“The Goonies”. “Stand By Me”. “Ghostbusters”. “The Little Rascals”. And “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein”. They all share some shred of creative DNA with this bonafide 80’s cult classic. So as we kick-start this year’s…
Before “Friday Night Lights” there was this often forgotten 80’s flick. It’s not so much a film about the sport of high school football, but the effect of football on its characters. It features solid performances from its y…
No bikinis. No blankets. No bingo. This awkwardly titled 80’s flick is a bosom-buddy movie about a friendship that was destined to be -- like surf and turf, M&Ms, Laverne and Shirley, Lucy and Ethel, maybe even Cagney and La…
John Carpenter described this 80’s flick, which he co-wrote and directed, as an "action adventure comedy kung fu ghost story monster movie." And I can’t really add much more of an intro than that. So come aboard “The Pork Ch…
The western, which used to be as common in Hollywood as superhero movies are now, enjoyed a surprising revival in popularity in the late 1980s into the 90s. The genre, of course, fizzled out again and faded from memory. Film…
When hit movie producer, Jerry Bruckheimer was casually flipping through California magazine in 1983, he was suddenly struck by an image. It was a picture of fighter pilot’s helmet with a plane reflected in the visor. Starin…
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…a highly anticipated superhero sequel flick has a profound falling out due to creative differences between the movie studio producers and the original film’s director, resulting in tha…
Cute. Clever. Mischievous. Intelligent. Dangerous. What more is there to say about this 1984 sleeper hit that somehow morphed the well-worn snowy small town Christmas tales with little monsters your older siblings whispered …
If you were a child of the 1980’s then there are just some things you’ll never forget about those lazy days of Summer. Short shorts. Tube socks. Neon colored friendship bracelets. Oakley sunglasses that you either had or wis…
If you have seen this heart-warming 80’s baseball fantasy flick, you likely have a strong opinion on it. While some are moved by its fantastical and heartfelt story of personal redemption, others dismiss it as over sentiment…
For about 95% of its runtime, this 80’s slasher flick operates as an oddly bloodless, weirdly sexless, and overall kind of annoying ripoff of "Friday the 13th". Writer and director Robert Hiltzik mines little tension from hi…
Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once a while you could miss this quintessential 80’s Flick. It has been called one of the classic movies about the teenage experience, as relevant to today’s Snapchat…
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#29 - "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986) with Jeff Atkins
From Peter Jackson to Edgar Wright, this 80’s flick has influenced many of today’s biggest Hollywood directors. As it should. Famous for its practical effects and then-unprecedented amount of gore, this low-budget 1981 horro…
Since its release over three decades ago, this 80’s flick has been hailed as a celebration of women . In his original review of the film, Roger Ebert raved about the dialogue and camaraderie of the dynamic ensemble cast. “Th…
Praised as a quintessential piece of '80s cinema and highly regarded among the greatest high school movies of all time, the legacy of this 80’s flick had endured due to the film's eclectic cast of teenage archetypes. Writer-…
It’s hard to imagine that in 1980 when audiences first crowded into theaters to watch the sequel to George Lucas’ unexpected blockbuster movie Star Wars, they would the first to ever see such iconic characters as Jedi Master…
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#25 - “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” (1980) with Chris McMichen
It has been called the “Wizard of Oz” of our generation. Meaning that although it was not a blockbuster film at the time of its release, over the years it has become a rare family film that has been enjoyed by children, thei…
Renown film critic, Roger Ebert called this well-beloved 80’s flick a good-hearted, simple-minded comedy that will win a place in film history. He suspected that it was primarily because it contained the movie debut of Dolly…
In the eighties , the high-concept movie was in vogue. Thanks largely to 70’s blockbusters Jaws and Star Wars , the eighties saw the repackaging of formula for audiences wanting to rekindle the thrills. If the roller coaster…
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#22 - "The Karate Kid Part II" (1986) with Ron West
The 1980s was a golden era for blockbuster hits, and countless films released during this decade have gone on to become cult-classic films. One '80s movie that has certainly stood the test of time and continues to wax on in …
There’s no denying that this film has become a holiday tradition for many families around the world. Since the film’s release, it’s become regarded as a Christmas classic, and the original house shown in the movie has even b…
John McTiernan‘s 1988 action tour de force is often called one of the greatest action films ever made. It’s a masterclass on every level: building entertaining characters, crafting escalating action, establishing and navigat…
A road trip movie, a buddy comedy and teen-angst director du jour, John Hughes’ first attempt at a holiday movie. It’s a classic double-act farce that might not fit that well in the decade it came out in. There are no guns o…
Legendary filmmaker Georges Méliès is often credited with making the first ever horror movie, which was called was The Haunted Castle. Horror movies have no doubt evolved since the early days with many filmmakers now relyin…
