The 80s-est

Welcome to Round 2, where the shows are shorter, and the voting is even more important! NOTE: there are FOUR POLLS for you to vote on here! Feel like ranking movies for next season? Try it HERE! Here are the official results of Round 1 in the Sixteen Candles Region: This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit the80sest.s...

The final first-round game of the Raiders of the Lost Ark Region brings together two VERY different films, and my goodness, we talk about them for way too long. In one corner: 1983’s Flashdance! It’s got the torn sweatshirt, the leg warmers, the water splash, and my god, the soundtrack! Jennifer Beals was just out there, shaping the fashion sense of a decade, and inspiring a billion crushes worldw...

This week, two one-word titles dominate the penultimate matchup of the first round! In one corner: Zapped!, Robert Rosenthal’s 1982 teen sex comedy in which a high school science nerd develops telekinetic powers, and proceeds to creepily use them to remove the clothes from every girl in his vicinity. Peak cringe, but VERY 80s. In the other corner: Splash, Ron Howard’s 1984 romantic fantasy in whic...

This week’s lineup of films has a couple of films that didn’t have much of a presence in the lives of our hosts, Keith & Joe. However, we brought in experts to help us out! In one corner, we have 3-seed The Outsiders, a film that launched a dozen careers, but that is set in the early 60s. In the other corner, we have a concert movie of an iconic 80s band: Stop Making Sense by Talking Heads. This i...

This week we have an iconic 80s comedy franchise against an iconic 80s action franchise! In one corner: Ghostbusters, Ivan Reitman’s 1984 supernatural comedy in which three disgraced parapsychology professors start a ghost-catching (“busting”) business in New York City and end up saving the world from a Sumerian demigod. In the other corner: First Blood, Ted Kotcheff’s 1982 action film in which Vi...

This week, we flash back to movies that have lots of flashbacks in them. (Or flash-forwards in one case.) In one corner: The Terminator, James Cameron’s 1984 science fiction thriller in which a machine from 2029 is sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor before she can give birth to the man who will lead humanity’s resistance. In the other corner: Eddie and the Cruisers, Martin Davidson’s 1983 dram...

In one corner: The Neverending Story, Wolfgang Petersen’s 1984 fantasy in which a lonely boy named Bastian steals a magical book and begins reading — only to discover he is part of the story itself. In the other corner: Escape from New York, John Carpenter’s 1981 action-thriller in which the island of Manhattan has been converted into a maximum-security prison and Snake Plissken (ex-Special Forces...

This week, by chance, we had 9 to 5 to review, and the day before we recorded, we lost Dolly Parton. Just when we were prepared to try to reduce our show length, we felt it appropriate to memorialize Dolly, and so, back up the show length goes! On today’s show, we have two films about people…that’s about the only thing they have in common. In one corner: 9 to 5, a 1980 workplace comedy in which th...

Welcome to the Raiders of the Lost Ark Region! Our first matchup is as epic as the blockbuster for which the region is named! In one corner: Raiders of the Lost Ark, the #1 film of 1981, in which Lucas, Spielberg, Williams, Kasdan, and Ford basically crush all other movies with an All-Star Team effort. It’s more 80s as in “era-defining blockbuster” than in reflecting the decade. In the other corne...

This week, Joe and I got out of hand on discussion time again (sorry!) as we discuss two films about becoming someone. In one corner: The Karate Kid, the 1984 coming-of-age underdog story in which Daniel LaRusso moves from Newark to California, immediately gets beaten up by karate-trained bullies, and discovers that his apartment building handyman is an Okinawan karate master. In the other corner:...

Today’s films are both about things that get catastrophically out of hand. In one corner: Gremlins, the 1984 horror-comedy that was so disturbingly violent for a PG rating that it directly caused the MPAA to create the PG-13 rating. In the other corner: Porky’s, the terribly shitty 1982 sex comedy set in 1954 Florida, that is as boring as it is stupid. There’s no question which movie is better. Wh...

This week on the 80s-est: two films about what happens when you accidentally start something you can’t stop. In one corner: WarGames, the 1983 Cold War thriller in which a teenage hacker breaks into NORAD’s military computer and starts a game of Global Thermonuclear War that inadvertently puts America’s defenses on the brink of WWIII. In the other corner: The Blues Brothers, John Landis’s 1980 mus...

Two films about young men trying to figure out what they want — just with very different levels of seriousness. In one corner: Stripes, Ivan Reitman’s 1981 military comedy that turned Bill Murray into a movie star, and gave John Candy his breakout film role. In the other corner: All the Right Moves, the 1983 Tom Cruise drama about a Rust Belt high school football player and his coach who want the...

Joe and I haven’t spoken for two weeks, and it showed. We lost track of time, apologies for the lengthy show, feel free to listen on 2X! 😃 This week, we explore two early-80s comedies about the ultra-wealthy, class wars, and people getting exactly what they deserve. In this corner: Trading Places, John Landis’s 1983 satire of Reaganomics that helped stereotype the yuppie culture of the day, and e...

Hello, 80s-est listeners! Well, we didn’t do a rerun while Joe and his family were out creating magic in the park with Twelfth Night. ( Ballinger Shakespeare ) Instead, with Joe’s blessing, we threw together a semi-topical new episode in which Keith and longtime contributor, Alejandro Saya ( Lo Más Ochenta ), discuss some music. First we talk about the World Cups of the 80s, then we discuss origin...

Valley Girl gets undersold by its title. This 1983 film is a genuinely sweet Romeo-and-Juliet story set against the San Fernando Valley’s new wave moment that gave America many of its cultural sayings of the 80s. Caddyshack, Harold Ramis’ 1980 directorial debut, is the country-club comedy that gave Bill Murray one of his most iconic characters (Carl Spackler, largely improvised on set), and put Ke...

Round two of the Red Dawn Region, and it’s puppets vs. performing arts kids. In one corner: The Dark Crystal, Jim Henson and Frank Oz’s 1982 fantasy epic — every character a puppet, no humans on screen, timeless. In the other corner, Fame, the 1980 musical drama that won two Oscars, launched a TV series, a remake, and a stage musical. Two cult favorites, two very different fanbases. Which one is M...

We’re opening the Red Dawn Region, and as always the first matchup is one of the most lopsided, on paper, at least. In one corner we have Red Dawn , the 1984 John Milius film that made history as the first movie ever released with a PG-13 rating, launched the careers of Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, Lea Thompson, C. Thomas Howell, and Jennifer Grey, and gave American teenagers the battle cry ‘WOL...

The Fast Times Region is closing out its first round, and this one’s a genuine odd couple. In one corner: Revenge of the Nerds, the 1984 comedy that became a cultural institution. Joe and Keith both ranked it #13, which might be the most agreement they’ve had all season. But they do agree it is the most problematic film of the first 32! In the other corner: Poltergeist, the 1982 haunted-house film...

The Fast Times Region moves to its near conclusion! In one corner: Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, the 1984 sequel that gave the English language a permanent shorthand for unnecessary follow-ups. The film contains a scene where Turbo literally dances on the ceiling, no explanation, and the film just does it anyway. In the other corner: The Cannonball Run, Hal Needham’s 1981 all-star road-race comed...

The Fast Times Region has something special for us this week! To kick off our third year of The 80s-est, we welcome Alejandro Saya back to the show! We would also like to promote Alejandro & Marco’s show, “Lo más ochenta,” in which Keith appears this week: Anyway, back to the matchup! In one corner: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Steven Spielberg’s 1982 mega-hit that became the highest-grossing film...

The Fast Times Region serves up one of its most fascinating/lopsided matchups yet. In one corner: Purple Rain, the 1984 Prince film that won the last Academy Award for Best Original Song Score ever given — then the category was retired. The soundtrack was OTHERWORLDLY. But there’s really not much of a movie there. In the other corner: The Thing, John Carpenter’s 1982 paranoid sci-fi horror masterp...

The Fast Times Region delivers a matchup that covers a lot of 80s ground. In one corner: Risky Business, Paul Brickman’s 1983 coming-of-age classic where Tom Cruise slides across a living room in his socks, accidentally turns his parents’ house into a brothel, and somehow comes out ahead. It made Tom Cruise a superstar and gave the decade one of its defining images. In the other: An American Werew...

Guys, we were recording, and I didn’t have a clock, time got away from us on this one! You do have a week to listen, so…enjoy? This may be the Fast Times Region’s biggest matchup yet. In one corner: Beverly Hills Cop, the 1984 Eddie Murphy machine that became the #1 film of the year. Axel Foley drove into Beverly Hills in a beat-up car, and the whole decade basically stopped to watch. In the other...

The Fast Times Region doesn’t slow down! This week it’s a matchup of two very different flavors of 80s comedy, and maybe the most lopsided box office stories in the bracket. In one corner: Class, the 1983 prep-school drama-comedy where Andrew McCarthy accidentally sleeps with his roommate’s mother, a film that quietly launched a generation of Brat Pack careers. In the other corner: Police Academy,...