20 2000s Movies That Could Never Be Made Today
The 2000s may seem cheesy and lame in retrospect, but the decade dropped some edgy flicks.
The noughties were, for some, halcyon days, when the internet, DVD and CGI had opened up the film world in ways hitherto unimagined. And yet, many of the social and cultural norms from this time fell to the sword of the 'tens, when politics and social mores shifted dramatically, with great strides made for sexuality in particular.
As a result, when we cast our eyes back, some of the films of yesteryear can make us uneasy, seem wild and over-the-top, or read as far more controversial than they did at the time. It can be as simple as the gross-out comedy sequences not seeming quite so funny, or as complex as the moral dynamics of gender and race being totally out of whack. Consider if The Dreamers' sibling incest would have as warm a reception today; if that scene in Irreversible would get past the producers, never mind the censors; and if the Wayans would be allowed to make any films at all.
There's no denying the industry has changed, and is far more responsive to public taste, morals and offence now than it has ever been. So, for better or worse, these are 20 films whose scripts wouldn't pass the supervisor, whose cast wouldn't sign on, or which simply wouldn't get funding today. Some good; some bad; all controversial.
20. Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (2006)
Comedy rock duo Tenacious D have been a little more Tenac and ious D in recent years following an ugly public spat over a Trump assassination joke. But 20 years ago, the boys could do no wrong, bringing forth a star-studded stoner comedy in the form of Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny.
The film tells the fictional story of how Jack Black and Kyle Gass came to form the band, fight the Devil, and write, amongst other things, the best song in the world. Meat Loaf is Black’s father, Dio his guardian angel, and Dave Grohl plays the devil himself, in a rip-roaring 94-minute ode to the plight of the small-time rockstar.
But so much of what makes the film great is tied to the time it was released. This kind of stoner comedy was already a fading genre, only briefly revived by the Judd Apatow set before dying an agonising death in the 2010s. The humour is juvenile, the drug use casual, and the contemporary faux pas many. Certainly, jokes about Gass being r**ed in Hell by the Devil wouldn’t make it into a mainstream New Line Cinema release today. Society and Hollywood have moved on from bong hits, cock push-ups, and Satan's "hot demon gel", even if we haven't.