ShrykeVerse Top Movies of the 80's Countdown

[numbersix]

18

Boosch: Excellent film, mostly for that incredible scene where the wife recounts her story. As for John's comment, its realism or lack of is entirely irrelevant.

John: I'm not sure I've seen this, or if I have it was as a kid and I can't recall anything. I should definitely revisit. I did attend a week-long project workshop a few years back and Matthew Robbins was one of our mentors. He loved bringing up his friendship with Spielberg and claimed he provided a lot of ideas for Jaws and Close Encounters. And told us a bit about his Lovecraft adaptation with Del Toro that Tom Cruise was attached to, and they still couldn't get finance for it.

Ron: While it's no Godfather, it's still a fine epic, and a swansong for an incredible director. I didn't know there was an even longer version of it on Blu-Ray, and not sure if it needs to be.

Starlord: Lots of fun and a clever way of doing a sequel.

Tranny: Will this end up being the collective #1 between us all? Or will you all turn out to be secret Varda fans and have Vagabond as your top film of the 80s.

[Buscemi2]

Midnight Run wasn't the 80's Martin Brest comedy I expected to appear so many times.

As for At the Mountains of Madness, I remember del Toro approached Phil Tippett to revive the project as an animated feature some time ago. Kind of surprised Netflix hasn't tried to get involved yet.

[transformers2]

#17
Boosh: Evil Dead II (1987)


JohnErle: Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
A hilarious, beautifully choreographed musical for people who normally hate musicals. And for what it's worth, I much prefer the happy ending that was added after test audiences loathed the original, everybody dies ending.


Ron: Platoon (1986)


six: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Here’s one to debate. This is the only Indy film on my list. Yes, it is better than Raiders. The original is an excellent piece of adventure cinema, but I think the third film is just as fun and playful with the action as the first, but with a tad more emotional depth and a lot more humour through adding Indy’s stuffy father to the mix. The zeppelin, tank, and biplane sequences are iconic, and seeing Ford and Connery play off each other is a joy


StarLord: Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)


transformers: Road House (1989)
A traveling, sport car-driving bouncer goes from town to town to kick the asses of the riff raff that populate a given bar or club finally meets his match when he takes a job in a small Missouri town that's run by a corrupt business tycoon and falls in love with a young doctor is a ridiculous enough logline, but it merely offers a tease of the over-the-top ridiculousness Road House offers up. To envoke Bill Hader's SNL character Stefon, Road House has everything: A heavy dose of meathead machoism with heavily homoerotic undertones, Patrick Swayze ripping out the throats of miscellaneous henchmen, a sex scene montage that feels like it lasts for about 20 minutes, a mustachioed AND mulleted Sam Elliott as the Yoda of traveling ass-kicking bouncers and a final fight sequence so brazen and unhinged that it needs to be seen to be believed. It's a big, hulking ball of idiocy that serves as a beautiful encapsulation of this decade of B-action slugfests and for that alone, I'll always view Road House with the type of reverence that is typically reserved for the films of Bergman, Hitchcock and Welles.

Bonus Note: If there's no throat rips in the upcoming remake, I'm going full gatekeeper mode on Doug Liman and the screenwriters.

[JohnErle]

Evil Dead II – I love it, but it didn't make my list. That's yet another honourable mention I won't have to honourably mention later.

Platoon & LW2 – See previous comments.

Indy's Last Crusade – You'll get no debate from me. It's my favourite Indy film of them all, even though the original is loads of fun.

Road House – I'm sure I saw it, but I have no memory of it. That “I used to fuck guys like you in prison” line made me laugh because Swayze always seemed like too much of a pretty boy for the role, but maybe that was the whole point, or maybe that line was added after Swayze won the role? I definitely don't remember any throat rips in the movie, so now I wonder if that's where MacGruber's obsession with ripping throats comes from?

[transformers2]

I definitely don't remember any throat rips in the movie, so now I wonder if that's where MacGruber's obsession with ripping throats comes from?

That is indeed where it came from. Genuinely one of my favorite homages in movie history.

[Buscemi2]

Oh, let's have a Patrick Swayze Christmas this year! / Or we'll tear your throat out and kick you in the ear! - Mystery Science Theater 3000

Related to Road House, I wonder if anyone ever called about that great Buick.

[numbersix]

17

Boosch: I don't go for comedy horror that much, but Raimi realising that his series was actually funnier than scarier was a moment of genius. Gallons of bloody fun...

John: ... But when comedy horror is a musical, not even that is enough to make me get over my phobia of musicals.

Ron: This is coming up a lot. A good but not great film for me.

Starlord: This has come up twice - two times too many

Tranny: I cannot think of this film without hearing Peter Griffin saying its title. Silly doesn't come close, and everything is throwaway. About 2 Christmasses ago it was lockdown so I was at home with my family and I sat with my mother to watch a film. This was on TV, and I figured it would be harmless enough, forgetting that every goofy 80s action movie had a volery of exposed boobs. Despite being nearly 40 at the time, I still cringed at every one.

[JohnErle]

About 2 Christmasses ago it was lockdown so I was at home with my family and I sat with my mother to watch a film. This was on TV, and I figured it would be harmless enough, forgetting that every goofy 80s action movie had a volery of exposed boobs. Despite being nearly 40 at the time, I still cringed at every one.

Your Mom spent two hours staring at Patrick Swayze's boobs, so why should she have all the fun?

[Buscemi2]

It was her way or the highway, probably.

[transformers2]

#16
Boosh: Aliens (1986)


John: The Living Daylights (1987)
It hit theatres when I was 15 and at the height of my James Bond obsession, so it's hardly surprising it's my favourite Bond film. As the first 007 film I saw in theatres, it'll always be special to me, and as the last time Bond went behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War, it was the last time 007 felt relevant to the modern world. Battling ultra-rich megalomaniacs is all well and good, but Bond just doesn't have the same mystique without the KGB.


Ron: Das Boot (1981)


six: This is Spinal Tap (1984)
When I was younger I demanded that a film needed a great story, characters, and philosophical themes to qualify as a good film. I’ve eased up a little as I get older, and sometimes you just to have a good time and that’s enough. The 80s were full of gag-fest films, and this one is by far the best, an iconic mockumentary making fun of the excesses of rock. Every scene is hilarious, and endlessly quotable.


StarLord: The Abyss (1989)


transformers: Raising Arizona (1987)
For my money, this is the most underrated entry in the Coen Brothers filmography. Led by a consistently sharp screwball sense of humor and pitch-perfect performances from the likes of Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, John Goodman and William Forsythe, it's an exceptional early showcase of their gift for telling crime stories that feature some of the most endearing idiot weirdos that have ever made their way to the silver screen.

[numbersix]

Boosch: Is this its first appearance. Won't be the last.

John: Bond just ain't for me. Liked the theme tune though

Ron: Like Fanny and Alexander, I wondered if it was better as a mini-series than a film. In Das Boot's case, I think it's a better series.

Starlord: Not Cameron's finest work, but still very watchable, and full of wonder. In many ways it's his attempt at Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Not nearly as good, but not bad either.

Tranny: Utter oddball chaos, and hilarious in places.

[transformers2]

#17
Boosh: There's a legendary (mostly) repertory theater down the street from Harvard called The Brattle that plays a 35mm print of this every year on Halloween Eve and Halloween that I've always wanted to go to, but have never gotten the opportunity since public transportation is so comically crowded on those days in my area (one of the perks of living in a place that directly neighbors the Halloween capital of the world.) I'll have to settle for firing this up on Tubi for my long-overdue first watch instead.

John: Kind of funny, kind of obnoxious musical/horror/comedy hybrid that's elevated considerably by a terrific Rick Moranis performance.

Ron: Sufficiently bleak for a Vietnam movie, but I felt that Oliver Stone's direction was too flat to really hammer home the horrors of the story.

six and StarLord: Terrific films that already appeared on my list that I'm glad showed up elsewhere.

I also have to say that I laughed very hard at the image of six trying to unwind on Christmas by watching Road House with his mom, only to be greeted with a parade of boobs. The direness of 2020 really manifested itself in strange ways for us all.

#16
Boosh: Haven't seen it.

John: Also haven't seen it.

Ron: Let's go for the turkey: Haven't seen it.

six: Finally, something I can comment on! It speaks volumes about how weird my friends and I were growing up that within a matter of months of discovering Best in Show in the 8th grade, we sought out every Christopher Guest vehicle we could find and within 18 months, we'd seen basically everything he'd ever been involved with. While I'm not fully confident I understood all of the humor by the time I saw Spinal Tap for the first time (I was 14/15 at the time), I loved it nonetheless and that love has unsurprisingly endured with time as I'm still a big fan of Guest's work and the type of music they're parodying. It's actually been forever since I've seen it, so a rewatch is definitely in order.

StarLord: 2 of the 3 prominent James Cameron movies I haven't seen showing up on the same day?!?! What a fucking weird coincidence

[JohnErle]

Aliens – I like it, but not enough to list it.

Das Boot – I never did watch this, but I really should. I love a good submarine movie, and by all accounts this is one of the best.

This Is Spinal Tap – This was one of the last cuts from my list, and I already regret it. I knew someone else would pick it eventually, but it's so hilarious and influential and surprisingly poignant that it deserved a spot on my list. I would argue it does have great characters and a great story, and you could say it's about doing what you love no matter what, and finding happiness on your own terms, so if that's not a philosophical theme, I don't know what is.

The Abyss – An underrated Cameron effort, but not quite list-worthy for me. The underwater photography is outstanding.

Raising Arizona – An early criticism of the Coen Brothers was that they had contempt for their own characters, treating them as objects of ridicule, as opposed to something like Spinal Tap where everyone involved obviously loved those harmless, headbanging nitwits. I felt a little bit of that contempt the last time I re-watched this, and it put me off a bit. That, plus the fact that the best was yet to come for Joel & Ethan made me leave this off my list.

[transformers2]

#15
Boosh: Brazil (1985)


John: The Thing (1982)
Released on the same weekend as Blade Runner, both movies were overshadowed at the box office by the juggernaut that was E.T., yet both are enduring and influential cult classics. You can't talk about the movies of the 80s without mentioning John Carpenter, and this is his masterpiece.


Ron: The Verdict (1982)


six: Akira (1988)
I still remember seeing this for the first time late night on television. I never knew that there were animations designed for adults, and was stunned and shocked to see such a violent film. It’s horrific, disgusting in places, but also awe-inspiring with its rich world that at the time felt almost mind-bending. I am so glad the Hollywood remake never got off the ground.


StarLord: Batman (1989)


transformers: This is Spinal Tap (1984)
As I mentioned yesterday when six picked it, I discovered Christopher Guest's movies as a teenager and instantly became enamored with them. While Best in Show remains my favorite work of his, This is Spinal Tap is a close second. It does a great job of poking fun at the inherent ridiculousness and absurdity of heavy metal music while also expressing reverence for the people that make it and like all of Guest's best efforts, the quotability of the dialogue is through the roof.

[Buscemi2]

It could have been worse, John. Blade Runner and The Thing could have been overshadowed by Megaforce.