# Quintessential but obscure 80s movies...?



## trancejeremy (Oct 4, 2006)

I guess in part because I'm getting excited by the new Vice City game, but for whatever reason, I have a hankering to watch 80s movies.

But not the ones that were hugely popular.   I already know about The Goonies, the various  John Hughes movies, Fast Times, etc

An example of what I mean is _"The Gate"_.

Any other suggestions?


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## Mycanid (Oct 4, 2006)

trancejeremy said:
			
		

> An example of what I mean is _"The Gate"_.
> 
> Any other suggestions?




AHHHH! I had forgotten about that one?! What a horrible movie that was....   

Quintessential 80's though? Hmm ... what specific genre? You looking at sci fi/fantasy stuff? Or other things?


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## TwistedBishop (Oct 4, 2006)

You want 80s movies?  We give you 80s movies!

http://www.fast-rewind.com/


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## Crothian (Oct 4, 2006)

The Gate was just bad...really bad.


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## Man in the Funny Hat (Oct 4, 2006)

Crothian said:
			
		

> The Gate was just bad...really bad.



Yeah.  So disappointing.  It could have been Sturmgeschutz & Sorcery, but Nooooooo...


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## Angel Tarragon (Oct 4, 2006)

Maybe obscure, but one of my faves: Brewsters Millions

EDIT: and oh yeah, InnerSpace!   
_I'll be a son of a buck, I'm inside a strange man_


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## trancejeremy (Oct 4, 2006)

Man in the Funny Hat said:
			
		

> Yeah.  So disappointing.  It could have been Sturmgeschutz & Sorcery, but Nooooooo...




I think you're thinking of the Keep (the one where Germans enter the Keep and unleash an evil dude - based on an novel by one of my favorite authors, F. Paul Wilson)

The Gate is the one where 2 kids find a geode in the backyard, then dig a hole, which happens to be a gate to hell.  And one kid who is a heavy metal fan puzzles it together thanks to a album.

Which I like a lot because the kid in it reminds me a lot of me back then (I even had some of the same posters on the wall), and it's got a very authentic use of the language back then.  Like when 2 friends of his sister show up, he says something like, "Oh, no, it's the Lee sisters". Which was a stupid but common joke back then.


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## ThirdWizard (Oct 4, 2006)

The Lost Boys?

I never know what was popular and what was cult because of the people I hung out with. When you're all geeks and nerds, you kinda get distanced from society!


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## Ambrus (Oct 4, 2006)

ThirdWizard said:
			
		

> The Lost Boys?



*Ominous voice-over* There's something weird in the city of Santa Carla... all the vampires have mullets...  

If you want fantasy titles I'd have to say Labyrinth and the Dark Crystal. Go muppets!


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## Rodrigo Istalindir (Oct 4, 2006)

"Streets of Fire"


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## Joshua Randall (Oct 4, 2006)

"Gleaming the Cube"

The title is the coolest thing about it.


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## buzzard (Oct 4, 2006)

I've always had a great fondness for Red Dawn myself. I even have the DVD. How much more 80s can you get?

buzzard


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## Barendd Nobeard (Oct 4, 2006)

Night of the Comet
Eating Raoul

(both start Robert Beltran, who is more well known for playing Chakotay on _Star Trek: Voyager_)

Rock 'n' Roll High School  (technically 1979)
Scanners

And a couple of movies I saw at a drive-in in 1981 or so:

Eager Beavers (I looked it up on the IMDB.  It came up under a different name and is actually 1975.  Not a single character has a last name--you know that's a quality script!)
Classroom Teasers (can't even find this one in the IMDB).


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## Mark Hope (Oct 4, 2006)

The Sure Thing

Gotcha

The Outsiders

Body Organ Replacement Network

Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers

(These last two fall into the 80s category of crappy acronym movies, respectively B.O.R.N. and C.H.U.D.  180 minutes of my life that I'll never get back...)


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## Sir Brennen (Oct 4, 2006)

Brazil

Beastmaster

Flash Gordon

The Hunger

Krull

Near Dark (great vampire movie where the word "vampire" is never used)


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## WayneLigon (Oct 4, 2006)

Besides a lot of the ones already mentioned... 

The Blues Brothers (first SNL skit to movie, and probably the only good one)
Doctor Detroit
Airplane!
The Howling
Witches of Eastwick
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Raising Arizona
Videodrome

Ultimately, though, the 80's will be remembered for introducing the concept of  sequelitis, where we take a film that did pretty darn good then proceed to beat the exact same concept to death over four, five, even six parts.


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## IcyCool (Oct 4, 2006)

Leonard, Part 6.


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## Particle_Man (Oct 4, 2006)

The Thing (1982)


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## nyrfherdr (Oct 4, 2006)

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure


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## Arnwyn (Oct 4, 2006)

Corvette Summer


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## danzig138 (Oct 4, 2006)

Arnwyn said:
			
		

> Corvette Summer



Wouldn't that be a 70s movie? 

As for the OP, what exactly are you looking for again? People's favorites from the 80s, or movies that scream "The 80s" to you? Because I don't know that they're necessarily going to be the same.


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## Torillan (Oct 4, 2006)

Mark Hope said:
			
		

> The Sure Thing




An absolute classic!  The best line (of many) has got to be  "Sponteneity has it's time and place".


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## werk (Oct 4, 2006)

Arnwyn said:
			
		

> Corvette Summer




YES!  I loved that movie when I was a kid.

In the link someone posted early on was The Wraith, also a good one.

I liked My Science Project (nice car) and House (great actors), probably for the fantasy aspect.  The Last Starfighter, of course.  The sci fi movie with John Boy from the Waltons...the guy with the mole.  That's a crazy movie, love it every time I see it super late at night.

Also watch The Greatest American Hero, it's TV, but it's great.


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## Mark Hope (Oct 4, 2006)

Torillan said:
			
		

> An absolute classic!  The best line (of many) has got to be  "Sponteneity has it's time and place".



"...But not the Gary Cooper who's dead..."

Less Than Zero

Mannequin

War Games

Class

St. Elmo's Fire

About Last Night

Adventures in Babysitting (aka A Night on the Town)


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## werk (Oct 4, 2006)

danzig138 said:
			
		

> Wouldn't that be a 70s movie?



Corvette Summer (1978)

SO it is...

I didn't see it til it was on cable, so that was in the 80s


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## RichCsigs (Oct 4, 2006)

Can't Buy Me Love


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## johnsemlak (Oct 4, 2006)

Can't believe no one's mentioned The Sword and the Sorceror


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## johnsemlak (Oct 4, 2006)

Two very different quintessential 80s movies:

Rambo II

Spies Like Us


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## Villano (Oct 4, 2006)

Did anyone mention *CLUE*?


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## Taelorn76 (Oct 4, 2006)

buzzard said:
			
		

> I've always had a great fondness for Red Dawn myself. I even have the DVD. How much more 80s can you get?
> 
> buzzard




Now that is a Quintessential 80s movie. You have communists, teens with guns, explosions, Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey, Charlie Sheen. What more could you ask for in a 80s movie.


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## Mark Hope (Oct 4, 2006)

Taelorn76 said:
			
		

> Now that is a Quintessential 80s movie. You have communists, teens with guns, explosions, Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey, Charlie Sheen. What more could you ask for in a 80s movie.



Diane Lane or Elizabeth Shue.


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## grimslade (Oct 4, 2006)

Mark Hope said:
			
		

> The Sure Thing




Love that movie.
  I flunk English, I'm outta here. I gotta get a job, and you know what that means. That's right, they start me at the drive-up window and I gradually work my way up from shakes to burgers, and then one day my lucky break comes: the french fry guy dies and they offer me the job. But the day I'm supposed to start some men come by in a black Lincoln Continental and tell me I can make a quick 300 just for driving a van back from Mexico. When I get out of jail I'm 36 years old. Living in a flop house. No job. No home. No upward mobility. Very few teeth. And then one day they find me, face down in the gutter, clutching a bottle of paint thinner and why? Because you wouldn't help me in English. 

So bad/offbeat 80's movies?
  Wraith
  Top Secret
  Real Genius
  Cat People


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## Mark Hope (Oct 4, 2006)

"You were too busy to help a drowning man!!!"

Love that film to bits.  What can I say?  It introduced me to the wonder of the shotgun.

Better off Dead

One Crazy Summer

(yeah, I am a big Cusack fanboi)

Weird Science

Footloose

Oh, so many great movies.  So little time.


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## Hypersmurf (Oct 4, 2006)

werk said:
			
		

> The sci fi movie with John Boy from the Waltons...the guy with the mole.  That's a crazy movie, love it every time I see it super late at night.




Battle Beyond the Stars!

Love me some James Horner soundtrack.

"Live fast; fight well; and have a beautiful ending."
"There is no dog in this."
"But I want to live forever!"
"I love it when a plan comes together!" "I love watching a pro work!"

Makes me wanna go buy it on DVD!

-Hyp.


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## trancejeremy (Oct 4, 2006)

Movies like _Adventures in Babysitting _ and _One Crazy Summer_ are what I was looking for. And movies like _Vamp_ and _Summer School_. Not necessarily offbeat movies, but ones that portray 80s life.


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## Klaus (Oct 4, 2006)

Iron Eagle


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## KenM (Oct 4, 2006)

Return of the Jedi (1983) No one saw it in theaters but it has a big cult following.


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## Vigilance (Oct 4, 2006)

Adventures in Babysitting
Bloodsport
Best of the Best
Ferris Bueller's Day Off


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## Taelorn76 (Oct 4, 2006)

Wall Street is another Quintessential 80s movie. 

You have big money, stock market, cocane, all the glory of the early 80s in one movie


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## johnsemlak (Oct 5, 2006)

Villano said:
			
		

> Did anyone mention *CLUE*?




Oh, yeah!  Great comedy.  Christopher Lloyd rocked.


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## grimslade (Oct 5, 2006)

Night of the Creeps- the joys of Brain Slugs and zombies
Say Anything- Just to round out the quartet of John Cusak movies
Sixteen Candles- Molly Ringwold, Anthony Michael Hall and cameo by John Cusak tres 80's

Blue Velvet- David Lynch is both quintessential and odd
Karate Kid - small film, never attained the rank of JC Penney belt
Max Headroom- not a movie but pretty odd


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## Arnwyn (Oct 5, 2006)

danzig138 said:
			
		

> Wouldn't that be a 70s movie?



Hey, yeah... it is.

Oops. I saw it in 1981 along with Clash of the Titans in a double-feature. Weird.


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## Priest_Sidran (Oct 6, 2006)

The Anti gamer Monsters and Mazes, with Tom Hanks (Made me rethink him as an actor whom I respected)


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## Sandain (Oct 6, 2006)

The Breakfast Club


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## Priest_Sidran (Oct 6, 2006)

The breakfast club isn't exactly obscure...It is played on AMC more than I care to admit to watching


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## Darthjaye (Oct 6, 2006)

You sad, sad little people.   

Five mere words........



Big Trouble in Little China.    





Why would you chose anything else?


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## Mycanid (Oct 6, 2006)

Darthjaye said:
			
		

> You sad, sad little people.
> 
> Five mere words........
> 
> ...




Darn. You beat me to it! Just thinking of that the other day. Probably my favorite 80's movie.

As regards to a few others I was thinking of Johnny Five came to mind. Someone already mentioned Ferris Bueller's day off. (Gotta love "Oh Yeah!" song by mello yello....)


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## S. Baldrick (Oct 6, 2006)

I don't know about obscure but definately of cult classic status:
Buckaro Banzai and Spinal Tap.


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## Ilium (Oct 6, 2006)

S. Baldrick said:
			
		

> I don't know about obscure but definately of cult classic status:
> Buckaro Banzai and Spinal Tap.



 Now there's a double-bill concert I'd pay big money to see. 

Buckaroo Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers, with special guest Spinal Tap!


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## Dingleberry (Oct 6, 2006)

Ilium said:
			
		

> Now there's a double-bill concert I'd pay big money to see.
> 
> Buckaroo Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers, with special guest Spinal Tap!




But the billing would have to actually be:

BUCKAROO BANZAI and the HONG KONG CAVALIERS
PUPPET SHOW
SPINAL TAP


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## S. Baldrick (Oct 6, 2006)

Dingleberry said:
			
		

> But the billing would have to actually be:
> 
> BUCKAROO BANZAI and the HONG KONG CAVALIERS
> PUPPET SHOW
> SPINAL TAP




Yeah, but would the pod open?  
And I have to assume that Spinal Tap playing "Stonehenge" would be out of the question.


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## qstor (Oct 9, 2006)

buzzard said:
			
		

> I've always had a great fondness for Red Dawn myself. I even have the DVD. How much more 80s can you get?
> 
> buzzard





I was going to say that one too. Great choice.

48 Hours and Back to the Future too.

Mike


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## sirwmholder (Oct 10, 2006)

Top Gun
Predator
Aliens
Terminator
Flight of the Navigator
Caddyshack 
Escape from New York

A few off the top of my head...


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## Darthjaye (Oct 10, 2006)

A lot of the films mentioned on this page are not obscure though by any means.    I'm sure we could find more "less well known" movies out there folks.


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## trancejeremy (Oct 11, 2006)

Yeah, maybe not too obscure, but since people were having so much fun naming them...


Anyway, a good example of what I was looking for was Vamp which I just got from Netflix today. It's sort of a comedy-horror movie starring the guy from Meatballs as a college student.

I really love the 80-ish lighting in it.  Everything is sort of pastel, and there is green and violet lighting everywhere.

Also interesting, is that it features the sort of vampiric servant that has to drink the blood of a vampire, but isn't actually a vampire (Familiar or Ghoul they are sometimes called). Which is common in later vampire movies/TV shows, but I don't remember seeing it in earlier ones.


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## Goodsport (Oct 11, 2006)

The Gods Must Be Crazy (Parts 1 _and_ 2)

UHF

Die Hard

Pee Wee's Big Adventure _and_ Big Top Pee Wee

Transylvania 6-5000 (still the worst movie I've _ever_ seen - and yes, I _have_ seen Plan 9 From Outer Space)


I'm sure others will come to mind soon.


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## Sarigar (Oct 12, 2006)

Any of the classic Corey flicks.  Haim and Feldman, at it again!


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## Mad Hatter (Oct 12, 2006)

Blade Runner

The Wraith

Poltergeist

Tron

People, how has Blade Runner and Tron gone unmentioned for so long?  I'd have submitted Logan's Run but that's a 70s movie...watch it anyways.


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## frankthedm (Oct 12, 2006)

Priest_Sidran said:
			
		

> The Anti gamer Monsters and Mazes, with Tom Hanks (Made me rethink him as an actor whom I respected)



true, though...

The 'burbs (1989)

...puts me in a forgiving mood.


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## horacethegrey (Oct 13, 2006)

*ROADHOUSE!*







Granted, I've never seen it. But everyone seems to mention it whenever one wants a  definitive example of 80's cheese.

BTW, nice to see this place back up. From the looks of things though it seems like the site has been back for quite awhile now. When did Enworld get back online?


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## Stockdale (Oct 13, 2006)

Suburbia (1984) and throw another vote for Near Dark. Flims I couldn't get through high school without.

stockdale


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## dogoftheunderworld (Oct 13, 2006)

Creator (imdb) 

Ishtar (imdb) 


What?  


What!??


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## hafrogman (Oct 13, 2006)

Ah Xanadu! (1980)

Rollerskating Muses.  Very 80's.  Nobody said the movies had to be good did they?





			
				horacethegrey said:
			
		

> BTW, nice to see this place back up. From the looks of things though it seems like the site has been back for quite awhile now. When did Enworld get back online?




We haven't been offline.  Odds are you just weren't able to get in.  http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=172873
Unless you're refering to the crash back in May.


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## billd91 (Oct 13, 2006)

_Straight to Hell_
It stars Courtney Love, Joe Strummer, and includes the Pogues as coffee banditos.
Well worth the rental.


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## horacethegrey (Oct 13, 2006)

hafrogman said:
			
		

> We haven't been offline.  Odds are you just weren't able to get in.  http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=172873
> Unless you're refering to the crash back in May.




Aw hell. You mean I've missed more than two months worth of forum action?  

Well, I'm glad to be able to enter the site again. My thanks to the mods of this place for getting it back online.


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## Simplicity (Oct 13, 2006)

Time Bandits
Remo Williams
The Adventures of Bukaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
Ice Pirates
The Stuff


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## Mad Hatter (Oct 13, 2006)

Someone seriously put down Ishtar?!  That is in turns scary and so freakin' awesome!

Wasn't that Kiss movie also an 80s movie?  So terribly bad, but in a train wreck you can't look away deal.


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## fett527 (Oct 14, 2006)

Short Circuit

Goonies (relatively obscure)

Earth Girls are Easy


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