Last night, Darth Vader came down from planet Vulcan and told me that if I didn't take Lorraine out that he'd melt my brain

Title: Back to the Future (1985)

Back to the Future is reverred today as one of the most clever and funniest movies based on time travel. It has given us lasting pop culture icons and lexicons such as the flux capacitor, the De Lorean time machine, and 1.21 gigawatts. The flux capacitor and the De Lorean are associated by many with time travel. And rightly so, it's the most stylish time machine of them all. Also, I hear way too many people coining the term "1.21 gigawatts" on almost activity, even while bowling.

The whole package just fits together nicely. Robert Zemeckis has done a fantastic job directing and co-writing this classic movie. Christopher Lloyd's performance as the eccentric Doc Brown is memorable. Not to mention the lasting imprints that are made by the youthful rivalry between Thomas Wilson's and Crispin Glover's characters as Bif Tannen and George McFly. And Michael J. Fox gives another endearing teenage character in Marty McFly. By this time, he was already known to many as Alex Keaton from the hit TV series, Family Ties. Of course, Leah Thompson (Red Dawn), Marty's future mom and lust stricken teen, is beautiful.

What if there's a Back to the Future Reboot?

One question for fans of the movie. IF Back to the Future is going to be rebooted, what elements would have to be changed to fit a teenager from 2009 going back in time to 1979?

First of all, I think that 30 years is a sweet spot for a generational crossroad. In that period, if a teenager goes back in time, he'll be able to see his parents as teenagers themselves.

"What do kids do in the '50s?", asked Marty McFly as he tried to figure out how to hook up his mom and dad. Marty was in high school at the time and a kid himself, but from the '80s.


While I don't have a teenage kid, I think that because of the successful sitcom, That 70's Show, a teenager traveling back in time to 1979 would not be so clueless. But then again, Marty should not have been so clueless with Happy Days still being shown on air in the 80's.

Now with the elements that ought to be updated, there are 3 areas of the movie that immediately comes to mind -- music, Darth Vader from Planet Vulcan, and black mayor.

From Birth of Rock 'n' Roll to Birth of Hip-Hop

Just from the movie alone, audiences should note that rock n roll was still an up-and-coming genre. From history, "Rock Around the Clock" has not been released until 1955. That's the song credited by many pop culture historians as what brought rock & roll to mainstream America. And if we are to follow the events of Marty McFly's adventures in 1955, the legendary Chuck Berry is still searching for the sound that would place him in rock history.

But in Marty's time, in 1985, the music scene is very different. Rock n roll is already well
established along with pop, dance, and new wave (KROQ music). In fact, rock n roll has sprouted many sub-genres such as punk, soft rock, hard rock, heavy metal, etc. Kids in the 80s have so much more exposure to music than their 50s counterpart.

But what about a teenager from today who is suddenly brought back to 1979? Let's see. In '79, the disco era is just coming to an end. Did it really end or just changed name to dance beat or house music? Madonna, Prince, and Michael Jackson (RIP) would have been part of the disco
music scene had they been around in the 70s. Still, many disco songs are enjoyed today in club scenes.

Club scenes! Kids did those in '79 as they do today. Aside from disco, most genres of music enjoyed by teenagers, including rock n roll, are fully developed by 1979.

Now, in the movie, Marty McFly performed a guitar solo in front of a 50s teen crowd that left the audience completely dumbfounded. But a seminal phone call is made by Marvin Berry to his cousin Chuck (Berry) and we are to guess as to what happens next, e.g. Chuck Berry hears Marty's version of "Johnny B Goode" and uses it to create rock history.

Could there be a call made in 1979 that is similar to Marvin's call to Chuck that posits to create a musical legend?

One possibility is a cousin of Dj Run (Joseph Simmons), founding member of Run DMC. The hip hop genre that Run DMC brought to mainstream in the 80s is huge among teenagers today but was just bubbling in 1979.

Darth Vader from Planet Vulcan to ?

One funny scene, upon Marty's arrival in 1955 is the "Darth Vader from Planet Vulcan" schtick that he works a couple of times. I could see how faking an alien invader would be a successful ruse in the 1950s.

But could a sci-fi creation that is already well-known in 2009 be used to scare anyone in 1979?

I can't think of any. Perhaps nukes? Soviet commandos? Ronald Reagan as the Anti-Christ? Maybe the aliens from District 9? I'm not sure any of these would work.

As Marty McFly from 2009 transported to 1979, what would you do if you had to scare your dad into dating your mom?

Mayor Goldie Wilson to President Barrack Obama

This one cannot be ignored. Back to the Future makes a pretty strong statement on breaking political racial barrier in the town of Hill Valley, a presumably mostly white, upper middle-class neighborhood. When Marty encountered Goldie Wilson in the '50s, he suggested that Goldie, a black man, can become a future mayor of Hill Valley, which we already knew happened from scenes before Marty travelled back in time.

In 2009, America has a half-black / half-white president in office. This could actually play well for a movie reboot because Barrack Obama attended Occidental College in 1979. In the same way that Marty inspired Goldie, a teenager from today transporting to 1979 can do the same, but with a much higher goal than to be a mayor of a small mid-western town. Since Occidental College is in California, perhaps this teenager could meet a young Barrack Obama at a Licorice Pizza record store.

I think that a rebooted Back to the Future, though not needed, can still be interesting. It's a classic film but the references may seem very outdated to today's and future youth. Yet, there is a large enough group of movie fans who should welcome the question of what if the movie occured today and back to the 70's.

Back to the Future on Blu Ray is or will be available on Amazon.com.

Avenge me! Avenge me!

Title: Red Dawn (1984)

Red Dawn is a movie filmed around the American mass consciousness in the 80's that the world is a dangerous place with the Soviet Union looking to conquer free society or, at the very least, the US of A. The movie genre centrally themed around US vs USSR conflict dissipated in the 90's and remained so today.

In Red Dawn, an alliance of Communist army parachuted into a mid-western town as part of a full-scale invasion. It was up to a band of high school teenagers who escaped the initial onslaught to stay alive and free their captured neighbors.

I seem to recall that the movie was ridiculed at the time as being too far fetched. So no one took it seriously. Seeing it at a theater here in California, I remember overhearing some dude saying something in the vein of "If the Russians were to land in East LA, they'd be gang banged." I don't know how kids who saw it in other parts of the US felt, but my friends and I thought this movie as a joke.

Over the years, I neither saw nor had any interest in seeing Red Dawn again. It wasn't all that interesting to me, but I caught plenty of references to it on some TV shows or radio programs such as Family Guy, The Adam Carolla Show, and Jericho. Of course, I'm baffled by why Red Dawn is being remade for a 2010 release. It doesn't seem likely to work, unless there's a large group of population in the US who are still afraid of a Soviet invasion.

I did manage to catch Red Dawn again a few weeks ago on This TV. I kept an open-mind. And I'm still unable to understand why there's a remake. I was, however, appreciative in seeing Charlie Sheen (Young Guns), C. Thomas Howell (Outsiders), Lea Thompson (Back to the Future), Jennifer Grey (Ferris Buehler's Day Off), Patrick Swayze (Road House), Harry Dean Stanton (Escape from New York), and Powers Boothe (Rapid Fire). All of them starred in some of my favorite movies. I still watch Charlie Sheen today in Two and a Half Men co-starring another 80s teen star, Jon Cryer (Duckie in Pretty in Pink).

Girls of Red Dawn

Lea Thompson and Jennifer Grey. Years after Red Dawn.

Memorable Quotes from Red Dawn

- "Wolverines!"
- "Boys! Avenge me! Avenge me!"
- "Two toughest kids on the block, I guess. Sooner or later, they're gonna fight."
- "Last I heard, there were a billion screaming Chinamen."

- "There will be no further reprisals against civilians. This was stupid. Impotence. Comrades... If a fox stole your chickens... Would you slaughter your pig because he saw the fox? No. You would hunt the fox... You would find where it lives and destroy it! And how do we do this? Become a fox."
- "C'mon! We're all going to die, die standing up!"
- "America is a whorehouse... where the revolutionary ideals of your forefathers... are corrupted and sold in alleys by vendors of capitalism..."
- "I never saw the Eckert Brothers again. In time, this war - like every other war - ended. But I never forgot. And I come to this place often, when no one else does."

Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.

Title: The Outsiders (1983)

This movie was one of the gems of the 80s. I saw it at the local Rosemead 4 theater that's no longer there. In fact, most of the movies in this blog, I saw at the Rosemead 4. This movie was so sad, I almost cried in the car on the way home.

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and based on a popular coming-of-age book by SE hinton, The Outsiders was about the trials and tribulations of young Greasers, a gang of poor kids who were in a constant turf battle with the rich kids called the Socs. The Socs always had the better cars and, of course, most of the girls.



In one encounter, the young Ponyboy was being assaulted by a group of Socs as a retalliation from an earlier incident. His friend Johnny, in defending Ponyboy, stabbed and killed the lead Socs, Bob Sheldon. Fearing the wrath of the authority and, more so, Darrel, his older brother, Ponyboy and Johnny ran away to hide. They sought help from Dallas, a close friend and fellow Greaser who supposedly had experience in dealing with the law.

The three set-off to hide in the nearby woods where Dallas went back and forth to sort out the problems in town. Only kids themselves and barely hitting puberty, Ponyboy and Johnny had to grow up and quickly learn how to "man up" to their situation. Meanwhile, Bob's death brewed anger among the Socs and an all out rumble against the Greasers was called to settle things.



Although I never read the book, I was completely enthralled by the characters, especially Johnny. His death at the end was sad, but necessary (and unfortunate). I also took particular fond of Dallas as he took care of Johnny and Ponyboy while lecturing them on toughening up. Yet, he was scared of Darrel as well.

One obvious feature of the movie was the casting of then-virtually unknowns who became the who's who of today's and the 80's-90's film scene. C. Thomas Howell played Ponyboy and later on starred in classics The Hitcher and Red Dawn. Ralph Macchio played Johnny and he starred Daniel-san in the memorable Karate Kid. Matt Dillon was Dallas and he was in my favorite blockbuster comedy, There's Something About Mary. Darrel was played by Patrick Swayze who became famous in Dirty Dancing. There was a really funny Chris Farley-Patrick Swayze skit on SNL.

But the supporting casts were just as big as the main casts. Rob Lowe played Sodapop. Emilio Estevez as Two-Bit. Diane Lane as Cherry. And perhaps the biggest actor of our time, Tom Cruise as Steve Randle. He did not even have a nickname!

Favorite The Outsiders Quotes

Johnny [as he was dying]: Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.

Dallas: We gotta win that fight tonight. We gotta get even with those Socs! Let's do it for Johnny, man. We'll do it for Johnny!

Randy: Greasers will still be Greasers and Socs will still be Socs. It doesn't matter.

Steve: Don't worry, Ponyboy, they don't do that to heroes.

Dallas: Man, I thought New York was the only place to end up in a murder rap, Jesus Christ!

You'll never grow old, Michael, and you'll never die. But you must feed!

Title: The Lost Boys (1987)

There are vampire movies and there are 80's vampire movies. Many 80s movies broke grounds by mixing genres that create lasting experiences. The Lost Boys is such an example mixing primarily teen comedy and horror.

In The Lost Boys, the Emersons, two teenage brothers and their newly-divorced mom, moved-in with their grandpa at Santa Carla in Northern California only to become entangled with a gang of motorcycle-riding vampires. Unbeknownst to the family, the vampires conspired to assimilate them into vampire kin by first recruiting David, the older brother played by Jason Patric.

True to its teen appeal, The Lost Boys featured 80s teen icons, the two Coreys (Wikipedia), Haim and Feldman who were both age 16 at the time. Corey Feldman played Edgar Frog one half of the self-proclaimed ruthless vampire killers, the Frog Brothers. Jamison Newlander played Alan, the other half.

The Frog Brothers befriended Sam, the youngest Emerson played by Corey Haim. They cautioned him of vampires living in Santa Carla and eagerly jumped to assist when Sam solicited their help for David. The trio provided the movie's comedic relief with tough talks, spurts of cowardness in face of dangers, and over-the-top probing for vampirism (dinner scene at Sam's house with Edward Herrmann as Max).

The movie culminated in a last stand fight at Sam's house when the true intentions of the vampires to convert the Emersons were finally revealed. The last scenes also brought on speculation on whether or not Grandpa was a vampire himself.

The rest of the cast include Keifer Sutherland as the leader of the biker gang, Jamie Gertz as Star the vampire vixen who was recruiting Michael, Dianne Weist as mommy Emerson, Bernard Hughes as Grandpa, Alex Winter as Marko, and Cody as Nanook.

What I like most about the movie is the rock-n-roll, summer appeal. The storyline took place in a beach town, probably over the summer since the kids didn't have school. Most vampire movies I've seen prior to The Lost Boys were gothic in nature. Joel Schumacher, the director, modernized the vampire genre by targetting young adults. They even have surf nazis (Fast-Rewind.com).

Currently, The-Top-Tens.com lists The Lost Boys as number 3 in the Top Vampire Movie.

The script for The Lost Boys can be found here: The Lost Boys Script by Jeffrey Boam

The Lost Boys Best Movie Quotes

"If you try to stop us, or vamp out in any way, I'll stake you without even thinking twice about it!" -- Note: The Lost Boys has the distinction of first coining the term "vamp out". It's been used in other shows and films, including the CW TV show, Supernatural, i.e. vamped out Gordon.

"Second shelf is mine. That's where I keep my rootbeers and my double-thick Oreo cookies. Nobody touches the second shelf but me."

"Don't ever invite a vampire into your house, you silly boy. It renders you powerless."

"Holy shit! It's the attack of Eddie Munster!"

"The bloodsucking Brady Bunch!"

"You're a vampire Michael! My own brother, a goddamn, shit-sucking vampire. You wait 'till mom finds out, buddy!"

"Death by stereo!"

The Lost Boys Soundtrack

Can't talk about The Lost Boys without acknowledging its soundtrack. The music perfectly captured the tone. And many songs remain in my head with some movie visuals, including:

• Peoples Are Strange - Echo and the Bunnymen


• Lost In The Shadows (The Lost Boys) - Lou Gramm


• I Still Believe - Tim Cappello

UPDATE: The sequel, Lost Boys: The Tribe, is available for pre-order on Amazon. The release date is listed at July 29, 2008.

Technorati Tags: 80's Films, Comedy, horror, The Lost Boys, Kiefer Sutherland, Jami Gertz, Corey Feldman, Corey Haim, Frog Brothers

Hey, Bud, let's party!

Title: Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)

Phoebe Cates Legendary Pool Scene on Fast Times at Ridgemont High

When I began this blog, this movie is one that I looked forward to in entering. There were so many funny moments and quotable quotes that it all comes to me as a large colorful montage. Hard to pick a place to begin. But let's try.

Let's attempt why Fast Times is an 80s gem:

1) Memorable scenes. To me, there are only three:

• Phoebe Cates often cited as a top sexual fantasy or bikini scene
• Pizza delivery scene in classroom
  
• Jefferson's wrecked car and Spicoli's solution ("Relax, all right? My old man is a television repairman, he's got this ultimate set of tools. I can fix it.")

2) Casts. A laundry of list of young, then-unknown casts and extras soaring to highly revered careers. Namely,

• Sean Penn (Mystic River),
• Forrest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland and the linking actor from Vision Quest),
• Nicholas Cage (Leaving Las Vegas),
• Jennifer Jason Leigh (Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle),
• Eric Stolz (Mask),
• Anthony Edwards (ER),
• Judge Reinhold (Beverly Hills Cop),
• Phoebe Cates (Gremlins)
• Ray Walston (already established from My Favorite Martian) as the unforgettable Mr. Hand, the hard-nosed history teacher who really did care about his students.

3) Music. This movie came at a time when FM rock stations were very popular. Hence, much of the songs from the Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack were rock n roll. And I can't complain about that. There are quite a few songs that I like from this soundtrack, including Goodbye, Goodbye by Oingo Boingo, Fast Times (The Best Years Of Our Lives) by Billy Squier, and Somebody's Baby by Jackson Browne. But my favorite is not in the soundtrack. Which is Moving in Stereo by the Cars during Phoebe Cates' scene. Two other excellent songs played in the movie but not in the soundtrack are We've Got the Beat by the Go-Go's and American Girl by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

4) Quotable quotes - Just my top picks of Fast Times at Ridgemont High quotes and a whole lot of Spicoli

• Hey Bud, let's party!
• All I need are some tasty waves, a cool buzz, and I'm fine.
• Make up your mind, dude, is he gonna shit or is he gonna kill us?
• Relax, all right? My old man is a television repairman, he's got this ultimate set of tools. I can fix it.
• Learn it. Know it. Live it.
• That was my skull! I'm so wasted!
• What are you, people? On dope?
• Awesome! Totally awesome!

Fast Times was not just the stepping stone for the talented casts. It was also the beginning for movie makers, Amy Heckerling (Clueless) and Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous).

Coach Bill of The Team Hendryx blog has a post about Fast Times at Ridgemont High movie as he caught it on a late night. Please visit his post when you get a chance.

Lastly, it's often debated in small circles which teen comedies influenced the thousands of others that were made from the 80's on. The discussions often boil down to two - Animal House (1978) and Fast Times. Both have great soundtracks, many quotable lines, and fronted by rising stars. Although Animal House was made first, Fast Times set the bar. Now, I can't gauge how much influence that Animal House had on Fast Times, but I do realize that the ending of Fast Times, e.g. the narratives on what happened to each character, follows that of Animal House.

Can 800 million Chinamen be wrong?

Title: Vision Quest (1985)

This movie was very memorable for me. My best friend in high school was a wrestler. Although his wrestling career was nowhere near as dramatic as Louden Swain's (Matthew Modine), I couldn't help but refer to this movie whenever I try to motivate my buddy to do something.

In any case, Vision Quest is less about wrestling as a sport and more so as a coming of age for a high school wrestler (Swain) achieving the goal to win a big tournament before graduating. His life was made a bit more complicated when a beautiful drifter moved in to rent a room as a boarder in his house. The sultry Carla was played by a then-relatively new comer and perenially beautiful, Linda Fiorentino, who eventually became the only support that Swain could come to. Of course, he fell in love with her along the way. Linda Fiorentino is also the linking actress from "After Hours."

The movie, just like many feel good 80s films that I'll likely be reviewing in this blog, culminated in a melodramatic showdown between Swain and his much-ballyhooed adversary. Cheezyness? Maybe. Swain won with a bleeding nose, if I recall correctly.

Additionally, many of you probably remember that this movie was being billed back then as Madonna's big screen debut. She had a cameo as a club singer performing her song, The Gambler, from the soundtrack.

The Vision Quest soundtrack is excellent by the way. Still holds up today. Crazy for You is still widely played. I've always liked I'll Fall In Love Again by Sammy Hagar. I might even have the original cassette tape that I bought way back when.

My name is Joel Goodson. I deal in human fulfillment. I grossed over eight thousand dollars in one night. Time of your life, huh kid?

Title: Risky Business (1984)

The movie that made Tom Cruise into a superstar is now 25 years old.

In Risky Business, Joel Goodson (Tom Cruise) is a suburban teenager who was left behind by his parents to watch the house while they went on vacation for a week. So what's a teenage boy gonna do while he's alone? Naturally, he'll indulge in anything teenage boys will do - girls, parties, cars.

In Joel's case, he called hookers to come over. After screening out a few candidates, the beautiful Lana (Rebecca De Mornay) showed up and Joel's world spun out of control. From then on, "Risky Business" craftily drew us into intricate events that began when Joel was short of the $300 that Lana charged him for the night.

With all the events that occurred, did any of you wonder how Joel kept a straight face at the end when his parents came back from vacation and asked him how things went?

The movie also established the relatively unknown casts into 80s and 90s mainstream. Curtis Armstrong (linking actor from Revenge of the Nerds) went on to become a popular character actor. Bronson Pinchot went on to star in his own TV sitcom, Perfect Strangers. Rebecca De Mornay became an A-list actress throughout the 80's. And Joe Pantoliano, already acting for close to a decade, continued his success in Hollywood.

Also, Bob Seger's Old Time Rock n Roll has been known as the Risky Business song ever since (see video).

And the Risky Business sunglasses became a fashion standard...even today.

Perhaps the reason why "Risky Business" stood out from other 80's teen romp movies is that it's a lot more than just teens romping around. Joel and his friends faced extra ordinary circumstances requiring extra ordinary patience and stroke of luck to survive. There was something poetic about how Joel presented his week-long plight. Maybe it's the narrations by Tom Cruise that were carefully placed.

Memorable Risky Business quotes

"Say 'what the fuck.'... If you can't say it, you can't do it."

"My name is Joel Goodson. I deal in human fulfillment. I grossed over eight thousand dollars in one night. Time of your life, huh kid? "

"Looks like University of Illinois!"

"I don't believe this! I've got a trig midterm tomorrow, and I'm being chased by Guido the killer pimp. " -- Miles while riding in the back seat of Joel's Porsche 928.

We've got bush!

Title: Revenge of the Nerds (1984)

The zanyness (or zanity) continues. In "Revenge of the Nerds" a group of college outcasts banded together to form their own fraternity as they were rejected from every other fraternities on campus.

So what do we get? As a new chapter of Lambda Lambda Lambda, the fraternal brotherhood became a "safe haven" for nerdy students consisting of Louis (Robert Carradine), Gilbert (Anthony Edwards), Harold (Andrew Cassese), Lamar (Larry B. Scott), Toshiro (Brian Tochi), and Booger (Curtis Armstrong). They still, however, had to contend with the bullying jocks of Alpha Beta, led by Stan Gable (Ted McGinley, also the linking actor from "Young Doctors in Love") quarterback for the football team. It all had to happen in the annual Greek games.

If there's an underdog in you, you'll appreciate this movie.

Best Scene

There are quite a few worth the mention:
- belching contest between Ogre (Donald Gibb) and Booger
- the nerds infiltrating the sorority house on a panty raid
- the nerds spying on the sorority girls after the panty raid
- Booger meeting his master (see video)

Best Revenge of the Nerds quotes

"We've got bush!"

"I say we blow the fuckers up."

"You know, when you were a baby in your crib, your father looked down at you, he had but one hope - some day my son will grow to be a man. Well look at you now. You just got your asses whipped by a bunch of goddamn nerds."

One quick note. Those familiars with high school or college social dilemmas may have asked themselves one question: Why is Booger one of the nerds? He's not shown to be bookish. Kind of a slob. Drinks beer. And belches a lot.

Also, a little bit of a social commentary. Did Louis rape Betty Childs (Julia Montgomery)? You remember the scene. She fell for Louis after she found out who he was. But still, is it rape or simply a "Revenge of the Nerds"?

I can't believe this. They fucking forgot my birthday.

Title: Sixteen Candles (1984)

If it there's a pattern here favoring teen comedy classics, well it's because the 80's produced quite a few good ones. "Sixteen Candles" is among the best and is a timeless classic. Anthony Michael Hall was born to play Farmer Fred...errr...Farmer Ted. Molly Ringwald transformed from an innocuous actress from TV's "Facts of Life" to become the 80's teen princess. John Hughes (RIP) launched a successful franchise.

We also see John Cusack in a minor role as one of Farmer Ted's geek buddies. Of the actors in this movie, he is probably the biggest and remains relevant in today's film scene. Not to mention the blond hottie, Haviland Morris, who played Caroline Mulford who is seen here waking up with Farmer Ted in a very nice and very expensive 1974 Rolls Royce Corniche Convertible.

I recall at the time how this movie received criticism as being racist, specifically from how Long Duk Dong (Gedde Watanabe), the Chinese exchange student was portrayed. I thought it was all in good fun (I'm Asian). And Long's scenes remain as one of my guilty pleasures in cinema.

Memorable Quotes from Sixteen Candles

Lumberjack: What's your last name?
Long Duk Dong: Dong.
Lumberjack: What's your first name?
Long Duk Dong: Long.
Lumberjack: What's your middle name?
Long Duk Dong: Duk.

"I've never bagged a babe. I'm not a stud."

"I can't believe I gave my panties to a geek."

John Kapelos is the linking actor from "The Breakfast Club". He was the janitor from that movie. He has two movies I consider an 80's classic to his credit - "Nothing in Common" and "Class". I hope to post on these movies down the line.