And that’s just the B’s. Strange alphabetical anomalies aside, a solid year in the heart of the decade. I still remember first seeing Back to the Future and leaving the theater in awe at how much fun I had. And as you know from the infamous Episode 0 of the SMC Podcast, this movie holds up as one of best time travel movies ever (the best, according to our very own Vin). Since we are at the halfway point of the magnificently ridiculous 80s, it’s only fitting that we get two of the films that have always defined the time period for me. I think of teen movies, not just because there were so many of them, but because they represented a bigger cultural shift. The Breakfast Club is not the best of these films or even John Hughes’s best, but it captures that mood perfectly. And Better Off Dead captures the other aspect of movies from that time: their quirkiness. It was this perfect storm of the free-thinking rebel mindset of the 70s and the looming corporatization of the 90s. You had a studio system that was relying on these non-establishment filmmakers and the results were offbeat, subtly subversive, and most importantly, interesting. Which are rather fitting adjectives for Terry Gilliam, and then some.
Ok, I watched Brazil last night just for this post because it had been years since I’d last seen it and I wanted to make sure I remembered it correctly. I didn’t. It wasn’t nearly as weird and confusing and “Gilliam-esque” as popular opinion holds it. It was actually very linear with a tight, controlled narrative and I don’t understand why so many people claim to have a difficult time following the story. Yes, it was better than I remembered and one of the best science-fiction films ever made.
Winner: Brazil
Notes: This was the year of me and Chuck Norris. Invasion U.S.A. and Missing in Action 2: The Beginning. God, I was a little tool back then...I haven’t seen Young Sherlock Holmes since it came out, but I remember it having some really cool effects for the time. Anyone seen it recently?...Overall, though, this was a fun year at the movies with The Goonies, Weird Science, Teen Wolf, Real Genius, and even bad movies like The Last Dragon. If I miss anything from this time, it’s that innocent goofiness. Damn you, 90s and your hipster cynicism.
No comments:
Post a Comment