80s Movies - Am I Becoming An Old Man!

I'm in danger of becoming the type of person who states that things were always better in my day. A statement which I hated in my youth, back then citing that the 50's and 60's were better. The trouble is, looking back to my idling days of the 80's in comparison to now, I have to accept that indeed... THINGS WERE BETTER BACK THEN!

I'm talking about arts and media, not necessarily tech or money, and certainly not in my life. I just hark back to the products released by Hollywood, the likes of Warner Bros and Universal, were pretty cool. Just look at the output from 84 and 85: Gremlins, The Goonies, Back to the Future, iconic movies that have lasted the test of time. 

Also though I like the fact that these are stories with great characters, little violence and...dare I say it, all coming in under 2 hours. Every Marvel movie now seems to be drawn out, much like Star Wars. The original came in under 2 hours (although the special edition has taken it over); The Last Jedi came in at 2h 32m. Not a lot more, but my brain and arse certainly felt it was. The story, unlike the original, was just not engaging enough and a whole chunk of that movie should have remained on the cutting room floor. I miss the days of 90 minute movies that had you laughing and excited and left you wanting more. I don't feel that anymore, I want less!

Because the story has to come first, in anything. Engaging stories in the 80's gave us Aliens, The Terminator, Nightmare on Elm Street, Platoon, Beverly Hills Cop, Ghostbusters, E.T. and the trouble now is that studios trying to recreate that can only think to do it again, but that's not the answer, they should be trusting in original stories that capture imaginations. Just like they did back then.

The only industry this seems to be happening in is games. From my early Spectrum games of Spy Hunter, Dragon's Lair and Batman we have moved on huge leaps, from Tomb Raider to the current Spider-man game, the graphics and engagement and story are amazing. That is why the games industry is so massive, and taking the audience away from the movie theatre. It's not just because of immersive entertainment, it is also down to engaging stories that excite and entertain.

Current worth of the US games industry is $134.9b - the US movie industry is worth $41.7b with the worldwide industry combined just beating the US games industry with a worth of $136b. 

Are storytellers and creators heading away from the predictable inflexible movie industry and charging their creativity in the games? I would expect so. The releases this year from the largest company in the form of Disney are remakes and sequels. Yes, crowds are going, but there has to be a point when enough is enough and the audience become tired of this. 

To combat this tedium in my life I am returning to the 80s, watching the likes of Tron, Beverly Hills Cop, Stand By Me et al. The soundtracks were good, the stories were good, the creativity was there. Yes, the effects may be dodgy, but ever so clever and what fun to have been working on with those models and gore! 

Watch John Carpenter's The Thing, and then marvel at how wonderful it would have been to have made the alien model and brought it to life. It looks amazing, and it was all created by talented model-makers. 

So, check them out, give the decade a go. I agree there was rubbish, but there are more gems in that decade than in any other I have seen since.