My Ten Favorite Films of 1980

 This is a list of the 10 films from 1980 that I liked the most.  These are not necessarily the ten best films of the year, just the ten that amuse/entertain me the most, so here we go:
 

 

10)Ordinary People- Robert Redford's first(and some would still say best) directing effort.  It was a commercial and critical success at the time although in later years the film has gotten a bad rap for winning best picture over Raging Bull.  While I agree that Raging Bull is a much better film, that takes nothing away from this melodrama classic.Mary Tyler Moore got robbed for Best Actress though.

Sequel Alert:No

 

9)Friday the 13th-I love this movie simply because it started one of my favorite slasher series.  Everyone knows the movies, teens, drugs, sex and death.  Not as good as the ones that would follow but a good start to the series that would influence so much of the 80s teen cinema.

Sequel Alert: A few, it got 9 sequels, a remake, a crossover with Freddy, a tv series that had nothing to do with the movies and numerous other media. The series was up and down quality wise(never far up but...)X was in space and they had three different killers in the series, so its a unique series to say the least(and yet so often copied or parodied it seems cliche)

 

8)Somewhere in Time-Superman and Dr. Quinn?  Im down.  Great romantic sci-fi masterpiece.  Yes it pales in comparison to the Richard Matheson story its based on, but Im not sure Hollywood can adapt Matheson without destroying it, but this film is still compelling and not gonna lie when I first saw this in school in 6th grade(TY Miss Furnia) I had a huge crush on Jane Seymour, she is legit gorgeous.

Sequel Alert: No but some, myself included like to think of What Dreams May Come(another film based off of Matheson's work) is a companion piece.  On the plus side its more modern and has one of Robin Williams best performances, on the negative..most everything else.

 

7)The Blues Brothers-They simple dont make movies like this anymore.  Heck they didnt back then either.  This was pure Aykroyd and Belushi genius backed by the directing of John Landis(While he is a very problematic person nowadays that doesnt mean he wasnt a talented director, not saying we should treat him like a hero but im not gonna say he wasnt talented just cause I think hes a garbage person).  The Music, the action, the comedy and the freaking car chase.

 Sequel Alert: God no, by all that you hold Holy do not see Blues Brothers 2000.  It was a horrible, horrible, no good bad thing.  The music is still good to great and I do get a kick out of John Goodman, but the entire thing is just not a blemish on the original.

 

6)The Fog-If you ever want to learn how to make something feel moody or disturbing, just watch anything directed by Carpenter.  Between this, the Thing and Halloween its easy to see this guy was the master of mood and anxiety inducing. If atmosphere matters in your horror flicks, check this out, plus Jamie Lee is The Scream Queen.

Sequel Alert:Oh man another shitty fucking remake destroying the legacy of a classic.  The 2005 version is awful.  Dont let a music video director whose only other good film was Stigmata remake a classic.  Bigger, louder, more violent and less intelligent doesnt mean better. Only real plus in remake is Selma Blair and Maggie Grace, Tom Welling was so bad in this it made me hate Superman.

 

5)Caddyshack-There was a time that Bill Murray was probably the funniest man on planet earth, or at the very least the funniest guy making Hollywood movies.  Growing up I was not a huge Murray fan outside of Ghostbusters, but by my early twenties I completely "got "him.  Between him Ted Knight and Rodney Dangerfield(who I fucking adore btw) this film had some great lines and even better direction.  Having this much talent and knowing when to let them go and when to edit them down is a talent.

Sequel Alert:Caddyshack II is what they made Alex DeLarge watch.  They made the freaking Gopher talk, like actual dialog.  WTF.  Murray and Dangerfield had the good sense to stay the fuck away, naturally Chevy didnt.

 

4)Raging Bull-Is it the greatest sports movie ever?  Probably.  It is legit in consideration for the best film ever made(my list is for my favorite not the best, otherwise I would rank this number one for the year just edging out my number 2 on this list)  I have a love hate relationship with Scorsese films and this one is a love, plus damn can De Niro act or what?  Plus Pesci is under rated in dramas.

Sequel Alert:Ok this is an odd one, technically no, actually no but kinda yes.  See there was a film called The Bronx Bull that came out in 2016 that is based on the sequel to the book that Raging Bull is based on.  It was originally planned as Raging Bull II but lawsuits and money issues led to the name change and not being able to promote it as a sequel(technically its both a sequel and prequel, kinda). Regardless its not very good, not horrible but it isnt worth figuring out its continuity with this one as it covers the best parts of the story.

 

3)Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back-Sequels are not always worse than the original and the 2nd film in a trilogy can be the best.  As for the movie Hoth Wampa shelter, Obi Wan Ghost,  AT-ATs, Fucking Boba Fett, Dagobah Swamp with Yoda, Cloud City, Fuck you Lando you bastard, Boba gets a pet carbonite Han, Luke gives Vader a hand and turns out "Vader, you are the father"  Oh shit spoilers(movie is 40 plus years old, sorry not sorry).  This movie is the very definition of Space Opera, and I mean that in every positive way possible.

Sequel Alert:  One prequel(Star Wars: A New Hope) and one sequel (Return of the Jedi) and nothing else ever, regardless of what strange Mandela effect group hallucination you have experienced that tarnished the legacy of "The Trilogy".

Ok not fair there have been a total of 11 Live Action films, 1 animated, and three tv specials.  On TV there was also 10 animated and now up to 4 live action series.  This isnt even counting the hundreds of games, comics, novels and basically if it exists there is a Star Wars tie in for it.  Me myself, I think the original trilogy is the only movies worth seeing the TV shows are hit and miss(more miss) but decent enough, the video games are actually some of the best storytelling in the universe, in particular the Knights of the Old Republic games.

 

2)The Shining-This film is so analyzed I cant really say anything that hasnt been said.  Stephen King's novel is gripping, disturbing look at alcoholism, creativity and losing the line between creation and creator.  Stanley Kubrick is among my favorite filmmakers of all-time.  I love how nothing was an accident in his films, and the things that actually were just had explanations that worked.  So many scenes in this film are iconic. Jack Nicholson gave the performance of a lifetime(for most, for Jack just another great one), Duvall mesmerizing as always(I know she went through hell on this film and that sucks, but good god what a performance she turned in, in spite of not because of that treatment.) and while Im obviously not a fan of Magic Black Man in movies but Scatman Crothers gives a great performance.  If you are into film theory or just want to go down one hell of a rabbit hole, look up "What does the Shining really mean" on youtube. 

Sequel Alert:A 1997 miniseries for TV was made that stuck closer to the book and as a result was a lesser film.  It was praised at the time, but as recency bias has fallen off its almost universally considered a worse effort.  In 2019(39 damn years) after the original a sequel was released as Doctor Sleep. While it was praised by most critics it only did decent at box office  A planned Hallorann prequel is now in holding, but production is ongoing currently on an Overlook series for HBO that would act as a prequel to the novel, so in essence a prequel to the film as well.

Honorable Mentions: First this set were re-releases(mainly Disney Vault drops):

 

Lady and the Tramp-Disney cuteness, the spaghetti scene and the Siamese Cats scenes alone are worth seeing(yes Im aware we are Siamese is incredible racist but the animation and song are still art, just shitty narrow minded outdated racist art.)

 

Song of the South-Well about racism...This film is such an issue Disney hasnt reissued it since 1986.  Im not going to excuse some of the views or attitudes in this movie as even being of their time, cause they were pretty fucking ignorant then even.  But this film does have some great animation and regardless of where it comes from Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah is a catchy freaking tune.

 

The Aristocats- Everybody wants to be a Cat.  More racist stereotypes but a fun movie.

and a non Disney one 

 

2001:A Space Odyssey-Remember me saying Kubrick was one of my favorites?  Yeah originally this was on my top 10 until I decided to take re-releases out of the running. I know a lot of modern readings of it call it pretentious, and im not going to say they are wrong but I am going to say most of the people who say that come off as pretty fucking pretentious themselves(as I do too) so take that for what its worth.

  Plus we have two non re-release films to call out as good but not top 10:

 

The Elephant Man-David Lynch.  No one makes films like David Lynch. I first saw this at about 7 years old and it freaked me the fuck out.  Years later after Twin Peaks, Mullholland drive and Lost Highway I began finding more of his work including re-watching this.  Still atmospheric and disturbing but a very moving film about the human condition and why we suffer.

 

Private Benjamin-Goldie Hawn is funny.  She has the best facial expressions and her smile is as bright as possible, plus she has one of the best deadpan deliveries Ive ever seen.  Also not trying to come off as a sexist but she looks amazing considering she gave birth only 6 months before this was filmed( Kate Hudson was the kid btw)

And My #1 film of 1980-

 

Airplane!-This movie is offensive in every way possible, and yet it is one of the funniest non stop laughter films Ive ever seen.  Im not in anyway going to say this movie is for everyone, but if you dont mind offensive borderline uncomfortable comedy, this is the best of its class.  It is of the same vein as Naked Gun and Hot Shots series(Think Scary Movie series but actually funny and not trying to hard) but making fun of Hollywood's big budget disaster film craze of the 70s.  So many classic lines and scenes I couldnt even begin to list them, just see it if you can handle offensive comedy.

In a week or so I will upload my 1981 list and Im actually working on one for TV and video games for 1980 as well.