#169 Dorothy Stratten trilogy: Star 80 (1983)

Released two years after the tragic incident, Star 80 is clearly more refined and superior one of the two feature movie made about the story of Dorothy Stratten.

This time around the ground work is well made and both Mariel Hemingway and Eric Roberts portray the characters faithfully. Hemingway has that innocent small town girl look and feel to her and Roberts gets much deeper to the Snider’s persona of a small time crook with his sickly fixation to make it big.

Roberts’ stellar performance encapsulates Snider not only as an unlikeable and possessive creep, but also as a man struggling with his sense or inferiority and there are many scenes you can’t help but to feel sorry for him, even knowing what he did in the end.

The tragic story of Dorothy Stratten, the playmate and a star on the rise deserved to be told the right way – and Star 80 does just that

#5 Full Moon High (1981)

Like the t-shirt in the poster suggests, Full Moon High is a werewolf movie based on the campy 50s I Was a Teenage Werewolf teen flick, and a some kind of parody at that.

Not having seen the original movie, the parody part escapes me, but otherwise Full Moon High is kind of a crazy comedy done in the vein of Airplane. There are a few small chuckles to be had, but the writing is nowhere sharp enough to warrant all the nonsense we’re seeing on the screen.

The comedic concept of Full Moon High was picked up again four years later with pretty much the same, uninspired concept in perhaps even more mediocre, but more commercially succesful Teen Wolf. People’s fascination with werewolves has always totally escaped me, and Full Moon High nothing but strengthens my opinion at the subject.

80s-o-meter: 55%

Total: 58%