Child Of The 1980’s

Funny, it was just a couple of weeks ago that I wrote about Fraggle Rock, and what should I spy today in the paper but news that there’s a Fraggle Rock movie in production!

There wasn’t much revealed about the film but it sounds as if the Fraggles may be leaving the safety of their caves to follow Uncle Travelling Matt into the world of the Silly Creatures of Outer Space, or our normal everyday world as we know it.

I’m not sure what to make of this really.  It’s not like today’s kids will probably have much of a clue as to what a Fraggle is, and if the above plot is true then I have some concerns.  What about the Gorgs, the Doozers and the Trash Heap?  Will they come along for the ride too?  I hope so because I always liked those characters more than the Fraggles themselves.  My other fear is that the Fraggles end up befriending some annoying bowl cutted child actor who explains the world of the humans to them.  Please God!  Anything but that.

One thing that will be interesting to see is if they bother to film different bits for different countries, given that the caves connected to a lighthouse in the UK version, but an inventors workshop in the US version of the series, for example.  My money is on it being none of these, with the Fraggles finding a new entrance to our world.

Superman II was released in 1980, so just manages to fly its way into the films of our favourite decade. The first Superman film (full title Superman: The Movie) was a blockbuster success, making the now late Christopher Reeve a household name, and still the actor most people with associate the role with. So much so in fact that it seems the makers of the recent Superman Returns film chose actor Brandon Routh because of his similarities to Christopher Reeve.

In this film Superman has to face not only his usual foe Lex Luthor, but also three villains from his home planet, who of course also have the same super abilities that Superman has, being orginally residents of Superman’s home planet Krypton. These bad guys are General Zod (played by Terence Stamp), Ursa and Non, who were foiled in their plot to take over Krypton. As punishment they were imprisoned in the Phantom Zone, which was represented as a flat spinning rectangle in space in which they were somehow trapped - I guess it must have been some kind of weird dimension changing thingy!

Read more…

The third film in the Back to the Future trilogy was actually released in 1990, but seeing as how I’ve already covered Part 1 and Part 2 before, I thought it was worth being complete!

Personally, Back to the Future 3 is my least favourite film in the series. Whilst the first two parts slot together in clever and interesting ways, the final film is much more of a self contained episode and as such feels a little unnecessary. I think the makers were more interested in making a comedy western and this was the ideal opportunity to do so. That’s not to say there isn’t some form of continuity in the films, a good example being Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen (Biff’s great-great(?) grandfather) ending up in a manure cart, recreating the scene from the first film quite nicely where Biff’s car gets a load of the brown stuff dumped on it.

So to the plot. At the end of Part 2 Marty McFly has been left stranded in 1955 when Doc Brown is whisked back in time when the Delorean time machine is struck by lightning. Whilst stood in the rain wondering what to do, a man approaches Marty and hands him an envelope. He is with a messenger firm, and this envelope was left with the company in 1885 under strict instructions to be delivered at a precise time and date in 1955. The envelope is of course from Doc Brown, and it tells Marty where to find the Delorean, which has been hidden for all those years.

Read more…

Released in 1988, Who Framed Roger Rabbit was an immediate box office success due to it’s appeal to all ages. Kids loved it for featuring all their favourite cartoon characters whilst grown ups enjoyed it for the smattering of more adult humour it contained. It went on to win 4 Oscars, including ones for it’s sound effects and visual effects, that latter of which still look believable today (well, as believable as cartoon characters mingling with humans can).

The film is based on the novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit, the story revolving around the titular Roger Rabbit and is set in 1947 Los Angeles. The premise is that cartoon characters (collectively known as Toons) are actually alive, and cartoons are filmed on sets in exactly the same way a film starring humans would be. Roger Rabbit is a slapstick comedy Toon star who ends up being framed for the murder of Marvin Acme, owner of the Acme company (presumably the place where Wile E. Coyote always got his gadgets from). The planted evidence against Roger shows his wife Jessica Rabbit (a beautiful human Toon) playing pattycake with Marvin, which to a Toon is considered as having an affair.

Roger ends up recruiting Eddie Valiant, a human detective played by Bob Hoskins, to help clear his name. Eddie is a bit of a drunk and doesn’t much care for Toons after his brother was killed by an unknown Toon who dropped a piano on his head, but he ends up helping Roger out after he hides away in Eddie’s home.

Read more…

Flash Gordon has just reappeared on our screens with a new series on the Sci-Fi channel, which reminded me of all the fun to be had from a viewing of the 1980’s Flash Gordon film.

Flash Gordon was originally created way back in 1934 by Alex Raymond, and in it’s first form was as a comic strip syndicated in newspapers. He was created in answer to another famous Sci-Fi character, that of Buck Rogers, and over the years has been immortalised in both print, film and cartoon. Aside from the 1980’s film probably the best known version of Flash Gordon is that of the old serialised versions originally shown in cinemas, with Flash portrayed by swimmer turned actor Buster Crabbe (who interestingly also played Buck Rogers in another serialisation).

Anyway, back to the film version. Here, Flash Gordon was played by Sam J. Jones (an ex-US Marine). The film didn’t do well at release, but is now looked back on fondly as being cheesey no-nonsense fun. In the film Flash is an American Football player who ends up accompanying mad scientist Dr. Hans Zarkov (Topol), who has detected a strange planet having entered the solar system and believes it spells the end of life on Earth. Luckily Dr. Zarkov just so happens to have his own space ship, so takes Flash, and Flash’s love interest Dale Arden, off into space to investigate.

The planet turns out to be called Mongo, and is ruled over by the crazily named (and even more crazy looking) Ming the Merciless (Max von Sydow). Ming is hell bent on destroying the Earth by causing “natural disasters” such as earthquakes and storms of fire. Flash goes about putting an end to Ming’s plan, and does so by enlisting the help of the leaders of the various other civilisations that also live on Mongo, getting Prince Barin (Timother Dalton) and Prince Vultan (Brian Blessed) on his side.

Barin is the leader of a people who live in treehouses and have something of the Robin Hood air about them. One particularly memorable scene involves Flash proving his bravery by putting his hand in a giant nest belonging to a weird beetley thing. This creature has a deadly sting, and indeed Barin’s own son is used to demonstrate this (Barin’s son was played by Blue Peter’s Peter Duncan, in one of his few acting roles!).

Vultan is leaded of the Hawkmen, who are a viking like race who just so happen to have wings and can fly about. Brian Blessed was born to play this role, as he hams it up bashing people over the head with his club and uttering his two most famous lines, which can only be said by shouting at the top of your voice. The first is “Gordon’s Allliiiivveee!”, and the other is the repeatedly issued command to his fellow Hawkmen to “Diiiiiiiivvvvvveeeeee!”.

The film was also accompanied by an impressive soundtrack provided by no less than Queen. Whenever you hear the distinctive “dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum” beat of the title song you can’t help joining in by shouting “Flash! Aaaaa-aaahh! He’ll save every one of us”. Certain quotes from the film are dropped in here and there, including “Flash, I love you, but we only have 14 hours to save the Earth” and “Dispatch War Rocket Ajax to bring back his body”. Check it out below and I defy you not to get your foot tapping…

Released in 1989, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure follows the adventures of two school friends from San Dimas, California, who travel through time in a phone booth. They are Bill S. Preston Esq. (played by Alex Winter) and Ted “Theodore” Logan, (Keanu Reeves).

The pair are not the brightest academically, spending most of their time practising for their rock band Wyld Stallyns, despite neither of them being particularly great musicians either. Unfortunately, their lack of book smarts means that unless they get an A+ in their history exam they will be forced to drop out of high school. If this were to happen, the pair would be split up as Ted’s father has threatened to send Ted to military school if he fails.

One evening, whilst sat outside a Circle K convenience store bemoaning their situation, a solution arrives in the form of Rufus, a man from the future who appears in a phone booth fitted with a time machine. He explains that the Wyld Stallyns must not be split up, as in the future they are the saviours of the Earth (though it is never really properly explained why, other than the fact that their motto “Be Excellent To Each Other” is actually a nice sentiment). Rufus lends them the time machine so they can go and research history in person, but whilst sceptical at first they are convinced when the future versions of themselves appear and are able to guess the number they are thinking of!

Read more…

I have to confess that I never ever saw D.A.R.Y.L when it was released in 1985. In fact, I only watched it last week when I happened to notice it was on Sky Movies. When I was at university several friends had mentioned that they had enjoyed this film as a kid, so I finally took the chance to see what I had been missing.

The film opens with a car being chased by a helicopter through some mountain roads. The car stops whilst out of sight of the helicopter and a young boy gets out and runs into the trees. The car starts off again at high speed, forcing an elderly couple of the road in it’s haste. The elderly couple then come across the boy, who doesn’t know what he is doing there, only that his name is Daryl.

The elderly couple take the boy into town, but since they are unable to look after him, he is sent to a child welfare hostel. From here he is fostered by construction manager Andy and his wife Joyce, a piano instructor. It soon becomes apparent that whilst Daryl may be suffering from memory loss, he is also an extremely fast learner and more than capable of looking after himself. Daryl makes friends with Turtle, the boy from across the road, and also becomes Andy’s secret weapon in the little league baseball team he coaches.

Eventually though, Daryl’s real parents track him down, and they come to collect him. We soon find out however that they are not really his parents, but two scientists from a military research base. They fly Daryl to the base, but after returning from a quick lesson in how to fly a plane from the pilot, he overhears the two scientists, Dr. Stewart and Dr. Lamb, and realises they are not his parents after all.

Read more…

The period between Christmas and New Year has always been a strange one for TV schedules. The TV stations have not yet bothered to go back to the normal TV schedules, which makes sense since we’re only talking about a couple of days here. However, since many people have returned to work or have other things to do, it’s also not worth putting on any blockbuster films or Christmas specials during this time, so instead the TV schedules get filled with things you’ve probably seen many times before.

Digby The Biggest Dog In The World is a great example of the kind of filler material that the TV stations would show during this TV lapse period during the 1980’s. The film was made in 1973 so it was both old enough and of the right kind of quality to slot perfectly into the schedules. That’s not to say it’s a bad film, just that it’s not exactly a blockbuster. It stars both the late Spike Milligan and Jim Dale, who was in many of the later Carry On films.

The plot centres around the titular Digby, an Old English Sheepdog, who starts off the regular size for a dog, and his young owner Billy. Billy’s Mum Janine and her colleague Jeff both work as scientists at the nearby top secret military base. Funny isn’t it how these military bases are always top secret? Anyway, Janine and Jeff are working on the originally named Project X, which turns out to be a growth serum. No prizes for guessing what happens next…

Read more…