A technical and storytelling triumph, The Empire Strikes Back takes a hugely popular Star Wars series successfully to the 80s, improving on almost every single aspect.
Month: September 2015
#244 Cobra (1986)
Stallone’s egotripping project, Cobra suffers from lazy writing, paper thin characters and uninteresting action sequences.
Any upsides? Both the poster and Sylvester Levay’s amazing soundtrack are among the most iconic ones.
#243 Girls Just Want to Have Fun (1985)
A collection of 80s clichés, Girls Just Want to Have Fun should be great, but it’s just so super lightweight, trite and trivial that it leaves absolutely no lasting impression.
#242 Sea of Love (1989)
A box office comeback role for Pacino, Sea of Love makes far too many safe and disappointing choices, and is just barely above your average late night soft porn thriller.
#241 Christine (1983)
A movie about a demonic killer car, Christine’s story is literally so unbelievable that not even Carpenter’s convincing direction can make the plot feel plausible.
#240 Black Rain (1989)
Black Rain is cinematographically beautiful. In fact it might even be the most visually stunning action movie of the 80s, outshining its plot by a margin.
Michal Douglas doesn’t really cut it as an action hero, but as whole he manages adequately. Ken Takakura is superb as the japanese play-by-the-book cop!
#239 Class of 1984 (1982)
Rightfully one of the greatest cult classics of the 80s, Class of 1984 doesn’t water down its concept but instead accelerates and ups the ante again and again.
#238 Once Bitten (1985)
Young Jim Carrey performs so-and-so in Once Bitten, a vampire comedy with a lousy script, kept afloat by some truly funny small gags, awesome soundtrack and one hilariously campy dance-off.
#237 Blind Fury (1989)
Once you accept a promising bad ass action movie slowly turning in to an all-family adventure with totally cartoony baddies, Blind Fury is still good fun, thanks to the always amazing Rutger Hauer.
#236 Summer School (1987)
Summer, romance, nerds, jocks, exhange students, parties and a rogue teacher, Summer School is pretty much as 80s as they come – and we love it!
#235 Alien Nation (1988)
Alien Nation’s choice to portray Aliens as immigrants from outer space is an intriguing and thought provoking one, and just as topical today as in was back in 1988.
All the social commentary aside, Alien Nation is also pretty darn entertaining cop buddy action movie!
#234 Cheerleader Camp aka Bloody Pom Poms (1988)
Cheerleader Camp marries an early 80s style slasher with Porky’s style humor. There are no strong points here, but given the weak premise this B-movie surprisingly makes for an ok one time watch.
But just one time.
#233 TRON (1982)
A true pioneer in computer created graphics, TRON’s amazing vision and visual fidelity remained unchallenged for years to come. But as the story leaves one emotionally distant to the characters and events, TRON remains most interesting as an early 80s groundbreaking demo reel.