Category Archives: 80’s movies
Almost Super: Krull
Almost Super: Krull 1983
Nostalgiathon 2012
As you may have seen in my previous post, I just recently watched Krull for our latest As You Watch podcast. We decide the movie for each episode based on a short list of movies from the four of us, and Krull was picked from my list. I’ve enjoyed this movie since I was young, finding and watching every fantasy based movie I could find, so I thought this movie would also be a perfect fit with the Nostalgiathon hosted by Cinema Schminema and Andy Watches Movies, because while I still enjoy the movie, it turns out that practically no one else does. Including all four of my co-hosts for the episode. The pacing may be sluggish, the characters may be weak, the story may be derivative, but I still love this movie.
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
Superman II: The Donner Cut 1980/2006
Ever since I had heard about this movie, I was quite curious about it. More so after I actually watched the theatrical cut of Superman II way back when I started this site. For those not in the know, I’ll do a brief re-cap. Richard Donner originally was shooting Superman & the sequel concurrently, and had shot about 80%+ of the film before they had to stop production. For various reasons, when they restarted production Richard Donner didn’t return and was replaced with Richard Lester who re-shot much of the film with a different tone in mind, as well as a smaller budget. While both films follow essentially the same plot, this is a very different film, and well over half the movie is new or alternate footage. The overall tone is much more serious and the humor that is still there is less campy. I personally enjoyed the Donner cut much more than the Lester cut, at least up to a certain point.
Batman
Batman 1989
It has been ages since I’ve seen the original Batman. Tim Burton’s vision of Gotham has long been one of the most iconic and especially known for being one of the first movies to bring a darker side to superhero movies and help bring them more into the mainstream, even if the big superhero movies were pretty much limited to Batman until X-Men comes along over 10 years later. It really helped turn Batman into a household name, and Jack Nicholson’s performance as the Joker is one of his most iconic, as well as one of the best performances in a Batman movie period. But watching this movie after seeing what Batman has become in the years since, it’s almost like looking at a shadow of his former self. Now, the Tim Burton movie is almost like a bridge between the pure camp of the Adam West Batman TV series and the extremely dark and realistic Batman of the Nolan trilogy and the DC Animation movies. And as much as I loved both extremes of Batman for very different reasons, this movie is kind of stuck in the middle and falls behind. But Batman is still Batman, and I enjoyed almost every minute of this movie. It’s still a great movie even if it’s lost some of its luster.
Return of Captain Invincible
Return of Captain Invincible 1983
This isn’t quite the start of my new schedule just yet. I’m still trying to figure that one out. I know I’ll be watching another movie this weekend and I’ve got a promising new Superhero Shorts interview lined up, I think it’s a pretty good one. But for now I’ll just talk about this awesome 80’s movie that Morgan over at Morgan on Media pointed out to me. It’s called Return of Captain Invincible and it’s an 80’s, musical, superhero comedy. You heard that right. Not only that, but it stars Alan Arkin and Christopher Lee. It has a very Rocky Horror Picture Show vibe to it and it is extremely ludicrous. The songs range across a wide variety of styles and quality, and there is a surprising amount of Benny Hill-ish shirt-bursting moments, and even some brief nudity, which actually surprised me a bit, I always forget that ratings back then were actually more lenient on PG ratings. The movie overall was quite enjoyable for me, and for a couple days at least you can see my live tweets while I was watching the movie, covering some of the better moments.
Almost Super: Die Hard
Almost Super: Die Hard 1988
I was never a big fan of the huge action movie franchises when I was younger. I think out of all the well known movies by the big action stars of the 80’s and 90’s, I had only seen Total Recall and Last Action Hero. It was only a couple years ago when I finally saw Die Hard back to back with the first Lethal Weapon after watching Live Free or Die Hard, mainly because I’m a huge Kevin Smith fan and try to watch almost everything he’s been involved with. That reason was also what made me watch Roadhouse – in the special edition DVD, he and Scott Mosier do a really fun commentary track for it. I never did go on to watch any of the sequels, but of the four films, the original Die Hard was head and shoulders above the other three in terms of quality. There’s a reason that for years and years after this movie came out, action movies like Speed were referred to “Die Hard on a Bus”. It was the benchmark of a great action film, and over twenty years later, it still holds up as a great flick. It is well crafted twists and turns with just the right amount of comic relief without being too silly. And John McClane himself is practically a superhero in his own right, taking on an entire pseudo-terrorist-cell all by himself.
Red Sonja
Red Sonja 1985
2023 edit: I apparently keep forgetting to revisit this movie after watching and reviewing Red Sonja: Queen of Plagues and revising my criteria somewhat and doing a bit of research. While Conan originated in the novels, Red Sonja as a character was created for Marvel comics within the Conan comics which absolutely makes this a comic book movie. Below is the original review presented unedited.
I have been going back and forth on whether or not to have this movie be a part of the rest of the movies or to have it under my “Almost Super” category. It’s based on a character in a Marvel comic book, but since it’s much more of a low fantasy rather than a superhero so I ultimately decided to use the Almost Super tag. Another reason why I wanted to review the movie, aside from the fact that I vaguely remember watching it and liking it when I was younger, is that the Lamb is having its Lamb Acting School for Arnold Schwartzenegger this month, and I’m not quite ready to revisit the 90’s Batman series ending in his portrayal of Mr. Freeze, so I was left to choose between the two Conan movies and this movie. And while the movie is called Red Sonja, Arnold still manages to get top billing as the secondary lead above acting newcomer Brigitte Nielson. While there were some interesting parts in the movie, it did not nearly hold up to my memory of it.
Almost Super: Gremlins
Almost Super: Gremlins
I have been without internet for a little while, but that hasn’t stopped me from watching movies and getting things ready for this site. I managed to find a wi-fi hotspot to upload this post, but I don’t have much time here today. I’ll be back in full force on Friday. I’ve also been wanting to start a new series for a while now. There are a limited number of superhero movies, and my goal of watching all of them is actually attainable, if still a few years away. So to help expand this blog a little bit, I came up with this series “Almost Super” so that I can feature other movies that I enjoy that still share some qualities of superhero movies without directly being one. In honor of being selected in this year’s Lammy awards under the Sci-Fi Horror banner I thought it would be a good idea to expand my horror repertoire a little bit. And what better fit for this site than a not-quite-typical horror movie. Gremlins is a much different type of horror, with creatures that could have easily been lifted off a comic book page and plenty of humor to back it up. And that’s why I selected it for my first edition of Almost Super.
Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon 1980
As I continue my venture into the great chasm of cheesy superhero movies I decided to seek out the 1980 movie of Flash Gordon. There was very little about this movie that I knew of going into it. I knew the hero was named Flash Gordon, the villain was named Ming the Merciless, Queen did the theme song which I had heard, and of all people my older sister actually gave it her endorsement. I do have a Facebook account, but I only use it for old friends and family. I posted about the poll I had on what to watch, mentioning the cheesy movies like Flash Gordon was tied with X-Men and my sister wrote “Flash Gordon isn’t cheesy, it’s awesome!” After watching it, I agree. It’s awesome, horribly horribly awesome. This movie made me laugh harder and more often than the Avengers. There was so much wrong with this movie, but it played it all so earnestly I just had to buy into it.
Howard the Duck
Howard the Duck 1986
There was only two things I really remembered about this movie before I picked it up on clearance at a used DVD store for about two bucks: I had watched it when I was younger, and I recently skimmed a review for it that had a picture of duck boobs from it. Based on that alone, my wife was against letting Jena watch it with us. But ever since we brought the DVD home, she has been interested in the movie based on the cover artwork alone. My wife was upstairs going to bed early, it was late, my review is due in a couple hours to meet my own personal deadline (which I’ll be about an hour late on), the movie is rated PG, so we started watching it together. Jena’s one word review of Howard the Duck: “Fantastic”. I’m glad I let her watch it with me, it may not be a stellar parenting choice, but I’m ok with it. And while there is that moment of pseudo-nudity, it’s presented in a non-sexual manner, and she is a girl after all. Howard the Duck managed to combine adult themes, childish humor, minor amounts of action, and a love story between a human and a duck. It was bad, but based on the reactions of my daughter, and my wife who came down halfway through the movie, it was worth it. (note: running behind, pics will be added tomorrow)
Moonwalker
Moonwalker 1988
If you’ve never heard of this movie, you may very well be wondering why I’m reviewing a movie featuring Michael Jackson and a bunch of music videos that wasn’t even released in theaters. And I have a few reasons for you. The biggest reason is that in this movie, Michael Jackson sees himself as a superhero plain and simple. Another reason is that in my memory I think I had played up the superhero portion of this movie more than it actually was. And as for why I’m reviewing a direct-to-video movie? Kudos on knowing this site well enough that you read my initial list of movies. When I started this site, the plan was to watch and review at least 100 theatrically released superhero movies this year. In the past few months working on this site, I’ve expanded my focus. I’m posting something seven times a week, including three movie reviews. I want to keep doing this past just the first year, but I also don’t want to waste all the good movies too soon. So over the next few months I’ll be reviewing more straight to video movies including many of the well-made animated movies from Marvel and DC. I’ll also at some point be adding reviews for more heroic movies that aren’t quite superhero movies, like fantasy or sci-fi movies under the heading “Almost Super”. But I think this movie qualifies as a cheesy superhero movie, if only just barely. It’s definitely got the cheese portion covered.
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 