Finally watching “Ruthless People”
#wow much 80s
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I’ve fond but vague memories. Should I hold onto them or risk it all by watching again?
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Wanted my money back after seeing that in the theater.
Watched Lady Behave last night. (Free at the Internet Archive.) Stupid, but loads of plot and snappy dialogue crammed into 70 minutes. A great way to waste an hour.
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Danny DeVito is sooo wonderfully a complete bastard in that movie.
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We enjoyed it! Very 80s flashback. Tight script, classic comedic situations. Language is modern, but the structure is hundreds or thousands of years old.
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If you loved the 80’s then you weren’t there.
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Half of the people that I know who saw The Lobster thought it was funny and thought provoking. The other half were actively angry about having been “fooled” into watching it, they hated it so much. I’m always fascinated by movies that inspire such strong polarized opinions.
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Our Kind of Traitor.
My kind of film. I do like me some Le Carré - even if this wasn’t The Night Manager good, or even A Most Wanted Man.
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Damn straight, QFT, and holy shit was that the most thoroughly correct sentiment of the year. Except for NWOBHM examples, I can’t think of much I’d preserve from those godforsaken Reagan years.
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Just watched Maggie. A very un-Arnie kind of film from Schwarzenegger.
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How was it, otherwise? I’ve heard mixed reports.
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Mixed. 
I mean, it’s a zombie film, and Schwarzenegger isn’t much of an actor, but it’s a different take on the idea. And it’s quite short.
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It’s an excellent and under appreciated film, for sure.
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Terminator Genisys. Even with all the time travel, that’s two hours I can’t get back.
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A greedy, fake plastic decade indelibly streaked with teal and pink, its tawdry Spandex flailing in the wind like a flag desperate for nostalgic allegiance from those who either weren’t paying attention at the time or were born much later only to repeat the same mistake.
Also:
- Rainbow Brite
- Ghostbusters
- Metroid
- Boglins
- Peter Gabriel
- Gremlins
- Just hordes of monsters in general
- DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince
- Cassettes
- Being stoked about having a CD player and never having to deal with cassettes ever again
All of which did nothing to negate or even weaken my indignation when I became politically aware in the 90s and learned about how fucked up the 80s were, politically if not also culturally.
Like, for example, how we started to define our personal sense of cultural/generational identity primarily through contemporary media consumption.
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That goes back much earlier than the 1980s, it begins with the boomers, who had time and money like no generation before them and poured much of that time and money into consumerism as a way of creating an identity.
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I found “Candy” (1968) on YouTube. It’s star-studded, written by Buck Henry, but the IMDB rating of 5.2 gives me pause. I sat through “The Magic Christian” (I’d give TMC a 6), “The Trip”, “Head” and “Skidoo!” but I’d like to know if “Candy” is worth watching.
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You’ve messed up the timeline, the late 60’s and 70’s was when the boomers were in their self indulgent young adulthoods pursuing hedonism. The 80’s is when the Boomers got rich in their prime earning years and went all in on consuming and conservatism.
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No, I haven’t. There is a reason why “teenager” became a consumer category that didn’t really exist prior to the 1950s. The economic power of the young boomers in the late 1950s and 1960s is not to be underestimated.
I wouldn’t say consumer is connected to either side politically, but functions as a public square, more often than not, with one’s dollars being used to make political statements.
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