What better time to start the series with the summer movies of 1980. We have a long awaited Star Wars sequel, The Blues Brothers heading to the big screen, and Bill Murray chasing a gopher. The summer of 1980 has it all.
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| FRIDAY THE 13TH RELEASE DATE: MAY 9th |
MY OPINION: After Psycho and Halloween, more slasher films were being made and this was an era when slasher films make money at the box office, regardless of the quality, violence, or what the critics thought of them. I watched the film with an open mind and I don't think it's that bad. Yeah, the characters were kind of hard to care about and there are random scenes and filler, such as a snake in the cabin and the characters playing Monopoly, but Tom Savini's gore effects were good, the cinematography was atmospheric, even for a low budget film, and Betsy Palmer did a great job of playing the culprit. It's no masterpiece, but it's not a terrible film either. Still, despite negative reviews from critics, the film made enough money at the box office to convince Paramount Pictures to green light a sequel, but we'll get to that in 1981.
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| STAR WARS EPISODE V: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK RELEASE DATE: MAY 21st |
MY OPINION: This is one of the great achievements in the history of film and it's a rare sequel that's better than the original film, which is also a great movie. In addition of being a great special effects spectacular, this also a surprisingly mature and moody film that has a life goes on ending instead of a traditional happy ending and the mythology and themes are as strong as it is in the original film. It's not just a great Star Wars film, it's one of the best films of all time and already the summer of 1980 has just gotten started.
PLOT SUMMARY: Acclaimed filmmaker Stanley Kubrick brings us his own unique adaptation of Stephen King's haunted house story. Recovering alcoholic and writer Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) has been hired as the caretaker of The Overlook Hotel and has his wife and son to come along with him. Unfortunately, the hotel has a haunted past and Jack has been influenced by the supernatural forces and plans to murder his family.
MY OPINION: I've read early chapters of the book but I couldn't finish it because real life gets in the way. So I decided to see the movie with an open mind for this article and I enjoyed the film for what it is, an ambiguous psychological thriller. There's has been criticism on how the film diverged from the book and Stephen King himself disowned the film, but I greatly enjoy the film. The ambiguous visuals and pacing is hypnotic, the creepy music has some bizarre charm, and I loved Jack Nicholson's performance.
PLOT SUMMARY: Three years after Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown, Paramount Pictures decided to make another movie based on the Peanuts comic strip by Charles Schultz. This time, Charlie Brown and the gang decide to take a field trip to France as foreign exchange students. A young and mysterious French girl has written a letter for him to invite him to her chateau. When Charlie Brown and his friend Linus arrive to the chateau, they realize that the girl is living with an unkind uncle and the boys don't feel welcome.
MY OPINION: I've been a fan of the Charlie Brown cartoons as a kid but I haven't seen them in ages. So, I decided to watch this film for the sake of this article and I found it charming. It was harmless, inoffensive, and it's now making me go back to the cartoons I've enjoyed back as a child. Sure the animation was cheap but the film survives because of it's likable characters and decent comedy between Snoopy and Woodstock.
PLOT SUMMARY: In the 1830's, two fur trappers (Charlton Heston and Brain Keith) get caught up in a war against Native Americans while an Indian woman (Victoria Racimo) runs away from her abusive husband (Stephen Macht). The two fur trappers protect her, unaware that her husband has rounded up his tribe to search for her.
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| THE SHINING RELEASE DATE: MAY 23rd |
PLOT SUMMARY: Acclaimed filmmaker Stanley Kubrick brings us his own unique adaptation of Stephen King's haunted house story. Recovering alcoholic and writer Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) has been hired as the caretaker of The Overlook Hotel and has his wife and son to come along with him. Unfortunately, the hotel has a haunted past and Jack has been influenced by the supernatural forces and plans to murder his family.
MY OPINION: I've read early chapters of the book but I couldn't finish it because real life gets in the way. So I decided to see the movie with an open mind for this article and I enjoyed the film for what it is, an ambiguous psychological thriller. There's has been criticism on how the film diverged from the book and Stephen King himself disowned the film, but I greatly enjoy the film. The ambiguous visuals and pacing is hypnotic, the creepy music has some bizarre charm, and I loved Jack Nicholson's performance.
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| BON VOYAGE, CHARLIE BROWN (AND DON'T COME BACK) RELEASE DATE: MAY 30th |
MY OPINION: I've been a fan of the Charlie Brown cartoons as a kid but I haven't seen them in ages. So, I decided to watch this film for the sake of this article and I found it charming. It was harmless, inoffensive, and it's now making me go back to the cartoons I've enjoyed back as a child. Sure the animation was cheap but the film survives because of it's likable characters and decent comedy between Snoopy and Woodstock.
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| THE MOUNTAIN MEN RELEASE DATE: MAY 30th |
MY OPINION: Charlton Heston has been a big star since the 50's and 60's with hits such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, and Planet of the Apes. But since the 70's and 80's, his career seems to be on a downward spiral. He's been in movies that are so campy, they could have been made in the 50's. This film is no different. The action is standard cowboys and Indians, the comedy is not funny, and the music is kind of campy and silly. The Mountain Men was forgotten back then and deserves to be.
PLOT SUMMARY: Jake and Elwood Blues (John Belushi and Dan Akroyd) team up on a mission from God to reunite their R&B band so they could raise money to save an orphanage from foreclosure while the team is targeted by Neo-Nazis, a crazy woman with weapons (Carrie Fisher), a country band, and the police.
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| THE BLUES BROTHERS RELEASE DATE: JUNE 20th |
MY OPINION: This is another summer movie from 1980 worth remembering. This film is a great mixture of rhythm and blues, action, and comedy. John Belushi and Dan Akroyd made a great team, the music and action scenes are exciting and the comedy works. This film was reportedly very expensive to make, costing $30 million, and you can tell that director John Landis put a lot of effort into those action scenes. This film deserves to be remembered.
PLOT SUMMARY: In this third sequel to the 1968 Disney comedy, The Love Bug, the lovable Volkswagen with the mind of it's own teams up with an orphaned pickpocket (Joaquin Garay, III) and a couple of American tourists (Charles Martin Smith and the late Stephen W. Burns) to travel on a cruise ship to across Central America while the pickpocket unknowingly carries important information from 3 crooks and wacky hi-jinks ensue. Mel Brooks regulars Cloris Leachman and Harvey Korman co star.
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| HERBIE GOES BANANAS RELEASE DATE: JUNE 25th |
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| AIRPLANE RELEASE DATE: JULY 2nd |
PLOT SUMMARY: Writing and directing team Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker tackle 1970's disaster movies in this classic comedy about a man with a fear of flying who saves an airplane from crashing after the pilots became ill of food poisoning. In addition to parodying disaster films, the filmmakers also make fun of Jaws and Saturday Night Fever.
MY OPINION: Prior to the crap from Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg (Epic Movie and Meet the Spartans), movie parodies were made with actual effort, especially parodies from Mel Brooks and The Abrahams and Zucker Brothers team. Airplane is a great example of the effort and hard work into the film. In addition to the quotable dialogue and funny sight gags, the cast clearly had fun with the performances, especially Leslie Nielsen, who later became a comedic star after his past as a dramatic actor. This is another summer movie of 1980 that deserves to be remembered.
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| USED CARS RELEASE DATE: JULY 11th |
MY OPINION: I remember having mixed feelings when I first saw the film. But after re watching the film for this article, I began to enjoy the film more. I felt there was joy in the performances, I laughed at most of the comedy, and the film's climax showcases Zemeckis' talent as a director and his style and storytelling improves through the course of his career. This looks like a fun movie to make and it shows in my opinion.
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| CADDYSHACK RELEASE DATE: JULY 25th |
PLOT SUMMARY: A down-on-his-luck caddy (Michael O'Keefe) works at a golf course to get money for college while comedic situations are taking place. There's a gopher who wrecks havoc while Bill Murray tries to stop it, a rivalry between co-founder Ted Knight and obnoxious golfer Rodney Dangerfield, Chvey Chase's bizarre philosophy, and a candy bar that gets mistaken for fecal matter in a swimming pool.
MY OPINION: Boy, a lot of good comedies had came out that summer did they? First The Blues Brothers, then Airplane, then Used Cars, now Caddyshack. Sure the plot kinda meandered but the comedy works, the characters were fun to be around, and the dialogue is very funny. It's crude, crass, and juvenile, but it's also a very funny and smart comedy and worth checking out.
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| XANADU RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 8th |
PLOT SUMMARY: A frustrated artist for album covers teams up with Gene Kelly and Olivia Newton John to open a disco club called Xanadu. But as the artist falls in love with Newton John, he begins to realize that she's a muse from Greek mythology.
MY OPINION: Wow! What a bizarre, incoherent mess this movie really is! I knew it was a critical and commercial flop, I knew the Disco era was starting to decline, I knew that this film helped inspire the infamous Golden Raspberry Awards, but I was not prepared for this at all. The story was making things up as it went along, the characters are bland and uninteresting, and the musical numbers and special effects really don't hold up. If you're interested in this kind of film, give it a watch. If not, then avoid this one.
This wraps up the Summer Movies of 1980. Before I go, I just like to say that I'll only post entries of the Summer Movies of the 1980's series once in a while because these articles are hard to do and I'll also focus on real life activities like school, other series I plan to do on this blog, writing articles on RetroJunk, and making VLOGs I can post on this blog.
My reviews of the Summer Movies of 1981 will be coming soon. As Siskel and Ebert always say, "The balcony is closed".
Good job on the article, Patrick! I saw a lot of these when I was very young, but not all of them. (I seem to have missed Mountain Men and all the Herbie films.) Funny to see Used Cars as it was so controversial at the time. The weird commercials were supposed to be highlights because in those days you couldn't have a teen comedy without boobies. (For example: Porky's, Revenge of the Nerds, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Zapped, etc.) But the scenes are more boring then I remembered then being. I also like that you used the old Saul Bass art for The Shining, which was my preferred artwork rather than Jack Nicholsen's face. Saul did great art and it's good to see it's getting attention these days. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteAbout the Mountain Men, I didn't know about the film until I saw Siskel and Ebert's Worst of 1980 episode. I rented the film on DVD once and didn't like it either. Now I had to watch it a second time and I think I found the problem, apart from the foul language and a few instances of blood, it does feel like a 50's movie with it's standard action scenes and a big star who is well known in the '50's. It feels like a movie John Wayne would have made. I don't know how Used Cars was controversial but I do know it tanked at the box office and the critics didn't think it was funny but it did have a cult following in recent years.
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