You know it's an 80's movie when...

Batutta

Batutta

Major Contributor
There's a montage scored by Journey, Foreigner or Survivor.

The hero kills a bad guy and tosses off a crass one-liner, preferably referencing the manner in which the bad guy was killed.

There is break-dancing of any kind.

Girls wear leg warmers in the summer.

Harold Faltermeyer did the score.

Steve Guttenberg is your big star.

The bad guys are Russians.

Your leads are two cops...and one of them's crazy!

A major plot point involves finding a phone.
 
The hero runs down a hallway from an explosion or fireball that seems to be chasing them.

A pretty heavy amount of smoke is used by the cinematographer to add mood to their scenes.

No hand-held faux documentary style or cinema verite camera work for the most part (obvious exceptions would be something like This is Spinal Tap).

The monster or alien or whatever creepy-crawly thing is menacing the heroes is kept obscure due to the limitations of no CGI (this is actually a good thing in most horror films).

Tony Scott's films looked like they could've been made by his brother Ridley.

Miniature effects FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!

Indiana Jones films were actually good.

John Carpenter's name on the poster or opening credits was seen as a really good thing to movie goers.

Most trailers were better at NOT SPOILING THE ENTIRE FREAKING PLOT of a film before you had a chance to see it.

There very well might be a main character sporting an over-styled mullet, sometimes even a big movie star (Mel Gibson, Kurt Russell).

Danny Glover seemed to be able to speak normally, where as nowadays he seems to have an abundance of saliva in his mouth when he talks (kinda like some Looney Tunes characters).
 
The plot turns on recovering a floppy disc.

The gifted person/monkey/robot is being persued by the goverment to be studied by the military.

You can hack into the school's system with your Macintosh, passwords no problem.

Herbie Hancock did the score.

Brat pack members star in the sequel.

Matte paintings!

Coral filters = sunset grads.

Std coverage = Man shot clean, woman with a fog 2 filter!
 
A high tech sci-fi data screen is a green monochrome CRT.

An SD interlace analog TV set gets an amazingly clear, film quality picture.

The actors in front of a blue(?) screen are somewhat transparent.
 
When the "ugly duckling" is transformed into a swan once her glasses are removed and her hair let down.

There are only two different types of people: nerds and jocks.

Corey Feldman and/or Haime are anywhere to be seen.
 
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Nektonic said:
The hero runs down a hallway from an explosion or fireball that seems to be chasing them.
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The hero walks away - in slow motion - from the biggest freaking explosion you ever seen since Hiroshima and doesn't even look back.

If you want the (fill in your favorite federal agency) secret files, you hack into the super secret computer via a modem that snaps to the telephone receiver and type the words "transfer all secret files" . The letters are 1 inch tall on the screen and typing makes a beeping sound.

You can destroy a computer system by shooting at the screen.

Frank
 
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Postmaster said:
The hero walks away - in slow motion - from the biggest freaking explosion you ever seen since Hiroshima and doesn't even look back.
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I AGREE
 
Oh yeah, I forgot one - the hero wears a bandanna, ether ripped of sleeves or a leather jacket with rolled up sleeves.

Frank
 
The High School Principal is the biggest A-hole on earth and only seems to exist to make the protagonists life miserable.
 
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Billy Pilgrim said:
When the "ugly duckling" is transformed into a swan once her glasses are removed and her hair let down.
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Good one. So many 80's films I've seen lately I say to myself, "She's a hot chick, but she's just wearing bad glasses."

Richard Masur is the dad.
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^ Another good one.

More wardrobe:

-Slip on checkered Vans
-Checkered wayfarer sunglasses
-The "tuxedo" t-shirt
-painters caps Better: painters caps with the flaps in the back. (WTF was that for, in case you got stranded in a desert?)

There was this one dweeby looking red-headed kid who was in all those sex hi-jinx films. He was guilty of all of the above fashion choices.
 
Deepfocus88 said:
More wardrobe:

-Slip on checkered Vans
-Checkered wayfarer sunglasses
-The "tuxedo" t-shirt
-painters caps Better: painters caps with the flaps in the back. (WTF was that for, in case you got stranded in a desert?)

There was this one dweeby looking red-headed kid who was in all those sex hi-jinx films. He was guilty of all of the above fashion choices.
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You refer to the legendary Courtney Gains--
Courtney-300x163.jpg
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You sir are my hero.

And I erased it, but I was going to touch upon those very glasses...the ones with the leather sides.
Man, God bless the internet.
 
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