Greatest 80s Movies

[Tarka Dal]

http://www2.five.tv/programmes/greatestevermovies/countdown/

I finally watched the end of this today. Apparently the list was voted for by the public. Now I know the voting public at large are stupid, but how I mean seriously how can Ghostbusters not have made the top 40!? No Blade Runner either.

Topic

[Jo]

Ah I watched this on Boxing Day night!
Breakfast Club only at No.7 :o(
Back to the Future at No.1 though is good.

[Danny Stephenson]

I wish i’d seen this, bugger.

[si]

Back to the Future is the best movie ever.

I didn’t see this, either. Love Ghostbusters. Was The Goonies in there?

[Pete Part Three]

Ah bollocks. I missed the BTTF celebration too.

I must say that Five suck at these list programmes, though. They make Channel 4’s look well produced.

Ghost Busters would be number 2 in my list so a non-placement is a travesty.

[hummingbird]

Further proof that the people who compile these lists haven’t a fucking clue what they’re talking about.

[Andrew]

> Further proof that the people who compile these lists haven?t a fucking clue what they?re talking about.

Further proof that people who complain about these lists have no idea how a basic voting system works.

[Ben Paddon]

Blade Runner is rubbish.

There. I said it.

[Tarka Dal]

> Further proof that people who complain about these lists have no idea how a basic voting system works.

Still, how does ANY voting system place About Last Night above Ghostbusters?

As for Blade Runner I’m not as shocked it’s more of a cult movie than a populist one isn’t it? What was odd was that Sean Young showed up to make her one and only appearance as a talking head during clips of Raiders of the Last Ark. Assuming it was a new interview and not a clip taken from another show (as I did at the time) I thought right well Blade Runner must be in the Top three…

What I hadn’t realised until this countdown was just how big a star Eddie Murphy was at the time.

[Tarka Dal]

Also

> Blade Runner is rubbish.

I tried to resist tempation, but… NO!

Even if you don’t take to the story it’s one of the few movies where the visuals alone take it to a different level. Twenty-Five years on it’s still one of the most beautiful things ever shot and pretty much established the look of almost all things Sci-Fi that followed.

[ChrisM]

>As for Blade Runner I?m not as shocked it?s more of a cult movie than a populist one isn?t it?

That’s a good point actually. And I love the film enough that I bought the multi-version box-set (although I’ll admit I got it when the price was discounted.)

It wasn’t even that popular at the time, but it grew in popularity since then. (I reckon it should have made the top 40 though, it’s certainly an iconic* film.)

I agree with a lot of the films in the top 10 though.

*A word that get’s overused, but I think it’s right here.

[Ben Paddon]

Karl’s Alphabetti Spaghetti arranged itself into the following…
I tried to resist tempation, but? NO!

Even if you don?t take to the story it?s one of the few movies where the visuals alone take it to a different level. Twenty-Five years on it?s still one of the most beautiful things ever shot and pretty much established the look of almost all things Sci-Fi that followed.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, I loved the visuals. But I’m after more from a movie than something nice to look at. An overabundance of style does not make up for a lack of substance. Examples: Wanted, which had fantastic special effects but was probably the worst movie of 2008, and Max Payne, which was beautifully put together but very, very badly written.

[Andrew]

> Still, how does ANY voting system place About Last Night above Ghostbusters?

Basic polling rules: if you didn’t vote yourself, you don’t get to bitch about the results. :-p

> An overabundance of style does not make up for a lack of substance.

While I don’t think it’s Teh Gratest Moive Evur, BR’s actually ‘about stuff’. The world is built astoundingly, and the story’s pretty basic, but it’s not like it lacks for themes, ideas and ‘a point’.

‘Rubbish’ indeed!

> Wanted, which had fantastic special effects but was probably the worst movie of 2008

Fuck. Off.

[Seb Patrick]

1. Back to the Future
2. Ghostbusters
3. Blade Runner
4. Aliens
5. Trading Places

… that’s off the top of my head.

[Pete Part Three]

>Basic polling rules: if you didn?t vote yourself, you don?t get to bitch about the results. :-p

Well, that’s fine in theory for stuff a bit more widespread (like, say, elections), but I don’t remember being told that Channel 5 were doing a poll and I’m guessing the notification was restricted to the occasional TV advert and their godwaful website.

A cursory glance at that page doesn’t reveal how many people voted and, while a larger amount of voters wouldn’t necessarily produce the “right” result, it would be easier to justify.

I just did a poll and Blade Runner was declared “over-rated and a bit dull”. I’m afraid the voting lines are now closed.

[Phil]

Polls have closed and I am by far the handsomest man on Ganymede + Titan. In fact, it was unanimous. In a related (but unsolicited) write-in result, everybody else on this site is tied for Most Likely to Eat Dog Vomit Out of a Sack.

Discussion is limited to those who voted.

[Carlito]

Personally, I’d place Ghostbusters above Back To The Future. Ghostbusters would be my number 1 80s movie. Not even in the top 40? The integrity and credibility of that list is shot from the get-go.

[Tarka Dal]

Oh god Wanted; I wouldn’t have it as the worse movie of the year, but I agree in the main. Everyone in it just seemed so fundementally unlikeable. Still you’ve got to love the ‘Loom of Fate’ not only are 12th century weavers spotting secret instructions in the weaver, but apparently they understand binary too!

[Phil]

>Personally, I?d place Ghostbusters above Back To The Future. Ghostbusters would be my number 1 80s movie.

Reason #89271 neandercarl should post more often.

[pfm]

Why Ghostbusters – sorry, ‘Ghost Busters’ – isn’t up there is beyond me. As far as the script goes has there ever been anything to beat it, EVER?? And Trading Places FFS! We’re talking about the greatest films of all-time, never mind the ’80s.

[Andrew]

> As far as the script goes has there ever been anything to beat it, EVER??

Well, Back to the Future…

[Dave]

Short Circuit
Transformers The Movie
The Living Daylights
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Big

[si]

Ooh, Short Circuit. I’d forgotten about that.

[Ben Paddon]

Short Circuit is hilariously awful.

[hummingbird]

Amadeus
Brazil
Blade Runner
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Das Boot
Cinema Paradiso
Jean de Florette
Local Hero

[si]

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. That’s good.

[Andrew]

> Short Circuit is hilariously awful.

And this after the Wanted comment. Ben, you’re seriously trying my patience…

The Fly would have been on my 80s list for sure.

[Phil]

>Brazil

Shit, that was 80s, wasn’t it? For some reason I always think late 70s.

Yes, I’d put both Brazil and Ghostbusters above Back to the Future, but let’s face it; they’re three brilliant films no matter which falls where.

[Ben Paddon]

Andrew is a brain…
And this after the Wanted comment. Ben, you?re seriously trying my patience?

I’ve explained my innate dislike of Wanted, and I think it’s a perfectly acceptable reason not to like the film. I liked the comic, in a sort-of “My word, this is ridiculous” manner. But even though the film was, at times, just as ridiculous, I couldn’t get into it. When you know how the film is going to end before the protagonist has even had a chance to accept the offer that’s been made of him that will kickstart the plot, there is something seriously wrong with the structure of the film. It was stylish, it had some great special effects, but the story was utter dross.

As for Short Circuit, I really do love that film. It’s got some brilliantly over-the-top acting and some terrible dialogue, not to mention the sheer cheese factor of the “state of the art” technology. I watched it practically every day as a young’n, and I still ave a special place for it in my heart today. But it really is an awful film :)

[Andrew]

> and some terrible dialogue

Why I oughta…

> But it really is an awful film :)

No. No. No.

[Tarka Dal]

Look you’re all missing the bigger picture here. Which is where the fuck is Rocky IV?

[Jonathan Capps]

> Which is where the fuck is Rocky IV?

Hopefully in the hottest part of a burning bin.

[Pete Part Three]

I must break you.

[Tarka Dal]

> Hopefully in the hottest part of a burning bin.

Philistine!

Okay on an artistic level Rocky IV is purile. It’s big, it’s dumb, it’s cheesy as hell and yet… I love it. Apollo’s pre-fight pomp “If he dies… he dies”, all the pure ham cold war stuff and Sly’s post-fight unification speech. It’s the only film I think I’ve ever seen which credit’s someone as ‘Montage Editor’. What a
job!

Rocky and Rocky Balboa I also love, but for entirely different reasons. Really enjoyable character pieces where the action is very much secondary.

[Andrew]

Rocky Balboa was the last film I watched in 2008. Because it’s genuinely excellent and affecting. Yes it is. YES IT IS.

[Tarka Dal]

I totally believe you dude.

Actually this gives me and idea for yet another thread, I hope no one minds.

[Tarka Dal]

…

[Dave]

Labyrinth
Jumpin’ Jack Flash
Withnail and I
Radio Days
When The Wind Blows

[hummingbird]

> Withnail and I

I can’t believe I forgot Withnail

[James]

80’s films watched in the 80’s, or 80’s films watched now in comparison to what we have now? Seeing any of the above films at the time of production just blew me away! But it’s easy to down them against the might of CGI we have now. ET anyone?

[Phil]

An effect that looks ropey two decades later doesn’t make the film any less good. Unless you only really liked it for the effects to begin with, in which case you might be mistaking “good” for “visually impressive.”

[Tarka Dal]

Some effects from that era hold up remarkably well. BTTF still looks fantastic. Likewise the action footage in Top Gun still hasn’t been surpassed twenty years on.

[pfm]

Yeah, The Fly! Watched it again the other day and it still holds up as such a brilliant film. It goes where most others don’t in that it always goes a step beyond what you’re expecting. Like when he gets spliced with the pod at the end, you almost don’t WANT to see the result of that, but by god Cronenberg gives it to you full whack! The tubes trailing from him and everything. Of course, the worst part is just before that where his jaw falls off and his eyes and head split apart as the true fly comes through. Gruesome stuff.

Who else jumps every time when he smashes through the hospital window? Perfectly executed horror.

[Tarka Dal]

THE THING

[Danny Stephenson]

Who else jumps every time when he smashes through the hospital window?

it’s not a case of jumping every time I see it, but it’s one of those shots you forget what actually happens.

[Ben Paddon]

Phil coded the Universe. It’s true. Just look at this code I found commented out in the block that defines how Beer Goggles function…
An effect that looks ropey two decades later doesn?t make the film any less good. Unless you only really liked it for the effects to begin with, in which case you might be mistaking ?good? for ?visually impressive.?

Even as a kid I thought Short Circuit looked rather ropey, but I still enjoyed it. Like I said, I till enjoy it now. It just happens to be an utterly terrible movie – one of those “So Bad It’s Good” films like Krull, or Masters Of The Universe, or The Godfather.

[Andrew]

> It just happens to be an utterly terrible movie

STOP SAYING THAT!!!! AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!

[Ben Paddon]

Sorry, Andrew. I speak naught but the truth.

[Andrew]

It’s an extremely well-constructed screenplay and I shan’t hear a word against it.

[Ben Paddon]

Oh, I don’t doubt that the original screenplay may have been excellent. I haven’t read it. But the finished product is awful. Brilliantly awful.

[Andrew]

I meant the screenplay that was shot. Obviously.

Feel free to reply with the same opinion again, though. Someone may have missed it. :-p

[Author]

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