Best of 1983

I was in my 20s in the 80s, and most of the teen movies from that period were just excuses to have young women who were in their 20s playing high school students to be seen nude. I do remember the film "The Last American Virgin" the ending made me mad, "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" I lied the ending of that film the nerd guy in this film came off looking a lot better than the loser nerd guy in "The Last American Virgin".

I also liked "Fright Night", I think as they progressed later into the 80s, the mega-box office movies started coming out, over hyped but they were entertaining for the most part. Two Star Wars films, 3 Indiana Jones films, the first "Batman" film, and Eddie Murphy in "Beverly Hills Cop" which had an awesome soundtrack which was also a signature of most 80s films. "Fright Night" had a good one, "The Last American Virgin" and "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" both had really good soundtracks as well as did most 80s films even if they were bad.

Who knew the cast of "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" would so many young actors that would become very successful and were also show they were very talented. Sean Penn, Forrest Whitaker, Nicholas Cage, Anthony Edwards, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Eric Stoltz, Nancy Wilson of the band Heart, and the late Lana Clarkson who was murdered in 2003 by Phil Spector.

You also had "E.T." I think the 80s officially started the big summer box office release of major films as well, I seem to recall seeing the bigger budget money grabbing blockbuster films in the summer, and then around the holiday season of Thanksgiving and then Christmas.

The 80s also gave us Tom Cruise in "The Outsiders", "Risky Business" which also had some up and coming young actors.

When I look back on the 80s films it was about fun, even if the film was a drama, there always seemed to be this party in the air attitude about the films being released in the 80s. "St. Elmo's Fire", "The Karate Kid", "The Breakfast Club" again the soundtracks really made these films, and anyone growing up as a teenager or twenty something can place a song to any of the rite of passage, coming of age or teen films.

The 80s were pretty fun as were the films.

"Half dressed women make it difficult for me to concentrate" - Eddie Fisher "Butterfield Eight"

I saw this with my dad in the theater in 1983. The last Bond movie we saw before that was 1979's child-like Moonraker, which was the reason we didn't bother going to see For Your Eyes Only or Octopussy.

But, we had planned to see NSNA for a while. I remember my mom showing me a newspaper article in 1981 about Sean Connery slated to comeback as 007 in a remake of Thunderball.

It was maybe because of this anticipation that we left the theater very disappointed. The fact that it lacked the official Bond trappings certainly did it in. Right from the beginning, without the gunbarrel opening, you felt a sense of loss. Couple that with the fact that the movie itself was overly long, talkative and overblown, you can imagine my level of distress. To me, NSNA is the worst Bond film of the 1980s. My favorite movie that I saw in theaters in 1983 was All the Right Moves with some young guy named Tom Cruise. Wonder what he's doin these days?

A little after seeing NSNA, I saw For Your Eyes Only on HBO and thought it was awesome, best Bond film since OHMSS. It was probably the reason more people went to see Octopussy in theaters than NSNA. So, I rented Octopussy and while I thought it was almost as bloated as NSNA and not as good as FYEO, it was still a superior movie to Connery's effort. I developed a new appreciation for Roger Moore, which of course was ruined with the release of a View to a Kill in 1985.

Of course, Connery would go on to bigger and better things, winning an Oscar and starring in many blockbusters, while Roger Moore just sort of faded from the scene, but for that one moment Roger outshone Sean.

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I didn't see NSNA at the cinema when it came out, but I do recall seeing another brilliant movie around January 1983 - nearly 30 ago exactly. It was called First Blood, and starred some guy called Sylvester Stallone. I wonder what happened to him. Anyway, it blew me away as a teenager. What a way to kick off a year of films - some good (Scarface, Flasdance) and some bad (Octopussy, Jaws 3D). Yes I said Octopussy was bad, with all that circus nonsense! AND, it was directed by a Bond film Editor!!!

Jeez.

NSNA has more humour, better action scenes and a better theme song.