Best movies from the 80's anyone? Anyone?

Cafe Society
#1

I’ve found some good movies that I’ve never seen before from this thread about the 90’s. So I’m repeating that endeavor with the 80’s.

List your top 10 of the 80’s and sooner or later I’ll make a poll with the movies that get mentioned the most in this thread.

You can list more than ten movies as honorable mentions, but they will not get counted for the poll.

My List:

Full Metal Jacket
Blue Velvet
Das Boot
The Killer
Once Upon a Time in America
Stranger Than Paradise
Heathers
The Princess Bride
The Terminator
Raging Bull

Honorable mentions:

The Untouchables
Die Hard
Scarface
Platoon
The Elephant Man
Aliens
Amadeus
Grave of the Fireflies
Blade Runner
Cinema Paradiso
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back & Return of the Jedi
The King of Comedy
The Shinning
Back to the Future
Evil Dead II
Stand By Me
Glory

#2

Being fairly young, I haven’t seen many, but here goes:
Raising Arizona (my favourite movie)
The Princess Bride
Little Shop Of Horrors
A Fish Called Wanda
Amadeus
The Empire Strikes Back

#3

All great films mentioned so far. Here’s a couple of mine:

Short Circuit
Tron
And a ton of Hong Kong films by Jackie Chan.

#4

Could you guys please name at least ten films, even if you have to repeat the ones mentioned?

I want to get a good sense of the most popular movies of the 80’s.

#5

These are all time classics to me, that I will watch again and again. (I left out movies that I haven’t personally seen, and even a movie like Raging Bull which even though I came out incredibly impressed with De Niro’s performance, I have no desire to ever watch again. While it was an impressive experience it wasn’t in a way I want to revisit, not being in any way an actor, and don’t identify in any way sympathetic to the main character whose life is portrayed.)
Top 5 Action / Sci-Fi:
Blade Runner
Terminator
Aliens
The Empire Strikes Back
Back To The Future

Top 5 Comedy:
Airplane! (from 1980)
The Naked Gun: From The Files of Police Squad!
The Princess Bride
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
Raising Arizona (though I didn’t see this until the mid-1990s)

Top 5 Drama:
Amadeus
Stand By Me
Field of Dreams
When Harry Met Sally
Fatal Attraction

Hon. Mention: Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (I didn’t really care for Temple of Doom), The Running Man, Predator, The Lost Boys, Coming To America, Trading Places, and The Little Shop of Horrors (which I still think of as a show and not a movie).

#6

My List:

Matewan
Do The Right Thing
Out of Africa
Chariots of Fire
Mississippi Burning
Silkwood
Running On Empty
The Thing
Places in the Heart
Rain Man
Honorable Mentions:
Raging Bull
Hoosiers
Scarface
Hannah and Her Sisters
Pink Floyd The Wall
Highlander
Beverly Hills Cop
Ordinary People
When Harry Met Sally
Witness

#7

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Blade Runner
Blue Velvet
Gandhi
The Empire Strikes Back
Ordinary People
The Elephant Man
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Mississippi Burning (That’s 21 years old? Really?)
Amadeus

#8

The Right Stuff
Raiders of the Lost Ark
E.T.
Vacation
The Breakfast Club
Batman
Silverado
Hoosiers
Witness
Big

#9

Bull Durham
Burden of Dreams
Come and See
Crimes and Misdemeanors
The Dead Zone
Do the Right Thing
Pennies from Heaven
Stop Making Sense
The Terminator
This is Spinal Tap

10 Runners-up
*Airplane!
The Empire Strikes Back
House of Games
Koyaanisqatsi
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Red Sorghum
Sherman’s March
The Thing
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
*

#10

Pretty much all of my favourite movies were made in the 80s, so it was really hard for me to narrow it down to 10!

Top 10:

Empire of the Sun
Clue
Real Genius
The Toy
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Stand By Me
The Princess Bride
Heathers
Platoon
The Last Emperor
Honourable Mentions:

Less Than Zero
Ruthless People
Raising Arizona
Spaceballs
The 'Burbs
Coming to America
Beetlejuice
Drugstore Cowboy
Spies Like Us
Dead Poets Society
Trading Places
Joe vs. the Volcano
High Spirits
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
Back to the Future
The Witches of Eastwick
Overboard
Can’t Buy Me Love
Ferris Bueler’s Day Off
The Boy Who Could Fly
Little Shop of Horrors
Pretty in Pink
The Breakfast Club
UHF
Sixteen Candles

#11

Top 10 (no particular order)

Die Hard (1988)
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Back to the Future (1985)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
The Princess Bride (1987)
Breaker Morant (1980)
Highlander (1986)
Without a Clue (1988)
Radio Days (1987)

Honourable mention

The Bounty (1984)
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)
Labyrinth (1986)
Field of Dreams (1989)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)

#12

This Is Spinal Tap
Back To The Future
The Empire Strikes Back
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Return of the Jedi
The Breakfast Club
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
The Princess Bride
Raising Arizona

#13

Avoiding movies other people have posted, I’ll add:

Big Trouble in Little China
and
They Live (except for the “Put on the glasses” fight scene)

#14

Doesn’t anyone remember Say Anything?

#15

Eight Men Out
Blade Runner
The Thing
The Name of the Rose
Gallipoli
Amadeus
Angel Heart
Gandhi
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Big
Some others:
The Year My Voice Broke
Stand By Me
Breaker Morant
Big
Witness
Stand By Me
Out of Africa
Bull Durham
Terms of Endearment
Something Wild
Planes Trains and Automobiles
Radio Days
Midnight Run
48 Hours
Raging Bull
The Untouchables
An American Werewolf in London
Fright Night
The Outsiders
Predator
The Terminator
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
Hoosiers
Raising Arizona
Once Upon a Time in America
Das Boot
Ragtime
Platoon
Coal Miner’s Daughter
Matewan
The Falcon and the Snowman
The Shining
Beetlejuice
Full Metal Jacket

#16

Blade Runner
Platoon
Chariots of Fire
E.T.
Bull Durham
Matewan
Aliens
The Killing Fields
Big
Once Upon a Time in America

#17

Uh, you guys are forgetting one of the best movies of all time: Ghostbusters.

ETA: And The Color Purple. Jeez.

#18

I can’t choose 10, sorry. I can’t even make a list, it’s so hard.

I love most of the movies that have already been mentioned, and several are All-Time Favorites (such as Blade Runner and Real Genius). Of '80’s films NOT mentioned, but that are in my own All-Time Favorites (from any decade) are (in no particular order, except the 1st one, which is my favorite film EVER):

Brazil
Bliss (Ray “Lantana” Lawrence film from 1985)
Birdy
Return To Oz
Fitzcarraldo
Reds
Local Hero
One From The Heart (theatrical version, not the butchered DVD version)
Never Cry Wolf
The Cotton Club
Say Amen Somebody
Louie Bluie (Terry Zwigoff’s first film)
Comfort and Joy
Not in my top tier or anything, but I like these that haven’t been mentioned. Some are classics, some are definitely not, but I thought they should be mentioned. In no particular order:

The Times of Harvey Milk
My Brilliant Career
Excalibur
Sophie’s Choice
Tootsie
Missing
Dragonslayer
The Verdict
An Officer and a Gentleman
The World According To Garp
Diner
Poltergeist
Tender Mercies
The Big Chill
Educating Rita
Testament
The Last Temptation of Christ
The Year of Living Dangerously
Fanny and Alexander
WarGames
Zelig
The Purple Rose of Cairo
Hannah and Her Sisters
Gregory’s Girl
Housekeeping
Starman
Out of Rosenheim (aka Bagdad Cafe)
Splash
El Norte
The Natural
Jesus of Montreal
Romancing The Stone
Streetwise (documentary)
Prizzi’s Honor
Runaway Train
Ran (Akira Kurosawa)
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins
My Beautiful Laundrette
The Color of Money
The Fly
The Karate Kid
Hope and Glory
Broadcast News
My Life As A Dog
Au revoir les enfants
Babette’s Feast
Working Girl
Moonstruck (shut up, I love that movie)
Swing Shift (ditto)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
My Left Foot
Steel Magnolias
Lethal Weapon
RoboCop
Predator

I know there’s so many more.

#19

There are too many to restrict to 10, so instead of making a list of my favorites, I’m going to try to make my list of iconic/world-shaping 80s movies. They might not be the best films but they did leave a small dent in the universe.

  1. Raiders of the Lost Ark

  2. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

  3. Rambo

  4. Platoon

  5. The Karate Kid

  6. The Terminator

  7. Aliens

  8. Top Gun

  9. The Name of the Rose (OK, this is just a personal favorite)

  10. Breakfast Club (Look, a John Hughes movie had to appear somewhere in this list.)

#20

No one’s mentioned Die Hard yet???