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Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Minneapolis: DL DM charter 2.3MM
Programs: A3*Gold, SPG Plat, HyattDiamond, MarriottPP, LHW exAccess, ICI, Raffles Amb, NW PE MM, TWA Gold MM
Posts: 100,369
Thirty years ago would be about 1987. Back then, there weren't nearly as many movie or music choices on flights with AVOD (if there was even first generation AVOD available in the late 1980s--my guess is that it first appeared on commercial aircraft in about the mid 1990s) and there were certainly lots of aircraft flying around with overhead screens for in flight movies, meaning that there was no choice whatsoever.
Hence I don't find it credible that the OP really experienced the worst movie choices in over three decades of international travel.