1980s – Page 26

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)

Published on October 13, 2017June 14, 2026 by Geoff ArbuckleLeave a comment

Happy Friday the 13th, folks. Even though this occurs a couple times every year, this one is kinda special. It isn’t just Friday the 13th, but it’s a Friday the 13th in October, the undisputed scariest month on the calendar. It’s like a double Friday the 13th! If only it was also a full moon then everyone everywhere would just get murdered by guys in hockey masks, werewolves, Michael Myers, or Irish toy makers.

This is the perfect chance for me to talk about my favorite Jason Voorhees movie – Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives.

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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)

Published on October 6, 2017June 14, 2026 by Geoff ArbuckleLeave a comment

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of the most beloved horror movies of the modern era. It’s full of intensity, actual terrifying moments, and visceral violence that stays with you for years after you watch it. It came out in 1974 during the golden age of exploitation horror before the genre was essentially taken over by the slasher genre that Halloween gave birth to in the late 70s.

The film also boasts that it has connections to real life events. Well… Sort of. Leatherface was inspired by Ed Gein who was a real life serial killer who did indeed take skin from his victims and started making a skin suit. There are some minor plot details that also came from the Gein case, but that was all in Wisconsin, not Texas.

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My Stepmother Is an Alien (1988)

Published on September 22, 2017June 14, 2026 by Geoff ArbuckleLeave a comment

So here’s another movie I watched a whole bunch between 1989 and about 1991.

In the late 80s and early 90s, I was hitting puberty pretty much like Mark McGwire would hit dingers – hard and fast. During this time, I would find movies and TV shows as sources of my adolescent crushes. I don’t think we need to revisit my damn near stalker-level love of both Alyssa Milano and Phoebe Cates. I think we’ve covered that quite a bit. Last week, you learned that I was hot in my britches for Teri Copely. There were two other ladies that hit the scene in 1989 that I wanted to see whatever I could – Kim Basinger and the cat lady from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

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Transylvania Twist (1989)

Published on September 15, 2017June 14, 2026 by Geoff ArbuckleLeave a comment

So here is a little oddball movie that I was suddenly reminded of one day.

Back in 1989 through about 1991, Transylvania Twist appeared fairly regularly on cable channels like Showtime and the like before appearing on VHS in 1993. The movie is mostly notable to me for starring Robert Vaughn and Angus Scrimm (also known as the bad guy from Superman III and the Tall Man from the Phantasm series). However, there were one other member of the cast that really caught the attention of a young me – Teri Copley. Young me really, really liked blondes in the late 80s and early 90s.

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Masters of the Universe (1987)

Published on August 4, 2017June 14, 2026 by Geoff ArbuckleLeave a comment

Remember a few weeks ago when I mentioned that this might be one of the very worst span of four weeks during one summer movie slate ever? It started with July’s Jaws: The Revenge and Superman IV: The Quest of Peace, and now ends with one of the more spectacular Cannon Films failures, Masters of the Universe.

The origin of how this movie came about takes root from the Mattel smash toy hit of the same name. Trust me, when I was little, everyone had He-Man toys. We’d walk around and ask each other if they want to play “He-Mans” and usually had our figures in tow at all times. We fucking loved this shit. What’s funny is that the toys were super cheaply made. For the most part, every figure had the same overly muscular body spray-painted different colors with different heads and different accessories or attachments. When you have a bunch of of the very same body for every male figure, it makes production costs quite a bit lower and gives you much more of a profit when these things sold like crazy hotcakes.

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Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)

Published on July 21, 2017June 14, 2026 by Geoff ArbuckleLeave a comment

What’s this? Another utterly disappointing fourth film in a franchise to be released in July of 1987? You bet it is!

In a span of four weeks in the middle of the summer of 1987, moviegoers had to be subjected to Jaws: The Revenge from Universal, this week’s feature, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, and Masters of the Universe. The latter two being massively popular intellectual properties for young kids – both released by Cannon Films.

That’s fucking depressing to know that much shit flew out of screens into your face in such a short period of time.

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Jaws: The Revenge (1987)

Published on July 14, 2017June 14, 2026 by Geoff ArbuckleLeave a comment

Oof magoof… Talk about your ill-advised sequels.

1975’s Jaws is a cinematic triumph in proportions never seen before. It broke box office records. It was the first, true “blockbuster”. It changed the way movies are released. Hell, it created what would become the “summer movie”.

The funny thing is, it shouldn’t have worked out the way it did. The production was a disaster with mechanical sharks used to depict “Bruce the Shark” constantly breaking down and nearly unusable to the point that direct Steven Spielberg had to become incredibly creative on how he shot the shark. The production shot at sea which caused lots of problems when unwanted boats simply drifted into frame. The film went way beyond schedule and way over budget.

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Megaforce (1982)

Published on June 23, 2017June 14, 2026 by Geoff ArbuckleLeave a comment

Ah Megaforce. What took me so long to come around to you?

I think I probably subconsciously waited for this exact moment – to commemorate Megaforce’s 35th anniversary of release. There’s a bit of insanity surrounding this masterful piece of cinematic art. First, you probably didn’t know that it has a deep connection to another 1982 classic sci-fi movie – Blade Runner. Yeah. There was a film company in Hong Kong who put together the funding for MegaForce, Blade Runner, and two other films to hopefully breakthrough in the United States. All of them were box office failures (well… technically High Road to China was not a failure, just forgotten).

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