Keeping with tradition on Easter Sunday, Jan and I went to American Jan’s house to watch Monty Python’s The Life Of Brian. Watching this film made me realize how we romanticize our memories of films that we first saw when we were younger. Don’t get me wrong: I like this film very much! It has no doubt withstood the test of time. But we almost always remember these films in a brighter light than they really deserve. Especially those of us who grew up in the cotton-candy optimistic 80’s! There were some real stinkers that I watched on HBO every day (and they played them 5 times a day) and still revere. I dare you to go back and watch any of these today. I just dare you: Howard The Duck, Popeye, Soul Man, Adventures In Babysitting, Buckaroo Banzai, Splash, Mad Max, Just One Of The Guys, Joe vs. The Volcano, License To Drive, Weekend At Bernie’s, etc. I could go on forever. Maybe that ever-important “movie critic lobe” of our brains wasn’t fully developed yet.
But for every six stinkers, there were some definite gems: Real Genius, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Weird Science, Back To The Future, The Breakfast Club, Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones, Caddyshack, Stand By Me, The Goonies, and on and on and on… I could watch any of these films a hundred times.
Well, looking at this list I’d have to say that either these “classics” were the diamonds in the rough, or that “movie critic lobe” of mine could still use a little more developing.
being born in the late 80s makes me miss so many great movies because i missed it all from the 80s and early 90s. damn my parents awful timing on having me.
I loved “Howard the Duck” and “Soul Man.” But I don’t dare watch them again today (especially Howard) for fear of wanting to rip my eyes out for ever admitting to enjoying them.
Oh, and that chick from “Just One of the Guys” was smokin’ hot. So was Mercedes from “License to Drive.” They should do a VH1 special on “Where Are They Now?? Crappy movie starlets from the 80’s.”
I recently say down to watch 2 animated classics from my youth; “The Point” and “The Phanton Tollbooth” – both were way worse than I remembered. Though, I did just re-read Phantom Tollbooth and loved it more than the first time.
Never go back and watch Time Bandits. It’s unbearable.