Bizarre, Forgotten, 80's Mainstream Movies

I saw thread about “forgotten” 70’s movies, but what about 80’s movies? It seems that mainstream studios released some really bizarre stuff in the 80’s that has been nearly forgotten.

I just “watched” Heartbeeps on Netflix yesterday, and my God, I can’t imagine how this movie got made. It is wrong in so many ways, yet I watched the whole thing.

Ugh, I thought of that movie when posting in the sidekicks thread, but my brain refused to let it surface. As much as I already hated Andy Kaufman, that movie raised it another power.

H.

Valley Girl is probably a forgotten movie of the 80’s that was the launching pad for Nick Cage’s career - for better (earlier) or worse (later).

Also, I don’t know how much Repo Man has stayed on the cultural radar screen, but it is definitely wierd and inflicted Emilio Estevez on us as well. Great sountrack too!

“Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole…not like you.”

Liquid Sky would also qualify.

Valley Girl has probably the most 80s thing ever filmed outside of a Miami Vice episode: a dating montage set to Modern English’s “I Melt With You”. So awesome.

I recently rewatched Valley Girl (a movie way better than you probably remember, by the way) and it’s weirdly schizophrenic. Martha Coolidge (the director) nails the valley girls; she films them like she’s making a National Geographic documentary on a exotic alien subculture. They are pitch perfect.

But then literally all of the punk stuff is just hilariously wrong. For one thing, what are The Plimsouls doing at a punk club? I mean, “A Million Miles Away” is a great pop song, but The Plimsouls are about as punk as the The Byrds. Especially odd as you could have probably thrown a rock outside the studio and hit Fear or the Angry Samoans or somebody. Plus the usual problem that Nicolas Cage isn’t dressed “punk” so much as “what a studio costumer thinks ‘punk’ is after watching that one episode of Quincy”.

Still, Valley Girl. Good movie.

Making Mr Right - John Malkovich as an android? Ugh. So bad.

Hey, Making Mr. Right was… well, not good exactly. Let’s say better than it had any right to be. Certainly not on the order of–

Postapocalyptic skateboarding.

See also Night of the Comet, My Science Project, and My Demon Lover.

Man, even when they suck, 80s movies are awesome.

Aw man, that made me think of Prayer of the Rollerboys, but I can’t mention it since it was 1990. I’ll just leave a two-word summary:

[spoiler]

Rollerblading eugenicists.[/spoiler]

Strange Behavior with Michael Murphy.

The movie itself was pretty weird for the time, since it was in the middle of the slasher movie era. Plus back then I always thought Michael Murphy was a good ‘goto’ actor for offbeat movies. If he’s in it, it’s probably worth watching.

Here’s my pick. Larry Cohen’s finest hour?

That’s right, bitches. Q: The Winged Serpent. Michael Moriarty versus Quetzalcoatl, for reals.

I love crazy 80’s movies, like:

Krull
Ice Pirates
Amazon Women on the Moon
The Wraith
Iron Eagle
Alien in L.A.
Megaforce
Time Runner: The Legend of Lyle Swann
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins
Johnny Dangerously
Can’t Buy Me Love
Battle Beyond the Stars
Time Bandits
Blind Date
The Heavenly Kid

And so many others…

Don’t forget those awesome 3-D movies like Metalstorm and … Uh … Whatever the other one was called.

Yeah, but Time Bandits is genuinely FUCKING AWESOME.

Hey, no dissin’ Night of the Comet…that movie is great.

Now, Mannequin on the other hand…and Mannequin 2.

I don’t think Time Bandits was forgotten by anyone.

Repo Man’s a great cult classic that holds up well. The last time I saw it was a couple of years ago. The very next day my ex-wife emails me out of the blue with some random story about her boss asking her to pick up a plate of shrimp on her way to work. “You’ve got to be shitting me,” was my response.

Lattice of coincidence indeed.

Hey I remember going to see Xanadu in a theater as a kid! I loved that movie and for that reason will never watch it again.

I saw it again a year or so ago. Don’t make the same mistake I did.

If you haven’t seen this, you must. Barry Bostwick as an action hero.

But the soundtrack is still awesome.