“When you look back at your old favorite movies from your youth, which ones have held up well and which ones… not so much?” That’s the question we put before the Mutants this month:

Drake: Although I’m very ambivalent about his later output, I really enjoyed the Steven Spielberg films of my youth, and still consider them to be great cinema. Jaws is one, of course, because that movie works on every level. Thriller, adventure story, monster flick… it’s simply one of the all-time greats. I also think that Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a fine film, with a solid story and great effects that still hold up today. Heck, I even have a soft spot for 1941, flawed though it might be.

Michael Crichton’s Westworld is another one I loved as a kid and still enjoy today. A few years after seeing it I got the chance to play a Western-themed role-playing game called Boot Hill and it instantly clicked with me that this was really just Westworld, except with dice and pencils instead of robots. And of course dice and pencils rarely if ever go rogue and try to kill you.

On the other hand, some of the effects-based movies have had some aging issues, especially the Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptations from the mid-70s that relied on dinosaurs made of latex and Styrofoam. At the Earth’s Core suffers the most here, with far too much screen time dedicated to the Mahars, a race of flying reptiles who mostly stand around for long stretches before taking to the air with all the grace of a Sherman tank. Granted, Peter Cushing is in good form here and Caroline Munro is ridiculously gorgeous, but the flick does get pretty sloggy in places.

A few of the sci-fi TV series that I enjoyed when I was young feel very dated now. The short-lived Planet of the Apes and Logan’s Run shows were must-watch back then, but when I’ve seen an episode or two in more recent years I do wonder what my pre-teen self was thinking. Probably, “Apes are cool!” and “Man, I wish Jenny Agutter was in this.”

Sitting Duck: By and large I have avoided most of my old childhood favorites precisely because such revisits more often than not end in disappointment. But occasionally I take a foolhardy plunge, emerging with occasional newfound respect but more likely a deep loathing of the tastes of my moronic past self.

Let’s get the negative part out of the way, though it is certain to ruffle some feathers. The Dark Crystal does not hold up well at all. Oh sure the set design is excellent, and the puppetry is top notch, as you would expect from Jim Henson. And really that is all it has. The story is the most bare-bones Hero’s Journey imaginable. The dialogue is simplistic to the point that it’s painful to listen to. While lead protagonists are often a touch vanilla so that readers/viewers can more effectively project themselves on them, Jen makes Wonder Bread seem like the most flavorful rye or pumpernickel in comparison. But what really kills it is the dearth of humor. This is all the more disappointing when you consider how steeped in humor prior Henson projects are, such as Sam and Friends, Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, and the Wilkins Coffee commercials. Perhaps Henson was suffering from that malaise that comedic types experience where they want to be taken seriously and end up going too far. Thankfully he seemed to have gotten that out of his system by the time he got to working on The Storyteller.

But let’s end on a high note. Back when I started work on my feature about Kids Incorporated, my expectations going in were pretty low. With my severe allergy to bad child acting, it seemed guaranteed that I was in for a world of hurt (I don’t think I could make it through the unriffed version of Mac and Me). But while there were a few hiccups, the acting was reasonably solid, well above what this sort of show would normally bother with. And of course there’s the constant stream of Eighties songs which take up about half of each episode’s runtime. This is further aided by how most of the singing ranges from decent to excellent, even if a lot of the fake instrument playing falls short of that standard.

And productions that purport to be set during the Eighties could learn some things about song selection by watching this. You can’t truly evoke the decade with just the hits that have stood the test of time like “Let’s Go Crazy” and “Uptown Girl” and “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and “Sunglasses at Night”. You also need some of the songs that have fallen by the wayside, like “The Glamorous Life” and “He Could Be the One” and “Don’t Fight It”. I’m sure Sheila E. and Josie Cotton would appreciate the slight bump in their royalty checks.

Now I need to decide if revisiting Bionic Six is really worth the potential risk of it being a soul crushing letdown.

Justin: I don’t shy away from watching those old favorites from the VHS days. On the contrary, I love revisiting them, because they unlock fond memories and give me an opportunity to share some of my past with my children.

But have they all aged well? Not necessarily. It’s a mixed bag. Some of those movies I thought were all that and a bag of chips are more shaky or cheesy from my current perspective. Some have really bad editing, or obvious matte lines, or just plain bad acting. The Neverending Story is a legit classic with amazing creature and world designs, but the story is paper-thin and nonsensical when you think about it. I also remember it being a lot more emotional — scary, sad, exciting — than it is to me now. We also watched Big the other day, which I found was not quite as funny and kind of weird all around.

However, I’ve watched plenty of old classics that do indeed hold up and even feel more special because of their eras and their techniques. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure is still a rip-roaring romp, Spaceballs still makes me chuckle even with Mel Brooks’ dad jokes, and our whole household is quoting Johnny Five from Short Circuit like it came out last week.