Yes kids 80's movies really are what the decade was like

[jackfaire]

This is going to be a thread about how 80s movies made after 2000 seem to be 90s kids ideas of what the 80s were like.

You can tell because they all feel like they were written after a John Cusack Marathon.

Oh disclaimer I am totally a 90s teen. While being a child in the 80s my only real reference for what they were like beyond my ugly Hawaiian shirt style shorts and tube socks that stretched half way up my shins was the movies that Hollywood was parading around for me to show me how awesome being a teenager was going to be.

The thing is why does every movie made in the 2000s but set in the 80s feel like a commercialized version of what the 80s were like? Like really I think based on my memories the most accurate portrayal was The Wedding Singer,

Seriously Adam Sandler got it more accurate. I think because he got it the things that were in the movie were like the people that want to be cool so they try to emulate what the mass media says is cool while most people are rolling their eyes.

And the worst sin about these movies set in the 80s is that it doesn't seem to be for any particular reason that is important to the story.

Of course in ten years I am going to be seeing kids born in the 90s start making movies about what the 90s were like based on bad horror flicks that were too self aware.

[Peppergirl]

As someone who turned 11 in 1980, all of my teen years were in the 80's.

The Wedding Singer is pretty accurate as far as 90-s made movies go.

[HYHYBT]

This is probably true to varying degrees of all movies set in times other than when they are made.

[Mytical]

Yes, movies made about another time seem to miss the mark more then hit it. Watch any western (just about), any 50's gangster movie, etc..if you think life was actually like that..you have issues. The worse are the ones about Medieval times though. Yep, it's all about slaying dragons and people being happy you just freed them from the local Duke..I mean it is not like that their lives didn't change much depending on who ruled or anything...

[telecom_goddess]

As someone who turned 11 in 1980, all of my teen years were in the 80's.

I was 14 going on 15 in 1980...yeah my teen years and early adulthood was spent in the 80's. Oh the things I did back then.....course now I"m doing even more off the wall things so you never know

[Bright Star]

They could ask ME about what the 80's were like cause I was a teen in the 80's. & trying to see how that decade was like from watching a few movies is like trying to experience driving a car from watching NASCAR. Just won't cut it. UNLESS you grew up during the 80's then there's no way you can ever truly understand what it was really like.

[jackfaire]

They could ask ME about what the 80's were like cause I was a teen in the 80's. & trying to see how that decade was like from watching a few movies is like trying to experience driving a car from watching NASCAR. Just won't cut it. UNLESS you grew up during the 80's then there's no way you can ever truly understand what it was really like.

That's why honestly I really don't get the point of most of the movies put in the 80s. I mean I guess I kind of do by Hollywood standards because you know according to Hollywood every single kid I went to High School with was a slacker.

[mikoyan29]

That's why honestly I really don't get the point of most of the movies put in the 80s. I mean I guess I kind of do by Hollywood standards because you know according to Hollywood every single kid I went to High School with was a slacker.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that it is probably because the people who run the studios and what not grew up in the 80's. It's kind of like how all the movies in the 80's seemed to be about the 60's....

[blas87]

I was born in the late 80s, but shudder whenever movies are supposed to take place in the 70s or 80s or even 90s. They never get it right as far as style or slang or anything. My parents debunk it every time.

They ruined a lot of episodes of That 70s Show for me that way. At least for the most part, they had the clothes right.

[mikoyan29]

I was born in the late 80s, but shudder whenever movies are supposed to take place in the 70s or 80s or even 90s. They never get it right as far as style or slang or anything. My parents debunk it every time.

They ruined a lot of episodes of That 70s Show for me that way. At least for the most part, they had the clothes right.

My mom is that way with World War II movies. She says they never quite get the women's styles right.

[jackfaire]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that it is probably because the people who run the studios and what not grew up in the 80's. It's kind of like how all the movies in the 80's seemed to be about the 60's....

Yeah but they get writers, actors, and directors that all grew up as teens in the 90s and seem to have little idea what the 80s were actually like.

and it seems to be a trend I have noticed. Let's take The Wedding Singer for example.

Set in the 80s the fact Robbie Hart is following his dream Robbie Hart is defined by Hollywood as following his dream. Take the same character drop him into a 90s movie and boom he is just a slacker.

It's disappointing because it feels like Hollywood develops a rule for each decade that prevails and says, "Okay any movie set in the 60s can be about counter culture and free love but can never be corporate america in a positive light."

"80s movies we can have an educated guy unsure what to do with his life and it is just a guy trying to find himself but never someone who is just a slacker"

"90s movies we can have a bunch of slackers looking for the easy solution but never someone working hard unless we are playing them as a dork."

I think that is why it's most disturbing because instead of a "this is what this decade was really like" you get "this is what we are going to say this decade was like so most of the people that grew up in the period have no idea what period of time we are really talking about."

[Andara Bledin]

Also, remember that the 80's was different in different places. Hell, today is different in different places.

There was a TV show on not too long ago that was supposed to be set in LA but was written by New Yorkers. And it played like a show about how New Yorkers thought the people in LA acted. As someone native to the area, it was painful to watch, and funny in a sad sort of way.

^-.-^

[Racket_Man]

I
They ruined a lot of episodes of That 70s Show for me that way. At least for the most part, they had the clothes right.

That show is set in my era Blas. same age as the characters during that time period (1977 to around 1979). Yeah the clothes were right but I found nothing real glaringly wrong.

NOT that I sat around with my friends in my basement tokin it up mind you.

[Lachrymose]

Living room?

[DGoddess]

They could ask ME about what the 80's were like cause I was a teen in the 80's. & trying to see how that decade was like from watching a few movies is like trying to experience driving a car from watching NASCAR. Just won't cut it. UNLESS you grew up during the 80's then there's no way you can ever truly understand what it was really like.

Amen to that last statement.

And I was a teen in the 80's . . .(born in 1969) so yep, I remember it: the big hair, the Valley Girl talk - like totally, Dude. The music (some was good, some sucked ass) but don't get me started on those teen movies.

Blech and I'll leave it at that other than to add that my high school years were nothing like was was portrayed in all those awful Molly Ringwald films.

Of course I was probably one of the few who still listened to disco in the 80's too . . .