I endorse it:
I will take your challenge to heart and not nominate movies that are obviously classics, which would disqualify The Godfather Movies and as you mentioned Casablanca. I will instead give you movies that were considered good at the time but in retrospect are even better.
1. The Bad News Bears – I cannot think of a more needless remake than the current one of this film. Watch the original; over bearing parents, un-supervised children, the insanity of childhood competition enforced by adults. Its every bit as funny now as it was in 1976 and even more relevant.
2. Animal House – At the time it was just a silly comedy. Watch it now and notice how much more intelligent and quick the dialog is compared to what passes for comedy now.
3. Bullet – Watch the car chase scene through San Francisco. It’s the obvious classic chase scene but notice the timing of the scene. It builds with the car following McQueen slowly at first. This was before directors fell in love with their special effects people. This movie understands how to build up to an action scene rather than throwing one more ridiculous chase scene in after another until they each loose any effect on the audience.
4. Fast Times At Ridgemont High – Another screwball comedy with fabulous dialog. Cameron Crowe really understands how young people talk and think. Yeah it’s a farce, but in many ways it takes it subjects more seriously and gives them more credit than any teen movies today.
5. Kelley’s Heroes – This is one of my favorites because it is in many ways a more accurate portrayal of what war is actually like than other more “realistic movies” like Platoon. I know that sounds funny to say that about a screwball comedy. It’s about the only war movie that I know of that portrays soldiers as they actually are, ordinary people caught up in a terrible event trying to survive. Soldiers are not, for the most part, the selfless, take my buddy first, I am not leaving my brothers types like they are portrayed in movies like Saving Private Ryan. Nor, are soldiers dope smoking oppressed anti-war malcontents that directors like Oliver Stone would have you believe. They are somewhere in between and at a given time all places in between. This movie does a great job of portraying that and also has some classic lines. Watch Carol O’Conner being Archie Bunker before there was an Archie Bunker. “This guy is a looser, I am sitting in his headquarters, drinking his booze, hell, I even got a couple of his broads around here somewhere.” Its great.