Forgotten gems of the 80s
by renebird | created - 13 Sep 2019 | updated - 14 Sep 2019 | PublicHere's a look at some of the forgotten gems of the 1980s, inspired by Now: 100 Hits: Forgotten 80s.
- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. Flashdance (1983)
R | 95 min | Drama, Music, Romance
An 18-year-old female amateur dancer who performs nightly at a dancing bar, and works as a welder during the day, dreams of joining the Pittsburgh ballet school.
Director: Adrian Lyne | Stars: Jennifer Beals, Michael Nouri, Lilia Skala, Sunny Johnson
Votes: 59,604 | Gross: $94.90M
2. Mannequin (1987)
PG | 90 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
A young artist, searching for his vocation, makes a mannequin so perfect he falls in love with it. Finding the mannequin in a store window, he gets a job there and his creation comes to life.
Director: Michael Gottlieb | Stars: Andrew McCarthy, Kim Cattrall, Estelle Getty, James Spader
Votes: 35,706 | Gross: $42.72M
3. Cocktail (1988)
R | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A talented New York City bartender takes a job at a bar in Jamaica and falls in love.
Director: Roger Donaldson | Stars: Tom Cruise, Bryan Brown, Elisabeth Shue, Lisa Banes
Votes: 91,939 | Gross: $78.22M
4. Condorman (1981)
PG | 90 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Cartoonist Woody becomes the superhero he draws. Using his gadgets he helps a Soviet spy defect to the West.
Director: Charles Jarrott | Stars: Michael Crawford, Oliver Reed, Barbara Carrera, James Hampton
Votes: 5,410
5. TerrorVision (1986)
R | 85 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
"TerrorVision" is a 1986 horror / science fiction movie; telling the tale of when a family's new satellite television system starts receiving signals from another planet, and soon it becomes the passageway to an alien world.
Director: Ted Nicolaou | Stars: Diane Franklin, Mary Woronov, Gerrit Graham, Chad Allen
Votes: 7,777 | Gross: $0.32M
6. Staying Alive (1983)
PG | 93 min | Drama, Music, Romance
Five years later, Tony Manero's Saturday Night Fever is still burning. Now he's strutting toward his biggest challenge yet: succeeding as a dancer on the Broadway stage.
Director: Sylvester Stallone | Stars: John Travolta, Cynthia Rhodes, Finola Hughes, Steve Inwood
Votes: 17,610 | Gross: $64.89M
7. Mac and Me (1988)
PG | 99 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
An alien trying to escape from NASA is befriended by a wheelchair-bound boy.
Director: Stewart Raffill | Stars: Christine Ebersole, Jonathan Ward, Tina Caspary, Lauren Stanley
Votes: 14,530 | Gross: $6.42M
8. Hobgoblins (1988)
Not Rated | 88 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
A young security guard must track down diminutive aliens who kill people even as they make their fantasies come true.
Director: Rick Sloane | Stars: Tom Bartlett, Paige Sullivan, Steven Boggs, Kelley Palmer
Votes: 12,458
9. The Black Cauldron (1985)
PG | 80 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
A young boy and a group of misfit friends embark on a quest to find a dark magic item of ultimate power before a diabolical tyrant can.
Directors: Ted Berman, Richard Rich | Stars: Grant Bardsley, Freddie Jones, Susan Sheridan, Nigel Hawthorne
Votes: 40,783 | Gross: $21.29M
10. The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
G | 74 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
Basil, the rodent Sherlock Holmes, investigates the kidnapping of a toy maker and uncovers its link to his archenemy, Professor Ratigan.
Directors: Ron Clements, Burny Mattinson, David Michener, John Musker | Stars: Vincent Price, Barrie Ingham, Val Bettin, Susanne Pollatschek
Votes: 54,461 | Gross: $38.60M
11. The Brave Little Toaster (1987)
G | 90 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
A group of dated appliances embark on a journey to the city to find their master after being abandoned in a cabin in the woods.
Director: Jerry Rees | Stars: Jon Lovitz, Timothy Stack, Timothy E. Day, Thurl Ravenscroft
Votes: 27,755
12. Tango & Cash (1989)
R | 104 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Framed by their ruthless arch-nemesis, a pair of mismatched LAPD officers must put their differences aside to get even with the brutal crime baron who sent them to rot in a maximum-security prison.
Directors: Andrey Konchalovskiy, Albert Magnoli | Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell, Teri Hatcher, Jack Palance
Votes: 113,656 | Gross: $63.41M
13. Over the Top (1987)
PG | 93 min | Action, Drama, Sport
Tough trucker Lincoln Hawk is determined to win back his son and triumph at the world arm wrestling championships.
Director: Menahem Golan | Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Robert Loggia, Susan Blakely, Rick Zumwalt
Votes: 59,446 | Gross: $16.06M
14. 2010 (1984)
PG | 116 min | Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A joint USA-Soviet expedition is sent to Jupiter to learn exactly what happened to the "Discovery" and its H.A.L. 9000 computer.
Director: Peter Hyams | Stars: Roy Scheider, John Lithgow, Helen Mirren, Bob Balaban
Votes: 57,309 | Gross: $40.20M
15. Heaven's Gate (1980)
R | 219 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
During the Johnson County War in 1890 Wyoming, a sheriff born into wealth does his best to protect immigrant farmers from rich cattle interests.
Director: Michael Cimino | Stars: Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John Hurt, Sam Waterston
Votes: 17,165 | Gross: $3.48M
16. Hell Night (1981)
R | 101 min | Horror, Thriller
Four college pledges are forced to spend the night in a deserted old mansion, where they are stalked by the monstrous survivor of a family massacre years earlier.
Director: Tom DeSimone | Stars: Linda Blair, Vincent Van Patten, Peter Barton, Kevin Brophy
Votes: 8,779
17. Friday the 13th (1980)
R | 95 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A group of teenage camp counselors attempt to re-open an abandoned summer camp with a tragic past, but they are stalked by a mysterious, relentless killer.
Director: Sean S. Cunningham | Stars: Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Jeannine Taylor, Robbi Morgan
Votes: 157,567 | Gross: $39.75M
18. An American Tail (1986)
G | 80 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
While emigrating to the United States, a young Russian mouse gets separated from his family and must locate them while trying to survive in a new country.
Director: Don Bluth | Stars: Dom DeLuise, Christopher Plummer, Erica Yohn, Nehemiah Persoff
Votes: 58,107 | Gross: $47.48M
19. Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)
PG | 104 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A farm boy recruits a band of outlaws to save the planet Akir from forces that threaten to wipe them out from the face of the universe. A battle stretching beyond the stars begins here.
Directors: Jimmy T. Murakami, Roger Corman | Stars: George Peppard, Robert Vaughn, Richard Thomas, John Saxon
Votes: 10,232
20. Galaxy of Terror (1981)
R | 81 min | Action, Adventure, Horror
A ragtag spaceship crew sent on a rescue mission encounter a formidable enemy, their worst fears projected by their own imaginations.
Director: Bruce D. Clark | Stars: Edward Albert, Erin Moran, Ray Walston, Bernard Behrens
Votes: 8,915
21. Forbidden World (1982)
R | 77 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
In the distant future, a federation marshal arrives at a research lab on a remote planet where a genetic experiment has gotten loose and begins feeding on the dwindling scientific group.
Director: Allan Holzman | Stars: Don Olivera, Jesse Vint, June Chadwick, Linden Chiles
Votes: 6,305
22. Xanadu (1980)
PG | 96 min | Fantasy, Musical, Romance
A struggling artist living in Los Angeles meets a girl who may hold the key to his happiness.
Director: Robert Greenwald | Stars: Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly, Michael Beck, James Sloyan
Votes: 15,396 | Gross: $22.76M
23. Manhunter (1986)
R | 120 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Former FBI profiler Will Graham returns to service to pursue a deranged serial killer dubbed "the Tooth Fairy" by the media.
Director: Michael Mann | Stars: William Petersen, Kim Greist, Joan Allen, Brian Cox
Votes: 81,000 | Gross: $8.62M
24. The King of Comedy (1982)
PG | 109 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A passionate yet unsuccessful comedian stalks and kidnaps his idol to take the spotlight for himself.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Diahnne Abbott, Sandra Bernhard
Votes: 119,293 | Gross: $2.50M
25. The Cannonball Run (1981)
PG | 95 min | Action, Comedy, Sport
A wide variety of eccentric competitors participate in a wild and illegal cross-country road race. However, the eccentric entrants will do anything to win the road race, including low-down, dirty tricks.
Director: Hal Needham | Stars: Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, Farrah Fawcett, Dom DeLuise
Votes: 39,981 | Gross: $72.18M
26. Inferno (1980)
R | 106 min | Horror
An American student investigates the disappearance of his sister and the death of a friend, both connected from New York to Rome by an old alchemy book.
Director: Dario Argento | Stars: Leigh McCloskey, Irene Miracle, Eleonora Giorgi, Daria Nicolodi
Votes: 24,029
27. Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
Unrated | 95 min | Adventure, Horror
During a rescue mission into the Amazon rainforest, a professor stumbles across lost film shot by a missing documentary crew.
Director: Ruggero Deodato | Stars: Robert Kerman, Francesca Ciardi, Perry Pirkanen, Luca Barbareschi
Votes: 61,194
28. Cannibal Ferox (1981)
93 min | Adventure, Horror
Three friends set out to disprove cannibalism on a trip to the Amazonian jungle, where they meet two men trying to escape a vicious cannibal tribe.
Director: Umberto Lenzi | Stars: Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Lorraine De Selle, Danilo Mattei, Zora Kerova
Votes: 10,803
29. Pieces (1982)
Not Rated | 85 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
The co-eds of a Boston college campus are targeted by a mysterious killer who is creating a human jigsaw puzzle from their body parts.
Director: Juan Piquer Simón | Stars: Christopher George, Lynda Day George, Frank Braña, Edmund Purdom
Votes: 12,844 | Gross: $2.03M
30. The Secret of NIMH (1982)
G | 82 min | Animation, Adventure, Drama
To save her ill son, a field mouse must seek the aid of a colony of rats, with whom she has a deeper link than she suspected.
Director: Don Bluth | Stars: Elizabeth Hartman, Derek Jacobi, Dom DeLuise, Arthur Malet
Votes: 45,214 | Gross: $10.14M
31. The Thing (1982)
R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David, Richard Masur
Votes: 467,114 | Gross: $13.78M
32. Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
R | 98 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Kids all over America want Silver Shamrock masks for Halloween. Doctor Daniel Challis seeks to uncover a plot by Silver Shamrock owner Conal Cochran.
Director: Tommy Lee Wallace | Stars: Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Dan O'Herlihy, Michael Currie
Votes: 61,034 | Gross: $14.40M
33. Christine (1983)
R | 110 min | Horror, Thriller
A nerdish boy buys a strange car with an evil mind of its own and his nature starts to change to reflect it.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky
Votes: 92,513 | Gross: $21.20M
34. Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
PG-13 | 99 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
A rough-and-tumble trucker and his side kick face off with an ancient sorcerer in a supernatural battle beneath Chinatown.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun, James Hong
Votes: 154,135 | Gross: $11.10M
35. Prince of Darkness (1987)
R | 102 min | Horror
A group of graduate students and scientists uncover an ancient canister in an abandoned church, but when they open the container, they inadvertently unleash a strange liquid and an evil force on all humanity.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Donald Pleasence, Lisa Blount, Jameson Parker, Victor Wong
Votes: 50,007 | Gross: $14.18M
36. They Live (1988)
R | 94 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
They influence our decisions without us knowing it. They numb our senses without us feeling it. They control our lives without us realizing it. They live.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster, George 'Buck' Flower
Votes: 145,659 | Gross: $13.01M
37. Road House (1989)
R | 114 min | Action, Thriller
A bouncer hired to clean up the baddest honkytonk in a Missouri town. Armed with a black belt in karate and a degree in philosophy, Patrick Swayze sets out to tame the Double Deuce for its owner.
Director: Rowdy Herrington | Stars: Patrick Swayze, Kelly Lynch, Sam Elliott, Ben Gazzara
Votes: 101,220 | Gross: $30.05M
38. Dune (1984)
PG-13 | 137 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A Duke's son leads desert warriors against the galactic emperor and his father's evil nemesis to free their desert world from the emperor's rule.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Kyle MacLachlan, Virginia Madsen, Francesca Annis, Leonardo Cimino
Votes: 179,821 | Gross: $30.93M
39. Transylvania 6-5000 (1985)
PG | 93 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
Two tabloid reporters are sent to Transylvania to find the Frankenstein monster - or get fired. They are laughed at there, but something suspicious is going on.
Director: Rudy De Luca | Stars: Jeff Goldblum, Joseph Bologna, Ed Begley Jr., Carol Kane
Votes: 8,481 | Gross: $7.20M
40. Blow Out (1981)
R | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A movie sound recordist accidentally records the evidence that proves that a car accident was actually murder and consequently finds himself in danger.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow, Dennis Franz
Votes: 63,394 | Gross: $13.75M
41. Body Double (1984)
R | 114 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A young actor's obsession with spying on a beautiful woman who lives nearby leads to a baffling series of events with drastic consequences.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Craig Wasson, Melanie Griffith, Gregg Henry, Deborah Shelton
Votes: 38,274 | Gross: $8.80M
42. Cobra (1986)
R | 87 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A tough-on-crime street cop must protect the only surviving witness to a strange murderous cult with far-reaching plans.
Director: George P. Cosmatos | Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Brigitte Nielsen, Reni Santoni, Andrew Robinson
Votes: 79,665 | Gross: $49.04M
43. Victory (1981)
PG | 116 min | Drama, Sport, War
As allied P.O.W.s prepare for a soccer game against the German National Team to be played in Nazi-occupied Paris, the French Resistance and British officers are making plans for the team's escape.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone, Pelé, Bobby Moore
Votes: 33,285 | Gross: $10.85M
44. Blood Diner (1987)
Unrated | 88 min | Comedy, Horror
Two brothers are entrusted by their uncle to uphold the ritualistic cannibalism of the ancient cult of Sheetar. In order to do so, they have to prepare a feast of sacrifice for the resurrection of their goddess.
Director: Jackie Kong | Stars: Rick Burks, Carl Crew, Roger Dauer, LaNette La France
Votes: 5,380
45. Street Trash (1987)
Unrated | 91 min | Comedy, Horror
A liquor store owner sells alcoholic beverages to homeless people, unaware of what the bottles actually contain: toxic brew.
Director: J. Michael Muro | Stars: Mike Lackey, Bill Chepil, Vic Noto, Mark Sferrazza
Votes: 11,448
Tell Your Friends