80sfilms

One of my favorite Kevin Bacon films ever is 1988’s She’s Having a Baby. Although my husband and I never had children, I imagine that Bacon’s character, Jake, reacts pretty much how most guys do when facing down the reality of having their first kid–pure panic, followed by random acts of stupidity and mid-life crisis.

The film is about Jake and his wife Kristy (Elizabeth McGovern), who find themselves unexpectedly pregnant and not quite where they thought they’d be in life before undertaking having children.

From Jake’s acts of immaturity, to his wandering eye, to Kristy’s disapproving parents, there are plenty of laughs mixed with thoughtful moments in the film.

Look for Alec Baldwin in a small but crucial role as Jake’s best friend/instigator, who underhandedly tries to sabotage Jake and Kristy’s marriage and happiness.

She’s Having a Baby is written and directed by 80s genius John Hughes (Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), but definitely skews to an older audience, as the subject matter is well beyond the high school setting. The film also deserves best use of the Kate Bush song “This Woman’s Work” (actually, the whole soundtrack is great).

She’s Having a Baby is rated PG13, but is more suitable for adults than teens and ‘tweens, who most likely won’t understand (or appreciate) the adult situations presented realistically and honestly.

In 1989, John Candy turned in one of his best performances in the John Hughes film Uncle Buck (Hughes both wrote and directed the film).

Candy starred as Uncle Buck, a black sheep screw-up who watches his brother’s kids in a pinch. While Uncle Buck wins over his young relatives Miles and Maizy with his bachelor-esque cooking and cleaning skills, Tia (Jean Louisa Kelly), his rebellious teenage niece, goes out of her way to hate him. Meanwhile his girlfriend, Chanice (Amy Madigan, Field of Dreams), is left wondering what he’s really up to.

Uncle Buck star Candy can also be seen in the 80s hits The Great Outdoors (1988), Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), Spaceballs (1987), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Armed and Dangerous (1986), Volunteers (1985), Summer Rental (1985), Brewster’s Millions (1985), Splash (1984), Vacation (1983), Stripes (1981) and The Blues Brothers (1980).

Uncle Buck also starred adorable Gaby Hoffmann (Field of Dreams) as Maizy, and Macaulay Culkin (Home Alone) as Miles.

If you’re looking for family-friendly fun, you can’t go wrong with 1989’s Uncle Buck.
 

Before John Hughes stole my heart with this, this and this, he came out with a film in a different vein–Mr. Mom, an adult comedy that deals with themes that most teenagers aren’t too concerned with, such as marriage and child rearing.

It stars a young Michael Keaton on the cusp of his brilliant career, as well as an adorable Teri Garr. The cast is round out by Ann Jillian, Jeffrey Tambor and Christopher Lloyd.

Mr. Mom also tackles a seemingly unheard of topic in 1983–that being the life of a stay-at-home dad.

Keaton turns in an excellent performance as a dad struggling with home life and societal expectations, and writer Hughes is able to bridge the gap between comedy and topical situations with just the right mixture of laughs and seriousness.

Even after 25 years, Mr. Mom is totally relatable and relevant.

In 1986, John Hughes made a star out of Matthew Broderick, who played a guy named Ferris Bueller in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off–a film about a high school student who outsmarts all the adults in his life so he can skip school with his girlfriend and his best friend.

Not only did Broderick become a household name thanks to Ferris Bueller, but the film also helped propel the careers of Alan Ruck (who played Ferris’s best friend Cameron), Mia Sara (who played Ferris’s girlfriend Sloane), Jennifer Grey (as Ferris’s sister Jeanie), and Charlie Sheen and Kristy Swanson, both of whom played minor roles in the film.

While the film seemed to be all fun and games, focusing primarily on Ferris, Sloane and Cameron spending a day playing hooky in Chicago, there was also a darker side that alluded to Cameron being abused by his father.

Then there’s the fact that Jeffrey Jones (who played principal Ed Rooney in the film) was arrested in November 2002, after he was accused of hiring a 14-year-old boy to pose for sexually explicit photographs. Jones was charged with one felony count of employing a minor for purposes of taking sexually explicit photos and a misdemeanour count of possessing child pornography and released on $20,000 bail. In July 2003, after pleading no contest to the felony charge, he was placed on a sex offender register, given five years probation and ordered to undergo counselling. The misdemeanour charge of possession or control of child pornography was dropped. In 2004, he was again arrested for failure to register as a sex offender at a new address.

Can anyone say ick?…Anyone?

One can’t really address the 80s without paying respect to the “Brat Pack”–a group of up-and-coming 80s actors that consisted of Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy.

In groups, clusters or pairs, the Brat Pack appeared in many films such as Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty In Pink, St. Elmo’s Fire and About Last Night.

And like most good 80s films, they had the John Hughes connection–a lot of the films the Brat Pack were in were either written, directed, produced, or all of the above, by Hughes.

The nickname the Brat Pack was coined in a 1985 cover story in New York magazine by David Blum (June 10, 1985, pp. 40-47) and is a play on the Rat Pack.

Most of the Brat Pack have enjoyed successful careers (or career revivals, as the case may be), and starred on screens large and small, as well as on Broadway.

The Brat Pack may be a thing of the past, but thanks to DVDs, they will live on.

What happens when a jock, geek, wastoid, prom queen
and psycho spend a Saturday in detention? You get 1985’s The Breakfast Club, courtesy of John Hughes.

Back when I first saw this film, I most readily identified with (and still identify with) the geek, with maybe a dash of the psycho thrown in for good measure. I never was good at sports, nor will I ever be mistaken for a prom queen, and drugs never were my thing.

The beauty of The Breakfast Club was that the film acknowledged that the high school hierarchy was stronger than any friendships forged ramdomly, however deep those friendships might be.

I knew this all to well.

I was a fringe player in high school. Yes, I had a few “popular” friends, but I was not readily accepted into their group.

Pick your reason–I didn’t have money, I wasn’t pretty enough, and boys didn’t know I existed. (Not that I’m complaining, because it was during those four years of high school that I developed by wicked sense of humor–can anyone say defense mechanism?)

That’s why films like The Breakfast Club, Pretty In Pink and Sixteen Candles resonated so deeply with me–all three featured characters on the fringes just trying to survive high school and move on to bigger and better things.

I like to think that Brian (the geek in The Breakfast Club) became a doctor or lawyer or something like that, married a model and had lots of cute kids; Samantha (Sixteen Candles) married Jake Ryan and together they moved to New York City and lived lives full of promise, excitement and love; and Andie (Pretty in Pink) started her own line of clothing and went on to become a designer to the stars.

Of course, we now know that the geek grew up to be a hunk, the prom queen went on to Broadway, and Jake Ryan fell off the grid.

John Hughes created magic in 1986 with yet another film about misfits and fitting in.

Forget Blane–when it comes to Pretty In Pink, I was, and always will be, a Duckie girl.

After all, Duckie had the good taste in music, the cool shoes, and the rad hair. All Blane had was a bunch of jerky friends and a “sheep” mentality.

I know, I know, Hughes tried to salvage Blane at the end of the movie, but really, Andie may not have believed in Blane, but what was she supposed to do when he invited her to the dance then dodged her phone calls?

Oh, he “forgot” he had already invited someone else? Give me a break!

And what about that soundtrack? OMD, Suzanne Vega, INXS, The Psychadelic Furs, New Order, The Smiths…pure 80s music heaven.

Familiar faces like Gina Gershon and Andrew Dice Clay have minor parts in the film, and bad boy James Spader does what he does best–acts sleazy and sexy.

All in all, Pretty In Pink still looks good over 20 years later.

Sixteen Candles came out in 1984, when I was in eigth grade and dreading high school and all that it entailed (cliques, drugs, sex, etc.).

I wasn’t quite ready for what the next few years had in store, and then I saw Sixteen Candles, written and directed by John Hughes, and I had hope.

Hope that I might be accepted, hope that boys might find me attractive (braces and all), and, most of all, hope that Jake Ryan would sweep me off my feet.

While none of those things ever quite panned out, I did, years later, find out that, much like my Sixteen Candles‘ heroine Samantha Baker, I was on the radar of one of the popular boys in school. Nothing ever came of it, but still.

I have now seen Sixteen Candles more times than I can count (at least 100…) and can recite practically every line.

And I even ended up marrying my very own “Jake Ryan”–no black Trans Am, though, but he is a pink guy.

Want to own Sixteen Candles? Get it here.

I was born in the early 70s, so much of my youth was spent in the 80s, where I developed not only my taste in music, but also my love for films. Particularly those of John Hughes, who seemed to be the only person in the world who understood the pain of adolescence, especially the pain felt by dorks, geeks and unpopular girls (I fell into all three categories).

Enter three of the best 80s films: Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club. Yes, all starred Molly Ringwald, who, incidentally, grew up in my hometown, but more importantly, all three films gave me hope that maybe one day I would find my place in the world.

I eventually did, and now I get to reminisce right here about the good, the bad…and the 80s.