Tag Archives: 1985

Super Mario Bros. Featured

Super Mario Bros. (1985)

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Home video gaming in the 1980’s was ultimately defined by two consoles, the Atari Video Computer System (2600) and the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

Sure, there were many other popular, well received, and well made consoles during that time, but it ultimately came down to two. The Atari era defined the first half of the decade and the NES defined the latter half. There was one game in particular that catapulted the NES into the stratosphere and made not only Nintendo synonymous with video games, but also a mustachioed Italian plumber named Mario a household name…

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American Ninja (1985)

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Michael Dudikoff wasn’t much of a ninja. Come to think of it, he wasn’t much of an actor either. But for a brief period during the mid-1980’s he became a hero to kids the world over, and he owes it all to American Ninja.

For me, American Ninja is the defining movie of the oft memorable Cannon Group, who churned out ultra-violent schlock by the bucket load. This was cheap production, nonsensical storytelling, and some of the stiffest, most unmemorable acting of a generation, but there was something there; there had to be…

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Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)

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It took producers a whole year to renege on Friday the 13th’s promise that part IV would indeed be the final chapter, and the $22,000,000 it raked in – more than ten times its allocated budget – tells you exactly why.

Jason was far too big a draw to put to bed in 1984, and you have to believe that the studio was aware of this; in all likelihood, Jason’s demise was nothing more than a cynical marketing gimmick…

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weird-science-1985

Revisiting . . . Weird Science (1985)

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Weird Science may not be as memorable as Planes, Trains and Automobiles, or as iconic as The Breakfast Club, but it is still one of filmmaker John Hughes’ finest.

Hughes has a knack of appealing to teenagers and seems to understand what makes them tick, a fact that is prevalent in the dialogue he writes, which is both crudely accurate and consistently hilarious…

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VHS Revival’s Quotes which Define Characters

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Whenever we speak fondly of a particular character, what is it that immediately comes to mind?

Sometimes it might be an action or an expression or some other physical detail that sets them apart, but more often than not it will be the words they use and how they use them. Dialogue is everything to a character, because for most of us words are the primary source of communication, and through them we are able to further understand a subject’s personality and motives; we are able to communicate with them on a whole other level…

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