and now...NOMINATIONS (optional) for the ILX Top 100 Films of the 1980's!!!

(Richard E. Grant reprazent!)

dammit you got Brazil already ;P

Geez why am I having so much trouble thinking of things? I refuse to nominate ANY lucas or spielbergo films.

Fitzcarraldo
The King of Comedy
After Hours
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
Full Metal Jacket
Dangerous Liaisons

a very bad decade for film.

1980: Return of the Secaucus - one of the primers for what derivative talky indie cinema of the late 80's/early 90's aspired towards, done properly, though! The Big Chill charge seems a little flat in retrospect, esp. as I look at this as a Sayles film more than a 60's nostalgia film. The jail scene is shockingly great.

1981: Coup de torchon - just great one-liners! A really nasty film; I watched this a few years back on the recommendation of a video store clerk - I walked in in an odd mood and wanted something that would fit it well. More than worked. I hauled ass to see this on the big screen at the Tate Modern one Sunday morning last year.

1982: The Thing - John Carpenter's greatest. Scared the shit out of me when I first saw it a few months back, and nothing does that to me anymore. Russell summons up a character midway between Snake Plissken and Jim Morrison.

1983: Local Hero - it just works. Peter Riegert's greatest role; Burt Lancaster feeling up the 1980's. Saw it a few months into my UK residency, so maybe it hits me a little harder. The humor is subtle...in a good way, really.

1984: Gremlins - Joe Dante is godhead. Every scene is nailed into my head - every little detail. The sound of the projector long after the film is out. The crinkle of the candy wrapper. The fried chicken. The swimming pool. The hilarious bar and movie theater scenes. Who else would have had a whole theater of evil monsters gently and earnestly singing along to Snow White?

1985: Back to the Future - another film I've memorized.

1986: Sherman's March - submit to Russ McElwee's charm. This must be what hardcore bloggers aspired to before blogging. Seems destined to be a boring failure of a movie, and yet it works so well.

1987: No Way Out - the last good Kevin Costner film, and a tense thriller that doesn't rely too much on technowizardry/overestimation of the capabilities of Pentagon intelligence (remarkably on the mark, in retrospect). The Soviet paranoia seems amusing in hindsight, but it doesn't overbear. Mercifully Sean Young dies early on. A bureaucratic goose chase more suspenseful than most car chases.

1988: (xpost) Dangerous Liaisons - I...just...can't...stop...myself...from...watching...no...matter...what...I'm...doing... Frears and Malkovich in top form, only to be overtaken by Glenn Close (still her best work). Amusing but appropriately naive turns by Keanu and Uma.

Distant Voices, Still Lives - beauty, memory, abstraction. Finally a movie in which the memory actually seems to function and operate similarly to how mine seems to; as a dream-state with punctuated bits of acute detailed reality.

1989: Say Anything - Cameron Crowe before he became a photocopy of himself.

haha Yes, exactly. I don't think it works all that well, though. Frankly, I was a little creeped out by the constant confession and pop-psyche speak, and the parade of crrrrrAzy women that he couldn't stay away from.

oh yes, that was the one film i was sure i would nominate!

Also, I was always like, "Talk about Sherman! You got a good doc on your hands here if you'd just shut up about being horny! You meathead!"

This is Spinal Tap
Aliens
Dead Ringers

haha, adventures in babysitting, i love that!

# Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
# New York Stories (1989) (segment "Oedipus Wrecks")
# Another Woman (1988)
# September (1987)
# Radio Days (1987)
# Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
# The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
# Broadway Danny Rose (1984)
# Zelig (1983)
# A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982)
# Stardust Memories (1980)

I think Hannah and Her Sisters is the best film on this list, but there are strong arguments to be made for Stardust Memories and Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)
Sixteen Candles (1984)
Pretty In Pink (1984)
Heathers (1989)
The Breakfast Club (1985)
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Beetlejuice (1988)
Just One Of The Guys (1985)
The Blues Brothers (1980)
Parenthood (1989)
Wall Street (1987)

Also:

Valley Girl (1983)

Real Genius (1985)
Dirty Dancing (1987)
Field of Dreams (1989)
Fatal Attraction (1987)

But not as great as Do the Right Thing. I think I have my #1 already.

Blind Chance
No End
Dekalog

Belly of an Architect (1987) - his best, least "film as a painting" movie I reckon. I like it a lot.

...more tk...

What a strange list tho - all good arthouse films, foreign ones, a few great blockbusters .. and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. WTF!?

Alice (1988, Jan Svankmajer)
History of the World Part I (1981, Mel Brooks)
Pennies From Heaven (1981, Herbert Ross)
48 Hours (1982, Walter Hill)
All of Me (1984, Carl Reiner)

(I am not kidding, by the way.)

Movie I'm least looking forward to seeing in its inevitable Top 25 slot: The Goonies.

1989

Back to the Future Part II (Robert Zemeckis)
Almost as good as the first one, and anyone who saw it as a kid could hardly forget the hoverboard!

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures (Stephen Herek)
The high point of teenage comedy; Beethoven the time traveller playing the synthesizer rates among my favourite movie moments.

Dead Poet's Society (Peter Weir)
Yeah, it's kinda corny and full of bathos, but for all the right reasons. Anyone who saw this as a teenager could hardly forget it.

Meet the Feebles (Peter Jackson)
The Muppets meet Bad Taste! Peter Jackson's funniest film, must've given Trey Parker and Matt Stone a hint or two.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Steven Spielberg)
The best movie in the trilogy, great performances by two of the most charismatic male actors of our time.

Mystery Train (Jim Jarmusch)
Ghost stories, Japanese turists, Elvis fandom, and Screaming Jay Hawkins as a hotel clerk! Down by Law was Jarmusch's best film of the decade, but this one gets quite close.

Sex. Lies and Videotape (Steven Soderbergh)
With this clever, touching flick Steven Soderbergh set the template to quite a lot of indie relationship films to follow, and in my opinion he has never surpassed his debut.

Sweetie (Jane Campion)
The most dysfunctional of all dysfunctional family films? Jane Campion's quirky breakthrough film with one of the most memorable movie characters ever.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (Terry Gilliam)
Uneven as it may be, this a great children's film Terry Gilliam always had in him.

Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo)
This cyberpunk sci-fi anime flick was and still is the high point of traditional animation. Features one of the scariest dream sequences ever seen on screen.

Beetle Juice (Tim Burton)
Beetlejuice, beetlejuice, beetlejuice! Because of this flick every eighties kid knew Harry Belafonte's Banana Boat Song by heart, and that's hardly a bad thing. Also, Winona!

Coming to America (John Landis)
"Akeem!" I've hardly laughed so much to a single line in a film, and this one has lots of 'em.

My Neighbor Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki)
Quite simply, the best animated feature film ever made.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Robert Zemeckis)
Another childhood favourite, but I'd say this one has stood the test of time. One of the weirdest yet most ingenious concepts for a big-budget Hollywood film.

Well, I'm nominating that. I think it was called "Parents". I had this on tape for a while, but don't know where it is.

Please, somebody tell me I didn't imagine this.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Pedro Almodóvar)
Almodóvar's funniest, most magical film.

Wings of Honneamise (Hiroyuki Yamaga)
Like Akira, this is a Japanese sci-fi animation, but unlike it this is a slow-tempo, almost meditative film. One of the most original big budget animated features ever.

Barfly (Barbet Schroeder)
I've never read any Bukowski, so I'm not sure whether this is a faithful adaptation, but it's a good film anyway. A superb performance by Mickey Rourke, the definite eighties actor.

House of Games (David Mamet)
Requires some suspension of disbelief, but once the plot grabs you, it's a highly effective thriller indeed.

Monanieba/Confession (Tengiz Abuladze)
A tremendous Georgian picture about tyranny, innocence, repentance, and redemption. Pre-glasnost, this film simply could not have been done.

A Chinese Ghost Story (Ching Siu-Tuk)
A kung-fu fantasy flick featuring a rapping Buddhist monk and Satan himself! Great fun.

Spaceballs (Mel Brooks)
Mel Brooks at his most stupid, yet wholesomely funny. Rick Moranis as Darth Vader, and don't forget the singing and dancing Alien.

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (John McNaughton)
This is perhaps the most disturbing serial killer flick made, not for what is but what it isn't. Unlike other such films Henry doesn't analyze or moralize, it just portrays. This maked the film a bit pointless, but it is effective nevertheless.

The Hitcher
A relentless, metaphorical highway thriller with a very scary Rutger Hauer.

Little Shop of Horrors
Rick Moranis again, in a wonderful horror musical that's funnier than the Roger Corman original.

1985

After Hours (Martin Scorsese)
Scorsese's only full-blooded attempt to do a comedy, and what a wonderful comedy it is! Captures perfectly the magic of the after hours urban night, when absolutely anything can (and in this case will) happen.

Clue (Jonathan Lynn)
Nowadays they're making movies based on video games, but Clue must be the only film inspired by a board game. And surprisingly enough, it's an energetic, funny parody of murder mystery stories, with three alternate endings to boot.

Peril/Péril en la demeure (Miche Deville)
An intriguing romantic thriller in the spirit of Vertigo.

Bring on the Seventies!

Lola - Fassbinder
ET: The Extra-Terrestrial - Spielberg
Veronika Voss - Fassbinder
Housekeeping - Forsyth
Reds - Beatty
Empire of the Sun - Spielberg
Yeelen - Cisse (An African film? anybody?)
Prizzi's Honor - Huston
The Fly - Cronenberg
Lili Marleen - Fassbinder
Atlantic City - Malle
Once Upon a Time in America - Leone
The Dead Zone - Cronenberg
Enemies: A Love Story - Mazursky
Swing Shift - Demme
Blow Out - DePalma
Sammy & Rosie Get Laid - Frears

You're right, it was called Parents (1989), starring Randy Quaid and one of the only directing credits of Mr. Bob Balaban!
http://www.marklundholm.com/images/BobBalaban8x10-72.jpg

...a splendid angry funny film... and just so the first African-American-directed film by a guy not named Spike isn't Stir Crazy.

And I second: All of Me, The Princess Bride, Back to the Future

I'm not sure how much this is influencing me, but is anyone else getting the impression that the 80s beat the 90s senseless?

Pixote - Babenco (a likely #1-5 for me)
A Private Function - Mowbray
After the Rehearsal - Bergman
Circle of Deceit - Schlondorff
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - Meyer
Prick Up Your Ears - Frears
Places in the Heart - Benton
Under Fire - Spottiswoode
High Hopes - Leigh
Home Sweet Home - Leigh

This decade is the tits!

absolutely

I can't tell if o. nate is joking or not

Wait until the 70's.

(Gabbnebb - I wouldn't joke at a time like this)

(National Lampoon's Animal House)

To remind each other of films we may forget, just for reference, and to advocate and argue. Same point as any of it.

Streetwise (Bell 1985)

This was 1990, otherwise I would've nominated it myself.

What Have I Done to Deserve This? (Pedro Almodóvar)
Kendo and PSI powers are just some of the spices of this Almodóvar comedy which, in the end, turns out surprisingly sober, and hence predicts the directors later, more serious work.

Birdy (Alan Parker)
Young Nicholas Cage and Matthew Modine in a touching psychological drama / buddy flick.

Blood Simple (Joel and Ethan Coen)
The Coen bros first flick is still one of their best, and definitely their most intensive.

Johnny Dangerously (Amy Heckerling)
An underrated comedy gem starring Michael Keaton as a thirties gangster. Features a hilarious animated "educational" film, "Your Testicles and You".

Top Secret! (Jim Abrahams & David Zucker & Jerry Zucker)
Perhaps the funniest of the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker comedies with Val Kilmer as a surf rock singer recruited as a spy to East Germany. Introduced the term "anal intruder" to our vocabulary.

To Be or Not to Be (Alan Johnson)
A nice remake of the old Hollywood movie about a Polish theatre troupe escaping the Nazis during WWII. A swell preformance for Mel Brooks, who has one of the funniest last lines in any eighties film.

The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese)
In my opinion, Scorsese's best flick with Robert de Niro's greatest performance ever (plus Jerry Lewis!). Sort of a variation of Taxi Driver that actually improves on it.

Conan the Barbarian (John Milius)
John Milius found a great use for Arnold Schwartzenegger: make him a barbarian that hardly utters a word. James Earl Jones is great baddie as well. For a fantasy flick this a surprisingly adult affair (echoing the original short stories by Robert E. Howard), and while it's uneven it has some extremely powerful scenes.

Labyrinth of Passion (Pedro Almodóvar)
Almodóvar back when he made light yet quirky sex comedies. Antonio Banderas' debut as a yummy gay guy.

Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl
Filmed theatrical performances rarely work, but I'd say this one does.

1981

History of the World: Part I (Mel Brooks)
The birth of art criticism! The giant joint! "It's good to be the king!" Jews in Space! This movie doesn't pretend to be anything but a string of sketches set in Western history, but what great sketches!

Stripes (Ivan Reitman)
Kinda like a military version of Animal House, made by the people who would later reunite for Ghostbusters (Reitman, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis) Anarchic late seventies-early eighties comedy at it's best.

Airplane! (Jim Abrahams & David Zucker & Jerry Zucker)
An absolute comedy classic.

The Gods Must Be Crazy (Jamie Uys)
A Kalahari bushman who's never known about Western civilization finds a Coke bottle fallen out of a plane - one of the most amateurish yet lovable comedies follows.

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner)
The darkest and the best of all the Star Wars Movies.

Exactly! This and Silent Movie are easily Brooks' best films.

>To Be or Not to Be (Alan Johnson)
A nice remake of the old Hollywood movie<

You jest.

Soz if any have been mentioned already.

Le rayon vert a.k.a. The Green Ray (1986, Rohmer)

Heathers and Dead Poet's Society remind me of high school - the rare films I watched with friends.

Deffo. Let's make it number 1, show the world we care.

1979

http://babelogue.citypages.com:8080/pscholtes/80smovies

It's not just shit -- it's rockist.

No, what will tip the scales toward blockbuster/cult items is that more people have seen them.

please explain.

nah, I was kidding. Kinda. I do know that Dead Poets "inspired" a doltish conservative student newspaper at Penn State while I was there.

Secret Honor (Altman 1984)
Tightrope (Tuggle 1984)
Songwriter (Rudolph 1984)
The First Deadly Sin (Hutton 1980)
Star 80 (Fosse 1983)
Stripes (Reitman 1981)
1984 (Radford 1984)
Stop Making Sense (Demme 1984)
The Road Warrior (Miller 1981)
Terms of Endearment (Brooks 1983) ("ducks")

once again, proof that film school only makes you stupider.

Or, y'know, less likely to like shit like Cinema Paradiso and The Goonies, et al...

You're right, it was called Parents (1989), starring Randy Quaid and one of the only directing credits of Mr. Bob Balaban!

Thank you, jaymc.. nobody else I've asked has ever heard of it. Its nice to know that I didn't imagine the whole thing.

SPLASH!!!!

(here's a few batches, in order of preference)

A World Apart (Jodie May's performance makes this movie; the most lyrical and most moving of the anti-Apartheid pictures...)

The Decline of Western Civilization (Black Flag and X at their peak, great interviews, great movie)

Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll (I actually like a lot of the versions here better than the old records, but Christgau disagrees)

X: The Unheard Music (first rock-doc to take on how the music industry fails great bands)

Midnight Run (part three of DeNiro's underrated '80s renaissance, including Angel Heart and Brazil,)

Coal Miner's Daughter (God this movie ages well; Tommy Lee Jones and Sissy Spacek kicking ass while still young)

Angel Heart (I know I'll got to hell for this...)

Missing (a friend who was in Santiago Stadium during the coup says it was exactly like this. Probably the most chilling vision of right-wing authoritarianism ever put onscreen, with Jack Lemmon giving his best performance in any movie except The China Syndrome. Turns out its suspicions of American complicity were entirely spot-on...).

Hairspray (John Waters's mainstream bid is pure pleasure from start to finish, with Ricki Lake becoming a heart-throb against stereotype...)

Clean and Sober (Michael Keaton makes up for Batman and many other bad choices...)

The Naked Gun - From the Files of Police Squad! ("Nice beaver!" "Thanks...I just had it stuffed!") ("I don't know anything about her new boyfriend--except he's an Olympic gymnast and it's the best sex she's ever had.")

Style Wars (truly entertaining classic graffiti doc launched a thousand graf artists, but is worth seeing by just about anybody...)

Rude Boy (the Clash movie rules even if you don't fast-forward through the "story" parts: a document of their moment)

Comfort and Joy (heads up Local Hero fans: This is better...)

Modern Romance (Albert Brooks takes on loneliness--watch it with Swingers...)

Salvador (Oliver Stone's best film, and probably James Woods's as well, with both of them imprinting their personality on a true fuck-up of a journalist character--always a great movie subject. If it weren't for the garish rape scene, and they way it compresses so many real-life events into a few fictionalized days, this would top my list. Less effective as drama than Platoon maybe, but less simplified and hokey, too. The scene where Woods negotiates with the priest during his confession qualifies as classic...)

The Abyss (everything James Cameron does well; everything he does badly, too; avoid the director's cut at all costs...)

Rumblefish (haven't seen this in a while, but I loved the atmosphere and music at the time...)

The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (an '80s document of a '70s moment, revived in the '90s; "God Save the Queen" still puts chills up my back...)

Bachelor Party (classic late-night cable movie stands up among Tom Hanks's better vehicles...)

Baby It's You (John Sayles's dreariest yet most affecting film of the decade...)

Bad Boys (the Sean Penn prison movie, not the Martin Lawrence/Will Smith shitburger...)

The Neverending Story (I loved this, though I haven't seen it since the '80s...)

True Believer (James Wood's second best role, and Saturday afternoon TV at its finest; idealistic, nice twists, Robert Downey kicking ass)

Excalibur (hot sex in shining armor)

Prince of the City (Sidney Lumet's failed epic is at least full of good details and performances)

Baxter (my life as a very horny French dog)

Barcelona (better than Metropolitan, way better than The Last Days of Disco)

Cry Freedom (at least the half where Biko is still alive, which launched Denzel...)

The Lonely Guy (Steve Martin gets less jerky, but not yet schlocky)

These are really TV, but:

Eyes on the Prize/Eyes on the Prize II (best documentary of all time, possibly, but aired on TV first...)

Tanner '88 (now on video, then on Showtime, was really funny as well as sharp at the time...)

Joshua Then and Now (Ted Kotcheff, 1985)

Consider this the masterlist as of now.

1984
2010: The Year We Make Contact
28 Up
48 Hours
9 to 5
A Chinese Ghost Story
A Christmas Story
A Dry White Season
A Fish Called Wanda
A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy
A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Private Function
A Room with a View
A Short Film About Killing
A World Apart
A Zed and Two Noughts
Adventures in Babysitting
After Hours
After the Rehearsal
Airplane!
Airplane!
Akira
Alice
Alien Nation
Aliens
All of Me
Altered States
Amadeus
Amazon Women on the Moon
American Gigolo
An American Werewolf in London
Angel Heart
Another Woman
Atlantic City
Au revoir les enfants
Babette's Feast
Baby It's You
Bachelor Party
Back to School
Back to the Future
Back to the Future II
Bad Boys
Bad Taste
Ballad of Narayama
Barfly
Batman
Baxter
Beetlejuice
Berlin Alexanderplatz
Best Seller
Better Off Dead
Betty Blue
Beverly Hills Cop
Big
Big Trouble in Little China
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Birdy
Blade Runner
Blind Chance
Blood Simple
Blow Out
Blue Velvet
Body Heat
Brainstorm
Brazil
Breaker Morant
Brimstone and Treacle
Broadcast News
Broadway Danny Rose
Bull Durham
Caddyshack
Caravaggio
Castle in the Sky
Chameleon Street
Chariots of Fire
Choose Me
Christine
Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll
Cinema Paradiso
Circle of Deceit
Clean and Sober
Clue
Coal Miner's Daughter
Comfort and Joy
Coming to America
Commando
Conan the Barbarian
Coup de torchon
Creepshow
Crime Wave
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Crimewave
Crocodile Dundee
Cruising
Cry Freedom
Dangerous Liaisons
Das Boot
Day of the Dead
Dead Calm
Dead Poets Society
Dead Ringers
Death Wish III
Dekalog
Die Hard
Diner
Dirty Dancing
Distant Voices, Still Lives
Diva
Do the Right Thing
Down by Law
Downtown 81 (aka New York Beat Movie)
Dreamscape
Dressed to Kill
Drugstore Cowboy
Dune
E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial
Easy Money
El Norte
Empire of the Sun
Enemies: A Love Story
Escape from New York
Evil Dead 2
Excalibur
Eyes on the Prize
Fanny and Alexander
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Fatal Attraction
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Field of Dreams
Firefox
First Blood
Fitzcarraldo
Flash Gordon
Fletch
Frantic
Full Metal Jacket
Funny Farm
Gandhi
Ghostbusters
Gloria
Glory
Gregory's Girl
Gremlins
Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes
Hairspray
Hannah and Her Sisters
Hardly Working
Heathers
Heimat
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
He's My Girl
High Hopes
Highlander
History of the World, Part 1
Home Sweet Home
Hope and Glory
House of Games
Housekeeping
How to Get Ahead in Advertising
Hunk
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Inferno
Ishtar
Jean de Florette
Jesus of Montreal
Johnny Dangerously
Joshua Then and Now
Just One of the Guys
Kagemusha
Kiki's Delivery Service
Killer Klowns from Outer Space
King Lear
Kiss of the Spider Woman
Koyaanisqatsi
La Bamba
Labyrinth
Labyrinth of Passion
Le dernier combat
Legend
Lianna
Lightning Over Water
Lili Marleen
Liquid Sky
Little Shop of Horrors
Local Hero
Lola
Lost in America
Love Streams
Manhunter
Manon of the Spring
Mask
Matador
Matewan
Medea
Meet the Feebles
Megaforce
Memories of Me
Midnight Run
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
Missing
Mississippi Burning
Modern Romance
Mommie Dearest
Mona Lisa
Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
Moonstruck
Moonwalker
Music Box
My 20th Century
My American Uncle
My Beautiful Laundrette
My Dinner with Andre
My Favorite Year
My Life As a Dog
My Neighbor Totoro
Mystery Train
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
National Lampoon's Vacation
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds
New Year's Day
New York Stories
No End
No Way Out
Nostalghia
On the Wing
Once Upon a Time in America
Ordinary People
Pale Rider
Paperhouse
Parenthood
Parents
Paris, Texas
Pauline at the Beach
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
Pele the Conqueror
Pennies from Heaven
Peril
Phenomena
Pixote
Places in the Heart
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
Platoon
Poltergeist
Polyester
Popeye
Porky's
Possession
Predator
Pretty in Pink
Prick Up Your Ears
Prince of the City
Prizzi's Honor
Purple Rain
Radio Days
Raging Bull
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Rain Man
Raising Arizona
Rambo: First Blood Part II
Ran
Real Genius
Red Dawn
Reds
Repentance (Monanieba)
Repo Man
Return of the Secaucus 7
Revenge of the Nerds II
Revenge of the Ninja
Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip
Risky Business
River's Edge
Robocop
Round Midnight
Roxanne
Rude Boy
Rumble Fish
Runaway Train
Running on Empty
S.O.B.
Salvador
Sammy and Rosie Get Laid
Sans soleil
Say Anything
Scarface
School Daze
Scrooged
Secret Honor
September
Sex, Lies, and Videotape
Shaolin vs. Lama
Sherman's March
Shoah
Sid and Nancy
Silkwood
Silverado
Sixteen Candles
Some Kind of Wonderful
Someone to Watch Over Me
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Something Wild
Songwriter
Spaceballs
Splash
Stand by Me
Star 80
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Stardust Memories
Starman
Stealing Home
Stop Making Sense
Strange Brew
Stranger Than Paradise
Street of Crocodiles
Streetwise
Stripes
Style Wars
Superman II
Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
Sweetie
Swimming to Cambodia
Swing Shift
Talk Radio
Tampopo
Tanner '88
Tapeheads
Taxi Zum Klo
Teen Witch
Teen Wolf
Tenebre
Terms of Endearment
The Abyss
The Accidental Tourist
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
The Atomic Café
The Aviator's Wife
The Belly of an Architect
The Big Easy
The Big Picture
The Big Red One
The Blues Brothers
The Breakfast Club
The Brother from Another Planet
The Burbs
The Church
The Company of Wolves
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover
The Cotton Club
The Dark Crystal
The Dead
The Dead Zone
The Decline of Western Civilization
The Decline of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years
The Draughtsman's Contract
The Element of Crime
The Elephant Man
The Empire Strikes Back
The Evil Dead
The Fabulous Baker Boys
The First Deadly Sin
The Fly
The Fog
The Funeral
The Funhouse
The Gods Must Be Crazy
The Goonies
The Great Outdoors
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
The Green Ray
The Hidden
The Hitcher
The Ice Pirates
The Karate Kid
The Killer
The Killing Fields
The King of Comedy
The Last American Virgin
The Last Emperor
The Last Starfighter
The Last Temptation of Christ
The Little Mermaid
The Lonely Guy
The Long Good Friday
The Lost Boys
The Man with One Red Shoe
The Man with Two Brains
The Moderns
The Money Pit
The Mosquito Coast
The Muppets Take Manhattan
The Naked Gun
The Natural
The Navigator
The Neverending Story
The Night of the Shooting Stars
The Pirates of Penzance
The Princess Bride
The Purple Rose of Cairo
The Right Stuff
The Road Warrior
The Sacrifice
The Secret of NIMH
The Shining
The Shooting Party
The Stunt Man
The Sure Thing
The Terminator
The Thin Blue Line
The Thing
The Transformers: The Movie
The Trip to Bountiful
The Twilight Zone: The Movie
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
The Untouchables
The Weavers: Wasn't That a Time
They Live
This Is Spinal Tap
Tightrope
Time Bandits
To Be or Not to Be
To Live and Die in L.A.
Tootsie
Top Gun
Top Secret!
Trading Places
Tron
Trouble in Mind
True Believer
True Stories
Tucker: The Man and His Dream
Twice Upon a Time
Under Fire
Used Cars
Vagabond
Valley Girl
Veronika Voss
Victor/Victoria
Videodrome
Wall Street
Wargames
What Have I Done to Deserve This?
When Harry Met Sally…
White Dog
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?
Wild Style
Wings of Desire
Wings of Honneamise
Wish You Were Here
Withnail & I
Witness
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
X: The Unheard Music
Yeelen
Zelig

The Vanishing (disqualified out of the '90s poll)
The Burden of Dreams (great doc about the making of Fitzcarraldo, sort of a precursor to Hearts of Darkness)
Ghostbusters II (for the court room scene, anyway)

Made for TV in its native land, released theatrically abroad (like Berlin Alexanderplatz). Eligible?

Made for TV in its native land, released theatrically abroad (like Berlin Alexanderplatz). Eligible?

Didn't know that myself... if it screened on TV as a single film and not broken into parts or whatever, I don't see why it wouldn't count?

Blue Velvet
Do the Right Thing
Repo Man
The Night of the Shooting Stars
Drugstore Cowboy
A World Apart
My Beautiful Laundrette
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
This Is Spinal Tap

Sorry if I've told this story before, but Emilio Estevez once walked into the bike shop where I worked. It was during the filming of the Mighty Ducks in Minneapolis, and he was in town with Martin Sheen, renting bikes for his kids and his dad. I told him that between him and his father, the Sheen family had starred in two of my all-time favorite movies, Apocalypse Now and Repo Man. Emilio said he didn't agree, in sort of a self-deprecating way, but after he left, the similarities struck me. Both movies fall apart in the last third, for one thing. Martin Sheen returned the bikes a couple hours later...

This is Spinal Tap
Moonstruck
Paris, Texas
Dekalog
True Stories
A Fish Called Wanda
Hannah and Her Sisters
Brazil
Wings of Desire (two Wenders? is that allowed?)
Do the Right Thing

A better Shanley-written film, same year:

Five Corners (dir. Tony Bill, 1987)

you mean ADORABLE? yeah, of course. You heartless bastard.

-- Trayce (spamspanke...), March 11th, 2005.

aus. ilxers better reprazent on this one or there'll be hell to pay!

when cuteness is also (ok a little magical) realism, i hold with it

My theoretical Top 10 (having never seen Dekalog, Love Streams, Short Film About Killing, Alexanderplatz, Sans Soleil, Coup de Torchon, etc.):

Shoah
Ran
Do the Right Thing
The Thin Blue Line
Full Metal Jacket
The Right Stuff
The Last Temptation of Christ
Running on Empty
The Weavers: Wasn't That a Time
My Dinner with Andre?

Alice
Blue Velvet
The Company of Wolves
Diva
My Beautiful Launderette
My 20th Century
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Ran
Sid and Nancy
Stranger Than Paradise

Anything else?

PS - I nominate the other Short Film About...

1984
2010: The Year We Make Contact
28 Up
48 Hours
9 to 5
A Chinese Ghost Story
A Christmas Story
A Dry White Season
A Fish Called Wanda
A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy
A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Private Function
A Room with a View
A Short Film About Killing
A Short Film About Love
A World Apart
A Zed and Two Noughts
Adventures in Babysitting
After Hours
After the Rehearsal
Airplane!
Akira
Alice
Alien Nation
Aliens
All of Me
Altered States
Amadeus
Amazon Women on the Moon
American Gigolo
An American Werewolf in London
Angel Heart
Another Woman
Atlantic City
Au revoir les enfants
Babette's Feast
Baby It's You
Bachelor Party
Back to School
Back to the Future
Back to the Future II
Bad Boys
Bad Taste
Bad Timing
Ballad of Narayama
Barfly
Batman
Baxter
Beetlejuice
Berlin Alexanderplatz
Best Seller
Better Off Dead
Betty Blue
Beverly Hills Cop
Big
Big Trouble in Little China
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Birdy
Blade Runner
Blind Chance
Blood Simple
Blow Out
Blue Velvet
Body Heat
Brainstorm
Brazil
Breaker Morant
Brimstone and Treacle
Broadcast News
Broadway Danny Rose
Bull Durham
Burden of Dreams
Caddyshack
Caravaggio
Castle in the Sky
Chameleon Street
Chariots of Fire
Choose Me
Christine
Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll
Cinema Paradiso
Circle of Deceit
City on Fire
Clean and Sober
Clue
Coal Miner's Daughter
Comfort and Joy
Coming to America
Commando
Conan the Barbarian
Coup de torchon
Creepshow
Crime Wave
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Crimes of Passion
Crimewave
Crocodile Dundee
Cruising
Cry Freedom
Cutter's Way
Damnation
Dangerous Liaisons
Das Boot
Day of the Dead
Dead Calm
Dead Poets Society
Dead Ringers
Death of a Salesman
Death Wish III
Dekalog
Die Hard
Diner
Dirty Dancing
Distant Voices, Still Lives
Diva
Do the Right Thing
Down by Law
Downtown 81 (aka New York Beat Movie)
Dreamchild
Dreamscape
Dressed to Kill
Drugstore Cowboy
Dune
E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial
Easy Money
Eight Diagram Pole Fighter
El Norte
Empire of the Sun
Enemies: A Love Story
Escape from New York
Evil Dead 2
Excalibur
Eye of the Needle
Eyes on the Prize
Fanny and Alexander
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Fatal Attraction
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Field of Dreams
Firefox
First Blood
Fitzcarraldo
Five Corners
Flash Gordon
Fletch
Frantic
Full Metal Jacket
Funny Farm
Gandhi
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters II
Gloria
Glory
Gorky Park
Gregory's Girl
Gremlins
Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes
Hairspray
Hannah and Her Sisters
Hardly Working
Heathers
Heimat
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
He's My Girl
High Hopes
Highlander
History of the World, Part 1
Home Sweet Home
Hope and Glory
House of Games
Housekeeping
How to Get Ahead in Advertising
Hunk
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Inferno
Ishtar
Jean de Florette
Jesus of Montreal
Johnny Dangerously
Joshua Then and Now
Just One of the Guys
Kagemusha
Kiki's Delivery Service
Killer Klowns from Outer Space
King Lear
Kiss of the Spider Woman
Koyaanisqatsi
La Bamba
Labyrinth
Labyrinth of Passion
Le dernier combat
Legend
Lianna
Lightning Over Water
Lili Marleen
Liquid Sky
Little Shop of Horrors
Local Hero
Lola
Lost in America
Love Streams
Manhunter
Manon of the Spring
Mask
Matador
Matewan
Medea
Meet the Feebles
Megaforce
Memories of Me
Midnight Run
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
Missing
Mississippi Burning
Modern Romance
Mommie Dearest
Mona Lisa
Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
Moonstruck
Moonwalker
Music Box
My 20th Century
My American Uncle
My Beautiful Laundrette
My Dinner with Andre
My Favorite Year
My Life As a Dog
My Neighbor Totoro
Mystery Train
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
National Lampoon's Vacation
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds
New Year's Day
New York Stories
No End
No Way Out
Nostalghia
On the Wing
Once Upon a Time in America
Ordinary People
Pale Rider
Paperhouse
Parenthood
Parents
Paris, Texas
Pauline at the Beach
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
Peggy Sue Got Married
Pele the Conqueror
Pennies from Heaven
Peril
Phenomena
Pixote
Places in the Heart
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
Platoon
Poltergeist
Polyester
Popeye
Porky's
Possession
Predator
Pretty in Pink
Prick Up Your Ears
Prince of the City
Prizzi's Honor
Puberty Blues
Purple Rain
Radio Days
Raging Bull
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Rain Man
Raising Arizona
Rambo: First Blood Part II
Ran
Real Genius
Red Dawn
Reds
Repentance (Monanieba)
Repo Man
Return of the Jedi
Return of the Secaucus 7
Revenge of the Nerds II
Revenge of the Ninja
Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip
Risky Business
River's Edge
Robocop
Round Midnight
Roxanne
Rude Boy
Rumble Fish
Runaway Train
Running on Empty
S.O.B.
Salvador
Sammy and Rosie Get Laid
Sans soleil
Say Anything
Scarface
School Daze
Scrooged
Secret Honor
September
Sex, Lies, and Videotape
Shaolin vs. Lama
Sherman's March
Shoah
Sid and Nancy
Silkwood
Silverado
Sixteen Candles
Some Kind of Wonderful
Someone to Watch Over Me
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Something Wild
Songwriter
Spaceballs
Splash
Stand by Me
Star 80
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Stardust Memories
Starman
Stealing Home
Stop Making Sense
Strange Brew
Stranger Than Paradise
Street of Crocodiles
Streetwise
Stripes
Style Wars
Superman II
Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
Sweetie
Swimming to Cambodia
Swing Shift
Tales from the Gimli Hospital
Talk Radio
Tampopo
Tanner '88
Tapeheads
Taxi Zum Klo
Teen Witch
Teen Wolf
Tenebre
Terms of Endearment
Tetsuo: The Ironman
The Abyss
The Accidental Tourist
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
The Atomic Café
The Aviator's Wife
The Belly of an Architect
The Big Easy
The Big Picture
The Big Red One
The Blues Brothers
The Breakfast Club
The Brother from Another Planet
The Burbs
The Church
The Company of Wolves
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover
The Cotton Club
The Dark Crystal
The Dead
The Dead Zone
The Decline of Western Civilization
The Decline of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years
The Draughtsman's Contract
The Element of Crime
The Elephant Man
The Empire Strikes Back
The Evil Dead
The Fabulous Baker Boys
The First Deadly Sin
The Fly
The Fog
The Funeral
The Funhouse
The Gods Must Be Crazy
The Goonies
The Great Outdoors
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
The Green Ray
The Hidden
The Hitcher
The Ice Pirates
The Karate Kid
The Killer
The Killing Fields
The King of Comedy
The Last American Virgin
The Last Emperor
The Last Starfighter
The Last Temptation of Christ
The Little Mermaid
The Lonely Guy
The Long Good Friday
The Lost Boys
The Man with One Red Shoe
The Man with Two Brains
The Moderns
The Money Pit
The Mosquito Coast
The Muppets Take Manhattan
The Naked Gun
The Natural
The Navigator
The Neverending Story
The Night of the Shooting Stars
The Pirates of Penzance
The Princess Bride
The Purple Rose of Cairo
The Right Stuff
The Road Warrior
The Sacrifice
The Secret of NIMH
The Shining
The Shooting Party
The Stunt Man
The Sure Thing
The Terminator
The Thin Blue Line
The Thing
The Transformers: The Movie
The Trip to Bountiful
The Twilight Zone: The Movie
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
The Untouchables
The Vanishing (original)
The Weavers: Wasn't That a Time
They Live
This Is Spinal Tap
Tightrope
Time Bandits
To Be or Not to Be
To Live and Die in L.A.
Tootsie
Top Gun
Top Secret!
Trading Places
Tron
Trouble in Mind
True Believer
True Stories
Tucker: The Man and His Dream
Twice Upon a Time
Under Fire
Used Cars
Vagabond
Valley Girl
Veronika Voss
Victor/Victoria
Videodrome
Wall Street
Wargames
What Have I Done to Deserve This?
When Harry Met Sally…
White Dog
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?
Wild Style
Wings of Desire
Wings of Honneamise
Wish You Were Here
Withnail & I
Witness
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
X: The Unheard Music
Yeelen
Zelig

So we're all on the same page, the one-word title is the Sam Raimi one and the two word title is the John Paizs one that I expect I'll be the sole voter on its behalf.

I agree that Short Films About.. should qualify, just note ruefully that that they won't actually chart.

Unfortunately, the first one was released in 1979, or I'd list it here too.

But in terms of interesting, fun or almost great films, a terrific decade.

And in terms of the moviegoing experience...it's to be realistically nostalgic.

A movie cost you, here in NYC, 4 to 7 bucks during the decade, Lower prices were extant, 2 dollar matinees common.

And in *single* screen theaters. That showed about three trailers.

Now: Multiplex boxes, price going up about .25 cents a year; by next year it'll be $11 + everywhere. That pre-film 'experience': four to seven outright commercials, about nine trailers, a couple more commercials, then your most-likely identi-kit crap film. (The pre-film can last up to 45 minutes--11 bucks to watch commercials!)

Even more amazing--a DVD rental still costs about 3 bucks.

So you're paying three times that to sit in cramped seats in a glorified box to watch ads and one movie.

Brilliant.