Recently a movie meme was hitting the rounds on Facebook and Twitter, I’ve seen it as both My Life in Film or #ThisIsMyFilm. The basics is that you choose your favorite movie from each year starting with the year you were born. Some years are harder than others, and doing the list myself it made me realize how few movies I had seen that were released in certain years in the early 80’s. And since I haven’t been posting much here recently, I thought I would expand my list and also include my favorite superhero or comic book movie from each year, aside from those few years where my favorite was a superhero movie. And FYI, the release dates are according to Letterboxd as that’s what I’m using to browse what films I’ve listed as having seen in each year. Thanks to Le0pard13 for the inspiration to turn this into a blog post. And despite not being as old as him, I’ve still decided to split this up into two blog posts. This one starts off with the year I was born and goes through the year I graduated high school.

1980

Films watched from this year: 14
It’s pretty easy for me to go with what’s most likely the popular choice. I’m not a mega Star Wars fan, but I love the franchise as a whole and Empire is my favorite movie. It’s a little tough not choosing some of my favorite comedies Airplane! or Blues Brothers. On the superhero front, there’s a lot of camp with Flash Gordon and Hero at Large but then there’s Superman II 

1981

Films watched from this year: 11
Pretty light year of movie watching for me, and while the big one for most people would be Indiana Jones, I’ve got to go with my childhood and love of fantasy, especially Terry Gilliam’s fantasy and pick Time Bandits. Though I have relatively recently watched and enjoyed American Werewolf in London and Elephant Man, nothing tops the quirky historical-ish fantasy. On the superhero front, this was a pretty light year with nothing much to choose from, but if I had to pick, I’d go with the comic book adaptation of Heavy Metal.

1982

Films watched from this year: 21
A couple of my favorite children’s films were released this year The Last Unicorn and Secret of N.I.H.M. but I happen to be one of those people who are both a Star Wars fan and a Star Trek fan so I’ve got to give this  year to my second favorite Trek movie Wrath of Khan. On the superhero front it’s pretty much just a coin flip between Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All and Swamp Thing, so the call goes to Swamp Thing.

1983

Films watched from this year: 10
This is my lightest film year since I was born aside from 2017 considering I haven’t seen (or don’t remember having seen) such movies as The Right Stuff, Scarface, Wargames, or Trading Places. And while some would scoff at me placing this film above Vacation, there are very few Christmas movies that I enjoy and Christmas Story is far and away my favorite. And once again, the superhero pickings are slim and I would give the odd musical comedy Return of Captain Invincible over the other kind of comedy Superman III.

1984

Movies watched from this year: 21
This is one of the hardest years to decide as there are plenty of childhood and adult favorites that were released this year. From Neverending Story and Gremlins, to Terminator and Nightmare on Elm Street. But I’m going with the perfect mix of fantasy, horror, and comedy: Ghostbusters. For superhero movies, I’ve got to give this year to the king of superhero B-movies, The Toxic Avenger.

1985

Movies watched from this year: 20
This was another tough year with plenty of favorites from fantasy movies like Return to Oz, Goonies, and Legend, to Back to the Future and one of my all time favorite animes Vampire Hunter D. But I just have to give it to the murder mystery comedy based on a board game: Clue. And based on my list, there’s only one comic book movie released in this year which was Weird Science, but if I included manga, it would definitely go to Vampire Hunter D.

1986

Movies watched from this year: 26
This is another year that has a handful of childhood favorites and one childhood favorite of many that I discovered and enjoyed a bit later in life, Labyrinth. And while there’s a lot of fun to be had with films like Big Trouble in Little China, Three Amigos, Short Circuit and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, I’ve got to give this year to James Cameron’s Aliens. And the superhero movies are still pretty slim pickings so I’ll go with the lesser known comic book adaptation When the Wind Blows.

1987

Movies watched from this year: 30
This was one of the easiest years for me to pick as The Princess Bride ranks as one of my all time favorite movies. I even re-watched it recently with the commentary from Rob Reiner. There are several other great films, but nothing comes close in my eyes to this one. And while many people consider it a stretch to call this film a superhero movie, I think it falls right in between the Punisher and Cyborg. Of course, I’m talking about Robocop.

1988

Movies watched from this year: 31
This was another incredibly tough year with plenty of favorites from Big, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Die Hard, Rain Man, Adventures of Baron Munchausen, and some great anime from the heartwarming My Neighbor Totoro to the devastating Grave of the Fireflies. But I’m giving this year to the anime that turned me and many others into real fans of Japanese animation, Akira. Which would also be my pick for comic book movie if I included manga, as the only other movie from this year was the TV movie The Incredible Hulk Returns aka the Thor one.

1989

Movies watched from this year: 35
This was another pretty easy year as I immediately gravitated towards the goofy camp of Weird Al’s UHF above some other classics like the romantic comedy that I was recently introduced to, When Harry Met Sally or the start of the Disney renaissance The Little Mermaid or even the action stand by Roadhouse. I also could have almost picked the superhero choice for many, Tim Burton’s Batman.

1990

Movies watched from this year: 26
This is the first year where my choice of favorite film isn’t one that was chosen from my childhood or early adulthood as I was introduced to Goodfellas via my podcast Filmwhys within the past couple years. Other favorites of mine that I had seen much earlier in life would be Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead, Gremlins 2, and Total Recall. The superhero pick would also be a childhood favorite with the original film version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

1991

Movies watched from this year: 35
This year brought quite a few action films into my movie list (though very few of them were actually watched in 1991 by me). There’s also another Disney classic that was just recently remade into live action this year Beauty and the Beast. But as I said before, I’m a Star Trek fan and The Undiscovered Country is my all time favorite Trek film so there’s no way I couldn’t include it for my top of this year. The superhero film for this year is a tough choice between two mediocre films, but I’d give the edge to the Rocketeer.

1992

Movies watched from this year: 29
This is a year where I discovered great films when they were released, like Aladdin and Wayne’s World, several years afterward like Dracula and Of Mice and Men, and much more recently like Unforgiven and A Few Good Men. But the one film that I’ve loved from the start, and still love every time I re-watch it is A League of Their Own. On the superhero front, it doesn’t get much better than Batman Returns.

1993

Movies watched from this year: 37
Even though I find myself quoting Cool Runnings more often than I should admit to (“You dead man?”) and I wouldn’t hesitate to call the best movie of this year Schindler’s List, I would have a hard time arguing against this blockbuster juggernaut. Jurassic Park was a movie that I probably saw in theaters and even though I’m sure it scared the hell out of me, I loved it all the same and still love it to this day, beating out other favorites from this year like Robin Hood: Men in Tights, The Sandlot, Groundhog Day, and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. The superhero side of things is yet another Batman movie, this time coming from the animated series with Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.

1994

Movies watched from this year: 43
This is apparently the first year where my movie watching really expanded, but that also means that I’m looking at a list of films full of dreck plus a few gems here and there, including some that I didn’t discover until later in life like Pulp Fiction, or Leon. And while I could share my Kevin Smith love here with his first film Clerks, or pick one of my favorite Disney movies The Lion King, or even one of my first experiences with the Coen Brothers and The Hudsucker Proxy. But instead, I’ll go with a film that stuck with me from the moment I watched it, and the first comic book movie that gets top billing, The Crow.

1995

Movies watched from this year: 35
This was right around the age where I started enjoying the darker side of film, and I’m pretty sure that Seven was the first R-rated film that I saw in theaters and I certainly picked a great one to start. I also remember that it was about the time where I started to discover filmmakers, though I started with writers and followed Andrew Kevin Walker’s career backwards rather than David Fincher, though it still led me back to the Game, just not Alien 3 which was probably for the better. Other honorable mentions from this year were Desperado, Mallrats, Clueless, and Before Sunrise. On the comic book side of things, I’ll go the surprising route and pick Judge Dredd which I thought was a fun action movie despite being nothing like what I’ve heard Judge Dredd comics actually are.

1996

Movies watched from this year: 38
This is kind of an odd year for me, as there are plenty of movies that most people consider great, but just don’t click with me for some reason like Fargo and movies that I saw and loved back in the day, but barely remember much anymore like Happy Gilmore, The Craft, and Trainspotting. And even though I don’t really have much horror on this list, Scream was probably one of the first, if not the first horror movie that I saw and absolutely loved from the beginning. The superhero side of things don’t have much to go off of, but I am a sucker for how charming Billy Zane is in The Phantom despite it not being that great of a film.

1997

Movies watched from this year: 36
This seems to be a year that has a lot of dark movies that I love. Despite not remembering much of anything past the soundtrack Lost Highway stuck with me, as did Event Horizon though I haven’t revisited either in years. It’s also a great year for anime as Princess Mononoke and Perfect Blue are two of my favorites. But considering how big a Kevin Smith fan I am, I thought I should have one of his films on here somewhere and of those Chasing Amy is near the top for me. The comic book side of things is pretty easy as Men in Black is still a pretty fantastic film all around and blows the rest out of the water.

1998

Movies watched from this year: 36
This was the year that I graduated high school, turned 18, and visited Alaska where I spent my 18th birthday. As for film, it wasn’t that great of a year for me as my tops at the time would have likely been American History X, Dark City, or What Dreams May Come. It wasn’t until recently that I would have been able to include The Big Lebowski, Saving Private Ryan, or Run Lola Run. But for whatever reason, The Truman Show is the one that sticks with me the most. Blade is pretty much undisputed on the superhero side of things.

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And that covers about half of my life in movies, stay tuned for the second half… soon. At least whenever I get around to writing all this out which proved to be a much bigger task than I expected, despite having chosen all the movies beforehand. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.