80s Flick Flashback

If you have seen this heart-warming 80’s baseball fantasy flick, you likely have a strong opinion on it. While some are moved by its fantastical and heartfelt story of personal redemption, others dismiss it as over sentimental and even silly. Or as Richard Corliss of TIME Magazine once infamously put it, a "male weepie at its wussiest,". Either way you look at it, the Oscar-nominated movie still t...

For about 95% of its runtime, this 80’s slasher flick operates as an oddly bloodless, weirdly sexless, and overall kind of annoying ripoff of "Friday the 13th". Writer and director Robert Hiltzik mines little tension from his story of a youth summer camp besieged by a killer dumping boiling water on pervy camp cooks and stabbing counselors in the shower, "Psycho"-style. It's all very rote and by-t...

Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once a while you could miss this quintessential 80’s Flick. It has been called one of the classic movies about the teenage experience, as relevant to today’s Snapchatting pre-adults as it was to those coming of age in the Pac Man Mania era. This enduring popularity is thanks to its simple story – teenage boy fakes a sickness to embark on a...

From Peter Jackson to Edgar Wright, this 80’s flick has influenced many of today’s biggest Hollywood directors. As it should. Famous for its practical effects and then-unprecedented amount of gore, this low-budget 1981 horror flick—about a group of friends who travel to a cabin in the woods and unleash killer demons—showed the world the power of guerilla-style indie filmmaking before it was cool....

Since its release over three decades ago, this 80’s flick has been hailed as a  celebration of women . In his original review of the film, Roger Ebert raved about the dialogue and camaraderie of the dynamic ensemble cast. “There may be no movie that better epitomizes the bond of female friendship,”  HuffPost  declared in 2014. “Mothers share the film with their daughters, teen girls turn to it as...

Praised as a quintessential piece of '80s cinema and highly regarded among the greatest high school movies of all time, the legacy of this 80’s flick had endured due to the film's eclectic cast of teenage archetypes. Writer-director John Hughes' characters weren't just derivative personalities found in the everyday, run-of-the-mill teen comedy of the day, the characters were actually rooted in gen...

It’s hard to imagine that in 1980 when audiences first crowded into theaters to watch the sequel to George Lucas’ unexpected blockbuster movie Star Wars, they would the first to ever see such iconic characters as Jedi Master Yoda, smuggler turned businessman Lando Calrissian, and Mandalorian turned bounty hunter Boba Fett. Fans would leave the theaters with three long years to wait for the next in...

It has been called the “Wizard of Oz” of our generation. Meaning that although it was not a blockbuster film at the time of its release, over the years it has become a rare family film that has been enjoyed by children, their parents, and even their grandparents as it has been “handed down”, in a sense, from generation to generation. It has also been known as one of the most quoted films of all ti...

Renown film critic, Roger Ebert called this well-beloved 80’s flick a good-hearted, simple-minded comedy that will win a place in film history. He suspected that it was primarily because it contained the movie debut of Dolly Parton . He stated “There have been other debuts this unmistakable; you could name Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and even John Travolta . And what you'd be talking about in each...

In the eighties , the high-concept movie was in vogue. Thanks largely to 70’s blockbusters Jaws and Star Wars , the eighties saw the repackaging of formula for audiences wanting to rekindle the thrills. If the roller coaster ride ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  The amount of sequels that appeared in the 1980s was unheard of before. Many, unfortunately, were poor imitations, and few did better box offi...

The 1980s was a golden era for blockbuster hits, and countless films released during this decade have gone on to become cult-classic films. One '80s movie that has certainly stood the test of time and continues to wax on in cinematic glory is The Karate Kid , which-- more than 30 years later-- is still adored by audiences of all ages. Not only did The Karate Kid provide an arsenal of catchphrases...

There’s no denying that this film has become a holiday tradition for many families around the world. Since the film’s release, it’s become regarded as a Christmas classic, and the original house shown in the movie has even been transformed into a tourist-attracting museum. Many families watch it every year around the holiday season, while cable-TV staple, TBS,  plays it continuously for 24 hours a...

John McTiernan‘s 1988 action tour de force is often called one of the greatest action films ever made. It’s a masterclass on every level: building entertaining characters, crafting escalating action, establishing and navigating geography, and putting an empathetic hero through the ringer in the face of extraordinary odds. McTiernan and his collaborators made this all look easy, but as the rash of...

A road trip movie, a buddy comedy and teen-angst director du jour, John Hughes’ first attempt at a holiday movie. It’s a classic double-act farce that might not fit that well in the decade it came out in. There are no guns or bad guys like 48 Hours or Lethal Weapon ; no winks at Cold War anxiety a la Spies Like Us ; and no time machine like Bill and Ted used in their excellent adventure. What it d...

Legendary filmmaker Georges Méliès is often credited with making the first ever horror movie, which was called was The Haunted Castle.  Horror movies have no doubt evolved since the early days with many filmmakers now relying on cheap scares and gore to horrify audiences. The ‘80s, however, were a great time for horror fans, with iconic franchises like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, and Fri...

Most long-running horror franchises have that one installment which was legitimately supposed to, but ultimately, did not end the franchise. Some have several of them. In Hollywood, producers (and sometimes audiences) will quickly voice their disgust if you ever dare leave money on the table. Not that anyone knew that in 1981. Instead, all Moustapha Akkad, Irwin Yablans, John Carpenter and Debra H...

In 1986, if you mixed Science Fiction, dark comedy, horror, doo-wop inspired musical numbers, and a director who was more famous for voicing Yoda and Miss Piggy, you probably wouldn't expect too much.  But this remake of a remake became a bonafide cult classic that has been entertaining audiences for decades with its timeless soundtrack and stellar cast. So let's head downtown to Skid Row and Mr....

As the brainchild of an up-and-coming screenwriter, an established movie director, and the mastermind behind Motown Records, Barry Gordy, a low-budget niche film mixed martial arts, heavily synthesized pop songs, supernatural adventure, Bruce Lee, and over-the-top comedy that has surprised and entertained audiences for decades after its initial box office release. The chart-topping soundtrack was...

In 1987, a new kind of gritty, ultra-violent sci-fi action movie was born, but it came with nods to comic book heroes, and classic spaghetti westerns. Helmed by a little known Dutch director with a penchant for violence and nudity and starring a method actor better known for his work in the theater than in film, on paper it must have seemed like a pretty risky prospect to the studio bosses over at...

1985 was a big year for movies! It was a year dominated by flying DeLoreans, Breakfast Clubs, Beverly Hills Cops, as well as massive pop artists like Madonna, Michael Jackson, Cindy Lauper, and Prince. It was also the year of one of the greatest movie adventures of them all! The secret caves. The lost map. The hidden treasure. The Fratelli’s. What an exciting time to be alive as a kid, back when y...

In 1986, young up and coming writer-director, James Cameron, took the tall task of tackling a sequel to director Ridley Scott's space-thriller, "Alien".  With returning cast member, Sigorney Weaver, he not only moved the story forward, he exceeded all expectations with a bonafide box office hit as well an award-winning and ground-breaking classic we know simply as "Aliens". On this episode, Tim Wi...

In 1987 a small Connecticut-based direct-to-video company made their first feature film for a true theatrical release.  With low expectations from investors due to a female-driven plot in the midst of a testosterone-heavy Summer blockbuster season, this small movie became a word of mouth sleeper hit, made a dancing football player turned actor into a bonafide sex symbol movie star, and birthed the...

When you think of great movies about major league baseball, there aren’t too many to choose from. “Bull Durham” was about the minor leagues. “Field of Dreams” was about ghosts of former players meeting on a cornfield in Iowa to play again. “The Sandlot” and “Bad News Bears” were about kids and their love for the national pastime. And “A League of Their Own” and “The Natural” captured baseball, but...

Released in on June 12, 1987, up and coming director John McTiernan’s second film introduced action and horror fans to a brand new kind of extra-terrestrial threat. It was a bonafide box office hit when released due to its star-studded macho cast, while solidifying Arnold Schwarzenegger’s rising star power status. Alongside Schwarzenegger, the film cast Carl Weathers, Bill Duke, Jesse Ventura, Son...

The 1980's in Hollywood was filled with more high school movies about slackers and smart-alecks than anyone actually needed, especially when it came to featuring students who looked like they were older than the teachers. Summer School was always perhaps the most underrated of the decade’s tributes to academic slackers because what it lacked in the typical star power of, say, a John Hughes film, i...