While the film feels outdated and fails short of its premise, Carpenter’s Escape From New York is still a landmark movie that delivers first rate, style over substance bad assness.
Kategoria: 1981
#450 Victory aka Escape to Victory (1981)
A bastard child of The Great Escape (1963), Victory shares the same dated look & feel, and is an unrealistic, unnecessary depiction of an event that never took place.
#446 Thief aka Violent Streets (1981)
James Caan shines as a jailbird trying to make up for the time lost in the prison by speed forwarding his personal life and taking on an offer from the mob that will jeopardise it all.
#423 Graduation Day (1981)
Graduation Day tries to pass as a somewhat professional movie, but the obvious lack of knowledge of even the basics of film making makes for an awful movie experience.
#420 Lion of the Desert (1981)
Lion of the Desert is a rare and important – and some 30 minutes too long – depiction of italian colonialism and cruelty in northern Africa mostly forgotten by the western cinema.
#406 History of the World: Part I (1981)
Mel Brooks’ History of the World Part I is an uneven collection of small episodes, oneliners an musical numbers, some of them very funny – and some others not.
#379 The Boogens (1981)
Like so many horror movies of the eighties, The Boogens feels like an amateurish monster film done with ’us too’ motive and is outshadowed by better executed films of the era.
#374 Death Hunt (1981)
Death Hunt, an early 80s manhunt movie set in 30s Alaska starts strong, but keeps on making one bad storytelling decision after another and ultimately ends up a disappointment.
#368 Reds (1981)
Reds, Warren Beatty’s 3-hour magnum opus might sound boring on paper, but it stands a testament to that dedication and love to the trade can make some great movies.
#360 Wolfen (1981)
A mediocre horror film spiked with some native american pseudo mysticism, Wolfen’s most interesting asset is the beast eye video effect, later perfected by Predator (1987) .
#358 The Cannonball Run (1981)
A racing comedy in vein of ’It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World’, The Cannonball Run never comes close to its idol, but is somewhat entertaining due to the interesting cast of characters.
#339 Knightriders (1981)
One of those movies where you hope the weird concept would start to pay off at some point, but by the middle point it becomes painfully clear it’s just not going to happen.
#331 Happy Birthday to Me (1981)
On the other hand inventive and mold breaking in the boring slasher genre, on the other hand clumsy and flawed, Happy Birthday To Me is truly a mixed bag of a movie.
#306 Outland (1981)
Probably the only british movie to make it to this blog, Outland is not only one of the best 80s movies to come out of the isle, but one of the best scifi movies ever.
#294 Sphinx (1981)
An egyptologist runs from black marketeers in Sphinx, an adventure film that feels older than its age, longer than its running time and more like a prolonged TV episode.
#291 An Eye for an Eye (1981)
Clean shaven Chuck Norris and the rest of the cast walk through this action movie unenthusiastically and the outdated An Eye For An Eye leaves absolutely no lasting impression.
#280 Take This Job and Shove It (1981)
A forgotten underdog, this story of a big shot yuppie coming back to his slow dying redneck home town to revive the brewery is as topical today as it was back in 1981.
#232 Excalibur (1981)
While not a fan of pompous and theatrical medieval dramas, Excalibur does admittedly a terrific job with its captivating characters and immersive storytelling.
#222 Cheech & Chong’s Nice Dreams (1981)
As you can see in the poster, the text ’Ice Cream’ has been modified with a marker to say ’Nice Dreams’ instead. This is the culmination of the high brown humour you can except to find in this movie.
Seemingly made from exactly the same ingredients as its predecessor, Nice Dreams does feel a bit more forced and uninspired this time around, but still offers some good laughs nonetheless.
#211 S.O.B. (1981)
S.O.B., Blake Edwards’ black comedy take on the Hollywood film industry and the people involved is like its subjects: Ruthless, dog-eat-dog and hedonistic – but also charming and witty.