And I was struck by how much it reflected its times. It came out when I was a freshman in highschool but watching it now feels like that was a lifetime ago.

The wife is doing fine as a real estate agent (presumably in southern California) but is still desperately trying to catch up to her competitors. Today someone in that job would more likely be scraping by given the collapsed housing market and foreclosures. The dad just quits the job he hates, which we all wish we could do sometimes, and ends up working in fast food basically by choice rather than out of economic necessity. Given that it was the late 90s, the kids don't use technology to interact like we do today, except for the video camera which produces actual tapes.

If this movie came out today it would feel totally anachronous and probably wouldn't have anywhere near as much commercial and critical success.

2/6/2011 12:43:26 PM

I agree with you, it would not be nearly as successful today. That's what I love about those late 90's movies though, they really do mark the end of a pretty good time period. 1999 specifically was just about the greatest year for film in my opinion.. everything got back to that really good story driven action/drama type that today's seems to sacrifice for some good CGI. Movies like American Beauty, Magnolia, Fight Club, and Being John Malkovich all came out that year and I can't think of too many years since with that type of quality

2/6/2011 1:16:12 PM

I also believe that 1999 was the best year ever for movies

2/6/2011 2:01:44 PM

Matrix also came out in 1999, and it ironically referred to 1999 as the peak moment of our civilization.

2/6/2011 2:11:15 PM

I used to love this movie, but nowadays I'm more a fan of Little Children when it comes to depictions of subversive suburbia.

It's still a good movie, don't get me wrong. But I'm not in love with it like I used to be.

2/6/2011 2:13:08 PM

^the book was way better than the movie, although i still enjoyed the movie. creepy dude is wayyyy more creepy in the book.

2/6/2011 3:15:53 PM

Three Kings is another great one that came out in 1999.

2/6/2011 3:38:11 PM

man. movies were so much better in (fill in year when you were approximately 16-22).


[Edited on February 6, 2011 at 10:55 PM. Reason : (but yeah. '99 was a pretty good year.)]

2/6/2011 10:55:20 PM

Don't know about movies

1997-8 was the best 2 years for video games ever, by far.

2/6/2011 11:32:50 PM

The Sixth Sense came out that year as well. Unfortunately, The Phantom Menace was released that year, so if you put all of the mentioned movies together, you have a wash.

But if American Beauty was produced for a release in 2011, it would obviously be a different movie. I mean, if they remade Back to the Future, Marty isnt going to try to order a Tab or a Pepsi Free.

2/7/2011 12:25:29 AM

1999 was a good year in general but I wasn't trying to make a broad "movies were better then" like some nostalgic geezer. Maybe it feels so anachronous because the world has changed so much in the past say four years due to economic collapse and new communication technology.

2/7/2011 4:04:16 PM

If we're taking dated movies, I have the win, place and show

2/7/2011 4:05:48 PM

yeah the net was pretty good

2/7/2011 4:27:33 PM

^^That movie was never correct even when it came out. It was laughable immediately, so you can't really call it dated.

Also, American Beauty was a pretty shitty movie when it came out; no desire to watch it again.

[Edited on February 7, 2011 at 4:32 PM. Reason : *]

2/7/2011 4:30:17 PM