chasm

Ah the 80's!

1. Indiana Jones (any of 'em)
2. Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back
3. Top Gun

Now in reality, from that list I have only actually seen Star Wars in full, so laugh your ass off at that.

I prefer to watch "Planes, Trains, & Automobiles", "When Harry Met Sally" and the like. But they dont necessarily define the 80's.

I was afraid I wouldn't be able to come up with three but, I ended up having to cut the list down:

1. Rain Man -The first movie sex scene I ever saw,and one of Dustin Hoffmans best roles ever.
2.Good Morning Vietnam
3.The Princess Bride. Absolutly hilarious, and some of the best movie quotes from the 80's. Plus Andre the Giant... nuff said.

you and your 80s movies-- fiiiiine, i'll struggle to come up with three aboslute must sees.....

1) A Christmas Story -- if anyone says they haven't seen this, I will hunt you down and call
you a liar.

2) Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back -- "I am your father." Possibly one of the most memorable movie quotes of all time came from this flick.

3) I will forfeit my third pick at this time, because (and I may be alone on this one) I am not impressed with _most_ of the "classic" movies of the eighties. If I had to pick, I'd throw it up to Top Gun... At least I've seen it, Jon-- :-)

And I might add-- I was VERY close to choosing Terminator-- but c'mon, Judgement Day was wayyy cooler. right?!?

Side note: Tom, I like the narrow scope of the poll. I think a series of these will yield some good debates. NICE!

Christmas story is the worst movie ever. Whether it defines the 80s or not it is hard to watch.
Three men and a baby
Can't Buy me Love
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Goonies

Sorry had to do four.

I've seen Three Men & A Baby, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and Can't Buy Me Love-- and only Ferris Bueller comes close to being a MUST SEE. :-)

I'm at a total loss of how to narrow this down to just three movies. Indiana Jones, Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back and Top Gun are all classics in my book.

Rain Man and The Princess Bride, absolutely (I never saw the greatness of Good Morning Vietnam but maybe I'll watch it again just to make sure).

A Christmas Story, yeah, probably. I don't particularly enjoy it but it's certainly a classic.

Can't Buy Me Love, Ferris Beuller's Day Off and Goonies are certainly 80's classics although I have no idea (seriously, NO IDEA) how Karen included Three Men and a Baby in her list.

To make this a bit easier on myself, I'm constraining myself to 80's movies that typify the 80's rather than just movies that were made in the 80's and have stood the test of time but have nothing to do with the 80's.

For example, Indiana Jones is more of a period piece so that's out. The Princess Bride takes place mostly in a fantasy world so I'll pass on that as well. Same with Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back.

SO, here it is ... when I think of movies in the 80's and "classics" this is what enters my mind.

Goonies
Ferris Beuller's Day Off
okay, now I'm going to cheat (big time) for a multi-way tie for third ...
Top Gun
Molly Ringwald's Big Three (The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink and Sixteen Candles)
The Karate Kid
Gremlins
Rain Man

and, yes, I really did try to limit myself. I basically said to myself, alright if I thought MOST people that lived through the 80's would have said, "Of course I've seen that. Hasn't everybody?" then I kept it on the list.

I mean, who doesn't know what a Gremlin is or who Maverick and Goose are? Who doesn't know someone who has called someone else Rain Man? We all know how to wax-on and wax-off thanks to Mr. Miyagi and if you know Molly Ringwald, you know at least one of her big three, right?

Everybody knows what a Goonie is and there's only one Ferris. That's my list.

I don't think I can really beat your list Tom. You made so many compelling points :)

I think its nuts that one would mock A Christmas Story, which is a glorious glorious film, and in the same posting, list Three Men and a Baby. I whoeleartedly agree that I have no idea where that came from either ;) But, I still do love you Karen. Too bad Babe didn't take place in the 80s, huh???

The Neverending Story- It might be a personal thing,but when I think back to what I grew up watching back then, this certainly topped the list. I must have seen it over 30 times.

Dirty Dancing- enough said.

The Goonies- I loved this movie and was so jealous that I didn't have friends like that crew. "Heeeey you guuuuys." :) Sorry, had to add that in...

Tom, I think you should do a poll on music sometime soon!

Ohhh, man, how could I forget The Neverending Story?!? I totally watched that like 50 times. Good call.

It's highly unlikely that I will ever declare a movie a classic if it has "dancing" in the title or even as a general theme :-)

I'll keep the music request in mind.

But dude. What about Flashdance?

Or Footloose? Which, as you know, was all about dancing. Mm mm, Kevin Bacon, tight pants. What more could you ask for???

Hahaha, okay, okay ... I'll go kinda-classic for both of those.

I completely agree with Neverending Story

The funniest thing about this poll that besides me most of you spent the begginning of the 80's in diapers. What do any of you know about movies that defined the 80's none of you were old enough to understand the 80's. At least I was already 7 when the 80's began and 16/17 when they ended. The 80's movies that you all picked; I bet most of you did not even see those movies until the 90's. I know Karen did not even see some those movies until after the turn of the century. Explain to me how The Neverending Story defined the 80's. It defined JACK****, it might have been the most boring movie ever created. Yes most of the movies on everybody's list I really enjoyed, but besides TOP GUN none of those movies defined anything except pure enjoyment. As for the movies that defined the 80's:

1.Risky Business
2.Platoon
3.Top Gun
4.Blue Brothers

The movie that really defined the 80's was made in 1993 - Philadelphia - 80's a decade of Sexually transmitted diseases!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111

PLease do not take offense to my post, I am not feeling very well today.

Alright, alright ... no offense taken (although, you shit on The Neverending Story again and we're SO cage-fighting :-)

I actually had Risky Business on my list but took it off because, other than that Tom-Cruise-in-his-briefs scene, a lot of the people I know don't know that movie. (It's the same thing as Coctail - another one of my favorites. Without the scenes where they toss bottles of alcohol as they bartend, not that many people know the movie.)

Platoon is a period piece, isn't it? (I've already explained my take on those.)

I assume you mean the BlueS Brothers and not the Blue Brothers. While it enjoys cult status, I'm not sure it's a mainstream classic.

The funny thing is that out of Tom's list, I never saw Goonies, Top Gun (to completion), Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, the Karate Kid, or Gremlins. I feel so left out.

Man, there's so much to choose from here. I'm really not sure. First off, definitely:

1) Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Classic in every sense of the word. Along those lines:

2) Back to the Future
No arguing.

Three is tougher. I'm going to cast my vote for:
3) Full Metal Jacket.
It doesn't typify 80s movies as much, but ti's certainly a classic. Any movie with R. Lee Ermey shouting, "Pvt. Joker you better unfuck yourself before I unscrew your head and shit down your neck!" gets an A in my book.

First of all I would like to apologize to all the chasm bloggers for taking so damn long in my response.

Now for my picks:
1) The Ghost Busters (any and all) because everyone knows who slimer is and everyone knows the answer to "Who ya gonna call?"
2) Revnege of the Nerds simply because who hasn't seen it and the eighties where probably the last decade in which people actually took offense to being called a nerd.
3) Rocky IV because this movie represented the widespread nationalism in the country during the eighties. And like the movie the US won...that's right FUCK OFF RUSSIA!!