SPECIAL ARTICLE-Those OTHER 80's Movies!

A few weeks ago, I posted a blog about the amazing movies that came out in the 80’s. I listed a bunch, and then my friend Positive Troll posted a list of even more, many I never would have considered. So, after I posted that I realized that between the two us we hadn’t even scratched the surface! There are so many other movies that were never mentioned, and deserve to be. So, here are the other 80’s movies I loved.

Splash (1984)-For a silly comedy this movie is a real milestone. Tom Hanks was a sitcom star at one time. It’s true, name a sitcom from late 70’s/early 80’s and chances are he appeared on it. That started to change with this little flick. Daryl Hannah was a mermaid and Tom Hanks the man she falls in love with. This little silly comedy was lots of fun, and started the amazing movie career of Tom Hanks. Also this is one of Ron Howard’s first real directing jobs, and it was here people started to take him seriously as more than just Opie or Richie Cunningham.

Ruthless People (1987)-This Bette Midler comedy starred Danny Devito and Helen Slater. A couple kidnap their ex-boss's wife to get revenge and extort money from him. They soon realize he does not want her back and was planning to kill her himself. Meanwhile the boss's mistress plans a blackmail attempt on him which also does not go as planned.

Adventures in Babysitting (1987)-There are some movies that are almost hard to believe were made, never mind were actually hits. This is one of them. This Elizabeth Shue vehicle is about an 18 year old stuck babysitting. Suddenly, a crisis sends her into Chicago with the two children she was watching. They get involved with a gang of criminals and even a gang on a subway. This movie is totally unrealistic, but it’s also a lot of fun.

When Harry Met Sally (1989)-Do I really need to say anything about this film? I think everyone has seen this movie and loves it. Well, except me. Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan star in this cute little romantic comedy, which I have never really sat through. However, the movie is so famous I feel like I have. Of course, the scene in the restaurant where Meg Ryan simulates and orgasm is pure cinema gold.

The Goonies (1983)-Steven Spielberg directed this silly movie, which I just can’t bring myself to like for some reason. It’s just so, silly. Even when I first saw it in theatres, I remember not being able to decide how I felt about it. The kids were fun, but why did they need that Sloth character for? To this day, he ruined the movie for me.

Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)-I saw Robocop without reading about the movie; I thought it was a cool action flick, not realizing it was a gore fest. I made a similar mistake with this movie. I figured Robin Williams, this would be hilarious! Right? Wrong! I guess I was a naive kid, I should have known any movie set during the Vietnam War was going to be sad.

Turner & Hooch (1989)-Before Tom Hanks was a serious actor he was a comic actor, appearing in many 80’s comedies including the aforementioned Splash, Dragnet, The Money Pit, and this interesting film. Basically a cop buddy comedy, except the buddy is a dog.

Clue (1985)-I love this little movie! This movie is based on the Parker Bros. board game and is very funny. It has a great cast including Tim Curry, Madeline Khan, Christopher Lloyd, and many others. In the spirit of the board game, the film had three different endings and theatres played different endings at different times. I have seen this movie a hundred times, and it still makes me laugh.

Cocoon (1985)-Another great Ron Howard film. This one is hard to summarize, let’s see if I can do it. Some aliens left Earth except for a group who remained in cocoons. Year’s later four aliens arrive to pick them up. They hire a boathouse owned by Steve Guttenberg and put the cocoons in a swimming pool. The pool is charged with a life-force to so the aliens can survive the trip home. Some guys from a retirement home sneak into the pool, and the life force rejuvenates them like a fountain of youth. Anyway, there is much more but that’s the gist. This film had an amazing cast including Brian Denehy, Wilfred Brimley, and Don Ameche. I never saw the sequel that came out a few years later.

Coming to America (1988)-Eddie Murphy in a decent movie! Actually, that isn’t fair. Truth is I haven’t really been kind enough to him, in the 80’s he had some great films including 48 Hours, Trading Spaces, The Golden Child and of course Beverly Hills Cop I and II. This movie was really funny, and also starred Arsenio Hall. In this movie Murphy and Hall play many other characters, this was before it became cliché for him to do that. Murphy plays a prince coming o America to find a princess, He ends up in Queens (get it?) and hilarity ensues.

Fatal Attraction (1987)-This thriller/horror flick became an almost instant part of American landscape. Michael Douglas has an affair with Glen Close, who proceeds to become obsessed with him. I have never sat through it, but know the story so well because it has been talked about over and over in TV shows and other movies.

Overboard (1984)-This silly Garry Marshall comedy starred Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. When a wealthy heiress falls overboard and gets a case of amnesia, she winds up in the care of a man which had insulted earlier. He decides to take advantage of her and get his revenge by pretending she is his wife and using her as an indentured servant. It’s actually a cute movie, though it doesn’t sound like it.

Three Amigos (1986)-I forgot this movie? Shame! Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short. What could go wrong? Nothing, actually, since this is the funniest movie. All three actors are used to their fullest talents, and a silly plot actually works.  The plot is simply that the three out of work actors go to a Mexican town thinking they are being brought in to put on a show, turns out a woman has seen their movies and believed them to be legitimate heroes! Great fun!

Steve Martin had an interesting decade; he started it doing stupid comedies like All of Me and ended it doing more serious fare like Parenthood. Of course there were also Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Roxanne. Chevy Chase had Fletch. And Martin Short….what was he in again? Oh yeah…..

Innerspace (1987)-This science fiction comedy movie was a strange little film. Martin Short is a wimp, but one day he gets injected with a pod carrying a miniaturized Dennis Quaid. While Dennis Quaid bounces around Martin Short’s internal organs, Martin Short has to carry out a quest to find out what happened, and how to get Dennis Quaid out. Sounds silly and farfetched? Well, it is but it was also good fun. Meg Ryan is in this also, in the movie everyone forgets she did.

Man, that was silly. How worst can it get?

Space Camp (1986)-This movie is cheesy, cornball, and lame. And I loved it. I don't know why, I watched it some years after it came out and wondered what in the world made me like it. It's not god awful, but man is it cliché and corny. The whole movie is driven by an almost sentient robot. That would be ok, except this was supposed to be set in the real world! When did NASA develop sentient robots in the 80's? So the camp of kids, and the instructor played by Kate Capshaw, is sent up in the shuttle accidentally. Then, hijinks ensue! It really is cheesy, and I wonder if the NC has ever considered reviewing it because I could totally see him ripping this apart.

Secret Of My Success (1987)-Ah, remember when all you needed was to have Michael J.Fox smile at the camera, and you had a hit movie? The plot of this so silly, and yet it was a hit and I loved it. I mean. this film was #1 for five weeks. Really???  Michael J. Fox plays a kid headed to New York looking to make it big. He manages to go from a mail room job to corporate position by lying and making up an alter ego. He chases a woman played by Helen Slater, and there is lots of sexual hijinks and silly misunderstandings. In the end, Michael’s character has got it all! This movie is totally contrived, and yet it works somehow. It also featured the song “Oh Yeah” which was made famous in Ferris Bueller. Michael J Fox was box office gold in the 80's, until films like Bright Lights, Bright City and The Hard Way started to erode that reputation.

Throw Momma From The Train (1987)-I said last time that dark comedies usually aren't my thing. Heather was an exception, as was this film. This was actually a funny movie, and not too dark. This was early Danny Devito, before he got real insane (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia anyone?) Billy Crystal is great as a frustrated writer who cooks up a deal with Danny Devito, if Devito kills Crystal’s wife then Crystal has to killed DeVito's overbearing (to put it kind) mother. Ann Ramsay is fantastic in this, she great in everything from Goonies to Scrooged, before she unfortunately passed away in 1988.

The War of the Roses (1989)-And the winner for darkest dark comedy! Featuring the same cast from Romancing the Stone, we get a story about a couple going through a very ugly divorce. It is so ugly it ends up in a huge final fight which ends…..I don’t want to give it away. Let’s put it this way, ever hear about something and think “It can’t be that bad!” Yes, this is that bad. If you like really dark comedy, this is for you.

Man, I am exhausted! This decade was incredible, and I still don’t think I’ve covered it all. I love the 80’s, what a decade! Ok my friends, which one's have I forgotten?