Potter, Mad Max, etc. The producers may want to do something with the Gremlins, but here’s the kicker: the Gremlins don’t give a frick and won’t go along with shite, taking the producers, cast, and crew hostage for their own amusement destroying them ever wanting to do an unwarranted sequel or reboot. That could be great with them just shitting all over the reboots.

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The Beverly Hillbillies wasn't bad either

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Yep, that’s one I forgot. Lots of cheesy movies in the list. (Some unintentionally cheesy.) but I don’t think there’s an unwatchable one.

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as if they were Yerks from Animorphs

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Due for a reboot

There are many different ways to take an old property and reference it in a new property. One is an homage (love letter) meant to show appreciation for a source material. Another is a deconstruction meant to basically trick artists into thinking it’s an homage only to subvert the tropes and norms of the original. Finally, there’s parody/satire, where the original material is considered a joke to be poked fun at. This can be either a loving appreciation or a more cynical sniping.

For example, Mission Impossible is an homage, Brady Bunch movie is a parody/satire, last Jedi is a deconstruction

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Dick Tracy
Addams Family
The Brady Bunch
Casper
The Little Rascals
Flipper
McHale’s Navy
Lost in Space
Leave it to Beaver
Mission: Impossible
Inspector Gadget

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Inspector Gadget was more of a film adaptation than a nostalgic remake. It was a 90's film about an 80's cartoon (that was still playing in the 90's).

Dick Tracy was more than just nostalgia bait. It was Beatty's personal pet project, it was the studio attempting to replicate the success of Batman '89, and it was a failed merchandising grab of epic proportions. The malls were packed with yellow raincoats and T-Shirts and all kids of crap, in the hopes that the Summer of Batman would reappear in Tracy form. Throughout the 90's you could go into a thrift store and see Dick Tracy stuff peppered here and there.

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I didn't include Casper because I haven't seen the movie.

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It's a pretty run of the mill kids movie for the time period. Definitely a great Halloween watch with the family along with Hocus Pocus.