I thought I might alleviate the Horrorcram thread by starting one purely for the broader spectrum of 80s films.

I'll commence by mentioning some of my favorites from the decade, but I'll try to avoid the more obvious ones, or at least those that I've seen mentioned already. I'll get the holy trinity out of the way with Raiders of the Lost Ark, Raging Bull and The Road Warrior, because that's just good foundation.

The 80iest movie that I can think of? Into The Night by John Landis. It has the blue-floodlight on a soundstage aura that defined the era. It has the BB King Jack and coke soundtrack. It has David Bowie in Modern Love killer attire. It has gratuitous breasts. It has scary Iranians. It has an array of bearded pothead directors in cameos. It has a gay Elvis impersonator. It has David Cronenberg as a computer engineer. It has the sexiest Michelle Pfeiffer. And not at all least, it has the Jeffest of Goldblums in his unknown hungry glory.

Added to queue.
But seriously, how does it compare to Martin Scorsese's After Hours? It sounds very similar.

Some of my favorite 80's films.

The Shining
Paris, Texas
Blue Velvet
My Neighbor Totoro
After Hours
Rumble Fish
Miracle Mile
Possession
River's Edge
Broadcast News
The Fly
The King of Comedy
Blow Out
Modern Romance
Robocop

It is, in interesting ways. They'd double up well together. Both are "one night" films, both combine paranoia and delirious humor, both are (of course) very 80s (Hours has that tell-tale synth score), and both involve nerdy lonely protagonists in well above their heads.

Technically '79, but considering how most people saw it on cable, I'll allow it.

@Crumbs: I love Breaking Away too, but it's still 1979.
EDIT: Never mind.

This thread will be where I badger more people into watching Hell Comes to Frogtown. Assuming some folks here have been foolish enough to let that one pass them by until now.

This is one I have not seen.

It probably belongs on the triple feature you've started with Into The Night and After Hours.

I just make assumptions when things come out. The fact that I am wrong at least 30% of the time, is no reason to change this.

Not all of these are among my favorites of the decade, but I like all of these films to varying degrees and they aren't as well-known as some other movies which will likely get mentioned in this thread:

Altered States (1980)
Vernon, Florida (1981)
Koyaanisqatsi (1982)
The Right Stuff (1983)
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
Threads (1984)
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)
Robocop (1987) I'm going to list this one, because more people have seen the Terminator franchise than this.
The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987)
The Abyss (1989)
The Vanishing (1988)
Tetsuo, The Iron Man (1989)
For All Mankind (1989)

A thousand times this.

Also, has anyone seen Breaker Morant? I haven't seen it, but I heard it's really good and underseen.

Yes, it's really good. So is Gallipoli, another semi-overlooked war film from Australia

Yes, it's really great. One of my favorite space and true story films of all time.

I'll keep an eye out for both movies then.

It has suddenly occured to me that the internet is distressingly low on Sandahl Bergman gifs.

Maybe I'll combine it with Quick Change instead.

That'll get your chainsaw revving.

Favorite 80s Movies by year in order of year:

1980: Airplane!
1981: Thief
1982: Blade Runner
1983: Videodrome
1984: Repo Man
1985: Silverado
1986: Big Trouble In Little China
1987: Wings of Desire
1988: Die Hard
1989: Field of Dreams

I mean no other decade contains an 8-pack of Friday the 13th films so it has that going for it.

1980: The Empire Strikes Back
81: Raiders of the lost Ark
82: The Thing
83: Scarface
84: Ghostbusters
85: Back to the Future
86: Aliens
87: Robocop
88: Akira
1989: Batman

1980: Raging Bull
1981: Raiders of the Lost Ark
1982: Fanny & Alexander
1983: The Right Stuff
1984: Paris, Texas
1985: Ran
1986: Blue Velvet
1987: Wings of Desire
1988: Dead Ringers
1989: Do the Right Thing

Here's a few favorites:

1980:
Alligator
The Changeling
Coal Miner's Daughter
The Final Countdown
Flash Gordon
The Fog
Midnight Madness
Used Cars


1981:
Bustin' Loose
Caveman
Ghost Story
Heartbeeps
Heavy Metal
Looker
Nighthawks
Omen III
Ragtime
SOB
Sharkey's Machine
Stripes
Time Bandits
Under the Rainbow
Wolfen



1981 was a big year for Albert Finney.


More later.

Sandal Bergman showing off that shockingly banging body in that one but not too much. Just enough to understand Rowdy's frustration at not being able to spread that salvation man seed. That's the most Harry Knowles sentence I've written but I think it's a fitting tribute to such a film.

It's a good flick. I've got the region B arrow release and have been waiting for the right setting to show everyone.

Am I missing it in the scan or has no one brought up the true glory of 80s cinema... Hong Kong action?

John Woo and Jackie Chan represent.

I like Hell Comes to Frogtown well enough. It's no Xtro though.

Hell Comes to Frogtown 7/10

Xtro 7.5/10

"You have aroused the three snakes!"

Off the top of my head:

1980 - The Big Red One
1981 - Raiders of the Lost Ark
1982 - Koyaanisqatsi
1983 - Videodrome
1984 - Body Double
1985 - To Live and Die in L.A.
1986 - Platoon
1987 - Robocop
1988 - The Thin Blue Line
1989 - The Killer

My list:

1980 - Raging Bull
1981 - Raiders of the Lost Ark
1982 - Koyaanisqatsi
1983 - The Right Stuff
1984 - Paris, Texas
1985 - Come and See
1986 - Platoon
1987 - Robocop
1988 - The Thin Blue Line
1989 - Do the Right Thing

Man, I love this movie.

Love it.

I'm right there with you on all of these. (Especially Thief.)

This is my favourite movie decade.

80 Out of the Blue
81 Possession
82 Heart, Beating in the Dark
83 Baby It’s You
84 Repo Man
85 Typhoon Club
86 The Green Ray
87 Christine
88 Noisy Requiem
89 A City of Sadness

I can think of a few characters in Xtro who would have been better off with an exploding genital cuff.

Here are some very good movies per year that aren't discussed that often:

1980: Inside Moves (Richard Donner)
1981: Atlantic City (technically a 1980 movie, but it was released theatrically in the U.S. this year) (Louis Malle)
1982: The Draughtsman's Contract (Peter Greenaway)
1983: L'Argent (Robert Bresson)
1984: The Company of Wolves (Neil Jordan)
1985: The Falcon and the Snowman (John Schlesinger)
1986: A Better Tomorrow (John Woo)
1987: Family Viewing (Atom Egoyan)
1988: Running on Empty (Sidney Lumet)
1989: Santa Sangre (Alejandro Jodorowsky)

Also, I caught Breaker Morant on Filmstruck yesterday, and I really liked it. Check it out if you haven't yet.

Ain't no car chase like a Billy Friedkin car chase

The more I see this movie show up on top lists, the more I become convinced I have watched one of the terrible cuts of it. I like what I've seen well enough, but I wouldn't even put it in my top 5 Fuller's, let alone the top of any year. I am also very dubious about Lewis Skolnick as a Fuller surrogate, and I doubt any director's cut could fix this.

Thief is probably one of the 80-est films I can think of. Synth music and neon lights just speak 80's.

This is true. I've always wondered: who is more responsible for the "'80s aesthetic," Michael Mann or John Carpenter? On the whole, it's probably both of these guys more than anyone, but Mann is probably the most responsible.

That's a Toronto skunk. Our jurisdiction.

But it's that very early, gritty 80s, before it went utterly to shit.

I think it can cut both ways. Mann is more adult-oriented, with his noir-ish, serious tone, which reflect in his styles of lighting, music, etc. which is present in Thief, Manhunter, and Miami Vice. Carpenter might be considered more mainstream or "juvenile" (not in a bad way) with his macho characters and violent leanings, which is another 80's staple (strong, flawless heroes, ultra-violence).

There are a lot of good and great movies in the 80s, but when I think of "80s" movies and the 80s aesthetic, I think of Spielbergian silliness, the bright, upbeat lighting and sharp, clear images, big dialogue, the colors, the soundtracks, montages, everything ends happy. I mean, we get from The French Connection to Lethal Weapon (a fun movie but bright, big, loud, lots of explosions, corny dialogue, totally over-the-top action) pretty damn fast, from McCabe and Mrs. Miller to Young Guns (ugh), from Annie Hall to When Harry Met Sally, from Vampire Circus, Salem's Lot, Thirst to The Lost Boys, and I don't know how the hell we got to The Goonies and Stand By Me, but fuck did things go downhill.
The latter, in all those cases, are how I think of 80s movies. There are great exceptions like Thief, The Thing (to include the two guys y'all were just talking about), My Dinner With Andre, After Hours, Fast Times, Amadeus, but we also get so much Top Gun and Big and The Lost Boys.
It feels like the 80s are two decades in film, 1980-1984 and 1985-1989. The latter half being what people think of when they deride the 80s as vacuous and cultureless.
I think of Alien to Aliens or, to keep it firmly within the same decade, First Blood to Rambo and then Rambo III. I mean, First Blood is a pretty gritty movie about a Vietnam veteran who suffers from PTSD and is experiencing the kind of shunning from society that we hear so much about with those guys and he finally gets pushed to far and snaps. Rambo is just Reagan-era, shiny, exploding, steroid-enahnced, silly action and Rambo III is that taken up another notch.
And I don't think you can lump Thief and The Thing and The Shining and Raging Bull and The Terminator and Blade Runner in with Rambo and Top Gun and The Lost Boys and The Goonies and Young Guns. Not to mention, Mannequin.
Ya know what I mean?

I'm not really in the mood for making lists right now BUT I'll recommend the documentary Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films for a good look at the studio that brought you some of the 80's-iest 80's films that ever 80-ed.

and to Wooley, don't forget the jump from Rocky to Rocky IV and Saturday Night Fever to Staying Alive. some darn good whiplash in there.

I saw the 2004 Reconstruction cut. Can't speak for the theatrical.

I don't see Robert Carradine as much of a central figure, cigar- chomping Fullerisms aside. Lee Marvin and Mark Hammill are more important to the narrative and play more interesting and fleshed out characters. Compared to the other Fullers I've seen, it plays more as an accumulation of very good small moments than any particular standout bits. It's also not as forceful, which may reduce the appeal for some Fuller fans.

Don't forget Grease to Grease 2!
Actually, you can forget all about that.