I Thought It Was Better Than That

Pross

Inspired by a film I watched last night that I loved as a kid I thought I'd start a thread for all those things you thought were good as a kid (films, TV, music, holiday destinations) but then having gone back to them years later you realise they were absolutely terrible.

As a starter, the film that triggered the thread for me was Flash Gordon. Wooden or hammy acting, terrible special effects, rubbish plot and script and sets that look like something knocked up on Blue Peter. It would be tempting to say it reflects to technology of the time but Star Wars in three years older yet far higher quality. On the positive side Dale Arden and Princess Aura looked every bit as good as I remembered!

Another I've watched recently was Airplane which really felt it's age. I always used to see something new when I watched it but it felt a bit tired having not seen it in a decade or more.

shortfall

Great thread.
Off the top of my head:
Mandate aftershave. Seemed impossibly cool and masculine in the 80s, now smells like cheap sh1t.
Lucozade. Genuinely thought it had health giving properties as a kid in the 70s cos it was expensive and only available at chemists. Now it just tastes like neat sugar and probably causes type 2 diabetes and tooth decay. Utterly vile.
Any porn movie made before the 90s. Fat men with hairy backs sh@gging chubby women with massive vaginal beards all the way down their thighs and round to their anus.
Indoor swimming pools. Too much chlorine, too many people, over zealous lifeguards who whistle at everything.
Fray Bentos pies. Was brought up on them. Totally loved them. Now they're just bland with the texture of dogmeat and puff astry that always seems to remain soggy underneath the top layer.

shortfall

Oh and camping. Brilliant as a kid but utterly dogsh1t when you've got used to a bit of luxury.

robert88

Luxury. Gets bloody boring after a bit, then you just want to get out into the wilds on your bike and lead the simple life. Next hols is island hopping, Indian Ocean. Nothing to do except laze around drinking and sunning ourselves. Hell on earth.

solosuperia

Liquorice, now hardly any flavour.
Tizer, I guess I've drunk to much of "Old Fart" best bitter over the years so Tizer tastes of nothing but artificial sweeteners.
On the other hand just been watching The Blues Brothers from 1980 can't think of a modern film compares!

Stevo_666

Any old episode of Dr. Who. I remember getting scared by a few when I was 7 or 8 so I re-watched a few for curiosity and had a good laugh at the tin foil & papier mache special effects, before getting slightly embarrassed at the fact that they used to scare me

BelgianBeerGeek

Stevo 666 wrote:

Any old episode of Dr. Who. I remember getting scared by a few when I was 7 or 8 so I re-watched a few for curiosity and had a good laugh at the tin foil & papier mache special effects, before getting slightly embarrassed at the fact that they used to scare me

The cybermen used to worry me when I was a kid. Now grown adults have them on their desks on calendars. What a world we live in, eh?

rjsterry

Stevo 666 wrote:

Any old episode of Dr. Who. I remember getting scared by a few when I was 7 or 8 so I re-watched a few for curiosity and had a good laugh at the tin foil & papier mache special effects, before getting slightly embarrassed at the fact that they used to scare me

TBH, still being scared of the same things in middle age as when you were at junior school would be the embarrassing bit.

tailwindhome

Star Wars

ivor_pye

Have been recording all my vinyl onto the PC and some (not all) of the music I bought as a youngster just sounds so tired and dated.

FishFish

Ivor Pye wrote:

Have been recording all my vinyl onto the PC and some (not all) of the music I bought as a youngster just sounds so tired and dated.

...as do most of the people on this forum. FACT!

daniel_b

Robert88 wrote:

Luxury. Gets bloody boring after a bit, then you just want to get out into the wilds on your bike and lead the simple life. Next hols is island hopping, Indian Ocean. Nothing to do except laze around drinking and sunning ourselves. Hell on earth.

I would suggest you either take a bike with you, or find a place to hire one on several of the islands.
Is Mauritius one of them?

Stevo_666

BelgianBeerGeek wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Any old episode of Dr. Who. I remember getting scared by a few when I was 7 or 8 so I re-watched a few for curiosity and had a good laugh at the tin foil & papier mache special effects, before getting slightly embarrassed at the fact that they used to scare me

The cybermen used to worry me when I was a kid. Now grown adults have them on their desks on calendars. What a world we live in, eh?

I remember thinking that Davros was dead scary. Now he just likes a good advert for why you shouldn't smoke.

Stevo_666

Robert88 wrote:

Luxury. Gets bloody boring after a bit, then you just want to get out into the wilds on your bike and lead the simple life. Next hols is island hopping, Indian Ocean. Nothing to do except laze around drinking and sunning ourselves. Hell on earth.

If you already knew that, maybe you should have booked a different holiday?

shirley_basso

Take up surfing

awavey

Shirley Basso wrote:

Take up surfing

I tried that once, nearly broke my ribs doing it,a wave had brought us in right up the beach into shallow water, and front of the board just dropped enough it dug in the loose sand and tipped it round and it stopped instantly, I didnt and still had all the inertia/momentum and landed on its side edge, then I stopped.

shirley_basso

I’m crap at it but in feb shared the line up in South Africa with 2 locals and a pod of 40 dolphins at sunset. Doesn’t get much better than that, after you’ve got over sh1tting yourself cos you thought they were sharks.

SJH76

TailWindHome wrote:

Star Wars

After watching the latest episodes then watching the original I look back and think how stunning Carrie Fisher used to be and (God rest her soul) what she ended up looking like.

slowbike

Shirley Basso wrote:

I’m crap at it but in feb shared the line up in South Africa with 2 locals and a pod of 40 dolphins at sunset. Doesn’t get much better than that, after you’ve got over sh1tting yourself cos you thought they were sharks.

we were in SA nearly 2 decades ago - went swimming off this really nice beach - totally deserted - I say swimming - in reality it was just a little dip because of the huge waves crashing in - now we watch Bondi Rescue and wonder just how lucky we were that a) one or both of us didn't get swept away (knew nothing about rips) and b) there were no sharks as there are plenty in the area!!

shirley_basso

Slowbike wrote:

Shirley Basso wrote:

I’m crap at it but in feb shared the line up in South Africa with 2 locals and a pod of 40 dolphins at sunset. Doesn’t get much better than that, after you’ve got over sh1tting yourself cos you thought they were sharks.

we were in SA nearly 2 decades ago - went swimming off this really nice beach - totally deserted - I say swimming - in reality it was just a little dip because of the huge waves crashing in - now we watch Bondi Rescue and wonder just how lucky we were that a) one or both of us didn't get swept away (knew nothing about rips) and b) there were no sharks as there are plenty in the area!!

Apparently they have tracked a single shark from attacks in SA to attacks in Oz. Absolutely ridiculous, but shark attacks are pretty rare.

I think if you're sensible and always face out to sea so you don't get crushed by a wave while facing into the beach, you should be ok.

keef66

Any UK seaside resort.

Almost any '70s horror / sci-fi / porn film.

Nearly all the LPs I've hung onto since my teenage years / early 20s, intending one day to turn them into something useful for the 21st century but never getting round to doing more than 3 of them, and even those went onto CD which is itself becoming obsolete.

I've just acquired some Sonos speakers and signed up to Spotify so I can get virtually any music just by shouting at Alexa, and I'm finding I don't have the same taste in music as I did 40+ years ago. Who knew?? It's verging on embarrassing when wife and family come home to find Zeppelin or Jethro Tull at dog worrying volume...

chris_bass

jose mourinho

FishFish

Chris Bass

chris_bass

FishFish wrote:

Chris Bass

At least you thought I was better at one point in time!

robert88

keef66 wrote:

Any UK seaside resort.

Almost any '70s horror / sci-fi / porn film.

Nearly all the LPs I've hung onto since my teenage years / early 20s, intending one day to turn them into something useful for the 21st century but never getting round to doing more than 3 of them, and even those went onto CD which is itself becoming obsolete.

I've just acquired some Sonos speakers and signed up to Spotify so I can get virtually any music just by shouting at Alexa, and I'm finding I don't have the same taste in music as I did 40+ years ago. Who knew?? It's verging on embarrassing when wife and family come home to find Zeppelin or Jethro Tull at dog worrying volume...

The other problem is that modern stuff sounds a lot better on a decent system than the old stuff. Tonnes better. Some remastering helps but there's only so much can be done.

haydenm

Ketamine

Edit: Wait, I guess that depends on how you define 'kid'. I don't think my Ket habit had started when I was busy riding my scooter to the shop to buy hubba bubba. Of those things, micro scooters. Dreadful shin pain. Hubba bubba remains as excellent as it ever was.

pblakeney

Anyone ever seen a video replay of their track day experience?
Lewis Hamilton has little to worry about. :oops:

capt_slog

A film called "The Keep"

I recalled it as being quite good, broodingly sinister and having a decent soundtrack. It was on TV around a year ago, so I recorded it and showed it to grown-up sons, and I had to admit it was crap.

Perhaps my recollection is coloured by the book version?

FishFish

Chris Bass wrote:

FishFish wrote:

Chris Bass

At least you thought I was better at one point in time!

That's right - I thought you were the best person on Earth - ever. Now you are only microscopically less fantastic.

crumbschief

Capt Slog wrote:

A film called "The Keep"

I recalled it as being quite good, broodingly sinister and having a decent soundtrack. It was on TV around a year ago, so I recorded it and showed it to grown-up sons, and I had to admit it was crap.

Perhaps my recollection is coloured by the book version?

:shock: I expect that sort of review from Seanoconn,he is wrong by the way.

webboo

Life.