Great Movies of the 80s You May Have Missed

Everyone sees the blockbusters, and eventually everyone sees the Best Picture Oscar winners. Most years have films that became culturally significant, and most everyone sees those too. But every year there are great movies that didn't garner much attention that should have – not necessarily because they are “great films” but because they are damned fine entertainment.

Below is a list, with some brief reviews, of some of the movies released from 1980 to 1989 that you may not have seen, but that you should have.... they are all tremendously entertaining films.

1980

Best Picture Oscar: Ordinary People

My Favorite Film of the Year: Airplane!

The Great One You May Have Missed: The Gods Must Be Crazy

A tribe of Australian aborigines find a glass Coke bottle that has been thrown out of a commuter plane window. They've never seen glass before and believe it was a gift from the Gods. Because of it's hard, smooth surface they find many uses for it, which eventually leads to fights over it's possession. Due to this conflict, a tribesman names Xi is sent to travel to the more populated areas of Australia to return the bottle to the Gods.

The film was a massive hit in many parts of the world, but in North America it was little more than a minor hit. But “The Gods Must Be Crazy” is hilarious, heartfelt and endlessly entertaining. It even has moments of true screwball comedy that can't help but make you laugh, and the fact that the star of the film is a real Australian bushman adds to its charm.

1981

Best Picture Oscar: Chariots of Fire

My Favorite Film(s) of the Year: Whose Life is it Anyway?

The Great One You May Have Missed: Continental Divide

John Belushi is Ernie Kovak, a grizzled Chicago investigative reporter. When things get too hot with some underworld investigating he's doing, his editor sends him to Wyoming to write a story about Dr. Nell Porter (Blair Brown) who has been researching bald eagles alone in the mountains for years. Cooped up together for weeks in a log cabin, the two eventually fall in love.

Belushi is best known for his comedy, but showed here that he could act a little as well. And while the story takes a while to get going, by the conclusion it is utterly charming. I'm not huge on rom-coms, they usually have to be excellent for me to watch the same one more than once, but I've seen this film a dozen times and I still enjoy it.

1982

Best Picture Oscar: Ghandi

My Favorite Film of the Year: An Officer and a Gentleman

The Great One You May Have Missed: My Favorite Year

A classic. Benji Stone (Marc Linn-Baker) is a 1950s writer on a weekly hit comedy program, and he is thrilled that his favorite movie star Alan Swann (Peter O'Toole) is this week's guest. Little does Stone know that Swann is a hopeless drunk and that Stone will be tasked with baby-sitting him for the week in New York. Hijinks ensue.

In a role that was written specifically for him, O'Toole is magnificent in “My Favorite Year”. Hilarious, loveable, broken and hurting, you come to love Alan Swann and his growing friendship with Stone. It doesn't hurt that he ends up skinny dipping with a model in a Central Park fountain and trying to shinny down the side of a Manhatten skyscraper on a fire hose either. You won't find a better film to watch with the family, and I promise you, you will laugh.

1983

Best Picture Oscar: Terms of Endearment

My Favorite Film of the Year: National Lampoon's Vacation

The Great One You May Have Missed: Tough Enough

Dennis Quaid is a country music singer that hasn't had any success. To try to make ends meet he enters a “toughman” competition, where guys fight one-on-one in the ring in elimination fights until a single winner is left standing. After winning his local competition, he goes on to a national one where he not only has a chance to win, his music finds a national audience.

If you can stand Quaid's barely adequate singing, this is one of those “let's try not to analyze it too much and just enjoy it” movies. It's not great filmmaking, but it is definitely great entertainment. Stan Shaw as a fellow toughman who helps Quaid become a better fighter is a great asset to the film, and despite the hokey Hollywood ending you can't help but be uplifted at least a little.

1984

Best Picture Oscar: Amadeus

My Favorite Film(s) of the Year: The Natural and All of Me

The Great One You May Have Missed: Body Double

A suddenly unemployed and homeless actor (Craig Wasson) falls backward into housesitting a stilted mansion in the Hollywood hills. One of the neighbours likes to dance naked at night, and with the help of a telescope he gets a daily eyeful. However, sinister things are afoot when he witnesses a murder through the telescope and blames himself for not being able to stop it. But not everything is as it seems, especially when he finds that it wasn't his neighbour dancing in the house at all, but a porn star (Melanie Griffith) who was paid to make sure he was watching....

This film, along with “Eddie and the Cruisers” (1983) are credited with being revolutionary in creating the home video market. Neither of those films did well at the box office but became big successes with renters as the word of mouth about them got around. “Body Double” is NOT a family film, and as a Brian DePalma film isn't necessarily for all tastes. But it has a real Hitchcockian feel and many little unexpected twists, and has long been a “guilty favorite” of mine.

1985

Best Picture Oscar: Out of Africa

My Favorite Film of the Year: Shoah

The Great One You May Have Missed: Shoah

In my opinion, the most important film ever made. The Holocaust is probably the most “covered by documentaries” occurrences in human history, but Shoah is the best of them all. No historical footage, no era photos, nothing but conversations with people who were there and saw it happen. Wrenching, terrifying, heroic..... you feel everything throughout this film. My detailed review is here:

http://greatbigcmovies.blogspot.ca/2015/01/shoah-1985.html

1986

Best Picture Oscar: Platoon

My Favorite Film of the Year: The Color of Money and Stand By Me

The Great One You May Have Missed: Running Scared

Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines are undercover Chicago detectives hunting a drug lord (Jimmy Smits). They decide to retire to Florida but want to put this last guy away before they ride off into the sunset.

Buddy cop movies are a dime a dozen, so good ones are worth their weight in gold. This is a good one. Not only full of action and intrigue, it's funny as hell too. One that you really shouldn't miss.

1987

Best Picture Oscar: The Last Emporer

My Favorite Film of the Year: Raising Arizona

The Great One You May Have Missed: The Big Easy

Sorry for recommending cop movies for two straight years, but this one is a forgotten classic. Dennis Quaid is a New Orleans detective who is investigating the murder of a local gangster. Ellen Barkin is the IA officer looking into police corruption in New Orleans, and the two begin to fall in love. This is complicated by the fact that Quaid is on the take and all the local cops cover for each other.

With “Tough Enough” I said you need to look past Quaid's singing to enjoy the film, and here you need to try to look past his poorly affected New Orleans accent (as well as a scene where he sings at a party – truly ear-aching). And I always go into a young Ellen Barkin movie with a bias (I'm sure you can figure out why). But this is a terrific little film filled with conspiracy and collusion and keeps you riveted throughout.

1988

Best Picture Oscar: Rain Man

My Favorite Film of the Year: A Fish Called Wanda, Midnight Run and Dominick and Eugene

The Great One You May Have Missed: Clean and Sober

Until 1988 I thought Michael Keaton was a good comedian. “Clean and Sober" proved he was a hell of an actor too, a fact he would reinforce many times over the years since. Here he plays Daryl Pointer, a real estate salesman who invested company money on his own behalf to try to turn a quick profit, but lost it all. Now on the run from this embezzlement, he checks into a rehab facility to hide.... only to find that he is, in fact, an alcoholic and drug addict. His slow realization and recovery, and the recovery of his fellow rehabbers become the meat of the film.

Rotten Tomatoes gives this only a lukewarm rating (58%) but I believe it is dead wrong on this one. I grew up around Alcoholics Anonymous and the characters in the film are all very well done and realistic. The gold-hearted girl that just can't stay out of the dope, the young drunk who is trying to set his life straight, and the old bullshitter who is trying to skate by without ever taking a hard look at himself – bang on accurate portrayals. Still probably my favorite movie about recovery.

1989

Best Picture Oscar: Driving Miss Daisy

My Favorite Film of the Year: Dead Calm

The Great One You May Have Missed: Drugstore Cowboy

(apparently this was the year of the “D” movies)

When you need drugs, go to the drug store.... or at least this is Bob Hughes (Matt Dillon) theory. He and his little crew are strung out junkies who fund their habits by robbing drug stores. Their take becomes their stash and product for sale to keep the party going. James Remar is a cop that knows exactly what Bob is doing but he can't prove it, and they play cat and mouse. And eventually, as with all junkies, Bob ends up facing a situation where jail or death are both real possibilities, and he has to figure out a way to escape with his life and his freedom, even if it means giving up the lifestyle he so enjoys.

I've always respected Matt Dillon as an actor, but I never never really liked him as one. His films, the characters he's portrayed, the hood vibe he always gives off has never appealed to me. HOWEVER, in this film that vibe is essential to his character. This isn't a “one-man show” by any stretch, but Dillon's incredible performance is what makes this movie great. And even with its grim subject matter it's funny, and despite Bob's horrible crimes he's still likeable. One not to miss.