Sarcazmo's favorite movies of the year 1980's.

1980: The Shining. The Shinings stock has gone down a bit over the years, mainly due to the end where Shelley Duvall is running around the hotel and seeing hallucinations. The skeletons are kinda cheesy. Maybe skeletons were scary in 1980, but in 2010, not so much.  The movie still looks fantastic though. Sorry, Empire Strikes Back and Superman 2, but The Shining was better.

1981: Raiders of the Lost Arc. 1981 not a great year for movies. Raiders still holds up, not too many flaws in this movie. Great ending.

1982 : The Thing. (Sorry Blade Runner) Rewatch value off the charts. Effects ahead of their time. The blood testing scene is so smart.....Example: Keith Davids character is cleared of contamination, yet he is still tied when they begin testing the next guys blood....Keith is like "get me the f%$k out of this chair", that is such a realistic reaction.  One of my pet peeves is when horror movies take 50 minutes for the lead characters to realize what is going on....drives me nuts and is a waste of time. The characters in The Thing immediately know whats up. Maybe the BEST ENDING OF ALL TIME. Yeah I said it.

1983: Trading Places. Beats out Octopussy, Nation Lampoon's Vacation, Mr.Mom, and the extremely overrated Scarface. It was really Vacation or this. Eddies's great though. Maybe the worst year for movies ever, it was tough choosing quite frankly.

1984: Ghostbusters. If 1984 isnt the greatest year for movies ever, I dont know what is. I have watched Ghostbusters so many times, I can almost recite it line for line. Bill Murray steals the movie.

1985: Fright Night. Great story, perfect cast. This is a horror movie that doesnt insult its audience. You care for all the characters, even the bad ones. Just well done on every level. As far as vampire movies go, it may be the best ever.

1986: The Color of Money. The reason I like this movie... its simple. Newman and Cruise go on the road and play/hustle pool for money....cut and dry. Theres no drug dealers hot on their tale, nobody dies, nobody has a drug or alcohol problem, no one gets cancer. They play pool the whole movie and thats it. Movies today feel the need to provide antagonist after antagonist to keep the audience excited. Money keeps things simple. I felt the same way about Sideways, people just going on a road trip to drink wine, then it got stupid. Money doesnt make that mistake. Paul Newman is a great looking man, I can say that and feel good about myself. He didnt deserve the Oscar though. Any other year, Platoon and you're the best movie of that year.

1987: Angel Heart. 1. Mickey Rourke should have gotten an Oscar nomination. 2. Caz's 2nd favorite movie ever. 3. Most of you who watch this will not like it. 4. A sex scene to end all sex scenes. 5. Underrated scariness. 6. A cheesy effect at the end of the movie still cant bring it down. 7. Robert De Niro owns. P.S. Predator deserves mention here as 2nd best. Fantastic year for movies.

1988: A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. The stock for this movie is skyrocketing. I wll take alot of heat for this choice, but this movie has too much of what I like. Its not too often that a soundtrack steals the show (The Crow, The Lost Boys, Singles), but the soundtrack here is underserving of a 4th entry in a horror franchise. Billy Idol, Sinead O'Connor, Dramarama, and a pre "I Touch Myself" Divinyls. The movie is vibrant, tons of colors. The characters are smart, no one has sex, no one does drugs...Freddy kills people that dont deserve to die. Theres a kill every 5 to 10 minutes. The movie theater sequence, the time warp, the cockroach sequence all quality stuff. If only Patricia Arquette had reprised her role from Nightmare 3. Can Sarcazmo's Funhouse turn this movie into a cult classic? Caz is going to try.

1989: Dream a Little Dream. Another movie with a great soundtrack, another movie that will become a cult classic.  The most difficult choice of the decade. Dream beats out Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Lethal Weapon 2. In a fantasy world, Corey Feldman would have been nominated for an Oscar for this movie...but only in a fantasy world...I mean a world where pigs fly, theres caramel lakes, and unicorns exist, etc. This movie has alot of heart. The performances are great. The music works really well. A total failure upon its initial release, the last of the good two Corey movies.