Without a doubt, the 80's.

Cheese everywhere.

Off the top of my head:

Band of Outsiders
Jules and Jim
Contempt
2001: A Space Odyssey
Rosemary's Baby
Repulsion
Dr. Strangelove
8 1/2
La Dolce Vita
The Manchurian Candidate
Easy Rider
Weekend
Psycho
The Birds
Yojimbo
Charade
Two For The Road
The Good The Bad and The Ugly
Once Upon a Time in the West
For a Few Dollars More
A Fist Full of Dollars
Spartacus
Battle of Algiers
Stolen Kisses
Last Year at Marienbad
Red Beard
High and Low
Sanjuro
The Bad Sleep Well
Seconds
Planet of the Apes
A Hard Days Night
Lolita
Lawrence of Arabia
Umbrellas of Cherbourg
A Woman Is A Woman
My Life to Live
Persona
Through a Glass Darkly
Winter Light
The Trial
Andrea Rublev
L'Aventura
Knife in the Water

The choice would be easier if the poll asked 'What's the worst decade for US/Hollywood films' because otherwise just about every decade had some breakout films from some part of the world.

That said, I voted for the 80's.

What can i say, watch more movies then?

Geez 5 or 6 of those movies I like....So I could pass on the 60's

The 80s at least had A Christmas Story. :up:

80s without a doubt. The 90s had some quality cinema.

Ghostbusters, Aliens, Conan, Jedi, Back to the Future, A Christmas Story, Airplane, Blues Brothers, Terminator, Flash Gordon, Running Man, Princess Bride, Return of the Living Dead, Wargames, Popeye, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Total Recall, Superman II, Time Bandits, Nightmare on Elm Street, Die Hard, Animal House, Scarface, Tron, Star Trek 2, 4 and 6, The Fly, and First Blood - and hell, that's just off the top of my head. If I sat and thought about it, I could come up with a list of good stuff from the 80 a mile long.

But even the really suck ass action movies, Invasion USA for example, have a sense of fun about them. Yeah they're bad - but they haven't been over produced, CGI laden and test-marketed into the ground like the late 90's and the Aughts. Action movies these days suck. Completly suck on most levels.

I voted for 2000's (so far)...

And the 80's is easily my favorite decade for movies

come on the 1910's sucked the most :D

It should really be based on how few GOOD FILMS were made at that time.

To say a decade was the worst because of bad films shows your age (mine included). The bad movies of the 80s and 90s are fresh in our minds.

We don't see current ads on TV for awful films from the 50s. They don't make a big splash when/if they're released on DVD.

I'd be willing to bet that the 50s offered just as many awful films as we have today, but because they're so bad they haven't even survived - there is no money in releasing them today.


That said - I only have a handful of favorite films from the 80s and the 40s, far fewer than any other post-1920s decade.


- Mike

Nobody better vote for the 70's!
I was tempted to vote 80's, but I can't remember any good original horror or sci-fi movies out of the 40's except the WOLFMAN. So I voted the 40's.

:up:

other than the LOTR films, this decade has produced ZERO memorable movies.

The 1980's were far and away the worst decade for films. I never want to go through a period like that again. Boy was it hard finding a decent film to go see. It was a very nostalgic film decade for me and others here on the forum, but nostalga doesn't blind me to the fact that it was a creative vacumn.

If you liked safe, formulaic, assembly line films with no originality and characters with little or no depth then maybe it's the decade for you, but not me. At least the 90's & 2000's have independent & semi-independent films that serve as a nice counter-balance to Hollywood mainstream films.

The really sad thing about the 80's is that it came right after the 70's, perhaps the greatest time period ever for American film.

Of those, which will "stand the test of time"? Although I actually like (and love) most of the movies you mentioned, most will not be talked about in 20-30 years - except from the nostalgia crowd. Ghostbusters, Jedi, A Christmas Story, Blues Bros., Terminator, Scarface, Animal House - yes, those may be (for one reason or another), but the others (IMNSHO), probably not. Especially Superman II. The original rules. The rest - :crap:

Yeah they're bad - but they haven't been over produced, CGI laden and test-marketed into the ground like the late 90's and the Aughts. Action movies these days suck. Completly suck on most levels. [/B][/QUOTE]

Absolutely NO argument there. The new Star Wars movies are perfect examples. Great CGI, NO story. I hope more filmmakers (and production companies that push this crap) will realize that you have to start with a great story and then add everything else. It's also what separates the original Matrix from the other two (I still refuse to call them "sequels" - :))

the 80's for me. While there were some really great movies, the majority were terrible. And SO dated now with their synthesizer music scores and all. In fact that's the thing I hate the most about 80's films. Not that I don't like the music but it just sounds stupid in movies.

I voted for the 60s. The decade that followed Hollywood's greatest just seemed to fall flat. Though we did have Lawrence of Arabia and Midnight Cowboy the 60s seemed to be the decade of musicals with My Fair Lady, West Side Story and The Sound of Music all taking Best Picture Oscars for their respective years. And for the record Easy Rider is easily one of most overrated movies ever.

Now I'm surprised the 80s are winning. I loved the 80s for the simple fact of Empire Strikes Back, Back to the Future, Batman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Scarface and Rain Man.

2000s so far. There's gonna have to be a few Citizen Kane's made in order to pull this decade out of the slump it's in.

The 2000's so far have contained Mulholland Drive and The Pianist. Two very strong contenders. Even if this decade produces nothing else those two alone will make the decade shine.

Probably the 1950's, to be honest. Not a lot of "classics" stand out from that decade for me.

2000 at least has LOTR, Finding Nemo, Memento, & Kill Bill.

Pirates of the Caribbean, The Others, Unbreakable, & X2 are liked by many as well.

1930s

Agree. That is, if you're being serious :hscratch:

In all fairness, in ten years people will be saying the same things about the 90s. Except it'll be about techno music scores.

I'm curious if you looked over the list Pants posted. There were many, many great films produced during that decade - which was perhaps the most pivotal decade in film since the coming of sound. Look past who won Best Picture - it's a poor indicator at best.