Science Fiction 1980 - 1989

[The Mad Plumber]

There is a project I would like to begin planning for and, hopefully, I should be able to start doing labor on it during work breaks next year. The theme of the project would be science fiction films from 1980 to 1989. Obvious choices would include The Empire Strikes Back, The Wrath of Khan, RoboCop, Predator, Ghostbusters, The Terminator, Back to the Future, Aliens, and Return of the Jedi.

Conveniently, I have found the Starlog I picked up back in 2002. The issue was dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the George Lucas space opera. The general content of this issue are two-page spreads allotted to each year from 1977 to 2002 (or rather 2002 up to the magazine's print). Each spread features screenshots or production photographs of films from that year with a small caption about the film. Also, Starlog dubbed certain films "Movie of the Year"; titles that earned this include Raiders of the Lost Ark, Batman, and Toy Story (1983 inexplicably lacks a "movie of the year"). Finding this magazine is convenient because it gives me an easy reference in regards to science fiction films within the 1980 to 1989 timeframe.

However, I can notice a problem with this issue already. I can name one omission of the top of my head that would be a good source for my project: the 1984 film Iceman. I also noted in another thread that Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie wasn't mentioned in this issue (though it's not really a stellar film in my opinion anyway).

The magazine provides a number of titles for each year. 1982 seems to have been a particularly very good year for science fiction: The Wrath of Khan, Tron, ET, The Road Warrior, Blade Runner, and The Thing. However, two years I'm having trouble with are 1981 and 1989. In regards to 1981, I have seen Superman II once, but I don't think I found it too stellar then. I haven't seen Escape from New York and Raiders falls out of the genre I intend for this project. In regards to 1989, Starlog dubbed Batman "Movie of the Year", but Bats is very much outside the genre of the project. The closest contender for 1989 is The Abyss, which I will admit is a good film, but I'm not really in love with it which I guess is why I don't own a copy of it.

So, I would appreciate feedback in regards to exceptional titles within the frame of 1980 to 1989. Thank you.

[GProopdog]

1989 had DeepStar Six, Cyborg, Leviathan, Millennium, Star Trek V, and Slipstream.

While two of these movies had twinges of horror in them (DeepStar Six and Leviathan), and one had elements of an action film in it (Cyborg), there *are* enough elements of science fiction that you can consider them sci-fi.

[The Mad Plumber]

Wait a minute. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure is listed under Starlog's 1988 spread, but IMDB lists it as a 1989 film. What's going on here? Furthermore, why does IMDB call Earth Girls Are Easy a 1988 film and still lists its release date as 1989? If this is the case, I won't have that hard of a time covering the span of 1980 to 1989.

I might have seen parts of Millennium a long time ago and I've always wanted to check it out again. I'll have to give it some thought, though it is one of those films that time seems to have forgotten.

[TheNewMads]

Stab in the dark re: release dates, but I know some publications like to go with the year of completion rather than the year of release (which is why once in a blue moon i've seen the original Star Wars cited as 1976, which always used to give me a double-take).

80s sci-fi that made a big impression on me were some of the Omega-Man last-one-standing type movies like "The Quiet Earth" (which I love, but is best watched with a heaping helping of quaaludes, as it is quite melloooowwww) and "Night of the Comet" (although, having loved it in high school, seeing it again as a grownup, I thought it was a little overrated). Also "Prince of Darkness," which i've always thought of as a horror/sci-fi crossover. All these flicks strike me as a little more high concept than something like "Earth Girls," which I think of as a (painful) comedy with a thin spray coating of sci-fi, or something like Superman II, which is mainly a (fantastic) action movie, really, with, again, a perfunctory sci-fi aspect to it. The original Terminator strikes me as more of a solid action/sci-fi crossover.

[TheNewMads]

Nov 10, 2012 20:56:51 GMT -5 The Mad Plumber said:

(1983 inexplicably lacks a "movie of the year").

By the by, perusing the IMDB listings for 1983 i'm struck by two great movies where there's an interesting debate to be had re: whether they count as sci-fi or not are "WarGames" (which I think was mainly meant as quasi-realistic speculation but some of the AI notions in that movie are a bit fantastical) and "Videodrome," which is just so mindbending I'm not sure it could properly be described as a genre at all.

if I owned a video shop i'd probably put WarGames in drama or thriller and Videodrome in sci-fi or horror but those are both movies that are kinda complicated in terms of genre.

1983, generally, seemed a bit weak in terms of movies. Kinda an excess of "Private Tutor" type sex comedies that year.

[TheNewMads]

oo! who remembers 1980's "The Final Countdown" (the high-tech USS Nimitz falls through a wormhole into 1941 on the eve of Pearl Harbor)? Another one where, is it a sci-fi movie, or is it a war movie using sci-fi as an excuse to pit modern jet fighters against japanese zeroes? Loved it as a kid, I haven't seen it in decades so i couldn't tell you if it holds up.

another 1980 entry in a campier vein: "Meteor," about a five-mile-wide meteor that threatens to destroy Phoenix, Arizona (and for some reason this is seen as something that ought to be prevented). the US and USSR, who have both secretly established orbital ICBM platforms, set aside their differences to use the missiles to try and destroy the meteor before it strikes. This was a favorite for me in college, me and my roommate used to hang around on saturday night and chuckle at it while everyone was out getting laid. I'm surprised i don't own this one on Blu-Ray, but the real question is: sci-fi? or disaster movie? again, the rules get a little weird here. Meteor is a pretty bad movie, but compared to Armageddon it's Oscar-worthy.

(all-star casts in both of these, by the way, kinda a hangover from the '70s star-studded extravaganzas that anyone who's familiar with the KTMA film library will recognize. "Meteor," in particular, I think would make a great Rifftrax. Lots of fodder in that one.)

EDIT: turns out IMDB has Meteor as 1979. I could have sworn it was 1980, and am actually wondering if IMDB might be wrong.