Hey all,
I have been having a really hard time finding good movies from the 80s that I haven't already seen before. Like all the teen movies I've pretty much seen.. if anyone could recommend some movies from the 80s that are not horror movies that would be great!
Thanks!
FRANCES starring Jessica Lang.
Trailer: http://youtu.be/QJzj8dRRmbk
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Love her, will defiantly check this out. Thanks.
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She was nominated for FRANCES (Best Actress) the same year she was nominated for TOOTSIE (Best Supporting Actress)...which she won for.
You've seen TOOTSIE, right? It's about the most adorable movie ever made : )
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c94awfb-0wc
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She was smoking hot in The Postman Always Rings Twice !
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She was! And everyone was surprised she could actually ACT...because most critics kind of made fun of her in her debut, King Kong. But she took the salary and went off to acting classes for a few years....and then when POSTMAN came out everyone was like, "Oh my God...that's the same bimbo model from King Kong??"
Good Scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBShQRX0bIU
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It always amazes me when an actor can summon this type of raw emotion and display it so realistically.
shareI finally considered her to be a decent actress when I watched Francis.She actually seemed to know what she was doing!
shareShe was great in Music Box.
A really, really good movie.
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssss.....!
shareDamn Cookie, I saw this movie in the theater. I remember walking out and thinking WOW.
I don't think I've seen it or thought about it since.
Seeing 80's and Jessica Lang flooded my head with this movie.
I've seen other people name actors and movies and then more just pop into my head.
There really was a lot of great movie from the 80's.
That's the one where she finds her papa was a Nazi isn't it?
She's a brilliant actress.
That's the one.
She really is.
I wish she hadn't done that to her face.
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She was so beautiful.
I don't remember what she looked like right before the surgery.
I just remember seeing her after. I was in shock.
She doesn't seem to look "as bad" as she did when it first happened.
Maybe I'm just used to it by now.
If it made her feel better than good for her I guess.
I think it could have been done more subtly. I'm one who appreciates lines and wrinkles.
They make us who we are.
Of course I'm not in Hollywood so who am I to judge.
I saw Tootsie yes, but had no idea she had gotten an Oscar for it.
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These are of Jessica Lange before her acting days, when she was still a fashion model in Paris:
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/2e/4e/90/2e4e90ed2d4cbd61c580365bfe8a866c--jessica-lange-s-jessica-lange-king-kong.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ca/06/30/ca063009bca3cd2fc5bb9f3827ec08ec--model-comp-card-jessica-lange.jpg
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wow, shes gorgeous..
shareAirplane. Real Genius. The Boys Next Door. Stripes. Revenge of the Nerds. Just thought of two more. Fandango and At Close Range.
shareAt Close Range
Wow I haven't seen The Falcon and the Snowman in ages.
shareSame here. I haven’t seen it since it first came out in the theaters; 1985 I think? Old wanton’s showing his age in this thread 😀
share"Same here. I haven’t seen it since it first came out in the theaters; 1985 I think? Old wanton’s showing his age in this thread 😀"
Aren't we all? 😀 It was a fun decade for films though.
I do prefer the 90's. There were so many good ones, but when you really stop and think about it, each decade had great movies..... even the ones before our times. In that respect, we are all showing our age.
Once again, I'm gonna swipe your smile! 😀
True. I loved everything about the 80's, especially the music. Though I can't imagine how I got by without "googling" something any time that I wanted an answer? Books and radio for entertainment in place of the www. It all seems so long ago now.....
shareIsn't it weird? We managed just fine without all of this. It still seems so strange though to think of those times without all of this information at our fingertips. Yet, we had fun and we survived.
I agree. The music from the 80's was great! That was when MTV really was all about the music!
Oh, I just remembered something. There was this thing called an encyclopedia 😀
Oh, and microfiche! You can't forget the microfiche machine in every school library!
I went back to school as an adult and there were younger people who said it was their first time in a library when we did the school tour..
shareI’m not much better Daisy. I haven’t been in a library since I was a senior in high school, way back in 1983 (you might need a calculator to figure out how long ago that was 😀 ). These days I read mostly online content. If I want a book, I get it from Amazon, and ideally, a kindle edition for around a $1. But it’s getting harder and harder to find those cheap kindle books anymore 😟
Yes, but we know what a library is..haha ;) Nowadays though you are right, when I check out a book its online and I never step foot in the library.
shareNow you are flashing me back to the past. the library was our google and when I liked a band I would search for them on microfiche to find of all different cities newspapers and magazines articles and interviews.
There was a lot more mystery, like there are some bands I never even knew what they looked like if their liner notes didn't have pix. and certain things were hard to find. You'd have to buy an import and you had to HUNT for records sometimes, and you had to sit outside a record store all night to get tickets to concerts.
Everything is so easy now. But that is good in some ways, you can go from newbie to know-it-all fan very quickly.
I as well. Fun thread though.🍻
shareThis thread as made me think of movies I haven't thought of in ages.
Sean Penn reminds of
Taps
Bad Boys
Casualties of War
I thought all were really good movies.
Casualties of War had Michael j Fox in it, someone wouldnt believe me the other day that he was in a war movie..well there ya go. That would def be worth a re-watch, I haven't seen it since it was newish.
shareIt also had John C. Reilly in it.
I didn't think this was going to be good. I mean Michael J. Fox in a war movie , really.
I saw it at the theater and pleasantly surprised.
One negative about CoW is there is casual brutalization involved that I find upsetting. Since it's really the crux of the movie, there's no way around it, and I try not to be overly sensitive, but sometimes I just want to avoid that stuff entirely.
Some movies from the 80s -- Something Wild, Against All Odds, No Way Out, The Big Chill, Body Heat, After Hours, The Last Seduction, A Passage To India ... yikes, I could go on-and-on.
Seems like if you like an actor from the 80s (for example, William Hurt), you can look at their filmography and focus on their 80s output.
I had seen CoW when I was quite young and i remember it bothering me, so i'm sure it still will after what you wrote. Haven't seen any of your suggestions, if you can believe it. haha
shareTo be fair, The Last Seduction came out in 1994, so -- not 80s, but it's a cult film and wicked smart, at least it felt that way at the time. Linda Fiorentino, Peter Berg and Bill Pullman. It's a hoot !
I also liked House Of Games (Lindsay Crouse, Joe Mantegna, 1987). It's not seamless, the acting isn't always great, but the whole idea behind it is pretty unique. It's like 80s Noir, as is The Last Seduction also Noir. There is at least an attempt at sophistication that most other films don't bother with.
Should I start a new one for the 90s? ;) jk I haven't seen those either. I'm trying to actually watch one movie per year so 90s are okay too. :) I must be insane haha.. That's 100 movies
shareI tend toward drama, not comedy or horror. If it's well done and looks like maybe it reflects real life, I like it more than shtick and shlock (comedy-horror). But that's an over-simplification. Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles are classics, and there may be a few horror films that are really good cinematic efforts (The Shining?). I'm sort of a film snob so I'm likely way off the beaten path for enjoyable movies. But I like good movies !
shareYou forgot Sean Penn's most famous 80's role of them all! I'll give you a hint. It's from a cute little movie called Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
shareHey, Bud, let's party!
Nobody mentioned Hard to Hold. This makes me sad.
Starman
Somewhere In Time
Death Trap
The Big Chill
At the moment, that's just off the top of my head. Those are just a few of my favorites from the 80's.
I havent see Death Trap or the Big Chill. I need a list. :)
shareOh! You really should see both. No horror or teenagers in either one.
Deathtrap is from a play by Ira Levin, the man who wrote Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives. It is more of a twist/turn/what will happen next? It stars Micheal Caine and Christopher Reeve. It is one fun movie.
The Big Chill has a great ensemble cast. It's about old college friends who come together for a weekend after the funeral of the friend who more or less had brought them together in the first place. It is one good movie..... funny, sad, compelling. It also has a fantastic sound track.
I hope you'll try watching both. Great movies!
I adore The Big Chill,did you know that the corpse at the beginning is Kevin Costner? Apparently anyway?
The soundtrack is amazing Joy to the World,The Weight,Bad Moon Rising.Such a great cast.
William Hurt is a brilliant actor,have you seen The Accidental Tourist?
Dazed, The Big Chill is near the top of my all time faves. Yes. I did know that Costner was the corpse, Alex. They had even filmed some flashback scenes with him in them. In the end, they never used those scenes in the movie..... a shame.
This is one of those movies that make you want to see more. I hated to see it end because I was so interested in these people's lives. LOL!
LOVED that sound track! That's my kind of music!
William Hurt was sooooo good in Accidental Tourist. He is never a disappointment.
I believe I mentioned Body Heat in this thread. That was the first movie where I ever saw Hurt.
William Hurt is a great actor.
Have you seen Kiss of the Spider Woman ?
IMO it's his best performance.
I'm a huge fan of Anne Tyler's books she has such a way of describing what I always think of as "the rest of us" ,the awkwards,the clumsy,the ill at ease.
The Accidental Tourist is an amazing book.Macon is such an amazing character I cried for him when his son was killed,his eccentric family and their inability to break routine. And wonderful flawed Muriel following him to Paris!
Me too with The Big Chill by the way,I love the scene where they are talking about Alex' suicide and it's said he decided not Why but Why not?
Oh my! I could talk about this film for hours.
Ira Levin is enough for me to hear. I loved both Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives. I didn't see the new Stepford Wives though.. people said it was terrible.
shareAnd not that I hate teenagers or horror, just that's all that I think I watched back then. LOL.
shareDeathtrap (1982) reminds me of Sleuth (1972) with Caine and Olivier. Sleuth may not be as good as when I saw it as a young person, but it was smart and funny at the time. (I wanted to say "wicked smart" but don't want to sound like I'm some Ben Affleck/The Town wannabe, haha.)
How about Harold and Maude from 1971? There's a great ol' classic. Not that I want to introduce every great 70s movie, but H&M is sort of a cult classic that deserves to be mentioned just about any time people are recommending movies. I guess it's a comedy but I think it's a little bit more than that.
Harold and Maude would be right up there in my 70's recommendations along with Rocky Horror Picture Show. Those just didn't make the 80's list..... smile.
I agree. Deathtrap had that Sluthe feel. It wasn't exactly a mystery but it had twists and turns. Seeing it for the first time, you never know what's coming next.
St Elmo’s fire
Class Ties
The Breakfast Club
Weird Science
Maximum Overdrive
Young Guns
Class (1983)
The Outsiders
Desert Bloom
Wow, there’s just so many I don’t even know where to begin. But the above are just a few that I thought of off the top of my head.
The worst part? I’m old enough to remember them 😀
Class Ties is an interesting choice, and I also like Desert Bloom as a bit of a "left-field" selection. Haven't seen that in a really long time -- would be fun to run across that in the near future.
shareI used to have Desert Bloom on VHS. I watched it over and over. I loved John Voight’s characters, Hallicrafters shortwave radio, and wanted one just like it.
I probably haven’t seen Class Ties since the 1980’s. I remember parts of it well because they would be hard to forget. That would have had to have been the most awkward family dinner scene in television history that evening at Skip’s house 😀
I don't remember Class Ties, but once you mentioned the awkward family dinner scene I want to see it hahah....
I'm a little on the strange side.
You’ll probably like it. Rob Lowe in one of his better roles imo. Glad to see that he’s starting to become more visible again.
I wonder if I did maybe see it then.. Rob Lowe would have made us want to rent it I'm sure. hahah :)
shareI can provide a few tidbits, and maybe that will be enough to jog your memory. Skip (Rob Lowe) takes it upon himself to get his classmate Jonathan (Andrew McCarthy) laid. So he sends him off to Chicago with the intent to do so. Jonathan inadvertently ends up [spoiler]sleeping with none other than Skip’s mother 😀[/spoiler].
Skip: Face it dad, we’re a F’ed up family.
Here’s the movie link:
https://moviechat.org/tt0085346/Class
I want to see so many of these movies again. "The Brat Pack" are there for a couple of them. I can't recall desert bloom or class. Have you seen any of them since they were new?
shareI’m pretty sure that I caught them both again in the 90’s Daisy, and I had Desert Bloom on VHS, and watched it quite a few times. But I haven’t seen either one of them probably since that time.
I actually meant on your whole list. i would love to see St Elmo's Fire again, I remember liking it a lot but that's about it. I've seen the Breakfast Club too many times and Young Guns I wore the tape out of that one! Its still been awhile though, but i'm sure it would hold up.
shareOh, gotcha. I saw Young Guns maybe just a few years back. It was kind of hard not to, because my father (no longer with us) played it over and over again, both versions, 1 and 2. Some station was playing Weird Science not all that long ago, and I caught a part of it. But other than that, no, I have not seen any of these 80’s classics in many years.
Speaking of which, I only found out recently that Dana Barron was scheduled to play Audrey once again in the next Vacation movie. But ultimately, what had happened was that Anthony Michael Hall got the part in Weird Science, so he couldn’t revise his role as Rusty. Instead of replacing the role of Rusty with another actor, they simply replaced them both. She was also set to play the role of Ferris Bueller’s sister, and the part was given to Jennifer Grey instead. She had a round of bad luck there, and I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for her. I remember when she was in the Crossbow series from the 80’s about William Tell.
Another one....
Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean.
Great ensemble cast! Cher, Karen Black, Sandy Dennis, Kathy Bates....
Some of these may be lesser known. Depending on your tastes.
Cinema Paradiso
Birdy
F/X
Once Upon a Time In America
Kiss of the Spider Woman- not a horror movie
Racing With The Moon
The Big Blue
Starman
Brazil
Dangerous Liaisons
Unbearable Lightness of Being
The Navigator
Thanks so much. I did love Dangerous Liaisons. Will have to check out the others..
shareDL is one of my top 10 favorites.
I know you said you saw a lot of the comedies.
Have you seen The Sure Thing ?
IMO one of the best romantic comedies of that decade.
No actually, but the name sounds so familiar. Probably sounds odd but I'm trying to watch one movie for each year and the 80s had been rough to find ones to watch.
shareBrazil is a great choice ! When it was new, the art-house theatre I saw it at had a little hand-written sign telling us the sound on the movie is LOUD and it's supposed to be like that. But I loved Brazil at the time. Maybe since then we've become accustomed to the special effects, but back then I thought it was chilling, weird and funny all at once. Maybe like Pan's Labyrinth was in 2006.
shareI also saw this at one of those art-house theaters. Weren't they the best.
I remember seeing a double feature at one back in the very early 90's. Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer and
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover.
I do think you're right regarding the special effects. At that time weren't many like Brazil.
It reminds me a lot of City of Lost Children. Gilliam is a master of these kind of movies.
Body Heat!
I'm just listing as I remember them. LOL!
Commando, the ultimate 80s Arnie movie, with dialogue that turned David Mamet green with envy:
MATTIX (Arnie's character) Sully, you remember when I said that I would kill you last?
SULLY (scuzzy little scumbag bad guy) Sure, Matrix! That's right [nervous laugh]!
MATRIX I lied [releases Sully's leg and lets him plummet down a cliff to his death].
Not nearly as good as Commando, but nonetheless a nifty 80s action flick that in many ways epitomized the decade: Sharkey's Machine, with Burt Reynolds (who also, unfortunately, directed), Brian Keith, Bernie Casey, Richard Libertini as "the machine" of vice cops, Charles Durning as their woebeset boss, Henry Silva as a drug-addict mad dog killer, and brother to Vitoria Gassman, the pimp who controls all of Atlanta GA!!You see what I mean about epitomizing the decade. Then add in Rachel Ward, looking the most stunning and juicy that she would ever look, as Gassman's main working girl, have Gassman decide to have his brother kill her, have she and Sharkey fall in love, and you have a movie you will find in the R_Kane Cinema Library.
And I can't believe that no one has mentioned The Lost Boys or Road House. The latter has been described as "the ultimate mullet movie," and features some great rock music by the Jeff Healy Band.