Thursday Movie Picks #439: Retro Chic

This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of Thursday Movie Picks, the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. This week, the theme is "Retro Chic", or movies that are set in the present day -- at least when the movie was made -- but have a strong retro vibe about them. I came up with two examples right away, and had trouble thinking of a third, until I had a flash of inspiration:

The Brady Bunch Movie (1995). A search of the site claims I haven't used this one before, which surprised me. TV's favorite early-70s blended family is back and it's 1995. The only thing is, while it's 1995 for everyone else, the Bradys still act as though its the early 1970s. This gives the writers opportunity to do a lot of fish out of water stuff, while including fan service calling back to various episodes of the original Brady Bunch. The plot involves a developer trying to buy all the land on the Bradys' block to the point of stealing their tax bills, with the kids trying to come up with a way to get the money to pay the overdue property taxes.

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997). A brief prologue sees Dr. Evil (Mike Myers) cryogenically freezing himself in the late 1960s, with British spy Austin Powers (also Mike Myers) volunteering to do the same in preparation for the day when Dr. Evil has himself unfrozen. Three decades later, and that happens, with Dr. Evil trying to take over the world. Austin Powers comes out of cold storage, acting like it's still Swinging 60s London.

Man of the Century (1999). Johnny Twennies (Gibson Frazier) is a reporter in late 1990s New York reminiscent of Harold Lloyd, who lives as though it were the 1920s. He even gets involved in the sort of scrape that you would expect in a silent-era comedy, while getting the girl at the end because, well, that usually happened in the silent comedies. Once again, there's ample opportunity to use fish out of water humor. This is one that the old IFC used to air when they were commercial-free, and actually aired independent films, which is how I saw this movie.