"Phantom Menace" was criticized by some at the time for alleged human racial stereotypes applied to aliens - the trade guild members speaking with a Japanese and the Gungans with a Carribean accent, Anakin's slave holder Watto resembling the carricature of a crook-nosed Jew. Frankly, I don't think it would be more of an obstacle today than the complaints about "whitewashing" for Tilda Swinton playing an originally Asian character in "Dr. Strange", etc.

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:
I mildly disagree about "White Chicks" being on the list. Hollywood has no problem whatsoever about black men or women "dressing" in white face...just an issue with it the other way around.

"Tropic Thunder" (2008)? There were people who got offended over Robert Downey jr. playing an actor playing in blackface (and probably about the ca. one dozen other PC issues the movie violated, too), but it was made. I don't know enough about some movies on the list in the original post to give an opinion, but similarly disagree on many of the others (keeping in mind that of course the exact same movie cannot be made twice).

"Airplane" - any subsequent Abrahams/Zucker film, up to the Scary Movie series, leading into the Wayan brothers flicks.

"Scarface" - seriously, nobody can think of recent ultra-violent movies about foul-mouthed gangsters with particular ethnic backgrounds?

"Pretty Woman" - was actually changed from a dark cautionary tale about sexual exploitation and class difference into a romantic comedrama. Basically a present-day take on Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion", which has been adapted to the screen numerous times as "My Fair Lady" etc.

"Gigli" - any biopic on a self-destructive homosexual artist, like "Bohemian Rhapsody" (2018).

"Pretty Baby" - "Hounddog" (2007) caused similar controversy with a nude/rape scene with Dakota Fanning, also twelve at the time it was shot. Fanning's performance was compared to Jody Foster's in "Taxi Driver", already mentioned in comparison to the current "Joker".

I don't even know why "Dumbo" is listed, but it was of course just remade as a live-action adaption by Disney.

"Ghostbusters" - if anything, the fiery crash of the remake trying to reverse gender roles shows that a PC take on the original doesn't work even today.

I do agree on some others, however. "Heathers" was turned into a musical and a TV series, though this was cancelled in the US after the Stoneman Douglas shooting, and no second season was made for the international market. While there have of course been a lot of other high school clique/bully movies like "Easy A", and dark comedies about people getting in the habit of killing off their perceived oppressors, the specific setting is probably burnt.

You certainly couldn't make a movie today portraying the KKK as heroic defenders of whites oppressed by animalic, raping blacks and their nefarious enablers during Reconstruction, as depicted in "Birth of a Nation". But that's sorta like complaining that the German anti-Semitic "Jud Süß" (1940) couldn't be made today.

quote:

Originally posted by Ronin1069:

I don't understand the reason for some of the movies on your list. Some are obvious (Blazing Saddles) but why not Ghostbusters or Phantom Menace? (although I wish Phantom Menace had never been made in the first place!)

Ronin...If you click on the link at the beginning of the list, it will take you to a slideshow story, with explanations of why those movies wouldn't/shouldn't be made today.

Space Balls.....classic!

History of the World part I.

Oh piss boy.

United 93?

The Foxes of Harrow.

It made a broadcast rotation on one of the cable channels last month, and after watching it, I was surprised they even broadcast it. In this PC climate, it was almost courageous.

Revenge of the nerds is #1, gay jokes, peeping toms, panty raids, and the protagonist straight up rapes a girl.

It could be made, but not with this title.



If you find it, it is called simply Boss.

Apparently, Midway

Most of the 80s action and comedy movies would have serious editing now. There were too many jokes at the expense of women and gays.

Porky's
Revenge of the Nerds
Goodfellas

Same thing with some Looney Tunes of the 40's.

quote:

Originally posted by shovelhead:
Same thing with some Looney Tunes of the 40's.

Donald Duck takes on a German U boat is a hoot.

Also, "Kill the Rabbit" sung to Wagner Opera.