Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)

You're going to find a lot of movies in this blog with me saying "this movie freaked me the f- out" or "this scene scared the crap out of me." This film is no exception. I can remember watching this late at night with my father and that opening scene when Dan Aykroyd says "You wanna see something really scary?" Then he turns into this freaky ass zombie monster and attacks Albert Brooks. Let's just say I did not sleep too well that night. Nor did I sleep with dry pajamas.

This movie is an amazing collaboration between directors at the top of their game, most notably Joe Dante who went on to make such classics as "Gremlins" and "The 'burbs." His segment about a boy's imagination wreaking havoc on his family and a kind woman is what I always loved best about this movie. It's one of the most twisted yet funny pieces of cinema I have ever seen.

Plus how could you not love a movie that begins and ends with Creedence?

The Outsiders (1983)

The one thing that sticks out the most in my memory of The Outsiders is that Stevie Wonder song "Stay Gold" and the main title sequence. It just makes you feel all warm inside. Unfortunately for the Special Edition DVD, Coppola omitted this song as well as the moody score in favor of rock and roll jams of the time period. As much as I respect Coppola, it really ruins the movie for me. Trust me, if you're gonna buy the DVD, stick with the original version.

As a kid, my favorite Outsider was Emilio Estevez as Two-Bit. He was the perfect combination of funny and cool. His weapon of choice was a butterfly knife. He rocked a Mickey Mouse T-shirt with a leather jacket. He had beer and chocolate cake for breakfast. Seriously, how cool is that?

Watership Down (1978)

This was the first movie that really scared the crap out of me as a kid and the fact that it was a cartoon made it even worse. Because you weren't expecting it to be that intense.

From the opening scene when one of the rabbits starts wigging out repeating over and over again, "there's a dog loose in the wood," you know this movie is headed to a dark place. From then on it gets violent as hell, I mean rabbits scratching each other bloody, dogs ripping them to shreds, there's even a scene where a rabbit gets blasted with a shotgun.

That being said, I've come to really appreciate this film as an adult and I think it's one of the best animated features of all time.

The Adventures Of The Wilderness Family (1975)

Despite being released in the 70's, this movie played a lot on TV during the early 80's along with it's two sequels: "The Further Adventures..." and "Mountain Family Robinson." All three movies pretty much featured the same family facing many challenges and dangers living deep in the Colorado Rockies.

Robert Logan plays the father and I think it needs to be said that no one has ever rocked the bubble vest/flannel shirt combo anywhere nearly as good as him.

Treasures Of The Snow (1983)

For years I had only remembered a small scene from this movie but had no idea what it was called. All I rembered was this freaky ass scene where a kid falls off a cliff and everyone thinks he's dead, then his father has to repell down the cliff to find his body. The boy survives the fall but has several broken bones. Another kid is blamed for the fall and becomes an outcast. I tracked this movie down recently and watched it. It actually holds up pretty well. Despite the heavy religious overtones, it's got a great message about guilt and forgiveness. The production is top-notch (filmed on location in the Swiss Alps) and the child actors are excellent.

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

According to my mother, E.T. was the first movie I saw at a movie theater and it's a story that makes me laugh every time she tells it.

Apparently I was having a great time taking in this new experience of being at the cinema..........until that infamous scene when E.T. pops out of the closet. I started screaming and crying, fell off my seat and hit my head, so my father took me to get some popcorn to calm me down. Of course he buys me the extra large bucket of popcorn which was probably as big as I was and allows me to carry it to our seats. Bad idea. Half way down the isle I dropped the bucket and sent popcorn flying everywhere. I start crying again. My father takes me back to get the bucket refilled (crying kids always get free popcorn) and I enjoyed the rest of the movie without further incident.

Return Of The Jedi (1983)

I was going to start the blog off with Star Wars, since I mentioned it in my introduction, but I don't recall ever watching it as a youngin'. Return Of The Jedi was my introduction to the franchise and to this day it's still my favorite in the series. Why? Because Luke finally gets to kick some ass that's why. All that training has finally paid off and it's time to see it in action. He is now a badass Jedi and leaves all that whining and insecurity far behind. Plus it's got Ewoks. And Jabba the Hut. And that pit that looks like a vagina. 'Nuff said.

Introduction

I was born in 1978. Which made the early to mid 1980's my formidable years. A good portion of this time was spent sitting (probably Indian-style) in front of the old mahogany cabinet-style television in our living room (or family room, anyone know the difference?). It was there that countless movies passed through my mind and left their mark in some way, shape or form. HBO was a godsend for kids in the 80's, this was before all the parental controls you have for cable and satellite today. Back then at any given time of day, rated R movies were shown which exposed us to questionable scenes of violence, nudity and bad language. The only parental control we knew of was after said scene, Mom or Dad would get up, utter those classic words: "you shouldn't be watching this" and change the channel. But by then the damage was done. Believe me, the scars are still healing to this day. Here is the intro HBO played immediately before a feature started. Watching it at night always gave me chills for some reason. The early to mid 1980's was the golden age of the "family film" with countless studios producing quality pictures aimed at a new and prophitable demographic. Star Wars and E.T. paved the way for these films and as the decade rolled on the flood gates were opened. These films tapped into our collective imaginations using themes of science fiction and fantasy and challenged us with valuable lessons about life. This blog is a chronicle of the films that I remember watching during that time period that had some impact on me, to the point where they still linger somewhere in the deep recesses of my memory. I will post them as they come to mind, some may take days, weeks or months to dig up. Most of these films still hold up very well today (aside from the godawful dated soundtracks) and are worth checking out even just for nostalgic purposes. It is worth noting that a good number of these films are still unavailable on DVD, and while the original VHS copy can get fairly pricey on ebay, there are other ways to get access to them. Youtube is now posting some of them (in sections or as a whole) and for diehard fans, there may be a VHS copy lurking at your local library or Goodwill store.