Top ten box-office films of 1984: 1. Beverly Hills Cop 2. Ghostbusters 3. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 4. Gremlins 5. The Karate Kid 6. Police Academy 7. Footloose 8. Romancing the Stone 9. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock 10. Splash What are your top three films for 1984? We will keep a running tally and eventually have some sort of bracket. For me it would be: 1. Once Upon a Time in America 2. Paris, Texas 3. Repo Man What are some of the forgotten gems from the year? What is overrated? What did you discover at a young age and what did you discover later? YEARS IN FILM • forum.chorus.fm
It was a tossup between Repo Man and Spinal Tap, but I figure enough people will highlight the latter. Repo Man was a discovery when a literature teacher made a throwaway joke about how repo men are always intense. He was not that amused when I told him I watched the movie a week later.
A good year! 1. Blood Simple 2. Streetwise 3. Gremlins Other good ones: Stop Making Sense Night of the Comet Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter Terminator Nightmare on Elm Street Paris, Texas Spinal Tap The Toxic Avenger
1. Nightmare on Elm Street 2. Threads 3. Once Upon a Time in America Also a huge fan of The Neverending Story, Amadeus, Blood Simple, Gremlins, Paris, Texas, Love Streams, lots of really great stuff this year although like 83 it doesn't really have any all time favourites for me. I went with Nightmare because I think it was one of the first things I watched that really got me into horror and I still love the concept and character. Threads is a super intense and dark movie, really well done.
Ghostbusters was a close second but I do agree with you. I would have thought it was Indiana Jones but there was a lot of controversy around the violence.
I must also note I prefer the first Terminator film to the second. The horror elements are fantastic.
1. Paris, Texas 2. The Terminator 3. Blood Simple Bill Duke's the Killing Floor is great, more people should seek out his directorial work. I do love Nightmare on Elm Street, This is Spinal Tap, Ghostbusters, and the Natural as well. I haven't made time for Once Upon a Time in America yet. But the top 3 are three of my all-time favorites, it'd be tough to crack them
1. Ghostbusters 2. Beverly Hills Cop 3. Starman Others I really like: The Muppets Take Manhattan A Passage to India Footloose Stop Making Sense The Natural All of Me Purple Rain Birdy The Terminator Repo Man This Is Spinal Tap Amadeus Streets of Fire Once Upon a Time in America Splash Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom The Killing Fields Broadway Danny Rose Gremlins Top Secret! The Karate Kid Good ones A Nightmare on Elm Street The Cotton Club Romancing the Stone The Brother from Another Planet Places in the Heart A Soldier's Story Star Trek III: The Search for Spock Swing Shift The Neverending Story The Times of Harvey Milk The Last Starfighter Beat Street Eh/fine: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension Sixteen Candles Blame It on Rio Not a fan: The Bounty Police Academy The Woman in Red Best Defense
Really good year overall. 1. This is Spinal Tap 2. Blood Simple 3. One Upon a Time in America Honorable mentions to: Paris, Texas The Terminator Gremlins Ghostbusters Nightmare on Elm Street I keep forgetting to watch Repo Man, I need to do that. I've heard it's great.
1. Wheels on Meals 2. Blood Simple 3. Paris, Texas Wheels on Meals is the absolute best of HK kung-fu comedy. Set in a curiously Cantonese speaking Barcelona, and featuring the big three of Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung (who also directs) and Yuen Biao. A brilliant blend of silent comedy style gags, with ridiculous physical performances by all three. It's consistently funny, and consistently jaw dropping with it's stunt work. If you haven't seen any of these sort of films, this is the best place to start. Blood Simple is the Coen's debut, that almost feels like a highlight reel of what they'd do afterwards, blending noir, westerns, farce, miscommunication and tragedy into one. It's also one of the few Director's Cuts that I know of that is shorter than the theatrically released version. Also worth a look as a curio, is Zhang Yimou's remake of it, a decade ago; A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop Paris, Texas is Wenders' beautiful road movie, featuring a wonderful, poignant performance from Harry Dean Stanton, full of incredible shots of the desert as Stanton wandering in it. The scene where Stanton re-unites with his daughter through the one-way mirror is one of the best moments in all of cinema. Some honourable mentions for me this year include The Temple of Doom, Spinal Tap, Full Moon in Paris, After the Rehearsal & 1984. A really strong top 3 this year, but I think there's a bigger gap between the third place and the honourable mentions than in previous years. Maggie Cheung (who is without doubt one of my favourite actors) also made her debut in two pretty mediocre rom-coms this year, Prince Charming & Behind the Yellow Line - she would go on to be the best thing in basically any film she starred in, pretty soon.
Is Threads as bleak and hopeless as it’s reputation? I have a hard job psyching myself up to watch films if I know I’ll feel miserable afterwards.
This is another extremely stacked year which has at least nine films that could easily make my top three but here is the one-third of those I think just have an edge over the rest - 1. Once Upon a Time in America 2. The Terminator 3. 2010: The Year We Make Contact Other favorites include; Ghostbusters, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Gremlins, Beverly Hills Cop, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, The Return of Godzilla, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Firestarter, and The Hit.
1. The Home and the World 2. Liberté la nuit 3. Paris, Texas Another though year to narrow down. I watched Ray’s The Home and the World for a paper last year and I found it completely astonishing. An incredible display of formalism that truly amplifies its political-romantic conflicts. Every single shot left me in total awe. It’s not a film that gets discussed much, but for me it’s one of the decade’s highest masterpieces and the best of the 8 films I’ve seen from Ray. Liberté la nuit is just an emotionally devastating film. Perhaps Garrel at his most raw. Paris, Texas speaks for itself at this point, but it was a major film for me when I was first digging through random Criterion releases. Other great films to consider: Body Double (De Palma), Farewell to the Ark (Terayama), Love Unto Death (Resnais), Boy Meets Girl (Carax), Stranger than Paradise (Jarmusch), After the Rehearsal (Bergman), The Deserted City (Obayashi). Coppola’s The Cotton Club is great (or the encore version is at least, I haven’t seen the original theatrical cut). I hesitate to call it better than his obvious masterpieces from the 70s - it’s been a while since I’ve seen any of them - but it’s definitely a film I feel more outwardly enthusiastic about. Saw this Ackerman short at the retrospective in 2019 and I loved it. One of the best examples of her largely unheralded talent as a comedic filmmaker.
1. Paris, Texas 2. Once Upon a Time in America 3. The Terminator Paris, Texas is the stand out here for me in a solid year. Borderline perfect film, looks excellent, excellent acting and the story is told beautifully and builds to a really great scene and ending. Some really good classic horror this year. And The Toxic Avenger, which kicked off quite a run for low budget B movies.
Night of the Comet is very fun. Colors, music, main characters. All around a good time OG Terminator is somehow underrated compared to the love the sequel gets Streetwise seems to be overlooked here. Just added to Criterion, check it out!!!
Right now there is a tie for first place, another film 1 vote behind first place, and a fourth film just 2 votes behind. A very competitive year.