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I'm often asked if I ever change my opinion of a movie. The answer is yes, and over the years I've edited Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide I've rewritten a number of entries, adjusting my ratings in the process.

Let's face it: some movies look better with the perspective of time on their side, and others don't hold up as well as they might. When I first saw Ridley Scott's "Alien" in 1979 I found it upsetting-being a highly squeamish person-and gave it a middling review, even though many other critics praised it. When it was reissued theatrically twenty-five years later I saw it again on a big screen and changed my mind. During those years I'd seen many imitators and ripoffs, and raised my threshold of endurance for ickiness. In that light, "Alien" seemed almost classical in its approach to suspense and scares. I realized I'd been wrong, and I completely revised my review, giving it ***1/2.

There are many factors that can affect the way we view an older film, even one that was made just five to ten years ago. The earth-shattering events of September 11, 2001 changed our worldview, and our ability to accept what was once unthinkable. On a more mundane note, the development of computers and cell phones have altered our daily lives to such a degree that one can hardly find a contemporary movie in which those devices don't play some role.

When John Carpenter made his word-of-mouth sleeper "Assault on Precinct 13" back in 1976, the fact that the switchboard had been shut off at a police facility was a credible reason for the people trapped there to be isolated from the outside world. For the 2005 remake, more pointed explanations had to be made about no cell-phone service.

Even a decade ago, when Michael Douglas wanted to find out whom his wife was talking to in "A Perfect Murder", he simply pressed *69 on his phone to get the answer.

Wars, world events, and technology-along with music and fashion-can date some movies, to their detriment, although sometimes that can be a part of their charm, offering us time capsules. Jonathan Levine's excellent new film "The Wackness" recreates the world of New York City in 1994, at the dawn of the Guiliani regime, drawing on hip-hop music, current slang, and the ambiance of the City at that time to create a modern period piece.

One thing is certain: movies don't exist in a vacuum. How we perceive them has to do with how we are living at a particular moment in time. And, if we're smart, we'll avoid the trap of judging older movies by modern standards and try to view it in the context of its time.

To return to my original point, what this means is that the opinions in my annual Movie Guide will never be set in stone.

View more information on Leonard Maltin's 2009 Movie Guide

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