Take Me Back to the 80's

Directed by Martha Coolidge Released August 7, 1985 Screenplay written by Neal Isreal & Pat Proft Story written by Neal Isreal, Pat Proft, & PJ Torokvei Movie Synopsis Courtesy of IMDB "Teenage geniuses deal with their abilities while developing a high-powered laser for a university project. When their professor intends to turn their work into a military weapon, they decide to ruin his plans." We are back again with another science based 80s movie, for the second week in a row. No I did not plan this. This movie, I originally didn't think I was going to like. When I say that, it is because the first time I watched the movie, I wasn't in the best environment. The first time I saw this movie, I was a junior in high school in physics class. To put it nicely, I absolutely hated that class and physics in general. So, going into this movie, I had the bad memories of physics come back to me. But after watching the movie again, it actually...

Directed by John Hughes Released August 2, 1985 Written by John Hughes Movie Synopsis Courtesy of IMDB "Two high school nerds attempt to create the perfect woman, but she turns out to be more than that." Welcome to another edition of John Hughes owned the movie industry in the 80s. It seems like I can't go more than a few weeks without bringing up his name.  In this classic, we see a lot of the staples of the 80s that I have discussed before. With that being said, a lot of what I am going to talk about is more about the story lines/situations in the movie. Before we get into those story lines, can we just acknowledge for a moment those horrible gym clothes. I have known for a long time that back in the 70s and 80s short-shorts on guys was a norm, but it is still an unusual sight to see. Could they have made those any tighter or shorter? Present day, you put girls in those kinds of outfits, let alone guys, you would be in some serious trouble...

Directed By Richard Attenborough Released December 20, 1985 Screenplay by Arnold Schulman Musical Concept by Michael Bennett Book Written by James Kirkwood Jr. & Nicholas Dante Movie Synopsis Courtesy of IMDB "Hopefuls try out before a demanding director for a part in a new musical." I wanted to start this blog off with the opening scene from the movie because I bet most people have never watched this movie. Either because they hate musicals, have never heard of it, or think it is only a dance movie. While I love this movie because of all the dancing and the fact it is a musical, it is not just that. This movie has a lot of great characterization that proves to be very entertaining. It is in my list of top five musicals of all time. It is entertaining and the music is catchy as well. This movie started off as a Broadway musical before it became a movie in 1985. In fact, it is in the list of one of the longest running musicals of all ti...

Directed by Robert Zemeckis Released July 3, 1985 Written by Robert Zemeckis & Bob Gale Movie Synopsis Courtesy of IMDB "Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent thirty years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown. Without question, I think Back to the Future  is one of the mostly widely seen movie from the 80s. It is still common for people to question your life choices if you haven't since the movie before. Which is amazing to think about because it is 33 years old and people still enjoy it. In fact, when it came out in 1985 it was the top grossing film that year, according to IMDB. This is one of the movies, among my list, that I think people use as a template for typical 80s fashion. You have the faded jeans, tennis shoes, flannel/button up shirts, teased hair, vests (the life preserver), suspenders, walkman, and jean jackets. Given, Marty is in the p...

Directed by Joel Schumacher Released June 28, 1985 Written by Joel Schumacher & Carl Kurlander Movie Synopsis Courtesy of IMDB "A group of friends, just out of college, struggle with adulthood." I think it is safe to say that more than half the people that read this blog, will have never heard of St. Elmo's Fire. It is one of those hidden gems that mass audiences don't know about. For those of you who don't know, it is basically The Breakfast Club meets adult life. It has a lot of the same cast including Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, and Ally Sheedy but they also add in other members of the 80's brat pack like Rob Lowe and Demi Moore.  Something interesting, though, if you look at my last blog, The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire  came out in the same year. So Judd, Emilio, and Ally went from playing high schoolers to college grads within the same year. This just shows their abilities as actors because in both films you would...

Directed by John Hughes Released February 15th, 1985 Written by John Hughes Movie Synopsis Courtesy of IMDB "Five high school students meet in Saturday detention and discover how they have a lot more in common than they thought." How do I even begin to talk about and describe one of my favorite movies of all time? I guess the first order of business is to explain what I mentioned in one of my previous blogs: that The Breakfast Club is much different and better than Fast Times at Ridgemont High,  even though they are about similar things.  I guess the first point I will make is the casting, since I thought that was the biggest problem in Fast Times.  In The Breakfast Club  you have the genius that is the "Brat Pack.". Emilio Estevez (Andy), Anthony Michael Hall (Brian), Judd Nelson (Bender), Molly Ringwald (Claire), and Ally Sheedy (Allison). These actors where the stars of the movie industry at the time, they all had something spec...