Time for another voting thread and this time with a really fun theme!
- This round we are looking for "The Most 80's Movie". Does it feature legwarmers? Ridiculously big hair? An over the top synth score? Robots? Lasers? Robots with Lasers? Shopping malls? Clunky old home computers? Neon everywhere? Aerobics? Punk Rock? Any or all of the above? Then it belongs in the voting pool.
b_b, humanodon, ButterflyEffect, OftenBen, roysexton, iammyownrushmore, blackbootz,_refugee_, veen, mk, eightbitsamurai, Ave, camarillobrillo, havires, kleinbl00, ecib, insomniasexx, elizabeth, nowaypablo, pigeon, rjw, StJohn, Mindwolf, Meriadoc, beezneez, longstocking, theadvancedapes, ghostoffuffle, T-Dog, jonaswildman, coffeesp00ns, bfv, cgod, mike, thenewgreen, zebra2, Kaius
EDIT: KB has raised a good point, I remove Blade Runner from the running.
Oh man... Blade Runner, anyone? Director's Cut?
I love the hell out of Blade Runner but it's a long damn way from I mean, watch me out '80s that sucker without even thinking about it..."The Most 80's Movie". Does it feature legwarmers? Ridiculously big hair? An over the top synth score? Robots? Lasers? Robots with Lasers? Shopping malls? Clunky old home computers? Neon everywhere? Aerobics? Punk Rock? Any or all of the above?
I change my vote to Weird Science. or Flash Dance.
My alternative title is Night of the Comet. I love this movie. We have a global event that wipes out most of earth's population and only a couple of valley girls can pick up the pieces. In it, you have Valley Girls with machine guns, scientists in jumpsuits, neon, arcade games, shopping malls, Geoffrey Lewis and Mary Fucking Woronov.
It's surprisingly progressive -- the main protagonists are women and the male lead is a PoC. It's also really funny, intentionally so. Highly underrated IMO.
Alright so TerrorVision is my suggestion.
If you haven't seen it, you should. This is a candy-colored horror comedy that encapsulates virtually every trope and trend from the 80's. Stars Gerrit Graham, Jon Gries as rocker named O.D. and Mary Fucking Woronov. Tons of fun.
So it appears that an "80s movie" must involve outdated trends, outdated fashion and an uneasy relationship with technology. I accept that and endorse that, while also requesting everyone at least glance at my apologia for the '80s. Further, there are plenty of movies from the '80s that stand on their own. Breakfast Club is still a great film. ET? Raiders? '80s films. It should therefore be a film so overcome with its 80s ness that it has been largely forgotten by time. I think it also has to still be worth watching... which culls a bunch of shit. I mean, did you know that Andy Kaufman and Bernadette Peters played robots escaping from the military-industrial complex to start a new life in Heartbeeps? It's every bit as awful as the trailer indicates though; I watched it at the ripe old age of 7 and found it corny and terrible. Then there's Cloak and Dagger, in which the kid from E.T. accidentially discovers Soviet espionage while playing a weird hybrid of ZORK and D&D and the only person who can save him is Dabney Coleman, a character from the game. Again: not a great film. All-american boy as military science project? D.A.R.Y.L checks lots of boxes but again, ain't a great film. So: Above all, it still has to be good. 80s but good. Perhaps so '80s that nobody still watches it but still good. It probably should also have not been a bomb. People actually had to have watched it back in the '80s. This eliminates a lot of the truly amazing post-apocalyptic Road Warrior ripoffs like Defcon 4 and amazing counter-culture icons like Repo Man. So I offer up two: Tom Selleck, Kirstie Alley and Gene Fucking Simmons in Michael Fucking Crichton's Runaway. In which the guy who brought you Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park presents a cop and his hot blonde teased-bang partner as they attempt to deal with a rogue industrialist bent on destroying the world via robotics. dat font. Score by Jerry "Star Trek TNG and half a million other things" Goldsmith, but they couldn't afford an orchestra or even a lot of voices for their Synclavier so it's good and crunchy. Alternatively The film that nearly destroyed Disney: TRON. Jeff Bridges and a whole bunch of other people you've never heard of, although it should be pointed out that Sark was also Satan in Time Bandits and Councilor Gorkon in Star Trek 6. So much computer shit it hurts - the analogies and technology of Tron remain an amazing flight of fancy. Finally, the soundtrack by Wendy Carlos is positively seminal and is, I believe, the first major work she created after announcing to the world she was no longer Walter in 1979. It should also be noted that Disney pulled all available copies of Tron ahead of the release of Tron 2, and that the writer/director did absolutely nothing other than Tron. It ended his career. There was a great deal of effort expended by Disney to make everyone forget Tron ahead of Tron Legacy... but it's well worth remembering. My 2 cents, actually. Well, more like two bucks. What can I say. that era matters to me.
I took my first couple of computer graphics classes with someone who worked on Tron. He tells a great story about it: it looked dated at the time, and on purpose. The renderer they were using was much more sophisticated than the Blinn shaded CSG objects in the movie, they were asked to make something more primitive looking because the best they could do didn't look computery enough. The company he was working for had trouble finding clients after that, because everyone who had seen Tron thought their renderer was crap.The film that nearly destroyed Disney: TRON.
I CAN'T WAIT FOR TRON 3. Tron Legacy was my 2010 Pacific Rim: yeah that shit was stupid, but dammit it was pretty and entertaining. And it had Daft Punk in it. TL, not PR. Tron has a bad rap in general. Tron: Uprising was fucking amazing and was canceled immediately. Main Character voiced by Frodo, Tron voiced by actual Tron and not a horrendous double, and the antagonist voiced by Emmanuelle Chriqui? Swoon Too good for Disney. I worry the same thing will happen with Gravity Falls.
I Unabashedly loved the shit out of the Tron reboot with Olivia Wilde.
I will never forgive that film (TRON) for portraying a bit as having 3 states. Stupid, I know, but the rage still burns.
You view it in the wrong spirit. That film is a cargo cult interpretation of computers. I mean "lose your disk and you will die?" It's the Axe Cop of cyberpunk.
Those are independent axes. "Cyberpunk" does not preclude "sci fi adventure" nor does it include it. My best friend wrote his master's thesis on cyberpunk literature and film. While the definition is variable and often debated, key elements always include computers and counterculture. Beyond that, all bets are off.
Ha, I haven't seen Runaway in forever. I need to see it again. I'm watching this even if it doesn't get picked.
Maybe somebody like kleinbl00 will dig this but I recently watched The Running Man and if that's not 80s I don't know what is.
1) We did Wargames 3 months ago but 2) Yes, Earth Girls are Easy is totally in the wheelhouse. Horribly unbeatable? Dude. Howard the Duck.
Dude... good call. When I was a kid I thought Geena Davis in a bikini was about as hot as it got. Also, it's one of the first films with Jim Carey. Also, it's about a space ship that lands in a pool in LA. -how could that not be hilarious? It's got a bit of LA Story to it, in that it's constantly mocking LA. Good call.
Didn't we already watch War Games for this movie club? Or did I just watch it because I wanted to...?