Top 20 Movies Of 1981 (Nos. 6-10)

For this week's Ranked!, we compiled the twenty greatest movies from 1981. Tell us what you think when you get down to #1. And let us know if you would've ordered them differently.

Here are numbers 6-10:

10. Arthur

A happy go-lucky drunk Dudley Moore is a thing of giggles and delight. This was a screwball comedy that I watched often as a kid. I may not have totally understood it, but I knew that Dudley Moore would be really fun to go to Central Park with. --Archphoenix

Top 20 Movies Of 1981 (Nos. 11-15)

For this week's Ranked!, we compiled the twenty greatest movies from 1981. Tell us what you think when you get down to #1. And let us know if you would've ordered them differently.

Here are numbers 11-15:

15. For Your Eyes Only

There is absolutely nothing negative you can say about a movie poster that involves ass cheeks and a crossbow, just as there is nothing derogatory you can say about this 007 flick. After suffering through the oddly out-of-place Moonraker in my Bond-watching youth, I felt like For Your Eyes Only was a true return to form. My mother was a certifiable Bond fanatic, having read all the books as a kid and seeing every single one of the films. As I got a little older, I was allowed to come along to watch James globe trot for MI6 and save the world with style. In this installment there is a sunken boat, a Royal Navy situation, a race against the Russians and a formidable femme fatale. Plus it's got one of the best winter chase scenes in Bond history.--Dufmanno

Top 20 Movies Of 1981 (Nos. 16-20)

For this week's Ranked!, we compiled the twenty greatest movies from 1981. Tell us what you think when you get down to #1. And let us know if you would've ordered them differently.

Here are numbers 16-20:

20. Das Boot

The entire war movie genre was pretty much created as a propaganda tool. I'm not really faulting that. I can only imagine the level of justified fear that people felt during World War II. The idea of being able to go to the movies and see idealized versions of our men in uniform valiantly defeating the (equally one-dimensional) evil Axis and Japanese soldiers who were threatening our country had to be of great comfort.

In the years after the war ended, war movies went through a transformation that was (in my opinion) for the better. No longer were the lines so crisply drawn between black and white, good and evil. Audiences got to see shades of gray in the characters, and learn that there were motivations, both good and evil, on both sides.

Which brings me to Das Boot, which I consider one of the greatest war movies ever made. Not only is it realistic--the submarine that is the setting for the majority of the film is so claustrophobic and so gritty that you can almost smell it by the end of the movie--but it is also able to do something that, up until this movie was made, I had never seen. It made you feel sorry for the Germans in World War II. Not all of them, mind you, but the crew of the U-boat definitely. By the end of the movie, these guys--not painted as idealistic or nationalistic, just as sailors performing their duty--had gone through so much that you were pulling for them to make it through everything alive. And, when the ending of the movie comes... well, you'll just have to see it. It's heart wrenching.

It's a masterful film that just has to be seen to be believed.--Dave

Top 20 Movies Of 1980 (Nos. 1-5)

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

Top 20 Movies Of 1980 (Nos. 6-10)

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 are numbers 6-10:

10. Raging Bull

I was far too young to see, understand, or appreciate Raging Bull when it first hit theaters. But that's okay, because the movie is timeless. It's lived on because of the powerful performance from Robert De Niro and the flawless attention to detail by director Martin Scorsese. I didn't step into the ring with Raging Bull until my teenage years, when the movie geek in me went searching for films with meaning and substance. Its an unflinching character study It's a sports movie that is so much more than a sports movie. It's a work of art from people at the top of their craft.--Daddy Geek Boy

Top 20 Movies Of 1980 (Nos. 11-15)

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 are numbers 11-15:

15. Private Benjamin

"Has anybody ever died from basic?"

The first half of this movie is classic: girl is a pampered princess, girl's husband dies on her wedding night, girl decides to enlist in the Army (WTF?), girl bumbles her way through basic training, girl graduates basic and the movie meanders aimlessly, bogs down, and becomes boring. But for that first half, the comic barbs traded between Goldie Hawn and Eileen Brennan make the movie worthwhile.--Chris

Top 20 Movies Of 1980 (Nos. 16-20)

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 are numbers 16-20:

20. Ordinary People

For years I equated Mary Tyler Moore with city girl goodness. Every time I walked through a metropolitan area, I was gripped with the urge to toss my whimsical hat into the air while a smooth-voiced '70s guy sang "you're gonna make it after all." Well, that dream was crushed under the heavy boot of her cold and bitter portrayal of Beth Jarrett, a mother trying to negotiate the horrifying aftermath of a favored son's accidental death in Ordinary People. To be fair, the character is highly unlikable: a woman half-trying to help and understand the suicide attempt of the surviving son Conrad (played by Timothy Hutton) and not at all committed to holding her fraying family together like her far more likable husband Calvin (an awesome Donald Sutherland). This was the first character-driven drama that I remember being good enough to hold my still gnat-like attention span. Some surprising moments punctuated my viewing and I came away with an uncertain feelings. Were there families like this? Did people act like they didn't care about their kids? For a sheltered child who'd grown up in the embrace of a warm but crazy family this, movie was an eye opener to the real world where things didn't always turn out okay. Incidentally I'm still on the lookout for a therapist as good as Judd Hirsch's Dr. Tyrone Berger.--Dufmanno

Top 25 Movies Of 1987 (Nos. 1-5)

For this week's Ranked!, we compiled the twenty-five greatest movies from twenty-five years ago, 1987. Tell us what you think when you get down to #1. And let us know if you would've ordered them differently.

Here are numbers 1-5:

5. Planes, Trains And Automobiles

How appropriate that this hilarious film makes the Top 5 for 1987. You've got a formula for awesomeness here: two comedic geniuses in John Candy and Steve Martin, an Odyssey of an adventure, and John Hughes at the helm. Neal Page (Steve Martin) plays a straight-laced businessman trying to get from New York to Chicago, and get home for Thanksgiving dinner. Del Griffith (John Candy) is a goofy, accident prone screw-up who is also a bit of an innocent. It's a three day harrowing adventure filled with flight delays, muggings, and supernatural failures with every mode of transport these two guys use in their vain attempt to return to Chicago. At the center of this movie is lots of bro-bonding, and how Neal discovers a very sad truth about his "friend" Del. And in the end, he reaches out to the man he blames for his misfortunes, and becomes a member of his family for Thanksgiving and beyond.--Jay Noel

Top 25 Movies Of 1987 (Nos. 6-10)

For this week's Ranked!, we compiled the twenty-five greatest movies from twenty-five years ago, 1987. Tell us what you think when you get down to #1. And let us know if you would've ordered them differently.

Here are numbers 6-10:

10. The Untouchables

It seems like a travesty even to say this, but I think Sean Connery's greatest role was not, in fact, James Bond, but instead was Jim Malone. And if you've seen The Untouchables you have to at least pause to consider it. He makes you forget the block of wood cast as Elliott Ness and has you cheering for his unorthodox methods (he memorably interrogates a dead man) and adherence to "the Chicago way." ("Isn't that just like a wop. Bring a knife to a gunfight.") But as utterly transcendent as Connery is, The Untouchables is so much more: a tour de force of gangster-era action and larger-than-life set pieces. The thrilling menace of De Niro's baseball speech is iconic, and there's a scene in the train station with a mob informant and a baby carriage that is a masterpiece of pulse-pounding, slow-motion suspense. It's a master class on how to evoke an era and seamlessly meld hard-edged period realism with modern action storytelling. Thus endeth the lesson.--CroutonBoy
 

Top 25 Movies Of 1987 (Nos. 11-15)

For this week's Ranked!, we compiled the twenty-five greatest movies from twenty-five years ago, 1987. Tell us what you think when you get down to #1. And let us know if you would've ordered them differently.

Here are numbers 11-15:

15. Robocop

When I first saw the movie poster for Robocop I couldn't help but think, "Man, that looks cheesy." In an era where Schwarzenegger and Stallone were kicking serious ass with shear brawn and unlimited ammo, a dude in a metal suit looked like something that should be going straight-to-video. But part of what makes Robocop so awesome is that it doesn't rely on the charisma of a gun-toting meathead. It's a parable for man's struggle to maintain his humanity in the face of ever-growing technology. It's a social commentary on the rise of corporate power and the outsourcing of our responsibility for justice. And... oh, let's face it, it's an ultra-violent awesomefest where dudes are blown the hell up with giant guns and, in one memorable instance, a combination of radioactive waste and a high-speed impact. Robocop was responsible for more cheering from the basement couch at my best friend's house than any other movie, largely because it knew its audience (17 year-old boys) and what they wanted. They don't make 'em like they used to.--CroutonBoy