Category: 1984

#1035 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

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A prequel set one year prior to the events in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a much darker, violent and, unfortunately, less fun adventure movie than the original.

For one reason or another, Temple of Doom is also a much more generic adventure movie than its predecessor. While still a clear notch above all of its competition thanks to first rate production values and Harrison Ford as the Indy, the story could’ve been well passed off as one of the adventures of Jack T. Colton or Allan Quatermain instead. Unlike in Raiders of the Lost ARk, there’s really no iconic scenes in Temple of Doom that would’ve become a part of the pop culture folklore.

Temple of Doom is not a bad movie by any standard, especially compared to the other adventures of the era. But it is a victim of a middle child syndrome, paling in comparison to what its go-getter elder and younger brother have to offer.

80s-o-meter: 77%

Total: 86%

#1021 Special Effects (1984)

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As Special Effects was nearing its midpoint, I found myself bargaining out loud for the movie not ending up in the very same stupid, predictable direction it was heading. But it does, which makes the latter half of the movie a tedious waiting game for the very apparent outcome.

Directed and written by Larry Cohen, Special Effects – not to be mixed up with similarly named F/X (1986) – does the unexpected by not only revealing the killer, but also lays out his plan to frame her ex fiancee for the murder. This is where the plot’s wittiness ends as we’re expected to take some giant big leaps of faith to believe all the nonsense that follows.

80s-o-meter: 81%

Total: 44%

#1012 Meatballs Part II (1984)

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The 1979 Meatballs movie starring one Bill Murray started a wave of summer camp comedies over the following years and in this sense Meatballs Part II was sort of a latecomer to its own party. Rebranded to an official sequel from a title that was originally going to be just another Meatballs ripoff, it’s clear that part II should’ve just been released as a separate movie.

Pretty much everything the movie introduces to the old mix is for the worse, aliens and flying pugilists to name a few. Otherwise the movie sticks to the worn out formula or horny elder teens and younger clueless kids on a camp, with some pranks thrown in – and does it all in a much less interesting way than the competition.

What it comes to goofy comedies, there’s certainly good kind of stupidity and the bad kind. While its predecessor and even its successor both manage to find the right balance, Meatballs Part II just goes badly south.

80s-o-meter: 84%

Total: 31%

#1008 Irreconcilable Differences (1984)

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As soon as Irreconcilable Differences opened up with the young Drew Barrymore hiring an attorney to sue her parents, I collapsed mentally as I really wasn’t in a mood for yet another smart kid, stupid adults movie.

But Irreconcilable Differences is actually very little about precocious kids, and more about the love relation of the parents, demanding careers and how all that reflects to the family unit. And it isn’t kids movie at all, blissfully.

Watching Ryan O’Neal and Shelley Long continuously clash together only to drift apart puts the viewer successfully to the position of the daughter forced to witness this endless tug of war throughout the years. And much like that child we also feel like shouting from to top of our lungs, just to make it stop.

80s-o-meter: 90%

Total: 73%

#1003 City Heat (1984)

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What was it with the obsession with the 1940s gangster movies? City Heat is another movie to join the club with Harlem Nights, Hammett, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, The Cotton Club, Johnny Dangerously and many, many others in this seemingly pointless exercise of taking a hard boiled classic crime story and recreating it in color.

Sure, I get it. These are the movies that generation lived up with and they want to pay a homage to the bygone era, and possibly get a spark of that old movie magic along with it. But the movies often rely too heavily on just the atmosphere with a paper thin plot, and if told in contemporary setting just wouldn’t fly at all. So is the case with City Heat as well.

On top the 1940s visuals the movie relies heavily on the personal charism of the two major leads, Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood, but the chemistry is just anywhere to be found. To save your time, just watch through the last minute of the movie and you get a thorough overview of what the movie has to offer.

80s-o-meter: 21%

Total: 17%

#977 Kidco (1984)

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As I aim to steer away from family movies directed solely for kids, I set out to watch Kidco wishing it’d had something worth watching for the adults as well.

Not the case as Kidco turned out to be one of those inane, utterly annoying kids’ movies that take the lowest common denominator route: Precocious know-it-all kids and babbling idiots as the adults who just don’t get the kids, it’s all here!

Kidco is probably one of those movies that you’d have to see it as a kid to be able to appreciated it afterwards. For the others, the mileage you’ll get here will likely be slim to none.

80s-o-meter: 80%

Total: 24%

#969 Halloween 2018: Blood Suckers from Outer Space (1984)

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A strange intergalactic wind appears from nowhere to a rural Texas countryside turning residents into a blood gushing zombies in Blood Suckers from Outer Space, a surprisingly entertaining piece of low budget B-horror comedy.

Although a spoof of the 50s outer space invader movies mashed up with a zombie theme, the movie finds its own tone of voice and doesn’t just settle for repeating the most obvious clichés of the genres. The zombies here for example are hilariously well spoken – even polite – as they approach you inquiring if they can go ahead and eat your brains. Talking about southern hospitality!

Blood Suckers from Outer Space makes the best out of being a really bad movie, and if the likes of Bad Taste tickle your fancy, you’ll probably find something to like in this weirdness as well.

80s-o-meter: 81%

Total: 74%

#962 Halloween 2018: Dreamscape (1984)

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Dennis Quaid stars in Dreamscape, a sci-fi thriller with a horror twist about an experiment that makes diving into others’ dreams – as well as nightmare – possible.

The concept itself is cool and the movie manages to successfully sell the implausible idea of entering dreams. The unravelling conspiracy plot itself is thrilling as well, and the antagonist’s plan makes perfect sense within the movie’s world.

Where Dreamscape falls short is the effects department. Clearly the time wasn’t ripe for the vision the director Joseph Ruben had for the special effects as some of the dream segments – especially the last one – look noticeably poor and outdated with their stop motion animations. Once again it would’ve been better idea to rely on some effective makeup or keep the evil hidden in the shadows than to expose it in all of its mediocrity.

Dreamscape might not be as effective as it was when it was first released, but it’s still very much entertaining from the start to the finish.

80s-o-meter: 83%

Total: 74%

#926 The Ambassador (1984)

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The Ambassador is an old school triller fare starring Robert Mitchum and Rock Hudson.

Many superior thrillers taking place in the middle east have been made since and The Ambassador is pretty tame by today’s standards. There are some assassinations, a subplot of a love triangle and a resulting black mailing. The movie gets pretty tedious fast and it’s because of this that the bloody showdown at the end feels very powerful, and an image straight out of terrorist news of today.

The Ambassador remained Hudson’s final feature film before his untimely death in the following year at the age of 59.

80s-o-meter: 58%

Total: 59%

#920 Missing in Action (1984)

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A movie series tailor made as a vehicle for Chuck Norris, Missing in Action is known by its name to many, but still not the most prolific of the 80s POW movies. The first two movies of the trilogy were shot back to back, but after the production had ended, the powers that be decided that the sequel was a stronger movie of the two and was released first. Hence the odd order of movies.

Watching the movies now, 30 years after the original screening the decision feels unwise as the movies would make a bit more sense in the original order. My suggestion would be to watch The Beginning first like it was originally internded before moving onto this movie as you might get a bit better mileage out of it that way. Personally, I feel that Missing in Action is an insignificant mess that falls far behind of Norris’ best movies of the era.

The Italian style poster is cool though.

80s-o-meter: 85%

Total: 55%

#919 Swing Shift (1984)

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A war can be a big game changer when you are left on the home front as your husband enlists and gets shipped overseas. And more so if you’re one of the thousands of housewives who rolled in to the factories armed with a rivet gun to support the war effort.

The real treat in this wartime story is the well picked out cast consisting of Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Christine Lahti and Ed Harris, all of who do wonderfully 3-dimensional acting work with their characters.

Swing Shift never seeks for that Oscar like, bigger than life grandeur but instead tells its story of a wartime, separation, friendship and forgiveness with a certain, undeniable affection for each and every one of its characters, making it a triumph.

80s-o-meter: 42%

Total: 86%

#916 Grandview, U.S.A. (1984)

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Telling a story of a few individuals on the verge of a change in their lives in a small town, Grandview, U.S.A. is a successful little exercise in storytelling that feels a perfectly suitable for a TV, but doesn’t have that big screen charm to it.

The movie unravels its story, setting and many characters in a way that feels like a 90 minute pilot for a series. By taking its sweet time we get a good feel of the people and their aspirations, but makes for a slow paced movie where the viewer is never quite sure what storyline to follow and if more characters will still be introduced. I was afraid that the movie would run out of time tying its many loose ends together, but it does manage to conclude the main storyline in a satisfactory manner.

Being a forgotten movie for the general public, Grandview, U.S.A. boasts pretty impressive array of front line 80s actors including Jamie Lee Curtis, C. Thomas Howell, Patrick Swayze, John Cusack and Michael Winslow.

80s-o-meter: 90%

Total: 75%

#913 Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

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I’ll never understand people’s fascination with the mob and the huge popularity and high rating of the gangster movies depicting the lifestyle of these crooks. In Once Upon a Time in America we get to see a gang of jewish delinquents who grow up mugging drunkards in early 20th century Manhattan, helping out smugglers and eventually getting involved in a kill and a stabbing of a police officer. Later we witness them running a speakeasy during the prohibition era, and while not involved in shady business, they steal diamonds in violent heists, murder people and just for the heck of it rape a few women along the way.

I couldn’t wait for them to get caught, but as you know this never happens in these movies that beg the viewers to side with the criminals.

The director Sergio Leone has set out to direct an epic movie and it really shows in the fabulous set and costume design that capture the look and feel of the Lower East Side of Manhattan in three different decades in a truly magnificent and cinematic way. I watched the 4-hour Extended Director’s Cut and don’t have any benchmark what the lengthy ‘definitive’ cut of the movie adds the original theatrical cut but some tediously long scenes of endless dialogue and fading out lights.

I guess if the organised crime is your thing, you’ll be enjoying what Once Upon a Time in America for what it has to offer. Personally it seems like a totally wasted chance to tell a proper story with some actual human interest.

80s-o-meter: 32%

Total: 41%

#910 Finders Keepers (1984)

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Remember The Whoopee Boys that I reviewed a while back? It took me awhile to even make the connection that Michael O’Keefe from that stinker of a movie is the same actor that plays the lead here, so much on another level is his performance in Finders Keepers. Here he manages to make for a perfect lovable scoundrel and even to pull off some genuinely funny physical comedy, both of which not easy feats at all.

Aiding him is Beverly D’Angelo from the National Lampoon’s Vacation fame and I really dug the weird chemistry between the two. Brian Dennehy makes for a terrific constantly outraged local mayor of a Nebraska two horse town and last but definitely not least David Wayne is just simply hilarious as the baffling, demented old conductor. Fans of Jim Carrey might be interested to check out the movie as he visits the set briefly as a local yokel in a performance only a shadow of the things to come.

Finders Keepers is one funny and entertaining comedy and a forgotten gem to add to your watch list.

80s-o-meter: 90%

Total: 87%

#901 Flashpoint (1984)

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What at first seems like a some sort of lighthearted border patrol buddy cop movie, Flashpoint takes both the viewers and the leads by surprise as the events take several grim turns, soon escalating out of hand.

But the movie does take its sweet time getting there, and the few thrilling events are followed soon after with less thrilling ones – like popping in to library to read some of them micro films. If feels like the movie has its left foot on the brake and its right one on the accelerate, gunning and braking at the same time for the most of the film.

Kris Kristofferson does his basic stuff as a raspy voiced patrolman. Treat Williams who triumphed in Prince of the City seems a little lost with the script that doesn’t give him much to work with. Kurtwood Smith makes for a terrific crook as always, and the movie would’ve had gained quite a lot devoting more screen time to him.

80s-o-meter: 78%

Total: 63%

#900 Racing with the Moon (1984)

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There’s no way around it; Sean Pean is quite simply one terrific actor. In Racing with the Moon he plays a small town boy on the brink of getting drafted and shipped to WWII, portraying the role of a rough on the outside, poetic in the inside boy who likes to play the piano and is secretly destined to things bigger than this old town. And does all this remarkably well and without a slightest sign of pretentiousness or insincerity.

Nicolas Cage, playing the role of his best buddy with a knack of always getting him in ways of trouble performs also strongly here and makes for a memorable screwup who misses direction in his life.

I’m always more than a bit suspicious when watching a period picture not based on historical events as they tend to just ride on the nostalgia factor, presenting the past as them good old days. There’s a little of that also going on here, but it never requires one to feel any real affection to the era. Racing with the Moon keep its focus tightly on the personas instead and manages to deal with universal themes of coming to age that are still as relevant as they were in the 40s.

80s-o-meter: 54%

Total: 92%

#893 Body Double (1984)

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Sharing the same October 1984 opening weekend with The Terminator, Brian De Palma’s Body Double tells a story of an involuntary peeping tom ending up witnessing a crime.

There is a lot to be loved in this stylish and daring thriller that loans from the likes of Hitchcock’s Vertigo and Rear Window, and mixes them up with some very pure 80s elements. Scenes like the porn movie shoot featuring an amazing soundtrack from Frankie Goes to Hollywood demonstrates some of the admirable courage that De Palma possesses.

Body Double would’ve been sufficiently good page-turner even with more traditional approach, but its broad-minded, fearless approach to artistic choices works to its advantage, definitely making it a more memorable, often fascinatingly weird experience.

80s-o-meter: 90%

Total: 87%

#892 Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)

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Based on the 50s TV series of the same name, Twilight Zone is an anthology of 4 short stories with a fantasy / horror / supernatural twist to them.

After a simple but rather nice prelude with Dan Aykroid we are presented with a story of a racist bigot getting a taste of his own medicine. This first episode ‘Time Out’, directed by John Landis, is technically and acting wise an applaudable effort, but never evolves beyond the simple idea and soon gets old and predictable. The following Spielberg’s ‘Kick the Can’ tells a tale of the habitants of a retirement getting a chance to be children again, a story which continues in the same vein of quality, slow pacing and predictability.

In ‘It’s a Good Life’, a segment directed by Joe Dante is where the movie really takes off as mystery of people trapped in a cartoony house is unrevealed layer by layer, and it’s the following ‘Nightmare at 20,000 Feet’ that finally redeems the anthology as one of the best of the 80s. It’s a segment perfectly suited for the short story format and the director George Miller hilariously captures the claustrophobic hysteria of the situation while John Lithgow does a wonderful portrayal of a phobic airline passenger on the brink of a nervous breakdown.

Like numerous other anthologies, Twilight Zone is an uneven show, but its two stronger story segments along with its above average production quality lift it above the competition.

80s-o-meter: 86%

Total: 81%

#880 Runaway (1984)

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Taking place in a near future (that looks remarkably like the year 1984 with some clunky gadgets, flashing gizmos and robots on wheels added on) Runaway is a piss poor sci-fi movie with a surprisingly high entertainment value.

A criminal mastermind called Luthor – played to a high comedic value by none other than Gene Simmons – is turning robot servants to killer machines. Jack Ramsay, a cop played by Tom Selleck with a remarkably straight poker while having to deliver a number of inane lines while chatting with some bread box on wheels, is out to get him. G.W. Bailey of the Police Academy fame is a delight like always as the police chief.

For a movie that leans to much to robots, most of the gizmos in Runaway are poorly made and driven by fishing lines that are clearly visible in the fresh high resolution prints. On the other hand there are a few notably well executed scenes here: The chase with the target seeking droids and the sky high elevator duel against the spider bots are both disarmingly clumsy but still have tons of good kind of adventurous video game like vibe to them.

80s-o-meter: 82%


Total: 67%

#878 Fear City (1984)

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An exotic dancers’ manager – a pimp – goes after a serial killer wasting his strippers in Fear City, an atmospheric but otherwise disappointing thriller.

Tom Berenger in the lead role is a charismatic actor well capable of carrying through a film, but the two dimensional toughie characterisation Fear City gives him leaves very little to like or care for, and the flashbacks picturing his former career as boxer feel glued on. Instead of going for a strong antagonist, the director Abel Ferrara has decided to make the killer nameless and easy to forget, with equally artificial martial arts theme forced in.

There are some mesmerising shots of the nocturnal New York here, with all of its neon lights and vices pictured in a beautifully poetic way. This aspect remains the strongest suit of Fear City.

80s-o-meter: 82%

Total: 58%