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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 14, 2023 15:29:43 GMT -5
Clearly the best movie from 1983 was BMX Bandits.  Hey Nicole Kidman could ride a mean bike back then... I just watched my actual #1 from 1983 a few nights ago, WarGames. I still love it, it captured everything about the time so well. I think this is a good example of the smaller roles carrying a lot of weight in the movie. Matthew Broderick was ok, and Ally Sheedy in particular was fun, but many of the more bit parts were so memorable. Even the opening scene to "test" the resolve of the USAF captain in the simulated nuclear attack, and a young Michael Madsen as the lieutenant holding him at gunpoint to perform the "proper procedure". When Sonny Black tells you to turn the key, you turn the key! Barry Corbin's bluster as General Beringer was priceless, who can forget his classic "Howdy Doody" line. A young Maury Chaykin as one of the "computer nerds" who tells Broderick's character about the "back doors" to systems, now I look back and say "that's Nero Wolfe!". And of course Dabney Coleman as Dr. McKittrick. Even Broderick's character's parents were hilarious. To some the movie may feel a bit dated, yet interesting how 40 years later it feels relevant again? Kind of scary actually. I haven't seen WarGames in at least 35 years. I didn't love it at the time, so I've been in no real hurry to revisit it. |
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Post by berkley on Apr 14, 2023 18:57:29 GMT -5
going through the list here are some of the movies I remember liking from 1983:
Breathless - I thought this was quite fun and enjoyed the comic book references; it isn't the landmark film that the original was but good entertainment. They might have been better off calling it something else, as I see it more as a tribute than a remake.
Doctor Detroit - can't remember much other than finding it funny and entertaining at the time. I've never been a huge Dan Ackroyd fan and this might actually be the best I've liked anything Ive seen him in, perhaos apart from Ghostbusters.
Easy Money - it's Rodney Dangerfield: if you like his schtick, you'll like the movie. I do and do.
Educating Rita - one of Michael Caine's better roles, after, if I remember right, a few years of him doing a lot of sclhock.
The King of Comedy - I didn't actually see this until a few years later on video. Considered a bit of a departure for Scorsese and Deniro but everything they did back then was of interest. Probably a little under-rated.
Krull - saw it,as I did anything I could that was SF or fantasy related, but can't recall any details I think I liked it, though.
Lone Wolf McQuade - I think this was a bit more upscale compared to other Chuck Norris movies around this time - better production values, etc, relatively speaking, or so it seemed at the time.
The Man with Two Brains - probably my favourite Steve Martin movie but there are a few big ones I've missed.
The Meaning of Life - probably my least favourite Python but it still contains some classic bits.
Mr. Mom - enjoyable comedy. I always liked Terri Garr in almost anything.
Never Say Never Again - I didn't think this was too bad. At the time I thought it was better than Connery's previous outing, Diamonds are Forever, but that isn't saying a lot.
Octopussy - I liked this as I liked all the Roger Moore Bonds, for what they were. I can't really place which this one was, off the top of my head.
The Outsiders - I had read the book a few years earlier so was excited about the movie. I think Coppola did a good job adapting it to film. The cast mostly felt right for all the characters - Swayze as the leader, for example.
Return of the Jedi - I think I saw it three times during its first run - usually films didn't stay around in theatres long enough to do that. It felt like a very satisfying conclusion to the story at the time, in spite of the annoying Ewoks.
Risky Business - never have liked Tom Cruise much but this was an entertaining movie geared towards a young audience, which I was part of then.
Rumble Fish - this one I had not read, but it's probably a more interesting piece of film-making than Outsiders. Great use of black and white, unusual soundtrack, good casting with Mickey Rourke.
Scarface - I still think this is one of Pacino's best performances, over the top though it may be. The first half especially. I think the second half, when his character is at the top and then declining, is less interesting.
Sudden Impact - I had seen the earlier Dirty Harry movies on tv only so this was my first time seeing one new at the cinema. I thought it was a solid addition to the series.
To Be or Not to Be - I remember finding this just a little disappointing compared to the brilliance of Young Frankenstein, etc. There was one funny recurring bit with the dumb Nazi henchmen who was confused by the simplest question, would start sputtering incoherently, and then try to save himself by saying "Heil Hitler!"
Twilight Zone: The Movie - as a fan of the tv show I was disappointed but otherwise it was entertaining enough.
Videodrome - classic Cronenberg but I didn't get to see it until I think the early 1990s, on video.
Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain - great movie, and indispensable for anyone interested in HK movies in general, but another one I didn't see until around 10 or 12 years later on video.
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Post by badwolf on Apr 17, 2023 12:13:38 GMT -5
1983:
Videodrome
A Christmas Story
À Nos Amours
A Summer in Saint Tropez
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Post by commond on Apr 17, 2023 18:04:59 GMT -5
Sans Soleil is my favorite film from 1983 and my favorite documentary from Chris Marker. I also liked Videodrome and The Right Stuff. One film I studied in screenwriting was Tender Mercies, Bruce Beresford's brilliant film about a recovering alcoholic country music singer. There are a slew of good Japanese films including The Family Game, Ballard of Nakayama and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. I had a hard time getting into Bresson's L'Argent, but I enjoyed Tarkovsky's Nostalghia. Zelig is fun for what it is.
I love Maurice Pialat, but I can't remember off the top of my head whether I've seen Non a Amours. I know for a fact that I've never seen The Big Chill even though I'm a sucker and like stuff like Terms of Endearment. El Norte and The Dresser are two highly rated films I haven't seen from this year. I should probably check out The Fourth Man, too, since I like Paul Verhoeven's pre-Hollywood stuff.
My favorite scene from 1983 is definitely this:
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Post by tartanphantom on Apr 17, 2023 21:19:34 GMT -5
Sans Soleil is my favorite film from 1983 and my favorite documentary from Chris Marker. I also liked Videodrome and The Right Stuff. One film I studied in screenwriting was Tender Mercies, Bruce Beresford's brilliant film about a recovering alcoholic country music singer. There are a slew of good Japanese films including The Family Game, Ballard of Nakayama and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. I had a hard time getting into Bresson's L'Argent, but I enjoyed Tarkovsky's Nostalghia. Zelig is fun for what it is. I love Maurice Pialat, but I can't remember off the top of my head whether I've seen Non a Amours. I know for a fact that I've never seen The Big Chill even though I'm a sucker and like stuff like Terms of Endearment. El Norte and The Dresser are two highly rated films I haven't seen from this year. I should probably check out The Fourth Man, too, since I like Paul Verhoeven's pre-Hollywood stuff. My favorite scene from 1983 is definitely this: Local Hero is such a great film. One of Bill Forsythe's best... to me it's a dead heat tie between Local Hero and Comfort & Joy. |
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Post by berkley on Apr 17, 2023 22:03:04 GMT -5
I listed all those movies and didn't pick a favourite. Going through them again, nothing really stands out, to be honest, so I suppose I'll have to go with Return of the Jedi, even though my it's lost some of its allure for me over the years.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 25, 2023 15:21:23 GMT -5
Finally to 1984. (last week was insane). Ghostbusters - Who ya gonna call? This movie just slays me. Bill Murray is absolutely brilliant. Rick Moranis slays as Louis Tully. And nobody plays a dick quite like William Atherton. It's a great meshing of humor and special effects. Definitely one of the great comedies of the 80s. Super under-rated performance by the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. And oh so quotable. The Terminator - A bunch of my friends and I went to see this in high school when it first came out. That was pretty out of the usual as we didn't go to a lot of movies. Mostly, one night of the weekend was reserved for D&D and one night for drinking, dates and/or chasing girls. So it was clearly an important movie. I still like this better than T2. Just a great SF action film with the kind of grit that would, by and large, be lost with the bloating of budgets in SF action films to come. This was truly the film that made Arnold a star. This is Spinal Tap - This one just turned it up to 11, now didn't it? Just a hilarious movie and probably the first mockumentary I ever saw. And it made me a fan for life. The movie feels genuine and seems to have resonated with musicians, with Dokken's George Lynch proclaiming, "That's us! How'd they make a movie about us?" This was also where I really discovered Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer. There really is no song quite like "Lick My Love Pump." Gremlins - I didn't see this until well after the fact, but I do really like this movie. It's a super fun wild ride. And there is some sneaky subversive parody happening here that tends to evade most people watching. I don't think it's a great movie and the pacing is all over the place. But it's a ton of fun. And Phoebe Cates is adorable. Blood Simple - The Coen Brothers debut is just a brilliant neo-noir mashed up with a low-budget horror film. Given the complete lack of experience of the Coens and lead actress Frances McDormand it is astounding how great this movie is. M. Emmett Walsh is always a joy. This has the kind of convoluted Byzantine plot we expect to find from an old-fashioned film noir and their precedents in literary noir...fitting for a film that takes its title from Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest. An amazing visual treat. Beverly Hills Cop - I think people forget how huge this movie was. A box-office smash. Critically well regarded. But it seems like you aren't going to hear about it when people are talking 1984 movies. And that's too bad, because it's a very entertaining movie. Funny. Good action. A pretty important step in both the Buddy Cop and the Action Comedy genres. Eddie Murphy was just a great performer when given the right roles. And this was definitely the right role. Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes - I know that a lot of people don't like this movie, but I like it quite a bit. I actually saw this one in the theater also because...Burroughs. I still think that it does a pretty decent job of distilling Burroughs in to a reasonable modern film. I would be interested in seeing that film that Hugh Hudson filmed, since Warner Brothers hacked away a bunch of it. And I honestly don't love Andi MacDowell in the movie. But overall I think it's as good as Tarzan gets on screen. As usual there are many films I've either not seen or not seen in far too long. Including; most of the big foreign language films; Paris, Texas; Once Upon a Time in America (I need to see this one again); Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind; Repo Man; The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension; So what's my favorite film of 1984? Tough one. Honestly a lot of super fun movies that I've watched a bazillion times. Today it's probably This is Spinal Tap. But on another day it might be Ghostbusters or Terminator or Blood Simple. And 1984 in film for those as need a look. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 25, 2023 15:35:59 GMT -5
Yeah, Spinal Tap would probably be my choice for this year as well.
Also interesting to see someone else who likes Greystoke; I've always looked at it as an attempt to make an arthouse Tarzan movie.
Two others from 1984 not mentioned but among my personal favorites from that period: Search for Spock and Romancing the Stone.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 25, 2023 15:46:57 GMT -5
Yeah, Spinal Tap would probably be my choice for this year as well. Also interesting to see someone else who likes Greystoke; I've always looked at it as an attempt to make an arthouse Tarzan movie. Two others from 1984 not mentioned but among my personal favorites from that period: Search for Spock and Romancing the Stone. I haven't watched either Search For Spock or Romancing the Stone in eons. I remember liking, but not loving both. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 25, 2023 18:00:34 GMT -5
Broadway Danny Rose.
I didn’t see it when it first came out. I saw it on TV when I lived in L.A. in the early 1990s. I laugh from start to finish. For a while I was washing it about once a year.
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Post by commond on Apr 25, 2023 18:44:22 GMT -5
1984 is Amadeus hands down. Absolutely incredible film. F. Murray Abraham is brilliant, the script is brilliant, the direction is brilliant, and it's one of those rare films that heightened my appreciation of its subject -- Mozart's music.
Nausicca makes me cry every time, damnit. Stranger Than Paradise is the coolest film of the 80s. Paris, Texas is pretty good, too. Broadway Danny Rose is great, and one of my favorite Woody Allen films. I'm also a big fan of the documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk.
Best soundtrack goes to Purple Rain.
Man, looking through the list of films from this year reminds me of weekend trips to the video store and Saturday night movies on TV... Terminator, Ghostbusters, Nightmare on Elm Street, Beverly Hills Cop, The Karate Kid, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Gremlins, Splash, Starman, Romancing the Stone, The Muppets Take Manhattan, The Last Starfighter, Toxic Avenger, Police Academy, Revenge of the Nerds, The NeverEnding Story... that's a huge chunk of my childhood right there.
Also interesting to see how many acclaimed 90s directors were busy cutting their teeth at the time.
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Post by badwolf on May 3, 2023 11:53:14 GMT -5
1984:
Sixteen Candles
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Dreamscape
Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer
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Post by Slam_Bradley on May 4, 2023 12:49:01 GMT -5
Onward to 1985. Back to the Future - I don't care that time travel doesn't generally make any sense. It's fun. And I like it. I have a HUGE amount of nostalgia for this movie...and that's hard on a guy who finds nostalgia to be a trap. This movie came out July 3, 1985. The summer between my junior and senior years of high school. In many ways it was the best summer of my life. I liked high school a lot (as a counter-balance I hated junior high). I actually went on a date to this movie, which was something I NEVER did. But, beyond the nostalgia, this is just a damn fun movie. The cast is almost universally likeable...even those who aren't supposed to be. Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd play off each other perfectly. Zemekis doesn't focus on spectacle, which gives the movie heart that we don't always see in movies of the type. Just a joy to watch every single time. The Breakfast Club - To hell with it. It's 1985. I'll just wallow in nostalgia. I did not grow up in a city suburb. But this movie hits close enough to home to my high school experience that that isn't a problem. I knew every character in the movie intimately. And while my school wasn't particularly cliché-y there was enough that I could totally feel it. We even started a school club "The Breakfast Club" where a bunch of us would go eat breakfast at a local restaurant before school one day a week. The cast is excellent. The writing is brilliant. The movie is eminently quotable. This movie really is the 80s for those who grew up then. Ran - Kurosawa's take on Shakespeare's King Lear. This is a sumptuous, beautiful film. Almost certainly Kurosawa's last great effort. Originally written with Toshiro Mifune in mind I do wonder if it had been different with that great actor. Clue - Another comedy that's just ridiculously fun. It's perfectly silly and the story is razor thin. But the cast is generally excellent and if you just go along for the ride it's a hoot. Tim Curry is excellent, but really the entire cast is just fun and appear to be enjoying themselves. Better Off Dead - I appear to be predisposed to like 80s comedies. All you have to do is say "I want my two dollars!" and I'm going to chuckle. The iconic ski race. Just so much fun. Weird Science - Another one by John Hughes. Maybe a bit more problematic in today's climate. But Bill Paxton was excellent. And Kelly Le Brock...my oh my. "You're stewed, Buttwad." Pale Rider - I remember when this was filming, because it was in the Wood River Valley, which is...well not local, but local is pretty relative in Idaho. This was, by far, the best film Eastwood had made in close to ten years and the first western since The Outlaw Josie Wales. Westerns were definitely out of fashion, but this is a very good western directed by and starring Eastwood...and the scenery is gorgeous. The script is derivative, but when Eastwood is at his best, as he is here, that just doesn't matter. Real Genius - 80s comedy time again. I just find this movie super fun. Val Kilmer is incredibly endearing. Is it great? No. But it's fun and funny and I'll always stop and watch it. As usual there are many films I've either not seen or not seen in far too long. Including; most of the big foreign language films; Brazil (it's been decades since I've seen it); After Hours (been sooooo long); Fright Night (I remember liking this, but it's been a long time); Witness (again, been too long); To Live and Die in L.A.; Silverado; Police Story (Jackie Chan); Das Boot (I need to see this again); So what's my favorite film of 1985? Tough call between Back to the Future and The Breakfast Club. But I probably give it to The Breakfast Club 3 out of five times. And 1985 in film for those as need a look. |
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Post by Hoosier X on May 4, 2023 13:33:39 GMT -5
There are a lot of good movies from 1985.
I’m going with Brazil as my favorite.
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Post by EdoBosnar on May 4, 2023 13:49:14 GMT -5
Yeah, Back to the Future is a film that holds up surprisingly well after all these years. The sequels aren't bad, either.
However, of those that you listed, my personal pick would be Better Off Dead - the best '80s teen comedy, and, I'd say, the best teen/high school comedy ever, probably because it's simultaneously a parody of that same genre.
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Hey Nicole Kidman could ride a mean bike back then...
