From the 80’s to the 90’s there have been an untold number of action and adventure flicks that have come out and all of them have been worthy of note in some regard. Yes, even those that people thought were horrible had some redeeming qualities to them if you just look. This list however is about the best overall, not just those that broke box office records, and not just those that were considered the best by the fans. Being the best means that you’ve managed to entertain people beyond the capacity of the initial release and have become a legend among film lovers all over the world or at least within the region where the film was released. It means that you managed to impress enough people so that your legacy lives on and is remembered by future generations as well as those that were around when the movie first came out. So it might not be the best of the best according to some, but had this list been made to feature ALL of the best of the 80’s it would be much, much longer. That being said however these are the movies that are still talked about today, or a few of them at the very least.
It’s hard if not impossible to deny that these movies didn’t strike a chord with many people since their release.
5. Romancing the Stone
Inspiration strikes in the strangest and sometimes most dangerous of ways as Joan sets off to find her captured sister and ends up finding the man of her dreams. The adventures they share aren’t entirely safe or even pleasant but at the end of the story she does find her storybook ending and then she and her new beau sail away. It’s an ending fit for a romance novel and quite honestly it’s one that has stayed with a lot of people, just as the rest of the movie has. You might find more people that were born in the 60’s and 70’s talking about this one however largely because they were old enough to really get into it when the movie came out.
4. Willow
A lot of us were raised on films like Willow. We might not have understood absolutely everything that was going on, but it was a thrill ride from start to finish all the same. The determination and steadfast nature of Willow Ufgood and the crazy yet strangely compelling madness of Madmartigan created a very unlike duo that wasn’t entirely even when it came to being good as a team, but they did manage to entertain a lot of people. In D&D terms you have the hapless halfling trying to be a wizard and you have the crazed but useful human fighter that’s intent on proving his worth and somehow doing the right thing, after a fashion.
3. The Goonies
This movie is as time-honored as any and anyone daring to say that they either haven’t seen The Goonies or professing that they didn’t care for it tends to become the villain outright. While this isn’t a great practice it is the right of the individual and those that love the movie are just as entitled to think of it as a good time and a great movie from our childhood. After all, a lot of kids wanted to go on this kind of adventure to find riches beyond their imagining at some point. In fact many kids actually tried to find One-Eyed Willie after this movie came out, only to realize later on that the ship was built in the studio and not on location. Oh the ruination of childhood, if you allow it to be anyway.
2. Aliens
So let’s just say that the first one is the film that will never be replaced or forgotten and let it be. This one was the action that the film needed and the escalation to the story that few people even dared to imagine. Some might say that there are a lot of plot holes to this story between the first and second movies, but in truth those that say this tend to have less imagination when it comes to filling the gaps and need to be guided around by the nose constantly. This film was simply action-packed and offered up a wide array of thrills and chills that kept even the skeptics jumping out of their seat on occasion.
1. Big Trouble in Little China
Right now your eyes might have widened and your nostrils might have flared while wondering just how this made the top spot or even made the list. Kurt Russell in the 80’s though was awesome. The only reason this movie would beat out his performance in Escape from New York is simple: it was funny as well as action-packed. It was a very big list of stereotypical behavior and depictions but given that it was attempting to draw from fable as well as reality it was a pleasing blend of both that made it one of the most watched movies from the date of its release up until now.
Don’t count out any adventure film from the 80’s, there are simply too many of them to easily forget.
Follow Us
