I was born in the mid-80s, and for a very long time I associated the culture of that time primarily with horrible hairsytles and an absolutely appaling sense of fashion. During the 90s everything was so much cooler, but looking back at those years now, I again have to ask “what where we thinking?!” Also, when I got older, I associated 80s movies primarily with dumb, ridiculous action movies. You know, Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. Just stupid explosions and lame jokes, with poor excuses for a plot. At that time, I was still too young to watch them and when I finally got around to see them 10 years or so later, but my oppinion of them was not very high.
But now that I am older, and therefore wiser, I see things quite different. Part of it might be simply nostalgia. It reminds me of when I was a kid, and we always kind of like that, even if we were not big fans of it back then. Another factor is plain and simple, that we only remember the best things. Those that were outstanding and so influential that their legacy survived to this day. I am certain there probably hundreds of action movies that were actually really stupid and nothing but explosions and excuse plots. But there also were some really good ones, which now pretty much make up my favorite movies of all time.
- Alien (1979)
- The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
- Outland (1981)
- Raiders of the Lost Arc (1981)
- Blade Runner (1982)
- Conan the Barbarian (1982)
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
- The Thing (1982)
- Dune (1984)
- Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
- The Terminator (1984)
- Enemy Mine (1985)
- Aliens (1986)
- Lethal Weapon (1987)
- Predator (1987)
- Die Hard (1988)
- Total Recall (1990)
- Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)