We’ve had a lot happen this week. A lot of new members, some fairly depressing news in the headlines. Thought it might be time to fire up my first “Best ever” thread. I reckon it’ll be of interest to most.
What are your favourite action films of the 1980s? I realise that picking one may be something of a stretch, so here’s three of my own to start with.
Die Hard (1988)
Spawned so many imitators and its own sequels. A complete surprise at the time. Most of us had only seen Bruce Willis in light romantic comedy roles. Our action men were big muscle-bound bastards, like a condom stretched over walnuts. This weedy shit wouldn’t wash. Except he did. Great performances, and a genius move to keep all the action in one place. The film really hasn’t aged much.
Robocop (1987)
Never bettered by any of its sequels, the original 1987 Verhoeven movie is a masterpiece, a predictor of the future and funny as shit. Memorable for making a corporation almost as famous as its eponymous hero, it’s a deeply cynical view of the future of privatisation, corporate power and its indifference.
Aliens (1986)
Easily the one I’ve watched the most, and zero problem with referring to this as an action film. Most of the film still holds up beautifully today, on account of it being much more character driven than many of its contemporaries. It is also a horror film, structurally. It isn’t that much different from a teen slasher movie where victims are picked off one by one. However, anyone that’s seen it already knows it’s so much more. Might be my favourite action movie of the era.
Loads more, probably even from me, but someone else should have a go next.
Aliens was one of my favourite films of all time and one of the first films to really ‘get’ to me. Brilliant direction. Nothing by todays standards but to be totally freaked out by dots on a computer screen was spine tingling at the time.
Not sure if I can call it an action film but I really really loved the first Batman (1989) film. Keaton was the right kind of messed up anti hero and a complete anathema to Adam Wests camp portrayal. As somone who grew up reading Arkham Asylum comics it really hit a note with me at the time. Surpassed since of course, but in context it felt game changing at the time - superheroes at that point were flawless.
When androids are going around kicking the fuck out of each other, personally I think that lifts it from Period Drama, through Chickflick and RomCom to Action.
You, sir, are Automatonist. Aliens going around kicking human butt (Preadator, Alien, Aliens) is not counted as sci-fi but Androids or Robots doing the same is?
And Star Trek 1 was in 1977 wasn’t it (goes to IMDB to check this out) OK, 2 years out 1979 still not the 80s, obviously Polish vodka has done more damage to your brain than you care to admit
I’ve upvoted Bearsy as he has had the sense to lay out some criteria for what constitutes an “Action Film”. Such a shame that the OP didn’t think to do this and has ruined what could have been a golden thread.
oh, and Topgun doesn’t make it into the top 50 action films of the month it was released, let alone the decade. Piece of shit film from another poison dwarf.