For this week's Ranked!, we compiled the twenty greatest movies from 1980. Tell us what you think when you get down to #1. And let us know if you would've ordered them differently.
Here's the Top Five:
5. The Shining
This film gets some flack from purists for not sticking to the source material, Stephen King's excellent novel, but for my money the movie totally works, largely because Jack Nicholson is the creepiest thing on earth. That creepy grin, the "Heeere's Johnny!" with the axe, I swear Jack just freaked me the hell out in his descent to madness. Also creepy? That kid who played Danny. Creepy Jack + creepy kid + REDRUM = awesome little horror flick.--Archphoenix
4. The Blues Brothers
I'm a music nut, so clearly this was a simple choice for the list of movies of the year. Now, granted, I actually saw the newer version before this, but nothing beats the original. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd will always be burned into our hearts as the lovable brothers just trying to save their old school... through the power of blues music! The tagline is legendary: "They'll never get caught. They're on a mission from God." And along the way, they meet some of the most fantastic cast of musical characters anyone could assemble: Ray Charles, James Brown, and Aretha Franklin, to name a few. This was also the first time SNL took a skit to the big screen, and it set the bar high. In musical film history, this is one of the best by far!--J-Hawke
3. Airplane!
The "Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes" exchange between Kareem and little Joey was the kind of silliness that the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker school was teaching and boy did we eat it up! Over the line, slapstick, and ridiculous, Airplane! was refreshing because it was pure comedy when everyone was trying awfully hard to be artsy. It has the Beave's mom talking jive for god's sake. Srsly Shrly. I bet kids today don't even know what jive is. But that's OK, because we have Airplane! to educate them correctly. I bet the kids also don't know that Airplane! paved the way for other comedic movies, like the Scary Movie series or Farrelly Brothers' flicks, that are funny for the sake of being funny. So if you were born in the '80s or after and you haven't seen this you need to go and stream it right now. And then thank Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker.--The Weirdgirl
2. Caddyshack
When I was a kid at the neighbor's pool, we all screamed and jumped out of the water at the sight of a floating turd harmlessly making its way to the deep end. It turned out to be nothing but a chocolate bar. Apparently, a couple of the wiseguys had seen Caddyshack and wanted to see if the prank depicted in the movie would really work. It did.Even today, you can yell out any one of the famous lines from 1980's Caddyshack and you're sure to find others laughing along with you and knowing exactly what crazy movie you're referring to. "You're a lot of woman, you know that? Yeah, wanna make 14 dollars the hard way?" or "A flute without holes, is not a flute. A donut without a hole, is a Danish" is sure to get some laughs. This movie is ridiculously funny because it strikes such a strong nerve in the state of the social caste system we have in America.
I worked at the most exclusive country club in St. Louis in the middle 1990s, not much had changed. Caddyshack pokes fun of the elite, and the audience finds itself rooting for the lowly caddy underdog, Danny Noonan (Michael O'Keefe). Danny decides to caddy for Judge Smalls (played by Ted Knight) in hopes of getting a leg up on winning a golf scholarship. But to me, the other characters steal the show: Ty Webb (Chevy Chase) is a Zen-like golf master, Al Czervik (Rodney Dangerfield) is the wealthy outsider, and of course you have Carl Spackler (Bill Murray), a Vietnam vet who wages war on a pesky gopher.
The genius behind Caddyshack is how it satirizes class warfare. But instead of Wall Street, the battles are fought on a golf course.--Jay
