Wil Wheaton shows why Hollywood’s nostalgia obsession is killing movies

Do you remember the past? Hollywood is really hoping that you do — it’s much too difficult to appeal to human beings on a shared emotional level. Much easier to simply make reference to a toy popular when the largest movie-consuming demographic was young and hope that draws in the millions. This obsession with nostalgia has been particularly pronounced in recent years, neatly emphasized by the upcoming release of a gritty-fied movie version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the success of Michael Bay’s brain-melting Transformers franchise.

Wil Wheaton skewers the phenomenon perfectly in his new video, a trailer for fictitious title Literally Everything Else From Your Childhood: The Movie. The trailer simply reels off a collection of ‘80s and ‘90s favorites including Bop It, Lunchables, and the concept of blowing into a video game cartridge, but if current trends continue to escalate, the joke concept could be optioned into a real movie one day — with Worm Thing Filled With Water That Slipped Through Your Hands in the lead role.