While talking with my dad about “10 best” lists we realized that for film we were having a lot of trouble coming up with an obvious list for the 1980s. Now, every decade is full of great films (and despite having said in the past that I give short shrift to any film made post Star Wars, I was mostly joking), but the 1980’s did not seem to contain the wealth of choices that decades like the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s and 1970s did.
Thus, I decided to go back and scour lists of films made in the 1980s to see if the pickings were actually that slim, or if I was just showing my bias against “post Star Wars/post global new wave” cinema. Though it still proved tricky to find a list of unqualified masterpieces (and a few qualified ones still snuck onto my list), it turned out that the 1980s nevertheless was a decade full of enough great cinema to keep any movie lover busy for quite a while.
It is true that American film (and international film too) in a post Star Wars world became much more “box office” centered while the artsy fartsy art films of the American New Wave became more and more infrequent. However, many of these “blockbusters”, from Raiders of the Lost Ark to Die Hard were actually quite strong works of cinema (if a bit thematically simplistic). Populist comedies from Ghostbusters to Caddyshack were equally appealing themselves as they proved what Chaplin always knew: a fart joke could be as funny as any high brow comedy. Also, while the old art house masters were in their twilight, fresh new faces from David Lynch to the Coen brothers were making their rise.
Like the early 1930s, the 1980s were transitional time: film was changing and many directors were still finding their footing. Also, while the blockbuster can be fine art, it is hard to put a pure action film or comedy from the 1980s up against the best art house fare of the decade. I know that I am quick to call movies like Rio Bravo or Our Hospitality unqualified masterpieces, so either they really don’t make em like they used to, or I’m still holding on to my biases. My biases tell me it is the former.
It is also important to note that there are many great films from the 1980s that I might not have seen for almost a decade. Who is to say whether or not the greater familiarity I have with the films I ended up choosing tipped the advantage in their favor. Add to this list the films I’ve never seen and this post could very well change in the future as I catch up one 1980s classics.
Finally, there is the obvious fact that my top 10 list, like any top 10 list, is a subjective thing. I don’t enjoy watching films dealing with the holocaust, so Au Revoir Les Enfants is not quite on my list and I haven’t even seen Shoah. Biopics are a flawed genre for me (a subject for a future blog post), so Amadeus and The Right Stuff got knocked down a few pegs in my eyes. Humanism is a turn off for me (along with smoking and low self-confidence) so Wings of Desire and Fitzcaraldo didn’t quite make the cut. That said, there is a biopic, holocaust film and a couple humanist movies on my list, but hey, it’s my list!
So, with the explanation out of the way, here are my picks for the ten best films of the 1980s:
1. Comedies and Proverbs (1981-1987)
Rohmer’s films rarely make ten best lists, and with good reason: he is an acquired taste to put it politely. However, the six films in his “comedies and proverbs” series contain more insight into human interaction than every other film on this list. When you couple that with the fact that they all happen to be pure cinema, I can think of no better candidates for the number one spot (6 movies at #1? Sure, it’s cheating, but I put 10 movies at #2…it’s my list after all!) Many will watch a Rohmer film and be underwhelmed or even bored (both of which are perfectly acceptable reactions to his films), but for those of you who Rohmer resonates with, there is no more magical cinematic experience than to let the certain je ne se quois of his utterly unique talent draw you in to his world. You will always leave a Rohmer film wiser than you were when you came to it no matter how many times you have seen it.
2. Decalogue (1989)
One of the amazing things about Kieslowski’s Decalogue is that in less than two years, he was able to create 10 seperate hour-long masterworks that could each rival the best full length film from any director of his day. Loosely based on the ten commandments (though it will rarely be obvious which commandment each film represents), the films range from overwhelming intensity to introspection to comedy, but never once does Kieslowski put a foot wrong. To have constructed one film on the level of Thou Shalt not Kill or Thou Shalt not Commit Adultery would have been enough to have been included on this list, but Kieslowski made 10 such masterpieces.
3. Blue Velvet (1986)
When Blue Velvet was unleashed in 1986 no one had ever seen anything like it; and to this day the ferociously cinematic film that took the idea of our society’s seedy underbelly to its surreal extreme has yet to be equaled. It is one of those movies that will stand out in a crowd no matter how illustrious the company you compare it to. No one but David Lynch has the talent to make a film of such bizarre audacity and not just make it work, but make it an utterly unique decade-defining masterpiece as well.
4. Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980)
Fassbinder’s films of the 1970s have always appealed to me more than his late period stuff, but Berlin Alexanderplatz is an exception. An exhausting 15 and a half hour film, it represents the culmination of the most fruitful and brilliant decade of any director in the history of cinema. Like Jake LaMotta, Franz Biberkopf is a beast of a man, and like Jake LaMotta, he is the instrument of his own destruction. Yet Berlin Alexanderplatz does not just comment on what it is to be a man, but rather on what it is to be a human. As I discussed in the blog post I wrote about it last year, there is nothing more heartbreaking than to watch someone destroyed by their desire to love and be loved.
5. Raging Bull (1980)
Fully deserving of its “all time best reputation”, Raging Bull is one of the few biopics I truly enjoy. However, it is no more the story of Jake LaMotta’s life than it is a boxing movie. The dark depths of the male psyche have never been so fully plumbed than here as De Niro gives one of the “all time best” performances of a man who has gone too far to the side of the beast. Meanwhile, the brief moments of actual boxing are so viscerally intense that they linger in the mind long after the story has returned to watching LaMotta slowly destroy himself.
6. Ran (1985)
Kurosawa was always an absolutely great director, but out of all his films Ran is by far my favorite. Epic in scope with brilliant soundless battles and magnificent cinematography, his trademark humanism is replaced by a nihilistic outlook that finally managed to seduce me into singing his praises without qualification. From the quarreling of brothers to the wars of nations, Ran is the dark mirror that all who inhabit our world must gaze into at some point. Our struggle is merely to keep the void that the blind man has fallen into in the final scene at bay.
7. Paris, Texas (1984)
Wings of Desire might arguably be just as good, but Paris, Texas is the Wenders film from the 80s that sticks in my mind when I look back on the two (and it also helps that it isn’t about angels). Like Wong Kar-Wai’s Happy Together, Paris, Texas presents the heartbreaking truth that “you can’t go back” with harrowing honesty and intelligence. The final confrontation is one of the most riveting pieces of cinema I have ever seen, ensuring that the film will stay with you long after it is over.
8. Fanny and Alexander (1982)
Though remarkably warm and dramatic for a Bergman film, Fanny and Alexander is nonetheless one of Bergman’s greatest films. Effortlessly capturing childhood with all its ups and downs, this is a great joyous movie from a director in the twilight of his career. Though I prefer the Christmas party of the first 2 hours, the second half is just as brilliant as you see the strength and frailty that all children have inside them when confronted with the horrors that await beyond their innocence.
9. Bladerunner (1982)
Sure the final act devolves into a somewhat routine (at least when compared to the rest of the film) action chase scene, but Bladerunner is that rare film that creates a world so real, mesmerizing and legitimately futuristic, that upon its release it immediately entered into humanity’s collective unconscious as if it were always there. There might have been cyberpunk before Bladerunner, but the decaying world of neon twilight visualized in this film forever defined what it was to be the “near-far” future.
10. The Sacrifice (1986)
The dialog might seem interminable, and the central example of Tarkovsky’s idea of the power of symbolic gestures might seem preposterous, but it is a testament to the special level of dreamlike brilliance that Tarkovsky inhabits that he is able to pull it off anyway. Aside from Dreyer and Bresson, only Tarkovsky can cause a wannabe nihilist like myself to appreciate the power of faith and spirituality.
Honorable Mentions
My Dinner with Andre, sex lies and videotape, Raising Arizona, Lola, Wings of Desire, Das Boot, Once Upon a Time in America, Down by Law, the films of Aki Kaurismaki, Woody Allen’s Hannah and her Sisters/Crimes and Misdemeanors, The Elephant Man, L’Argent, Fitzcaraldo/Burden of Dreams, The Big Red One, Excalibur, Gates of Heaven, The Vanishing, and all the other potentially great 80’s movies I have yet to see.
16 Comments
[reposted from the contact section]:
Isley,
I have a shit ton of movies that you should wade through and some you should take into consideration. Others I’m not so sure. Because the 80’s was the decade I grew up in, it is hard to separate nostalgia from actual quality. The 8-’s is a strange decade for movies: with Star Wars redefining blockbuster in 77 (and effectively killing the American New Wave) and Empire Strikes Back sort of reestablishing the tone right off the bat in 1980, the decade was much more oriented to youth than ever before. I might also argue that, just like the controlling idea of the decade was money money money. Films were no different. Film has always been a business first, an art second (my Marxist theory roots are showing), but here is where it became shamelessly so. Sequels abounded and the franchises proliferated. No more artsy fartsy, soul searching shit for us Americans anymore. Surprisingly, it seems that even arthouse foreign filmmakers were a little underproductive during this time period as well. I am not certain if it’s just that most arthouse movies never made their way into the popular consciousness or if there really was a dearth. Perhaps they just got totally eclipsed by the special effects and shamless entertainment. Yeah, the rebirth of the independent film movement had yet to take place (but you can see that the seeds were being planted here and there). It sure was a good time to be a kid though.
Here’s the movies:
Solid foreign/arthouse fare:
Das Boot
Blue Velvet – Lynch’s masterpiece
Sans Soleil – an almost uncategorizable Chris Marker “film essay,” if you haven’t seen it we have it in the short films section and i’m pretty sure it’s not checked out
Koyaanisqatsi – what an anomaly of a film and it’s amazing how successful it was considering the avant garde nature/non-narrative, quite an amazing feat of camerawork and editing
Paris, Texas – beautiful cinematogarphy, those colors!
Stranger than Paradise – this seems to embody the spirit of the times to me, what was really going on: confusion/aimlessness and boredom)
Brazil – Gilliam’s masterpiece
Raising Arizona – when the Coen brothers still had a heart
Vernon, Florida/Gates of Heaven/Thin Blue Line – some Errol Morris doc must be covered
Akira – not a big anime fan but this really is about as visionary as Blade Runner (and more insane!)
My Left Foot – Daniel Day Lewis!
Roger And Me – i hesistate to put this because he polarizes people so much but i think this is what really got the ball rolling in making documentaries as popular a sthey are today (which i think is an amazingly good thing)
sex lies and videotape – may be the beginning of the indie film revival/golden age, have you seen his golden globe acceptance speech for this?
Hope and Glory – John Boorman really deserves to be ranked among the all time greats but he gets sidelined somehow
The Falls – Peter Greenaways epic masterpiece, really quite amazing but is quite alot to take all at once
if not Fitzcarraldo then how bout Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams? – It is equally as captivating… I’m reading “conquest of the useless right now and it is pretty enlightening stuff…
Zelig – one of Woody Allens more interesting concepts, very well crafted
River’s Edge – this, more so than Stranger than Paradise, foretells the 90s, the nihilism, the alienation, the real void in our souls, same cinematographer as David Lynch’s and alot of the same actors…including Dennis Hopper and Crispin Glover
Road Warrior – low budget but still visionary
All the rest of the stuff is the major box office stuff that I have a hard time differentiating nostalgia from actual quality with. Though I think that those kind of mindless movies dominated the decade and it is very telling. There really are some great and original movies but you really have to take awhile to consider them:
Bladerunner – best sci fi ever
Raiders of the Lost ark – adventure defined
american werewolf in london – excellent balance of horror and comedy
e.t. – best movie about chidlren of divorce ever
christmas story – great period piece
ghostbusters – very original
back to the future – also pretty darn clever
stand by me – good movie about what it’s really like to be a kid
ferris bueller’s day off – fourth wall stuff is great
big – dramedy – also captures childhood quite effectively
rain man – good characters
princess bride – good for kids AND adults movie
shining – jack nicholson gives the performance of a lifetime
empire strikes back – the apex
amadeus – great period piece
terminator – gotta have some arnold, the new breed of ultra violence begins
karate kid – personal fave, also about children of divorce
american flyers – this might not really be that great butit’s another personal fave, rife with mcdonalds product placement, i just like bicycle movies
purple rain – seriously, this is one of the most entertaining movies, ive ever seen, really melodramatic but what do you espect from prince, amazing musical performances
xanadu – a real flop at the time but i think it is maybe the best example of a so bad it’s good movie ever
beetlejuice – pretty original movie, really establishes tim burton’s aesthetic
airplane! – chaos and insanity, paved the way for modern adhd entertainment
who framed roger rabbit – another good for adults and kids movie, pretty amazing balance of animation and live action
friday the 13th – and not nightmare on elm st
gremlins – nice message movie about consumersim, in the old sense of sci fi movies being message movies or warnings
never ending story – nothing else like it, the nothing is scary is the scariest thing ever!
weird science – kids dealing with sex on the big screen in such a fantastic way
beverly hills cop or coming to america ? i can’t decide… i do like that theme song but i think coming to american might be funnier…
bill and ted’s excellent adventure – oh yes i did. this is the 90’s mentality encapsulated 1 year ahead of time. dumbness prevails.
wargames – the cold war was still on and kids need to deal with it too
lost boys – best vampire movie ever, gotta have some coreys too
clash of the titans – harryhausen animation and a complete anomally in the 80s butthe imagery is forever burned in my mind
better off dead – like a low budget/slightly psychotic john hughes movie
okay, that’s it. hope this gave you some more things to consider instead of completely sidetracking you. can’t wait to see your take.
Good stuff here Jon, we’re mostly on the same page. I’ve never seen, Sans Soliel, My Left Foot, Hope and Glory or The Falls. I went ahead and posted anyway…I quickly realized I’d never get this post out if I tried to catch up on all the movies I hadn’t seen yet!
I’ll just check em out later and update this list if I need to 🙂
Do watch Hope and Glory. It is one of my favorites. War from a child’s perspective is always interesting.
Right on…heh, I felt a little bad about including Excalibur in my honorable mentions section since that movie really is kind of a mess, but whatever…it’s still one of my all time favorites–I probably should have put it on my top ten! But yeah, bottom line, I should watch more Boorman (I’ve never seen Deliverance either).
Also, to add, for my own bias, animation. I think Hayao Miyazaki’s work from the 80’s is the strongest. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, and Kiki’s Delivery Service are really Miyazaki’s finest films, though I love all of them. Probably Nausicaa is the absolute best in terms of imagery, though the story is a bit preachy. Castle in the Sky is a fantastic story and has some amazing moments. My Neighbor Totoro is a more introspective work and who doesn’t love a Cat Bus? Kiki is an important film not only for its amazing animation sequences but also as the bridge work that really introduced Miyazaki to the West. I think Kiki lacks a bit as it is not Miyazaki’s story. When he works with his own stories the movies gain a certain jnsq. Of course, this gets back to adaptations, but we won’t go there again 🙂
Anyway, I love animation and the 80’s produced some timeless works. Disney had a slump in the decade, but did release decent films as bookends: The Fox and the Hound and The Little Mermaid. Other great animated films of the 80’s are the Rankin/Bass The Last Unicorn (and the rather strange Return of the King – though that was for TV), and Bluth’s The Secret of NIMH (fuck you, Frisbee).
I guess the question is, can Nausicaa or Castle in the Sky break into a top-10 list of all films? I guess probably not on yours, though I would probably slip one in at #10.
Good post-all films I like. I think you should explore the criteria for choosing a top ten list. Should it be the number of times you’ve seen a film or the initial impact on your psych(out) or the way a film best represents you…… I didn’t see Conan on your list so I assume the numerical criteria wasn’t the dominant one. I think all reasons are valid and if you have seen a film only once it should be banned from a ten best list. With that in mind here’s mine:
1. Blue Velvet
2. Lola
3. Choose Me
4. Pee wee’s Big Adventure
5. Unbearable Lightness of Being
6. Barfly
7. Blood Simple
8. Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie
9. Dangerous Liaisons
10. Fitzcaraldo
If there was to be a Kumite (I still think you made that word up) with the other decade I had trouble with…the 50’s:
1. Written on the wind
2. Rio Bravo
3. All that Heaven Allows
4. Sunset Boulevard
5. Bob Le Flambeur
6. M. Houlot’s Holiday
7. Forty Guns
8. Breathless
9. Kiss Me Deadly
10. High School Caesar
11. Streetcar Named Desire
12. Wages of Fear
13. Mon Oncle)
…the 80’s wouldn’t break the top ten until no.7 with Blue Velvet and no.8 with Lola and after that nothing, so the 80’s still blows.
I’m not so sure about pure number of times I’ve seen something (if that were the case Die Hard would be number one btw)…a lot of times rewatches for me are with friends, or because it was the only movie I had as a kid, etc… Though I suppose there is something to be said for how easy it is to sit down and rewatch ghostbusters…so maybe I should think about that more. I tried to do the “Die Hard” test to the movies I thought about… it is a great movie, lot of fun, but at the end of the day, it didn’t make you think much and had too many fight scenes. When I compare it to something like Blue Velvet, it was obviously outclassed. So I wanted to make sure all my picks (honorable mentions too) passed the “Die Hard” test. It’s still a tricky distinction, because like I said, Rio Bravo may end up being my #1 from the 50s, though I think it is about something larger than a mere action movie. Also, Conan is fun..but it’s fairly weak too…Excalibur was much harder to leave off of my list 😉
I’ve never even heard of Choose Me…and need to watch Unbearable Lightness of Being…I knew Barfly would be on your list, and the only one I’m not so sure about is C&C’s Next Movie…Up in Smoke maybe (though the 70s competition is way too elite for it to even get close) but I seem to remember Next Movie falling apart halfway through…though I think I’ve only seen it once. I also think I like Raising Arizona better than Blood Simple…more unique?
I’ve only seen Paris Texas once…but it sure stuck with me…and I’ll be honest…I won’t have 16 hours free to watch Berlin Alexanderplatz a second time anytime soon…but it seemed like a stronger movie than Lola…though it’s tough to evaluate a miniseries…apples and oranges. Also, take a look at the 90s…they seem to blow more than the 80s (I’ll eventually do a list post for each decade). Have you seen My Dinner With Andre? I think it might replace The Sacrifice when I rewatch it someday…though I wanted to rewatch The Sacrifice as soon as I finished rewatching it for the list…I was conflicted as to how brilliant it actually was (probably both more and less than I give it credit for…)
You and I have both seen enough to know how movies (films) are made and to realize what a well crafted film (movie) looks like and to appreciate that even when the subject is not of interest to us. I think you would agree that there are some films that hold our interest while not being finely crafted (although I will admit that you have less an appreciation for camp than I) which is why I think that the criteria for choosing top ten lists be examined. Obviously top ten lists should only include finely crafted films we have a personal stake in but when we impose limits (such as the 80’s) we sometimes have to make some hard choices (that’s what she said). I have seen C&C’s next Movie 5 to 10 times while having seen The Sacrifice only once. The Sacrifice is a wonderful film that is beautiful, scary and thought provoking and yet I have seen it only once (I own a copy on VHS as with C&CNM). I would certainly agree that The Sacrifice is a better movie (film) but if I could see only one for the rest of my life (I guess that’s my criteria) I would choose C&C stumbling around with huge sacks of Mary Jane while serving up tube steak smothered in underwear to their dates. That said, do you know how embarrassing it is to have C&CNM on my top ten list?
I have also noticed that I rewatch “low art movies” because they are easy. Not just in time (but a 90 minute movie will be much easier to sit down for than a 150 minute movie), but intellectually…I’m not always in the mood to watch a gruelling 5 hour film about the dissolution of a marriage that is filmed entirely in closeups. But, hell, I could sit down and quote along with Ghostbusters any old time. And yet, I’d pick The Awful Truth over Ghostbusters any day too…is it really that much better of a “film” or am I just biased by the populist nature of Ghostbusters (and the “classic” nature of The Awful Truth).
But yeah, I’ll have to examine criteria more carefully and post some thoughts for the next list I do. I’m thinking maybe the 90s (but I’d have a lot of movies I’d need to watch for that one…I’m not super well versed in “the classics”).
And for those of you who added to the discussion (Jon, Amy), let’s hear your lists! It doesn’t matter if you haven’t seen all the “classics”, I haven’t either, and lists are just fun to make. So…Top Ten 80s movies…let’s hear em!
Er, how about my top-10 FAVORITE movies (not necessarily good) from the 80’s IN the 80’s. Essentially, movies I watched so much I wore out the VHS:
Cloak and Dagger
The Great Muppet Caper
Police Academy
Revenge of the Nerds
Star Trek IV
The Empire Strikes Back
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
Willow
Ghostbusters
Airplane
Yeah, so there you have it, my list of terrible movies. But hey, I’d probably watch any of these movies again, in a heartbeat, any time. They’re like best friends. Movie-wise.
Hey, those aren’t terrible movies (well…maybe Police Academy…and I haven’t seen C&D or the Muppet one)! But really, most of those are pretty great (my personal favorites are probably Raiders and Ghostbusters…and I totally wore out my VHS copy of Star Trek IV when I was a kid.
Alright Isley, here’s my official 80s list with a big, fat Fitzcarraldo on top (but we still have planty in common). I limited my movies to feature length fiction narratives (eliminating Vernon, Florida, Koyaanisqatsi, and Sans Soleil). The Falls is definitely not a conventional narrative by any means but I think it can still work here.
1. Fitzcarraldo – Though Herzog doesn’t consider this to be his best or favorite film, it is the one that he is most associated with and it is the stuff of legends. A remarkable achievement that perhaps best embodies Herzog’s own spirit: a fierce independence of vision in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.
2. The Falls – A mind boggling epic that is one of the most inventive and original pieces of film ever created. Incomparable to anything else I have seen. It may be the most dense and intricate world ever created solely for a film. It has a rigid structure and plays like an extremely avant garde documentary. It is incredibly rich and there is so much to absorb that I must admit I watched it in chunks over a period of weeks on DVD (but I relished every minute of it). I think if I were to sit down and watch the whole thing through from beginning to end it would be the equivalent of eating an entire wheel of some exotic cheese. It would almost certainly make you sick and you would never want to eat cheese again. Not for everybody to say the least.
3. Blue Velvet – If there is one 1980’s American masterpiece that stands out to me above all others, it is, without a doubt, Blue Velvet. Lynch was perceived as a commercial failure after Dune but this was probably the best thing that could have happened to him creatively. He was still under contract for more films but would now be under finiancial limitations. He somehow managed to negotiate creative autonomy and used the opportunity to reinvent himself. He created a modern classic that had a volatile balance of cartoonish innocence/simplicity and deranged brutality. This sort of became his trademark. This is also the beginning of Lynch putting mystery at the heart of his work, where, for the most part, it has remained ever since.
4. Stranger Than Paradise – Formally, I think this movie is exquisite. It has a minimalist aesthetic and narrative to match (probably vice versa). A nearly no-budget DIY project that, instead of being loud and obnoxious, does the opposite, and creates a very refined and subdued picture that captures bordeom/ennui/aimlessness better than any other film I know. This is significant because bordeom/aimlessness is something that is very hard to capture but is still an enormous/valid part of our existence. It generally isn’t the stuff that makes great pictures but I find it quite pleasant and somehow reassuring in Jarmusch’s hands. This is perhaps the most significant ancestor of the independent cinema boom that would occur later in the 90’s.
5. Paris, Texas – The thing that sticks out to me most about this movie is the cinematography. I see it as a refreshing and honest look at America through the eyes of foreigner (Wenders).
6. Bladerunner – The definition of visionary. Scott was able to redefine the archetype of the future here. A true SCIENCE fiction story that questions the implications of a world with sentient robots and gives food for thought while entertaining you. Very well balanced in form and content.
7. E.T. – I think this may be the best children’s movie of all time. I have mixed feelings about Steven Speilberg but this is one mega successful blockbuster that truly is great. The movie captures the feeling of childhood where anything is possible in a magnificent way but grounds it with healthy doses of realism.
8. Raising Arizona – I think the Coens are at their best when they are making comedies and this is one of the most original comedies of all time. The Coen brothers movies are very well written but it doesn’t get in the way or feel unnatural or forced as is the case with alot of other “good writers.”
9. Brazil – Terry Gilliam’s Brazil is every bit as visionary as Blade Runner and is a very rare example of a comedy/science fiction fantasy hybrid.
10. River’s Edge – This is a movie you probably aren’t going to see on many other peoples’ top ten lists but I really stand behind this one. Yes, it does have Keanu Reeves in it but he is absolutely perfect for his role, as is Crispin Glover and Dennis Hopper! The cinematography is handled by Frederick Elmes who did alot of work on David Lynch’s films and is exquisite. This movie is almost like a synthesis of Blue Velvet and Stranger Than Paradise and captures something about American (youth) culture that really wasn’t handled until the 90’s. Ahead of it’s time.
Now, I have a top 10 for you. What are your top 10 80’s movies that are part of a FRANCHISE? Mine are (based on how burned in my mind they are):
1. Karate Kid
2. Empire Strikes Back
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark
4. Never Ending Story
5. Ghostbusters
6. Gremlins
7. Back to the Future
8. Batman
9. Lost Boys
10. Terminator
oh, this is too much fun…
11. American Werewolf in London
12. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
13. Road Warrior
14. Aliens
15. Conan the Barbarian
16. Evil Dead 2
17. Die Hard
18. Friday the 13th
19. Pee Wee’s Big Adventure
20. Caddyshack
Good one…I can’t argue with any of those (though I remember thinking Brazil was a a bit of a mess…but no more so than Excalibur, a movie that could have easily been on my list. I’ve only seen it once though, I’ll have to rewatch it–and I’m looking forward to checking out The Falls!)
Alright, franchise list time!
1. Die Hard
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. Aliens
4. Road Warrior
5. Ghostbusters
6. Empire Strikes Back
7. Conan the Barbarian
8. Pee Wee’s Big Adventure
9. Caddyshack
10. Star Trek IV
Honorable Mentions: Lethal Weapon, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Terminator.
I own the falls if you want to borrow it. One of the few movies I actually own.
Cloak and Dagger is a weird movie, but CIA + Imaginary Friend + video game + kid from E.T.= WIN.
Also, I HATE E.T. (nicely absent from most of these lists).
The Great Muppet Caper is classic. Baseball diamond + Mallory Gallery + Janice’s continuing troubles in a noisy crowd = EPIC WIN.