The Screen Addict | Unsung Heroes of the Eighties

Recently, I wrote an article about the “neglected” films of The Nineties. It occurred to me that in many of my other pieces, I talk about pictures from a decade earlier that suffered a similar fate. Ever the advocate for films that were more-or-less dismissed by the film-journalistic powers that be, I decided to do a prequel about The Unsung Heroes of The Eighties.

Allow me to recap earlier No. Bad. Films. of The Eighties tributes –

I loved reminiscing about classic Stallone pics Lock Up (1989) and Tango & Cash (1989), two great examples of films that feature terrifying villains without superpowers. Warden Drumgoole (Donald Sutherland) aided by “Chink” (Sonny Landham) in LU and Yves Perret (Jack Palance) with henchman Requin (Brion James) in T&C, are genuinely menacing, and they don’t even have the power to destroy half the universe’s population with the snap of a finger.

In my love letter to Black Rain (1989) several No. Bad. Films. posts back, I briefly mentioned the prematurely discontinued adventures of Jack Colton (Michael Douglas) in Romancing the Stone (1984) and The Jewel of the Nile (1985). A worthy alternative for Indiana Jones, and another film franchise I came to appreciate by stumbling across the sequel before I actually saw the original.

Speaking of BR – Ridley Scott and his brother Tony made several films during The Eighties that deserve a lot more appreciation. I wrote extensively about the younger Scott’s career in an earlier piece, specifically highlighting the undervalued Beverly Hills Cop II (1987). There are days that I actually prefer Scott’s amped-up sequel to Martin Brest’s original.

I will forever fight for recognition of James Cameron’s The Abyss (1989) and Steven Spielberg’s Always (1989) as SciFi-Fantasy classics, no matter what its deriders say. And again – both films are long overdue for a 4K re-release.

I feel that Twins (1988) – Arnold Schwarzenegger’s skillfully planned foray into Comedy – is not referred to enough as a masterstroke. I mentioned before in my piece about The Austrian Oak that the perfect timing and brilliant execution of the High-Concept Schwarzenegger - DeVito team up, cannot be overstated.

And to conclude the recap – The Golden Child (1986). This rare critical and commercial misfire in the otherwise extremely lucrative Joint Venture between Paramount Pictures and Eddie Murphy Productions, nevertheless continues to amaze and entertain me with each revisit. I just absolutely adore the old-school movie magic of the climactic sequence, when Sardo Numspa’s genuinely terrifying demonic alter ego finally makes its appearance. And let’s face it – you can never really go wrong with Charles Dance as your main villain.

With these films we are just glimpsing the treasure-trove of Eighties hidden gems, though. During the decade in which I found my one true passion, I came across many more wonderful cinematic experiences that today, don’t get talked about much anymore.

Presumably inspired by his fellow icon-of-the-decade Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone ventured into Comedy as well with Oscar (1991). Admittedly, Sly wasn’t nearly as successful in the genre as his fiercest rival – his other noteworthy experiment was Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992) – but I have a giant soft spot for Oscar.

First of all, the film features a wonderfully quirky opening-credits sequence starring a claymation opera-singer belting out Largo al factotum – which just happens to be an aria from one of my favorite operas. Film buffs will know that this is one of director John Landis’s trademarks. The opening credits of Trading Places (1983) for example, are themed to W.A. Mozart’s overture from The Marriage of Figaro.

In addition to a memorable opening sequence, Oscar features another element that always excites me and I write about on this forum frequently – an impressive ensemble cast. Supplementing Stallone, we see – get ready – Chazz Palminteri, Tim Curry, Peter Riegert, Marisa Tomei, Kurtwood Smith, Ornella Muti and Don Ameche AND Kirk Douglas. Not to mention directors Jim Abrahams and Joe Dante in sneaky cameos.

I understand that many see Oscar as an afterthought in the shadow of Schwarzenegger’s Twins and Kindergarten Cop (1990) game-changers, but I feel that Stallone’s stab at comedy deserves more love. I won’t defend S!OMMWS because that would be disingenuous, but I am sure that there are fans out there who would want to make a case for the Stallone-Getty team up as well.

Lastly – and this comes from my many years as a film programmer – Oscar would make a lovely double-feature with Eddie Murphy’s Harlem Nights (1989)…

I have to mention Paul Hogan’s “Crocodile” Dundee (1986) as an unsung hero of The Eighties, not because the film and its sequel were unsuccessful, but because it has always puzzled me how a perfect example of High-Concept franchise building fizzled out so unceremoniously.

35 years of Star Wars and Superheroes might have clouded our collective cultural memory a bit, but we should never forget what a huge hit and pop-culture phenomenon Hogan’s creation was. The first film was an earth-shattering hit, accumulating far north of $300 million on a tiny $8 million budget – roughly the catering budget on your average Marvel production – so a sequel was quickly greenlit.

I very much enjoyed Crocodile Dundee II (1988) and although the film wasn’t as massively successful as its predecessor – but still close to $250 million on a $14 million spend – I was confident I’d see more of Mick Dundee soon.

Somehow though, the momentum dwindled and it took almost 15 years for the affable gator-wrestler to return to the silver screen. By then Hollywood had changed, and for Dundee to make the same impact he had made during The Eighties, would have required a phenomenal story angle.

Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (2001) however, was not the shot in the arm the franchise needed – but still a better idea than Crocodile Dundee in Space, which was also floated – and the film belly-flopped with a worldwide gross of only $40 million on a $20 million budget. Paramount Pictures – the studio that gladly released the first two films – apparently anticipated a disappointment, as the film was distributed through the independent circuit outside the U.S.

I still see the fumbling of this franchise as a giant missed opportunity. Had it been handled with more care and attention, there is no reason why today Dundee couldn’t be a hugely successful franchise or even a Cinematic Universe with multiple spin-offs and intertwining storylines like Star Wars or Indiana Jones. Such a shame.

It is worth mentioning that Hogan – never one to take himself too seriously – actually addressed the issue of Mick Dundee’s legacy personally in the deliciously meta The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee (2020). Almost 35 years after he introduced us to Mick “Crocodile” Dundee, The Aussie Octogenarian now stars as himself, on a desperate quest through Hollywood to save his brand.

I want very much to be part of this love letter the concluding chapters of two deeply adored sagas. I am bending my own rules a little bit, because both films were officially released in 1990, but their stories actually began decades earlier.

Back to the Future Part III (1990) was shot back-to-back with Back to the Future Part II (1989) – which is why I feel comfortable including it in this piece – but was met with mixed feelings overall. To me, the film has always been the perfect finale of a story that, incredible as it may sound, was never meant to have a sequel in the first place.

Creators Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis never envisioned Marty McFly’s adventure as part of a larger narrative, it was only after the phenomenal success of the first film that everyone involved began to ponder the possibilities of multiple chapters.

It just makes sense – the first film sees Marty interacting with his own parents in The Fifties, in the sequel he saves his kids in the – at the time of the film’s release – future, and for Part III our hero time-travels to The Wild West after a freak accident zaps his old pal “Doc” Emmett Brown there. I can think of few other film series that have such a beautifully defined story-arc.

Gale and Zemeckis have always fiercely protected the conclusiveness of the trilogy, immediately squashing any ill-advised studio talk of another sequel or a reboot. This, of course, only adds to the brilliance of the films – they are perfect just the way they are.

The other threequel worth mentioning despite it not actually being part of The Eighties, is The Godfather Part III. This much-maligned film was recently revisited by its director Francis Ford Coppola, resulting in The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone (1990). Which, by the way, is a title that must have given the marketing people nightmares.

Full disclosure – I never felt there was anything particularly wrong with the original version in the first place, but it was quite wonderful to see Coppola introduce the film as “the version he had always intended to make”. Like a mechanic tinkering with a precious classic car, the eminent filmmaker reshuffled several scenes and got rid of the “Part III” in the title – which he despised but was enforced by the studio – and I felt like I had ran into an old friend who looked better than ever when I saw the result.

It also reminded me of the missed opportunity of having a fourth film with Andy Garcia’s Vincent at the center. If there ever was a worthy heir to the legacy built by Brando, De Niro and Pacino, it’s Garcia. The actor is simply stunning in this film – menacing while charming, lethal while funny. It truly is quite a sight. It’s rumored that there was in fact talk about a Vincent Corleone spin-off, but when Mario Puzo died in 1999, all plans for a new chapter in the saga presumably died with him.

Two fantasy films from The Eighties that inexplicably do not get the love I feel they very much deserve, are Labyrinth (1986) and Willow (1988). And although it was recently announced that Disney – the conglomerate that currently owns the Willow character through their acquisition of Lucasfilm – is developing a series based on the beloved character brought to life by Warwick Davis, nothing has been done with the Labyrinth property since the release of the original film.

(Author’s note – A Willow TV Series was in fact released on Disney+ in 2022, but a second season has yet to be announced)

If memory serves, Disney presently also owns Jim Henson Studios – the creative company behind Labyrinth – so I guess the faith of this potential franchise is in their hands too. Funny how The Mouse House seems to control almost everything we get to see these days...

I have talked at length about my love for RtS and TJotN on this forum. The terrific trio of Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito reunited for another, much darker film four years after their second collaboration. The War of the Roses (1989) explores the implosion of an ostensibly perfect marriage when two former lovers slowly turn into formidable foes.

The pitch-black gallows humor of TWotR was probably not what audiences expected after the lighthearted adventures of Jack Colton and Joan Wilder, but De Vito – who also directs – nonetheless delivers a bleak but fascinating perspective on the nature of relationships. If nothing else, TWotR is the Stone-Jewel threequel that never was.

In conclusion, I would like to pay my respects to the Michael J. Fox film that was somewhat overshadowed by his shenanigans in a modified DeLorean. The Secret of My Succe$s (1987) is in many ways the ultimate Eighties flick and – perhaps more poignantly – the ultimate Michael J. Fox film. His character, Brantley Foster, is basically a more humane incarnation of Alex P. Keaton, and to be clear – I love Alex P. Keaton.

When I first saw the film many years ago, I remember being completely enthralled by the idea of just confiscating an office in some faceless skyscraper and acting like you belong. But it was also the romantic notion of going from mailroom to boardroom through hard work, a little rule bending and the team up with a lovely lady that really spoke to me. Not to mention the fantastic score and soundtrack, but that should come as no surprise to the faithful readers of my stories.

I could go on for a while on this subject. My point, as always, is that I want to encourage other people to see a particular film and not dissuade them – like most critics tend to do. I truly hope that by writing passionately about the films I love, I might motivate someone else who was otherwise probably not going to bother, to take a chance on something potentially wonderful.

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