What is your favorite decade for movies and why?

[Cheesebeef]

I was thinking about this and came to the realization that my favorite decade of cinema was the 80's. Now, I don't think the 80's were the best as far as technicalities or groundbreaking innovations in film, but from a pure entertainment standpoint, I can't think of another decade that just produced so many crowd-pleasers/classics from action to comedy to kids movies to just the outright weird.

I mean, this list (of which I'm sure there's lot more) is just incredibly impressive from a pure popcorn film standpoint:

Superhero/action Genre:
Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Temple of Doom
Indy and the Last Crusade
Batman
Die Hard
Lethal Weapon
Lethal Weapon 2
Romancing The Stone
Terminator
Rambo
Rocky 3/4
Conan The Barbarian
Predator
The Running Man
Total Recall
Aliens

Movies 4 Everyone:
Back To The Future
Field Of Dreams
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Twins
Bill and Ted’s Excelent Adventure
Big
Splash
Three Men and a Baby
The Toy

Movies 4 Kids that were for everyone:
The Goonies
ET
The Dark Crystal

Horror Movies:
Nightmare on Elm Street 1 and 3
Poltergeist
Pet Sematary
Creepshow
Evil Dead 2

Comedies – From the SNL Guys:
Vacation
Fletch
Spies Like Us
Caddyshack
Three Amigos
48 Hours
Beverly Hills Cop
Trading Places
Coming To America
Ghostbusters
Scrooged
Stripes
Little Shop of Horros
Roxanne
Plane, Trains and Automobiles
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Parenthood
Amazon Women On The Moon
Back To School

John Hughes/High School Comedies:
Mr. Mom
Sixteen Candles
Breakfast Club
Weird Science
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Better Off Dead
Fast Times At Ridgemont High

Raunchy Comedy:
Police Academy
Porky’s
Revenge of The Nerds
Risky Business

The Zucker Brothers/Mel Brooks/Spoofs:
Airplane
History of the World Part 1
Spaceballs
The Naked Gun
This Is Spinal Tap
Hollywood Shuffle

Big Movies That Kind of Defy Category (actually they don't, I just got lazy about making new categories):
Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (no explanation needed)
Gremlins (is this a comedy? Horror? Kids movies? Movie for everyone?)
The Blues Brothes
Beetlejuice
Fish Called Wanda
Raising Arizona

What do you all think? What's your favorite decade of cinema and why and what movies made you feel that way?

 

[82CardsGrad]

Not even close... easily the '80's! And, you missed the three most impactful/influential '80's flicks of all:

- St. Elmo's Fire
- Breakfast Club
- 16 Candles

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Not even close... easily the '80's! And, you missed the three most impactful/influential '80's flicks of all:

- St. Elmo's Fire
- Breakfast Club
- 16 Candles

He said Sixteen Candles.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Loved the 80's !!

Some I didn't see on the list (not all are great, but they're memorable):

Multiple Bond films (Octopussy, For Your Eyes Only, Never Say Never Again, etc)
Multiple Clint Eastwood films (Dirty Harry films, Firefox, Honkytonk Man, etc)
Wall Street
Cocktail
Bull Durham
Eight Men Out
They Live
War Games
Tron
The Last Starfighter
The Shining
Mad Max/The Road Warrior
My Bodyguard
The Big Red One
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The Octagon
The Gods Must Be Crazy
Raging Bull
Superman II
Chariots of Fire
Absence of Malice
An American Werewolf in London
Das Boot
Escape From New York
Taps
Blade Runner
Blue Thunder
Scarface
The Karate Kid
Footloose
Bachelor Party
Blind Date
Blood Simple
Cocoon
Witness
The Man with One Red Shoe
Top Gun
Platoon
The Boy Who Could Fly
Hoosiers
Manhunter
Stand By Me
Stakeout
The Untouchables
Dead Poet's Society
Adventures in Babysitting
Black Rain
Full Metal Jacket
Heathers
Major League
Say Anything
Weekend at Bernie's
Trois hommes et un couffin (Three Men and a Cradle) the French film that inspired Three Men and a Baby

 

[Shane]

80's

 

[Louis]

70's for me.

You had Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Sylvester Stallone, Christopher Reeves, Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Sally Field, Meryl Streep, Jodie Foster, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Ingrid Bergman, Linda Blair, etc all making arguably the best films of their careers.

You've got Godfather, One Floew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Chinatown, Apocalypse Now, Rocky, Superman, Jaws, Grease, French Connection, Taxi Driver, Annie Hall, Kramer V Kramer, Clockwork Orange, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Deer Hunter, Exorcist, MASH, Network, Star Wars, And Justice For All, Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, Scarecrow, The Conversation, The Sting, The Way We Were, Three Days of the Candor, The Great Gatsby, All The President's Men, Easy Rider, Slap Shot, Drowning Pool, High Plains Drifter, Outlaw Josey Wales, and Patton to name some of the best movies of the era.

 

[Pariah]

80's, but I think that probably has to do with a lot of sentimental value.

 

[Gaddabout]

The 90s. The indy revolution turned me onto film. It brought us a whole new generation of interesting directors like Tarantino, PT Anderson, Darren Arrenofsky, Spike Jonze, and Kevin Smith while breathing life into forgotten innovators from the 60s and 70s

For me, the 80s is utterly forgettable BECAUSE of the mess those huge franchises created for the industry. Everyone went looking for their own franchise to milk while tossing aside the little films. Meanwhile, it gave rise to the teenage demographic as the driving force behind the movie industry -- hyperfocus I mean -- and every studio was trying to reinvent the John Hughes formula. IRRITATING I should know. I was a teenager in the 80s and I've hated almost every film Hughes has made. (Breakfast Club was his best;Weird Science was curious). I wish Cameron Crowe had been more active. Say Anything is the best 80s film most people don't remember.

The 70s was interesting because so many directors were giving studios the middle finger. I just can't think of many movies that had a great personal impact on me. Chinatown was awesome. Raging Bull was amazing. After that, it becomes more of an appreciation of the art rather than being fully, emotionally engaged in those stories. (Star Wars aside, though, because I saw that DURING the 70s, and I was a star-struck grade school kid).

 

[Gaddabout]

Not even close... easily the '80's! And, you missed the three most impactful/influential '80's flicks of all:

- St. Elmo's Fire

I consider this dog of a movie to be the best example of everything wrong with 80s cinema. No offense, but the only impact I recall it making was the number of careers it nearly killed. The canned melodrama was only outdone by its 90s cousin, Reality Bites.

 

[Chaplin]

I have to go with the 50s.

Seven Samurai
The Bicycle Thief
Vertigo
Rear Window
North by Northwest
Ben-Hur
Bridge on the River Kwai
On the Waterfront
All About Eve
Singin' in the Rain
12 Angry Men
The Third Man
The Searchers
Rebel Without a Cause
Sunset Boulevard
Some Like it Hot
The Seventh Seal
Touch of Evil
Strangers on a Train
Ten Commandments
Asphalt Jungle
High Noon
The Quiet Man
The African Queen
Streetcar Named Desire
East of Eden
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Cinderella
Paths of Glory
Rashomon
The Caine Mutiny
Ikiru
La Strada

That's one hell of a list of classic movies.

 

[Gaddabout]

I have to go with the 50s.

Seven Samurai
The Bicycle Thief
Vertigo
Rear Window
North by Northwest
Ben-Hur
Bridge on the River Kwai
On the Waterfront
All About Eve
Singin' in the Rain
12 Angry Men
The Third Man
The Searchers
Rebel Without a Cause
Sunset Boulevard
Some Like it Hot
The Seventh Seal
Touch of Evil
Strangers on a Train
Ten Commandments
Asphalt Jungle
High Noon
The Quiet Man
The African Queen
Streetcar Named Desire
East of Eden
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Cinderella
Paths of Glory
Rashomon
The Caine Mutiny
Ikiru
La Strada

That's one hell of a list of classic movies.

Great list, and one I would expect from a true cinema fanatic such as yourself.

I've always tripped over the 40s and 50s acting style, which was definitely a style all its own before movies started adopting more realism. It's a hurdle I think those movies have to clear to sustain their legacy.

OTOH, movies like 12 Angry Men translate so well at a base level, it's hard not to get caught up in it.

 

[Cheesebeef]

I consider this dog of a movie to be the best example of everything wrong with 80s cinema. No offense, but the only impact I recall it making was the number of careers it nearly killed. The canned melodrama was only outdone by its 90s cousin, Reality Bites.

i agree with you on this one. Elmo's was creeeeeaaaapola. the beginning of what you were talking about trying to just throw a whole bunch of Brat Packers together and hoping whatever they threw at the wall would stick.

 

[Cheesebeef]

I was a teenager in the 80s and I've hated almost every film Hughes has made. (Breakfast Club was his best;Weird Science was curious).

Gad, have you no soul?

 

[Heucrazy]

John Hughes/High School Comedies:
Mr. Mom
Sixteen Candles
Breakfast Club
Weird Science
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Better Off Dead
Fast Times At Ridgemont High

Raunchy Comedy:
Police Academy
Porky’s
Revenge of The Nerds
Risky Business



It's impossible to argue with the above lists.

 

[82CardsGrad]

i agree with you on this one. Elmo's was creeeeeaaaapola. the beginning of what you were talking about trying to just throw a whole bunch of Brat Packers together and hoping whatever they threw at the wall would stick.

Guys - FWIW, the cinematic value and quality of acting in St. Elmo's in not even up for debate... it sucked! That said, it was a quintessential 80's flick - that's why I put it up there...

Same goes for this 80's treasure!!!!

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[Renz]

The '80's for me as well. Off the top of my head, I'd also add two of my favorites; John Carpenter's The Thing and Big Trouble in Little China.

 

[Cheesebeef]

just wanted to say that my list is nowhere near the exhaustive list of my favorites. I just couldn't remember a longer list of truly great popcorn flicks that left people walking out of a theater with just huge smiles across their faces.

trust me, Big Trouble In Little China, They Live, Killer Klowns From Outer Space and, probably a ton more were the "off-beat" classics as well. They just didn't fit into what I was talking about.

I actually think that while the 80's were the greatest decade for pure popcorn films, I don't find it to be all that strong as far as dramas go. I mean, it had Raging Bull, Platoon, Wall Street and I'm sure a long list of others, but Spielberg was still in an in between phase, Marty was all coked out, Kubrick made a brilliant HALF of a film with Full Metal Jacket, Coppola kind of fell off the face of the earth. There's just not a lot of serious films that jump out at me from that period, as opposed to the 90's or 70's/late 60's.

 

[82CardsGrad]

Guys - FWIW, the cinematic value and quality of acting in St. Elmo's in not even up for debate... it sucked! That said, it was a quintessential 80's flick - that's why I put it up there...

Same goes for this 80's treasure!!!!

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