Empire Magazine's "The 80 Best '80s Movies"
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- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsHarrison FordKaren AllenPaul FreemanIn 1936, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis can obtain its awesome powers.Nazis, the Staff of Ra and a boulder the size of a small house were the order of the day for Harrison Ford in his first Indy outing. An archaeologist protagonist (proteologist?) may not sound all that exciting, but Steven Spielberg and George Lucas' franchise follow-up to Star Wars succeeded, among many other reasons, in not taking itself too seriously. Lesser prequels and sequels followed, but Raiders cemented a post-A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back Ford as a Hollywood heavyweight. Face-meltingly good stuff.
- DirectorIrvin KershnerStarsMark HamillHarrison FordCarrie FisherAfter the Rebel Alliance are overpowered by the Empire, Luke Skywalker begins his Jedi training with Yoda, while his friends are pursued across the galaxy by Darth Vader and bounty hunter Boba Fett.Three years after Episode IV turned Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher into household names, director Irvin Kershner somehow delivered an even better sequel. Empire spent time in both the skies and the swamp as Luke (Hamill) began to truly understand the ways of the Force – but forget all that. Empire was really about discovering Vader was Luke's father, spawning a million parodies in its wake. Has there ever been a better third-act revelation? We're saying 'no'.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsRobert De NiroCathy MoriartyJoe PesciThe life of boxer Jake LaMotta, whose violence and temper that led him to the top in the ring destroyed his life outside of it.Martin Scorsese's boxing opus famously lost out at the Oscars to Robert Redford's stolid (if unfairly maligned) Ordinary People. If time has not been especially kind to that decision, you can see why Redford's story of a broken American family might have chimed more with voters than the bruising, artful undercurrents of Raging Bull in the uncertain days of Jimmy Carter's America. Shot in stark monochrome by Michael Chapman and stitched together perfectly by Thelma Schoonmaker, Jake LaMotta's journey out of the ring and into a personal hell of booze and domestic violence is captured by Robert De Niro in possibly his finest performance.
- DirectorRidley ScottStarsHarrison FordRutger HauerSean YoungA blade runner must pursue and terminate four replicants who stole a ship in space and have returned to Earth to find their creator.We are just a few years shy of Blade Runner's 2019 setting, and it's starting to seem unlikely that everyone in Los Angeles will drive hovercars and carry neon umbrellas. No matter: this is perhaps the mostly gorgeously realised vision of a (1980s-inflected) future ever committed to screen. The futurist imagination of Ridley Scott's sci-fi neo-noir will beguile; the mystery behind Deckard – more human than human? – will engross; Scott's ahead-of-its-time effects and distinctive art direction will astound.
- DirectorRobert ZemeckisStarsMichael J. FoxChristopher LloydLea ThompsonMarty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown.On paper, it's hard to relate to a film that contains Libyan terrorists and a time-travelling DeLorean. But Robert Zemeckis' sci-fi comedy is filled with enough cringeworthy, relatable moments (kissing your own mother, anyone?) to ensure his flux-capacitor-fuelled adventure is one you very much want to stay aboard. The highest-grossing film of 1985, BTTF may be more concerned with the 1950s, but it's one of the most quintessentially '80s films on this list.
- DirectorJohn McTiernanStarsBruce WillisAlan RickmanBonnie BedeliaA New York City police officer tries to save his estranged wife and several others taken hostage by terrorists during a Christmas party at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles.In the 1980s, action movies tended to be the preserve of steroid-addled muscle men, chain-gunning their way to body-counts of infinitude. At the decade's close, a sitcom star and a sci-fi/horror director made an action movie about a regular schmoe in the wrong place at the wrong time and inadvertently made the greatest action movie of all time. It's sometimes easy to forget that John McClane was a product of the 1980s (only Holly McClane's hair and Ellis' coke habit really signpost the era), but that's what you get for being a timeless classic. Yippee ki, and indeed, yay.
- DirectorJames CameronStarsSigourney WeaverMichael BiehnCarrie HennDecades after surviving the Nostromo incident, Ellen Ripley is sent out to re-establish contact with a terraforming colony but finds herself battling the Alien Queen and her offspring.Imagine Aliens getting announced in our current social media age. 'Alien is perfect – leave it alone!' the internet would howl. And of course, the internet would be wrong. James Cameron, in those days a former FX guy who'd directed a low-budget cult- sci-fi called The Terminator (plus Piranha 2: Flying Killers) took Ridley Scott's gothic space horror and extrapolated it into a war movie, expanding the mythology in the process. We'd seen the face huggers and the xenomorphs before. But now, in one of cinema's greatest shock reveals, we had a queen...
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsHenry ThomasDrew BarrymorePeter CoyoteA troubled child summons the courage to help a friendly alien escape from Earth and return to his home planet.In box-office terms, E.T. was the biggest film of the 1980s. For a time, it was the highest-grossing film of all time (at least, until Steven Spielberg broke his own record with Jurassic Park). It's not hard to see why: here was the perfect alchemy of blockbuster entertainment, spellbinding science-fiction, and old-fashioned, big-hearted storytelling. The folkloric fable of the little alien with a heart of gold had 'em queuing round the block, and quickly embedded itself in the consciousness of a generation.
- DirectorRob ReinerStarsRob ReinerMichael McKeanChristopher GuestSpinal Tap, one of England's loudest bands, is chronicled by film director Marty DiBergi on what proves to be a fateful tour.Rob Reiner's mockumentary, or, "if you will, rockumentary", proved so convincing that, for many members of its early audience, it was taken as a straight-up documentary. Even genuine rock stars who knew it was fake thought it felt real; The Misfits' Glenn Danzig said, "When I first saw Spinal Tap, I was like, 'Hey, this is my old band'." Thanks to Reiner and main players Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, the veracity is deeply impressive (they wrote and performed all the songs, too). But what really makes it as enjoyable to watch 32 years later is the fact that it's also so incredibly, neverendingly funny.
- DirectorSam RaimiStarsBruce CampbellSarah BerryDan HicksAsh Williams, the lone survivor of an earlier onslaught of flesh-possessing spirits, holes up in a cabin with a group of strangers while the demons continue their attack.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsJack NicholsonShelley DuvallDanny LloydA family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.Stephen King famously hates Stanley Kubrick's version of The Shining. Kubrick, with surgical precision, stripped away everything he thought was silly in King's novel – haunted hosepipes; ambulatory topiary – leaving just the core: a relentless study of a man going mad in an empty hotel. King complains that Jack Nicholson is clearly crazy from the beginning of the film. There's something in that. But the atmosphere of dread and horrible anticipation that Kubrick creates, prowling the hotel's corridors with Garrett Brown's Steadicam, remains almost unmatched. King tried his own TV miniseries version in the 90s. Didn't even come close.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsTatsuya NakadaiAkira TeraoJinpachi NezuIn Medieval Japan, an elderly warlord retires, handing over his empire to his three sons. However, he vastly underestimates how the new-found power will corrupt them and cause them to turn on each other...and him.
- DirectorRob ReinerStarsWil WheatonRiver PhoenixCorey FeldmanA writer recounts a childhood journey with his friends to find the body of a missing boy.Coming-of-age movies don't come much more coming-of-age than Rob Reiner's Stephen King adaptation. Perfectly capturing the fading playfulness of childhood wonder during the hunt for a dead body, Gordie (Wil Wheaton), Chris (River Phoenix), Teddy (Corey Feldman) and Vern (Jerry O'Connell) are a gang that youngsters will want to join for years to come. Bookended by Richard Dreyfuss, Stand By Me is as affecting on the rumbling train tracks as it is during the quiet moments in his study.
- DirectorTerry GilliamStarsJonathan PryceKim GreistRobert De NiroA bureaucrat in a dystopic society becomes an enemy of the state as he pursues the woman of his dreams.
- DirectorDavid LynchStarsIsabella RosselliniKyle MacLachlanDennis HopperThe discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminals who have kidnapped her child.
- DirectorMartin BrestStarsEddie MurphyJudge ReinholdJohn AshtonA freewheeling Detroit cop pursuing a murder investigation finds himself dealing with the very different culture of Beverly Hills.Hot from 48 Hrs., Eddie Murphy took a character ditched by Stallone and turned it into a star-making performance. Lighter and funnier than Reggie Hammond, Axel Foley is a livewire of maverick energy, and there's genuine warmth from supporting players Judge Reinhold and John Ashton as Axel's impromptu Beverly Hills detective 'family'. Of course, there's also that theme tune from Harold Faltermeyer, and great villainy from Steven Berkoff too: tellingly, while he leaves most of his movies out of his autobiography altogether, he mentions this one as a thoroughly good time.
- DirectorJohn HughesStarsMatthew BroderickAlan RuckMia SaraA popular high school student, admired by his peers, decides to take a day off from school and goes to extreme lengths to pull it off, to the chagrin of his Dean, who'll do anything to stop him.Before Deadpool, there was Ferris. The fourth wall-breaking, school-skipping scallywag catapulted Matthew Broderick to superstardom, becoming another John Hughes classic in the process. Ferrari 250 GT California Spyders, Twist And Shout, trampoline fence jumping: every set piece is synonymous with Hughes' comedy. It's _so_ '80s, even Jennifer Grey and Charlie Sheen pop up. Infinitely quotable and a bona fide cult classic, if you don't mind, we're off to stare at a Monet.
- DirectorRob ReinerStarsBilly CrystalMeg RyanCarrie FisherHarry and Sally have known each other for years, and are very good friends, but they fear sex would ruin the friendship.
- DirectorRichard MarquandStarsMark HamillHarrison FordCarrie FisherAfter rescuing Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt, the Rebel Alliance attempt to destroy the second Death Star, while Luke struggles to help Darth Vader back from the dark side.Director Richard Marquand had galactic boots to fill: how in the name of Moff Jerjerrod do you follow Episodes _IV_ and _V_? By upping the stakes and Ewoks, that's how. Part three of the original trilogy saw nearly-aware-they're-brother-and-sister Luke (Mark Hamill) and Leia (Carrie Fisher) zip off to rescue Han (Harrison Ford) from Jabba the Hutt, finding themselves sentenced to death in the process. With Luke trying to steer clear of the Dark Side and Han and Leia playfully bickering across that galaxy far, far away, this is a threequel as comfortable in its gloominess as its wit.
- DirectorSergio LeoneStarsRobert De NiroJames WoodsElizabeth McGovernA former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan 35 years later, where he must once again confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.A gorgeous recreation of New York that was mostly shot in Rome's Cinecittà Studios, Sergio Leone's decade-spanning gangster opus grows in stature with each passing year. Admittedly, it started that process in a state of critical and box office purgatory. Its first theatrical cut, the cinematic equivalent of a Marine buzz cut, butchered its elaborate stature, chopping its languid rhythms into 139 brusque minutes. Now restored to something close to its full, four-and-a-bit-hour glory, it's an '80s masterpiece with a very '70s sensibility.
- DirectorJoel CoenEthan CoenStarsNicolas CageHolly HunterTrey WilsonWhen a childless couple--an ex-con and an ex-cop--decide to help themselves to one of another family's quintuplets, their lives become more complicated than they anticipated.1984.s Blood Simple was the Coen brothers' actual debut, but it was this curious little black comedy which truly announced Joel and Ethan to a wider audience. Featuring two outstanding early performances from Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter, it's a farcical family comedy of Southern graces and stolen babies, of screwball criminality and unexpected violence, of hapless bank robbers and semi-mystical biker bounty hunters. We still hold out hope for a Raising Utah sequel.
- DirectorJohn LandisStarsDavid NaughtonJenny AgutterJoe BelcherTwo American college students on a walking tour of Britain are attacked by a werewolf that none of the locals will admit exists.
- DirectorWalter HillStarsNick NolteEddie MurphyAnnette O'TooleA hard-nosed cop reluctantly teams up with a wise-cracking criminal temporarily paroled to him in order to track down a killer.
- DirectorBruce RobinsonStarsRichard E. GrantPaul McGannRichard GriffithsIn 1969, two substance-abusing, unemployed actors retreat to the countryside for a holiday that proves disastrous.
- DirectorRob ReinerStarsCary ElwesMandy PatinkinRobin WrightA bedridden boy's grandfather reads him the story of a farmboy-turned-pirate who encounters numerous obstacles, enemies and allies in his quest to be reunited with his true love.The Princess Bride is many things. It's a fantasy, it's a comedy, it's a romance, it's an adventure, it's a swashbuckler. It's a fairy tale, primarily, a whirlwind yarn of princes and princesses, pirates and giants, villages and castles. It's also a wry take on fairy tales, with a sly satirical edge, and whimsically silly names like Prince Humperdinck, Fezzik and Buttercup. It is ultimately a simple and sweetly straightforward story-within-a-story, and fundamentally very old-fashioned. Languishing for years in the dungeons of development hell, it almost never made it to screen – a thought that now seems, well, inconceivable.
- DirectorMilos FormanStarsF. Murray AbrahamTom HulceElizabeth BerridgeThe life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by Antonio Salieri, the contemporaneous composer who was deeply jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him.
- DirectorClaude BerriStarsYves MontandGérard DepardieuDaniel AuteuilA greedy landowner and his backward nephew conspire to block the only water source for an adjoining property in order to bankrupt the owner and force him to sell.
- DirectorDavid ZuckerStarsLeslie NielsenPriscilla PresleyO.J. SimpsonIncompetent police Detective Frank Drebin must foil an attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II.The Naked Gun represents ZAZ (that's Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams and David Zucker) near the height of their comic powers alongside co-writer Pat Proft. Taking the short-lived Police Squad! TV series, upping the stakes but keeping the seriously silly streak, the movie offers an endless supply of quotable lines and utter insanity. All heightened by master of the straight turn, Leslie Nielsen, blundering his way through a case that ends up involving mind control, baseball players and the Queen. And not forgetting a lurking vein of subversive satire that still rings true in today's politically charged policing climate: "Just think," ponders Frank when he's sacked, "next time I shoot someone, I could be arrested..."
- DirectorJim AbrahamsDavid ZuckerJerry ZuckerStarsVal KilmerOmar SharifJeremy KempAn American rock and roll singer is invited to a cultural festival in East Germany in order to distract from a plot to destroy NATO submarines, but he accidentally becomes involved in a resistance plot to rescue an imprisoned scientist.
- DirectorWes CravenStarsHeather LangenkampJohnny DeppRobert EnglundTeenager Nancy Thompson must uncover the dark truth concealed by her parents after she and her friends become targets of the spirit of a serial killer with a bladed glove in their dreams, in which if they die, it kills them in real life.The hat, the glove, the sweater, the make-up. Freddy Krueger was always going to be an iconic villain, although nobody quite realised the extent to which he'd dominate the '80s. He became a stand-up comedian in the sequels, but here, in Wes Craven's original Nightmare, he's much talked about but little seen. And Robert Englund's monster is frightening too. Craven doesn't quite nail nightmare-logic in the way David Lynch does, but the first Elm Street still manages some extraordinary imagery: the rubber-wall loom over the bed; the marshmallow stairs; Amanda Wyss smeared across a ceiling. Not yet encumbered by the baggage to come, Freddy's at his most powerful here.
- DirectorIvan ReitmanStarsBill MurrayDan AykroydSigourney WeaverThree parapsychologists forced out of their university funding set up shop as a unique ghost removal service in New York City, attracting frightened yet skeptical customers.As far as parapsychologists go, this lot might just be our favourite. Spooked by a dead librarian in the New York Public Library, the 'busters immediately find themselves in a city haunted by ectoplasm, fridges and Marshmallow Men. Ivan Reitman's film put Bill Murray front and centre as Peter Venkman, flanked to perfection by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis as fellow proton-packers Ray and Egon. Who you gonna call?
- DirectorSydney PollackStarsDustin HoffmanJessica LangeTeri GarrMichael Dorsey, an unsuccessful actor, disguises himself as a woman in order to get a role on a trashy hospital soap.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsHarrison FordSean ConneryAlison DoodyIn 1938, after his father goes missing while pursuing the Holy Grail, Indiana Jones finds himself up against the Nazis again to stop them from obtaining its powers.Here is the factually correct opinion on which Indiana Jones films are best, in descending order of greatness: Raiders, Last Crusade, Temple Of Doom, The Film Which Must Not Be Named. Still stung by criticism that Temple was too dark, Steven Spielberg whipped up a threequel bursting with the spirit of old-school adventure, and sparkling with chemistry between the fedora-ed hero (Harrison Ford) and his aloof father (Sean Connery). The film's finale, having our heroes ride off into the sunset, was as perfect as finales come. (At least, until The Film Which Must Not Be Named went and messed things up.)
- DirectorJohn WooStarsChow Yun-FatDanny LeeSally YehA disillusioned assassin accepts one last hit in hopes of using his earnings to restore vision to a singer he accidentally blinded.
- DirectorBill ForsythStarsBurt LancasterPeter RiegertFulton MackayAn American oil company has plans for a new refinery and sends someone to Scotland to buy up an entire village, but things don't go as expected.
- DirectorKatsuhiro ÔtomoStarsMitsuo IwataNozomu SasakiMami KoyamaA secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psychic psychopath who can only be stopped by a teenager, his gang of biker friends and a group of psychics.
- DirectorCarl ReinerStarsSteve MartinKathleen TurnerDavid WarnerA brain surgeon marries a femme fatale whose life he saved, causing his life to turn upside down. Things go even more awry when he falls in love with a telepathic brain.
- DirectorGiuseppe TornatoreStarsPhilippe NoiretEnzo CannavaleAntonella AttiliA filmmaker recalls his childhood when falling in love with the pictures at the cinema of his home village and forms a deep friendship with the cinema's projectionist.
- DirectorTed KotcheffStarsSylvester StalloneBrian DennehyRichard CrennaA veteran Green Beret is forced by a cruel Sheriff and his deputies to flee into the mountains and wage an escalating one-man war against his pursuers.Rambo was forced into the role of one-man-army superhero for the daft sequels, so it's refreshing to revisit First Blood and find a thrilling pulp drama about a PTS sufferer driven over the edge by bullying small-town petty-mindedness. Sylvester Stallone is a decent actor when given the opportunity, and John Rambo in this film, crucially, is almost believable: the crunchy action kept under tight control by director Ted Kotcheff. It's a decent adaptation of David Morrell's page-turning novel too, although Brian Dennehy's Sheriff Teasle gets shorter shrift, and the devastating ending is changed so that Rambo lives.
- DirectorRichard DonnerStarsMel GibsonDanny GloverJoe PesciRiggs and Murtaugh are on the trail of South African diplomats who are using their immunity to engage in criminal activities.Lethal Weapon was a loose and confident creation but Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Murtagh (Danny Glover) seem to be having even more fun in their second outing - even when confronted with racist smugglers and Joe Pesci's loveably irritating Leo Getz. So does returning director Richard Donner. He pulls out some cracking set-pieces, including an opening car chase, a helicopter assault and that fateful trip to the loo. Joss Ackland and henchman Derrick O'Connor make convincing villains, entirely failing to see the funny side of the bromancing cops' verbal jousting and, in the process, giving the world the key to a truly terrible South African accent. "Dee-ploo-matic e-mew-nity" indeed.
- DirectorJohn LandisStarsJohn BelushiDan AykroydCab CallowayJake Blues rejoins with his brother Elwood after being released from prison, but the duo has just days to reunite their old R&B band and save the Catholic home where the two were raised, outrunning the police as they tear through Chicago.The Blues Brothers is a perfect conglomeration of music, comedy, and blockbuster moviemaking: a mission from God powered almost entirely by alcohol and cocaine (if reports from the set were to be believed). One of many classic 1980s comedies to come from the burgeoning Saturday Night Live stable, it matched massive musical numbers (James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles...) with mammoth stunt spectacle (the demolished building, the shopping mall chase, the military finale...) and introduced a generation to Ray-Ban Wayfarers.
- DirectorPhil Alden RobinsonStarsKevin CostnerJames Earl JonesRay LiottaIowa farmer Ray Kinsella is inspired by a voice he can't ignore to pursue a dream he can hardly believe. Supported by his wife, Ray begins the quest by turning his ordinary cornfield into a place where dreams can come true.
- DirectorWolfgang PetersenStarsJürgen ProchnowHerbert GrönemeyerKlaus WennemannA German U-boat stalks the frigid waters of the North Atlantic as its young crew experience the sheer terror and claustrophobic life of a submariner in World War II.
- DirectorWoody AllenStarsMartin LandauWoody AllenBill BernsteinAn ophthalmologist's mistress threatens to reveal their affair to his wife while a married documentary filmmaker is infatuated with another woman.
- DirectorHayao MiyazakiStarsHitoshi TakagiNoriko HidakaChika SakamotoWhen two girls move to the country to be near their ailing mother, they have adventures with the wondrous forest spirits who live nearby.
- DirectorMichael MannStarsWilliam PetersenKim GreistJoan AllenFormer FBI profiler Will Graham returns to service to pursue a deranged serial killer dubbed "the Tooth Fairy" by the media.
- DirectorGeorge MillerStarsMel GibsonBruce SpenceMichael PrestonIn the post-apocalyptic Australian wasteland, a cynical drifter agrees to help a small, gasoline-rich community get rid of a horde of bandits."In the roar of an engine, he lost everything... a burnt-out, desolate man, a man who wandered out into the wasteland...." George Miller's Mad Max series gets progressively more insane with each entry. (2015's Fury Road sees the franchise arrive at peak insanity). This sequel broadens the wastelands, imagining a post-apocalypse of leather, fire and sand through a resolutely 1980s prism (the future will have mohawks, apparently). As dystopias go, Miller's vision is often mimicked, rarely bettered.
- DirectorBrian De PalmaStarsAl PacinoMichelle PfeifferSteven BauerIn 1980 Miami, a determined Cuban immigrant takes over a drug cartel and succumbs to greed.
- DirectorStephen HerekStarsKeanu ReevesAlex WinterGeorge CarlinTwo rock-'n-rolling teens, on the verge of failing their class, set out on a quest to make the ultimate school history report after being presented with a time machine.There are no shortage of '80s teenage comedies; there are very few '80s teenage comedies which see Genghis Khan escape a time-travelling telephone box to skateboard around a shopping mall. There's still something deeply endearing about this goofy history lesson, which pairs a young Keanu Reeves with Alex Winter – plus cameos from Napoleon, Sigmund Freud, Beethoven, Socrates, and Abraham Lincoln behesting a watching audience to "party on, dudes". Words to live by.
- DirectorRobert ZemeckisStarsBob HoskinsChristopher LloydJoanna CassidyWhen a cartoon rabbit is accused of murder, he enlists the help of a burnt out private investigator to prove his innocence.
- DirectorJohn CarpenterStarsKurt RussellWilford BrimleyKeith DavidA research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
- DirectorBrian De PalmaStarsKevin CostnerSean ConneryRobert De NiroDuring Prohibition, Treasury agent Eliot Ness sets out to stop ruthless Chicago gangster Al Capone, and assembles a small, incorruptible team to help him.Brian De Palma's stylish, confident directing; David Mamet's slick, elegant screenplay; Kevin Costner's first major leading role; Robert De Niro's 30 pound weight gain; Sean Connery's Oscar-winning Ireland-by-way-of-Edinburgh accent; Ennio Morricone's imperious, almost operatic score... As gangster movies go, The Untouchables is pretty untouchable. Batter up.
- DirectorTobe HooperStarsJoBeth WilliamsHeather O'RourkeCraig T. NelsonA family's home is haunted by a host of demonic ghosts.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsKlaus KinskiClaudia CardinaleJosé LewgoyThe story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an extremely determined man who intends to build an opera house in the middle of a jungle.
- DirectorJoe DanteStarsZach GalliganPhoebe CatesHoyt AxtonA young man inadvertently breaks three important rules concerning his new pet and unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town.
- DirectorJames CameronStarsArnold SchwarzeneggerLinda HamiltonMichael BiehnA human soldier is sent from 2029 to 1984 to stop an almost indestructible cyborg killing machine, sent from the same year, which has been programmed to execute a young woman whose unborn son is the key to humanity's future salvation.Strange how the biggest action hero of the decade earned that accolade by playing one of that same decade's biggest villains. Even stranger when you consider said action hero wasn't even physically suitable for the part, as originally envisioned by James Cameron. After all, the T-800 cyborg was supposed to blend in, be a hidden assassin, look… normal. Not, for example, like a hulking Austrian bodybuilder last seen hacking people up with a broadsword in Conan The Barbarian. Still, The Terminator hit huge and gave us two '80s icons in one: the larger-than-life Arnold Schwarzenegger, with his catchphrase, his rippling muscles and his extensive, explosive ordnance. And the steely-grinned, red-eyed nightmare from the future, which until the firey final act lurked beneath that sculpted physique.
- DirectorMartin BrestStarsRobert De NiroCharles GrodinYaphet KottoA bounty hunter pursues a former Mafia accountant who is also being chased by a rival bounty hunter, the F.B.I., and his old mob boss after jumping bail.The fact that this is the greatest of all road-trip Mafia bounty hunter movies should not be devalued by the fact that it's also the only one. A begrudging bromance between two men who initially hate each other – Mob account Charles Grodin and Robert De Niro's by-the-book ex-'tec – Midnight Run's third wheel is Dennis Farina's awesomely abusive gangster, Jimmy Serrano, who just wants to put a fork through both their fuckin' hearts. An '80s classic of the kind they really don't make anymore. Oh, and the Litmus Configuration remains the funniest con in the canon.
- DirectorAdrian LyneStarsMichael DouglasGlenn CloseAnne ArcherA married man's one-night stand comes back to haunt him when that lover begins to stalk him and his family.
- DirectorJohn LandisStarsEddie MurphyDan AykroydRalph BellamyA snobbish investor and a wily street con artist find their positions reversed as part of a bet by two callous millionaires.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsMatthew ModineR. Lee ErmeyVincent D'OnofrioA pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.Stanley Kubrick had, by his track record, a relatively busy decade in the 1980s, releasing a grand total of two movies. Tougher and less sentimental than the previous year's Platoon, Full Metal Jacket was an uncompromising war movie with a dark sense of humour. It's essentially split into two halves: the second half is a serviceably scathing depiction of Vietnam at its zenith, but it's the initial boot camp segment that has proved most memorable. In his traumatic training regimes, real-life Marine R. Lee Ermey conjures up some of the most quotable insults of the decade (eg "Were you born a fat, slimy, scumbag puke piece o' shit, or did you have to work on it?").
- DirectorBarry LevinsonStarsRobin WilliamsForest WhitakerTom T. TranIn 1965, an unorthodox and irreverent DJ named Adrian Cronauer begins to shake up things when he is assigned to the U.S. Armed Services radio station in Vietnam.Originally pitched as a sitcom by the real Adrian Cronauer but spurned by networks because they failed to see the nascent funny side, the idea for Good Morning, Vietnam hit Robin Williams when Cronauer tried to make it work as a TV movie. The final film, massively overhauled by writer Mitch Markowitz, was tailored to Williams' needs and he roars in the role of a funny, frustrated Armed Forces Radio DJ who learns some tough truths about war and humanity. He received a well-deserved Oscar nomination, but don't disregard a subtle turn by Forest Whitaker as Private Garlick.
- DirectorJohn McTiernanStarsArnold SchwarzeneggerCarl WeathersKevin Peter HallA team of commandos on a mission in a Central American jungle find themselves hunted by an extraterrestrial warrior.John McTiernan's second feature is proof that the unremarkably generic can be elevated to ridiculous greatness by the right director and cast. A mash-up of the men-on-a-mission war movie and an alien / then-there-were-none slasher horror, McTiernan slips in some sly swipes at the action genre along with some groan-worthy homoeroticism – but more-or-less keeps a straight face. It's full of iconic moments like the Ol' Painless jungle destruction and the final one-man-army mud fight. And Arnold was, arguably, never better.
- DirectorJim AbrahamsDavid ZuckerJerry ZuckerStarsRobert HaysJulie HagertyLeslie NielsenAfter the crew becomes sick with food poisoning, a neurotic ex-fighter pilot must safely land a commercial airplane full of passengers.
- DirectorJohn HughesStarsEmilio EstevezJudd NelsonMolly RingwaldFive high school students meet in Saturday detention and discover how they have a great deal more in common than they thought.You can name The Magnificent Seven - well, at least six of them - but can you list The Breakfast Club? John (the criminal), Claire (the princess), Andy (the athlete), Brian (the brain) and Allison (the basket case) are sent to Shermer High School's answer to Guantanamo on a fateful Saturday morning in March 1984 and emerged changed for ever... along with most of the rest of us. John Hughes' knack for portraying teens in a way that was insightful, generous and sensitive, while never missing a good boob-and-lippy based party trick, was basically supernatural. True fact: at no point does anyone eat breakfast.
- DirectorRichard DonnerStarsSean AstinJosh BrolinJeff CohenA group of young misfits called The Goonies discover an ancient map and set out on an adventure to find a legendary pirate's long-lost treasure.
- DirectorRon ClementsJohn MuskerStarsJodi BensonSamuel E. WrightRene AuberjonoisA mermaid princess makes a Faustian bargain in an attempt to become human and win a prince's love.It is better, so they say, down where it's wetter. Disney took this aphorism to its logical conclusion in 1989 with The Little Mermaid, an animated musical as bright, sparkly and innocent as Ariel's big blue peepers. With its its colourful animation, showstopping Broadway tunes, and a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale repackaged for Generation X, it set the template for Disney's late '80s/early '90s renaissance.
- DirectorJohn G. AvildsenStarsRalph MacchioPat MoritaElisabeth ShueA martial arts master agrees to teach karate to a bullied teenager.Wax on, wax off. Wax on, wax off. Now repeat. Ralph Macchio is the young Padawan to Pat Morita’s Mr Miyagi in the first instalment of John G. Avildsen’s (yes, the director of Rocky) martial arts trilogy. Moving from New Jersey to California, Daniel (Macchio) befriends Ali Mills (Elisabeth Shue) and receives the unwanted attention of her karate-proficient ex-boyfriend. Luckily, Miyagi is prepared to train Daniel to fight said ex in the Under-18 All-Valley Karate Tournament, leading to a tense, air-punching finale that only the director of Rocky could construct.
- DirectorSpike LeeStarsDanny AielloOssie DavisRuby DeeOn the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence.
- DirectorPaul VerhoevenStarsPeter WellerNancy AllenDan O'HerlihyIn a dystopic and crime-ridden Detroit, a terminally wounded cop returns to the force as a powerful cyborg haunted by submerged memories.So much more than a high-concept action movie about a cyborg policeman, RoboCop is also a savage satire and a religious parable, with its structural narrative nicked from folk mythology. The deeper you go into it, the more you find. But it works as a shoot 'em up too. Its savage, gonzo violence and truly hissable villains perhaps work so well because they're from an outsider's skewed perspective: Dutch director Paul Verhoeven, here only making his second English-language film. The sequels (and remake) increasingly missed the point. Verhoeven's later Starship Troopers is RoboCop's real spiritual successor.
- DirectorDavid CronenbergStarsJeff GoldblumGeena DavisJohn GetzA brilliant but eccentric scientist begins to transform into a giant man/fly hybrid after one of his experiments goes horribly wrong.
- DirectorMichael LehmannStarsWinona RyderChristian SlaterShannen DohertyAt Westerburg High where cliques rule, jocks dominate and all the popular girls are named Heather, it's going to take a Veronica and mysterious new kid to give teen angst a body count.
- DirectorJim HensonStarsDavid BowieJennifer ConnellyToby FroudSixteen-year-old Sarah must solve a labyrinth to rescue her baby brother when he is taken by the Goblin King.
- DirectorJohn LandisStarsSteve MartinChevy ChaseMartin ShortThree actors accept an invitation to a Mexican village to perform their onscreen bandit fighter roles, unaware that it is the real thing.
- DirectorPenny MarshallStarsTom HanksElizabeth PerkinsRobert LoggiaAfter wishing to be made big, a teenage boy wakes the next morning to find himself mysteriously in the body of an adult.
- DirectorJoel SchumacherStarsJason PatricCorey HaimDianne WiestAfter moving to a new town, two brothers discover that the area is a haven for vampires.
- DirectorEmile ArdolinoStarsPatrick SwayzeJennifer GreyJerry OrbachSpending the summer at a Catskills resort with her family, Frances "Baby" Houseman falls in love with the camp's dance instructor, Johnny Castle.
- DirectorJohn WatersStarsSonny BonoRuth BrownDivineA 'pleasantly plump' teenager teaches 1962 Baltimore a thing or two about integration after landing a spot on a local TV dance show.
- DirectorTony ScottStarsTom CruiseTim RobbinsKelly McGillisAs students at the United States Navy's elite fighter weapons school compete to be best in the class, one daring young pilot learns a few things from a civilian instructor that are not taught in the classroom.
- DirectorTim BurtonStarsMichael KeatonJack NicholsonKim BasingerThe Dark Knight of Gotham City begins his war on crime with his first major enemy being Jack Napier, a criminal who becomes the clownishly homicidal Joker.Strange now to remember that Batman seemed revolutionary in its darkness to a 1989 audience used to the brightly coloured Bat-antics of Adam West. Watching it today, used as we are to "gritty" superhero films, it looks camp again. But, boy, was it exciting back in the summer of '89. Jack Nicholson's unhinged Joker isn't to everyone's taste these days, but Michael Keaton remains an effectively understated Dark Knight, in a goth Gotham that seems arrested in the 1940s. Almost 30 years on, TV's current Gotham retains that strange vibe, and every other blockbuster is a superhero movie. We've moved on from Tim Burton's Batman, but we're still feeling its influence.
- DirectorOliver StoneStarsCharlie SheenTom BerengerWillem DafoeChris Taylor, a neophyte recruit in Vietnam, finds himself caught in a battle of wills between two sergeants, one good and the other evil. A shrewd examination of the brutality of war and the duality of man in conflict.With typical bloody-mindedness, Oliver Stone took a subject Hollywood didn't want to touch – the Vietnam War – and spun it into Oscar gold. Taking a different tack from the mythic craziness of Francis Ford Coppola's earlier Apocalypse Now, Platoon's success is in its grunt's-eye view of the controversial conflict. Stone having served in Vietnam himself, it was a perspective he was almost uniquely qualified to present. Somehow he manages to humanise and empathise with the soldiers without shying away from the horror and folly of America's involvement.