Modern-day teenagers watching Dude, Where's My Car? for the very first time have shared their thoughts on the "disgusting" movie.
Release in 2000, Dude, Where's My Car? stars Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott as two best friends who find themselves unable to find their car after a wild night of partying.
Now, if you were to google the film in 2023 and see its 17% rating on Rotten Tomatoes or 5.5/10 score on IMDb, you may think that this movie is a complete waste of time.
However, take it from me - somebody who was there at the time; this movie was a cult classic and breathed new life into the "stoner comedy" movie genre.
I can still remember my first time watching the silly comedy, and just having a really fun time - and it would seem many people agreed with me. The movie generated a $100 million box office from a $13 million and has gone on to achieve "cult" status (among a certain age group).
But, as we all know, the year 2000 was very different to today's socially progressive climate; and what was acceptable in movies back then perhaps wouldn't fly for audiences today.
In fact, in an effort to test how teens in 2023 would respond to these once-glorified movies, Vice journalist Rosie Hewittson recently asked a group of teenagers aged between 16 and 19 to watch a number of popular classic teen movies, such as American Pie, Clueless, and Dude, Where's My Car?
And, I hate to disappoint you, but it seems like you may struggle to re-watch Dude, Where's My Car? with your kids in the future.
One reviewer, 16-year-old Taylor, said that she couldn't imagine the move being made today, and that she "hated how practically every woman they meet in the film seems to just exist for the two main characters’ sexual pleasure".
Although Taylor recognized that the movie was supposed to be "completely ridiculous", she still found herself annoyed over the fact that the main characters are "sexist losers and don’t deserve any female attention".
Additionally, 17-year-old Hannah also struggled to see the funny side to the film -- in fact, she says she couldn't even make it to the end of the movie.
"I genuinely don’t get how anyone could actually sit there and watch the whole thing let alone find any of it funny," she says. "There was so much not ok stuff in it."
In particular, Hannah says she just "didn't get" the drive-thru Chinese takeaway scene, and branded the movie "not remotely funny and pretty racist".
But 18-year-old Olivia had a different reaction to the movie...
...oh wait... no she didn't. She also hated it.
"I hated all of it," she says, "but the worst part is when Jesse gets a lap dance from a stripper who turns out to be trans woman."
"Jesse freaks out and starts wiping his tongue because he kissed her, and lifts up her skirt to see her bulge," Olivia continues. "It plays on stereotypes of trans people as sex workers and thieves and legitimizes cis male transphobia."
Overall, Olivia thought the movie was "so disgusting", and concluded: "I hope it wouldn’t have gotten made if it was written today."
But what did people think on Twitter? Well, one person wrote who had recently re-watched the movie said: "Thought it'd be nostalgically cringy to rewatch 'Dude Where's My Car' for the first time in 20 years. Ha ha nope!
"It's very bad. Not in an awkward dated bad: but-good way, but in more of a 'this kind of 2000s media directly contributed to the toxicity of millennial men' way."
And a second added: "I just watched Dude, Where’s My Car? For the first time in my life and I’ll never get that time back."
However, one person found it passable, writing: "Watched Dude Where’s My Car for the first time last night. It was so, so close to being a home run, but the fumbled the ending. 7/10".
There we go... that's a higher score than the movie's actual IMDb page. There's hope after all...
