80's Movies vs the Movies of the 90's?
 

What decade was better?


80's

Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
Indiana Jones Trilogy
Back to the Future Trilogy
Platoon
Rainman
Die Hard
Ferris Buellers Day Off
Ghostbusters
Airplane
Superman 2
Beetlejuice
Terminator
Scarface
Poltergeist
Caddyshack
The Lost Boys
Fletch
Dirty Dancing
Gremlins
Beverly Hills Cop
Naked Gun
Blues Brothers
Risky Business
Wargames
Raging Bull
Spaceballs
Top Gun
Stand By Me
Rambo First Blood Part 2
Predator
Stripes
Born on the 4th of July
ET
Batman
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Breakfast Club
The Goonies
Lethal Weapon 1 & 2




90's


Fight Club
Pulp Fiction
Forrest Gump
American Beauty
Silent of the Lambs
Clerks
Chasing Amy
Austin Powers
Sleepless in Seattle
Braveheart
The Crow
Babe
Goodfellas
Reservoir Dogs
Independence Day
Casino
Fargo
Dazed and Confuses
Scream
The Fugitive
Toy Story
Shawshank Redemption
Office Space
Waynes World
Scent of a Woman
Titanic
Big Lebowski
Dumb and Dumber
The Matrix
Terminator 2
Swingers
Jurassic Park 1 and 2
True Romance
Heat
Sixth Sense
Saving Private Ryan


The list could go on. I did not list all the movies I liked but the most notable.


I think they are even but I would give a nod to the 80's since it has more movies that I would watch more than two or three times.

90's easy. 70's beats them both blindfolded, but for sure the 90's. The 80's moviewise were culturally devoid and generally are appreciated more for their camp value then their actual quality. The few movies from the 80's that have a chance of being remembered as "classics" are lucky accidents of movies that were late for the 70's or early for the 90's.

There are "culturally devoid" and "campy" movies for every decade. I think it is pretty hard to say one decade has better movies than another. You could say you like more films from one decade over another, but you can't just make a blanket statement about every film created in a particular decade.

I personally have more favorites from the 80's right now, but as we get further from the 90's I might get more nostalgic for those in the same way.

There is no comparison, IMO....

80's movies simply rule

The 90's were a better decade, thanks to Independent films, which were hard to come by in the 80's.

Mainstream Hollywood films from both decades are about the same in quality, which means that 95% of them sucked.

As BabiG said, the 70's beats them both blindfolded.

The '90s were better than the '80s, but not because of any of the films you listed.

1. 8.7 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) 87,540
2. 8.6 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) 79,193
3. 8.4 Boot, Das (1981) 24,037
4. 8.4 Ran (1985) 9,402
5. 8.3 Raging Bull (1980) 21,256
6. 8.2 Amadeus (1984) 30,979
7. 8.2 Nuovo cinema Paradiso (1989) 11,412
8. 8.2 Shining, The (1980) 40,887
9. 8.2 Aliens (1986) 53,710
10. 8.1 Blade Runner (1982) 64,177
11. 8.1 Hotaru no haka (1988) 4,708
12. 8.1 Princess Bride, The (1987) 45,990
13. 8.1 Full Metal Jacket (1987) 38,735
14. 8.1 Once Upon a Time in America (1984) 14,580
15. 8.1 Glory (1989) 18,489
16. 8.1 Elephant Man, The (1980) 13,217
17. 8.0 Fanny och Alexander (1982) 3,219
18. 8.0 Christmas Story, A (1983) 16,286
19. 8.0 Tenkû no shiro Rapyuta (1986) 3,045
20. 8.0 Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) 68,886


VS

1. 8.3 Saving Private Ryan (1998) 84,312
2. 8.5 Fight Club (1999) 88,486
3. 8.5 Matrix, The (1999) 120,091
4. 7.3 Dogma (1999) 35,813
5. 6.9 Titanic (1997) 77,880
6. 7.6 Office Space (1999) 19,728
7. 8.3 Reservoir Dogs (1992) 55,320
8. 6.8 American Pie (1999) 34,179
9. 8.5 American Beauty (1999) 91,975
10. 9.0 Shawshank Redemption, The (1994) 119,564
11. 6.6 Starship Troopers (1997) 27,963
12. 7.9 Big Lebowski, The (1998) 39,039
13. 8.1 Forrest Gump (1994) 73,390
14. 6.4 Life Less Ordinary, A (1997) 6,990
15. 8.7 Usual Suspects, The (1995) 87,033
16. 6.7 Romeo + Juliet (1996) 18,737
17. 8.8 Schindler's List (1993) 81,692
18. 8.3 Braveheart (1995) 77,811
19. 8.6 Goodfellas (1990) 55,092
20. 7.9 Trainspotting (1996) 42,983

according to IMDB.

I'll take the 80s.

90's

There was a thread like this one around here somewhere a couple of months ago. Let me sum up my points from there. . . . .

The 80's was a time just after the invention of the big budget event movie, but before the time where such movies were test marketed and focused grouped into the purile homonigized paste that they are now. Back then you had smaller studios like Carlico, New Line and Canon Films - who may not have have produced A-List stuff, but made movies that had a sense of fun about them.

Even the really suck ass action movies, like the Chuck Norris masterpiece Invasion USA or Rambo II, were still pretty damn entertaining. Yeah some of them are bad - but they haven't been over produced and laden with CGI laden like the late 90's and the Aughts.

Action movies these days suck. Completly suck on just about every level. I would take just one Megaforce to three dozen Vin Desel movies. Well, except Iron Giant, I guess.

The best movies the 80's have to offer?
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, First Blood, The Road Warrior, This is Spinal Tap, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Empire Strikes Back, Goonies, Blade Runner, Full Metal Jacket, Do the Right Thing, Roger and Me, Bull Durham, Scarface, The Untouchables, Glory, The Right Stuff, Das Boot, and Brazil

- 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.

The 90's did have some good stuff. Jurassic Park, while devoid of much story, had the "WOW! Dinosaurs!" factor going for it. And of course the formentioned Iron Giant. However the gems are few and far between.

if IMDB says it, it must be true.

i like movies

I like movies 2. They are good. They are fun. I have to go pee.

:)

http://www.studiomark.com/march-2003...rt-hs200-1.jpg


"I pity the fool who uses IMDB as evidence"

For lack of a better way to put this, sometime around the beginning of the 90's, movies stopped being fun.

Not necessarily in a campy way, either. Movies were something you'd see with friends and experience together. And if great, you'd drag more people out to see it.

Very few of the best movies of the 90's are like that. They are more like movies you watch by yourself in the middle of a group of people.

90's.

Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
Indiana Jones Trilogy
Back to the Future Trilogy
Die Hard
Ghostbusters
Poltergeist
The Lost Boys
Gremlins
Beverly Hills Cop
Top Gun
Predator
Stripes
ET
Lethal Weapon 1 & 2

I had more fun at those movies from the 80s than any 50 movies from the 90s. The 80s easily, and it's not even close. But that's just my opinion.

90s easily. Sure I like 80s films since I grew up with them, but once you look at them with a critical eye rather than a nostalgic one, you will notice that the 90s are superior.

Hard to say as both decades produced good movies in their own right.

Superior how? From a technical and effects aspect, perhaps - although give me a model over a CG image any day of the week - but surely not in the writing. I know this sounds weird coming from someone who thinks Breakin' is a good (or at least passable) movie, but it seems that in the last 10 years, the art of the script has become lost. Again, I'll point to the studio mandate that all movies at least try and PG 13 and follow the homonigized test screening suggestions.

While studios have always had their hand in movies (Brazil for example), they werent afraid to go with a solid R rated film - IE, the first Conan film. Viloent, bloody and unfraid of getting a smaller market share because of the stricter rating.

I also appreciated the willingness to jump entirely off the deep end in the 80's.

Where were the "Savage" Steve Hollands of the 90's? The 80's gave us insane flicks like "Eating Raoul," "Repo Man," "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure," "Big Trouble in Little China," "Streets of Fire," "The Manhattan Project," "Earth Girls are Easy," "Night of the Comet," "Better off Dead," etc. While the quality of these varied, I was always appreciative they were being made. It always felt like someone had fun making them and it usually was infectious.

The 90's was much too safe for its own good. The growth of political correctness sure didn't help things.

The 80's felt like a Marx Brothers film...anarchaic and exhilarating. The 90's felt like an overly dry British comedy. Not comatose but rarely getting above a slow, steady heart beat.

90s no contest. The late 80s really hurts the quality of the decade.

Just looking at the two lists, the 80's films were more fun while the 90's films took a serious mature tone. Just reflects the different times. I don't think either was better, just different kinds of films.

The year 1999 alone had more great films than the entire 1980's.

Sure there were some great films in the '80s but not many.

Ten American Movies from the 80's that will stand the test of time (IMHO):

1. Raging Bull
2. Platoon
3. Die Hard
4. Amadeus
5. Aliens
6. Blade Runner
7. A Christmas Story
8. Raiders of the Lost Ark
9. Miller's Crossing
10. Say Anything

Just a cross sampling but all films that I believe will be effective another twenty years from now. Admittedly, all are period films or fantasies with the exception of Say Anything.

So far with the 90's list, I can only come up with a posible five:

1. Shawshank Redemption
2. Toy Story
3. Schindler's List
4. The Usual Suspects
5. Beauty and the Beast

Can someone name more they will believe will stand the test of time, because I'm not having much luck.

I actually don't much care for your '90s list. I prefer:


The Straight Story
Glenngary Glenn Ross
Fight Club
Three Kings
LA Story
Leaving Las Vegas
Heat
Wild at Heart
The Fisher King
Eyes Wide Shut
Goodfellas
The Thin Red Line
Clerks
A Bug's Life
Pulp Fiction
Matinee
Princess Mononoke

While I do think your list contains some great films, some seem to ingrained to the attitude and time of the 90's.

I just can't see Pulp Fiction, LA Story (already dated), Three Kings, Fight Club, Leaving Las Vegas or Clerk's making it another ten years, let alone 20. That is not to say I will not find them enjoyable but shown to a new audience, I'm guessing they would just draw blank stares and a so-what attitude (as happens with many 80's films and my nephews).

I have yet to see Thin Red Line, so I hold judgment on that one.

I'll take the Farrelly Brothers' three films from the '90's over Holland's three from the '80's any day.

Pffft. I'll take a Better Off Dead, One Crazy Summer, and How I Got Into College over Kingpin, Me, Myself & Irene, and There's Something About Mary (even if that is their 2nd best flick, Dumb and Dumber being 1st).

There is certainly a level of sophistication in the best films of the 90's that speak to how sophisticated we've become as audiences. I have no idea what an audience from 1984 would even think of films like Rushmore, The Thin Red Line, Fight Club and Magnolia. Even the children's films are a lot smarter, you'd never see something like the cave scene in Ice Age during the 80's. They would never have asked an 8-year-old to understand irony and self-reference. That said, the films of the 80's and going to them was simply more fun. My theatre experience seeing both Die Hard and Lethal Weapon 2 on opening nights was more fun than the dozens and dozens of action flicks I'd seen throughout the 90's.

Each decade has its beauty... I prefer the 50s, I love the 80s, and I simply must say that the 90s was great too. :)

Cheers :beer:

DVD Smurf :)

Well you might want to swap that one for another since it came out in 1990.




and also I :lol: at you for saying Christmas Story will stand the test of time and Pulp Fiction won't.

My bad...let's replace it with "Raising Arizona." Darn these memories...they just never seem to work right...

I would easily argue that Christmas Story already has stood the test of time and is considered a classic. Like "Its a Wonderful Life," it is already a set holiday tradition.

As for Pulp Fiction, there's something about the referential nature of the film that can easily harm its chances of lasting. And to be honest, many teens I know that have seen it recently just haven't taken to it. To us, when we first saw it, it was something fresh. But the style has been so over copied that, to them, it just seems like another hip crime flick. Give it ten more years and we'll see.

It stands the test of time because

A. Its a Christmas movie

B. Its got the nostalgia factor.

C. TBS is never gonna let you forget it.

Hey, I like those movies too, but the question was "Where were the "Savage" Steve Hollands of the 90's?". The Farrellys were, at the very least, his equal.

To me, there's no questions that the 90s were a better decade. However, I will say that the 80s had better mainstream/Joe 6-Pack/commercial movies (John Hughes, Star Wars, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones) than the 90s, but the 90s had the 80s beat when it came to independent films, foreign films, art films, and even more experimental commercial pictures.

And yes, Pulp Fiction will stand the test of time much better than most of the 80s films listed in this thread will. It's timeless, in that while it takes place in the 90s, the entire vibe of the film runs from 40s noir to 60s French New Wave to 90s independent glibness. Although I still think Jackie Brown is a better movie.

Thats twice in the same week that Matt and I agree?

I have to go with the 90s as well. Even though Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to the Future and Empire Strikes Back easily blow away any big popcorn flicks we had in the 90s. The 90s had better quality films. Some little gems from the 90s include:

The Thirteenth Floor
Leon
A Simple Plan
Three Colors Trilogy
What's Eating Gilbert Grape?
The Limey
Kalifornia
Glengarry Glen Ross
Fear & Loathing
Ed Wood
Gattaca
Dark City
Bottle Rocket
Boogie Nights
Big Lebowski
American History X
12 Monkeys

80's had alot of fun movies, 90's seem to be more epic/mature movies.

You've done it twice now so I really should point it out: You keep defining whether a film will last based on what teenagers today or in the next ten years will think of it. Why the hell should that mater? Teenagers and college students flocked to Godard films in the '60s, but today you couldn't get a teenager or college student to watch it without tying them to a chair. Does this mean that Godard sucks and his films haven't stood the test of time? Of course not! The guy is still a f***ing master. Popular idiot audiences just don't have a taste for him anymore.

You reason that because your nephews don't like Pulp Fiction then the film won't stand the test of time. I assure you our grandchildren will be watching Pulp Fiction just as we watch Rules of the Game, The Maltese Falcon, and Weekend.

Point #1 - Yes, I believe that Pulp Fiction is great. But strictly as an exercise in style.

Point #2 - The teens in question are older, college students. From my over the top, fuddy duddy point of view, 19 is still a teen. They are not my nephews, who are not even allowed to see the film yet.

Point #3 - As much as I love PF, Jackie Brown, and Kill Bill (my opinion of Reservoir Dogs fluctuates), I still hesitate to call Tarantino a master as you refer to Godard.

Point #4 - Never a big Godard fan. Breathless and Weekend were highly overrated (IMHO). A filmmaker who throws everything out the window in the name of style. Influential, yes. But not necessarily in a good way.

Point #5 - Pulp Fiction is no Maltese Falcon and definitely no Rules of the Game. Like Godard, I believe that it sacrifices purpose for style and attitude. It surely makes it hip, but then Maynard G. Krebs was considered hip by some. Time typically is not kind to hip.

Problems with Pulp Ficiton:

1. Dialogue - Too reference heavy and hip without defining character or adding to a film thematic. Tarantino is no Elmore Leonard.

2. Characters - Not very well defined. Entertaining to be with for a short time but, with the exception of Jules, entirely shallow.

3. Theme - Really lacks one.

4. Style - Too tied to past works by others and too imitated since that it will likley be lost in the shuffle.

Pulp Fiction's greatest strength was its time of release. I would even argue that if "Out of Sight" had been released before it, PF would have been largely ignored.

But, then again, Sondeburgh's film is far superior in every respect.