looks kind of beautiful in a paradox way anyone think so? The people in the backgrounds aren't fakely dressed but legitimate in their goofy colorful clothes, they look like they're REAL pure 80s and it feels just right. T2 even though it came out later in the 90s ironically looks crappier with the mullets/ripped jeans and the LA outskirts/domestic areas. This is also a changing period in between fashions when the hippy hair was phasing out to be replaced by shorter hair like the awkwardly proto-spiked hair of Reese/latter Arnie. Badass. Also the synthesizer soundtrack which might have seemed cheesy a couple years ago now feels very unique! This movie is filled with truth.

I find it inspiring.

80s movies always have lots of garbage blowing around.

'80s movies rule. I will never tire of their aesthetics.

That's because the 80s were replete with filth on every corner and everyone lived in a shadowy neon-noir world filled with OMD songs and owned their own personal Harold Faltermeyer.

Cuz 92 was still getting out of the 80s. 80s looks 80s cuz it was 80s and it was uniques...cuz it was the 80s.

Also...the synthesizer track has always been cool. It just depends on your bias for it. I think most synthesizer tracks don't age well. BUT if they're done really good like Terminator and are actually well done and unique in their method...it's ageless.

I prefer the trashy scummy 70's of New York ala Taxi Driver

Yeah....I can't think of many films that really show the seedy world of real life NYC in that era than Taxi Driver. Any other films out there?

Not as good (or artsy) as Taxi Driver but it delivers the goods on the grindhouse tip :

....I wouldn't call Taxi Driver artsy, lol.

I would. Quite readily, I'd add.

The French Connection

Speaking of 80s and trashy NYC, Basket Case and Ms. 45 also deliver the goods.

I never really felt it as a seedy world though. It was grimy but it wasn't the shit piss world that Taxi Driver showed.

I often watch films from the 70's and early 80's, just to soak in the atmosphere. It doesn't even matter much to me if it's a good film or not if there is plenty of interesting stuff in the background.

I'd totally with you on that part, the environment is FULL of real world detail.

Since the film is supposed to take place in '84, yeah it works well. The first three Terminator movies do a decent job of capturing the time it's supposedly set in... give or take a few yrs. (wasn't T2 supposedly 94 or 96?)

I don't see how T2 looks crappier.

Death Wish and The Warriors both do a good job capturing that eerie NY atmosphere of the 70's.

I came in here to post about how I loved the look of Taxi Driver's NYC, but I see I was beat to it many times.

THE WARRIORS was total fantasy. We in New York laughed at it, even back then. I knew plenty of South Bronx street gang members in the 1970s and, believe me, the gangs in THE WARRIORS were never even close to the real thing.

DEATH WISH was a joke, too. As plentiful as muggers were, they knew to steer clear of guys who looked like Charles Bronson. They usually went after little old ladies and high school kids. I've always felt that DEATH WISH would have been much more interesting if someone like Tony Randall or Jack Lemmon had played the part of Paul Kersey.

You mean there were no gangs that painted their faces and dressed up like baseball players? Ya learn something new every day...

I think the real difference between the original and sequel is the film stock. The stuff low budget movies got stuck with in the '70s and '80s made everything look gritty. In T2, it's too good and makes even the seedy back alleys look glossy.

Lol
'ROMEN KINGS'