The 80's

Trying to pick my 50 favorite movies in honor of turning 50 in a couple months. Turned out too hard to do so I decided to go year by year for every year of my life and pick 1 for each year with a few honorable mentions for each year as well. Unless stated otherwise,each "favorite" will be in my collection. Honorable mentions will be in yellow if I have them in my collection.There will,of course,be movies not listed that you think should be here. If a movie isn't listed then it's likely for 1 of 3 reasons...1) I just haven't seen it  2) I've seen it and didn't care for it,had no attachment to it  3) I missed it on the list of movies and forgot about it lol  (hey,i'm reading the name of every movie released over a 50 year period.I may just miss a few)


1980 - The 1st tie! I couldn't decide. One,The Empire Strikes Back,is the best Star Wars movie (to date). The original Star Wars trilogy gave me a world to retreat to in my teen years,it was my own personal fortress of solitude to escape to.The other pick is The Elephant Man. It's a movie that I relate to more than any other movie ever made.It touches me in places no other movie possibly could. It had to be #1,but so did Empire for similar reasons. Honorable mentions go to Airplane!, Blues Brothers (great sound track), Caddyshack, Friday The 13th, McVicar (Roger Daltrey in a great movie - see it), Superman II.

1981 - Raiders Of The Lost Ark - The introduction of Indiana Jones,what more need I say? Honorable mentions : American Werewolf In London, Escape From New York, Halloween II, Friday The 13th pt 2 (one of my faves in all those Jason movies), The Road Warrior (honestly?, the only 1 of the 3 that I like at all).

1982 - Kind of an odd year. Not one movie stood out as an absolute favorite but there were a whole bunch I really liked. No Ape movie, a non-Star Wars year, but Star Trek steps up to the plate! with Star Trek II : The Wrath Of Khan. Honorable mentions going to E.T., Bladerunner, Creepshow, Fast Time At Ridgemont High, Friday The 13th pt 3, Rocky III, and Poltergeist. A pretty good year,just no absolute favorite. Star Trek really wins by default lol.

1983 - Esy winner...weak year in general and a (original trilogy) Star Wars year. Return Of The Jedi. This is where the franchise started to go down hill. Loved it at the time,and still do but it is easily the weak lin in the original trilogy, quality-wise. I fell bad trash talking it because it is a fun movie. It's just not as good as the first two. I wait 6 years to see what Darth Vader looks like and he's Humpty Dumpty? It's saved by the scne just prior where Darth saves Luke. My favorite scene in all the Star Wars movies. Two other movies mad the grade in 1983 : A Christmas Story, and The Evil Dead. EASILY the weakest year yet. Some half-decent movies but nothing I owuld consider faves or must haves for my collection. Three that stood out. Thats it. Hopefully 1984 improves....

1984 -  Star Trek III : The Search For Spock  This is one of my favorites in the Trek franchise. I like it better than a lot of others do,apparently lol. That is,if you subscribe to the odd-even Star Trek "curse" I don't,but many "trekkies/trekkers" do. Other favorites from '84....Friday The 13th pt 4 (my fave from that series), Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom (weak,compared to the other two in the original trilogy)

1985 - WOW. What  poor year. Awful,just...awful. The fave was an easy pick but there wasnt a lot to choose from for runners up. Here they are though....Return Of The Living Dead (contains one of my fave scenes in all movies..there are 2 guys trying to figure out what to do when all the dead animals in display cases and such start coming to life (they work at a verterinary supply warehouse). The new guy is freaking out and his boss says to him "listen,if you like this job,you'll calm down" the guy replies "LIKE THIS JOB?!?!?!?!" always cracks me up, Toxic Avenger, European Vacation, Back To The Future.

1986 - Star Trek IV : The Voyage Home. A very fun movie. A slightly different Spock than we had seen up to then. But again,the trend as the 80's continue, is crap in general. Platoon & The Money Pit, and Aliens were the only other three that made the cut.

1987 - Planes,Trains,& Automobiles. This was an easy choice. One of my fave all time comedies. Candy & Martin were brilliant together. I wish they could have done more films together,great chemistry. Other faves from '87 are : Evil Dead 2, Harry & The Hendersons, Predator,Robocop, Let's Throw Mama From The Train. 1987 to the rescue, a much better year.

1988 - Midnight Run gets the nod for this year,for reasons to hard to explain.I'll just say this..."hellllooooooo" Don't worry, you're not suppose to get that. My sister Linda Macdougall will though. Honorables go to Alien Nation, Beetlejuice, Die Hard, Eight Men Out, Scrooged (an excellent twist on the classic tale), They Live, Young Einstein.
Well, the 80's seem to be closing on an rise in quality. As pertains to movies that meant something to me. But even still,for awhile there,there werent even so-called "quality" movies that I didnt like for whatever reason (things like "the english patient" - although critically acclaimed,NOT a movie likely to appear in this list) - not even a lot of movies like that.

1989 - Steel Magnolias. Such a good movie. Shirley Maclaine is awesome in it. More faves from 1989 were The Burbs, Back To The Future II, Batman, Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade. A few bad years but the 80's finished on a high note.