Awesome to the Max (Part 3 of 4)

Awesome to the Max: My Top 25 Movies That Made Growing Up in the 1980s Exceptional – Part 3 of 4

10. The Muppet movies (The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, The Muppets Take Manhattan): The Muppets had, still have and will forever have the key to my inner child. I grew up with The Muppet Show and I loved watching the crazy, off the wall antics of these weirdos that did everything they could to put on a show. Did I know what vaudeville and critics were at the age of five? Hell no, but I loved what I saw. Then they began making movies and let me tell you, the three movies made during the Jim Henson era were some of the best movies you could take kids to at that time.

The first, The Muppet Movie, did get released in 1979 (a good couple of years before I was born), but would find a new life on a wonderful device known as home video rental. Well, I saw this “origin story” of how the Muppets all got together and travelled to Hollywood to pursue their dream of fame and fortune. 

 

As a kid, I loved this movie but as I got older, the movie began to resonate more and more with my inner drive to be recognized for my talents and achieve greatness through them. Amidst the wonderful madcap adventures of the Muppets and a crazy guy who wants Kermit to be his spokesperson for a Fast Food Chain of Frog Legs (ew), this movie holds up surprisingly well over time. And The Rainbow Connection remains one of the greatest songs in movie history.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE6i23QHSqk

The Great Muppet Caper was a separate story that added Muppets into a crazy European jewel heist scenario. While it’s not as memorable as the movie that it followed or the movie that follows it, it’s still a pretty funny movie that has some genuinely inspired moments of comic hilarity and some incredible music moments. 

 

The sight gags are pretty clever and I still think Happiness Hotel is probably one of the best musical numbers of the 1980s (for as few and far between as there were).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09tVBhCvv0M 

If The Great Muppet Caper was a separate adventure, then The Muppets Take Manhattan was a return to their “Hey, gang, let’s put on a show” roots. Fresh after graduating from college, Kermit and his friends go to New York City to get their play put on Broadway. 

But life has a crushing reality that weighs in on them, which results in the Muppets deciding to go their own separate ways and being expressed in one of the saddest childhood songs, “Saying Goodbye”. 

I cried then and I still cry now because it is such a heart-wrenching expression of trying to put a good spin on the death of a dream as well as an all too familiar display of what it feels like to part ways with a loved one. But they wouldn’t be the Muppets without Kermit never giving up on that dream to put on a show and the hilarious hijinks continue. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFNwA4gI510

And for a good cry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=penzsVANV0k

They’re all perfect family movies, witty, clever, heartfelt and inspirational. Not only that, but looking back on them, they have some of the greatest musical moments in a movie. They’re so good that as you grow older, they are both keys to your childhood while maintaining their level of witty humor that can be enjoyed no matter what age you are.

9. Dick Tracy: I LOVE a good mystery and the only thing I love better than a good mystery is a good noir mystery and the only thing I love better than a good noir mystery is a good noir mystery that has a fantastic setting. Enter Dick Tracy, which brought to the big screen a wonderful capture of both the brilliantly bright primary color look of the comic books as well as the shadowy look of a classic noir film. 

 

Warren Beatty plays Dick Tracy (as well as wrote and directed this movie) who takes on the seedy crime underworld of crime while trying to balance a love life. I’ve always said that I can get lost in a movie that has a fantastic setting and what a setting this movie had! This is one of my favorite set design jobs in movie history. This movie was bright, exciting, enthralling and smart. While a little risqué for the younger crowd (thank Madonna’s character for that), it still has enough style and charm to enrapture me at a young age. 

It was like watching a comic book come to vivid life on screen and I remember sitting there in the theater, enthralled with every punch, Tommy Gun shootout and every character in their brilliant make-up job. Seriously, look at the make-up work on Pruneface, Flattop, Babyface, The Brow, it’s simply amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAHj3IsSuT0 

8. The Goonies: If you didn’t see The Goonies as a kid, then you missed out on what is arguably the greatest kids’ ensemble adventure movie. This is the one that started the entire genre of “group of kids go out and have an adventure” stories that followed. A group of New England children are in danger of losing their houses to a rich socialite and are about to part ways when they discover a map that leads to pirate’s treasure. 

 

As they start their journey, there is a mafia family (The Fratellis!!) who are chasing after them to beat them to the treasure. Along the way, they have to avoid all of the Rube Goldberg-esque traps that have been set by the pirate, One Eyed Willie (we didn’t get it as a child, so shut up!) Now, if you apply simple logic to this movie, it does fall apart, such as if the pirates set traps to get out, why were they still trapped, how can the traps still work after nearly four hundred years, blah blah blah. To you, I say, shut up again and enjoy the ride! You’ll miss out on the wonderful gems this movie does have, and I don’t mean the treasure. The characters are fun and energetic, the adventures are thrilling and the cast all deliver indelible performances. Think of who went on from this movie, too, Sean Astin went on to Lord of the Rings fame, Joe Pantoliano went on to have a fantastic career and Josh Brolin became one of this decade’s most respected actors. And the villain, Mama Fratelli! 

 

Who could forget Anne Ramsey as Mama Fratelli, the abusive mafia mother of two bickering brothers and their deformed brother Sloth? And Sloth is just one of the coolest characters, especially how he befriends the token fat kid, not so affectionately referred to as Chunk. Sloth loves Chunk! Honestly, who doesn’t want to find treasure and that’s what makes this movie so much fun to watch. It’s a story that transcends age and is one that defined the childhood of many kids from the 1980s. Admit it, you wanted to have one of your own Goonies adventures, too, didn’t you? 

 

I remember making a treasure map myself and pretending there was buried treasure out there. Come to think of it, I think some of my mom’s jewelry might still be buried in my back yard in California. Love you, mom, thank you for not killing me as I grew up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWgc8Ute2tU 

7. Back to the Future: Did you ever wonder when you were a teenager what your parents were like at your age and if they did the crazy things that you did? That’s the notion behind this brilliant time travel movie that sends intrepid time traveler Marty McFly (played indelibly by Michael J. Fox) thirty years into the past where he crosses paths with his parents to see what kind of people they were. 

 

And his mom develops a crush on him in what is probably one of the most Freudianly hilarious story twists ever. He seeks help from the younger version of his friend, the eccentric inventor Doctor Emmett Brown, played with amazing gusto by Christopher Lloyd. Along the way, the son becomes a sort of mentor to his father, who is dealing with being bullied by the larger kid, Biff Tannen, who is arguably the best movie bully of all time. So when the final confrontation with the bully comes, it is one of the most satisfying moments ever! This is one of the most perfect movies ever made. Everything hits on the right level, story writing, dialog, direction, action, humor, performances and special effects. Nothing feels overwhelming, but at the same time, you never feel cheated. Back to the Future is so amazingly crafted that it will forever stand the test of time. Not to mention, when I went back to watch it again, I marveled at how ingenious the final action piece plays out, where timing is literally everything. 

 

While the second one and the third one were pretty good movies, they lacked the freshness and the originality that the first one had. Not to harp on a bad pun, but this movie literally is like watching lightning get caught in a bottle, it is simply perfect filmmaking that I think you’ll have a hard time finding a person who says they didn’t like Back to the Future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geYqE-f7ojY 

6. Big: Ever wish you were a little bit taller as a kid or at least a couple years older? That’s the premise behind Big, where Josh Baskin’s simple wish gets misinterpreted and he goes from being twelve to thirty five overnight. While he tries to find the wishing machine again, he begins a life for himself in New York City. However, he still perceives the world around him the way that a twelve year old would and this youthful enthusiasm is either resented by his cynical peers or embraced by those who cherish or envy his youthful vigor. 

 

Josh simply wants to live his life much like a boy of twelve would, simply trying to make his way and learn who he is. This movie can’t be reflected on without bringing up how brilliantly Tom Hanks portrayed the “child as an adult” persona. Sure, there were half a dozen movies like this out at the time (18 Again, Dream a Little Dream and Like Father, Like Son to name a few of the others), but it’s the embracing of youth and the performance of Tom Hanks that I think made this as memorable as it was. The mannerisms Hanks displays are much like a young teen’s, but it’s also in his eyes that he has that sensible innocence in them. 

 

I think I connected with this so much as a kid because it reminded me so much to enjoy the time I have as a child. But I think I also connected with the love story, too, and how his youthfulness helped a woman branch out of her cynicism into a woman that embraced the life she would just let pass by. That’s also probably why the ending hits such an emotional chord with me. As I grew up, I had to say goodbye to a lot of friends that I was never able to reconnect with to this day and do this on a very consistent basis. Try to imagine saying goodbye to your best friends four times in your life before you’re eleven. So when I have to see two characters that I’ve come to love have to say goodbye in some way, it breaks my heart on a level that I think goes deeper than it does for most. Plus, when the character is a child, it hits that much closer to home for me. Plus, the impact of Howard Shore’s music for the entire third act so poignantly captures the emotion of the scene that it still haunts me to this day. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCmyX6CYhI0 

When I was about fifteen or sixteen, I came to the realization that when you’re young, you can’t wait until you’re ten. When you’re ten, you can’t wait until you’re a thirteen. When you’re thirteen, you can’t wait until you get to sixteen. When you’re sixteen, you can’t wait until you were eighteen. When you’re eighteen, you can’t wait until you’re twenty one. When you’re twenty one, you are ready to start your life. But once you turn thirty, you look back on your life and wonder where it went. Some people spend so much time waiting to be a certain age that they don’t stop to enjoy the beauty of the youth they had, which you never appreciate until you’re older and can’t go back. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons I was so eager to put this list together, to reflect on the beauty of what I had growing up in the medium that I adored so much. So if you’re reading this and you’re going on the same nostalgic journey I am, enjoy the age you are at because you only get to have it once in your life because we don’t have Zoltar machines.