GoldenJCJ

I’ll buy that. I don’t claim it’s any great work of art and realize it’s got plenty of flaws but I love it anyway.

There are some movies from my childhood that others love that I didn’t see until I was an adult. I didn’t see Monster Squad and Labyrinth until I was older. Didn’t care for either one.

Then of course, there’s movies I saw as a kid that didn’t strike a chord with my until I was older. I never cared for Ghostbusters as a kid but got a lot more of the humor as an adult and E.T. bored me to death as a kid but I found it to be quite moving as an adult.

Iron_Giant

Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Big

Hazel Motes

I saw Spaceballs for the first time about 10 years ago. I thought it was terrible.

I saw William H Macy on Colbert a few weeks ago and he was talking about introducing his kids to the classics and he said Airplane! didn't hold up like thought it would. Which got me curious, so I might have to revisit it.

JimRochester

We saw it in the theater and it was mediocre when it was fresh. It was trying to capitalize on Star Wars fever as well as several performers who were hot at the time. It was a little too late to really capture any type of Star Wars magic and it had way too much stuff that Mel Brooks found hilarious but the rest of didn't.

TheBigDave

How did this thread get to 3 pages without anyone mentioning Clue?

One of the greatest 80's comedies and still hilarious today.

Ash Ketchum

So the thread is no longer...

TheBigDave

That's right. But before that, the thread was....

mcnabb

Clue was one of the movies that I watched on HBO a zillion times in the 80's as it seemed like it was always on. I just remember the actress who played Miss Scarlett was a HOT! I think that's why I probably kept watching it.

Rival11

It's funny how tastes vary - I think stripes is terribly unfunny and police academy is hilarious.

d2cheer

I watched Revenge of the Nerds last year and was surprised how it still help up. In fact I would watch most of the 80's comedies in here over anything that has come out recently. I can't really name a recent comedy that I would consider a classic other than the Hangover and that was almost 10 years ago.

kd5

Back to the Future 1 & 2
Evil Dead II
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (BBC Miniseries)
Johnny Dangerously
Killer Klowns from Outer Space
Raising Arizona

The one that wasn't as funny as I thought it would be upon recent viewing was Howard the Duck.

Those are the only 80's comedies I own and/or have seen recently as I am not very keen on the romcoms or most of the stupid comedies they're pumping out these days.

rw2516

A couple I remember being pretty funny when they were new. Haven't seen them since.

The Man With Bogart's Face
Brother From Another Planet

movieguru

I would say definitely back to the future holds up quite well and the number of the parody movies also hold up well like airplane and Spaceballs. The whole comb the desert scene with the guys with the afro pick, that's still funny everytime I see it. I can remember seeing that movie in the theaters and everybody cracked up nearly every scene. People still today even talk about the one liners from that movie. THERE was quite a few in it.

I would have to say though that while I grew up in the eighties and watched many of these movies some of the ones y'all are mentioning now I have never heard of.

EddieMoney

Teen Wolf Too

Obi-Wanma

Was that ever watchable? It wasn't for me, and I was ten when it came out.

BrewCrew

My kids love the Home Alone movies so over the Christmas break they were asking for more Macaulay Culkin movies and ended up watching Uncle Buck. I have not watched that movie in probably decades but my kids and I enjoyed it.

Some other movies from the 80's that my 8 year old enjoys are Ghostbusters, Ferris Bueller, Pee Wee, Back to the Future I and II and Popeye. He loves Star Wars but didn't like Spaceballs and got bored with Goonies. Did watch Christmas Story recently and liked that but I find it hard to watch anymore because I have seen it so much.

jpcamb

OMG I watched Uncle Buck with my kids a few years back and could not believe how inappropriate it was for them at the time. I remember it as a light hearted comedy and was surprised how "adult oriented" it was. LOL

orangerunner

I think much of how we decide what "holds up" and what doesn't depends on whether we saw these films when they were new. If you remember seeing them in your childhood around their original release date, they tend to be more watchable.

Catching-up on an eighties movie for the first time 30 years later, without the nostalgic hindsight, leaves them coming across as rather lame and outdated.

We also forget that in the passage of time, so many other movies have copied the jokes and situations many times over making them seem even more stale.

EddieMoney

Tough Guys Don't Dance

EddieMoney

It's amazing

fujishig

I don't want to live in an era where Princess Bride no longer holds up, though as a fantasy piece with minimal special effects it probably ages better than most.

I tend to think the parody movies (Mel Brooks, etc.) don't hold up as well because they're making fun of specific things of that era... spaceballs is probably a little better because Star Wars is still such an iconic property, but multiple people have said here it doesn't.

dvdjunkie32

Films that hold up great for me:

Back to the Future
Ghostbusters
Romancing the Stone
Crocodile Dundee

As for ones that don't hold up. I still enjoy Mr. Mom, but I don't think the laughs are there for later generations. In the 80s, the idea of mom going to work while dad becomes a homemaker was pretty novel at the time. Also Gung Ho is really dated! Back from a time when we though Japan was going to take over America. haha

Paff

I disagree. I like the whole movie, and not just the ending. I think it's also because it's a little autobiographical; I was just like Gary in that movie. When I first saw it back in the 80s, he was kinda my hero. Now when I view it, I see Gary as a total creep, who deserves every misfortune he gets. It explains a lot about how I was treated back then too. So I think it's pretty accurate in how it treats its main character.

Funny thing about "that" scene; back in the 80s, in my tape collection was The Cars' first album. Every time I brought my collection around to a party or something (remember that? Lugging your tapes around to parties and gatherings?), all the guys clamored for me to play Moving in Stereo. I never understood why, as I felt (and still do) that it's a tepid song and far from the best on that record. Of course, after finally seeing Fast Times, I realized there was a little audio association going on...

Chunk? Hell, it's the WHOLE CAST that feels the need to shout every single piece of dialogue. Maybe it's because I was already late teens when The Goonies came out, but I never understood the appeal of that one. Even though I fully believe that on one day in the 90s, the girl I was hitting on was actually THE Kerri Green, and I just didn't realize it.

I actually just watched Losin' It earlier this week, and I think it holds up. Helps that it takes place in the 60s and not the time it was made. Although they kinda gave up on that in the car junkyard scene late in the film, where it's all 70s cars in the background. I was lamenting that with the death of Curtis Hanson, we'll never get an audio commentary from him on this movie. I think it would be interesting, what with the future stardom of several cast members. Also, it features the only film appearance of east coast pianist/comedian John "Dr. Dirty" Valby as Johnny Hot Rocks, the emcee of the Tijuana bar the guys go to.

Wolf359

Can't believe no one has mentioned Ruthless People yet. That, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Fish Called Wanda are not favorite 80s comedies.

Crocker Jarmen

I tried watching The Princess Bride a couple years back and couldn't finish due to the atrocious synthesizer music score. If that could only be stripped out or replaced, I think the movie would be damn near flawless.

I recently saw the old clip of Siskel & Ebert reviewing The Goonies, and this was Gene's main criticism, how the kids talked over each other.