This is not a list of my favourite films, or even the best of the eighties, these are just films that even now, are still pretty 'ok' and at the time seemed to have some effect on our generation, be it shocking, kewl or just 'cool'!

The Breakfast Club
Five teenagers serving detention together, learn a lot about how they've very similar despite belonging to different cliques.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Matthew Broderick skips school and all kinds of hijinks occur. This is one of those rides which is really fun, a small lesson is learned for one of the minor characters. Basically though, the situations that Ferris gets in and out of are for the most part believable, and are certainly enjoyable.

The Goonies
Really a pre-teen movie, but lots of fun none-the-less. A group of misfits fight to save their home by going after an elusive treasure. Lots of tense situations for the characters to solve, good for children. It's as fresh today as it was then.

The Karate Kid
A great film about the values of patience and learning. A great story about a teenage trying to overcome the seemingly impossible to beat karate experts which run rampant over him. A sense of optimism seems to prevail throughout this movie and it's very uplifting to watch.

The Lost Boys
Teenage vampires, this one always gets bad reviews, but it still has a lot of character growth in regards to peer pressure. This is a very dark comedy, but it still works well, especially if you're not expecting a typical horror flick or a typical teenager flick.

Pretty In Pink
Poor girl from the wrong side of the tracks falls in love with a rich boy from the right side of the tracks and vice-versa.

Ghostbusters
Bill Murray and Dan Akroyd take on ghosts with science. The characters are great fun, especially Bill Murray as the smooth fast talking charlatan.

Good Morning, Vietnam
Robin Williams at his zaniest as a radio announcer. There is great character growth for his character in this one as he copes with being stationed in Vietnam and dealing with some of the horrors of war.

9 to 5
Dolly Parton and Lilly Tomlin get mid-evil on their employer's buttocks and learn how to take control of their own lives. Dirty Dancing
Another retro film about the fifties, and a film where the main character grows up a lot during the course of the movie.

E.T. - The Extraterrestrial
A children's classic, timeless. See Drew Barrymore when she's still innocent.

Flashdance
A downtrodden dancer tries to make it to the big time.

Gremlins
A great horror story about what happens when people rush into things they don't understand.

A Nightmare on Elm Street
One of the best horror series of the eighties, this one was highly original for it's time, and even now doesn't look dated.

Wargames
Cold war paranoia compared with the whiz-bang appeal of personal computers.

Airplane!
Leslie Nealson's big-screen breakthrough in this off the wall comedy. This movie helped to bring the zany comedies that were popular in the fifties into the eighties.

Beetlejuice
Hard to believe this is Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice, but it is. This movie makes the world of death seem like a larger than life playground. Michael Keaton's performance as the over the top Beetlejuice is what really sells this one.

The Blues Brothers
One of the best movie adaptations of a Saturday Night Live sketch, and definitely a cult classic. Some of the music sequences are a little too over the top, but that's more the appeal of this movie than anything. The car chase involving hundreds of police cars piling up, the car chase in a mall, etc.

Caddyshack
A movie about golf and growing up for a caddy. The most memorably roles of actors are those of Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, and Rodney Dangerfield. The best for a non-actor goes to the golpher that Bill Murray chases throughout the movie. The plot is fairly predictable, but if you ignore that and watch for the big name actors, then it's worth watching. Back to the Future
Michael J. Fox's best movie role ever, and definitely the best in the series of movies. This exemplifies the action movie for the family position.

Beverly Hills Cop
Eddie Murphy is absolutely stunning in this movie, as he takes on the bad guys and the Beverly Hills police force at the same time.

The Fly
The remake of the classic horror film adapted to the eighties.

Highlander
Helped to spawn several sequels of lesser quality, but this one had a great feel to it. Sean Connery is lots of fun in this as well, has a somewhat dark edge to it, and great atmosphere.

Lethal Weapon
Mel Gibson is a wild out of control cop, Danny Glover is just trying to stay alive long enough to retire. Together they kill and blow up tons of stuff. Helped to spawn lots of lesser imitators, including it's own sequal (the third one wasn't too bad, we'll see how bad the 4th one turns out next summer).

Raiders of the Lost Ark
The first of three, definitely a break through work when it came out, and helped to establish Harrison Ford as something other than Han Solo. The opening sequence is probably one of the most memorable in a movie. I also recommend the third movie in the series, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, with Sean Connery as his father, almost better than the first.

An Officer and a Gentleman
A great movie about the military.

Pink Floyd: The Wall
Tommy for the eighties.

Poltergeist
A classic ghost story without a lot of unnecessary gore.