Category: 1980

#872 The Island (1980)

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The movie that Michael Caine still refuses to talk about? Color me interested!

The Island started surprisingly strong with a truly eery horror bit that totally caught me by surprise and showed a lot of promise. But it was after Caine and his son were attacked and the pirates appear that the movie went to the shitter. The plot twist is kindly put idiotic, rivalled only by the pirates’ witty plan to make him a stand-in stud for a widow. The pirates themselves are appalling, making watching every scene they’re in like chewing a tin foil — and they’re in pretty much in all of the scenes.

So the movie is horrid, but the exotic location and sense of adventure keep it from sinking totally. There is a decent amount of suspense towards the ending, coupled with one of the most rewarding payback scenes ever recorded.

80s-o-meter: 27%

Total: 32%

#866 Fame (1980)

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After the first 15 minutes to the Fame I’d made up my mind what I going to say about it: Yet another pretentious and theatrical musical about the young performance artist suffering melodramatically while trying to make it to the top. While my initial impression still partly holds, I have to admit Fame wasn’t really all that bad.

Yes, there’s a lot of melodramaticism going on here, but also a lot of undeniable warmth to the way that the characters are written and presented in the movie, and it was that love for the characters that won me over eventually. The movie is noticeably lengthy at 134 minutes and would’ve gained from a bit more rapid pacing at times.

Young Irene Cara provides great vocals to the key songs and would go on to an even greater musical triumph with Flashdance three years later.

80s-o-meter: 78%

Total: 73%

#864 Cruising (1980)

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Al Pacino goes underground to a find a serial killer targeting men of the leather gay subculture in Cruising, an interesting – if flawed – time capsule straight from the pre-HIV era.

Cruising was a controversial movie in its time and got targeted by the gay community for giving a negative and one-sided portrayal of the minority. The approach is admittedly sensational, even if the leather BDSM lairs of the time presented in the movie weren’t too far fetched from the reality. The movie doesn’t shy away from graphic depictions of sex and violence – almost borderlining a slasher at times – which was enough for the movie to get banned in some countries, Finland included.

Pacino is either acting well or he’s genuinely uncomfortable in his role – most likely a bit of both given the bad press the movie received during its production. The movie’s ambiguous ending with its totally unnecessary plot twist feels like a last minute afterthought, and one I can hardly see as satisfying to any viewer.

80s-o-meter: 64%

Total: 62%

#855 Nothing Personal (1980)

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Here’s a film that once again reminds me of how much I loathe much of the 70s cinema. Nothing Personal is a horrid romantic comedy shot in the end of the decade and released during the first months of 1980, thus unfortunately making it into this review site.

There’s very little to be liked here, and the few somewhat interesting themes of nature preservation and fighting against big companies are quickly bypassed by cringeworthy scenes of the two leads getting it on between the sheets in the spirit of the sexual revolution that was big at the time.

I can’t remember the last time I was so mildly entertained by a comedy. The only decent thing the movie has going for it is Dickerson, a weasel of a big company spokesperson played to perfection by the terrific Dabney Coleman.

80s-o-meter: 22%

Total: 12%

#840 Humanoids from the Deep aka Monster (1980)

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Humanoids from the Deep takes the Creature from the black lagoon and clones it to an army of bloodthirsty underwater perverts, hungry for some blood and t&a – but mostly the latter. It’s one of those horror movies originally engineered to attract young audience with its promise of gore and nudity and later turned into cult classic thanks to its campy script and effects.

Watched from this point of view, the first half of the movie has very little to offer in terms of entertainment. It’s only in the second half of the movie when the Humanoids are seen in great numbers that the movie offers some bang for the buck. There’s certain unexpected charm to the home made monsters and their presence and movement remind me of a crappier lizard version of Tarman from The Return of the Living Dead.

In terms of so bad it’s good, Humanoids from the Deep rates well above average, but it’s not quite bad enough to earn a sincere recommendation.

80s-o-meter: 61%

Total: 60%

#824 Caboblanco (1980)

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Before I saw Caboblanco, it seemed on a quick look to me that the only good thing going for it was its exotic location. Unfortunately this turned out to be the case.

This early 1980s film is a whiff from the past, style wise strongly resembling movies of the 70s, and even the 60s, and certainly taking some cues from certain classic movies from the 1940s. Story-wise there seems to be a lot to love – sunken treasures, nazis and corrupted police chiefs – but the end result is bit of a mess where the puzzle pieces don’t quite fit together. This being said I don’t think it’s the actual story to be blamed here — had I picked up a worn out copy of the original paperback from some second hand store, I might’ve even enjoyed the plot.

My blame is on the uneven, often stuffy presentation that is somehow uninviting. The exotic port of Caboblanco would’ve been a great framing for a better movie.

80s-o-meter: 37%

Total: 52%

#810 Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980)

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Telling the story of the country music singer Loretta Lynn, Coal Miner’s Daughter wasn’t too interesting concept for me, not familiar with her work, but I soon found myself Not familiar with her work, it wasn’t the country singing fame part that sucked me into the movie, but its gritty and lifelike portrayal of the small coal town in Kentucky.

The director Michael Apted and the actors have managed to carve out remarkably well-rounded and realistic portrayals, making it easy to identify with and adapt to the characters. Sissy Spacek – who impressively did all the singing on her own – walked away with the academy award for best actress, and quite deservedly so. Tommy Lee Jones on the other hand makes for a memorable Oliver ‘Doolittle’ Lynn, a contradictory character that in many ways culminates the essence of this movie.

Last but definitely not least Levon Helm in his feature film debut gives one the most honest and heartbreaking performances I’ve seen in a while as Lynn’s honest, hard working father. That railway station scene still gives me the chills.

Coal Miner’s Daughter is a triumph, although it does lose some of its momentum towards the end as the movie focuses on patching in the key points of her later career. The major breakdown that could’ve been build up to and surveyed with care is both presented and dealt with quite hastefully.

80s-o-meter: 33%

Total: 85%

#804 Foxes (1980)

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Foxes makes an attempt to document the live of suburban teenagers of the late 70s – early 80s, and as such the movie succeeds. The themes like sex, parties, drugs and the rough transformation to the world of grown ups get handled in a realistic fashion and the movie never takes a condescending tone.

Beneath this the movie is almost void of real depth and substance. Somewhat random scenes come and go and the obvious buildup towards the end made me wish the writer would’ve have some aces hidden up his sleeve. Woefully this is not the case here, and the ultimate tearjerker scene feels downright banal.

There are some high points to the movie though. The movie marks a turning point for Jodie Foster to adult roles and her solid performance makes it pretty obvious she was destined to greatness. Then there’s the soundtrack by Giorgio Moroder, which features Donna Summer’s song ‘On the Radio’ and its many arrangements as a recurring motif. Despite the lack of real depth, the movie does flow through nicely and watching it doesn’t feel tiresome at all.

The movie serves the best as a time vessel for those who lived their youth during the era – or for the fans of Jodie Foster wishing to check out her early work.

80s-o-meter: 55%

Total: 62%

#795 Xmas 2017: A Christmas Without Snow (1980)

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A Christmas Without Snow is another made for tv christmas movie, this time about a small church choir getting a new choirmaster and preparing to sing Handel’s Messiah at the Christmas concert. The choir is also joined by Zoe, a teacher who’s just moved to San Francisco from Omaha after her divorce.

The movie introduces quite a wide number of characters and story lines, but still manages go be pretty drowsy and very TV-movie like in its pace of storytelling. It’s not a very christmassy movie, lacking not only snow but that special magic of christmas time, and wouldn’t interest really interest me if it was run again in TV during the holidays.

On a positive note, I did grow fond of many of the characters in the movie, thanks to some believable acting work. Particularly John Houseman deserves a praise here as the demanding but fair and charming choirmaster who delivers his witty lines in a credible and lovable manner.

80s-o-meter: 43%

Total: 48%

#792 Xmas 2017: To All a Goodnight (1980)

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The Christmas featurette for 2017 is going to be a short one – looks like I’m down to the last Christmas movies of the 80s that I know of. The first movie – To All a Goodnight – is another slasher where the killer happens to dress up as the Santa.

As some of you might be remember, this is a familiar concept from Silent Night, Deadly Night series and Christmas Evil, and it’s just as uninspired as the other ones. And it also happens to be the least christmassy one of them all.

To All a Goodnight is an amateurish early 80s slasher that runs pretty much exactly as you’d imagine it to, and even with its many technical flaws – like, the night shots being obviously just poorly dimmed day shots – isn’t bad enough to warrant any chuckles. It’s got your usual stuff like tits and multiple kills, but no suspension nor anything else original to really keep up any interest.

80s-o-meter: 72%

Total: 24%

#767 Used Cars (1980)

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A comedy that somehow has a very strong early 80s Burt Reynolds movie vibe to it, Used Cars is a scoundrel story of a few ruthless individuals who trying to make their living by selling piece of junk cars to any unwary customer – by any means necessary.

As is the case with many of the early 1980’s movies, Used Cars is a bit too seventies in its style for my taste. This is the kind of comedy that trades in all the plausability with explosions, tits and wacky racing bits. While one could argue it’s all part of the genre and done just for the sake of entertainment, it is somewhat bothersome that all the characters here seem to follow a scripted movie logic instead of any kind of common sense.

The always charismatic Kurt Russell in feature film debut pulls off the lovable scoundrel bit admirably, but much like his character here who knows he has more to offer and suffers as a car salesman, the role here seems a bit menial for Russell who’d go on to star in such a legendary titles as Escape from New York, The Thing and Big Trouble in Little China.

80s-o-meter: 58%

Total: 62%

#747 Halloween 2017: Friday the 13th (1980)

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The movie that spawned whopping 7 sequels during the 80s, and even four more after that, Friday the 13th is probably the best known slasher of the 80s. Although not the first one of its kind, it’s the one that really established the concept of bunch of teens taking a holiday trip to a cabin in the woods and then getting them whacked off one by one, preferably while skinny dipping or having sex. This was all of course tailor made for the teenage audience that kept on flocking the cinemas year after year, making the franchise a whopping $464 million in the box office.

The new Bluray transfer has really given the movie a new life, and the movie looks looks far less aged and musty than the last time I saw it over 10 years ago. If you’ve seen the film before on VHS or DVD, watching it again in a digital format is recommendable, if only for curiosity.

Friday the 13th is the great grandfather of the 80s slashers and even if it’s not my favorite movie of its genre, it obviously belongs to the list of must watch horror movies of the era.

80s-o-meter: 75%

Total: 70%

#712 The Ninth Configuration (1980)

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A fairytale-like action drama comedy war mystery movie, The Ninth Configuration is a genre bender if I’ve ever seen one.

The movie follows a crew of post-traumatic military personnel in a castle being used as an insane asylum. They are soon joined by Colonel Kane, an eccentric and grim psychiatrist who’s arrived to help the patients. The movie starts off as a farcical, even slapsticky comedy, but as soon as Kane’s brother arrives at the castle, the movie takes a turn to much darker waters and deals with themes like sacrifice and faith. This is the part of the movie that I much preferred. The act two culminates to the palm-sweating bar confrontation scene that’s a textbook example of building up a tension.

Even if its weirdness feels self righteous and artsy at times – especially during act one – a credit has to be given to the writer and director William Peter Blatty for creating something entertainingly different.

80s-o-meter: 58%

Total: 77%

#710 The Blues Brothers (1980)

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Paradoxically, the actual music in many musicals can often be pretty lousy sometimes. Not the case with The Blues Brothers.

Not only are the songs themselves top notch, they are also performed with such a positive vibe and pure energy that pretty much cannot leave anyone cold even if blues or rock music isn’t your thing. To underline the its credibility music wise, The Blues Brothers includes cameos from legends such as James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles.

The Blues Brothers is an iconic piece of pop culture that has continued its life outside the movie still to date. It’s a musical tailor-made for those of us that don’t actually really care for musicals.

80s-o-meter: 68%

Total: 87%

#701 Airplane! (1980)

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A proof that many cooks sometimes don’t spoil the broth, Airplane! is a milestone in a comedy movie history that perfected the spoof comedy formula by taking it over the edge – and then some. A co-written and co-directed by Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and David Zucker, Airplane became a commercial and critical success, and a movie that paved the way to the top zany comedies of the following years: Top Secret, Naked Gun and Hot Shots.

A lot of good insights went into making Airplane a reality. Firstly, instead of casting a gang of worn comedy actors get silly on the screen, they hired actors with no comedy background whatsoever to play their parts with a straight face, which contrasting with the surrounding absurdity added a lot to the comedic effect of the movie. This is where Leslie Nielsen, aged 54 at the time, got his second wind as a comedy actor.

Secondly, if there was an opportunity for a joke, Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker went for it: The movie and its screen estate is constantly loaded with gags, happening on and off the camera. This contributed to the movie’s rewatchability value and it has had a very healthy off box office lifespan in VHS, DVD and on the TV.

80s-o-meter: 80%

Total: 94%

#692 Prom Night (1980)

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I’ve started watching Prom Night a few times before and always given up as the movie seemed far too generic and uninteresting to follow. Like many slashers of the time Prom Night doesn’t really bring anything new to the table, but just cut’n’pastes generic ideas from other movies to the mix: There’s a masked killer attacking out of nowhere, people fleeing and hiding – basically all the stuff you’ve seen elsewhere a thousand times before.

Interestingly Prom Night doesn’t just take cues from the numerous slashers of the time, but also incorporates sort of a half-assed Saturday Night Fever theme into the movie, including some campy choreographed disco dancing scenes. It is truly a strange thing to watch in a movie where most people except some tits and gore.

Being a Canadian movie Prom Night wouldn’t normally have made it to this site, but I decided to give it a chance as it stars Jamie Lee Curtis of the Halloween fame. Also, Leslie Nielsen who at the time was on the verge of his second coming as a comedy actor can be seen in a small part as the high school principle.

Neither actor bring anything to the table that’d make this movie worth your time.

80s-o-meter: 70%

Total: 12%

#690 Little Darlings (1980)

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If you’re like me and bored to tears by the half way of Little Darlings, I strongly urge you to go on and finish it anyway. It’s only after 50 minute mark that the movie grows from an adolescent summer camp comedy to a touching depiction of what it is like to be like to live on that verge between childhood and maturity, and how our actions at the time may have bigger implications that we originally bargained for.

I was initially put off by the theme and felt the sex life of the 15-year old girls is an exploitative subject for a movie. The setup felt forced as well and both the quarrel between the two female leads and the whole bet thing just seemed very much out of the place. The following few lighthearted comedic scenes show the camp life in a more believable fashion, but leave no lasting impression. It’s only when the movie turns into a coming of age story watching Little Darlings finally pays off.

Here’s the part where Kristy McNichol really shines, and the pure honesty she pours into the closing scene with Tatum O’Neal makes it one of the most touching ones I’ve seen in a long while.

80s-o-meter: 61%

Total: 76%

#682 The Final Countdown (1980)

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Taking place on an US aircraft carrier, The Final Countdown is a mystery movie of an entire ship getting warped back in the time all the way to the year 1941.

It’s the kind of concept that always been relevant to my interest, and there are certainly some very interesting elements here as well, like seeing the modern fighter aircrafts take on the Japanese WW2 era planes with ridiculous easiness.

The Final Countdown sets up a very intriguing situation of having to decide whether to interfere with the events of the past, but just as the situation is getting mouthwatering, the movie weasels itself out of having to make any actual decisions.

While I usually don’t bother with any technical details, it’s worth noting that there’s a constant noticeable blur in all the four corners of the movie that I did find distracting at times. The film is one of the rare 80s stereoscopic movies, and the effect could be related to the technic used to shoot it in 3D.

80s-o-meter: 52%

Total: 65%

#676 In God We Tru$t (1980)

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Straight out of Mel Brooks’ school of comedy comes out In God We Tru$t, a Marty Feldman’s solo project that he both wrote, directed and plays the lead role in.

The overall feeling of the movie is very mid-70s both in its gags and the cinematography. In other words, stuffy. The movie aims its taunt at the TV evangelists who monetise on the religion. Andy Kaufman is seen in the role of Armageddon T. Thunderbird, but instead of en evangelist, he seems to play himself in a silly wig instead.

There are funny gags here, some of which are genuinely original as well. But those few chuckle worthy moments simply don’t make a good movie.

80s-o-meter: 27%

Total: 42%

#671 The Stunt Man (1980)

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Although this blog is all about movies of the 80s, I do have to admit many of the early films of the era don’t tickle my fancy too much as their roots are clearly more in the seventies than the eighties. Same pretty much goes for this one; it has that poor seventies movie making style written all over it.

The Stunt Man tells a story about a fugitive at large who gets hired by a director who is making what seems like the worst movie ever about WW2. Far too long scenes about making the movie are meant to be an impressive look behind the magic of making movies, but in 2017, there’s really nothing here that’d astonish anyone.

While the original movie-within-a-movie idea with the director and the stunt man playing mind games is somewhat fresh, it’s the overall poor execution here that renders it all very tedious and tiresome to watch.

80s-o-meter: 0%

Total: 32%