10 Movies You Might've Liked More as a Teenager

10 Movies You Probably Liked More as a Teenager Paul Smecker pointing a finger at someone off-camera in The Boondock SaintsImage via Franchise Pictures By  Jeremy Urquhart Published 45 minutes ago Jeremy has more than 2100 published articles on Collider to his name, and has been writing for the site since February 2022. He's an omnivore when it comes to his movie-watching diet, so will gladly watch and write about almost anything, from old Godzilla films to gangster flicks to samurai movies to classic musicals to the French New Wave to the MCU... well, maybe not the Disney+ shows. His favorite directors include Martin Scorsese, Sergio Leone, Akira Kurosawa, Quentin Tarantino, Werner Herzog, John Woo, Bob Fosse, Fritz Lang, Guillermo del Toro, and Yoji Yamada. He's also very proud of the fact that he's seen every single Nicolas Cage movie released before 2022, even though doing so often felt like a tremendous waste of time. He's plagued by the question of whether or not The Room is genuinely terrible or some kind of accidental masterpiece, and has been for more than 12 years (and a similar number of viewings). When he's not writing lists - and the occasional feature article - for Collider, he also likes to upload film reviews to his Letterboxd profile (username: Jeremy Urquhart) and Instagram account. He is also currently in the process of trying to become a Stephen King expert by reading all 2397 novels written by the author.  Sign in to your Collider account Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

Most of the time, if you're fond of a movie when you're younger, you'll still like it, to some extent, when you're older, even if you might not love it as much. This is probably going to be the case for lots of movies aimed at children, though there are also some that get even better when you're older (especially those produced by Pixar throughout the 1990s and 2000s, like Toy Story 2 and The Incredibles, in particular).

It’s less surprising that some kids’ movies aren’t really made for adults, obviously, so what of movies that might be appealing to teenagers, or younger viewers getting into more “serious” or “mature” films for the first time? It’s not usually as dramatic, and it’s also hugely subjective. That’s a disclaimer to say that you're not guaranteed to like these films less at the age of 30 or 40 than you did at the ages of 13 or 17, and hell, maybe you didn’t like some of these to begin with. Lots of these qualify more for “great at 15 and then pretty good at 30,” with as honest an undertaking as possible at trying to find movies that might fit into such a category for some people.

10 'The Boondock Saints' (1999)

Image via Indican Pictures

See, you can like The Boondock Saints, or at least parts of it, but it’s very much a teenage movie. Some of it’s a bit juvenile and simple, but the broadness and irreverence of it all isn't quite as cool if you watch it for the first time as an adult, and maybe not if you revisit it as an adult after seeing it as a teenager. It’s a movie that might not have existed were it not for Quentin Tarantino and/or Guy Ritchie.

Actually, that can’t be proven, especially since Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels didn't come out that long before The Boondock Saints. That’s a lofty accusation. But it still might be true. Anyway, if you want a loud and silly crime film with a bombastic Willem Dafoe performance that is still incredibly enjoyable regardless of how old and cranky you’ve gotten in time, The Boondock Saints might still provide a little fun. Also, it’s a good deal better than its sequel, for what that’s worth.

9 'Garden State' (2004)

Mark, Sam, and Andrew standing in the rain from Garden State (Peter Sarsgaard, Natalie Portman, and Zach Braff)Image via Searchlight Pictures

At the end of the day, at least Garden State has a good soundtrack, right? Kind of. It’s very much of its time, and maybe that’s fitting for a movie that could’ve only come out in the mid-2000s. It’s a romantic dramedy that feels more profound, funny, and romantic the younger you are, but Zach Braff did star in, write, and direct the film when he was still in his 20s, so maybe it gets away with it.

Garden State is an interesting (and maybe unintentional) time capsule for 2004, but one can only take so much twee.

Nowadays, Garden State is an interesting (and maybe unintentional) time capsule for 2004, but one can only take so much twee. You can sort of admire it for what it was at the time, and what it represented for Braff trying to do something outside Scrubs, though some of the charm that might’ve been there before has gone a little. It could’ve faded with time, or it could just be a natural consequence of getting older, grumpier, and (likely) more cynical.

8 'The Breakfast Club' (1985)

Ally Sheedy and Molly Ringwald as Allison and Claire, sitting together in The Breakfast ClubImage via Universal Pictures

Another movie about young people that’s naturally more appealing when you're younger, The Breakfast Club honestly does probably hold up better than Garden State, even though it’s almost two decades older. It’s a great movie if you're the same age as the main characters, and maybe even more so if you were a teenager when it came out, though it’s not quite the same when you're older.

There are lots of little things sprinkled throughout that are a bit eyebrow-raising, albeit not as many questionable moments as pop up in another John Hughes movie, Sixteen Candles. Honestly, though, that one is probably going to be noticeably iffy even if you're a teenager watching it. The Breakfast Club is one you just feel more if you're going through the stuff the characters are also dealing with, but even now, much of it still works as something of a (somewhat) comedic and feature-length bottle episode.

7 '300' (2006)

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

300 is thunderously simple, but it’s also based on a pretty short graphic novel, so the film is probably more fleshed-out, in all honesty, on a narrative and character front. Still, it’s got more style than substance, but at least that style is hard to deny, since this fantastical depiction of the Battle of Thermopylae is visually stunning for pretty much all its runtime.

There is a small army that goes up against a much bigger one, and the two sides fight a great deal and then the movie sort of just ends (and there’s a bit of non-action drama thrown in for good measure, even if it’s not particularly interesting). If you're venturing out of superhero-related comic book/graphic novel adaptation territory for the first time, 300 is thrilling and exciting, though if you're after a bit more than stylized violence and eye-catching images, you might leave this one still feeling more than a little hungry.

6 '(500) Days of Summer' (2009)

Image via Fox Searchlight Pictures

Some of the things that can be said about Garden State also apply to (500) Days of Summer (including the notion that the music's very good), albeit not quite as severely. It’s a slightly more mature movie, and there’s some nuance here, though it’s also a bumpy ride. Some of that bumpiness is intentional, as a “warts and all” kind of approach to a rom-com sort of story, while some of it… not so much.

Parts of (500) Days of Summer are a little aggressive, and that’s not the same as saying it’s problematic, because it can be better not to engage with the idea of what is or isn't problematic by today’s standards, when a movie came out a while ago. That being said, this one didn’t come out all that long ago, and lots of things here might well be done a little differently… though not all of them. If you're young and jaded about love, there’s tons to like here, while if you're old and jaded about love, there’s still quite a bit to like here, alongside some stuff you might find yourself questioning.

5 'Reservoir Dogs' (1992)

Tim Roth as Mr. Blonde in a leather jacket sitting and looking at something off-camera in Reservoir Dogs.Image via Miramax Films

Quentin Tarantino was mentioned earlier as someone whose early crime films might’ve influenced The Boondock Saints, but one of those movies is also going to slot in here… but it’s included very cautiously. Reservoir Dogs is still awesome, especially considering it was Tarantino’s feature-length directorial debut, and for most of the runtime, the youthful energy to it because of Tarantino’s, you know, youth is a plus rather than a negative.

There is a confidence to the film right from the start that’s mostly great, but there are a few moments here and there that feel a bit immature. You could also say the same about a smaller number of moments in Pulp Fiction, but that one does feel a bit more refined in terms of how it’s written, filmed, and edited. Reservoir Dogs is rough in a way that, again, mostly works, and it’s largely a satisfying and unique heist movie (without showing the heist!), but it’s lost a little spark (not a catastrophic amount, though) in the 30+ years since its release.

4 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' (2015)

Comfortably the most recent movie here, Star Wars: The Force Awakens continued a story that was once deemed concluded (at least as far as the movie side of things was concerned) in 1983, with Return of the Jedi. The Force Awakens brought back some familiar (albeit more wrinkled) faces while introducing a whole heap of new characters, and there was a level of anticipation that was more or less met, according to most people, when the film itself came out.

Though in the years since, some of the cracks around The Force Awakens have started to show a little more prominently, and more so than you'd expect with a movie from 2015. At the time of writing, its 10th anniversary is approaching, and it doesn’t seem like an occasion many people seem keen to celebrate. It was a sugar rush of a blockbuster, and hugely entertaining upon release, yet some of the fun has dissipated since (maybe more to do with subsequent Star Wars films and TV shows making the series feel over-exposed, but still).

3 'Life Is Beautiful' (1997)

Image via Miramax Films

If you're new to watching non-English-language movies, Life Is Beautiful does feel a bit more profound and distinctive, compared to how it’s viewable when you’ve seen a few more movies from Italy and elsewhere. This one is particularly personal/subjective, because it was one of the first Italian movies the person typing these words ever saw, and it really was surprising, sometimes funny, and eventually tear-jerking back during that same person’s teenage years.

Nowadays, though? If you’ve seen a few more dramedies set during wartime, the execution during some parts of Life Is Beautiful leaves a bit to be desired, and it’s a tonally chaotic movie, really. Movies about World War II don’t have to be 100% realistic all of the time, though Life Is Beautiful maybe goes a bit too far, and you could argue it’s going for something of a borderline-fairy tale thing, or it’s treacly, sentimental, and a little simplistic because about half of it’s seen through the eyes of a child. Yet even then, it’s the Holocaust being dealt with here, and if people go on about Jerry Lewis’ The Day the Clown Cried being a questionable (and admittedly unreleased) film, maybe some of those criticisms can be applied to Life Is Beautiful and parts of its approach, too.

2 'Pitch Black' (2000)

Vin Diesel as Riddick looking up at the sky in Pitch BlackImage via Gramercy Pictures

A film that kick-started a somewhat underwhelming but sort of entertaining trilogy, Pitch Black sure is a Richard B. Riddick movie. Vin Diesel does his Vin Diesel thing, and the film really just borrows liberally from other survival-related science fiction movies you’ve probably seen before, but maybe you wouldn’t have seen so many if you watched this when you were younger and got to it, say, before seeing Alien, The Thing, or Predator.

The last two of those are probably enjoyable when you're a teenager, too, and the first would be if you're a teenager who doesn’t mind patiently paced stuff. Pitch Black is broader and sillier, and also less consistent, though there are some fun ideas and action scenes here if you really like Vin Diesel and/or sci-fi movies.

1 'Equilibrium' (2002)

Christian Bale sits at a desk in EquilibriumImage via Miramax Films

Equilibrium is a movie that says, “The Matrix was cool, huh? Please watch this before its two sequels come out next year, in 2003.” Well, it takes ideas from other sci-fi stories, but it feels most aesthetically in line with The Matrix, and is also reminiscent of that modern classic when it comes to its action scenes… but still, there’s some fun to be had here.

There are also some guns to be had here, because a lot of them get fired in Equilibrium, and then it also feels a bit like a martial arts movie at times, and… oh, wait. Sci-fi, guns, martial arts… sounds like something that rhymes with “The Late Fix.” It’s more of a blast when you're younger and a bit less discerning, though you could do worse, even now, and even if you're watching it for the first time as an adult.

Like Follow Followed Equilibrium R Action Science Fiction Thriller Release Date December 6, 2002 Runtime 107 minutes Director Kurt Wimmer Writers Kurt Wimmer

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• Christian Bale John Preston
• Taye Diggs Brandt
• Angus Macfadyen Dupont
• Matthew Harbour Robbie Preston

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• The Boondock Saints
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