Favoritest Movies of 1980
by Tincage | created - 31 Jan 2012 | updated - 31 Jan 2012 | PublicI'm making (I hope...) the most comprehensive favorite movie list ever!!! (No sense in being arbitrary with such a commonly asked question!) So I'm ranking every movie I've ever seen using Paired Comparison Analysis. First, year by year. Then, the top 80th percentile from each year advance to the decade round, and from there the all time round. I'll admit that a number of movies a much younger me saw long ago may be appreciated more or differently now, but in their cases, I only have my reactions at the time to draw upon.
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1. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
PG | 124 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
After the Rebel Alliance are overpowered by the Empire, Luke Skywalker begins his Jedi training with Yoda, while his friends are pursued across the galaxy by Darth Vader and bounty hunter Boba Fett.
Director: Irvin Kershner | Stars: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams
Votes: 1,379,978 | Gross: $290.48M
Setting the example that the only way to do a sequel to Star Wars would be to make it nothing like Star Wars; the next four films to be released all have Tatooine, Naboo, and Coruscant. (Jedi from SE)
2. Flash Gordon (1980)
PG | 111 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A football player and his friends travel to the planet Mongo and find themselves fighting the tyranny of Ming the Merciless to save Earth.
Director: Mike Hodges | Stars: Sam J. Jones, Melody Anderson, Max von Sydow, Topol
Votes: 61,540
This movies stock to me has risen dramatically recently. HD has given this movie a kiss of new life. If your memory of it is from a bulbous, round cornered, 4:3 box with the pale dead color we grew up with... Check it out on your current set up. Heck, watch the Star Trek Voyager episode Bride of Chaotica, and some of the actual old serials of Flash Gordon as a pre-game show!
3. Superman II (1980)
PG | 127 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Superman agrees to sacrifice his powers to start a relationship with Lois Lane, unaware that three Kryptonian criminals he inadvertently released are conquering Earth.
Director: Richard Lester | Stars: Gene Hackman, Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Ned Beatty
Votes: 114,651 | Gross: $108.19M
This is here since "General, would you care to step outside?" is the best line ever in a superhero movie. The fight at the Fortress of Solitude still eludes me as to WTF is even going on.
4. Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)
PG | 104 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A farm boy recruits a band of outlaws to save the planet Akir from forces that threaten to wipe them out from the face of the universe. A battle stretching beyond the stars begins here.
Directors: Jimmy T. Murakami, Roger Corman | Stars: George Peppard, Robert Vaughn, Richard Thomas, John Saxon
Votes: 10,223
5. The Final Countdown (1980)
PG | 103 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A modern aircraft carrier is thrown back in time to 1941 near Hawaii, just hours before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Director: Don Taylor | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Martin Sheen, Katharine Ross, James Farentino
Votes: 26,945 | Gross: $16.65M
6. Airplane! (1980)
PG | 88 min | Comedy
After the crew becomes sick with food poisoning, a neurotic ex-fighter pilot must safely land a commercial airplane full of passengers.
Directors: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker | Stars: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Leslie Nielsen, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Votes: 261,162 | Gross: $83.40M
7. Raise the Titanic (1980)
PG | 115 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
Once they said God himself couldn't sink her. Then they said no man on Earth could reach her. But an underwater research agency, headed by Admiral James Sandecker, is assigned the job of finding the doomed ship in her North Atlantic grave.
Director: Jerry Jameson | Stars: Jason Robards, Richard Jordan, David Selby, Anne Archer
Votes: 5,442 | Gross: $14.82M
The BEST Dirk Pitt movie YET!
8. Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980)
PG | 162 min | Drama, History, War
A petty thief with an utter resemblance to a samurai warlord is hired as the lord's double. When the warlord later dies the thief is forced to take up arms in his place.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Ken'ichi Hagiwara, Jinpachi Nezu
Votes: 38,178
Gorge Lucas gets TONS of crap from the online world about Howard the Duck. Like Howard the Duck is the only movie he ever produced. One online review was even complaining about seeing duck mammaries. (Dude, you're over 20 now... drop the guilt...) Thing is, he only was a producer on Howard the Duck. He also has a producer credit on this. But this is GREAT.
9. Hangar 18 (1980)
PG | 97 min | Sci-Fi
After a UFO crashes in Arizona, due to a space collision with a NASA satellite launch, the U.S. government tries to cover-up the incident for political reasons.
Director: James L. Conway | Stars: Darren McGavin, Robert Vaughn, Gary Collins, James Hampton
Votes: 2,982 | Gross: $6.00M
Visually it has all the production values of a MacGyver episode. The script comes to play, and makes it a terrific flick!
10. The Blues Brothers (1980)
R | 133 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Jake Blues rejoins with his brother Elwood after being released from prison, but the duo has just days to reunite their old R&B band and save the Catholic home where the two were raised, outrunning the police as they tear through Chicago.
Director: John Landis | Stars: John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Cab Calloway, John Candy
Votes: 214,514 | Gross: $57.23M
11. Midnight Madness (1980)
PG | 112 min | Comedy
Leon picks college students to participate in his all night scavenger hunt. Five teams receive clues to solve leading them to the next clue site hidden in the city.
Directors: Michael Nankin, David Wechter | Stars: David Naughton, Debra Clinger, Joel Kenney, David Damas
Votes: 3,897
12. Caddyshack (1980)
R | 98 min | Comedy, Sport
An exclusive golf course has to deal with a flatulent new member and a destructive dancing gopher.
Director: Harold Ramis | Stars: Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Bill Murray, Ted Knight
Votes: 127,191 | Gross: $39.85M
13. Oh, God! Book II (1980)
PG | 94 min | Comedy, Fantasy
God asks a young girl to help spread his word and influence with a slogan.
Director: Gilbert Cates | Stars: George Burns, Suzanne Pleshette, David Birney, Louanne
Votes: 2,514 | Gross: $14.50M
14. Altered States (1980)
R | 102 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A psycho-physiologist experiments with drugs and a sensory-deprivation tank and has visions he believes are genetic memories.
Director: Ken Russell | Stars: William Hurt, Blair Brown, Bob Balaban, Charles Haid
Votes: 38,642 | Gross: $19.85M
15. The Shining (1980)
R | 146 min | Drama, Horror
A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers
Votes: 1,106,890 | Gross: $44.02M
16. The Day Time Ended (1979)
PG | 79 min | Adventure, Horror, Sci-Fi
Aliens visit the solar-powered house of a middle-class family, and the house is suddenly sucked into a time warp that transports it back to prehistoric times.
Director: John 'Bud' Cardos | Stars: Jim Davis, Christopher Mitchum, Dorothy Malone, Marcy Lafferty
Votes: 2,049
17. The Return of the King (1980 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 98 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
Two Hobbits struggle to destroy the Ring in Mount Doom while their friends desperately fight evil Lord Sauron's forces in a final battle.
Directors: Jules Bass, Arthur Rankin Jr. | Stars: Orson Bean, John Huston, Theodore Bikel, William Conrad
Votes: 4,630
Hey! It was all we had! All we were ever getting too!
18. Private Benjamin (1980)
R | 109 min | Comedy, War
A sheltered young high-society woman joins the United States Army on a whim and finds herself in a trickier situation than she ever expected.
Director: Howard Zieff | Stars: Goldie Hawn, Eileen Brennan, Armand Assante, Robert Webber
Votes: 28,689 | Gross: $69.85M
19. Stir Crazy (1980)
R | 111 min | Comedy, Crime
Set up and wrongfully accused, two best friends are sent to prison for a crime they didn't commit. However, no prison cell can keep them locked in a cage.
Director: Sidney Poitier | Stars: Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, Georg Stanford Brown, JoBeth Williams
Votes: 30,392 | Gross: $101.30M
20. Somewhere in Time (1980)
PG | 103 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
A Chicago playwright uses self-hypnosis to travel back in time and meet the actress whose vintage portrait hangs in a grand hotel.
Director: Jeannot Szwarc | Stars: Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour, Christopher Plummer, Teresa Wright
Votes: 32,538 | Gross: $9.71M
21. Xanadu (1980)
PG | 96 min | Fantasy, Musical, Romance
A struggling artist living in Los Angeles meets a girl who may hold the key to his happiness.
Director: Robert Greenwald | Stars: Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly, Michael Beck, James Sloyan
Votes: 15,391 | Gross: $22.76M
22. Herbie Goes Bananas (1980)
G | 100 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
The adorable little VW helps its owners break up a counterfeiting ring in Mexico.
Director: Vincent McEveety | Stars: Charles Martin Smith, Stephen W. Burns, Cloris Leachman, John Vernon
Votes: 6,254 | Gross: $18.00M
23. Popeye (1980)
PG | 114 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
The adventures of the famous sailor man and his friends in the seaside town of Sweethaven.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Robin Williams, Shelley Duvall, Ray Walston, Paul Dooley
Votes: 34,411 | Gross: $49.82M
24. The Elephant Man (1980)
PG | 124 min | Biography, Drama
A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man who is mistreated while scraping a living as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of kindness, intelligence and sophistication.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud
Votes: 258,491
25. Galaxina (1980)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Sci-Fi
In the 31st century, sexy blonde android Galaxina helms the crew of a space cruiser on a mission to find the Blue Star, a mystical gem that holds unlimited power.
Director: William Sachs | Stars: Stephen Macht, Avery Schreiber, J.D. Hinton, Dorothy Stratten
Votes: 3,430
26. The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980)
PG | 109 min | Adventure, Comedy
A comic allegory about a traveling Bushman who encounters modern civilization and its stranger aspects, including a clumsy scientist and a band of revolutionaries.
Director: Jamie Uys | Stars: N!xau, Marius Weyers, Sandra Prinsloo, Louw Verwey
Votes: 59,464 | Gross: $30.03M
Well, some list had this thing as coming out in 1980... It's not worth changing...
27. Coal Miner's Daughter (1980)
PG | 124 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The fictionalized life of singer Loretta Lynn, a girl who rose from humble beginnings to become a country music star in the 1960s/70s.
Director: Michael Apted | Stars: Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones, Levon Helm, Phyllis Boyens
Votes: 20,513 | Gross: $67.18M
28. The Watcher in the Woods (1980)
PG | 84 min | Family, Horror, Mystery
When a family moves to a country home, the young girls experience strange happenings that have a link to an occult event years past.
Directors: John Hough, Vincent McEveety | Stars: Bette Davis, Lynn-Holly Johnson, Kyle Richards, Carroll Baker
Votes: 7,065 | Gross: $5.00M
29. American Gigolo (1980)
R | 117 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A Los Angeles escort is accused of a murder which he did not commit.
Director: Paul Schrader | Stars: Richard Gere, Lauren Hutton, Hector Elizondo, Nina van Pallandt
Votes: 29,451 | Gross: $23.00M
30. Any Which Way You Can (1980)
PG | 116 min | Action, Comedy
A trucker turned prize fighter, his brother and their pet orangutan have a series of misadventures involving the mob, corrupt cops, motorcycle gangs and pretty dames.
Director: Buddy Van Horn | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis, William Smith
Votes: 20,977 | Gross: $70.69M
31. Urban Cowboy (1980)
PG | 132 min | Drama, Romance, Western
Bud is a young man from the country who learns about life and love in a Houston bar.
Director: James Bridges | Stars: John Travolta, Debra Winger, Scott Glenn, Madolyn Smith Osborne
Votes: 16,826 | Gross: $53.30M
32. Ordinary People (1980)
R | 124 min | Drama
The accidental death of the older son of an affluent family deeply strains the relationships among the bitter mother, the good-natured father and the guilt-ridden younger son.
Director: Robert Redford | Stars: Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, Timothy Hutton
Votes: 56,692 | Gross: $54.80M
It's not even about Ordinary People! It's about the same white, well off people with movie jobs having movie emotions in a picture perfect house. This is 2 hours spent with the cardboard fantasy people that populate a Micheal Bay movie. Office Space is about ordinary people. This is just what Hollywood thinks 'ordinary' is.
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