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Re: Best Films of the 1980s
Let's do the 80s now.
A huge contrast from the realistic, gritty 70s with a huge injection of cheese. This impacted both film and TV.
Definitely some classics though.
Stand By Me
The Shining
The Thing
Missing
Broadway Danny Rose
Friday the 13th part II
River's Edge
Aliens
Coal Miners Daughter
Arthur
Honorary mentions....some could have easily made my list...
Star 80
Night Shift
Hannah and Her Sisters
Full Metal Jacket
Throw Momma from the Train
Wall Street
Hellraiser
Brighton Beach Memoirs
Fast Times At Ridgemont High
Re: Best Films of the 1980s
80s is easier but still hard for me to decide what to leave out.
De Palma hits the ground running and finishes the decade with at least 4 classics.
Scarface
Dressed to Kill
Body Double
The Untouchables
Scarface is one of my all time favorites and Untouchables is seminal. If there is space I want Dressed to Kill in there as well.
A great decade for George Lucas
Empire
Jedi
Raiders
Temple of Doom
I think Temple of Doom is underrated. Definitely my favorite of the four. It goes in. I'm a sucker for Star Wars so that has to be there too. Probably have to leave Raiders out.
Kubrick did two, I want to leave in the Shining.
Ridley Scott only did Blade Runner in the 80s and I don't think it's enough to make the cut.
Scorsese was still in his dark and contemplative stage. No Raging Bull for me. Color of Money good but not that good.
Deer Hunter is overrated. Might also be a 79 film?
James Cameron made 3 pretty good movies but I have mixed feelings about him.
The Verdict was pretty good but not a top 10.
Name of the Rose definitely.
The Thing, obviously.
Rambo First Blood, maybe.
Clint, Pacino and DeNiro were all in a slump in the 80s. Not many from them.
Brazil is good just not Twelve Monkeys good.
1984 is a pretty good movie.
Platoon I think has to be in there.
Dead Poets Society deserves to be in the mix. Amadeus, unsure.
Die Hard, how could I forget Die Hard.
Das Boot? Ran?
Carpenter got some classics. They Live has to be a candidate.
Nightmare on Elm Street.
Predator, of course.
I count 13 movies that could be on the list. 8 definite and 5 maybes.
Scarface
The Untouchables
Empire
Jedi
Temple of Doom
The Thing
Platoon
Die Hard
All of those are like aging wine. Gets better every year.
Last five are great but not perfect.
Name of the Rose (a few nitpicks)
They Live (awesome concept, imperfect execution)
Nightmare on Elm Street (idea is great, Wes Craven just not in the Carpenter league)
Predator (a little underwhelming)
Shining (not as scary as it used to be)
Re: Best Films of the 1980s
Holy shit...I forgot Pee Wee's Big Adventure! That would have to be in my top 10 somewhere.
Shining (not as scary as it used to be)
It's more of a psychological horror film about family dysfunction/abuse. I definitely see it differently than I did in my youth. The presence/ghosts more to propel the story along.
Nightmare on Elm Street (idea is great, Wes Craven just not in the Carpenter league)
I need to watch this again.
It is an awesome idea. It needed to be taken more seriously...more of a dark approach, doom and gloom, less Freddy the comedian. They also needed to go all in on Freddy as child molester/killer. They flip flop on this.
Clint, Pacino and DeNiro were all in a slump in the 80s. Not many from them.
Heartbreak Ridge and Honkey Tonk Man his two best 80s films.
My favorite Pacino 80s movie is Author! Author!
De Niro is damn lucky he even made it out of the 80s with his star power intact.
Rambo First Blood
Die Hard
This made me realize I didn't include any action movies on my list...unless Aliens is considered action.
The Terminator would come close to making it.
They Live is awesome...would've made my list in my youth but it's too cheesy.
Re: Best Films of the 1980s
Ms. 45
Fabolous Baker Boys
The Hunger
Back to the Future
Ferris Buller's Day Off
Thief
To Live and Die in LA
Blow Out
Hannah and the Sisters
The Killer
De Niro is damn lucky he even made it out of the 80s with his star power intact.
Pretty sure Midnight Run in 1988 saved his ass in terms of star power. That was a hit and he's been milking that one in terms of playing the grouch (think Meet the Parents) for a while now. He did a lot of "director's films" / maybe a bit arty like Once Upon a Time in America and Brazil, King of Comedy in the 80s.
I'm pretty sure there are a lot of curious films on my list. Back to the Future and Ferris Bueller are seminal comedies that are very 80s but really rewatchable. Also, I read about this somewhere else but the 80s seemed , at least in some films seem to wax poetic about the 50s. You can see the 50s infleunce in a shit ton of other films.
Mentioned it before but To Live and Die in LA is the Friedkin film I watch the most, and just have fun with it. It's got the Wang Chung soundtrack but it shows how vapid the characters were. Great performance by William Dafoe as Rick Masters.
Ms. 45 is one where it shows grungy, pre cleaned NYC but it also has a really unique character and performance from Zoe Lund. James mentioned Hannah and Her Sisters and I'll just say when you get older it just connected with me. It has none of the neuroticness of Annie Hall but I watch and just feel kind of moved afterwards.
Picked Blow Out for the De Palma. Features a great Travolta performance, has a meta sort of plot on filmaking and I love Philly as a character in the movie.
The Killer is gun fu as it's finest and there was a ton of imiataions in world cinema afterwards.
Missed the cut:
The Terminator, this one really should have been up there. It's more satisfying than T2.
Raiders of the Lost Ark, ushered in Ford as the action star of the 80s.
The Vanishing (Dutch orignal), the ending is damn chilling
48 Hrs, mismatched buddy comedy at it's best
Videodrome: predicted how we'd get hooked to reality TV, I really almost dumped Ferris and put this on the list
Tenebrae: Argento's most accesible thriller, plot is easy to understand and it just kind of hums along at a nice pace;
Re: Best Films of the 1980s
Ms. 45
Fabolous Baker Boys
The Hunger
Back to the Future
Ferris Buller's Day Off
Thief
To Live and Die in LA
Blow Out
Hannah and the Sisters
The Killer
I've seen a couple of movies and yet you managed to make a list with 7 movies I have not seen! You must be watching a lot. 
Re: Best Films of the 1980s
I've seen a couple of movies and yet you managed to make a list with 7 movies I have not seen! You must be watching a lot.
I watched a lot during the pandemic shutdown. Also, I still buy/collect media so it's easy when you have the disc at hand and kind of feel like watching a movie and just popping it in instead of scrolling through 500 different choices and praying that your internet doesn't go down the tubes.
I probably should scale back on the movie buying but I will say that you get exposed to a lot more different stuff, for better or worse.
Re: Best Films of the 1980s
Blow Out
Yeah this deserved a spot. It's also one of those movies that feels like the 1970s.
48 Hrs
Love this. Watched it all the time back in the day.
Videodrome
Yep... ahead of its time. Deserves a remake focusing on smartphones/social media instead of television.
Back to the Future and Ferris Bueller
Some amazing comedies in the 80s. You could probably do a list of nothing but comedies. I would've liked to have included something like Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, or National Lampoon's Vacation.
It has none of the neuroticness of Annie Hall but I watch and just feel kind of moved afterwards.
Only neurosis is Allen's hypochondria over the hearing loss...which is funny but really sticks out from the overall connected story of the sisters. You could probably remove that and it still be a great film.
Re: Best Films of the 1980s
polluxlm wrote:I've seen a couple of movies and yet you managed to make a list with 7 movies I have not seen! You must be watching a lot.
I watched a lot during the pandemic shutdown. Also, I still buy/collect media so it's easy when you have the disc at hand and kind of feel like watching a movie and just popping it in instead of scrolling through 500 different choices and praying that your internet doesn't go down the tubes.
I probably should scale back on the movie buying but I will say that you get exposed to a lot more different stuff, for better or worse.
No I think it's a good idea to keep exploring. I've been really slacking off in the last few years. Jaded by the lack of new movies and feeling I have exhausted the old. But of course there are probably loads of movies that I haven't seen that I might like.
Re: Best Films of the 1980s
Prick Up Up Your Ears
Pretty In Pink
The Colour Purple
Poltergeist
Beetlejuice
The Breakfast Club
Blue Velvet
Withnail and I
Heathers (thought this was a 1990 movie but it seems it was released in the late 80s)
Breakin'
Liquid Sky
I remember seeing lots of disaster movies at the time but it seems that many were actually from 70s, like the Poseidon Adventure, for instance. It was still a big thing.
Re: Best Films of the 1980s
Beetlejuice
I could never get into this. Too wacky.
I should give it another chance...if only for Winona Ryder and Geena Davis.
They're doing a sequel. I smell a bomb... should've happened 30 years ago.
Pretty In Pink
The Breakfast Club
It's sad that movies like this can't really be made anymore. Youth culture is simply too different now. A world of meaningless hook ups and 24/7 access to internet porn surrounded by a bleak dystopia makes such stories null and void.
Poltergeist
Rarely talked about anymore. Never should've had sequels. One and done.
God I loved Jobeth Williams in this. That scene where her and Craig T. Nelson are watching TV in bed and she's laughing while smoking a joint really got my juices flowing.
One of the few adult actresses I fantasized about as a kid.
Kinda sad and funny that Tobe Hooper was the director but Spielberg took over the production. They tried walking this back years later but I remember that crap...it's a Spielberg film.
My grandma used to watch The Color Purple constantly. It is a good movie...so bleak.
Breakin'
That has to be the most unique and unexpected top 10 entry EVER.
My aunt took me and my uncle to see Breakin' 2.
I can't imagine how cheesy both films are now. Stuff like that and Krush Groove a virtual time capsule of the era.
I should watch one of them for shits and giggles.
