Recommend an 80's movie

[BolianAuthor]

I'll third 'Commando.' It's the quintessential delightfully over-the-top and implausible 80s action film. Ahnuld is a poet of death who delivers quips as expertly as he delivers circular saw blades to the foreheads of random fictional banana republic henchmen inexplicably building a rebel army in plain site off the coast of California. He finds a small army-sized cache of rocket launchers and machine guns at the local gun store (naturally) and spends the entire last third of the movie stuck in God Mode killing more people than the Black Death. The closing theme song by Power Station is the very definition of 80s cheese mixed with awesome. It also has the distinction of being the only movie featuring a Matrix that gets better in the last part.

LOL... I have to see this flick now, after seeing Ahnuld actually pick up a whole frakkin' telephone booth with a guy inside of it, LOL.

 

[Kommander]

This thread has been here for over a week and no one mentioned Fast Times at Ridgemont High? What are you people, on dope?!

 

[An Officer]

Light-hearted fun favourites:
Crocodile Dundee I & II (1986 - 1988) Paul Hogan
3 Men and a Baby (1987) Tom Selleck
Big (1988) Tom Hanks
Private Benjamin (1980) Goldie Hawn
Overboard (1987) Goldie Hawn / Kurt Russell
Wildcats (1986) Goldie Hawn

Non-Hollywood, non-comedy, but still GREAT:
Cinema Paradiso (1988)

 

[Zulu Romeo]

3 Men and a Baby (1987) Tom Selleck

Directed by Leonard Nimoy. [Insert pun about Dr. Spock here.]

 

[An Officer]

Oh, that's right! I guess trek had to make it in there somewhere! Welcome back, btw.

 

[Gov Kodos]

If they haven't been mentioned yet, two of my favorite comedies, Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile

 

[tharpdevenport]

I'll third 'Commando.' It's the quintessential delightfully over-the-top and implausible 80s action film. Ahnuld is a poet of death who delivers quips as expertly as he delivers circular saw blades to the foreheads of random fictional banana republic henchmen inexplicably building a rebel army in plain site off the coast of California. He finds a small army-sized cache of rocket launchers and machine guns at the local gun store (naturally) and spends the entire last third of the movie stuck in God Mode killing more people than the Black Death. The closing theme song by Power Station is the very definition of 80s cheese mixed with awesome. It also has the distinction of being the only movie featuring a Matrix that gets better in the last part.

LOL... I have to see this flick now, after seeing Ahnuld actually pick up a whole frakkin' telephone booth with a guy inside of it, LOL.

And James Horner (STII & STIII) scored it. But not like the Trek films.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I'll third 'Commando.' It's the quintessential delightfully over-the-top and implausible 80s action film. Ahnuld is a poet of death who delivers quips as expertly as he delivers circular saw blades to the foreheads of random fictional banana republic henchmen inexplicably building a rebel army in plain site off the coast of California. He finds a small army-sized cache of rocket launchers and machine guns at the local gun store (naturally) and spends the entire last third of the movie stuck in God Mode killing more people than the Black Death. The closing theme song by Power Station is the very definition of 80s cheese mixed with awesome. It also has the distinction of being the only movie featuring a Matrix that gets better in the last part.

LOL... I have to see this flick now, after seeing Ahnuld actually pick up a whole frakkin' telephone booth with a guy inside of it, LOL.

And James Horner (STII & STIII) scored it. But not like the Trek films.

Yeah, I really liked his use of the steel drums in the score. It was fitting to the movie and fairly unique as a score.

Some other fun facts about 'Commando':

----- It was originally written as a starring vehicle for Gene Simmons of KISS, who would play a disillusioned former Mossad agent forced to kill again when his daughter is kidnapped. I can't help but picture the entire KISS Army invading that island in full makeup and costume, which is almost as awesome as Arnold. After that the role was retooled and offered to Nick Nolte, who would play an out of shape ex-special forces soldier (probably named Four Leaf) who has to get back in condition to go rescue his daughter, most likely with one of those delightful 80s musical montages that can solve any problem in about three minutes. Arnold was the third choice.

----- The barracks and tower Arnold destroys on the island are all real buildings on the beachfront portion of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst's Hearst Castle estate in San Simeon, CA, which is a popular tourist destination. Replicas of the buildings were created to be blown up. The mansion where the main villains were living on the island was the estate of silent film star Harold Lloyd in Beverly Hills, CA.

----- Screenwriter Steven de Souza teamed up with at the time relative unknown Frank Darabont to write a sequel to the film based on Roderick Thorp's novel 'Nothing Lasts Forever.' When Arnold passed on the film because he didn't want to do any more sequels after 'Conan the Destroyer' bombed, the script was retooled for Bruce Willis and became 'Die Hard.' So we owe the existence of 'Die Hard' to 'Commando.' Just one more reason it's awesome.

 

[BolianAuthor]

^

That is awesome.

 

[Decker]

I can't believe nobody's mentioned "Say Anything".

 

[BolianAuthor]

^

That's awesome... and that scene where he's holding that awesome 80's boombox up, lol...

 

[Decker]

Lloyd Dobler takes over NYC to celebrate Say Anything's 20th Anniversary

 

[M'Sharak]

From 1990, so some may not consider it an 80s movie, but The Field, starring Richard Harris, John Hurt and Sean Bean. An extremely powerful performance from Harris, with good support from Hurt, Bean and Brenda Fricker.

I'll also name Buckaroo Banzai as a personal 80s favorite.

 

[Holdfast]

^ If we're including 1990, Total Recall and Goodfellas have to be in the list.

 

[Davros]

I have to recommend Repo Man.

 

[BolianAuthor]

Lloyd Dobler takes over NYC to celebrate Say Anything's 20th Anniversary

Full of win.

I have seen Total Recall and Buckaroo Banzai, though I had a hard time getting through Buckaroo, lol. I guess everyone here also hated Howard the Duck, LOL.

 

[Davros]

I have seen Total Recall and Buckaroo Banzai, though I had a hard time getting through Buckaroo, lol. I guess everyone here also hated Howard the Duck, LOL.

Out of those 3, I find Total Recall to be the stinker of the bunch.

 

[MANT!]

Hmm..typical 80s fare..

Real Genus...
New Wave soundtrack- Check
80s fashion-Check
Evil Defense Scientist- Check
Quirky love backstory- Check
College kids getting together to stop same Evil Scientist - Check
Musical Montage to gloss over just HOW the kids stop him - Check
College Kids triumphant in the end-Check

Here's your 80s movie...with ALL the Bells and Whistles