2005 Movies That Could Never Be Made Today

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2005 doesn’t seem that long ago. I remember 2005 well. I had a flip phone. It was great.

However, 2005 was two decades ago. When I was growing up, a movie that was 20 years old felt incredibly old. For instance, during my teenage years when I regularly visited Blockbuster Video, if I rented a film from 1974 – something like Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation – I’d have felt proud of myself for watching a classic, truly old movie.

With some hesitation, I have to admit: a film that came out in 2005 is now quite old. It’s frustrating, and feels unfair, but it’s simply the truth.

To illustrate this point, I’m sharing a list of films from 2005 that feel like they couldn’t be made today. The reasons are different for each one. Sometimes, the subject matter wouldn’t appeal to today’s audiences. Other times, the directors who made those films wouldn’t be hired now. And in some cases, the entire film relies on ideas or franchises that aren’t popular or well-known in the 2020s.

What all these films have in common, no matter the type of movie or who made them, is my strong feeling that they wouldn’t be made and shown in theaters now. I’m quite certain of it-I’d risk everything on that prediction, even my old flip phone!

2005 Movies That Could Never Be Made Today

The Dukes of Hazzard

Back in 2013, Warner Bros. started taking the Confederate flag off of toys and pictures of the General Lee car from The Dukes of Hazzard . However, eight years before that, they actively promoted a $50-million movie based on The Dukes of Hazzard , prominently featuring the General Lee. They didn’t shy away from showing the car – you can easily find photos of it from promotional events and the movie’s premiere for Dukes, which starred Johnny Knoxville and Seann William Scott as Luke and Bo Duke. Another attention-grabbing part of the film’s marketing was co-star Jessica Simpson, often pictured in her short shorts – another element that might be considered problematic today.

Elektra

2005 feels like a lifetime ago, especially considering the Marvel Cinematic Universe didn’t even exist back then. While the MCU has had its peaks and valleys, I don’t think it’s ever completely mishandled a character quite as badly as many studios did with many Marvel characters before Iron Man came out in 2008. Just think about 2005’s Elektra, starring Jennifer Garner. She’s portrayed as both the world’s deadliest assassin, obsessively cleaning her floors to eliminate any trace of DNA, and yet incredibly careless, socializing with her inquisitive new neighbors right in the middle of a mission. And somehow, she doesn’t even recognize that these neighbors are actually part of the assignment!
To add to that, dying in Daredevil and then being resurrected gave Elektra the power to foresee the future and even reverse time when needed, essentially making her an immortal being. So, naturally, she uses this incredible power to repeatedly stab ninjas with her sai. Marvel might eventually make their own Elektra movie, and it might not be great. But hopefully, it will at least honor the character’s backstory and understand what makes her so appealing. It won’t turn her into a time-bending mistake.

Fever Pitch

The movie Fever Pitch – a romantic comedy using the historically struggling Boston Red Sox as the setting for a romance between a hahhdcaw Sawx fan (Jimmy Fallon) and a businesswoman (Drew Barrymore) – couldn’t happen in 2025, since the Red Sox have won four championships this century. It also couldn’t have happened in 2006. In reality, the film was originally planned to take place during another losing season for the Red Sox, but it was filmed in 2004 – just as the Red Sox were ending the Curse of the Bambino and winning the World Series! Talk about bad timing!
As the Red Sox began their winning streak in the fall of 2004, the Fever Pitch film crew quickly got back to work and filmed a new ending showing Fallon and Barrymore celebrating the Red Sox’s victory. Basically, Fever Pitch was made at the absolute last possible moment when the story still made sense.

The Honeymooners

The Honeymooners came at the tail end of a wave of movie versions of classic TV shows; think The Addams Family and The Brady Bunch Movie and Charlie’s Angels. But by the time The Honeymooners came out, the TV series was already 50 years old, and meant very little to anyone under the age of 70. Perhaps none too surprisingly, the movie was a flop in theaters. 20 years later, The Honeymooners has faded even further into obscurity for all but the oldest of Olds (myself included), and with very few exceptions films based on old TV shows have continued to bomb at the box office. (See: Dark Shadows, Baywatch.) No one would take a chance on this concept today.

Just Friends

That’s definitely Ryan Reynolds! Before becoming a major Hollywood star with films like The Proposal and Deadpool, he starred in Just Friends in 2005. In the movie, he plays a teenager who’s overweight and gets turned down by the girl he likes (Amy Smart), so he moves to Los Angeles. After a few years, his character transforms, losing weight and becoming a famous music producer. However, circumstances force him to return to his hometown and reconnect with his former crush. Considering the storyline, and looking at that picture of Reynolds with his awful wig and makeup reminiscent of Nutty Professor, you can imagine how many jokes they make about his appearance and weight. That pretty much sums it up.

Memoirs of a Geisha

Memoirs of a Geisha is the story of young Japanese woman who is sold to a geisha house, learns the trade, then struggles to survive amidst World War II and beyond. Yet, director Rob Marshall decided to cast all three main female roles with non-Japanese actors. (It should go without saying that Rob Marshall is also not Japanese himself.) That caused a minor controversy in 2005, at which point Marshall defended himself by saying “When you saw Zorba the Greek, and you saw Anthony Quinn play Zorba, was that odd to you because he was Irish and Mexican?” Uhhhh, I’m not sure that defense would fly today, Mr. Marshall.

The Ringer

I think you could argue that The Ringer really *tried* to be good. But honestly, the whole idea of the movie – a guy (Johnny Knoxville) faking a disability to compete in the Special Olympics – just feels completely wrong now, no matter how well-intentioned it was, or who the filmmakers thought they were making fun of. I can just *imagine* the uproar if a trailer for this came out online today. The internet would absolutely go crazy!

The Ring Two

The Ring is a fantastic horror movie. However, it’s very much a product of its time. In fact, the story about a cursed VHS tape was already becoming outdated when the film was released in 2002. The original novel was published in 1991, when VHS tapes were incredibly popular. The Japanese movie adaptation came out in 1998. By 2002, VHS was already being replaced by DVDs. When The Ring Two came out a few years later, analog tapes seemed like a forgotten technology-and not in a scary way. I guess you could, in theory, remake The Ring using a modern device to carry the curse. (“Don’t stream that movie on Paramount+ – that streaming service is haunted!”) But the failure of recent attempts to revive the franchise speaks for itself. (Actually, there is a way to make The Ring today: as a funny sketch where a teenager finds a cursed videotape but can’t even watch it, so they just throw it away and go on with their life.)

20 Sequels That Were Drastically Different From the Original

Mad Max 2 (1981)

As a huge movie fan, I always love seeing how franchises evolve, and the Mad Max series is a perfect example. If you’ve never checked out the original Mad Max, prepare to be surprised by how different it is from recent installments like Mad Max: Fury Road or Furiosa. It was a small, independent Australian film, and the story focuses on the *beginning* of society’s collapse, not the aftermath in a crazy, broken world. Honestly, it’s got way less science-fiction, significantly fewer action scenes, and almost none of the over-the-top production design and characters we now associate with Mad Max. (And a fun fact – Max’s family is still around for most of the movie!)
A lot of those iconic Max elements – the wild vehicles, the intense chases, the crazy villains – really came into their own with the sequel, Mad Max 2 (which most of us in the U.S. know as The Road Warrior). This one takes place *after* the world has ended, with Max roaming the wasteland searching for fuel. The action is much bigger, the stunts are even more incredible, and the characters are completely unhinged. (I mean, Lord Humungus is legendary!)

Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)

Although he and his iconic hockey mask are strongly associated with the Friday the 13th series, Jason Voorhees didn’t start terrorizing visitors at Camp Crystal Lake until the second movie. In the original Friday the 13th, it was actually Jason’s mother, Mrs. Voorhees, who was the killer. She targeted the camp counselors because they hadn’t been able to save her son, who had drowned in the lake years earlier. (Spoiler alert: He recovered!)
Jason didn’t wear his famous hockey mask until Part III, however. In Friday the 13th Part 2, he chases people while covering his head with a bag that has just one eyehole. I understand you’re upset, Jason, but do you think your mother would approve of you going out looking like that?

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

As a huge sci-fi fan, I always thought the first Star Trek movie was more influenced by films like Star Wars and, especially, 2001: A Space Odyssey than by the original TV show. Apparently, director Robert Wise wasn’t really a Star Trek devotee himself, and he wanted to create something grand and sweeping – almost philosophical – with amazing visual effects courtesy of 2001‘s Douglas Trumbull. While it did pretty well in theaters, it didn’t really resonate with either casual viewers or dedicated Trek fans. For the second film, the studio decided to blend those big-screen effects with something that felt more like the original series, and that’s how we got the thrilling, naval-style adventure The Wrath of Khan. It brought back Ricardo Montalban as the wonderfully villainous Khan Noonien Singh, seeking revenge against Captain Kirk and the Enterprise. And honestly, it worked! It’s widely considered the most critically acclaimed Star Trek film ever made.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

Today, it’s hard to imagine a successful series completely abandoning its established characters for a brand new storyline with different heroes and villains. That’s exactly what Halloween did with its third movie. It left behind both the relentless killer Michael Myers and his main target, Laurie Strode, in favor of… a spooky, but otherwise separate, story that was also set on Halloween. The film centers on a doctor (Tom Atkins) who is trying to unravel a plot involving some haunted Halloween masks. If it had been a hit, Halloween III probably would have led to a series of unrelated Halloween sequels, all connected only by taking place on October 31st. However, Halloween III wasn’t successful, and a few years later the fourth Halloween film brought Michael Myers back for a more typical slasher experience.

Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)

The initial Rambo film, First Blood, is more than just action; it’s a deep look at a Vietnam War veteran (John Rambo, played by Sylvester Stallone) struggling with intense emotional issues. The movie doesn’t end with a victory for Rambo, but with his surrender to the police, following a powerful speech about the trauma of war and the mistreatment he faced upon returning home. The second film, Rambo: First Blood Part II (a rather unhelpful title!), transforms Rambo into something of a superhero, seemingly recovered from his past problems and released from prison to go back to Vietnam and rescue American prisoners of war-all while going shirtless. First Blood was successful, but Rambo became a huge phenomenon, earning $300 million globally and leading to many sequels and copycat films.

Return to Oz (1985)

It’s not simply the fact that Return to Oz came out over 45 years after The Wizard of Oz, and was made by a completely different group of people. It’s more that The Wizard of Oz, even with a few frightening scenes, is a bright and cheerful adventure suitable for all ages, whereas Return to Oz is genuinely terrifying. Dorothy returns to Oz after facing the threat of electroshock therapy in a mental institution. The Wizard of Oz continues to be a beloved classic-my children love it-while Return to Oz is a cult film appreciated by devoted Oz book fans and horror enthusiasts who find a strange enjoyment in how disturbing this children’s movie is.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)

Cannon Films hired Tobe Hooper to create a sequel to his famous horror film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre after collaborating with him on other projects. They anticipated he’d deliver a film similar in style to the first Massacre – dark, gritty, and feeling almost like a real documentary – but Hooper envisioned something that was both more violent and more humorous. When he showed them his first cut, the studio executives were surprised. (“It was not what they were expecting,” Hooper later said in an interview for the documentary Electric Boogaloo.)
Ultimately, the studio embraced the comedic elements, and even designed a poster that resembled the one for the popular teen comedy The Breakfast Club. (Imagine Leatherface’s family having a breakfast club – they’d just be eating very different food than Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson!) Initially, many viewers were taken aback by Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 – it wasn’t the film they had anticipated. However, its distinctive style has since gained it a dedicated cult following.

Aliens (1986)

According to James Cameron himself, he originally pitched a sequel to Alien to Fox by simply writing the word “alien” on a piece of paper. He then added an “s” to make it plural, and then transformed the “s” into a dollar sign, creating “ALIEN$.” This simple pitch was enough to land him the job, and he went on to create what many consider one of the best sequels ever made (and this wouldn’t be the last time he achieved such success). However, this sequel is quite different from Ridley Scott’s Alien, being much more expansive and action-packed. James Cameron isn’t known for minimalist, tense films; he prefers large-scale, spectacular ones. Fittingly, his Aliens features a whole host of xenomorphs, rather than just the single creature designed by H.R. Giger.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

Gremlins was a surprisingly dark film for kids, and it actually played a role in the creation of the PG-13 rating. The MPAA needed a way to categorize movies that were a bit more intense than typical PG films, but not quite as mature as R-rated ones. However, Gremlins 2: The New Batch didn’t cause any similar debates. Director Joe Dante intentionally moved away from scary kids’ horror for the sequel, aiming for the feel of a live-action Looney Tunes cartoon. (He even brought in the famous animator Chuck Jones to create new Looney Tunes segments for the film!) The Gremlins in the second movie were less frightening and much more silly-one Gremlin even parodies the film Marathon Man starring Dustin Hoffman-and the movie’s wild energy included breaking the fourth wall with cameos from people like wrestler Hulk Hogan and film critic Leonard Maltin.

Troll 2 (1990)

Troll 2 is really unlike Troll. Actually, it wasn’t initially planned as a sequel. It started out called Goblins, but when a US distributor acquired it, they renamed it Troll 2, even though it has no connection to the first film. It doesn’t even feature trolls!
Despite the title change, Troll 2 is about mean little goblins who harass a family vacationing in the town of Nilbog – which is “Goblin” spelled backwards. (They didn’t bother changing the location to Owtllort, apparently.) To be honest, this was a minor issue for such a poorly made film, and it ended up being one of the reasons Troll 2 gained a following among fans of bad movies.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

James Cameron has a knack for creating sequels that stand apart from their originals. He reimagined Ridley Scott’s Alien with Aliens. And with Terminator 2: Judgment Day, he built upon his initial success and leveraged his box-office power to secure a massive budget, transforming his sci-fi series from a low-budget indie film into a blockbuster spectacle.
T2 features grander effects, more action-packed chases, and a greater number of terminators than The Terminator– not only Arnold Schwarzenegger’s disguised cyborg, but also Robert Patrick’s shape-shifting liquid metal T-1000. T2 fundamentally changed the direction of the series; every sequel since has attempted to emulate it in various ways, with the exception of Terminator Salvation, which is a war film set in the future of the saga and could also be considered for this list.

Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)

Highlander II drastically changed what people loved about the original Highlander films-many consider it one of the worst sequels ever made. The first movie was a fantasy action story about immortal beings fighting across history. But the sequel shifted gears to science fiction, portraying the hero (Christopher Lambert) as an aged man in a bleak future and revealing that he and the other immortals were actually alien refugees from a planet named Zeist. This new origin story didn’t fit with the first Highlander film at all, and audiences disliked it so much that later versions of the movie were edited to remove all references to Zeist and the alien storyline.

Army of Darkness (1992)

The Evil Dead was a pretty standard horror film. Evil Dead II mixed gore with slapstick comedy. Army of Darkness feels like a blend of The Three Stooges and the work of Ray Harryhausen (and that’s a good thing!). While some of the original frightening elements are still present, Sam Raimi mainly used the third Evil Dead movie as a chance to playfully push his lead actor, Bruce Campbell, to his limits and to entertain viewers with over-the-top effects and silly physical humor. It’s thoroughly enjoyable-and quite different from the earlier films, which were also great but much more serious.

Batman Forever (1995)

As a huge fan of the Batman films, I always found Tim Burton’s versions uniquely dark and Gothic. But when Joel Schumacher took over with Batman Forever, things went in a completely different direction! Gotham City transformed into this crazy, neon-lit place with the strangest gangs you can imagine. And the villains! Jim Carrey’s Riddler and Tommy Lee Jones’ Two-Face were constantly cackling – honestly, Batman Forever has to be a contender for the most villainous laughter in any single movie! Plus, there was this really attractive psychiatrist (Nicole Kidman) who was clearly very interested in Batman (Val Kilmer stepped in for Michael Keaton).
The Bat-suits became way more extravagant, and they even added a love song during the closing credits – Seal’s “Kiss From a Rose”! It was all so wild and over-the-top that it almost feels like a parody of Tim Burton’s Batman. And you know what? It was a massive success, earning $70 million more at the box office than Burton’s Batman Returns. It’s just… surprising, really.

Mission: Impossible II (2000)

When John Woo took over Mission: Impossible, he really put his stamp on it. Suddenly, Tom Cruise wasn’t just a neat-and-tidy guy uncovering spy plots – he became a total action hero with long, flowing hair, dual pistols, and this amazing habit of spinning through the air in slow motion, always with doves flying everywhere. A lot of Mission: Impossible fans consider M:I-2 the weakest film in the series, and maybe it is if you’re looking at it as a typical Mission: Impossible movie. But honestly, if you just watch it as a classic American John Woo action flick, it’s actually a lot of fun and really delivers what you’d expect from him.

The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)

The Chronicles of Riddick, which came out after the first Fast & Furious film, was created to showcase Vin Diesel in a large-scale science fiction adventure. While it was technically a sequel, it wasn’t really promoted as one-it continued the story from 2000’s Pitch Black.
That earlier movie, released before The Fast and the Furious, was a smaller, more focused horror film with a cast of characters. It featured a group of space travelers (including Diesel’s Riddick) who were stranded on a planet full of dangerous creatures. After The Fast and the Furious became a huge success, Diesel and director David Twohy were able to expand their vision-and their funding-for a sequel that aimed to be a grand space war rather than a simple sci-fi horror story.

The Devil’s Rejects (2005)

This follow-up film is a significant departure from the first, almost landing it in a completely different type of horror. Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses is a fairly typical slasher movie, featuring a group of teens targeted by a crazy, murderous family. However, the sequel, The Devil’s Rejects, flips the script, portraying that same family as flawed, even sympathetic characters – though they are still undeniably violent and cruel. They become the main focus of the story, constantly hunted by the police for the crimes they committed in the previous film. I personally believe The Devil’s Rejects is a very effective (though extremely dark) movie. But because it’s so different from House of 1000 Corpses, it doesn’t surprise me when someone who enjoyed the first film doesn’t care for the second.

Cars 2 (2011)

Alright, so Cars was already a film featuring cars that could think and talk. But at least it mainly focused on those cars racing, with a bit of Doc Hollywood mixed in. The second movie, however, turned into a spy thriller, unexpectedly making Mater the Tow Truck (voiced by Larry the Cable Guy), who was originally a funny side character, a main character. It’s confusing – why is Mater a spy? Why do the cars need to use the bathroom and eat wasabi in this film? What’s the point of having talking cars needing spies (or even food) in the first place??? I’m still puzzled by it all.

Split (2016)

This film presents a unique situation: it intentionally kept its status as a sequel secret, revealing it as a surprising plot twist. Unsurprisingly, it was directed by M. Night Shyamalan, known for his twist endings. The connection wasn’t revealed until the end of Split, where audiences discovered that the villain, “The Horde,” exists in the same world as Bruce Willis’ character, David Dunn – the hero known as “Overseer” from Shyamalan’s 2000 film Unbreakable. While Unbreakable was a suspenseful drama, Split leaned more towards horror. Characters from both movies then came together in a sequel, Glass, which brought the somewhat disjointed trilogy to a close.

Bring It On: Cheer or Die (2022)

Following several years of Bring It On sequels that maintained the original movie’s clever humor, the producers decided to try something new with Cheer or Die (the seventh film in the series), shifting the focus to horror. The movie features a high school cheerleading squad where members are mysteriously eliminated one by one on Halloween. For the upcoming eighth Bring It On film, what if we took the series in another completely different direction-a Bring It On movie that’s also a science fiction story about the first cheerleaders to travel into outer space? We could call it Bring It On: In Space, No One Can Cheer You Scream.

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2025-09-30 19:03