Tag: 1980

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Film

Like it’s 1980

I’ve decided to fold out on my 1980 movie marathon at only five movies. I was planning on watching about a dozen, but considering that I watched the first one in February and it’s now August, I figure it’s time to move on. As with all of my other year-based marathons (1967, 1968, 1977, 1978, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1989), I am glad I watched those movies, but for some reason I just haven’t been in the mood to watch more, even though I had stuff like Superman II, The Blues Brothers, and The Shining on my list (although for Shining, I did watch it fairly recently, so wasn’t particularly interested in revisiting it again so soon). So next up I move to 1990, which I’m actually quite excited about, and just quickly drawing up a list last night I already had about 40 films (I imagine I’ll end up watching 20-30). But here are my thoughts on the five films from 1980 I did watch, which you can also find under this tag.

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Debaser Film

Caddyshack

Well, this is one of these revisits that I feel went against my fond memories of the film. Can’t say I really enjoyed it as much as I thought I would. I think the biggest offender is Chevy Chase, whose character here just annoyed me — nothing he does makes any sense, and even worse, it’s just not really funny. Murray is wacky, but it’s not all that funny either as it’s too cartoony. Sure, it has its moments here and there, but overall it was a disappointment.

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Debaser Film

Smokey and the Bandit II

I had a good time when I re-watched the first one not that long ago, and this one was pretty fun too. Sure, it’s dumb and ridiculous and over-the-top, but that’s what makes you want to watch it. They sure don’t make movies like this anymore — which is maybe for the best, or maybe not. Either way, I’m a bit surprised at how much I’m enjoying this 1980 re-watch so far.

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Debaser Film

Airplane

How’s this for a double bill — after watching Saturn 3, I immediately followed-up with this. I guess I needed a silly comedy as a chaser, and Airplane does indeed fit that bill. I wasn’t expecting much from this re-watch, but instead was pleasantly surprised by just how much I ended up laughing — I feel like when I revisited a Naked Gun film recently, it didn’t feel as enjoyable. It’s maybe because I watched this film so many times as a kid, so the jokes felt like such a pleasant nostalgic flashback. Surely. (And stop calling me Shirley.)

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Debaser Film

Saturn 3

After kicking off my 1980 movie marathon back in February with the original Friday the 13th film, it’s taken until now to watch another movie from 1980, and for some reason I decided to start by watching something I had in fact never watched before. I definitely remember the VHS box, with that imposing robotic silhouette, and I did like sci-fi even back then, but I guess I was never interested enough to watch it (and it was considered a bad movie). So curiosity got the best of me, and I gave it a watch, and I’m glad I did. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a good movie, but it’s an interesting — and definitely weird — one. It’s the execution mostly that fails, but I could see this as being a pretty neat story if it was presented as a graphic novel. It’s also funny to see Harvey Keitel playing a character like this — and I’d say, badly — but I don’t regret at all spending time on this.

Categories
Debaser Film

Friday the 13th (1980)

So here we go, the start of my movie marathon for 1980 — my plan right now is to watch 10-15 movies. I’ve been watching a lot of Friday the 13th movies over the last couple of years (all of the ones released between 1985 and 1989), and so I figured it was about time to watch the one that started it all. I honestly can’t remember if I ever watched it — it’s possible I did at some point, but I had no real memory of it. As I was watching it, I kept thinking, man, it’s amazing that this is what marked the start of such an iconic franchise, since for the most part it’s a pretty bad movie. But then that final sequence happens (the one in the middle of the lake), and that’s when the magic — and the birth of a franchise — happens. But yeah, for the most part, it’s not a very enjoyable film to watch (even with Kevin Bacon in the mix), and although it gets more exciting once Mrs. Voorhees shows up, her performance unfortunately drags it down (or is just too laughable). But hey, it does make me curious to watch the second one, and I guess that’s what all good franchises do, make you look forward to the next one.