Some movies age super well — like The Godfather, from 1972, or Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, from 1939. Paramount Pictures
^Obviously, the characters do awful things in The Godfather, but it's not played for laughs or anything.
But other movies...well, they don't fare as well. To this end, a while back, we asked the BuzzFeed Community to tell us what movies they loved growing up that have since aged like milk. NBC
Here are 23 films that really do not stand the test of time. WARNING: Mentions of slurs, sexual assault, and rape culture ahead.
1. Hitch "My husband and I call this 'The Hitch Test' based on the Will Smith movie. I remember seeing that movie in theaters and loving it; I even researched the guy it was based on. Really thought I learned something. So when it came on one of our streaming services last year during the pandemic, I was like, 'Ooooooh yes, let’s watch this super cute and unproblematic romcom!' and hoo boy. We couldn’t get through the first 10 minutes. It was so cringe! So many horrible stereotypes and bad jokes at the expense of women and marginalized folks. Definitely not unproblematic! Ugh. So now we have to check if any film from that era can 'pass the Hitch Test,' because most of them don’t."
—cperryrun
Sony Pictures Releasing 2. Beauty and the Beast "When I was a kid, it was a cute love story, but the older I get, the more I recognize how fucking gross it is. It is not Stockholm Syndrome, but Belle IS his prisoner, meaning she has no choice but to interact with him. She is verbally abused and gaslit until she lowers her standards enough for Beast's minuscule changes to be enough."
—P1nkL3m0n4d3
Disney 3. There's Something About Mary 20th Century Fox
"My parents recently showed it to me, and my dad couldn't figure out why I didn't find it funny and how creepy it actually was. We had a long conversation afterwards around it, and he still didn't understand why I hated it. All the characters just stalk her and lie to her, and in the end, it's supposed to be romantic because the guy she ends up with is willing to let go of her, completely ignoring every creepy thing he did the rest of the movie."
—asmithy
"The movie is about all these different men becoming obsessed with Mary, stalking her, and trying to manipulate her into a relationship."
—Phoenix411
4. Revenge of the Nerds "They put cameras in the sorority house showers as a prank, and Lewis has sex with Betty while pretending to be someone else, and she loves it and becomes his girlfriend."
—CopyCat93
"I loved that movie as a kid, but it’s really bad in retrospect. It’s crazy that at that time, we thought sexual assault, sexual harassment, etc. was fine or romantic."
—margaretb49238f5cc
"I tried to watch Revenge of the Nerds recently, and it was unbearable. The racism and fat phobia, just as a start. It is sad that I used to think of it as a 'positive message' movie."
—Katie Hamner
20th Century Fox 5. Mary Poppins "I'll add Mary Poppins to this list. :/ Watched it when I was sick and felt nostalgic and cringed so hard about the 'Oh George, you're so [enter praising words for this barely semi okay dad and husband here]' shit."
—simoneq457885859
Buena Vista Distribution Company, Inc. / Courtesy Everett Collection 6. The Breakfast Club "Bender literally sexually assaults Claire, and somehow they still end up together. Disgusting."
—u/theawesomenarwhal
Universal Pictures 7. Police Academy "I love classic '80s movies, but I would add Police Academy. Other than a few silly slapstick moments, it's trash. It's super reductionist toward the women, who are there to entertain the men with their bodies. AND there's a disgusting racist term that comes out of nowhere, and no one bats an eye! I can't believe our generation was raised on comedy movies like this."
—mother-o-pearl
Warner Bros / courtesy Everett Collection 8. The Hangover "Just think again about that Asian character and how they portrayed women for the sake of 'comedy.' Not to mention the number of f***** 'jokes' spread throughout the movie. I hate the fact of how people keep justifying the comedy in it by saying, 'Oh, but the three guys are supposed to be bad anyways…' like that makes everything acceptable and okay. It’s a horrible movie."
—u/pauloyanagi
Warner Bros. Pictures 9. Heavyweights "I hate to say this, but I recently watched Heavyweights , and that movie would NOT fly today. The fat shaming and cultural appropriation is wild. However, I still enjoyed watching Ben Stiller's character (minus the fat-shaming)."
—marieavl27
Richard Cartwright / Buena Vista Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection 10. The Notebook "[I] watched it with my Gen Z daughter, and she called out a lot of stuff that just doesn’t fly anymore."
—caitlinm46423ca0b
New Line Cinema 11. Rush Hour "Racist slurs, jokes, and misogyny are a few reasons."
—Phoenix411
Bob Marshak / New Line / Courtesy Everett Collection 12. Wedding Crashers The whole movie just reallyyyyyy isn't as funny as we used to think it was, but the worst part is definitely Gloria literally raping Jeremy. The whole thing is played for laughs.
New Line Cinema 13. Love Actually "I think Love Actually did...not age well. For example, the storyline of Mark being a complete creep and making moves on the wife of his best friend. Or the fat-shaming of Natalie (the assistant of the Prime Minister), which was way out of line. Or the storyline of Colin going to America because he thinks it would be easier to get laid there, and the three women being portrayed as dumb horny girls that are immediately into him and invite him over. I used to love this movie, but now it really is hard to watch."
—lisafbraun
Universal Pictures 14. Breakfast at Tiffany’s "As much as it breaks my heart to say this: Breakfast at Tiffany’s . Mickey Rooney’s yellow face wasn’t okay then, and it isn’t okay now."
—ashleyp459897ecc
"Absolutely. I'd love to see a version that cuts out as much footage as possible of that character."
—etconner
Paramount Pictures 15. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective "When they discover one of the characters is transgender and everyone starts vomiting..."
—clareamyhewitt4
"I used to love that film as a child…now I cringe just thinking about that scene."
—mimosa_flower_3000
Warner Bros. 16. The Nutty Professor "The Nutty Professor franchise...Eddie Murphy playing a whole family of characters in fat suits. My boyfriend tried to play it last year, and I cringed for the first 10 minutes before shutting it off."
—m466dc7eaa
Universal Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection 17. Sixteen Candles The racism, the rape culture, Ted's character in general...this whole movie is just a mess. Jake "giving" his passed-out girlfriend to Ted to basically do with what he wants has got to take the cake, though.
Universal Pictures 18. Sorority Boys "Three guys dress up as women to get into a sorority after getting kicked out of their fraternity. I thought it was hilarious back then, but I don’t think it would fly now."
—panda_13
Walt Disney / Courtesy Everett Collection. 19. American Beauty "One that really hurts: I LOVED American Beauty , but it being so Kevin Spacey-centric makes it kind of unwatchable."
—matthewschonmorgan
DreamWorks Pictures 20. The King and I "I was *obsessed* with the '50s musical movie The King and I. If movies aged like milk, The King and I has aged like a raw steak left sitting on a hot roof in Texas for a month."
—colleend9
20th Century Fox Film Corp. / Courtesy Everett Collection 21. White Chicks I still find this movie funny for nostalgic reasons, but it reallyyyy has not aged well. Particularly, the scene where Latrell drugs Marcus/Tiffany's drink. He ends up drinking it instead, but still. The whole thing's played for humor.
Sony Pictures Releasing 22. Shag "They border on sexual assault, and waving the confederate flag is racist."
—uncalum
Hemdale Film Corp / courtesy Everett Collection 23. And finally, Grease View comments