Weekly Discussion: Your favorite 80's films

@Dean suggested that we look at discussing entire decades for the Weekly Discussion threads. I thought the idea was great. With the new Ghostbusters just being released (as well as the 80's throwback Stranger Things on Netflix), I say we start with the 80's. I don't see a need to do anything chronologically. Just seems right to do the 80's right now. Go!

 

Back To The Future
E.T.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
The Little Mermaid
Pretty In Pink
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
The Breakfast Club
Fast Times At Ridgemont High
Little Shop Of Horrors
Ghostbusters
edit:
This Is Spinal Tap
Beetlejuice

this is just off the top of my head I'm sure more will come to mind

 

The Eighties is a bit of a weird time for films. The masters of the Fifties and Sixties were winding down and the new generation of Nineties filmmakers had not come up yet. It is the decade without Terrence Malick and the decade that Francis Ford Coppola started his decline. The three most important directors of the decade were Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, and Andrei Tarkovsky. Scorsese and Allen arguably had their best decade in the Eighties, having proven themselves in the Seventies and being the few Hollywood directors who could get their passion projects made. Andrei Tarkovsky was a holdover from an earlier era who found new creative expression in leaving the Soviet Union, even if they likely led to his premature death. For Scorsese, Raging Bull and The King of Comedy are his two best films, and even less successful things like the Last Temptation of Christ show a famous artist provoking people in a way we rarely see nowadays. Hannah and Her Sisters is Allen's masterpiece, and films like Stardust Memories, The Purple Rose of Cairo, and Crimes and Misdemeanors are all major achievements.

There were many other films to celebrate. The Eighties are probably the decade I know the least about in film, but this would be the closest thing to a top ten.

1. Shoah
2. Raging Bull
3. Hannah and Her Sisters
4. Platoon
5. Repo Man
6. The King of Comedy
7. The Sacrifice
8. Fanny and Alexander
9. Spinal Tap
10. The Vanishing

It is a hard list to make, and masterpieces like Blue Velvet, Blade Runner, and Once Upon a Time in America did not make it.

 

I'll try and do a top films list later. I mainly associate the 80s with comedy and other types of genre films, people like Shane Black, Sam Raimi, the Zuckers and Abrahams, Joe Dante and others. The first few films directed by Frank Oz, even. As Tetra pointed out it probably is ostensibly a relatively bare period for really huge auteur type directors, but there's still a lot of stuff from that period that I'm a big fan of personally. And yes, The King of Comedy is great.

 

Do The Right Thing

 

I'll do two lists between movies I grew up on and movies I've come to love as an adult

Favorites as a kid:
Back to the Future
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
The Breakfast Club
Gremlins 1 &2
E.T.
Ghostbusters
Die Hard
Beetlejuice
Stand By Me
Friday the 13th
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Big
Spaceballs
Field of Dreams
Robocop
The Terminator
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Favorites as an adult:
Raging Bull
Full Metal Jacket
Empire of the Sun
Hannah and Her Sisters
Do the Right Thing
Aliens
Blue Velvet
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
The Right Stuff
Amadeus
The Thing
The Shining

 

This is hard. I love movies from the 80's. So so many to name. Let's start with Better Off Dead, one of the finest cinematic features to ever exist.

 

1. Airplane!
2. To Live and Die in L.A.
3. Runaway Train
4. Die Hard
5. The Untouchables
6. Pale Rider
7. Robocop
8. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
9. Dead Calm
10. The Hitcher

In no order and quite frankly most of these could easily be swapped with other favorites since the 80's is my second favorite decade for film.

 

Gremlins and The Thing immediately come to mind. The 80s was such a wonderfully strange time for horror. I'd have to think more about a Top 10.

edit: Beetlejuice is an immediate choice, too.

 

this is too broad of a question. there are trillions of answers haha

 

Just spit some titles out!

 

No one said Top Gun yet?

 

Repo Man over Blue Velvet!!!!???

 

There's something about 80s garbage cinema that has always stuck with me, specifically the Troma films and joints like TCM 2 and (more recently) Street Trash. I'm a huge fan of the dirty, vulgar depictions of urban NYC that you don't really see anymore. 80s horror is probably my favorite decade for the genre, when slashers were the rage and didn't take themselves very seriously at all. It's an era of cheese that also contained some magnificent artistic productions.
Some favorites:

Raging Bull
Blue Velvet
The King of Comedy
The Shining
Thief
Manhunter
Sleepaway Camp 1-3
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
Gremlins 1-2
Toxic Avenger
This is Spinal Tap
Road House
Platoon
Full Metal Jacket
Terror Vision
The Evil Dead 1-2
Ferris Bueller
The Breakfast Club
The Goonies
Vacation
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
Die Hard
The Thing
Fast Times At Ridgemont High

 

The 80's horror era is one that set a standard for the genre, some of the greatest films in the genre came from it.

The Thing
Friday The 13th
Nightmare on Elm Street
Henry: Portrait of A Serial Killer
The Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2
The Shining

 

Killer Klowns from Outer Space
Miami Connection

 

Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story and Planes, Trains and Automobiles are all staples in my household. John Hughes movies in general, of course. Heathers is another one of my favourites

 

Horror favorites that haven't been mentioned:

Night of the Creeps
The Prowler
Maniac Cop
Night of the Demons
They Live

 

Ghostbusters I and II
Batman
Rocky IV
The Shining
Dirty Dancing
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Star Wars Empire Strikes Back

 

Do the Right Thing is by far one of the strongest films ever made.

Several all-time greats were firing on all cylinders in the 80s. Scorsese has three brilliant 80s entries in Raging Bull, the Last Temptation of Christ, and the King of Comedy. Miyazaki's 80s work was also strong, with Kiki's Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro, and Castle in the Sky. Akira was also an 80s anime standout. Woody Allen was continuing his stretch of consistently great films: Hannah and Her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors, and Radio Days were highlights. Spielberg had Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., and Empire of the Sun.

I know a lot of the 80s high school/romantic comedy films get a lot of love, and I was super into them in high school, but I've kind of cooled on some of them. Still love John Cusack's Say Anything and Better Off Dead though. And as a fan of Lizzie McGuire before I saw Better Off Dead, that was a cool connection to make. Oh, and Fast Times is easily at the top of the genre.

The Empire Strikes Back, They Live, Airplane, Big, the Naked Gun, Coming to America, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, and Wrath of Khan are other personal favorites of mine. I'm probably forgetting plenty.

 

Don't forget After Hours.

 

I haven't seen it! That and Cape Fear are I think the two Scorsese I haven't seen.

 

It was intentionally left off.

 

For some reason I was under the impression that it came out in 79, but I just saw that An American Werewolf in London is an 80s film. I haven't seen it in years but I'd put it up there with the horror greats

 

Back To The Future has been one of my favorite films since sometime in middle school I think. It's just got this sense of fun that's matched by very few movies for me, it's insanely quotable, and the score is so iconic.

Some other favorites:
The Shining
The Empire Strikes Back
An American Werewolf in London
The Evil Dead
Evil Dead 2
Akira
Ghostbusters