Lifetime Movies: 1981

Nominees: The Evil Dead, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Time Bandits

The Evil Dead deserves recognition here for no other reason than it brought the world Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi. It's a no-budget, DIY masterpiece and grade-A certified cult classic. Overshadowed by its sequel/remake, Evil Dead II, it holds up remarkably well as a stand alone horror film. Of course, I didn't see it until well after the fact, unlike Time Bandits, which by mom took me to see for some reason. First and foremost, it's very funny and I actually found it hysterical as a kid despite probably missing a good many jokes. I won't argue this is Terry Gilliam's best film (at least I won't argue here), but it may be the one that best captures his comedic sensibility and fantastical vision in one package. Ok, I have to admit, there really isn't much of a competition here. Raiders is one of my favorite movies of all time, the first film I owned on VHS, and maybe the purest example of "movie magic" we have. Easy pick.

Winner: Raiders of the Lost Ark

Notes: There are a lot of very good movies here across the board: comedies (Bill Murray in Ivan Reitman's Stripes & Mel Brooks' History of the World: Part I), family action (still the best Man of Steel movie ever made, Superman II & the stop motion epic of which I had the metal lunchbox and all the action figures including the Kraken, Clash of the Titans), adult action (John Carpenter's Escape from New York & George Miller's high octane Mad Max sequel, The Road Warrior, which has one of the greatest chase scenes ever filmed) and a sci-fi horror classic from the man who defines the genre, David Cronenberg (Scanners). Not to mention a Disney favorite of mine (The Fox and the Hound) and yes, The Great Muppet Caper (shut-up, Vin).

One more that I have to mention is a personal favorite, The Cannonball Run. It's just pure fun, one of those zany all-star cast extravaganzas Hollywood used to do so well, with Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise, who at their comedic best rival Wilder/Pryor in this time period; Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.; Farrah Fawcett; Roger Moore, Jackie Chan; Adrienne Barbeau; Terry Bradshaw, and Jamie Farr. Now that's a movie that should have had action figures.