Starring Willie Nelson and Gary Busey, Barbarosa is a stuffy, 60s spagetti western style movie made to idolise a fictional outlaw who goes around Mexico robbing people by gunpoint.
The thing is, I’ve never quite understood westerns – and the stuffy Barbarosa really can’t convince me otherwise.
80s-o-meter: 7%
Total: 15%
Val Kilmer’s always wise cracking – but never exactly laugh-out-loud funny – character is at hard to stomach for the first 30 minutes, but as soon as the movie introduces an actual plot, Real Genius becomes interesting enough to watch for the remaining 45 minutes.
The movie kind of tries something new, but the theme was already better handled one year earlier in Revenge of the Nerds (1984)
80s-o-meter: 84%
Total: 63%
The relationship of Nicholson and Jessica Lange in this 1981 remake of the 1946 original movie is one of the most intensive ones ever seen on the silver screen, making everything else in the movie seem sluggish and tedious in comparison.
80s-o-meter: 8%
Total: 58%
The elements for a really different, superb dark comedy are there, but as the Parents progresses slowly towards the one hour mark, it becomes troublingly apparent that the movie will not progress beyond its premise.
80s-o-meter: 70%
Total: 60%
On a Golden Pond convincingly builds up a captivating sitting on top of a powder keg’ kind of tension – that it then regrettably resolves in a much too trivial and meaningless way.
80s-o-meter: 40%
Total: 55%
A wolf masked killer returns to haunt a guy 20 years after killing his parents in a horror thriller that mostly seems stalled in an endless is it real or just a dream loop of bore.
80s-o-meter: 67%
Total: 38%
A sequel to the 1978 original, Return of the Killer Tomatoes manages to walk the tightrope of being silly and stupid to the extreme – without ending up just plain stupid.
80s-o-meter: 92%
Total: 90%
Woody Allen’s A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy is a short story in a naive, but honest, unbearably light-hearted summer night warm breeze kind of way.
80s-o-meter: 6%
Total: 78%
With a plot that could easily end up a tired one time joke, Killer Klowns from Outer Space wins our heart over for going an extra mile and a half with every single silly clowny detail
80s-o-meter: 90%
Total: 87%
One of those comedies without actual laughs, TWOE often balances tippy toes on the edge of being a failure, but the atmosphere and performances make it worth one’s while.
80s-o-meter: 82%
Total: 78%
The tale of brits setting up the trade base to Hong Kong is certainly interesting, but the effort to shoehorn the epic novel to 150 minutes is a case of few hits – and many misses.
80s-o-meter: 28%
Total: 58%
A very fictionalised take on the clash between Elliot Ness and Al Capone during the probation, The Untouchables has a number of iconic scenes that sum up to a great film.
80s-o-meter: 54%
Total: 92%
What on surface seems like a yet another teen vacation party movie, Fraternity Vacation has an actual – if extremely silly – plot and surprisingly lot of heart, soul and laughs in it.
80s-o-meter: 94%
Total: 88%
An anthology of B-grade horror spoof short movies that aren’t particularly funny, Deadtime Stories fails to make one laugh or scared.
80s-o-meter: 46%
Total: 23%
More of an experience than a movie, Xanadu is full of neon magic, great songs and good moments like Gene Kelly’s musical numbers – which unfortunately don’t make a good movie.
80s-o-meter: 80%
Total: 38%
Ah, Christopher Reeve. Don’t even think I didn’t notice how you casually exchanged a few words, climbed into that 1930’s Stearman plane, run it down the airstrip and took off towards the skies in one continuous shot.
The Aviator was for a Reeve his pet project he got to do between other roles and the part seems made for him with considering his flying hobby and the looks of the silent era movie star.
The movie took quite a literal downhill from the moment the plane crashed, and the challenges the script throw in their way don’t feel real nor menacing enough for any adult viewer, but it’s still interesting to see how they make it back to the civilisation.
80s-o-meter: 28%
Total: 61%