Announcing a pair of tiny series that will be happening weekends in December!
First up, on Saturdays: in honor of the fifth installment of Summer of Blood this past year, I will be bringing back its much smaller and less frequent sister series, Merry Deathmas (as mentioned in the first post: "every halfway decent Christmastime horror pun was taken decades ago"). Between now and Christmas Eve, we'll be visiting four horror movies - one from each of the last four decades, no less, which I totally didn't plan - that tries to grab a bit of yuletide spirit for the background to violent mayhem.
Then, on Sundays: this particular December finds me celebrating my 30th birthday. In celebration, I'm going to treat myself to short retrospective of some of my favorite movies that had their debut in 1981, and I am deeply sorry for all of you that I was born in one of the worst years for movies in the whole history of ever. First up is a nobly weird attempt to continue the tradition of MGM musicals with one of the highest-profile flops of the early 1980s.
01 December 2011
6 comments:
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My [Mostly Horrible] Best Movies of 1981
ReplyDelete10. Body Heat
9. Endless Love
8. Caveman
7. Escape From New York
6. Mommie Dearest
5. Gregory's Girl
4. For Your Eyes Only
3. The French Lieutenant's Woman
2. Heavy Metal
1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
Well Tim, I suddenly feel incredibly self-conscious at learning that one of the most intelligent, well-written reviewers on the net is the same age as me. I too struggle with the poor quality of my birth year. I suppose Body Heat is at the top of my list. Though I feel like I've spent a lifetime trying to find worthwhile films from that year. So I'm very much looking forward to your series.
ReplyDeleteFor a moment, when you mentioned high-profile flops, I thought you were going to write about Heaven's Gate, and I got rather excited.
ReplyDeleteThen I realized:
a) Heaven's Gate came out in 1980, so it wouldn't be eligible for this '81 retrospective, and
b) Gate is most definitely not a musical,
in that order.
For a moment I was depressed that it's my 40th birthday coming up next year. Then I compiled a quick list of movies released in 1972. I feel a whole lot better.
ReplyDeleteWas totally going to guess the Apple, until I realized it was released in 1980... Xanadu was in 1980 too? Thank god you weren't born a year earlier.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry all, I didn't mean to be sly. Pennies from Heaven, the $22 million Steve Martin vehicle that made about a buck fifty in release.
ReplyDeleteI would have done Xanadu in a heartbeat, but as you've pointed out, 1980.