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Pre-poll: What was the best movie of 1986?

D

DostoyevskyClone

Captain
Captain
In the 'Ranking Kurt Russell Movies Best to Worst,' a case was made for the coolness of Big Trouble in Little China and I agree with those who said it was an awesome movie. I thought it might be interesting for us to decide, collectively, the best film of 1986. In an effort to be as comprehensive as possible, I'm going to use the original Oscar list, but I'm also going to use the highest-rated movies on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB. In addition, I'm going to use the highest box office movies of that year.

Lastly, it would be cool if you guys gave one submission of your own, if you feel a movie has been left out.

Whenever interest in this thread dies down (which may be sooner than I think), I'll make a poll with all the movies.

My submission: Big Trouble in Little China ;)

[In case you're wondering, I had originally planned to only use 5 from each category, but Rotten Tomatoes had several films with the same percentage, so that's why there are 8 instead of 5; on IMDB, all the other films were already on the list and their top movies list only went to "8.0" I believe, so that's why there are only 3 instead of 5]

Oscar-nominated Movies
Children of a Lesser God
Hannah and Her Sisters
The Mission
Platoon
A Room with a View

Rotten Tomatoes
Aliens
Manhunter
Stand By Me
She's Gotta Have It
The Fly
Little Shop of Horrors
The Color of Money
Salvador

Box Office
Top Gun
Crocodile Dundee
The Karate Kid Part II
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Back to School

IMDB
Manon of the Spring (Manon des sources)
Castle in the Sky (Tenku no shiro Rapyuta)
Jean de Florette
 
Focusing just on the selections you've listed (I'm no expert on 80s cinema, which in general I loathe) the answer is Platoon, though I think you could make a convincing case for Stone's other film from that year, Salvador, as well as Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters.

Despite quite enjoying The Fly and Aliens (I might go as far as to argue they are great science fiction films), I don't think they're on the same level as those other films. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is a fun film, and I've seen it more than any of these others, but I don't think it's in the same league.
 
Definitely Platoon.

That was one year when the academy got it right.

Man--it must suck sometimes to be Oliver Stone, and know that you peaked more than twenty years ago.
 
Camelopard said:
Definitely Platoon.

That was one year when the academy got it right.

Man--it must suck sometimes to be Oliver Stone, and know that you peaked more than twenty years ago.
Click to expand...

What, no love for anything he did in Wall Street, Talk Radio, Natural Born Killers, Heaven and Earth, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, Talk Radio, U-Turn, or Nixon?

Okay, okay, Platoon might be his best film. But I think he did some good work after. He peaked around the mid-90s, I'd say.
 
Harvey said:
Camelopard said:
Definitely Platoon.

That was one year when the academy got it right.

Man--it must suck sometimes to be Oliver Stone, and know that you peaked more than twenty years ago.
Click to expand...

What, no love for anything he did in Wall Street, Talk Radio, Natural Born Killers, Heaven and Earth, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, Talk Radio, U-Turn, or Nixon?

Okay, okay, Platoon might be his best film. But I think he did some good work after. He peaked around the mid-90s, I'd say.
Click to expand...

Hey, I have much love for Oliver Stone. Those are all good movies (though I'm not sure Talk Radio was good enough to be mentioned twice ;)).

But a peak is a peak. And a long, slow decline is still a decline.
 
Aliens.

Platoon is a quality film without doubt, but Aliens suits my tastes a lot more.
 
1. Ferris Bueller's Day Off. For nostalgic reasons and that Cindy Pickett (Mrs Bueller)= 80's MILF. :devil:

2. Blue Velvet. "Fuck you, you fucking fuck!" :evil::techman:
 
Pretty In Pink (1986)

The adorkable spazz, himself:
duckie.gif
duckiebed.gif
duckette.gif


I love Duckie and Jon Cryer pretty much was the movie. And as much as I understand the reason for not putting Duckie and Andie together (at the very least, it put the audience firmly on the side of sympathizing with Duckie the most--in a way it actually made the movie about him because he's the one that didn't get what he wanted, despite Molly Ringwald's Andie being the star), it certainly causes a pretty extreme gut reaction that it's an unsatisfying ending (which makes the movie even more memorable in a weird way). That movie will never live down the changed ending. Duckie's Try A Little Tenderness scene alone makes it a highlight of 1986.

I even have a fanvid made for that film. LOL. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDFmRETqKTs

I'd put the John Hughes flicks in this order: 1) Pretty In Pink, 2) The Breakfast Club, 3) Ferris Bueller's Day Off and 4) Sixteen Candles. Kudos to Weird Science, Home Alone and Planes, Trains And Automobiles.

'80s (other than the fantasy franchises like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, etc...) = a lot of John Hughes movies.

Top Gun is probably second for me that year. I've always been quite fond of that film. Goose's death, the classic dialog and the music are major highlights. My dad was a military pilot and the film was largely filmed in San Diego (one of my parents' airline buddies even plays Charlie's old guy date at the beginning of the film), so that's another reason why the film is well-known in my family.

The '80s were hands down my favorite decade for movies. Between all that Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Back To The Future epicness and fantasy... and all the classic '80s comedies (The Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters, The Goonies, the Brat Pack flicks, etc...), there was also my favorite film of all time: Amadeus (1984).
 
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Out of the ones listed, Platoon (looks like this is a general consenus)

My pick however would be Blue Velvet, which is a really beautiful and deeply layered film.
 
Of the films listed, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Karate Kid Part II, and Star Trek IV are the only ones I enjoyed. I haven't seen any of the Karate Kid movies in well over a decade (though my sister raves about them), but Ferris Bueller is one of my favorite films.

Platoon, on the other hand, I hated. Perhaps there's something about the subject matter, but the only Vietnam films I've found at all watchable are The Quiet American, which I quite liked (somewhere between it and Graham Greene's novel is an outstanding story), and We Were Soldiers, which I liked somewhat less.
 
Aliens. Platoon is very good but overrated- Full Metal Jacket kicks seven kinds of shit out of it a few months later.
 
Harvey said:
Camelopard said:
Definitely Platoon.

That was one year when the academy got it right.

Man--it must suck sometimes to be Oliver Stone, and know that you peaked more than twenty years ago.
Click to expand...

What, no love for anything he did in Wall Street, Talk Radio, Natural Born Killers, Heaven and Earth, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, Talk Radio, U-Turn, or Nixon?
Click to expand...

I liked JFK alot, but I've never seen NIXON. Is that any good?

As for my picks, Star Trek IV, obviously. Not only the best movie of 1986, but the best movie with the TOS cast.

Also, I liked Space Camp. Not a classic by an stretch of the imagination, but a fun movie for what it was.
 
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