Showing posts with label 1980. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1980. Show all posts

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 Albums Of 1980 (Nos. 1-5)



For this week's Ranked!, we compiled the twenty-five greatest albums from 1980. Tell us what you think of our list when you get down to #1. And let us know if you would've ordered them differently.

Here are Numbers 1-5:

5. John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Double Fantasy

What can I say? Mama raised a Beatles girl, tried and true, even through the rough solo albums. Best of 1980? Okay, I get how that's arguable. It did, however, win Best Album at the Grammys that year. Now, most memorable? Absolutely, but for the saddest reason a Beatles fan can remember: three weeks later, John Lennon was shot and killed. While Yoko's voice drives me absolutely up a wall, there's a nostalgic and heartstrings factor that I cannot get over in love for anything with the name Lennon, and the love that man could show. "For the other half of the sky..." Thanks for one more go-around, John.--J-Hawke



Top 25 Albums Of 1980 (Nos. 6-10)



For this week's Ranked!, we compiled the twenty-five greatest albums from 1980. Tell us what you think of our list when you get down to #1. And let us know if you would've ordered them differently.

Here are Numbers 6-10:

10. Hall & Oates, Voices

The early '80s for me were all about Hall & Oates. And I mean ALL about them. From my perspective they could do no wrong, and I certainly wasn't in the minority. They were all over the radio, hooking you with one of their songs, and just as you started to get tired of it a new one would be there to replace it, like crack. Town squares across America should have statues of Hall & Oates to commemorate the good they did for us in the 1980s, and even though it was their 9th album, Voices was the one that really kicked it off. "Kiss On My List" was #1 forever, and "You Make My Dreams" never stopped being a #1 in my heart. Their cover of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" is as good as the original, and Paul Young stole their glory by covering "Everytime You Go Away" for the MTV crowd. Voices is a masterpiece of blue-eyed soul, and if there's any justice in the world this paragraph will send it to the top of the iTunes download list by week's end.--CroutonBoy



Top 25 Albums Of 1980 (Nos. 11-15)



For this week's Ranked!, we compiled the twenty-five greatest albums from 1980. Tell us what you think of our list when you get down to #1. And let us know if you would've ordered them differently.

Here are Numbers 11-15:

15. Peter Gabriel, Peter Gabriel

Also sometimes known as Melt due to its trippy cover photo, Peter Gabriel's third and best solo album was deemed at one point by some moronic record executive as not commercial enough to sell. With the benefit of hindsight and what I'm sure was a big ass slice of humble pie, I'm sure that bigwig came to understand the error of his judgement. Featuring the mind-bending "Intruder," the Lord Of The Flies-tinted "Games Without Frontiers," and the moving tribute "Biko," this was one of those records you could spend hours listening to without fully hearing everything that Gabriel had laid out for you until months and months later. My original copy sustained water damage while in storage and I'm still not over it.--Dufmanno



Top 25 Albums Of 1980 (Nos. 16-20)



For this week's Ranked!, we compiled the twenty-five greatest albums from 1980. Tell us what you think of our list when you get down to #1. And let us know if you would've ordered them differently.

Here are Numbers 16-20:

20. Dire Straits, Making Movies

I love this album. Love love love love love this album. It's a pity that the voice and virtuosity of Mark Knopfler seems to forever be trapped in our collective memories straddling "Sultans Of Swing" and "Money For Nothing," because one listen to Making Movies will reveal that Dire Straits was once one of the World's Greatest Bands. I myself didn't discover it until I was in college, when "Romeo And Juliet" found its way onto every mixtape I made for a girl. It's such a mesmerizing album, sometimes a little jazzy, sometimes a little country, but always with a distinctive guitar sound and singer-songwriter sensibilities. I could listen to "Tunnel Of Love," "Skateaway," and "Espresso Love" on infinite loop and never get tired of them. (As proof, I offer my list of the top 100 albums of all time, still fundamentally the same, with stated revisions, as they were in 2007.) If you're a fan of good music, you owe it to yourself to own this album.--CroutonBoy



Top 25 Albums Of 1980 (Nos. 21-25)



For this week's Ranked!, we compiled the twenty-five greatest albums from 1980. Tell us what you think of our list when you get down to #1. And let us know if you would've ordered them differently.

Here are Numbers 21-25:

25. INXS, INXS

Truth be told, I came to like this album long after its release in 1980. There was some grumbling after the huge successes of Shabooh Shoobah, Listen Like Thieves, Kick, and X that their first record had just been exploration for feeling out what their sound might be, but I tend to disagree. I think it was raw but powerful in its own right with songs like "Just Keep Walking" and lots of foreshadowing of what makes INXS as foot tapping good as they are. I never bought another INXS release after Hutchence's untimely death but when I go back and listen to this early effort, it makes me smile with the knowledge that he had so much to give to a band that clearly made their own rules and rose to the top.--Dufmanno