Shat the Movies

The Best 80s & 90s Movie Podcast

Search Movie Database

1981

1980s Best Movies / View All

Stripes (1981)

Hard-luck cabbie John Winger (Bill Murray) — directionless after being fired from his job and dumped by his girlfriend — enlists in the U.S. Army with his close pal, Russell Ziskey (Harold Ramis). After his barely satisfactory performance in basic training, the irreverent Winger emerges as the figurehead for a ragtag band of Army misfits. However, his hijinks threaten to cause an international scandal when he inadvertently commandeers a military assault vehicle behind enemy lines.

1980s Best Movies / View All

Flash Gordon (1980)

Although NASA scientists are claiming the unexpected eclipse and strange “hot hail” are nothing to worry about, Dr. Hans Zarkov (Topol) knows better, and takes football star Flash Gordon (Sam Jones) and travel agent Dale Arden (Melody Anderson) with him into space to rectify things. They land on planet Mongo, where the despot Ming the Merciless (Max von Sydow) is attacking Earth out of pure boredom. With the help of a race of Hawkmen, Flash and the gang struggle to save their home planet.

1980s Best Movies / View All

Caveman (1981)

Atouk (Ringo Starr) is the leader of a small band of misfit cavemen who are part of a larger community headed by strongman Tonda (John Matuszak). Atouk is madly in love with Tonda’s woman, Lana (Barbara Bach). He even ignores the advances of the lovely Tala (Shelley Long) and sets his mind to finding some way of wooing Lana. During Atouk’s quest for romance, he and his cohorts fend off dinosaurs, indulge in hallucinogens and invent cooking, music and medicine.

1980s Best Movies / View All

Arthur (1981)

Wealthy New York City playboy Arthur Bach (Dudley Moore) is perpetually drunk and completely rudderless. Dutifully supported by his sharp-tongued and quick-witted butler, Hobson (John Gielgud), Arthur reluctantly prepares to enter into an arranged marriage with heiress Susan Johnson (Jill Eikenberry). When he meets Linda Marolla (Liza Minnelli), a waitress from Queens, he falls head over heels in love, but if he backs out of his engagement with Susan, he may lose his fortune.

1980s Best Movies / View All

Taps (1981)

Bunker Hill Military Academy has been targeted by real estate developers for demolition. The students, outraged at the thought of their school being turned into condominiums, vow to fight back. Led by Cadet Maj. Brian Moreland (Timothy Hutton), they stage a school-wide rebellion that ends with them in charge of the campus. After winning over the headmaster (George C. Scott), Brian and his fellow cadets, Alex (Sean Penn) and David (Tom Cruise) face their toughest battle yet with the Army.

1980s Best Movies / View All

An American Werewolf in London (1981)

David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne), two American college students, are backpacking through Britain when a large wolf attacks them. David survives with a bite, but Jack is brutally killed. As David heals in the hospital, he’s plagued by violent nightmares of his mutilated friend, who warns David that he is becoming a werewolf. When David discovers the horrible truth, he contemplates committing suicide before the next full moon causes him to transform from man to murderous beast.

1980s Best Movies / View All

Student Bodies (1981)

In this seminal horror-comedy, an anonymous killer known only as “the Breather” (Richard Brando) terrorizes the teenagers of Lamab High by killing every student who indulges in sex. The long list of suspects includes the school’s psychoanalyst (Carl Jacobs), nurse (Janice E. O’Malley), principal (Joe Talarowski) and, most surprisingly, virginal student Toby (Kristen Riter), who’s always at the scene of the crime. Toby knows she’s innocent, however, and vows to catch the killer.

1980s Best Movies / View All

The Cannonball Run (1981)

Contestants in a cross-country car race from Connecticut to California include a speed-loving racing driver disguised as an ambulance driver and his dimwitted sidekick, a pair of Ferrari-driving priests, and a James Bond-type character kitted out with secret weapons. Jackie Chan appears in one of his first US film roles.