Film 364/365, Day 365/365 – Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Another excellent film and a brilliant way to continue the story.  This is much darker than A New Hope as hope is crushed and revelations change the characters dynamics.  The characters are still excellent and when you watch the series from one to six it gives it a whole new dynamic as the story is now primarily about Darth Vader.  Excellent.

Synopsis:  Angry following the destruction of the Death Star the empire continues to hunt down the rebels.  Luke travels to a distant world to find a great Jedi master to train him in the ways of the Jedi.  But can the rebels avoid Darth Vader for ever?

Film 353/365, Day 362/365 – Stand By Me

Classic children’s adventure.  The best thing about Stand By Me is that the children are not the sort of children that fill the roles nowadays, they are more real and not sickly and annoying.  It is also based on a Novella by Stephen King and whilst it’s not the normal stuff you would expect from him it is very good.

Synopsis:  Four school friends learn of the whereabouts of a dead teenager’s body and set out on an adventure to find it and bring it back so that they will be recognised as heroes.  It’s a long way there and it will push their friendship to the edge and back again.

Film 214/365, Day 228/365 – Batman

Dark and gritty whilst maintaining a classic comic feel.  Jack Nicholson is incredible as the Joker and Michael Keaton also shines as Bruce Wayne/Batman all in the fantastically gothic Gotham City from the mind of Tim Burton.  Brilliant from start to finish.

Synopsis:  Bruce Wayne’s parents are killed by a mugger when he is a child.  Once Bruce is all grown up he becomes the self-appointed protector of Gotham City, he becomes the Batman.  But a new hero brings about a new breed of criminal, enter the Joker.

Film 113/365, Day 123/365 – The Goonies

The ultimate childhood adventure.  Anyone that grew up in the eighties will not doubt have seen the Goonies and if there is one person that didn’t love it, well, then they just shouldn’t be allowed to watch films anymore.  It is utterly brilliant, from Chunk’s truffle shuffle, to Sloth’s “Hey you guys!” and Data’s inventions.  This film has it all and nothing in recent times has come even close to capturing the magic of the Goonies!

Synopsis:  With their neighbourhood about to be destroyed to make way for the new exclusive golf course, a group of school friends who call themselves the Goonies try to find the long lost treasure of infamous pirate One Eyed Willie.  To get there they will have to brave a notorious criminal family and numerous booby traps.

Film 78/365, Day 81/365 – Predator

Complete and utter mindless fun, a bunch of beefed up guys running around the jungle with huge guns being hunted by an invisible alien with bigger guns.  Surely the only way they could have made this any better would have been to have a bunch of oiled up beauties with big guns running around the jungle being hunted by an invisible alien with bigger guns… I am so going to write that script!!!  Watch it, it is excellent.

Synopsis: Dutch and his team of commandos are the best of the best and consequently are hired by the CIA to go deep into the Central American jungle to rescue some of their men.  The mission is a walk in the park for these guys however it soon becomes apparent that something is tracking them and one by one killing them.  Will anyone make it out alive?

Film 74/365, Day 75/365 – Ghostbusters

They just don’t make them like this any more!  This is Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray at their absolute best.  The laughs are excellent, however I do remember the ghosts being a little scarier when I was younger, especially in the library!  This is still an excellent film and one that everyone should watch.

Synopsis: Three scientists obsessed with the occult get their funding cut just as they are beginning to make a break through.  Now they are going private and their not just going to find ghosts but they are going to catch them, for a price of course.  But the ghosts are just the beginning, something big is coming… so who ya gonna call?

Film 63/365, Day 65/365 – The Lost Boys

The Lost Boys is still one of the best vampire films ever made.  It is what you would and should expect from a vampire film, evil blood thirsty creatures of the night that don’t just fall in love with everybody and everything.  The haunting soundtrack is absolutely fantastic and the cinematography is exquisite.  An absolute gem of a film and that’s without even mentioning the Frog brothers!

Synopsis: Michael and Sam are forced to move with their mother to a small town in California.  Everything seems as you would expect except for the alarmingly large number of missing people.  Michael falls for a local girl who hangs out with a group of teenage bikers who seem to be causing all sorts of mischief.  Desperate to get the girl Michael will do anything the gang says to fit in… almost anything!

Film 36/365, Day 37/365 – Robocop

In the not too distant future in Old Detroit crime has got out of control. Enter OCP, a company who have made almost everything profitable, who assume control of the Detroit Police department. In their efforts to eradicate crime they develop the Robocop program, part man, part machine, all cop. Police office Alex Murphy is killed in the line of duty and what remains of his body becomes the prototype. But will that be enough to take down the organised crime of Old Detroit.

Robocop is another film from the ‘80s mini challenge, which now takes me to 3 out of 20. I remember watching Robocop the first time around and recall how violent it was, which was cool. Unfortunately for Robocop it hasn’t quite held up over time, unlike The Terminator which managed to still look futuristic. It’s all about the details really, they managed to imagine a world where they are able to fuse man and machine, but TV’s hadn’t progessed at all. It’s a good film, just not as good as I remember.

Film 18/365, Day 18/365 – The Terminator

Sarah Connor doesn’t kow it yet but she will be responsible for humanity’s last hope in the war against the machine army. All she’s got to do is stay alive. To make that a little trickier than it should be a cyborg has been sent back in time to 1984 to kill her. Now she needs to rely on Kyle Reese, a soldier sent back to protect her by her son that she hasn’t yet had.

I wasn’t sure how The Terminator would stack up after all this time but it was excellent and an example of how to make an action film. There is enough story to grab your attention and keep you interested, but not at the expense of the action which is non-stop from the very beginning. Arnold Schwarzenegger is fantastic as a bad guy, shame he didn’t get to do it more (nobody mention Mr. Freeze).

Film 10/365, Day 8/365 – Back to the Future

Marty McFly meets the Doc in the middle of the night to document his latest invention, a time travelling DeLoreon! Attacked by Libyan terrorist Marty escapes back in time to 1955. There he accidently stops his parents from meeting and falling in love. Now with the help of the Doc from 1955 he must make his parents fall in love and get back to the future.

Well, what is there to possibly say about Back to the Future? Surely by now everyone should have seen it and should know exactly how great a film it is, and still is today. If you haven’t seen it then Back to the Future should be the next film you see. It was also recently voted the best film from the 1980s and is a part of my ‘80s Mini Challenge. Basically it doesn’t get much better than this!

The ‘80s Mini Challenge

The ‘80s was an era best forgotten for fashion and hair, films however were as good then as they have ever been.  I recently came across a list of the top twenty films from the '80s as voted by the readers of Total Film.  It surprised me how many of them I had not yet seen.  So to rectify this, I am going to attempt to slip all twenty films into the 365 films.

This is where I'm going to challenge you to join in.  Twenty films in 2011 should be a nice and easy challenge for anyone not up to 365 films in 365 days.  If you see that one of these films is going to be on the TV, let me know, it will save me renting or buying a copy.

So here they are in reverse order for added anticipation.

20 Scarface (1983)  

19 Heathers (1989)

18 Batman (1989)

17 The Shining (1980)

16 The Goonies (1985)

15 Robocop (1987)

14 Predator (1987)

13 The Breakfast Club (1985)

12 The Lost Boys (1987)

11 Stand By Me (1986)

10 Raging Bull (1980)

09 E.T. (1982)

08 Blade Runner (1982)

07 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

06 Ghostbusters (1984)

05 The Terminator (1984)

04 Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)

03 Aliens (1986)

02 The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

01 Back to the Future (1985)

Before now I’ve only managed to see thirteen of them.  How many have you seen?

Think you can watch all twenty in 2011?