The 1980s, what a decade. Being a 90s kid, I was too young to remember the real good stuff from the '80s when they were new and the talk of the town, but with VHS tapes (remember those?), DVDs, and cable it really doesn't take much to watch a great '80s flick. Here is an incomplete listing of some of my favorite '80s movies in no particular order:
"Child's Play"- Released in 1988, this movie had all the makings of a classic horror movie. A psychopathic serial killer, Chucky (played by Brad Dourif), dies just after reciting a voodoo chant to transfer his soul into a "Good Guys" doll to prevent transferring to the afterlife. He awakes as a popular kid's doll sold to a mother (Catherine Hicks) by a seemingly homeless peddler in the streets of Chicago, Illinois. It is a gift for her son, Andy's (Alex Vincent) birthday. However, the seemingly harmless doll is much more than she bargained for as it turns out that not only is the kid's toy alive, but a vengeful murderer. I won't go much more beyond that, in case there may be some folks out there who haven't seen this classic, or who haven't seen it in quite some time and don't remember much of it. Chucky was always my favorite slasher and this film began his intriguing legacy.
"The Terminator"- Released in 1984, and, with the Conan movies helped make bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger into an international superstar. Big Arnold plays the role of a cybernetic killing machine programmed specifically to hunt and kill (or terminate) Sarah Connor, your average. As with most killers on the loose, the single target isn't the only victim on his warpath. Time-traveling, tragic love, and action-adventure fill this film, which started a very popular franchise that, like the Terminator himself, transcends time.
"E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial"- Released in 1982, the legendary Steven Spielberg directed this science-fiction classic depicting a friendly alien creature that befriends a young boy. This movie is the highest-grossing film of the 1980s with $435 million. I believe almost every family has seen this movie at least once, but I've been wrong before. Drew Barrymore was just a little girl in this movie as Gertie while Henry Thomas plays the role of Elliot, whom E.T. (the alien visitor) befriends, and Robert McNaughton plays their eldest brother, Michael and they band together with a band of warm freinds in a heart-warming plot to help the friendly alien back home. I can't help but shed tears everytime I watch this immortal film. E.T. serves as a testament to the greatness that Spieldberg possesses when we take into consideration all of the great films he has produced in his illiustrious career and he believes that E.T. epitomizes his work, as it states in E.T.'s Wikipedia article.
The '80s may mean a lot of things to a lot of different people, but to me, these three films epitomizes only 3 out of many '80s films that I'll never forget and cherish for the rest of my life. I know there are many great movies in the Eighties that I haven't mentioned: like "Masters of the Universe", "Ghostbusters", "Batman", Star Wars movies, James Bond films, and others, but if any readers haven't seen the 3 movies I just described, you should definitely see them. You will never regret it.