forgotten movie gems of the ’80s
July 29th, 2008 Posted in movies
(No Ratings Yet)
It is always hard to write the first post on a blog, because what is really good enough to warrant the place of first post (…after the obligatory “Hello World” post). The answer, in this instance, is clear. It can be nothing else than a reminder to everyone about three likely forgotten cinematic gems of the ’80s. These deserves your attention (…once more). The post is a little long a boring, but I am still learning how to work the blog-medium.
Police Squad In Color (TV Series, 1982)
I first saw Police Squad In Color with my half brother back in 1992 I think and I still remember it, which has to be a seal of quality (seeing as I have completely forgotten what Crossroads from 2002 was all about). Police Squad is a comedy series that unfortunately only ran for 6 episodes. (No!, this does not mean the series was not good, or great even. )
I am sure you are familiar with some of the movie classics that this series inspired (itself was probably inspired by Airplane series of movies), such as The Naked Gun series and of movies, and more notably (humor wise) Top Secret mentioned below, also made by Zucker and Abrahams.
Some of the memorable and clearly crafted skits (if you can call them that) are e.g. when an episode is over, and the credits are rolling, the camera does not freeze-frame the picture, people just stand completely still. And of course the uncanny use of wordplay’s, such as Frank Drebin handing a cigarette box to a bank teller asking if she wants one with the phrase “cigarette?” and she replies “yes it is…”.
UHF may be more stupid that funny, but you have to admire the ingenuity that has gone into the jokes and skits in the movie. It features a young Weird Al Yankovic in the lead.
The story is that he inherits a local television station and then to boost ratings he initiates a series of new shows with questionable hosts (typical underdog characters making it when someone believes in them). Especially memorable moments from the movie are shows such as “Wheel of Fish” , “Gandhi 2 – no more Mr. Nice Guy” and “Conan the Librarian” to name a few.
The movie must have been made with an extremely low budget and crappy equipment, but you still can’t take away from the originality of the content of the movie. It’s rough, cheesy and fantastic, but you don’t want to watch it again right after you watched it the first time.
Top secret is my all time favorite movie. As mentioned above, it made by the Zucker brothers and contain so many surprising play of words, word puns and interesting illusions with camera angles. For example, a whole scene is filmed backwards.
This is really the mater piece of the 80′s. When you see 20 people from the East German Olympic Team goes to stage to be celebrated and they all look like male bodybuilders and start singing the “East German” national anthem, which goes something in the lines of “we will shot you if you try to escape over the Berlin wall, and spy on you always” it really challenges your stomach muscles due to the excessive laughing that will occur.
Now all that’s left is head on down to your favorite torrent site Blockbuster and get your movie viewing on!
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