Welcome to the 80’s everyone! The great 2nd Golden Age of the movies gives way to the roller coaster Reaganomics era of moviemaking, sequelling us into submission. This particular year has some of the brilliance of the 70s but does have some sequels too. Thankfully, one of those sequels is one of the greatest films of all time.
Not the greatest of the horror releases, but certainly hooked us with terms like Camp Crystal Lake, and a hockey mask wearing machete wielding killer named Jason Voorhees. I will say, the 3rd act twist is a pretty good one at least.
John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd go on a mission from god in this SNL skit turned John Landis movie. Chicago looks great, the music is shockingly front and center (featuring some all timer musical acts), there’s a great Star Wars cameo, but the wanton destruction in the car chases and crashes make this movie a joy to watch, as a series of cop cars lay waste to a mall.
Another great comedy with a banger for a soundtrack. This female revenge fantasy has stayed the test of time for its progressive outlook toward the workplace, Dolly Parton’s big hit, as well as Parton’s acting, with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, showing that for the zillionth time, men aren’t the only people who can be funny.
Though an Oscar travesty, the Best Picture winner of the year is a perfectly great film in its own right. Robert Redford’s first feature is handled with a deft hand, as we see how a family handles a tragedy. The whole cast is great, but Mary Tyler Moore is the revelation, playing an icy emotionally shut off traumatized mother and wife.
Sissy Spacek is spectacular playing the Grandmama of country music, Loretta Lynn. This film is one of the gold standards for a musical biopic, cataloging Lynn’s ascent from her poor Kentucky town into one of country music’s biggest artists, and all the tribulations that come with fame. This movie should be held up as an example of how to tell a great music biopic.
Gigantic and silly, this comedy set the standard for the spoof comedy genre, lampooning all sorts of films, plot lines, and characters with zaniness and fantastic one off jokes and sight gags. I picked a helluva day to quit sniffing glue.
Rocky got there first, but many believe Martin Scorcese’s epic about Jake LaMotta is the best boxing film ever made. Robert De Niro put on and lost a crazy amount of weight to capture LaMotta’s Shakespearean life, which Scorcese turns into a study of fame, self control, and excess. So for Scorcese, just another classic.
In the running for the funniest film of all time. Because it has a murderer’s row of comedy icons doing their thing. Everyone gets an iconic line at some point or another, with so many jokes that you end up with a headache from laughing so hard. And then you laugh again.
Speaking of all timers, horror movies don’t get better than this Stanley Kubrick classic. Jack Nicholson is terrifying as Jack Torrance, a writer stuck caretaking a mountain hotel with just his family and nowhere to go. While Nicholson is delivering the scares, Kubrick layers on scare after scare, theme after theme, all culminating with one of the great tracking shots in movie history.
George Lucas’s vision gets bigger and better in Episode V, one of the best movies of all time. The special effects are amazing still, but in this one Lawrence Kasdan and Leigh Brackett write a great love triangle with Luke, Han, and Leia, as well as a terrific backstory for Darth Vader, giving us one of the 3 or so greatest twists in movie history.
