Imagine, so to speak, a time of savage economic inequality, global conflict, and Donald Trump every time he turns on the TV. But it’s all neon and with a much cooler soundtrack. I’m talking, of course, about the ’80s: the decade that gave us Spike Lee, Hayao Miyazaki, Tim Burton, John Hughes, and the serious actress Cher. Arnold blew up a lot of things; Michael J. Fox went back in time to avoid sleeping with his mother; Eddie Murphy gave the impression that the cops were fun and approachable; And other people were asking, “Where’s the problem?”for reasons that are still unclear. It was a time.
It’s also a time when beloved blockbusters can come in all shapes and sizes, and there were about a hundred percent fewer Marvel movies. The big hits of the decade included action movies, but also romantic comedies, horror and family movies. Dramas. No has the reputation of the 1970s as a cinematic golden age, yet there’s a lot to be said for the sheer number of enduring classics produced by the decade’s filmmakers. Here are some of the most productive ones and where to place them. .
Cher won an Oscar for her portrayal of Italian-American widow Loretta Castorini, who decides whether to settle down in the 1950s with the man her parents need for her, or go crazy with her brother, played by Nicolas Cage.
Where to stream: Tubi, The Roku Channel, Hoopla
Director Spike Lee scored his biggest win with this funny, quoted, and ultimately explosive film about racial tensions seeping into a Brooklyn community on a hot summer day.
Where to stream: MGM, Fubo
Eddie Murphy has never been sexier than in the first film of this action comedy that propelled him from comedy genius to foreign superstar. If you grew up in the 1980s, listen to anything on the soundtrack without getting carried away.
Where to stream: Netflix, Paramount
Joe Dante’s incredibly bizarre black comedy didn’t find much of an audience when it first premiered, nor did critics like it, but this epic of middle-class suburban mayhem, about a circle of relatives who become convinced they live among satanic cultists. , enjoys a well-deserved cult. There’s also a wonderful cast: Carrie Fisher, Bruce Dern, Henry Gibson, and Tom Hanks who are coming to the end of the still-crazy phase of their career. In a few years, it would have become a national treasure and we would have lost anything. majestic.
Where to stream: Netflix
Tim Burton was at his strangest and wildest in this tribute to the afterlife, in which ghosts Geena Davis and Alec join Michael Keaton’s fiery poltergeist to scare a living circle of relatives out of their home.
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
Tom Cruise feels the need for speed in this fast-paced movie about sweaty sports drivers who love girls.
Where to stream: Paramount
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Hayao Miyazaki’s superbly animated favorite follows sisters Satsuke and Mei as they move to an old rural space with their father to await their mother’s long-awaited recovery from an illness. What’s in the space are playful spirits that take them on an adventure.
Where to stream: Maximum
David Cronenberg’s catchy horror film stars Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis as a scientist and journalist in the midst of a teleportation task gone awry. The film deftly mixes gory sensations with themes that were especially applicable at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis.
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
Vivian (Helen Shaver), a teacher on the verge of divorce, will stay at a farm animal ranch where she meets Cay (Patricia Charbonneau), the daughter of the ranch owner who is helping to bring Vivian out of her shell. The romance is also, surprisingly, one of the few LGBTQ films of the era that doesn’t lean toward tragedy.
Where to stream: Max, The Criterion Channel
Great Scott! Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd are a brilliant couple in this time-travel comedy that sees Marty McFly in the ’50s and explores the lives of his parents when they were in top school. And he discovers that his mother weighs him down. Be a rack of ribs.
Where to stream: Peacock
In a sea of teen comedies that were popular in the early 1980s, Fast Times is all different: Principal Amy Heckerling and Cameron Crowe capture the main and silly points of upper school life. There’s a lot of passionate humor, but, at its core, it’s a coming-of-age movie about the discomfort of nascent sexuality.
Where to stream: Peacock
Jennifer Gray and Patrick Swayze are on fire here in what is, without a doubt, the sexiest movie ever shot at a family vacation hotel in the Catskills. But also comforting, one way or another?
Where to Stream: Hulu
Probably the purest example of the woefully lost genre of ’80s fantasy movies, most of which involve bright, muscular bodybuilders fighting magical villains with only fists and swords. This made Arnold Schwarzenegger a star, and James Earl Jones is a lot of fun as the nemesis Thulsa Doom.
Where to Stream: Prime Video
I’m sure no one in the early 1980s had any idea that we were going to watch Indiana Jones videos again, but Raiders of the Lost Ark is just amazing. The aftermath would have possibly diluted its strength a bit, but this is a natural adventure.
Where to stream: Disney, Paramount, Pluto
Morgan Freeman plays the real Joe Louis Clark, principal of Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey. The real story may have been a little more complicated, but Freeman’s Clark is electrifying: a tough, no-nonsense educator willing to do anything. He takes his students to the thrilling finale of the film.
Where to stream: Maximum
The 1980s presented three other obligations, for all tastes. You can watch Roger Moore’s (charming) and extravagant end to his career in A View to a Kill, or witness the return of Sean Connery in Never Say Never Again. Timothy Dalton’s second appearance, however, feels like something new: as thin and nasty as the Bond movies, with near-lethal mutilations and revenge against vicious drug lords. The film evokes the Daniel Craig era, while also being, on its own, the toughest and toughest Bond of them all.
Where to stream: Maximum
Star Trek had a bigger moment in pop culture in the 1980s, culminating in this heartfelt and genuinely funny time adventure where the team will have to go back in time to save the whales. The result feels like a period time capsule or a timeless, captivating fish-out-of-water story, full of colorful metaphors and nuclear ships.
Where to stream: Maximum
Okay, it’s not Shakespeare, but this comedy about Ivan Reitman’s friends makes a lot of use of what turns out to be a desperately one-note premise: Thanks to genetic falsification, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito are, yes, twins. DeVito’s Vincent is a con man, while Schwarzenegger’s Julius is smart but naïve. The two find themselves on a collision course as they search for their birth mother. It’s ridiculous, endearing, and memorable enough to be a punchline at the 2024 Oscars ceremony, more than three decades later.
Where to stream: Netflix
This punk-style horror comedy is a conscious parody of zombie videos while also managing to be an incredibly gory mystery in its own right that moves the entire genre forward. In addition, it has a wonderful death-rock soundtrack.
Where to stream: Tubi, the Roku channel
Before creating the iconic In Living Color in the 1990s, Keenan Ivory Wayans directed this deeply insane, yet hilarious, parody of the blaxploitation films of the past generation. The cast includes not only up-and-coming actors (at the time) like Chris Rock and Dawn Lewis, but also many stars from the films he parodied (Bernie Casey, Isaac Hayes, etc. )
Where to stream: Tubi, Pluto
Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, and Jane Fonda form one of the all-time tough threesomes on screen in this fast-paced comedy about women competing for a hypocritical, sexist, selfish, and mendacious fan (the ever-cool Dabney Coleman), who manages to get revenge after nearly killing him.
Where to stream: Peacock
Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Alice Walker’s novel is a deeply intimate story and an epic. The life of Celie (Whoopi Goldberg), poor, battered and abandoned, unfolds as the journey of a hero, as desirable as any in cinematic mythology, in contrast to the backdrop. of the greatest crisis of slavery and prejudice in young America. The recent musical adaptation is excellent, but there’s still plenty of room for this quieter adaptation.
Where to stream: Maximum
Robert Townsend materializes as Bobby Taylor, a satire on the dangers of navigating Hollywood’s formula for an actor who is either too black or not black enough for studio bosses’ tastes. Through elaborate fantasy sequences and parodies of popular movies, Townsend creates a sharp and incredibly funny farewell that sadly still applies today.
Where to Stream: The Roku Channel
One of Stephen King’s most productive adaptations is rarely considered a horror, but it’s a coming-of-age drama set in the 1950s that features four highly productive friends who embark on a quest to see a dead body. The film captures the genuine, imagined difficulties of development.
Where to Stream: Hulu
The plot is weak, of course. . . But that’s not the point. Prince plays The Kid, who has run away from an abusive home to make his mark on the music world, and faces off against a rival looking to borrow. the screen and his daughter. Part narrative, part concert film, and part music video, Purple Rain was conceived as a showcase of Prince’s talents, and surely captures him at the peak of his purple power.
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
One of the most beloved sports videos of all time is also the dreamlike fantasy of a farmer (Kevin Costner) who builds a baseball box in the middle of a corn to attract a group of ghosts who might want to play there. , but they just need to play wrestling with their father one last time. A silly premise? Perhaps, but it unfolds like a fairy tale and generates genuine emotion.
Where to Stream: Prime Video
The movie that introduced not only a hobby of karate in the 1980s, but also a franchise that’s had a strangely long life, this one has everything you want in a thrilling underdog sports movie: nerdy loser Daniel (Ralph Macchio) arrives in a new town where he’s the immediate target of thugs (including William Zabka’s Johnny), until he meets his mentor M. Miyagi (Pat Morita). It all ends with a happy ending with catchy tunes from the 80s.
Where to stream: Starz
The moment when the Star Wars movie remains the most productive of the entire series. Building on the Flash Gordon-inspired original, Empire gets darker and darker, finding genuine emotional resonance among its main characters while also delivering the truly incredible space action. at the forefront. It’s a peak that the franchise (and perhaps all blockbuster movies) has been chasing for decades.
Where to stream: Disney, TNT, TBS, TruTV
Maybe a little bored with Star Wars-style space action?There’s no better antidote than the Mel Brooks classic that confounds not only the sci-fi tropes on which this series is based, but also the vast business empire it gave rise to (“Spaceballs!”). Even George Lucas enjoyed it.
Where to stream: Maximum
In a war-torn Sicilian town, young Salvatore escapes his alternately mundane and terrifying life to devote himself to filmmaking, befriending an old projectionist who later encourages him to pursue his love of cinema. It’s a charming ode to the power of cinema, full of memorable and colorful characters and with an unforgettable ending.
Where to stream: Prime Video, Paramount, MGM
One of John Hughes’ funniest (and least problematic, too) movies is a lighthearted homage to the power of ditching everything you pretend to do in favor of much cooler things. There’s no way the film’s main trio (Matthew Broderick, Mia Sara and Alan Ruck) would have learned much if they had gone to school.
Where to stream: Paramount, Apple TV
The beloved horror host made her first appearance on the big screen with this gloriously silly film in which Elvira (Cassandra Peterson) travels to the small, conservative town of Fallwell, Massachusetts, where her revealing clothes and sassy demeanor become temporarily more eye-catching. city opposite ella. sonido. Es like Footloose with black magic and tits.
Where to stream: Prime Video, Tubi, The Roku Channel, Hoopla, Plex
Mention this movie to the right audience and watch tears begin to flow from your eyes; however, it’s also a lot of fun, perfectly quotable, and full of wonderful performances from the all-star team of Sally Field, Dolly Parton, and Shirley MacLaine. , Olympia Dukakis. , Julia Roberts and Daryl Hannah.
Where to Stream: Pluto
John Carpenter’s very flexible edition of the 1950s is more faithful to the original short story “Who Goes There?”the one they are based on, but much darker than any of them. It’s a masterpiece, not only for its creature-like effects, but also for its claustrophobic sense of terror and its confidence that others will be far more terrifying than the threats of the afterlife.
Where to stream: Showtime
Immortal beings roam the earth, forced to fight to the death with swords, because there may be one. Or something like that. The crazy premise is played with absolute seriousness through Christopher Lambert as the mountaineer of the title. As a result, the film aims to be a sci-fi action epic and a natural camp, deftly aided by Ramirez from Sean Connery, an Egyptian immortal from Spain who, for some reason, looks completely Scottish. Queen’s title track, “Princes of the Universe,” kicks ass.
Where to stream: Prime Video, Freevee, Crackle, The Roku Channel
Brian De Palma’s very vague history lesson about Elliot Ness (Kevin Costner) as he assembles the name team (with Sean Connery’s) to defeat Al Capone (Robert De Niro). Clever and clever performances and staging.
Where to stream: Prime Video, Paramount
In the wealthy (and fictional) African country of Zamunda, Crown Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy) is fed up with his lavish lifestyle and hopes to meet an independent-minded woman who will take care of him, not his status. Still need to move on to Queens? It’s a combination of slapstick and romantic comedy that Murphy pulls off.
Where to stream: Paramount
Later sequels made Freddy (Robert England) the star, but Wes Craven’s original is about Nancy (Heather Langenkamp), a first-rate student whose friends are haunted in their dreams by the man murdered by her parents. Freddy has never been so scary again. And he’s never been so direct with an opponent.
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
Eddie Murphy directed and stars in this play set in a Prohibition-era speakeasy, filled with gangsters and gamblers. It doesn’t quite work, but it has an exclusive cast that includes Murphy, Richard Pryor, Red Foxx, Della Reese, Jasmine Guy. , Arsenio Hall, etc. , and it’s a lot of fun to see them all share the screen together.
Where to stream: Paramount
There was an ability to ’80s comedies that I’m not sure still exists: take something like Ghostbusters or Back to the Future, sci-fi comedies that don’t seem too bombastic and with jokes that land at least as occasionally as not. . There’s an explanation for why we’re watching them.
Where to Stream: Hulu
While there’s a lot to love about the recent live-action remake, it’s unlikely to fully update Disney’s gorgeously animated original crop. With its subtly subversive themes and box office smash, it’s also the film that almost single-handedly revived a then-Disney decline and turned it into the society it is today (with all the cleverness and badness that implies).
Where to stream: Disney
Despite the clumsy title, Steven Spielberg’s charming and heartfelt sci-fi story about a boy (Henry Thomas) who protects his alien friend from overzealous government agents, a mega-blockbuster that captivated the world and also briefly convinced us that Reese’s story. The pieces were the upper Oblate spheroid candies.
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
David Lynch’s neo-noir begins with a student who finds a severed human ear in a box and leads to a world of sex and violence. It introduces several of the director’s main themes, adding the concept of a small town that is absolutely general until the curtain is drawn, in which case it looks like a David Lynch film. Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern and Dean Stockwell lead an impressive cast.
Where to stream: Tubi, MGM
Set in a 2019 dystopia, this charming cyberpunk vintage finds biker Kaneda forced to confront his friend Tetsuo after accidentally obtaining telekinetic talents. The incredibly kinetic film and its highly detailed global environment establish a new popularity for anime – we still live in the world of animation. that Akira gave birth to.
Where to stream: Hulu, Funimation
The metaphor is sophisticated in this John Carpenter classic, but that’s a clever thing to do. Roddy Piper plays an indescribable drifter who understands that there are secret subliminal messages everywhere: that tell us to buy more, to stick to the prestige quo; in other words, to never question American-style capitalism. Everything is threatened when our protagonist is given glasses that allow him to see what surrounds him.
Where to stream: Starz
A mystery-homicide comedy starring stars? Clue was doing the Knives Out thing before this movie was even a twinkle in Rian Johnson’s eye, and it’s deliciously silly. It wasn’t very popular when it was first released, but it has been a cult vintage over the years.
Where to stream: Paramount
This is the long term as envisioned in the 1980s and, in fact, it’s not that far off. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as an accused criminal forced to participate in a festival program, the film imagined our reality TV culture, the use of artificial intelligence and other technologies to adjust perceived truth, and our ever-increasing willingness to let entertainment distract us. of what’s going on around us. This funny little action movie is almost prophetic.
Where to stream: GAC
A perfectly entertaining fantasy, The Princess Bride works on almost every single level: as a quotable comedy, a fast-paced romance, and a Robin Hood-esque action movie that plays on the tropes of that kind of movie. Simply a delight.
Where to stream: Disney
It’s not the first movie that comes to mind when we talk about the Coen brothers, but this delusional, over-the-top crime comedy about a kidnapping (from Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter) is, as deranged as it is, pretty sweet in the end.
Where to stream: Paramount
It’s the Christmas movie that came and presented It’s a Wonderful Life on the 35th floor of the Nakatomi Plaza tower. A brilliantly entertaining action classic.
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
Former child star turned dog owner.