I’m doing a movie night every week with my girlfriend and we have to choose a movie that fits a theme chosen by the other; this time she chose the ’80s as a theme and I have no clue which one would be a perfect choice.

So I’m asking you all, what is the movie you would say best represents the ’80s?

41 comments

  4. Risky Business. It has Tom Cruise. It has leering teen sex. It has a celebration of Reagan era entrepreneurship. It has a karaoke music video.

  10. Better Off Dead

    American Psycho

    Dirty Dancing

    The Breakfast Club

    and finally Wall Street (1987) with Charlie Sheen & Michael Douglas

    Weird combo, I know, but there you are.

  14. Kung furry. It wasn’t made in the 80’s, but it is like all 80’s action movies distilled into one amazing experience.

  22. The Secret of My Success with Michael J. Fox. It sums up much of the 80s, including the whole get rich thing, plus has many of the typical 80s cliche’s.

  23. Wargames

    Red Dawn

    Say Anything

    Ferris Beuller’s Day Off

    Flight of the Navigator

    Back to the Future I and II

    Sixteen Candles

    Top Gun

    Goonies (how has no one said this!!?)

    ET

    Fast Times at Ridgemont High (again crazy overlook)

    Weird Science

    Better Off Dead

    Masters of the Universe (concentrated and weaponized 80s)

    Neverending Story

    Blues Brothers

    Home Alone (alllmost counts but it was 1990 though it sure felt 80s)

    Planes Trains and Automobiles.

    Robocop (Jesus how did I not even get to this until the end)

  31. Forest Gump. It is made in the 90s but it carries the blind optimism of the 80s.

    The 90s truly kicked in the same year with Pulp Fiction, and later on with movies like the Memento and Fight Club.

  33. Goonies or ET for me but other great ones Ferris bueller, karate kid, breakfast club, Beverly Hills cop, back to the future, stand by me, fast times at ridgemont high, Indiana Jones, gremlins, Scarface, spaceballs, creep show, the outsiders.

  34. It depends on the theme but the 80s did a lot of coming of age or HS type stuff…

    * The Breakfast Club
    * Back to the Future
    * Some Kind of Wonderful
    * The Karate Kid
    * Maybe throw in The Secret of My Success

    Also a lot of action –

    * Raiders
    * Rocky III is classic
    * Star Wars movies
    * Commando – you have to have an Ahhnold in there
    * Rambo movies

    I also felt for the early 80s Roger Moore in Octopussy and For Your Eyes Only.

    For Horror –

    * Nightmare on Elm St series
    * Friday the 13th series
    * An American Werewolf in London and House were great crossover horror w/ some comedy

  36. Sixteen Candles – because while it hasn’t aged well, it really shows what was “ok” at the time.

  39. The beginning of Almost Famous is an almost exact replica of my growing up. The location in the film is the place I grew up.

  40. Back to the Future

    Ghostbusters

    Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

    A Nightmare on Elm Street

    Aliens

    The Breakfast Club

    Fast Times at Ridgemont High

    Raiders of the Lost Ark

    E.T.

    Goonies

    When Harry Met Sally

    Stand By Me

  41. I’m going Rocky 4. Robot, fighting commies, Livin’ in America, montage! What’s more 80s?

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