Take Me Back to the 80's

Directed by Emile Ardolino Released August 21, 1987 Written by Eleanor Bergstein Movie Synopsis Courtesy of IMDB "Spending the summer as a Catskills resort with her family, Frances 'Baby' Houseman falls in love with the camp's dance instructor, Johnny Castle." I would say that Dirty Dancing is another classic in terms of movies as a whole. It is one of those movies where even if you haven't seen it (which is crazy to think about) you at least have heard of it and know about the iconic dance scene. But we will discuss that scene later. Something interesting to think about is the fact that this movie was suppose to take place in 1963, but was filmed in the late 80s. I never knew that, that was the time period for the movie! Thinking about it now, it makes sense, but that is not the initial vibe I get. I think that is in part to the hair styles and the clothes seeming very 80s. Just look at the workout/dance clothes that Baby wears, it is...

Directed by Mel Brooks Released June 24, 1987 Written by Mel Brooks, Thomas Meehan, & Ronny Graham Movie Synopsis Courtesy of IMDB "Planet Spaceballs' President Skroob sends Lord Dark Helmet to steal plant Druidia's abundant supply of air to replenish their own, and only Lone Starr can stop them." I remember the reason I first watched this movie was because of a recommendation from a friend. I had seen Mel Brooks' film Robin Hood Men in Tights ( which is easily one of my favorite films) so I figured this movie might not be so bad. The only thing that I was worried about was the fact that I had never seen Star Wars before (I still haven't). Sci-Fi movies just aren't my thing, except when it comes to Spaceballs. Spaceballs is the exception to the rule because it doesn't feel like a Sci-Fi movie, it just feels like a comedy where everyone is making fun of movies, Star Wars,  and cracking jokes about each other. The whole goal ...

Directed by John Hughes Released June 11, 1986 Screenplay by John Hughes Movie Synopsis Courtesy of IMDB “A high school wise guy is determined to have a day off from school, despite what the Principal thinks of that.” Now this blog is going to be extra hard to write, in terms of trying not to write a novel on this movie. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is probably my favorite movie of all time. It never gets old to me and there are way too many quotable moments in this movie. On top of that, the characters are perfect and I for once do not have a real problem with any of them (only slightly with one, but we will get to that). The first thing that I want to throw out there is that if you love this movie as much as I do, never ever read the screenplay.   It is completely different from the movie and in my opinion if the movie was made how the screenplay was written it wouldn’t have been as successful. For those of you curious, here are the biggest ...

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...