Michelle Miles: Hello, the 80s called. They want their movies back.

At my house, Saturday night is “movie night.” We’ve been doing it consistently for a month or so now. The kid LOVES it. And even when he’s not there, the Man and I have movie night. But with popcorn – Kid has braces and can’t eat it so we try not to have it in front of him cuz that just mean.

Anyway, he recently turned 13. Aside from him joining the land of social media and instant communication, it also means he gets to catch up on all those 80s movies that we loved at his age.

Aside from Ghostbusters (1984) which he’s already seen, we introduced him to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986). He loved it. I’ve never heard the kid laugh as hard as he did at that one. This past weekend, we watched Crocodile Dundee (1986). After we watched it, I got to thinking about thin the plot was. And they kept saying he was a poacher but…we never really saw him poaching anything. Well, except for the one crock that he stabbed in the head to save the girl stood by the water, scantily clad, and dipped in her canteen. It was pretty easy to see she was going to fall for the Aussie after he “boyfriend” was such a jerk to him (and her) at dinner. There really didn’t seem to be a lot of character development, either. I guess I’m jaded. ;)

When the kid was away, Man and I watched Witness (1985) starring Harrison Ford. He’s the homicide cop who investigates a murder of a fellow cop and the only witness he has is an Amish boy. I actually really liked this movie. I thought it was well done and Ford was nominated for Best Actor (though he lost to William Hurt for his role in Kiss of the Spider Woman). I’d found the movie for $4.99 at Barnes & Noble. I was SUPER excited about that.

I also found Amadeus (1984) for about the same price. This was a regular DVD and it was so old, we had to play it in our regular DVD player – it wouldn’t play in the Blu-Ray player at all. We could see the picture, but there was no sound. And here’s the other funny thing about the disc—the movie was on both sides. Remember those DVD’s for movies that were over two hours? They were so long, they had to put them on both sides? I’d forgotten they did that until we got to a certain point in the movie and it just stopped. Incidentally, F. Murray Abraham won Best Actor for his portrayal of Salieri. It’s truly a fantastic movie if you have a chance to watch it, though I don’t know how historically accurate it is.

Other movies we watched in our queue: Adventures in Babysitting (1987), The Breakfast Club (1985), Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989), Back to the Future (1985) and Gremlins (1984).

And I can’t forget some of my all-time favs: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Empire Strikes Back (1981), Return of the Jedi (1983), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). Hm, funny that all those movies have something in common. Can you guess what it is? ;)

So what are your favorite 80s movies? Inquiring minds want to know!

Michelle Miles is an avid movie watcher, writes romance, drinks coffee and collects shoes. You can learn more about her books at http://www.michellemiles.net.