To not trust Xmas Radio Times 5 star film reviews after watching ...

[howlovelyareyourbranches]

... White Christmas! We got half way through. It may have been a classic in its time, but surely they should review its 5* rating for contemporary audiences?!?

We had a vague plan to watch a few 5* rated old classics with our 18 and 20 year-old DSs this Xmas, but now we're a bit more wary. On the 'maybe' list were ...

Strangers on a Train
M for Murder
The Godfather
Bief Encounter
The Big Sleep
North by Northwest
Dirty Harry
A Hard Day's Night
Don't Look Now
Witness for the Prosecution
Top Hat
Escape from Alcatraz

... which of these are cheesy and cringe-inducing to modern eyes, and which are genuine classics that you would recommend without hesitation?

(Before you ask, we've already seen It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street 🙃)

What did you not enjoy about White Christmas?

The Godfather is a stone cold classic not Christmassy though

Brief encounter is the best film of all time

I’d say they all deserve their 5* rating. If you don’t like old films don’t watch them.

Dirty Harry, I love Clint Eastwood. I like Play Misty for Me. I watch it when I need a a little escapism and imagine I'm living on the Californian coast in a1970s shag pad with Clint popping in according to my needs and leaving when I've finished with him.

Strangers on a train and Brief encounter are the best, but most the others are probably better than modern films

I love White Christmas, definitely a 5* for me.

Don't look now is an absolute classic, not sure most people would want to watch it with their late teen/early twenties kids though. Sex scene is quite graphic and supposedly actual sex rather than simulated.

I'm incredibly liberal and open with my kids and I'd probably watch it with mine but they are both girls. Not sure I'd feel the same if I had boys as I think they'd feel a bit awkward....

I love White Christmas It's from it's time but I don't have a problem with that. I have no wish to only watch modern films.
If that's what you want then you might not enjoy any of the classics. You can't expect a film made over 50 years ago to have the same values as a film made today but that doesn't mean they are not great films.

All of those are great imo but then I like White Christmas and you don't. What don't you like about White Christmas? Maybe then we can advise which of the others you might not like. They're all very different from each other, mark you.

Definitely The Godfather - and The Godfather II.

I remember they gave White Chicks 1 star, which made me watch it. One of the most quotable movies ever
“ohhhh you wanna talk about motherrrrs…”

I'm surprised you haven't watched most of those films as you can't be that young and they have been on TV quite a bit, you must have watched telly before Netflix was a thing.

Dial M for murder
North by North-west are classics.

Yep. Do not watch this movie with your children, no matter what their age.

They are all classics. Frankly @howlovelyareyourbranches you sound a little parochial or limited.

You can't expect a film made over 50 years ago to have the same values as a film made today

I agree.

I also think that films made over 50 years ago look different and are constructed differently from films made today.

Partly because of technology - film makers worked with different cameras, different setups. They couldn't do long sweeping scenes, they couldn't film in moving vehicles. They signified both those things so the audience understood what they were referencing.

Partly because of expectations - audiences wanted to be transported from the humdrum, as well as told a story. They weren't looking for gritty realism - they had gritty realism at home, in abundance.

Partly because of aesthetics - film is an art form, and in the early days of the art form it had to be beautiful. Even a starving child or a dying soldier, was presented beautifully. It was just the aesthetic of the time. People weren't stupid : they knew what death and poverty looked like. Probably knew it far better than the average pampered western world audience now. But that's not what cinema was for.

I don’t think these are communal viewing films. They are all films that I watched alone as a teenager - all brilliant, but I don’t like risking other people not enjoying them.

As a devotee of classic Hollywood I would say that White Christmas was a 4 star movie rather than a 5 star personally. The others on the list are more enjoyable, but if you really hated White Christmas then you won't enjoy Top Hat (your loss IMO).

M for Murder is quite stylised so I'd strike that from your list.

Brief Encounter is not paced to entertain Gen Z but surely you've seen enough parodies of that over the years to know what to expect? I'd probably give that a miss unless your DC are devotees of the period.

The others will be a bit slow by modern standards, except for Hard Day's Night, but are all really good once you've got into them.

Brief Encounter is a perfect film. It is timeless I think. Don’t Look now is very scary, and no, you shouldn’t watch with children.

With willing kids of the age you state , I'd say Witness for the Prosecution and North by Northwest are the best : I took DS2 to the stage productionof the former . My two like The Godfather but I hate it. Casablanca was on too and that's a proper classic.

And, yeah, I wouldn't watch Don't Look Now en famille!

Just a little note on Brief Encounter, which I watched with one eye this afternoon having seen it about a million times before. The audience that watched it were the world war II audience, traumatised and having had brief encounters of their own during the war, many of them, due to people missing/dying/a mad moment of 'seize the day' and who were navigating their return to some kind of normality. It tapped into a quite particular zeitgeist. I mean, I think it's beautiful enough to stand on its own without that context, but also I think it helps to understand the particular circumstance it was created in.

Definitely give North by North-west a go.

(possibly 5 just because Cary Grant is in it).

North By Northwest is cracking it's true. The scene with the plane!!