Top 10 Eighties Flicks you gotta see in your lifetime!

Not that I am saying you should take your time with this, but don’t put off what you can do today!!

OK, now while doing research for this I realized something… I can’t go down to 10… and I can’t very well say..

Top 36 Eighties Flicks you gotta see…

So how about…

Top Eighties flicks I watched over and over and still go back to cos they are awesome…

PART 1 (It’s only fitting) Works for me…

They will not be in order as that would also be too hard, just know they all have a special place and deserve a revisit, if you haven’t watched them, take note, grab popcorn, grab the movies and watch them. It is my gift to you..

Now, let’s get started.. alphabetically…

Aliens

GAME OVER MAN! Truly one of the better mods for DOOM, Aliens played out like a video game, big, brash and over the top, I watched this over 2 minute noodles many times over. (You can take that as a recommendation.) Totally enjoyable and just mindless fragging fun!

Back to the Future

GREAT SCOTT! It is just a great movie, parts played to perfection and as a big fan of time travel it is hard to come across anything better. This one was pretty much playing almost every weekend at my house, an absolute classic and I really hope it is never re-made!

 

Batman

The Bat-Film prior to latest installment of the Batman franchise. Once again, very brash, very Burton and pretty much a playground for Nicholson, it is a great film and still very iconic. I love this film for the portrayal of the characters, Keaton was an awesome Batman, it was a shame he didn’t get a couple more films under his utility belt (it had to be said). An awesome soundtrack too with Danny Elfman and Prince giving their musical talents.

 

Beetlejuice

Keaton, Burton and Elfman are back!! WHOA! Once again more of Burton’s kooky style comes into play with more awesome performances from the cast, Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis were great as the newly deceased couple. Keaton was just a rollercoaster ride as Beetlejuice, up, down, around and through the floor. Hilarious!

Beverly Hills Cop

One of Eddie Murphy’s best, humour was top notch, cast was great, Judge Reinhold plays Billy Rosewood as the innocent cop who wants to go by the book but wants the excitement! Truly the Jewel in the Eddie Murphy library and one guaranteed to keep you bopping with a great soundtrack!

Big

A breakout role for Tom Hanks, his ability to play a kid in an adult’s body made this film an instant classic and made us all want to play chopsticks on a giant keyboard. Transformed into an adult after making a wish to be big at a zoltan machine at a town fair, he soon finds out how to make it finding work and hitting a great job in a toy company!! Another great Sunday afternoon movie!

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure

EXCELLENT! This movie brought the air guitar into full fruition and mixed in a very healthy dose of time travel. Our lovable heroes Bill and Ted are unlikely saviours of our future bringing peace to the world through their music. When they look to be separated, the powers of the future send back Rufus (George Carlin) to help them set the future back on track.

Blade Runner

Awesome film. Harrison Ford plays Deckard, a blade runner, who has to track down 4 replicants who hijacked a ship in space and have returned to Earth seeking their maker. With many debates of replicants and who is one, this film has seen many re-edits over the years but visually it is always a feast for the eyes. Honestly, the less said, the better, just enjoy!

Breakfast Club

Once again another great soundtrack and one of my favourite John Hughes films. 5 high school kids are trapped in detention on a Saturday, all from different social groups they find out about each other and learn to accept their differences. Once again, great cast and great one liners, a staple for a Hughes film.

Simple Minds’ “Don’t you forget about me” is synonymous with this film for me.

Burbs

I think this film is underrated personally, quite a bit of black humour but just the right amount of silliness too. Tom Hanks is great in this and look for his slide down the steps near the end of the film, I still wonder if that was one take.. cracks me up.

 

Clue

A great cast including Tim Curry, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean and Madeline Khan. An absolute pun-fest and cleverly written dialogue make this an enjoyable film and with it now on DVD you also get all three endings which originally had random endings sent to different cinemas to fit in with the spirit of the Cluedo boardgame. Definitely another great one to watch!!

Coming to America

Another Eddie Murphy classic with more great comedy, Arsenio Hall and make up jobs with Eddie and Arsenio playing many characters in the film. Lots of laugh out loud moments and just a highly quotable film. Girl, you look so good, someone ought to put you on a plate and sop you up with a biscuit.

 

Check back soon for Part 2: Electric Boogaloo!!

- Mike

Nick's Don't Picks - Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

Nick Watches The Bad Movies So You Don’t Have To. Featuring… Nicolas Cage: Spirit of Apology (or…"Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance")

I have a rare claim. I think I am one of the few people who, without coercion, threats of violence of blackmail, willingly purchased both of Nicolas Cage’s attempts at playing a mainstream superhero. This is MY curse, and so I feel it makes me qualified to discuss Nic C’s curse – he is more superhero than most of us will ever be, and yet unworthy of such a mantle.

No really, he chose his last name based on the guy in the above picture. Yes, the Old Spice guy.

I have seen both Ghost Rider films. That’s right – there’s TWO. After the first one, you think I’d have learnt. See the first one engendered a morbid curiosity in me – it was filmed predominantly in my home town, with Melbourne standing in for somewhere in Texas. No, really. I don’t see it either. Neil Finn probably couldn’t write as eloquent a song about Texas, but then he’s also probably not tried…Yet. So I watched, and within minutes of Cage’s first drawled delivery, I was regretting it.

SHUT UP NIC! JUST! SHUT! UP!

So why did I watch the sequel, I hear you ask? Well…I don’t really know. The synopsis worried me, and then the execution of the opening settled it - It was definitely going to be a bad movie. Years after first becoming the Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze (Nic Cage in a leather jacket), is hiding somewhere in Europe. We know this, because a wine-guzzling Idris Elba has an oooooutrageous French accent, and Anthony Stewart Head (yeah the Coffee/Buffy guy) is a monk. Monks only exist in Europe, of course. We soon have a few American actors introduced, which, by the Law of Simple Cinema, means they are the main characters. The Jon Bon Jovi one makes short work of the monks, (because Jon Bon Jovi is TOUGH) which prompts Idris to go look up Ol’ Skull Face. And thus, the redemption begins.

The film then goes through the motions of the archetypical Superhero Sequel. Hero has adjusted/not-adjusted to their new life, has a crisis of conscience and gives up their powers so to return to their life. Still gets caught up in the superheroe-y way, and has a new nemesis who he must then somehow overcome, even though now he’s just a guy now, ya’know? And finally we get a triumphant hero re-embracing their role and flying/riding/looking into a sunset. When all is said and done it IS pretty a cookie-cutter affair*, so you can’t call it out for not fitting the mould.

However, the devil is in the details and that has both true and false with Ghost Rider (literally and figuratively. One, it’s about the Devil, which means that whenever people say things like “I’ll see you in Hell!” and “Go to Hell!” In this movie, that’s sort of a Chekov’s One-Liner – it can, and most often will happen that way. But the flip side is that there is no depth – there are no details to hide the Devil. In that respect, it’s like the world’s most demonic (and worst) Where’s Wally. The other real problem, infernal punning aside, is that Johnny Blaze seems to spend the whole time repenting, but for what?! He was possessed by a flaming skull after making an ill-advised deal with the (very-real) Devil, and now he feels, what, guilty? Shut up. Deal with your mistakes, boyo.

Apparently Melbourne’s leafy streets proved too expensive, and they took off to somewhere with hills, no buildings and a passing resemblance for Generica, Europe. (I had family from Generica. They sort of looked, you know, like everyone else.) The running-away-and-hiding-in-Europe plot point is a barely disguised excuse for this shot-in-the-middle-of-nowhere look. Because this look is cheap. What’s more, this type of flimsy writing is also used to explain Nic Cage’s permanent look of confusion – he is a man on the run, on the run from…himself. And so he mopes his way around, getting all whiny about his hot-headed alter ego (yes, it’s really that subtle with its subtext), and wanting us to feel sorry for him as he tries to find a kid, and not tear through the entire effects budget every time he makes an appearance.

I went and made dinner whilst the movie was on, and that was a “go and cook something properly” type of dinner, from which I returned after 30 minutes and hadn’t missed a beat of the story. Dinner was good, by the way. New recipe, worked nice. I DID spy Christopher Lambert, after what I can only assume was a very boring shoot, and was confused as he was the only French actor yet he mucked up Idris’ French name. Didn’t matter, he wasn’t around long enough to make the same mistake twice.

You know that party game, where if you fall asleep with your shoes on, people can draw on you? Chris is a HEAVY sleeper…

And that’s probably my biggest gripe, and something Nic Cage SHOULD be apologising for. There were a few great, REALLY great character actors in this piece, and they were for the most part frittered away. Why hire these guys if you only want them to have a scene or two? And Idris Elba – dude, thankfully Thor got all the real attention during 2011, but…you are so much greater than this. I thought you were mean as hell in Luther, and your portrayal of Vaughan Rice in Ultraviolet sold the gravity of the show on me. You are a great, great actor (and probably a great guy, I haven’t met you yet).

There Nic Cage, there is a way for you to redeem your Ghost Riding ways – get Idris Elba up in the spotlight again! Make him the Black Panther! Make him Iasiah Bradley! MAKE MY LOST 96 MINUTES WORTH SOMETHING, DAMMIT!

Ah, who am I kidding? It’s Nic Cage. He has two expressions, and one of them is the direct result of the other.

He can go from Confused to Crazy in less than 12 parsecs…

One Flaming Skull (Out of Five) - Don’t watch this film.

*”The Cookie-Cutter Affair” is my new band, we have a single called “Chocolate Explosion (Delicious Shrapnel)”. Look us up.