Search for 1980

Airplane! has not aged well. The fine wine hasn't turned into vinegar but it's not as pleasant to the palate as it once was. Viewed more than 25 years after its initial release, Airplane! retains the capacity to tickle the funny bone, but someone u...

Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (full title: Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don’t Come Back!!)) was the fourth and final theatrical film featuring the Peanuts gang to be overseen by their creator, Charles M. Schultz. Between 1969 and 1980, Charlie...

There are times when the reputation of a film outstrips the movie itself. Cannibal Holocaust is an example. To some, this is the most disgusting, offensive motion picture ever given an international release. To others, it is a brilliant example of...

In terms of content, if not style, Coal Miner’s Daughter would fit with the spate of musician-related biopics that have dotted the recent landscape. And, although central figure Loretta Lynn (Sissy Specek) never had the same kind of Billboard To...

Fame was released at the dawn of the 1980s – a high school/coming-of-age film arriving in the forefront of a genre that exploded during the decade. This was a pre-John Hughes movie and, as such, is barely recognizable as what the “teen movie�...

For those steeped in the lore of what Friday the 13th would become, watching the first movie can be a little surprising. Many of the long-running series' staples are either absent or toned down from where they would evolve. The gore is surprising...

If you’re in the mood for an overdose of (early) ‘80s nostalgia, Midnight Madness has your fix. Watching the film, which was made in 1980, offers a reflection of the kind of escapism that dominated the teen-oriented cinema of the era. Toda...

The passage of time often impacts how films are viewed. Some, like Citizen Kane, evolve from being modest successes into masterpieces. Others, like Robert Redford's Ordinary People, do not fare as well. Lauded by critics and the Academy alike, O...

Some critics, including Siskel & Ebert, are on the record stating that Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull, the story of boxer Jake La Motta, is the best film of the '80s. Since there are still a number of '80s films that I haven't seen, I don't fee...

The middle segment of the Red Riding trilogy, Red Riding: 1980, represents the best of the three films - a taut, bleak perspective of the power of pervasive corruption. By the end of this movie, it becomes clear that the rot within the Yorkshire p...