So, which movies from the 90's and the 2000 decade (so far) has left you thinking, "Gee, this film reminded me of something that I saw back in the 80's?"
Bridgette has already mentioned on another topic about "Coyote Ugly", saying that it reminded her of "Flashdance". And I had added that the Tom Cruise movie "Cocktail" was also probably an influence on that one.
But for me, here are some that I can think of:
"Pleasantville" (1998) - "Back To The Future": the themes of culture-clashing, an alternate universe, fate & destiny, and 1950's Americana pop culture are in both films. In fact, the downtown set was used in both movies.
"Peter's Friends" (1993) - "The Big Chill" (1983) and "The Return Of The Secaucus 7" (1980) Common themes: character-driven (not story-driven) movies, character studies, a reunion of college contemporaries, people trying to catch up with what's current in their lives.
"The Player" (1992) - "S.O.B." (1981) Common theme: Satire on the Hollywood film industry.
Other comparisons:
"Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood" (this year) - "Steel Magnolias" (1989)
"I Am Sam" (last year) - "Rain Man" (1988) and to a certain extent, "Kramer Vs. Kramer" (1979)
Any others that you can think of?
"K-PAX" (last year) - "Starman" (1984). Ironically, Jeff Bridges is in both films.
Posted by McFly (Member # 354) on :
Well, I've only like 2 movies the last ten years, so when I rarely like a new one it means that it reminds me of how it used to (and should still) be.
So, "Con Air", goofy action reminiscent of those Chuck Norris or American Ninja movies of the 80s.
"Breakdown", great Kurt Russell road drama with shades of "The Hitcher".
And the comedy that's come closest would be "Road Trip", really reminded me of raunchy "Revenge of The Nerds" or "Police Academy" type movies.
Posted by StevenHW (Member # 509) on :
Part of McFly's post: << "Breakdown", great Kurt Russell road drama with shades of "The Hitcher". >>
Interesting that you mention this. In the early 70's, a then-unknown Steven Spielberg made a TV-movie with a similar plot, called "Duel" with Dennis Weaver. Weaver played a motorist driving along a long desert highway, being terrorized by an unknown (and unseen) truck driver. Very Alfred Hitchcock-like. This was long before the term "road rage" was invented!
Perhaps both films that you mentioned probably got some ideas from "Duel".
Posted by McFly (Member # 354) on :
I was going to mention Duel's influence but it was from the 70s, but definitely was the first of the road rage pictures.
Posted by StevenHW (Member # 509) on :
I just rented out the movie "Boiler Room" (2000) on DVD. Good movie, starring Ben Affleck, Vin Diesel, and Giovanni Ribisi. (BTW, Vin and Giovanni also appeared in the movie "Saving Private Ryan", but I digress.)
Giovanni plays a street-smart hustler and college dropout who runs an illegal casino from his home in Queens, NY. He wants to please his father (a judge), so he closes down his casino and gets a job as a broker with a brokerage firm. He becomes quite good at his job, but later realizes that the firm is operating illegaly, selling stock that is either undervalued or (even worse) doesn't exist and giving out false information. Sort of an eerie situation, considering this movie came out a year before the accounting, insider-trading, and corporate scandals that would later happen with Enron, Martha Stewart, Adelphia, WorldCom, Arthur Andresen Accounting, etc.
The film reminded me of the 1987 movie "Wall Street" with Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Darryl Hannah, and Martin Sheen. That film came out shortly after the insider-trading scandals involving Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken, and others. The common themes between the two movies are greed, the love of money, white-collar crime, and a moral transformation at the end. In fact, there is a scene where various employees at the brokerage firm are reciting lines from "Wall Street" while watching it.
Thumbs up!
Posted by StevenHW (Member # 509) on :
The 2001 movie "Super Troopers" was sorta like one of the movies in the "Police Academy" series. Silly, of course, but good-natured and good-hearted, and never mean-spirited.
Posted by born in the eighties (Member # 627) on :
jeepers creepers!!!
Posted by Riptide (Member # 457) on :
I think Trojan War (1997)is kind of 80's with Jennifer Love Hewitt. It's kind of a combination of Secret Admirer, Some Kind of Wonderful and Licence to drive. A fun little film in the mould of the great 1980's teen comedies which used to star the likes of Rob Lowe, John Cusack and Ally Sheedy!! This film is enjoyable from the off, although the subject may be a little touchy as it centres on a High School youth (Will Friedle) who desperately fancies the school beauty (Marley Shelton)and somehow manages to arrange a study date with her at her house. After a while things progress well enough until he finds himself without a condom!. Where can he get one from at this time?, can he get back while she is still interested?, his journey takes him all over the city and gets him in to some side-splittingly funny situations and scenarios along the way. Stand out is Jennifer Love Hewitt as Friedles best friend who is madly in love with him without him realising!
Andrew
Posted by Jeannie (Member # 260) on :
Cant Hardly Wait should definately be an 80's film, it's a bit like Some kind of wonderful except Amanda Jones (Jennifer Love Hewitt)gets Keith and Watts gets Duncan! (Seth Green)!!!!!
Posted by StevenHW (Member # 509) on :
Another recent movie that I saw in the theaters is the Academy-Award winning "The Hours" (2002), with Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, and Meryl Streep.
After I left the theater, I kept thinking how the story structure was slighly reminiscent of the 1981 movie "The French Lieutenant's Woman", which also starred Streep.
Common themes in both films: Parallel lives of the lead characters. Non-linear timeline. Different places and different eras but with the same interconnecting story.
Another thing in common for both: Great acting performances! Nicole Kidman's Oscar was well-deserved. And I read that Nicole's ex (Tom Cruise) was the first one to congratulate her.
"Out on a Limb" (1992) starring Matthew Broderick has a real 80s comedy feel about it, also stars the guy who played the headmaster of Matthew Broderick in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" strangely enough!
Anyway I'm off to tank up Posted by djcsuperstar (Member # 723) on :
Two great examples that come to mind, not only because they are set in the 80's, but because they TOTALLY capture the spirit of the 80's as well...
Donnie Darko: part 80's teen angst film, part science fiction, part suspense, part drama, part comedy, GREAT music, GREAT ending...this one stays with you long after the movie is over.
Wet Hot American Summer: Recreates the 80's camp movie like no other...30 something actors playing teenage counselors, "campy" music, makin' out, the one kid who seems to be from another planet...I got this one right next to Meatballs in my collection.
I highly recommend checking these two out. If you're on these boards, you won't be disappointed.
Posted by fog-80 (Member # 1254) on :
'Don't Tell Mom the Babysitters Dead' and 'Ghost'
I thought both of these films were from the eighties, until I looked them up.
Posted by Akita (Member # 1257) on :
Cruel Intentions was a modern version of Dangerous Liasons. Neither of which were 80's were they? Sorry. What about Roadkill, that reminded me of Duel and Breakdown. Zoolander really reminded me of an 80's flick.
Posted by The Wizard (Member # 533) on :
Recently picked up the VHS of Upworld (1992) aka A Gnome Named Gnorm, starring Claudia Christian & Anthony Michael Hall as a cop who has to team up with a gnome from a world down in the ground, hence the name Upworld. It could have been made in the 80s so easily.
Posted by TKO (Member # 1471) on :
'He Said, She Said' (1991) reminded me much of the 1989 movie: 'When Harry Met Sally'.
I also loved 'Empire Records'(1995), 'Grosse Pointe Blank'(1997) and 'High Fidelity'(2001) because they had an 80's kinda feeling.
Posted by StevenHW (Member # 509) on :
Akita asked:
quote: "Cruel Intentions" was a modern version of "Dangerous Liaisons". Neither of which were 80's were they?...[snip]
"Cruel Intentions" came out in 1999, and was a teenage modern version of "Dangerous Liaisons" (1988).
Originally, "Dangerous Liaisons" was a book written back in the 18th Century. Then in 1959, French filmmaker Roger Vadim made a contemporary version of it, with mod-type clothing styles of the time, and a Thelonious Monk jazz music score. Stephen Frears' 1988 version with Glenn Close, Michelle Pfeiffer, Uma Thurman, and John Malkovich was more faithful to the setting of the book, and took place in France 1788.
Interestingly, Swoosie Kurtz was in both the 1988 version and in "Cruel Intentions".
Posted by StevenHW (Member # 509) on :
Main character plays a role in major historical events.
Main character becomes a huge media darling.
Both films used optical special-effects techniques to make the characters "blend in" with existing news photos/footage. Woody used 1920's lenses and lighting style to achieve that newsreel effect. Also, his crew would purposely stomp on the film's negatives they just shot to give it an aged "crinkly" look.
One problem that I had with "Zelig" were the scenes where there is too much philosophical self-examination and with God's existence, and so on. This happened, IMHO, too many times in Woody's movies during the 80's.
But overall, I prefer "Zelig" because it doesn't have the icky sentimentality "Forrest Gump" had. Think of this movie as the more intellectual version of Gump.
Finally, I always thought of the Forrest Gump character was more comparable to Peter Sellers' character in the social satire "Being There" (1979).
Posted by StevenHW (Member # 509) on :
Just having recently seen "Clueless" and the first "Legally Blonde" movie on DVD, I could imagine both of them being made in the 80's, if they did. They have that giddy 80's feel to them!
"Clueless" was directed by Amy Heckerling, who also made some classic 80's films such as "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", "Look Who's Talking", "National Lampoon's European Vacation", and "Johnny Dangerously". But her more recent films seem to have been made in an 80's-type time warp...sort of! Posted by RiverPhoenix4life (Member # 1719) on :
All those teen movies mentioned that were made in the 90's and 2k era only remind u all of 80's movies becaues they are.... GREAT MOVIES! What is with the perverted, 6th grade humor fluff that now embodies the whole teen movie idea? For example, The New Guy and Sorority Boys. Eek!
Speedway Junky reminds me of My Own Private Idaho, which I think was actually made in 1991. even so, I still consider it an 80's movie due to the cast. Gus Van Sant directed both.
Dazed and Confused just has the feel of an 80's movie, even though it was set to take place in the 70's.
Posted by Devolution (Member # 1731) on :
Devolution here, Many have mentioned Can't Hardly Wait which is funny because for years the first thing that I had told everyone that all they did was make and entire movie out of the party seen in Say Anything
I hate to be cheesy but I also think that there are 80's type qualities in movies like Old School, American Pie, and even a weird movie like Indian Summer which was like meatballs with 30 year olds.
I think that any quotable movie is very 80esque, but the more important part is that you have to want to watch it 1000 times, like Hi Fidelity and Gross Pointe Blank, as TKO pointed out before.
We are DEVO
Posted by The Wizard (Member # 533) on :
Off and Running (1991) has an 80s feel to it, maybe because it stars Cyndi Lauper & David Keith? I like it anyway and have put it on my shelves in amongst my 80s classics & comodies.
Posted by StevenHW (Member # 509) on :
"Jack" (1996), which starred Robin Williams, is a very inferior rip-off to the much better "Big" (1988) that starred Tom Hanks.
What in the world was Francis Ford Coppola thinking when he agreed to do this film? He must've really needed the money back then!
Posted by isis9968 (Member # 1780) on :
I thought the early 90's started off ok- there were a few films that were original, and were "good" movies. The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, Unlawful Entry, Presummed Innocent, The Fugitive, those were pretty good, and worth paying to go see. I never understood why they never did a sequel to The Hand that Rocks the Cradle. But, from about 1995 on- every movie ever made was a rip off of an 80's movie, or an 80's sequel, a remake of a tv show, or a cartoon, they have no original movies now. Look at what gets nominated for an Academy Award anymore. If you do any type of "artsy" movie- or a period movie- it automatically gets in, cause everything else is totally geared towards action/ violence/ sex which ='s money.
Posted by Pretty In Punk (Member # 1821) on :
has anyone seen the film center stage. that had an 80's vibe for me. in the way of how the chracters interacted with each. and the feel good ending.
[ 12. September 2003, 20:15: Message edited by: Pretty In Punk ]
Posted by RiverPhoenix4life (Member # 1719) on :
I enjoyed center stage quite a bit. Sure, the acting sucked and the story was predictable, but i loved the dancing!
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