Top Ten Lists of Eighties Movies

The concept is pretty easily, pick your ten favorite movies from the eighties. The hard part? I want JUST movies from the eighties, not movies you might have seen during the eighties. Also, try and avoid movies that came out after the eighties if possible, 1990 is pretty borderline, I won't scream too loudly if you add one that is from then...

This page currently edited by: Gwen. Past editor: Junior

By: Joel
saw a lot of lists but did not see most of these films on anybody's. i am the great equalizer...i guess.
By: Liana
  • 10. Say Anything
    Diane's father shouldn't have made her break up wirh John Cuzack who would want to. that was really messed up of him to do that
  • 9. The Lost Boys
    Corey Haim is sooo hot in this movie i wonder what it would be like if vampires were real.if they were i would just follow all the steps that they followed
  • 8. Footloose
    I just love this movie i can't believe they couldn't dance in this movie
  • 7. Stand By Me
    River Pheonix is soo hot in this movie but it's kinda sad at the end when they pretend that he died but it turns out he really did
  • 6. The Goonies
    If i really found a map that would go to a cave i would get the gold and make money out of it. or i would just collect them. and make them my collection.
  • 5. Back To The Future 1,2,3
    It would be sooo cool if i went back in time and tried to make my mom fall in love again. but screw biff .
  • 4. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
    I wish i had all those gadgets like he did. so that i could skip school. but it would be annoying with mr. roonie trying to get me. Cameron is my favorite character in this movie
  • 3. Dream A Little Dream
    Corey Feldmen is soooo hoootttt in this movie. I wish he could try to get me to fall in love with him like he did with lainie.
  • 2. Sixteen Candles
    I would love it if i got a boyfriend like that at the end of this movie.(him picking me up at my sis's wedding and bringing me to his house.
  • 1. The Breakfast Club
    I alawys wanted detention to be like that dancing in the library, almost getting caught and falling in love.
I love the 80's i think that it was a special time i wish i could go back in time and see wats it was like
By: Travis
hard list to make!
By: Mary
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  • 10. Lost Boys
    Cheesy? Yes. Scary? Somewhat. Worth the hour and forty minutes? DEFINETLY. Awesome cast, very sexy(especially Kiefer Sutherland in all that black)and the perfect movie to see with your signifigant other. "Santa Carla, the murder capital of the world"
  • 9. Footloose
    Every time I see this movie I always want to jump up and dance, the movie has another great soundtrack from the 80s.
  • 8. Ghostbusters
    I LOVE anything with Bill Murray, he made this movie so awesome. You know the part where all the Ghostbusters are in the hotel and Peter Venkman pulls the tablecloth off the table, that was improvised. Good movie to watch around Halloween. "He slimed me"
  • 7. Back to the Future
    I'm pretty sure this was the first 80's movies I ever saw, though I didn't know that at the time. Great Huey song and funny idea, defiently worth the time. "You built a time machine, out of a DoLearon?!!"
  • 6. Breakfast Club
    This movie just missed the top five. Still awesome 20 years later, still able to identify with it. First brat pack movie I saw, and really made me think about high school sterotypes. "Does Barry Manilow know you raid his wardrobe?"
  • 5. Rain Man
    LOVE this flick. I'm somewhat autistic and it makes me laugh. No words to describe why I love it. "Gotta go to K-Mart, 400 Oak Street.
  • 4. The Karate Kid
    I'm in a form of martial arts so it's only natural I love this flick. Me and my brothers constantly quote it and it drives my sister crazy. Classic.
  • 3. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
    I cracked up so much when I first saw this movie that my dad had to tell me to shut up. I only watch this movie when I'm feeling down, it's good therapy. Doesn't everyone wish they could have one awesome day like that? "Pardon my French, but Cameron is so tight if you stuck a lump of coal up his a## in two weeks you'd have a diamond.
  • 2. Pretty in Pink
    I'm such a romantic when I'm in the right mood and ladies, you can't deny you loved Andrew McCarthy. So cute.
  • 1. Top Gun
    Tom Cruise and his buddies playing beach volleyball shirtless. Need I say more? For those of you who need more, there's the rockin' soundtrack, excellent photography, and the cast was either in or on the brink of stardom. This flick is responsible for getting me obbsessed with the 80's. "We were, communciating, keeping up foreign realations, you know, giving him the bird!" Awesome.
I love just about any 80s movie I see, but there's lots I haven't seen yet. Honorable nods to Goonies (which would be 11) Risky Business (Joel, every now and then say what the f***) License to Drive, Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, Vision Quest (another movie with a great soundtrack) The Outsiders, Rumble Fish, St. Elmo's Fire, Firestarter, and any other flick I love but have left out on accident.
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  • 10. Goonies
  • 9. Dirty Dancing
  • 8. The Labrynth (can't spell this morning)
    need I say more?
  • 7. St. Elmo's Fire
  • 6. Mary Poppins
  • 5. Can't Buy Me Love
    Still love this one to death...
  • 4. The Dark Crystal
    I think this was late 80's...pretty cool flick though.
  • 3. The Last Unicorn
    This is a movie that I still love to watch...I can't believe that at such a young age, I loved it so much. It's pretty adult content.
  • 2. 16 Candles
    Who doesn't love this movie?
  • 1. Dance 'till Dawn
    This movies is so cliche, however, I still can't get enough of it and it is hard to find. Huge cast and completely representative of 80's films.
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Honarable Mention, Return of The Living Dead, Strange Brew, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
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  • 10. Platoon
    One of the best war movies ever made. It was tough between Platoon and Full Metal Jacket.
  • 9. Fast Times at Ridgemont High
    Phoebe Cates out of the swimming pool. enough said.
  • 8. Back to the Future
    Great series, Michael J Fox was perfect for this role and I wish him luck towards finding a cure.
  • 7. Rambo First Blood Part Two
    One of my all time favorite movies. Nobody cooler than Stallone!
  • 6. WarGames
    "Do you want to play a game?" The threat of nukes in the eighties made us all scared
  • 5. Airplane
    "Surly you can't be serious?" "I am serious and don't call me shirley." The best one liners in any film hands down!!!!!!!!!
  • 4. Empire Stikes Back
    I was never a big StarWars fan but i remember wanting a light saber
  • 3. Top Gun
    The only Tom Cruise movie I like, but it was very popular at the time
  • 2. Raiders of the Lost Ark
    The begining of the Indiana Jones series. "Snakes, I hate Snakes!"
  • 1. E.T.
    228 million dollars at the box office? Who Didn't love the little alien?
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  • 10. Top Gun
    Tom Cruise - nothing more to say.
  • 9. St. Elmo's Fire
    Still get goosebumps when I hear the theme song.
  • 8. Adventures in Babysitting
    Why I started babysitting.
  • 7. National Lampoon's Vacations
    Have to say that European Vacation was the best.
  • 6. The Breakfast Club
    I didn't even know what "hot beef injection" meant back then so it didn't seem strange to quote this line - in front of my parents!
  • 5. Say Anything
    I want a Loyd!!!
  • 4. The Goonies
    Where are movies like these?
  • 3. Sixteen Candles
    Why did Jake look like he was 30 in this movie? Totally didn't care. I was 10 and wanted him!!
  • 2. Can't Buy Me Love
    "You sh*t on my house"
  • 1. Pretty in Pink
    John Hughes' films ruled the 80s - this was by far my fave!!!
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  • 10. Time Bandits
    The most zaniest and wonderful movie I had seen until that time.
  • 9. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
    E.T. phone home...loved this movie. I still get tears when E.T. "dies"
  • 8. A Fish Called Wanda
    I will still stop what I'm doing when I see this movie when surfing channels. Kevin Kline was so nastily fun.
  • 7. Aliens
    Wow! After making a great film with The Terminator, James Cameron was able to make a sequel that was as good as the original film Alien.
  • 6. Terms of Endearment
    This film had some of the best writing, directing and acting.
  • 5. An Office and a Gentleman
    The best romance film of the decade.
  • 4. Top Gun
    Yummm!! The guys in this movie were stellar.
  • 3. The Terminator
    This was such an 80's cool movie. So many quotes came from this film.
  • 2. The Color Purple
    What an amazing film by Steven Speilberg. Whoopi Goldberg was so good in this movie.
  • 1. The Big Chill
    Great music, great cast. This movie had a nice rythym and flow throughout from beginning to end.
This was the first and last decade where I actually went to see a movie at least 3 times a month. There are so many great films in this period. It was fun to narrow down to a "top 10".
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  • 10. Starman
    Jeff Bridges with a wonderful performance, and Karen Allen's Jenny Hayden is markedly different than Marion from "Raiders", a sign of great range as an actor. Carpenter had just completed "The Thing", about a creature that absorbs everything and anything it comes into contact with on Earth. Here the creature is peaceful, and it's the humans that want to destroy it.
  • 9. The Thing
    In addition to being a very claustrophic film with great effects that features an eerie score by the great Ennio Morricone, Kurt Russel also sports a beard that took him over a year to grow and, quite frankly, is another character in the film all by itself!
  • 8. Let it Ride
    Dreyfuss' Jay Trotter is having a VERY good day at the track. Look for hilarious supporting appearances by Jennifer Tilly and Terri Garr.
  • 7. Ghostbusters
    Murray, Ackroyd, Ramis, and director Ivan Reitman at the absolute zenith of their careers. Virtually EVERY line is a classic. Don't forget Rick Moranis, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts and, in an inspired performance, Sigourney Weaver.
  • 6. Back to the Future
    We all know how great Michael J. Fox is, but how 'bout Christopher Lloyd as Doc? A great ride from beginning to end.
  • 5. Beverly Hills Cop
    And think! This film was originally supposed to be a vehicle for Stallone.
  • 4. Trading Places
    This movie unites three guys with a true sense of comic genius: Eddie Murphy, Dan Ackroyd, and director John Landis. Hilarious from beginning to end, we even get to see Jamie Lee Curtis topless!
  • 3. First Blood
    I HATE how people think this movie has Rambo in it's title. It's great that it doesn't, because this movie is simply on another plane of existence from it's ridiculous sequels. Stallone is fantastic as Rambo in a wonderful physical performance. Richard Crenna does great work as Troutman, but it's Brian Dennehy who really shines as sheriff Will Teasle. He's utterly believable as a man who, right or wrong, is dead-set on killing Rambo. Rocky is certainly Stallone's best film and performance. This film is 2nd in both regards.
  • 2. E.T.
    When I first saw this in a packed theater, there REALLY wasn't a dry eye in the house when E.T. was dying. As I've gotten older I've sometimes thought of that as ridiculous. However, the power of this film is best understood by watching it ALL THE WAY THROUGH, and letting it draw you into it's world. When you do that Spielberg's expertise in storytelling, aided by the modern day Mozart John Williams, takes you on a journey that's exciting, funny, sad, and powerful
  • 1. Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom
    My favorite 80's film. I can't understand why Spielberg is so downtrodden about this film in interviews because it's great entertainment! You've got Indy, Short Round, John Williams on the score, and of course Kate Capshaw as Willie Scott, who is far and away my favorite female character in a film; feminine but tough, feisty, and strikingly beautiful, she's a vision in this film.
Certainly there are MANY other films that were omitted. Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Wargames, Wall Street, Platoon, Rain Man, Stripes, Caddyshack, National Lampoon's Vacation, Fletch, The Verdict, and Raising Arizona are just a few titles that weren't included. The decade was a curious mix of films that still had their souls rooted in the ideals of 70's film and others that were clearly on full throttle OUT of the 70's and toward the 90's. This is just an UN-scientific compilation of a quick list of my favorite 10 films from the 80's.

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