A to Z Blogging Challenge: Eighties Movies and Why We Like Them

Jason on the 80s:

The 80s were a magical time for movies.  They looked to the future, they taught us how to rebel, and they were completely unique to the time. Worlds similar to ours that we really waned to live in. Personally I wanted to attend Atoms College of "Revenge of the Nerds" fame, after attending San Dimas High School (I hear their football team rules!) from the sublime "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure." Then afterwards, move to Chicago and be in parades every day. I was young and thought that was an option.

The 80s had proper parody movies, too. Movies that had jokes for all intelligence levels; it's just I liked the lowest common denominator ones more. DATE MOVIE,  EPIC MOVIE,  MOVIE MOVIE, SCARY MOVIE 1 - 30!  I like crass humor but at least be smart about it... just because I have a common ancestor with an ape doesn't mean I fling poop.

The best part about the 80s: you could go to the movies without taking out a loan or having a fear or losing your car. I think I can buy a black market kidney for less money than it takes to see a movie now. Heck,  there are countries with less GDP than it takes to see a movie at the Regal.

I still remember my mom taking me to Batman and flipping my little kid ummm... doody.... when the Teen Age Mutant Ninja Turtles popped up or bawling my eyes out at Optimus Prime dying. Seriously, do you remember how sad that scene was? Just thinking about it now makes my throat swell up. Two years ago we were watching it for Rick's (Tara's husband) birthday and it got really quiet during that scene. Almost three decades later and it can still cut me to the core.

I want to start a campaign to keep Micheal Bay away from my childhood. I felt like my childhood was punched in the back of the head when his Transformers movie came out. Now he wants to make the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles aliens. Freaking Aliens. Seriously someone stop him, all I have or the memories from this golden age.  Wow this got sad quick... post a picture of a dog in a sombrero, Tara.

...Ahh that makes everything better.

Tara's Take: The 80s



I remember the first two movies I saw in the theater as a child. Born in 1981, I saw the (oh-so-racist) "Song of the South" and then "E.T.: The Extraterrestrial." Fortunately, the latter was the one that really stuck with me. My lifelong love of movies about aliens and outer space kind of stemmed from it. From "Star Trek" to "Thor," my enthusiasm for the extraterrestrial is surprisingly easy to trace.

What I remember most about the 80s were those movies that weren't exactly intended to be serious, but to me as a little kid, entirely were. The original "Indiana Jones" trilogy and the "Back to the Future" movies especially come to mind. And if anyone doubts that it impacted my later taste in men, feel free to meet my husband. After all, he has the cunning of Marty McFly and the rugged handsomeness of Indiana Jones. (And really, Indy and Han Solo are kind of the same character, and who doesn't like Han Solo?)

Speaking of Han Solo and people we need to keep away from our childhood...let's talk about George Lucas and his revisioning of his own original perfect movies. Namely, "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones." He needs to go in the 'stay away from my childhood' corner with Michael Bay. Thank goodness those LucasArts franchises got sent over to Disney, who will handle them with care.