80s Flick Flashback

This 80’s flick sequel brings a blend of family chaos, outrageous escapades, and a sprinkle of British humor. Get ready to tag along with the Griswolds as they embark on a madcap European adventure, where every tourist spot becomes a hilarious misadventure just waiting to happen. So, grab your funky beret, power up your super-cool electronic language translator, and don’t forget to be a pig as Tim...

Released just three years after the iconic "Raiders of the Lost Ark," this action-packed prequel takes us back to the 1930s, where we find our intrepid archaeologist, Indiana Jones in a web of peril when he becomes entangled with a ruthless cult hell-bent on capturing the mystical Sankara Stones and enslaving an entire village. Joined by reluctant lounge singer Willie Scott and the wise-cracking S...

Since its release this 80’s flick is still considered by many to be one of the best war movies ever made. The director — who himself was wounded twice while serving with the US Army in Vietnam — famously put his cast through a grueling "boot camp” to help immerse them in the world of their fictional characters. With an all-star cast and loads of visually striking practical effects, this Vietnam Wa...

Based on a 1902 novel of the same name, this 80’s flick brought together two of the 80’s greatest funnymen and an established director who wasn’t prone to making comedies.  Despite primarily negative reviews, it still did well at the box office and was a mainstay on cable television over the years, making it beloved by those who were watching basic cable channels in the late 80s and early 90s.  So...

This 80’s Flick has one of the most inaccurate titles ever which is easy to forgive when the movie also happens to be considered by fans of the franchise as one of the best in the series.  So get ready to revisit Crystal Lake as Tim Williams and guest co-hosts Laramy Wells and Charlie Cotter discuss “Friday the 13th Part 4: The Final Chapter” from 1984 on this episode of the 80’s Flick Flashback P...

The 80s is often seen as the defining era of “the teen movie”. While “The Breakfast Club” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” might have garnered all of the attention, it was this 80s flick that took the “teen movie” from raunchy sex-comedy to more serious themes of losing innocence, living with regret, and navigating independence at such a young age. Released to little fanfare, with many expecting it...

For the month of March, I am taking a break from recording new episodes so that I can highlight some of the other fantastic podcasts that I have had the privilege of being a guest co-host on. This week, I will be replaying part of an episode of Retro Life 4 You with host Chris Adams.  Chris reached out to me last year to guest host on an episode about Chuck Norris and we hit it off immediately.  C...

The 1980s were a transformational time for movies, with plenty of lesser-known debut directors being given creative freedom to make unique and innovative projects, many of which we still consider to be all-time classics today.  While some of those directors continued to excel into the 90s, others made their career-defining flicks in the 80s. But which one deserves the title of Best Movie Director...

For the month of March, I am taking a break from recording new episodes so that I can highlight some of the other fantastic podcasts that I have had the privilege of being a guest co-host on. This week, I will be replaying part of an episode of Moving Panels with host Laramy Wells. Laramy is a good friend of mine and has been a frequent guest on the 80’s Flick Flashback podcast going all the way b...

For the month of March, I am taking a break from recording new episodes so that I can highlight some of the other fantastic podcasts that I have had the privilege of being a guest co-host on. For this one, I will be replaying part of an episode of Totally Rad Christmas with host Gerry D. This was actually the first first time I was asked to guest co-host on another '80s-themed podcast, and Gerry a...

Famed movie critic Roger Ebert said that this 80’s flick was the best movie about love that he’d seen in a long time. His original reviews states “Maybe that's because it's not about ‘love’ as a Hollywood concept, but about love as growth, as learning to accept other people for who and what they are. There's romance in this movie…but what makes the film so special is that the (romance) and everyth...

If you’re a fan of eighties action movies, you should know The Cannon Group. Run by Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, in the eighties they cranked out a slew of low-budget action movies, most of which were hated by critics. Yet, every once in awhile they made a legitimately great movie that would even make the critics sit up and take notice. One such as this 80’s flick directed by An...

Countless world upon worlds. Worlds without end. In these galaxies every possible reality exits. And what is reality in any new world is mere fantasy in all others. Here, all is real and all is illusion. What is, what was and what will be start with this once maligned 80’s flick. So travel with us to Cleve-land as we jam out to Cherry Bomb’s greatest hits. But be on the look out for the DARK OVERL...

It seems strange at first that the producers of the Superman movies would move on to an epic about Santa Claus. But in a way it makes sense. Both Superman and Santa are legendary superheroes, able to cure our pains through magical intervention. Both of them can fly through the air. Both have large supporting casts: Superman has Lois Lane, Jimmy Olson and Perry White, while Santa has Mrs. Claus, th...

Since the publication of Charles Dickens’s  A Christmas Carol  nearly 200 years ago, the story of  Ebenezer Scrooge  has become familiar fodder for adaptations of all sorts—from ballets to operas to a mime performance by Marcel Marceau. But this 80’s flick adaptation has one thing that sets it apart from the rest: Comedy. So prepare to be transported by a time-traveling taxi-cab, a violent but joy...

Little Orphan Annie has been a part of American pop culture for nearly a century now—first as a comic strip which made its debut in the summer of 1924, then as a popular radio show in the 1930s, which spun off into a couple of film productions later in that decade and a hit Broadway musical in 1977. Though the musical version has been adapted to the big-screen a few times over the years, most rece...

1930. Prohibition has transformed Chicago into a City at War. Rival gangs compete for control of the city’s billion dollar empire of illegal alcohol, enforcing their will with the hand grenade and the tommy gun. It is the time of the Ganglords. It is the time of Al Capone. And now its time for Tim Williams and guest co-host Nicholas Pepin, from "Pop Culture Roulette" Podcast to discuss “The Untouc...

We don't normally sway away from our regular 80's Flicks only podcast formula, but when "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" premiered on the Roku Channel this past weekend, we had to cover this 80's icon and the hilarious film that parodies biopic movies from the king of pop music parodies.  Tim Williams and guest co-host Nicholas Pepin, from "Pop Culture Roulette" Podcast (who is a long-time "Weird Al...

As of October 2022, there have been 11 films that continue or reimagine the story of the character known as “The Shape” that was first laid out in John Carpenter’s  Halloween released in 1978. At this point in its history, the  Halloween  franchise has been rebooted once (by Rob Zombie in 2007) and retconned twice (by  Halloween H20  in 1998 and then by Halloween  in 2018), creating no less than f...

After working together on the first three "Friday the 13th" movies, Steve Miner and producer Sean S. Cunningham re-teamed for something a little more kooky. From a story by Fred Dekker and a screenplay by Ethan Wiley, this forgotten 80’s flick is a full-tilt comedic-horror movie that throws in more demons, ghosts and ghouls than you can handle. So take down the "For Sale" sign, stay out of the poo...

In terms of werewolf horror, 1981 is still the year to beat. Theatrically, the year saw the release of  Wolfen ,  The Howling , and this 80’s flick which set the bar high for lycanthropic transformation sequences. The last to arrive on the big screen, it demonstrated how to approach a horror-comedy, emphasizing both the laughs and the scares in equal measure. More importantly, the stunning special...

Do you ever find yourself reminiscing about the past and remembering something you would love to go back and change, a mistake that haunts you on a regular basis. Well that is what this 80’s flick is all about, a man who for 13 years has regretted dropping the ball in a High School Football game and holds himself responsible for the town he lives in being in the doldrums ever since. So fire up the...

Molly McGrath is the adult daughter of a famed football coach who is desperate to be the head coach of her own team. When her wish is finally granted, Molly leaves her job coaching girls' track at an affluent high school to take over a football team at an inner-city Chicago high school —the kind of place where guard dogs are needed to patrol the campus. At first the new coach's idealism and optimi...

In the late 80’s the American action movie was reaching its zenith. The genre had produced several bona fide superstars and was bringing big money to the box office. Action movies were the perfect vehicle for unknown talent to prove themselves. An actor that audiences had never seen before could be the lead if he had the right moves, hair, and one-liners. This 80’s flick, that introduced us to the...

Taking aim squarely at the popular theme of the working man’s struggle against the in- equities in the system, this forgotten 80’s flicks tells the story of a mystery rebel in New York City whose popularity reaches almost mythic proportions before the internet, social media, and hashtags became the norm for spreading a protest message. So grab some spray paint, jump on your military motorcycle wit...