80s Movies: A Guide To What's Wrong With Your Parents

Before John Hughes, a movie couldn't be made that was just about who was going to take a girl to prom. But with a high school divided into the haves and the have nots, Hughes was able to make a love story of Romeo and Juliet proportions. The relationshp was bigger than working-class Andie and Yuppie son Blane: there was Duckie, the OG simp. Pretty in Pink (1986) was ahead of its time in celebrating emotional males with feminine energy and highlighting a parentified child dealing with a deeply depressed dad. However, it doesn't go far enough. Film authorities Tara McNamara, Gen X, and Riley Roberts, Gen Z, look back at the teen classic with a modern lens and call out the impact it had on a generation.

Wolverines! Red Dawn is one of the few teen action films of the '80s -- and definitely the most influential. It showed that teens were responsible, skilled, and capable enough to save their town and, possibly, the United States. It's a blow 'em up, shoot 'em up, and set them on fire pic. But the intended message never reached its young audience and the result, as hosts Tara McNamara (Gen X) and Riley Roberts (Gen Z) identify, is that the film has continued to inspire in all the wrong ways. 

The Outsiders (1983) is one of the most popular teen books in the 1980s, and teens couldn't wait to see the movie directed by one of the biggest names in cinema. Featuring a Who's Who of Who Was and Who Would Become Famous -- including Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Diane Lane, Emilio Estevez, Ralph Macchio, C. Thomas Howell, Leif Garrett, and Tom Waits -- it was a film both genders lined up to see in 1983. Not only was this a period piece, written by a then teenage S.E. Hinton in the mid-60s, it also depicts a band of brothers born on the "wrong side of the tracks" -- and Hinton was female. The screenwriter who adapted the book was also a woman, Kathleen Rowell, who went under cover at a high school to be sure the film addressed how teens interacted in the early 1980s. Using a modern lens, film authorities Tara McNamara, Gen X, and Riley Roberts, Gen Z, examine this Francis Ford Coppola classic with an eye to how a teen girl may have influenced a generation of teen boys on this episode of

Beverly Hills Cop was the No. 1 movie in 1984, a year that many consider one of cinema's best. As Detroit police detective Axel Foley (a role originally written for white actors Mickey Rouke and then Sylvester Stallone), Eddie Murphy made headway for black authority figures as lead characters -- a huge step toward positive representation for the black community. Film authorities Tara McNamara (Gen X) and Riley Roberts (Gen Z) look back through a modern lens to evaluate how the comedy classic holds up and how it doesn't.

Urban Cowboy took America from disco to country within weeks, its popularity buoying a desire for all things "country-western" from Wranglers and boots to riding pretend animals.Film authorities Tara McNamara and Riley Roberts look at the film thorugh the modern lens to assess what it tells us about life in 1980 and now.

FLETCH (1985) is Chevy Chase's favorite character - and the favorite of most of Gen X. Film authorities Tara McNamara, Gen X, and Riley Roberts, Gen Z, look at the PG-rated film through a modern lens. While it doesn't carry shockers of bad behavior like other '80s comedies, it's there...just as Irwin M. Fletcher throws away most of the zingers, it's the subtleties that shows how '80s humor influenced a generation.

When director Alan Parker took on a script about the New York High School of the Performing Arts, he intended to make a film that "took a hard look at a subject that had been overly glamorized." As much as he intended to show the sacrifice and pursuit of craft, that's not what audiences took away. Film authorities Tara McNamara, Gen X, and Riley Roberts, Gen Z, look back at the film that gave the world a song that would stick in the minds of dreamers everywhere.

A lot has happened since JD offed the teen mean girls of Westerburg High and blew himself up: mainly, the world has been blowing itself up and schools are a major target. Hosts Tara McNamara (Gen X) and Riley Roberts (Gen Z) asked if there was a connection and screenwriter Daniel Waters responds to this ("Why wasn't my phone ringing? HEATHERS should get some credit!") as well as answers all our questions about the making of "the movie that turned the '80s into the '90s."  For complete behind the scenes info on '80s movies, go to our site 80sMovieGuide.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @80sMovieGuide  

The child nudity and sexuality depicted in The Blue Lagoon caused a stir in 1980, but the fact it was even made shows a real difference in what was and wasn't acceptable during that era. Film critics/analysts Tara McNamara (Gen X) and Riley Roberts (Gen Z) look at the Brooke Shields-Christopher Atkins romance through the modern lens, putting it in context for its era, as well as the impact it made. For behind the scenes and making of The Blue Lagoon info, go to 80smovieguide.com/the-blue-lagoon/

Movie critics and analysts Tara McNamara, Gen X, and daughter Riley Roberts, Gen Z, look back at HEATHERS with a modern lens at the very real elements of high school life it was satirizing and compare it to the challenges of today. They examine if the Winona Ryder-Christian Slater classic may have been the first domino in our now all-too common world of high school shootings and bomb threats.

XANADU is one of the 1980s biggest flops, but it is also rather magnificent. It's a cult classic with passionate fans who love the music, the style, the dance numbers, and the cheesy special effects. Tara McNamara and Riley Roberts look at the Olivia Newton-John-Gene Kelly roller disco musical from the Gen X and Gen Z perspective while also looking at the subtle message the film sends about the role of the ideal woman in 1980.

Casual Sex? is a time capsule of women's difficulties in navigating the ever-changing sexual landscape of the 1980s. Screenwriter Wendy Goldman explains how the film- the first studio film to mention AIDS and acknowledge its impact on the dating scene - came to be and how Andrew Dice Clay managed to get the girl.

Mother-daughter movie critics Tara McNamara (Gen X) and Riley Roberts (Gen Z) look at SCROOGED on its 30th Anniversary, and reflect how it's so '80s, how it's held up, and why Frank Cross got dumped unfairly. Read all the behind the scenes info at 80sMovieGuide.com. Follow us on social media @80sMovieGuide.

"Christmas in the Movies" author Jeremy Arnold joins us to give the definitive answer of whether or not DIE HARD is a Christmas movie and WHY. We also look at what makes the Bruce Willis classic so '80s and examine how it holds up today. What is the favorite Christmas movie of a guy who wrote the book on Christmas movies? And what modern day Christmas classic is banned from our the house of our film family? '80s MOVIES: A GUIDE TO WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOUR PARENTS has just a few questions, but so many answers.

Mother-daughter movie critics Tara McNamara and Riley Roberts, 17, identify why THE KARATE KID has stood the test of time, why Gen X'ers identify with it so much, and what it's like in high school today (the answer is eye-opening).  https://80smovieguide.com/karate-kid/