TS: Movies From the 80s vs. Movies About the 80s

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Just after taking my sleeping pill, I discovered my cable is out, and therefore I couldn't put on ESPN to fall asleep to, so made my usual choice between Grosse Pointe Blank and St. Elmo's Fire.

Movies about cute puppy dogs are obviously better than movies filmed in cute puppy dogs, but does the same hold true for the Eighties?

Side question about soundtracks, etc.

― Tep (ktepi), Thursday, 8 May 2003 06:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I think I'd have to go with 'from the 80s' slightly edging out the other - when I see them now, I can just about remember what it felt like to be 16, but when I see things like GPB, I think "holy fuck, when did John Cusack start looking like an adult? FUCK THAT MEANS I MUST, TOO!"

― luna (luna.c), Thursday, 8 May 2003 06:43 (twenty-two years ago)

You look like an adult, but not in a bad way. Cusack's aged well, too, he's less gawky now. I mean, it was a gawkiness that worked, but now it's a non-gawkiness that works.

I blame the sleeping pill for my not phrasing this question well enough, because I now realize "movies from the 80s" is such a broader category that it would have to win unless someone wanted to argue for The Wedding Singer as the perfect movie. But I think by "movies from the 80s" I meant the ones people would rent for an "80s movie marathon." The John Hughes movies, Wargames, maybe Tron, etc.

― Tep (ktepi), Thursday, 8 May 2003 06:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Be that way.

― luna (luna.c), Thursday, 8 May 2003 06:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Be like Tron?

Zooooooom.

(That's me on a lightcycle. It's surprisingly identical to the sound of me, circa age 8, on one of those Endor hovercycle things from Jedi).

― Tep (ktepi), Thursday, 8 May 2003 07:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I got that's what you meant, Tep :)

This is a tough one, but mainly because two of my favourite films in this arena are Grosse Point Blank and Ferris Buellers Day Off.

But then again, some films about/set in the 80s are shit (like Wedding Singer). And some are brilliant (Donnie Darko).

I can't decide. I'm going to cry now.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 8 May 2003 07:02 (twenty-two years ago)

It's versatile.

― luna (luna.c), Thursday, 8 May 2003 07:03 (twenty-two years ago)

The Wedding Singer had its moments, though, and not just the old lady doing "Rapper's Delight." Billy Idol! On the plane! PLAYING BILLY IDOL!

Fuck, Billy Idol should play Billy Idol in every movie. I mean, even like Rambo IV. Rambo can be on a plane, putting his bandana on and everything, and Billy Idol can just be all, "Hi, I'm Billy Idol." I'd watch that damn movie.

― Tep (ktepi), Thursday, 8 May 2003 07:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Also, I apparently can't read or I may have understood that as well...
< /Wayne's World Oscar Winning Moment>

― luna (luna.c), Thursday, 8 May 2003 07:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Wasn't Pi set in the eighties? At least they were using floppy disks in that film.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 8 May 2003 07:07 (twenty-two years ago)

It's only a matter of time before someone mentions The Breakfast Club.

― kate, Thursday, 8 May 2003 08:44 (twenty-two years ago)

The Breakfast Club

― someone (Oops), Thursday, 8 May 2003 08:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Mannequin.

― Matt (Matt), Thursday, 8 May 2003 09:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Pretty In Pink

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 8 May 2003 09:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Apparently a remake of "Can't Buy Me Love" is coming out. Wonderful, ruin one of the greats.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Thursday, 8 May 2003 10:20 (twenty-two years ago)

posting quickly because I need to be in a study group soon

Movies from the '80s beat out movies about the '80s right now, because there hasn't been a single movie out there that has been made about the '80s that has been made well. They all seem to delve into stereotypes or cartoonishness or something else that doesn't capture the whole spirit of the '80s.

Besides, it was the '80s that spawned not only "The Breakfast Club" and "War Games" and the John Hughes teen movies, but also came up with one of the coolest movies about smart people ever, "Real Genius". I adore that movie. "Would you consider that a launch flaw or a design flaw?" Aaaaand closing up the decade was another great "young people rebelling!" movie, this time on a more serious note -- "Pump Up the Volume". That was another great movie.

― Dee the Semi-Lurker (Dee the Lurker), Thursday, 8 May 2003 18:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Movies from the 80s generally, but I thought The Last Days of Disco (1998) pretty much got it right.

― felicity (felicity), Thursday, 8 May 2003 19:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Hmmm, should Last Days of Disco count? I liked that movie a lot, but didn't it take place in 1980-81? Technically, that's the eighties, but is it THE EIGHTIES?

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 8 May 2003 19:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Well I think Dee was correctly noting that movies about the 1980s (such as Bonfire of the Vanities and American Psycho) often devolve into Spy magazine-type caricatures (for comic effect, in the latter case) whereas LDoD captured the mixture of Reagan-era conservatism and New York City-style decadence with more subtlety than other period pieces. It's certainly not a "70s" movie.

― felicity (felicity), Thursday, 8 May 2003 19:21 (twenty-two years ago)

I think Earth Girls are Easy is the ultimate movie both about and from the 80s.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 8 May 2003 19:47 (twenty-two years ago)

you guys forgot SLC Punk!

― Millar (Millar), Thursday, 8 May 2003 20:07 (twenty-two years ago)

"200 Cigarettes" had its heart in the right place, I suppose, but still managed to get it kinda wrong, I thought.

Favorite singularly 80's films: "After Hours", Penelope Spheeris' "Suburbia," "Desperately Seeking Susan."

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 8 May 2003 21:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Well considering I just received Electric Boogaloo on DVD yesterday (after a very very long wait), I must vote the film as the ultimate 80's flick, th ultimate 80's dance flick as well. Such magic cannot be recreated. The film deserves its own thread (and probably has one, somewhere).

― Kate Silver (Kate Silver), Thursday, 8 May 2003 22:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Oooh Suburbia - nice choice Alex, I'd forgotten about it. It captures that gawky 80s punk scene so well, I think somewhat because they didn't use actors (apparently). And Flea looks so cute!. I loved that film as a teen, it really inspired me. Well, not as far as branding myself on the arm or anything, but yeah.

I'm now debating wether or not Liquid Sky is a classic 80s movie, or a cringeworthy example of fashion disaster city.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 8 May 2003 23:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I side with the movies about the 80s. So far all the movies made in the 80s that people have cited have been rubathons.

It's funny how 'from the 80s' is taken to mean 'movies from the 80s about (largely) middle class young people living kind of regular lives in America in the 80s with a few crazy things happening to them'.

Except Tron, maybe.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 8 May 2003 23:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Maybe its the soundtracks?

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 8 May 2003 23:40 (twenty-two years ago)

I think Donnie Darko was so beloved in part because of its 1988 setting.

― Fivvy (Fivvy), Thursday, 8 May 2003 23:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes. Esp. the Dukakis argument.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 8 May 2003 23:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I agree, I loved the 1988 setting - that was my last year od school so it kinda resonates with me.

And again - soundtrack!

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 8 May 2003 23:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Even though it was from all over the place, 80s wise. If it really had started with 'Never Tear Us Apart' it would have been better, though totally worse.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 8 May 2003 23:58 (twenty-two years ago)

I just saw this horrible movie The In-Laws, with Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks, that seemed like it was straight outta the bowels of the '80s. Does that count?

― slutsky (slutsky), Friday, 9 May 2003 00:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I never want to see that film EVER, for one reason - a banner ad for it popped up on a website I was looking at, AND IT HAD SOUND. It was like a TV commercial gettin' in my face on the web! ARGH.

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 9 May 2003 00:32 (twenty-two years ago)

The deliberate cheese of some 80's musicals is quite stunning - Grease 2, The Pirate Movie, Voyage of the Rock Aliens

― Kim (Kim), Friday, 9 May 2003 00:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Nalini (my housemate) made me sit through Xanadu on the evening of my birthday party, the evil beeatch. "oh no really, this film's GRATE!" she insisted. And then left the room ten minutes later! Whereas I found myself sitting in front of it somehow.

It was cheesier than a slab of gorgonzola left in the sun.

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 9 May 2003 00:50 (twenty-two years ago)

That's one of those non-cult-movies with a weird cultish following, like Somewhere in Time.

― slutsky (slutsky), Friday, 9 May 2003 00:51 (twenty-two years ago)

oh, and my point was that I don't think anything made "in the style of" could even be from the same plane of weird - it's sort of an isolated phenomenon.

― Kim (Kim), Friday, 9 May 2003 00:56 (twenty-two years ago)

John Hughes films from the 80s rock over films made about the 80s. And whoever made Better Off Dead. Though Bond was at an all time low in that decade.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Friday, 9 May 2003 02:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Can someone explain to me, just once, why John Hughes films are actually good without me getting any sense that you are being ironic in your appreciation.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 9 May 2003 10:49 (twenty-two years ago)

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 9 May 2003 10:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I like them.

You're right about 'films from the 80s', upthread.

I like Last Days of Disco a lot too.

― the pinefox, Friday, 9 May 2003 12:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I like them.

This will not do.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 9 May 2003 12:05 (twenty-two years ago)

For better or worse, at a time when other movies treated teenagers almost exclusively as either sex-starved farce-players or slightly-larger-small-children, John Hughes's teen comedy/dramas treated them seriously.

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 9 May 2003 12:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Felicity is sooooo RIGHT about The Last Days Of Disco.

On the British side: My Beautiful Launderette! Lair of the White Worm!

― suzy (suzy), Friday, 9 May 2003 12:18 (twenty-two years ago)

What Tep said, though in fact my favorite Hughes movie is his least serious, Ferris Bueller's Day Off -- though Cameron's wound-up hyperangst fills the bill.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 9 May 2003 12:21 (twenty-two years ago)

The deliberate cheese of some 80's musicals is quite stunning - Grease 2, The Pirate Movie, Voyage of the Rock Aliens

I loved the Pirate Movie! There is just something about campy singing pirates that is both timeless and classic. AND it has Christy McNichol! What more could one ask for?

― Nicole (Nicole), Friday, 9 May 2003 12:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Did anyone else have a crush on Mia Sara in FBDO.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Friday, 9 May 2003 12:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Re: JH. When you're a kid, those sorts of films only work if you're able to identify with, or at least not be intensely irritated by, some of the characters.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 9 May 2003 12:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, Chris, you're not alone...

I loved the Pirate Movie!

The one moment I remember with awful clarity is the Pirate King saying he was Frankie Avalon and the sidekick saying he was Annette Funicello. WTF?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 9 May 2003 12:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Exactly.

― Nicole (Nicole), Friday, 9 May 2003 12:27 (twenty-two years ago)

What Tep said, though in fact my favorite Hughes movie is his least serious, Ferris Bueller's Day Off -- though Cameron's wound-up hyperangst fills the bill.

I always forget it -is- a John Hughes movie (and judging from IMDB, he followed it up by directing Planes, Trains, and Automobiles and writing Some Kind of Wonderful, which just seems to fit). Ferris is still taken more seriously than the kids in Porky's or some such, but yeah, it's no Breakfast Club in that respect.

(I don't know if it's less serious than Weird Science, though.)

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 9 May 2003 12:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Chris V - oh yes, and there's Samantha mathis in Pump up the volume too.

― chris (chris), Friday, 9 May 2003 12:30 (twenty-two years ago)

oh yeah, i forgot about her. and Phoebe Cates.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Friday, 9 May 2003 12:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Now there's a great film.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 9 May 2003 12:33 (twenty-two years ago)

And then Kevin Williamson came along ten years later and said, "Okay, John Hughes had the right idea, appealling to the teens by giving them characters who acted more like teens -- or more like teens wanted to see themselves and have others see them -- now let's do that, only also, we should put someone in the movie who kills many of them."

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 9 May 2003 12:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Is it just me, or does it seem like ages since there was a new movie made in the '80s?

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 9 May 2003 18:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, like about 13 years.

― NA. (Nick A.), Friday, 9 May 2003 18:59 (twenty-two years ago)

You know, I recently saw Planes, Trains and Automobiles again and I loved it. One of the 10 best of the decade, in my opinion.

― slutsky (slutsky), Friday, 9 May 2003 19:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, it does seem something like that, Nick. Odd. It's given films about the '80s a big edge lately.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 9 May 2003 19:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I was gonna say Liquid Sky.

― Sean (Sean), Friday, 9 May 2003 20:13 (twenty-two years ago)

STRIPES
GHOSTBUSTERS
CADDYSHACK

and don't forget ICE PIRATES.

― Millar (Millar), Friday, 9 May 2003 20:44 (twenty-two years ago)

The Pirate Movie, Grease 2 and Midnight Madness babysat me through many nights on HBO. Loved them. I even bought Midnight Madness on ebay just so I could relive.

― Carey (Carey), Friday, 9 May 2003 21:20 (twenty-two years ago)

No Robby Benson?? Well, we at least need a representative of the 'leaving-hell-to-go-to-the-paradise-that-is-Southern-California genre of films.

― oops (Oops), Friday, 9 May 2003 21:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Fast Times at Ridgemont High

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Saturday, 10 May 2003 03:22 (twenty-two years ago)

That'd be my pick for best of the 80s-movies-that-are-distinctly-80s-movies, I think. It's like the slightly grimmer side of the John Hughes world (I know, it's not a John Hughes movie, but you know what I mean. You could move a lot of the characters back and forth and everyone would still fit together).

Also, as a kid I loved the TV show of it, with Courtney Thorne-Smith playing Jennifer Jason Leigh's role. But it was probably crap.

― Tep (ktepi), Saturday, 10 May 2003 03:25 (twenty-two years ago)

sixteen years pass...

J Hoberman on movies in the Age of Reagan

https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/interview-j-hoberman-talks-make-my-day-ronald-reagan-and-80s-movie-culture/

― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 21 August 2019 15:25 (six years ago)

Didn't know anything about a new Hoberman book--will pick that up for sure.

― clemenza, Wednesday, 21 August 2019 16:46 (six years ago)

that was a good read

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 21 August 2019 16:49 (six years ago)

I still find his taste eyerolling... the kneejerk Spielberg hostility to name one strand

― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 22 August 2019 00:45 (six years ago)

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