As a true child of the '80s, every once in a while I will get a hankering for some teased hair, acid-washed jeans, and tinny synthesizer music. Watching a marathon of VH1’s “I Love the '80s!” a few days ago left me all nostalgic, so I had to break out my collection of best '80s movies.
Today, for instance, I watched 1987’s Lost Boys with two of my friends. It stars a very young and pretty Jason Patric who falls for a skanky ho who runs with a vampire biker gang. Admittedly, the haircuts were scarier than the vampires, but I love it anyway. And is it just me, or is Spike from “BtVS: TS” a complete rip-off of Kiefer Sutherland’s David?
Tomorrow, I’m torn between The Terminator and Labyrinth. Choices, choices.
Something Wild. One of my all-time favorite movies and one of Melanie Griffith’s few good roles.
Say Anything…, which I’ve only grown to love more since moving to Seattle. “I don’t want to buy anything, sell anything or process anything for a living.”
Raising Arizona. “And when there was no crawdads to be found, we ate sand.” The scene where Hi is trying to elude police capture is one of the funniest wordless movie sequences I’ve ever seen.
The Goonies-encapulates the typical “80s” childhood, if you grew up in the suburbs (which I didn’t).
The Last Dragon–All I have to say is, “When you got that glow…” That movie had everything. Good music. Bad acting. Bad hair. Good-looking lead man. Vanity. Dancing. Karate. Jheri-curl commercial at the end. And the best villian ever.
Fame–it was early 80s, which means it had some 70s flavor, but it was still a good movie. Where else can you see a homosexual Rocket Romano with an afro?
As for sci/fi, The Neverending Story was tre excellent. The music was very 80s.
(Labyrinth was good, but I feel like I’m dropping acid when I watch it. All I remember is jump, magic, jump and David Bowie chasing after a baby.)
to hard of a question to answer with just one movie. This is the type of question that needs to be broken down into parts for example:
SCI-FI- dreamscape, Last starfighter, dune, krull
Love- Say anything, Against All odds
Sports- American Flyers, Field of Dreams, Color Of Money
Cartoon- The Black Cauldron, The Hobbit, Secret of Nimh
Etc. Etc. Etc…
The list goes on and on, almost impossible to make a definitive list of categories and sub-categories. When I get board with some friends and co-workers we will go back and forth for hours debating on this very topic. I know really boring job right?
Bull Durham
Burden of Dreams
Come and See
Crimes and Misdemeanors
The Dead Zone
Do the Right Thing
The Man Who Planted Trees
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure
Pennies from Heaven
Stop Making Sense
The Terminator
This Is Spinal Tap
Aliens. “Get away from her, you BITCH!” has to be the movie line of the 80’s.
Terminator was also a great movie typical of the 80s. Blade Runner and Road Warrior both popularized the post-apocalyptic genre started by films like A Boy and His Dog in the 70s.
There were better films in the 80’s, but you seem to be looking for full on 80’s culture (frightening hair and all) movies. ArchiveGuy mentioned some good ones, here are some more…
**
Big Trouble in Little China
Blue Velvet
Aliens
Heathers
Fright Night
Repo Man**
Then do yourself a favor and watch Brazil and Wings of Desire.
Highlander was a real gem, there are just so many cool lines in that movie, even though Christopher Lambert is really bad when he has to speak English. I am glad that I have the option to watch a dub with able voice actors, heh.
It’s strange, just the other day I was telling people in chat that the 80s was mighty fine decade for movies.
The ones (most of them already mentioned here) that sprang to mind immediately were: Ghostbusters, Star Wars Episode VI, Highlander and Die Hard.
