I still love 80′s movies, part the third!

Stewart here…

The 80’s were a formative time in my life, especially when it came to movies. Either due to my understanding of things at an early age or bad parenting (only as of late have I questioned which one it is), I got exposed to some great movies at some pivotal times in my childhood. Many of them you’ve seen in previous posts, so to you I present some which hold a special place in my heart:

Big Trouble In Little China — Actually its hard to put just one John Carpenter film in this list since almost all his 80’s output is mention worthy. Just look at the list of films: The Fog, Escape From New York, The Thing, Starman, Prince Of Darkness, They Live…but Big Trouble in Little China was my first exposure to Carpenter, and certainly the funniest of his movies then. You got mystical stuff, kung-fu action, Kurt Russell as the put upon sarcastic hero, Kim Cattrall as the heroine, the evil ancient Lo Pan, and of course, some wry humor to keep things from getting too serious. Also the commentary on this with Carpenter and Russell is a good one, in that they enjoy watching this too.

Top Secret! — I love good parody movies, and the lack of any good ones in the last, oh, ten or so years probably heightens my affinity for the Zucker/Abrams/Zucker movies. Airplane! and The Naked Gun (and to some extent, the short lived Police Squad TV show) were great, but this one sticks out for me. You get a young Val Kilmer as a teenage pop star who has to help stop the Nazis with the French Resistance, and of course, stupidity ensues. Stupidity like the following:

Better Off Dead — Early John Cusack teen comedy sticks in my mind for one reason: the dangerous paperboy from hell! Hey, just pay him his money, and he’ll go away! Its only two dollars! TWO DOLLARS, CASH!

Night of the Comet — So what do you do when a strange light takes away most of humanity, and leaves a scarce few behind to survive? According to Night of the Comet, you party and go to the mall for some new clothes! This tongue-in-cheek apocalyptic film has some fun pointing fingers at the 80’s culture, and how much of it wouldn’t really change after the end of the world, except for shady government agents and some mutated zombies, of course.

The Monster Squad — This is pivotal for one reason: we discover that a wolfman has nards, and they hurt when they are kicked. Also noteworthy for Tom Noonan as one of the criminally underlooked Frankenstein monsters in movie history.

Tron — I can forgive most of the issues I have with Tron: Legacy, based on my childhood revolving around the original. I played the video game (before I knew it was based on an actual movie) and even rode the Tron ride at Disneyland (which lead to an unfortunate incident where it broke down and me and my family had to be escorted down a stairwell in the back to safety). This also pegged my interest in wanting a lightcycle. Of course, I first have to get a permit to drive motorcycles, so…

Robocop — This is one of those movies I saw at an early age, and probably never recovered from. It had everything I wanted in a movie at the time: action, comedy, robots, and things I didn’t know I wanted, like men who melt and get splattered by cars. Its one of those movies from the 80’s I found to have a bit more pointed humor later on in life once I got past the lunacy of a lot of it. But still, one of the better movies of the time, which of course, means it got turned into a “meh” remake recently.

Big — This was part of a pivotal double bill I saw back in 1988 (the other one we’ll get to in a bit), and it was a blast. Tom Hanks being a kid who magically is now in the body of an adult was funny and at times, touching. Of course, there are some things I get wobbly about, like our grown kid getting to sleep with an actual grown-up woman. But despite that, I enjoyed it. Which brings me to the real stand-out of that particular double-bill…

Die Hard — I was able to stick around to watch probably one of the greatest action movies of the 80’s, let alone of all time. It was hard not to get wrapped up in watching Bruce Willis fight his way through a building with bad guys (shoeless, no less!), while cracking wise. And unlike the later sequels (especially the recent one) I was invested in seeing John McClane survive all of this insanity and save his wife from Alan Rickman. Wonderful cap to a great day of movies.