Shat the Movies

The Best 80s & 90s Movie Podcast

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1980s Best Movies

When you think of the 1980s, a few images come to mind: shoulder pads, big hair, and all-cheesy-everything. However, the decade had more to contribute to pop culture than being known as the New Jersey of the 20th century. The 1980s were also an era for incredible classic movies, ones that shifted the film industry as we know it. From John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club to Steven Spielberg’s E.T., the best movies of the 1980s not only shaped its generation but inspired subsequent generations in every way imaginable.

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The Running Man (1987)

In the year 2019, America is a totalitarian state where the favorite television program is “The Running Man” a game show in which prisoners must run to freedom to avoid a brutal death. Having been made a scapegoat by the government, an imprisoned Ben Richards (Arnold Schwarzenegger) has the opportunity to make it back to the outside again by being a contestant on the deadly show, although the twisted host, Damon Killian (Richard Dawson), has no intention of letting him escape.

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Star Wars: Episode VI Return of The Jedi (1983)

Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) battles horrible Jabba the Hut and cruel Darth Vader to save his comrades in the Rebel Alliance and triumph over the Galactic Empire. Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) reaffirm their love and team with Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams), the Ewoks and the androids C-3PO and R2-D2 to aid in the disruption of the Dark Side and the defeat of the evil emperor.

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Popeye (1980)

Looking for the father (Ray Walston) who deserted him as a baby, a sailor named Popeye (Robin Williams) journeys to the port town of Sweethaven. Popeye befriends an assortment of eccentrics and falls in love with Olive Oyl (Shelley Duvall), who already has a suitor, the bully Bluto (Paul L. Smith). Popeye also discovers an abandoned baby, Swee’Pea, whom he raises as his own. But when the spurned Bluto kidnaps Olive and the child, Popeye takes action, with the help of his magic spinach.

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Summer School (1987)

Apathetic gym teacher Freddy Shoop (Mark Harmon) is ready to take the summer off in Hawaii, but he’s forced to either teach summer-school English or risk losing his tenure. Now he’s stuck teaching a group of unmotivated students as disappointed to be stuck in school over the summer as he is. But with the help of a friendly history teacher (Kirstie Alley), Shoop is at least learning how to act the part of supportive mentor and perhaps even learning something about himself as well.

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The Abyss (1989)

Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio are formerly married petroleum engineers who still have some issues to work out. They are drafted to assist a gung-ho Navy SEAL (Michael Biehn) with a top-secret recovery operation: a nuclear sub has been ambushed and sunk, under mysterious circumstances, in some of the deepest waters on Earth.

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After Hours (1985)

In this episode, Big D and a very high Gene Lyons break down After Hours’ absurd twists, New York’s bygone grit, and whether Griffin Dunne is the last true everyman leading man. Along the way, they debate Paul’s romantic prospects, the dangers of pre-cell phone nightlife, and whether David Lynch is...

1980s Best Movies / 1990s Best Movies

The Delta Force (1986)

Five years after Maj. Scott McCoy (Chuck Norris) resigned from the U.S. Delta Force due to bureaucracy issues, he returns with Col. Alexander (Lee Marvin) to take down Lebanese terrorists who have hijacked a Boeing 707. Terrorist leader Abdul Rifi (Robert Forster) takes the crew and passengers hostage as he reroutes the plane to Beirut. When McCoy and Alexander attempt to save the hostages once the plane lands, they are forced to battle a terrorist group that’s larger than expected.

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Class of Nuke ‘Em High (1986)

Class of Nuke ‘Em High (1986) is a cult horror-comedy set in a high school located near a nuclear power plant, where a radioactive spill turns both teachers and students into grotesque mutants. The ensuing chaos leads to over-the-top, violent mayhem and absurd scenarios that satirize the effects of nuclear contamination and teenage rebellion. Blending outrageous humor, campy special effects, and Troma-style exploitation, the film offers a wild, offbeat critique of modern society’s nuclear anxieties and educational failures.