The Automatik

Everyone knows about Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun, and Ghostbusters. But what of all the other great movies released during that decade? Here are eight movies that I consider mandatory viewing. (Besides, I never liked Top Gun anyway.)

1. Foxes (1980) – I defied my mom’s orders forbidding R movies and snuck multiple viewings of this on HBO in the early 80s. She let me have cable in my room; I’m only human. Jodie Foster was the coolest of the cool and the Donna Summer soundtrack is almost as haunting as the performance of Cherie Currie (The Runaways) as Annie.
2. The Last American Virgin (1982) – Even as a kid I was steadfast in my distaste for teen sex comedies like Porky’s, yet this was the exception. Gary wasn’t some horny kid; he was sensitive and sweet and I wanted a boyfriend just like him. It was years before I could hear James Ingram’s “Just Once” without tearing up.
3. Night Shift (1982) – One of my most quoted movies ever, from Henry Winkler’s deadpan dorkiness to Michael Keaton’s insane cluelessness. Night Shift also features the stunning Shelley Long and the Rod Stewart version of “That’s What Friends Are For.” This remains one of the funniest movies I have ever seen, and I’ve seen it a lot.
4. Rock & Rule (1983) – This was a staple of TBS’s Night Flight in the early 80s and until the DVD release a few years back, all I had was my decrepit VHS tape which became unwatchable in the 90s due to multiple viewings. Reading the DVD liner notes has given me a tremendous amount of respect for the DIY efforts that went into making this movie look as fabulous (and timeless) as it does. The soundtrack, featuring Cheap Trick, Lou Reed, and Iggy Pop, ain’t so shabby, either.
5. Desperate Teenage Lovedolls (1984)/Lovedolls Superstar (1986) – Here filmmaker Dave Markey proves that you don’t need a lot of money to make a hilarious send-up of rock and roll rags to riches movies – just a crazy sense of humour, willing friends, and a killer soundtrack with all your favourite So Cal post-punk bands.
6. Repo Man (1984) – Repo Man is a wickedly funny take on Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly, transported into Orange County’s hardcore scene and the seedy world of car repossession. With space aliens. Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton are fantastic, but Tracey Walter as Miller steals the show.
7. Tuff Turf (1985) – When I say I’ve seen this movie over a hundred times, I mean it. My sister and I would watch this every day after school for the entirety of my sophomore year of high school and we can still quote entire scenes verbatim. I was obsessed with James Spader as Morgan Hiller and if I could have made him real, I would have (lucky for Spader I didn’t have that kind of technology).
8. Better Off Dead (1985) – I like my 80s comedies like I like my coffee: dark and absurd. This is easily my favourite John Cusack movie (I was never a big fan of Say Anything) and I still crack up about the damn aardvark suit. Better Off Dead is quoted almost as much as Tuff Turf and Night Shift. One of my favourite parts is the montage of Lane and Monique fixing the car with that amazing Howard Jones track, “I’d Like To Get to Know You Well.”