Revisiting Childhood FavoritesLists that dissect and analyze (and possibly ruin) some of the movies and TV you watched over and over and over and over when you were a kid.
Updated April 16, 2021 281.1K votes 39.6K voters 1.3M views
Voting Rules
Vote up the movies you used to love.. but yeah, now that you think about it, are really just awful.
Movies are an integral part of childhood. We can all remember the first movie we saw in the theater, the first one we tried to watch when our parents weren't looking, and the ones that moved us or even shaped who we are today. For millennials, most of their movie memories from their impressionable years were made during the '90s - but those films don't always hold up well today.
A funny thing happens: we grow up, and suddenly not all the movies we adored when we were kids hold up decades later to our adult minds, imaginations, and high standards. You might have thought Independence Day rocked back in the day, but would you go for it now? When is the last time one of your friends suggested a Blair Witch Project evening? You see what we're getting at.
A lot of the movies on the following pages still have their defenders, so don't be a hater... vote it down instead of up. The ones hovering near the top are the movies you feel just don't hold up for whatever reason. Is one of your childhood favorites on the list?
Madonna was still high atop her pop throne in 1991 when the behind the scenes documentary Madonna: Truth or Dare came out. We watched because, well, Madonna was a megastar and the movie purported to give some insight into what she was really like.
We've long since grown tired of Madge's desperate plays for attention in the decades since, so when we see her making fun of Kevin Costner after he gives her a compliment or watch her acting like a spoiled child backstage, it just comes across as obnoxious. This isn't anyone with whom you want to spend time.
Actors: Madonna, Donna De Lory, Niki Harris, Luis Camacho, Oliver Crumes Jr.
You loved the cartoon Inspector Gadget, so Disney smelled dollar signs and crafted this live-action version starring Matthew Broderick as the bumbling titular security guard. You might have given this a pass back in the day because you were still high on the fumes from the popular cartoon, but let's be honest: this live-action update is charmless and most of the gags fall flat. They don't get any better over a decade later.
Actors: Matthew Broderick, Rupert Everett, Joely Fisher, Michelle Trachtenberg, Andy Dick
Some of you out there can still name a Spice Girls song. A few of you can probably even sing one! Spiceworld was made for you and for fans of the bubbly British pop tarts. The problem with movies starring pop stars is that pop stars rarely endure for years, so when they reach the end of their short shelf life, their films end up in the bargain bin.
Actors: The Spice Girls, Richard E. Grant, Alan Cumming, George Wendt, Claire Rushbrook
Jodie Foster has always been very choosy with her roles, so when one of her movies came out, people paid attention to the woman who played Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs.
In Nell, Foster plays some kind of oddball mountain hermit who says profound things like "chicka, chicka, chickabee" and other nonsense. It might have seemed avant-garde and brave at the time, but now it just elicits giggles.
Actors: Jodie Foster, Liam Neeson, Natasha Richardson, Nick Searcy, Robin Mullins
Remember how excited you were when you found out that America was finally making its own Godzilla film? The ads teased the creature for months with only a glimpse of his foot. Then you saw the movie and, as much as you wanted to like it, you realized that the giant lizard looked all wrong and he/she/it laid eggs and hatched little baby Godzillas.
Today, you would either go old school with one of the Japanese movies or enjoy the King of Monster's eight minutes of screen time in the more recent remake, but few would let this one roar to life in the ol' Blu-ray player.
Actors: Matthew Broderick, Jean Reno, Maria Pitillo, Hank Azaria, Kevin Dunn
Tim Burton seemed like the perfect director to bring Gotham City to life in Batman and Batman Returns. Director Joel Schumacher tried to keep the momentum going with a new Batman (Val Kilmer) and the introduction of Robin (Chris O'Donnell) in Batman Forever, but it was the beginning of the end for Batman as we knew him.
Sure, the movie still made a lot at the box office and you dug Jim Carrey as Riddler, but can you imagine firing up this neon-colored, homoerotic mess today, after having seen Burton's films and the Christopher Nolan trilogy? Batman somehow went from the Dark Knight to some kind of fetish cosplayer with a bulging codpiece and a sidekick to match.
Actors: Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, Nicole Kidman, Chris O'Donnell
