What are your favorite 80's movies?

[genevieve]

I rewatched Trading Places a couple of years ago. Now there's a film that wouldn't get made today. A lot of '80s comedy was really, really ugly - using over the top stereotypes to make racism, homophobia and misogyny just part of the comedy, and a lot of times it's just so...unnecessary to the storyline. It's shocking to look back at it now.

 

[allezfred]

Melanie was never considered a great actress

Well, she wasn’t.

She was perfect for the part she played in “Working Girl” though. Great film.

And wasn’t Fatal Attraction the 90s?

1987.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Wait for it... Wait for it.. Wait for it........

Weird Science & Mannequin.....

Revenge of The Nerds

and the critically acclaimed Revenge Of The Nerds 2

My Mom still LOVES Short Circuit

I forgot some Kathleen Turner... War Of The Roses & Romancing The Stone

 

[VGThuy]

Melanie Griffith was also great in Body Double. I truly believed she was a porn actress. It was like the perfect fit.

The less said about Long Duk Dong the better. I did like how Awkwafina used that name in a song called "Green Tea", very NSFW:

Awkwafina x Margaret Cho - GREEN TEA

New EP "In Fina We Trust" Dropping June 8th!! "Green Tea" a collaboration between Awkwafina and Margaret Cho in celebration of WOMANHOOD and APAHM Month. @Aw...

www.youtube.com

I honestly dislike all John Hughes teen films. My favorite teen-centric movie of the 1980s must be Say Anything followed by Heathers. I haven't seen much others though.

 

[MacMadame]

Oh, I hated Say Anything. And I love, love, love John Cusack. But Heathers was good.

I went through a period where I watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Breakfast Club, and Saint Elmo's Fire (not a JH flick but featured the Brat Pack) over and over when I was home and binge watching cable. I never really got into 16 Candles or Pretty in Pink though. I think Pretty in Pink could have been a much better movie in so many ways.

 

[VGThuy]

I hate how she seriously ruined that pink dress in Pretty in Pink. So unforgivable.

 

[Spikefan]

My parents let me watch anything and everything, my father was a drama teacher and did not believe in censorship. I saw The Killing Fields at age 10 and feel it shaped my thoughts on social and moral justice to this day. Kramer Vs Kramer, The Color Purple, Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun on constant play for me and my bestie. Purple Rain was the one played most at sleepovers. For pure fun/nostalgia: Goonies, Sixteen Candles, Top Gun, ET, Heathers, Stand By Me, Adventures in Babysitting.

 

[Prancer]

My daughter just finished watching 16 Candles for the first time and is so appalled that she doesn't know where to begin .

 

[genevieve]

I hate how she seriously ruined that pink dress in Pretty in Pink. So unforgivable.

That dress is such a horrorshow - way worse than either of the original dresses, and it didn't fit well either. NO way any fashionable teen with sewing skills would have worn that.

Of course, that sin pales in comparison to Iona's inevitable happiness-through-conformity transformation

 

[VGThuy]

That dress is such a horrorshow - way worse than either of the original dresses, and it didn't fit well either. NO way any fashionable teen with sewing skills would have worn that.

Of course, that sin pales in comparison to Iona's inevitable happiness-through-conformity transformation

How about in Breakfast Club where they made Ally Sheedy look less interesting and conformed into an acceptable girl at the end to appeal to Emilio Estevez?

 

[quartz]

How about in Breakfast Club where they made Ally Sheedy look less interesting and conformed into an acceptable girl at the end to appeal to Emilio Estevez?

THIS!! I thought she was adorable before, and especially all the “black shit” around her eyes. If I had been emo in highschool this would have been my look.

 

[Susan1]

How about in Breakfast Club where they made Ally Sheedy look less interesting and conformed into an acceptable girl at the end to appeal to Emilio Estevez?

This is the only high school "brat pack" one I've ever seen - on t.v. years ago, but you know what else wouldn't fly today? Didn't the jock glue some kid's butt cheeks together and just got Saturday school. And the nerd kid brought a (was it a) flare gun to school to kill himself and it went off in his locker and he just got Saturday school. I know it was just a movie and real life is not like that, but it's always been so popular and supposed to be a good lesson for teens or something. But the big lesson they all learned was that they were all different and their parents didn't understand them (and that it was funny to vandalize the library). Geez. Imagine high school kids seeing that movie today.

 

[quartz]

Woke up at 2:00am and immediately thought "On Golden Pond" which I don't think has been mentioned yet? Love it, but hate Jane Fonda's performance in it, so am glad she had a lesser part.

 

[genevieve]

How about in Breakfast Club where they made Ally Sheedy look less interesting and conformed into an acceptable girl at the end to appeal to Emilio Estevez?

Yep. Eventual conformity = happiness is a major Hughes theme. I loved The Breakfast Club in high school but that ending (not only Ally Sheedy's transformation, but the bad boy falling for popular Claire) enraged me even then.

 

[JJH]

Nearly everything on my list is a comedy/fantasy/syfy popcorn movie. Most of them other people have included but i have a few more to include.

Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Back to the Future
Time Bandits
Earth Girls Are Easy
Big
Ghostbusters
Beetlejuice
Witches of Eastwick
Blade Runner

Married to the Mob
Desperately Seeking Susan
When Harry Met Sally
Moonstruck
Risky Business
A Fish Called Wanda
9 to 5
Working Girl

Coal Miner's Daughter
The Shining
(And now for something completely different)
Ran

 

[SmallFairy]

I’m Norwegian, and was a kid in the 80ies, so I’ve been late to the party to lots of the movies mentioned, nevertheless, so many good ones I could enjoy a little later.

Especially:
Steel Magnolias (it’s a wonder my tape didn’t fall apart)
Stand by me
The Outsiders (I love it, even though the book is better)
Dead Poets Society (1989, had to look up the year. I still cry watching it for the zillionth time. It’s so good!)

 

[Vagabond]

Dead Poets Society!

"Oh, Captain, my Captain!"

 

[annie720]

Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980), the very low budget and first feature film of John Sayles. This film has always had a special place in my heart. Many people thought it was ripped off by The Big Chill three years later.

 

[quartz]

@JJH - TIME BANDITS!!

 

[Marge_Simpson]

Ruthless People. Danny DeVito is perfect as the sleazy, slimy, would-be killer.

 

[bardtoob]

Ruthless People. Danny DeVito is perfect as the sleazy, slimy, would-be killer.

I thought Bet Midler as his wife was perfect ... Wait ... Did they really lock her in a basement until she lost weight ... Flashbacks ...

 

[bardtoob]

John Hughes movies capture the attitudes of the 80s in the Midwest.

I grew up in California in the 80s but had family in Michigan ... Things shocked me when I went to the Midwest.

- When two couples rode in a car together, the two women automatically got in the backseat together?

- A salad always had creamy stuff on it or involved jello, and rarely had anything green in it.

- Neighborhoods were really down color lines. Among ethnic groups of European descent there was prejudice amongst each other (ie Polish vs German). Southern Europeans weren't white. The only time I saw Asians was in an Asian restaurant.

These are little things, but they are indicators of a whole array of social normals that were at least one generation behind anything I was used to.

 

[VGThuy]

I will say this about John Hughes movies. The soundtracks were excellent. “If You Leave” is definitely one of my fave 80s songs.

 

[Finnice]

Dead Poets Society.
A room with a view.
Paris, Texas.

I still rewatch them. Often.

 

[clairecloutier]

A room with a view.

Oh my. How could I have forgotten that one?? So great.

I often have felt that movies today just don't resonate with me like the movies from my youth/early adulthood. I thought this feeling was an age thing or nostalgia. But maybe movies really were better back then .... This thread has certainly brought up so many great & also fun films, and I'm sure there's even more we haven't thought of yet.

 

[quartz]

Flipping channels and came across Footloose so that’s the first part of my Friday night sorted.

 

[manhn]

I am not sure if movies are better or worse now, but I know that the genres of movies I tend to like are being made less frequently.

I think a movie like Love Simon is on par with The Breakfast Club, but there are just fewer teen movies. But Love Simon doesn't have the same cultural impact. I wonder what teens these days view as THEIR MOVIE? Twilight? The Hunger Games? To All the Boys I Loved? The 90s had Clueless, the 00s had Mean Girls.

And romcoms and romantic movies are nonexistent. Same for tearjerkers. We have bear rapes instead.

I see a movie like The Favourite, and will it hold up as well as A Room With a View? Everyone is an antihero these days.

I suppose superhero movies are better now. Yay for that.

 

[VGThuy]

Oh my. How could I have forgotten that one?? So great.

I often have felt that movies today just don't resonate with me like the movies from my youth/early adulthood. I thought this feeling was an age thing or nostalgia. But maybe movies really were better back then .... This thread has certainly brought up so many great & also fun films, and I'm sure there's even more we haven't thought of yet.

I think a lot of it for me is that as I grow older and watch more movies, I'm finding myself less surprised or thrilled with new mainstream releases. It's like there's not nearly as much impact and there's a feeling of "oh, I seen or felt that already." I also think even with the more "daring" content, for some reason I think mainstream just FEEL safer these days. That's why I go over-the-top with new releases that do something to hit me in some way and actually make me feel something for longer than 2-3 minutes after I finish it, even if it's a polarizing or very flawed but at least stylistically or narratively-forward thinking movie. I also think it may be a style thing too and what people are liking these days (which a lot of it seems to be to have meme-able moments so people can share screenshots or gifs of scenes/characters on social media). I guess it's kind of the way people feel about music. Notice how for many people they become less enthused with younger music faster than they do with other mediums.

Also, the same with television. Just a few years ago, I truly thought tv was doing a much better job than film in pushing more interesting talent; storylines; and perspectives that we hadn't seen before but then now that Netflix and other streaming sites and premium cable have been around longer, they are adopting traditional network models and more of their original content seems formulaic and "been there, done that". Plus, I don't like how a lot of Netflix shows seems to just hit one overarching tone and stick with it forever even though they try to combine drama/comedy/shock/etc. in one package. It's kind of an issue I have with a lot of British shows too. I feel like if I see an overly serious humorless dramatic British show revolving a mystery, I've seen them all.

 

[quartz]

So we suddenly have free movie channels (70s, 80s, 90s, 00s) on our satellite service. We had them around Christmas too, along with earlier decades. Starting to watch The Big Chill which I’ve not seen before - not sure its my kinda movie but I am enjoying Glenn Close’s hair for now!

Eta.... This one is a no for me.....not a single character/situation I relate to or care about.

 

[Vagabond]

The Big Chill which I’ve not seen before - not sure its my kinda movie but I am enjoying Glenn Close’s hair for now!

Eta.... This one is a no for me.....not a single character/situation I relate to or care about.

Kevin Costner played the dead friend, Alex Marshall. There were flashback scenes, but all of them were omitted in the final cut, leaving just a shot of his wrist, IIRC. Maybe you could have related to his character.