1985’s movie The Quiet Earth, from New Zealand. It didn’t flop per se as it did make 2 million on a 1 million budget, but it was overlooked at the time.
BTILC is great because its central conceit - that Jack Burton only THINKS he's the hero of the movie - is so refreshing. Throughout the movie Burton tries, and fails, to be the big action hero without his titanic self-confidence being dented, and his one moment of glory - "it's all in the reflexes" - is all the funnier for the dumbfounded look on all present, friend and foe alike. Which, again, fails to dent his absolute belief in his own heroic status. And Carpenter set up that joke at the very beginning of the movie, precisely because he is a great director and Kurt Russell is a great collaborator. "It's all in the reflexes". Gets me chuckling every time.
I still remember the day some freakin' DJ called the 80s music CLASSIC ROCK, and I got all frothy with rage... until I realized the 80s were 30 years before. Well color me gobsmacked, I shut up and sat in stunned silence. I graduated in the late 80s, and continued listening to top 40s, most of which stations include music from the 80s forward, although mostly stuff from the 90s forward.
@bogdanfot: Nope, you're not the only one. Even the 9O's seem more recent than they actually are. I heard somewhere that time seems to move faster the older we get. Kind of make sense to me. When I was a kid, summer seemed to last forever. Now it only feels like a few weeks.
I was in high school and college and it was just a tremendous time for movies. The years 1979 to 1987 were unreal (and throw in star wars from 1977 as setting that all up).
"The Last Starfighter" is a pure, classic unlikely hero story. Likeable characters, a gloriously over the top villain who enjoys being evil and lording it over his underlings... who finally get sick of his shiz.
I’m a bit surprised “Clue” isn’t on here. Considering how hugely popular it has become since its release, I suppose it’s easy to forget that it did very poorly at the box office when it was first released. (A lot of people were put off or confused by the different possible endings.) It has clearly stood the test of time and is definitely worth watching. ❤
Agreed. A great cast and a good script, as with many of the films on this list. "Willow" is another one that was not a huge hit when it was released, but went on to become something of a cult favorite. It did make a profit in its initial release, though, so it wasn't a flop.
@@josebrown5961 And I suppose you've never watched a spy thriller, because you're not a spy? Or a fantasy film, because you live in the real world? Or a comedy, because you clearly have no sense of humor? I've never played the board game myself. It's entirely irrelevant to the film.
@@mwojcik2The answer to all your little examples is yes of course I have watched films about things I didn’t do. My post was clear, I didn’t play the board game and the movie didn’t pique my interest. If you liked it that’s great. If you noticed I didn’t say anything about what I thought about the movie or the game. So exactly what is your deal here?
Lady Hawke was my favorite. Rutger Hauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Mathew Broderick, John Wood, Leo McKern... The list of actors for this film was incredible.
You forgot to mention that Liam Neeson made his debut in Krull, my first introduction to HBO and fantasy films, a beloved of me and myself siblings in the early 80s.
Didn't spot Liam in that one, but did in the original Darkman movie. He got replaced in the following ones, but I don't recall by whom. And I'm feeling lazy... but have IMdB open. One moment... huh. Arnold Vosloo, who played the revived mummy of the Brendan Fraser The Mummy series. Been too long since I watched those, or I'd have spotted him in retrospect.
The Right Stuff was my huge favorite when I was young, watched it 1000 times. I was already interested in science and space, and this put me firmly over the edge.
Exactly. I never knew any of these bombed because they were played repeatedly on HBO which is how a lot of people and kids saw them and they became cult classics.
Nah... it's missing tons. Night of the Comet, Sheena, Swamp Thing, The Thing, Flight of the Navigator, Back to the Future, Back to the Future II, An American Werewolf in London, The Howling 1-5, Puppet Master (sadly only the first of NINE FILMS, the rest came after the 80s), The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Phantasm 1 & 2... can't swear they were on HBO, I've never paid for it. But there were far too many choices to believe none of the non-bombs didn't end up on it.
I only had time to watch about half of this list, but from the looks of it, this could be renamed "If you're a role-playing gamer, you've probably seen these. If you were a role-playing gamer in the '80s, you've probably seen these in the theater." The vast majority of these were and still are favorites of mine.
Yep, I played AD&D back in the 80's, through the 90's and even the 2000's and there are only 5 films on this list that I haven't seen and the majority of those I have seen I saw in the cinema.
Whether you liked them or not, at least you had to admit that they were original, and not afraid to take chances. Now all we get are remakes of remakes.
He's talking about movies that bombed at the box office that would later on be considered good later on throughout the years. The Thing does not fall into this category. It has always been a classic.
I still think it's wild that George Lucas approached Lynch to direct RETURN OF THE JEDI. It's a long story, but shortly after he politely turned Lucas down he made DUNE, which was released about a year and a half after JEDI. Imagine RETURN OF THE JEDI directed by David Lynch!!
I was LIKE OBSESSED with that dark crystal as a 4 yr old😂 still love it. Tells you everything you need to know about the household I grew up into that was my first Jim Henson movie and the Muppets followed..lol plus terry Gillian time bandits of course. We may be related😂 as my family has a very similar playlist for movies
Some of these surprised me, like Highlander, which I loved. Also loved Ladyhawke, Legend, and Blade Runner. Some of them, I guess, were just too ahead of their time. Good video, thanks
@NybergCarl I thought so too at the time. Yes, they talking about remaking it (why, I don't know. Fed up of remakes, think of something new), with Henry Cavill.
Blade runner is my all time favourite. In the UK the people disabling the hated ULEZ control cameras have called themselves blade runners after the film.
Not sure if the data is correct, Highlander was very successful and beloved in Europe, it might have bombed in the USA though. It got sequels because it made money and enough to justify 2 (really bad) sequels and a tv series!
KRULL BOMBED?? LEGEND BOMBED???? LABYRINTH BOMBED?? BLADE RUNNER BOMBED?? BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA BOMBED?? WHAT?!?!?! MUNCHAUSEN BOMBED?? MY CHILDHOOD IS CRUSHED.
"bomb" here had a narrow definition of "did not recoup the production costs during the original theatre release". It's not a judgment on the quality of the film.
@@Stephenwc I think you're right about money. It's always about the money, the films on the other hand were fun, entertaining, and are now legendary. Bowie, Kyle, Sting, River Phoenix, Kurt Russell, Tom Cruise, and Tim Curry under all that makeup? Awesome.
Financial Bombs, but only to production companies in charge of these projects.... Flops, but only to critics who didn't (and still don't!) know their asses from bundt cakes about audiences who love these movies... Super Classics, but only to those who watched these as kids, like I did... & still watch(ed) them repeatedly & love(d) them.
So many of these RUclips lists miss the mark or neglect truly great movies... You guys nailed it on this one, every movie on the list is a definite must-see for their own unique aspects.
Right from the opening sequence, where Davis displays some disgruntlement at her former paramour, it had me on board. Just a tremendously fun, silly film, with a fine cast.
_"Because I'm blonde I don't have to think_ _I talk like a baby and I never pay for drinks..."_ Crazy! I first saw Julie Brown on _"Friday Night Videos"_ (if that's before your time, Google it!) in her music video for _"The Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun"._ She's outrageous! ❤❤❤❤❤
I got 3 : 1) Condorman from 1981, it's a good James Bond spoof with some amazing car and boat chase scenes 2) Iron Eagle from 1986 actually came out before Top Gun 3) Space Camp from 1986 a good movie that suffered from bad timing being the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster months earlier
Space Camp was one of my favourite movies as a kid, along with quite a few of the films in this vid. I wanted to be an astronaut for the longest time because of that movie - even with what happened to Challenger. It's a shame this movie wasn't released a bit earlier - whilst it wasn't a masterpiece, it was a decent film that probabbly wouldn't have bombed so hard due to poor timing. I still enjoy it even now, though I don't watch it quite as often as I used to.
I'm finding it funny and somewhat ironic to realize that Jennifer Connelly was in a box-office flop that lost to Top Gun to end up being in the Top Gun sequel that beat everything at the box office decades later.
Earth girls failed because Geena Davis isn't funny. I'd bet my bottom dollar Julie Brown intended to play both roles. Watch again and imagine all the lines that fall flat when Geena Davis says them being delivered by Julie Brown. They're hilarious then. I always thought if I met Julie Brown I'd ask her. I met her once, and was so star struck I totally forgot to ask. 😂
Ever since I saw Legend as a kid in the 80s it's been my favorite movie, some movies have come close, but Legend is still best. I still have the original VHS I got as a kid, the DVD set with both cuts, and even had a bunch of clips and sound bites from the web way back in the AOL days on a long lost PC I had as a teenager.
I loved Bucaroo Banzai when I saw it in the theater originally. It's silly and campy. John Lithgow as villain John BigBoote gives a great performance as the absurd alien who doesn't understand earth people (a role he basically reprized for 3rd Rock From the Sun). It must have been too weird for audiences, but the acting was really good.
I always hear that, and I watched it when it first came out, and then a couple of times years later when people "found it" again. I just never thought Blade Runner was that good. It's okay as a dystopian sci-fi film, but other than the distinction of having Harrison Ford in it, it isn't much different than every other dystopian sci-fi film made around the same time.
Blade Runner is a perfect example of why you should never pay attention to what the critics say, along with Streets of Fire which should have been on this list.
The glave was cool, but I watched the movie, and didn't care for it. A few things. The star later (minus his hair) became the antagonist Commander Eddington on DS9. At some comic con he was given the original glave. The video is here somewhere. The glave was also featured in the final battle in Ready Player One.
I honesty saw over 2/3 of these movies and loved them all, Krull, Highlander, Labyrinth, Enemy Mine, Ladyhawke (loved that movie),Big Trouble in Little China (I still watch that today) Dune(although Dune took a 2nd viewing for me to really understand it) The problem is damn critics who focus on technical things like direction and cinematography and not how the story makes you feel or the sense of wonder it conveys. Many critics slam movies just because they have no sense of adventure or even a sense of humor. They nit pick and poke at things until they find things they can whine about and the problem with that is that many people don't go and see a movie to make up their own mind, relying instead on someone else's opinion many of which are probably paid for.
I never rely on critics of a movie. I see the trailers, back in the 80s the commercials and I make my decision to either see the movie or not. After I see it I then decide if I liked it or not and I don’t care what anybody thinks about it. I saw many of these and liked most of them, a few like Heathers I didn’t even know were bombs! I saw that three times in the theater and I bought the VHS and DVD when they became available. I make my own decisions on movies. Not a single review makes me want to see a film. And I still watch movies in the theater. Before the pandemic I went every Saturday, usually a matinee, because they are cheaper and usually less crowded. The one movie I saw that I hated was Ghostbusters 2016. So I was one of the loudest detractors but I feel I can talk bad about it because I paid my money. Conversely I saw Speed Racer in the theater and I LOVED it. I was a kid in the 70s and just getting my favorite show as a major motion picture was so cool. I was right there in my Saturday matinee almost by myself and I was proud to do it.
@@josebrown5961 I get you on the Ghostbusters movie it was so bad I walked out after 20 mins didn't care that I had paid my money I just couldn't stand it. Many critics put the Movie Xanadu down but I loved that movie, the story the music was great I even have the blu-ray of it. There are some scenes I could do without, but overall a good movie.
This list should have been called the very best, most rewatchable movies from the 80s. Crazy that these were box office bombs because with the exceptions of Star Wars and Star Trek I think every truly great 80s movie worth rewatching is on this list.
@@scottlyttle5586 Who wants to live forever was one of a of few songs they did for highlander. I actually owned the Flash Gordon soundtrack on cassette.
Again Flash Gordon was another film that to me hit the right spot. I was born in the middle 60s and grew up watching Flash Gordon and other serials on TV and Flash Gordon was what I expected of a film. I mean come on! Max Von Sydow was PERFECT as Ming, and Brian Blessed was wonderful as the Hawkman. And what was not to like about Ming’s daughter?
Ladyhawke, Highlander, Big Trouble in Little China, Labyrinth and Blade Runner are beloved in Brazil since back then.....we never knew these movies weren't a hit......they were hits in Brazil....they were on TV very often for years and years....On the other hand, there are films on this list that never made it here, they were quite unknown until the internet arrived for everyone in the mid-2000s.
Loved ….legend…Dune….lady hawk…explores…Highlander…blade runner…the right stuff… I just loved Sci Fi books and time travel…so most movies above are those kind of adventures.
I used to listen to the black cauldron on cassette tape as a kid. It took years before I was able to actually see the video because it was never on TV because it was considered a failure.
I sought in the theater that was probably one of my favorite movies when I was a kid I don’t know what they mean about it being scary it wasn’t scary but by time I saw it I was around 10 years old and I had already watched Friday the 13th and Halloween
Earth Girls are Easy, Labyrinth, Ladyhawke, Legend, and many of the other films mentioned in this video are well worth watching for the sheer enjoyment of them.
I guess I was a geek ... I loved Legend, Enemy Mine, Ladyhawke, Highlander, Big Trouble in Little China, Labyrinth, Dragonslayer, Blade Runner, The Right Stuff, and The Black Cauldron ... nearly half of them
Blade Runner: saw it on its release in LA. It was so riveting and visually gorgeous that we just got up at the end, walked around the inside of the theater and sat down again to see it all over again. Rutger Hauer blew everything off the screen in his final scene... I raved about the film and was shocked to realize it was bombing. A year later, in art school, I realized it had become a cult classic with much younger fellow students. Thanks for talking about The Right Stuff. At once factual, hilarious and lyric. When it came out, John Glenn was thinking of running for President. the New Yorker ran a cartoon of people leaving the theater. The caption was "That does it. I'm voting for Chuck Yeager..."
With Labyrinth on there, I'm surprised that Dark Crystal usn't on there. My wife and I have about half of these on DVD, mostly the SciFi or Fantasy movies.
I watched Blowout from tv when I was a kid, and I've been looking for it for years, not remembering much of it except the then-mind-blowing "Hero DOESN'T save the girl" end. Now I know it's name, I can go watch it, so thank you Looper!
Krull, Legend, Dune, Enemy Mine, Ladyhawke, Highlander, Labyrinth, Dragonslayer, Munchausen, Blade Runner, Black Cauldron........all films that I have watched time and again, and that my children (now in their 40s) still watch too.
Don't know if mentioned before, but I remember seeing a Far Side cartoon back in the day entitled "Hell's Video Store" where multiple copies of the only video available to rent on the shelves was Ishtar.
When I was little, my Dad came home one day with a VHS tape he'd borrowed from one of his buddies. He said that I should watch it and that he thinks I'll like it. That tape was Krull. I don't know how many times I watched it as a kid, but I do remember halfway through the movie, it starts doing that black & white horizontal line flickering, straight across the middle. Also, I used to have the building toys called Construx, and there were these like, curved pieces and the 'helicopter blades'. Well, when I was little, I'd snap together my Construx parts to make a Krull blade. Yeah,....good times, man. :-D
EPIC LIST!!!! Nice work! A few I would add to the list. Ice Pirates Battle Beyond the Stars Robot Jox Lifeforce (Heads up it REALLY earns that R rating)
@@Elcostagus I'd completely forgotten about it until this thread. Didn't see it in the theater, but my friends and I watched it a few times on VHS. I only recall a few scenes but clearly we enjoyed it.
I still don't get WTF anyone likes Robot Jox. I actually saw it in the theater. Me and my friends were totally into Robotech and transformers and were really excited to see it. My biggest memory was that pretty much everyone in the theater got up and left during the movie. I had never seen groups of people just leave a movie like that before. That movie was nowhere near as good as Megaforce.
The music from " Queen " was awesome in Highlander. It was a rare thing that the TV series , Highlander, was better than the films. In my opinion of course.
Funny. I saw every single one of these films back in the 80s. We used to go to the movies a LOT back then. Perfect combination of cheap tickets, great air conditioning, and lots of great films every week.
So pleased you mentioned James Horner's score for Krull. It's the most impressive thing about the movie in my opinion and is simply amazing. Go find the score and listen to "Ride of the Fire Mares". A composer friend of mine speculated that when the orchestra were given the music the trumpet players probably had to double check they hadn't been given the first violin part by mistake!
Ishtar | 0:00 - You'll get one or two laughs. Maybe. Krull | 1:03 - Effects are brilliant (for the time). The story is blah. Legend | 2:05 - A masterpiece. Dune | 2:59 - A flawed masterpiece Earth Girls Are Easy | 4:11 - Stupid then. Stupid now. Enemy Mine | 5:02 - A metaphor in racism. Still, done well. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension | 5:54 - Stupid then. Stupid now Ladyhawke | 6:53 - A masterpiece. American Pop | 7:45 - Meh. Explorers | 8:48 - Some good moments. Highlander | 9:39 - Brilliant. No sequel needed. Big Trouble in Little China | 10:43 - Meh. Labyrinth | 11:34 - Brilliant, for the young and young at heart. Dragonslayer | 12:34 - Actually, you know what....? This is really actually not that bad! The Adventures of Baron Munchausen | 13:37 - A tortured mess. Blow Out | 14:38 - Could have been awesome... but had the wrong actor for the lead. Heathers | 15:23 - The kind of thing that high school girls would find interesting. Mean Girls did the whole bully-bitch thing better. The King of Comedy | 16:25 - Meh. Blade Runner | 17:24 - A masterpiece. No sequel needed. The Right Stuff | 18:31 - A masterpiece. The Black Cauldron | 19:17 - Ummm... NOT a masterpiece. But then, the original story was pfaff anyway.
They give a lot of credit to home video, but it was actually cable that made these movies cult hits. HBO and Showtime could buy these bomb movies cheap and show them 3 or 4 times a day for years.
Earth Girls are Easy is one of my favorites movies since I catched it on after midnight TV, I never get boring of watching it and I'd dream about watching on cinema some day.
Every single person involved in the creation of Enemy Mine should be immensely proud of what they brought to the screen. It’s still holds it’s own to this very day.
Would you recommend any other movies?
Yes! Pump up the Volume with Christian Slater. Killer movie with a great soundtrack! Ahh wait I think that was early 90's. Still awesome tho
Near Dark (1987) if you can find it.
@@stubarroncool movie, pretty sure it's on RUclips
1985’s movie The Quiet Earth, from New Zealand. It didn’t flop per se as it did make 2 million on a 1 million budget, but it was overlooked at the time.
Strange Brew
"Enemy Mine" was one of the best stories out there. I loved it.
*Loved* that movie when it came out!
"What are you doing here, BTA man!"
"It's uncle!"
I saw it in the cinema and barely remember it.
Big Trouble in Little China is one of the best San Francisco Movies ever. Kurt Russell and Kim Catrell.
BTiLC is great because it's totally absurd, the cast knows it, and they're all having a blast embracing the madness.
BTILC is the greatest film of all time.
BTILC is great because its central conceit - that Jack Burton only THINKS he's the hero of the movie - is so refreshing.
Throughout the movie Burton tries, and fails, to be the big action hero without his titanic self-confidence being dented, and his one moment of glory - "it's all in the reflexes" - is all the funnier for the dumbfounded look on all present, friend and foe alike. Which, again, fails to dent his absolute belief in his own heroic status.
And Carpenter set up that joke at the very beginning of the movie, precisely because he is a great director and Kurt Russell is a great collaborator.
"It's all in the reflexes". Gets me chuckling every time.
Yes!!! But 48Hrs. may edge with the Muni, Bart, Mission, Fillmore....scenes. But BTILC is close and with a young Kim Cattrall. :)
Kim back in the day...oh my.
Am I the only one that feels the 80's were 20 years ago?
Nope
I still remember the day some freakin' DJ called the 80s music CLASSIC ROCK, and I got all frothy with rage... until I realized the 80s were 30 years before. Well color me gobsmacked, I shut up and sat in stunned silence. I graduated in the late 80s, and continued listening to top 40s, most of which stations include music from the 80s forward, although mostly stuff from the 90s forward.
Yes, I was listening to a classic rock radio and they said here's an oldy from Def Leppard.@@cchastant8251
10 years.
@bogdanfot: Nope, you're not the only one. Even the 9O's seem more recent than they actually are. I heard somewhere that time seems to move faster the older we get. Kind of make sense to me. When I was a kid, summer seemed to last forever. Now it only feels like a few weeks.
Enemy Mine is a masterpiece 🤟🏿🤟🏿
Book and movie.
I read the book first and thought the adaptation was actually really good.@@TPaine1776
No doubt, an excellent movie
No doubt, an excellent movie
No doubt, an excellent movie
The fact so many of these were bombs show just how strong the cinematic releases were back then.
Good point. Too many players on the field.
SO true, many of these are better and more consistent than many nowadays blockbusters
I was in high school and college and it was just a tremendous time for movies. The years 1979 to 1987 were unreal (and throw in star wars from 1977 as setting that all up).
@@Stephenwc Excalibur was, and remains to this day, the greatest adaptation of the King Arthur legend in history.
It also shows the poor taste of the public, IMHO. Top Gun? Yuck.
Ladyhawke, Enemy Mine, Highlander and Labyrinth are favorites of mine!
Labyrinth is such an amazing movie
@@FloridaManPat I saw ladyhawke and highlander in the movies back in the day. thought they were both great!
3 out of 4 of those were some of the first DVDs I owned back in the day!
Enemy mine is amazing!
Don't forget Nomads..or Trancers....👍👍
"The Last Starfighter" is a pure, classic unlikely hero story. Likeable characters, a gloriously over the top villain who enjoys being evil and lording it over his underlings... who finally get sick of his shiz.
Whenever I had a bad day at work, I watched The Last Starfighter.
Fun movie with an amazing soundtrack.
I also liked The Last StarFighter.
It was an awesome movie. There should have been a part 2. The bad guy comes back with the Kodan Armanda 2.0.
There's another good one. Cheesy as hell but if you can get over that it's a great watch.
Labyrinth and Legend are 2 of my fave movies as a kid
I’m a bit surprised “Clue” isn’t on here. Considering how hugely popular it has become since its release, I suppose it’s easy to forget that it did very poorly at the box office when it was first released. (A lot of people were put off or confused by the different possible endings.)
It has clearly stood the test of time and is definitely worth watching. ❤
Well I can give you the reason I didn’t see it. It was a film based on a board game that I did not play.
Not really. I rewatched it a few weeks ago on cable. It's still garbage.
Agreed. A great cast and a good script, as with many of the films on this list.
"Willow" is another one that was not a huge hit when it was released, but went on to become something of a cult favorite. It did make a profit in its initial release, though, so it wasn't a flop.
@@josebrown5961 And I suppose you've never watched a spy thriller, because you're not a spy? Or a fantasy film, because you live in the real world? Or a comedy, because you clearly have no sense of humor?
I've never played the board game myself. It's entirely irrelevant to the film.
@@mwojcik2The answer to all your little examples is yes of course I have watched films about things I didn’t do.
My post was clear, I didn’t play the board game and the movie didn’t pique my interest.
If you liked it that’s great. If you noticed I didn’t say anything about what I thought about the movie or the game. So exactly what is your deal here?
I loved "Enemy Mine" at the time and still do
Lady Hawke was my favorite. Rutger Hauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Mathew Broderick, John Wood, Leo McKern... The list of actors for this film was incredible.
I own them all. Highlander, Ladyhawke, Legend, & Labyrinth are freaking classics.
You forgot to mention that Liam Neeson made his debut in Krull, my first introduction to HBO and fantasy films, a beloved of me and myself siblings in the early 80s.
Are you sure about that? He was in Excalibur a couple years prior.
Didn't spot Liam in that one, but did in the original Darkman movie. He got replaced in the following ones, but I don't recall by whom. And I'm feeling lazy... but have IMdB open. One moment... huh. Arnold Vosloo, who played the revived mummy of the Brendan Fraser The Mummy series. Been too long since I watched those, or I'd have spotted him in retrospect.
Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid) was in Krull as well.
The Right Stuff was my huge favorite when I was young, watched it 1000 times. I was already interested in science and space, and this put me firmly over the edge.
This is basically the entire playlist for HBO in the 80s.
Aka my entire childhood
Exactly. I never knew any of these bombed because they were played repeatedly on HBO which is how a lot of people and kids saw them and they became cult classics.
Yes! I was a latch key kid with HBO in the 80s....Heaven! :)
Yeah, I saw all these on HBO as a kid. Didn't know they were flops. Maybe that's how fledgling HBO could afford them.
Nah... it's missing tons. Night of the Comet, Sheena, Swamp Thing, The Thing, Flight of the Navigator, Back to the Future, Back to the Future II, An American Werewolf in London, The Howling 1-5, Puppet Master (sadly only the first of NINE FILMS, the rest came after the 80s), The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Phantasm 1 & 2... can't swear they were on HBO, I've never paid for it. But there were far too many choices to believe none of the non-bombs didn't end up on it.
I loved Enemy Mine, ever since I saw it when I was a kid. I didn't think anyone liked it but myself
I think many saw it, but its one of those movies where you do not watch it twice.
I only had time to watch about half of this list, but from the looks of it, this could be renamed "If you're a role-playing gamer, you've probably seen these. If you were a role-playing gamer in the '80s, you've probably seen these in the theater." The vast majority of these were and still are favorites of mine.
It does seem like studios were trying to lean into the D&D players and Tolkein fans as an audience.
Or, you were a science fiction/fantasy geek who went to conventions and saw them in the film room. And a lot of role-players are that group.
Yep, I played AD&D back in the 80's, through the 90's and even the 2000's and there are only 5 films on this list that I haven't seen and the majority of those I have seen I saw in the cinema.
Well, I was a big RPGer back in the 80s --- and the VAST majority of these movies were ones my friends and I saw in the theater! :)
You used your graph paper to play DnD in science class, didn't you.
The 80s had SO MANY amazing classics all released at the same time! Now? A desert of content.
Yep, the 80s and early 90s were great for movies. Something to see all the time.
Whether you liked them or not, at least you had to admit that they were original, and not afraid to take chances. Now all we get are remakes of remakes.
You missed 1982’s The Thing
Yes they did...best sci-fi movie ever.
Every time someone made a list video, people complain about what's not on it. Make your own list!
@@reh3884that's literally the point of complaining...it's on our list😔
🤡
He's talking about movies that bombed at the box office that would later on be considered good later on throughout the years. The Thing does not fall into this category. It has always been a classic.
I still think it's wild that George Lucas approached Lynch to direct RETURN OF THE JEDI.
It's a long story, but shortly after he politely turned Lucas down he made DUNE, which was released about a year and a half after JEDI.
Imagine RETURN OF THE JEDI directed by David Lynch!!
Sounds like a Rian Johnson situation.
You have just recreated my favorite movie list from the 1980s.
Though you did miss a few...
D.A.Y.R.L.,
The Dark Crystal, and
TIME BANDITS
Thank you!
Make your own list, then.
@@reh3884 4Q
@@reh3884 haha he just did 😂
Were they all bombs?
Edit: OK I did a little research and Time Bandits and The Dark Crystal were not flops! So that is why they were not on the list.
I was LIKE OBSESSED with that dark crystal as a 4 yr old😂 still love it. Tells you everything you need to know about the household I grew up into that was my first Jim Henson movie and the Muppets followed..lol plus terry Gillian time bandits of course. We may be related😂 as my family has a very similar playlist for movies
Some of these surprised me, like Highlander, which I loved. Also loved Ladyhawke, Legend, and Blade Runner. Some of them, I guess, were just too ahead of their time. Good video, thanks
I sorta thought Highlander was a big deal. It got remade, right?
@NybergCarl I thought so too at the time. Yes, they talking about remaking it (why, I don't know. Fed up of remakes, think of something new), with Henry Cavill.
@@NybergCarl sequels and a reboot I think.
Blade runner is my all time favourite. In the UK the people disabling the hated ULEZ control cameras have called themselves blade runners after the film.
Not sure if the data is correct, Highlander was very successful and beloved in Europe, it might have bombed in the USA though. It got sequels because it made money and enough to justify 2 (really bad) sequels and a tv series!
Enemy mine was hugely popular in Soviet Union. I watched it dozen times or even more. Movie theaters, school screenings and even TV.
I saw "Enemy Mine" in theaters and I quite liked it.
That's really cool to hear❤ I've always loved it since I was a little kid
dubbed in Russian?
@@robertsmith2956 I saw it as a kid in Russian-occupied Estonia. Dubbed in Russian with Estonian subtitles.
@@Vihelik I think the funniest thing I ever saw was a 20's silent film. the placards were dubbed, and then they were subtitled as well.
KRULL BOMBED?? LEGEND BOMBED???? LABYRINTH BOMBED?? BLADE RUNNER BOMBED?? BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA BOMBED?? WHAT?!?!?! MUNCHAUSEN BOMBED?? MY CHILDHOOD IS CRUSHED.
Dune is one of the best sci fi movies, Phenomenal cast
Ugh. Dune was an utter turd, boring as hell.
My friends and I continue quoting Dune to this day. It's just pure awesome!
much better than the new Dune, The Baron himself is 100 times better in Lynch's version
@@reh3884I thought the remake was much more boring. I felt the actors didn’t bring the same energy to their roles like in the original film.
Not only that, but Frank Herbert himself said that the Sandworms were about the closest he'd seen to what he'd imagined when he imagined them.
Cloak & Dagger was one of my favorite go to's as a kid. I must have rented it a dozen times after we got our first VHS player.
It was pretty good.
A top-loader VHS, perchance?
I have fond memories of MOST of these movies. I can't believe they were considered "Bombs"
"bomb" here had a narrow definition of "did not recoup the production costs during the original theatre release". It's not a judgment on the quality of the film.
@@Stephenwc I think you're right about money. It's always about the money, the films on the other hand were fun, entertaining, and are now legendary. Bowie, Kyle, Sting, River Phoenix, Kurt Russell, Tom Cruise, and Tim Curry under all that makeup? Awesome.
Financial Bombs, but only to production companies in charge of these projects....
Flops, but only to critics who didn't (and still don't!) know their asses from bundt cakes about audiences who love these movies...
Super Classics, but only to those who watched these as kids, like I did... & still watch(ed) them repeatedly & love(d) them.
So many of these RUclips lists miss the mark or neglect truly great movies... You guys nailed it on this one, every movie on the list is a definite must-see for their own unique aspects.
I love "Earth Girls are Easy". I found "'Cause I'm a Blond" on RUclips and show it to unsuspecting visitors.
Right from the opening sequence, where Davis displays some disgruntlement at her former paramour, it had me on board. Just a tremendously fun, silly film, with a fine cast.
Best song for sure!!
_"Because I'm blonde I don't have to think_
_I talk like a baby and I never pay for drinks..."_
Crazy! I first saw Julie Brown on _"Friday Night Videos"_ (if that's before your time, Google it!) in her music video for _"The Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun"._
She's outrageous! ❤❤❤❤❤
OMG except for Ishtar, Kroll, American Pop & Explorers these are some of my all time favorite 80s movies!!
Big Trouble in Little China was on TV just yesterday, where I live. I always loved that movie.
Enemy Mine is a classic.
I got 3 :
1) Condorman from 1981, it's a good James Bond spoof with some amazing car and boat chase scenes
2) Iron Eagle from 1986 actually came out before Top Gun
3) Space Camp from 1986 a good movie that suffered from bad timing being the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster months earlier
Space Camp was one of my favourite movies as a kid, along with quite a few of the films in this vid. I wanted to be an astronaut for the longest time because of that movie - even with what happened to Challenger. It's a shame this movie wasn't released a bit earlier - whilst it wasn't a masterpiece, it was a decent film that probabbly wouldn't have bombed so hard due to poor timing. I still enjoy it even now, though I don't watch it quite as often as I used to.
I loved condor man and space camp.
"He is _not_ an agent of the CIA, he is a WRITER OF COMIC BOOKS!" has to be my favorite Oliver Reed line of all time.
@@anjakellenjeter With a young Joaquin Phoenix who still went by the name of Leaf at that time. It inspired my son to go to space camp.
I'm finding it funny and somewhat ironic to realize that Jennifer Connelly was in a box-office flop that lost to Top Gun to end up being in the Top Gun sequel that beat everything at the box office decades later.
Lifeforce deserves being mentioned.
I saw it at the drive-in and love it! Have it on DVD!
It's a hidden gem, probably less known than the ones in this list. I've only seen it becuse my dad found the DVD heavily discounted in the late 90s.
Earth Girls are Easy has a FANTASTIC Soundtrack.
Earth girls failed because Geena Davis isn't funny. I'd bet my bottom dollar Julie Brown intended to play both roles. Watch again and imagine all the lines that fall flat when Geena Davis says them being delivered by Julie Brown. They're hilarious then. I always thought if I met Julie Brown I'd ask her. I met her once, and was so star struck I totally forgot to ask. 😂
yah but Geena Davis in that bikini, is worth the whole thing@@Shauma_llama
It was a fun movie.
@@Shauma_llama? Geena Davis is hilarious, but she's often given "straight" roles to play. She's still a good actress then, too.
Ever since I saw Legend as a kid in the 80s it's been my favorite movie, some movies have come close, but Legend is still best. I still have the original VHS I got as a kid, the DVD set with both cuts, and even had a bunch of clips and sound bites from the web way back in the AOL days on a long lost PC I had as a teenager.
Legend was a great film. Near in time to The Princess Bride and I thought - though quite different - to be nearly as good.
I loved Bucaroo Banzai when I saw it in the theater originally. It's silly and campy. John Lithgow as villain John BigBoote gives a great performance as the absurd alien who doesn't understand earth people (a role he basically reprized for 3rd Rock From the Sun). It must have been too weird for audiences, but the acting was really good.
Peter Weller is a fantastic actor IMHO. I've liked him in everything I've seen him in.
Dragonslayer is really underrated indeed. Also Big trouble in little china is amazing.
The "Go-Motion"style of animation was invented for this movie...
I thought it had the first really believable movie dragon. It just looked great.
OMG...I LOVED Dragonslayer....
Valerian AKA Caitlin Clark later played Simone..the lovable hooker in Crocodile Dundee
10:20 I love how casually he says "multiple terrible sequels!"
Blade Runner is one of the greatest films of all time, no matter the genre. Same accolades for The Right Stuff.
Totally agree!
The Right Stuff was an amazingly entertaining film.
I always hear that, and I watched it when it first came out, and then a couple of times years later when people "found it" again. I just never thought Blade Runner was that good. It's okay as a dystopian sci-fi film, but other than the distinction of having Harrison Ford in it, it isn't much different than every other dystopian sci-fi film made around the same time.
Blade Runner is a perfect example of why you should never pay attention to what the critics say, along with Streets of Fire which should have been on this list.
Blade Runner wasn’t GREAT until the director’s cut…the third version actually slowed it down too much.
Krull was fantastic, Gotta love cult classics
I've had Krull dvr'd since 2019. I watch it regularly ❤️
The glave was cool, but I watched the movie, and didn't care for it. A few things. The star later (minus his hair) became the antagonist Commander Eddington on DS9. At some comic con he was given the original glave. The video is here somewhere. The glave was also featured in the final battle in Ready Player One.
The score for Krull was fantastic. It carried the film. The movie itself is dull.
Literally just realized that Colwyn is Eddington.
Krull is one of the movies I saw 50 times as a kid on TV and is legendary in my memory. But I haven’t seen it in 25 years now.
I honesty saw over 2/3 of these movies and loved them all, Krull, Highlander, Labyrinth, Enemy Mine, Ladyhawke (loved that movie),Big Trouble in Little China (I still watch that today) Dune(although Dune took a 2nd viewing for me to really understand it) The problem is damn critics who focus on technical things like direction and cinematography and not how the story makes you feel or the sense of wonder it conveys. Many critics slam movies just because they have no sense of adventure or even a sense of humor. They nit pick and poke at things until they find things they can whine about and the problem with that is that many people don't go and see a movie to make up their own mind, relying instead on someone else's opinion many of which are probably paid for.
I never rely on critics of a movie. I see the trailers, back in the 80s the commercials and I make my decision to either see the movie or not.
After I see it I then decide if I liked it or not and I don’t care what anybody thinks about it.
I saw many of these and liked most of them, a few like Heathers I didn’t even know were bombs! I saw that three times in the theater and I bought the VHS and DVD when they became available.
I make my own decisions on movies. Not a single review makes me want to see a film. And I still watch movies in the theater. Before the pandemic I went every Saturday, usually a matinee, because they are cheaper and usually less crowded.
The one movie I saw that I hated was Ghostbusters 2016. So I was one of the loudest detractors but I feel I can talk bad about it because I paid my money.
Conversely I saw Speed Racer in the theater and I LOVED it. I was a kid in the 70s and just getting my favorite show as a major motion picture was so cool. I was right there in my Saturday matinee almost by myself and I was proud to do it.
@@josebrown5961 I get you on the Ghostbusters movie it was so bad I walked out after 20 mins didn't care that I had paid my money I just couldn't stand it. Many critics put the Movie Xanadu down but I loved that movie, the story the music was great I even have the blu-ray of it. There are some scenes I could do without, but overall a good movie.
@@Amaranthine1000Lol! I was in the theater for Xanadu too!
Olivia Newton John and Michael Beck what more could you ask for?
There is an old saying, “Those that can, do. Those that can’t, become critics.”
Critic - the second oldest profession. @@lalaj5831
Enemy Mind and Buckaroo Bonzi are as excellent now as it was when I saw them in the theaters.
This list should have been called the very best, most rewatchable movies from the 80s. Crazy that these were box office bombs because with the exceptions of Star Wars and Star Trek I think every truly great 80s movie worth rewatching is on this list.
Big Trouble in Little China is a classic.
Ahh Enemy Mine has the similar idea as the Lee Marvin/Toshiro Mifune film "Hell in the Pacific "
Flash Gordon for me.
Something about it that is just entertaining.
Cheesy, but great. Also Queen. Flash! Aaaaahhhhhhh!
all time greatest comic movie
@@censorshipsucks9493 Queen did both Flash.. AND Highlander... and both feature a common line.. "Who Wants To Live Forever?"
@@scottlyttle5586 Who wants to live forever was one of a of few songs they did for highlander. I actually owned the Flash Gordon soundtrack on cassette.
Again Flash Gordon was another film that to me hit the right spot. I was born in the middle 60s and grew up watching Flash Gordon and other serials on TV and Flash Gordon was what I expected of a film.
I mean come on! Max Von Sydow was PERFECT as Ming, and Brian Blessed was wonderful as the Hawkman. And what was not to like about Ming’s daughter?
Enemy Mine is practically a classic. The acting was superb!
Thank you for including "Ishtar." It often gets left off of list of either."So bad they're good movies" or movies of the 1980's.
Ladyhawke, Highlander, Big Trouble in Little China, Labyrinth and Blade Runner are beloved in Brazil since back then.....we never knew these movies weren't a hit......they were hits in Brazil....they were on TV very often for years and years....On the other hand, there are films on this list that never made it here, they were quite unknown until the internet arrived for everyone in the mid-2000s.
I went to see about 3/4 of these films more than once. They were easily some of the best movies I've ever seen.
I have seen Earth Girls are Easy so many times! I love all of the silliness. And Jeff Goldblum in his prime? YESSSS!
I was really surprise to find you Highlander bombed. We watched that movie a lot in the 90's.
Loved ….legend…Dune….lady hawk…explores…Highlander…blade runner…the right stuff… I just loved Sci Fi books and time travel…so most movies above are those kind of adventures.
still love that old Dune
Trancers.....
Nomads......
Enemy Mine is a movie I always watch when I'm sick. The "Tremors" movies too. They are like old friends.
Krull showed some promise. A remake of it would work.
agreed!
I loved the video game. Many a quarter I fed into it.
No more remains ever 😳
I used to listen to the black cauldron on cassette tape as a kid. It took years before I was able to actually see the video because it was never on TV because it was considered a failure.
I sought in the theater that was probably one of my favorite movies when I was a kid I don’t know what they mean about it being scary it wasn’t scary but by time I saw it I was around 10 years old and I had already watched Friday the 13th and Halloween
So many old favourites on this list. Thanks for the nostalgia trip.
Earth Girls are Easy, Labyrinth, Ladyhawke, Legend, and many of the other films mentioned in this video are well worth watching for the sheer enjoyment of them.
Buckaroo Banzai, only downside was there was never the promised World Crime League sequel, unless you include the comic book.
LOOOOOVE "Buckaroo Banzai"!
The Name of the Rose with Sean Connery and Christian Slater is a really good movie.
Highly recommended.
I guess I was a geek ... I loved Legend, Enemy Mine, Ladyhawke, Highlander, Big Trouble in Little China, Labyrinth, Dragonslayer, Blade Runner, The Right Stuff, and The Black Cauldron ... nearly half of them
"It's rare that a Disney movie doesn't do well."
Disney in 2023: Hold my beer.
Two types of movies on this list: Movies I Love and Movies I Haven't Seen, lol. I'm going to have to check some of these out!
You can basically watch ANY movie - yes, ANY MOVIE - from the 80s and it’s guaranteed to be better than anything being made today.
Man, so many movies I remember from when I was a kid that I had no idea were bombs.... Krull and Legend in particular.
Enemy Mine is an excellent very well written movie.
Blade Runner: saw it on its release in LA. It was so riveting and visually gorgeous that we just got up at the end, walked around the inside of the theater and sat down again to see it all over again. Rutger Hauer blew everything off the screen in his final scene... I raved about the film and was shocked to realize it was bombing. A year later, in art school, I realized it had become a cult classic with much younger fellow students. Thanks for talking about The Right Stuff. At once factual, hilarious and lyric. When it came out, John Glenn was thinking of running for President. the New Yorker ran a cartoon of people leaving the theater. The caption was "That does it. I'm voting for Chuck Yeager..."
The voice over was bad. The director’s cut was amazing, though.
With Labyrinth on there, I'm surprised that Dark Crystal usn't on there. My wife and I have about half of these on DVD, mostly the SciFi or Fantasy movies.
dark crystal was never a flop, it did very well
I watched Blowout from tv when I was a kid, and I've been looking for it for years, not remembering much of it except the then-mind-blowing "Hero DOESN'T save the girl" end. Now I know it's name, I can go watch it, so thank you Looper!
Spoiler Alert.
Krull, Legend, Dune, Enemy Mine, Ladyhawke, Highlander, Labyrinth, Dragonslayer, Munchausen, Blade Runner, Black Cauldron........all films that I have watched time and again, and that my children (now in their 40s) still watch too.
It's amazing how many great, iconic, movies didn't do well at the box office. I would recommend any of these for a fun watch.
This is just a giant list of movies that played all the time on television in the 80’s and 90’s. And I love it. All these movies bring back the feels.
Labrynth, David Bowie, bishonen manga... That is all. LEGEND!!!
May the wings of liberty never lose a feather.
-Jack Burton-
80s TV shows, 80s music, 80s movies. Then there's 80s fashions and 80s toys. I'm sure there's another dimension that's perpetually the 80s.
Don't know if mentioned before, but I remember seeing a Far Side cartoon back in the day entitled "Hell's Video Store" where multiple copies of the only video available to rent on the shelves was Ishtar.
I liked Enemy Mine. Saw it on HBO back in the 80’s
I LOVE love love LadyHawk!
When I was little, my Dad came home one day with a VHS tape he'd borrowed from one of his buddies. He said that I should watch it and that he thinks I'll like it. That tape was Krull. I don't know how many times I watched it as a kid, but I do remember halfway through the movie, it starts doing that black & white horizontal line flickering, straight across the middle. Also, I used to have the building toys called Construx, and there were these like, curved pieces and the 'helicopter blades'. Well, when I was little, I'd snap together my Construx parts to make a Krull blade. Yeah,....good times, man. :-D
EPIC LIST!!!! Nice work!
A few I would add to the list.
Ice Pirates
Battle Beyond the Stars
Robot Jox
Lifeforce (Heads up it REALLY earns that R rating)
Lol "ice pirates" is totally awesome
Life force- space vampires and Steve Railsback as an US astronaut...
@@caronstout354 And the best vampire of all time. I had turned just the right age for this movie to get my FULL attention......
@@Elcostagus I'd completely forgotten about it until this thread. Didn't see it in the theater, but my friends and I watched it a few times on VHS. I only recall a few scenes but clearly we enjoyed it.
I still don't get WTF anyone likes Robot Jox. I actually saw it in the theater. Me and my friends were totally into Robotech and transformers and were really excited to see it. My biggest memory was that pretty much everyone in the theater got up and left during the movie. I had never seen groups of people just leave a movie like that before. That movie was nowhere near as good as Megaforce.
The music from " Queen " was awesome in Highlander. It was a rare thing that the TV series ,
Highlander, was better than the films. In my opinion of course.
In the 80s it was a lot easier to watch everything on video. I have seen most of the movies as new releases when they came out on VHS.
A lot of movies didn't make it to smaller cities/towns or had very limited runs so we had to wait for the videos.
"It's rare that a Disney movie doesn't do well,..." Have you been asleep for the past seven years or so?
Well said!! These are all classics and should be viewed by anyone who enjoys SciFi.
Funny. I saw every single one of these films back in the 80s. We used to go to the movies a LOT back then. Perfect combination of cheap tickets, great air conditioning, and lots of great films every week.
Drinking game idea: take a shot every time "cult classic" is mentioned
Oh, my liver.
😵💫🥴
So pleased you mentioned James Horner's score for Krull. It's the most impressive thing about the movie in my opinion and is simply amazing. Go find the score and listen to "Ride of the Fire Mares". A composer friend of mine speculated that when the orchestra were given the music the trumpet players probably had to double check they hadn't been given the first violin part by mistake!
Ishtar | 0:00 - You'll get one or two laughs. Maybe.
Krull | 1:03 - Effects are brilliant (for the time). The story is blah.
Legend | 2:05 - A masterpiece.
Dune | 2:59 - A flawed masterpiece
Earth Girls Are Easy | 4:11 - Stupid then. Stupid now.
Enemy Mine | 5:02 - A metaphor in racism. Still, done well.
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension | 5:54 - Stupid then. Stupid now
Ladyhawke | 6:53 - A masterpiece.
American Pop | 7:45 - Meh.
Explorers | 8:48 - Some good moments.
Highlander | 9:39 - Brilliant. No sequel needed.
Big Trouble in Little China | 10:43 - Meh.
Labyrinth | 11:34 - Brilliant, for the young and young at heart.
Dragonslayer | 12:34 - Actually, you know what....? This is really actually not that bad!
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen | 13:37 - A tortured mess.
Blow Out | 14:38 - Could have been awesome... but had the wrong actor for the lead.
Heathers | 15:23 - The kind of thing that high school girls would find interesting. Mean Girls did the whole bully-bitch thing better.
The King of Comedy | 16:25 - Meh.
Blade Runner | 17:24 - A masterpiece. No sequel needed.
The Right Stuff | 18:31 - A masterpiece.
The Black Cauldron | 19:17 - Ummm... NOT a masterpiece. But then, the original story was pfaff anyway.
I think I agree with you on all of your list
In the 80’s, movie bombs were great. Compare that to today where blockbusters are hollow with no plot or characters
They give a lot of credit to home video, but it was actually cable that made these movies cult hits. HBO and Showtime could buy these bomb movies cheap and show them 3 or 4 times a day for years.
Earth Girls are Easy is one of my favorites movies since I catched it on after midnight TV, I never get boring of watching it and I'd dream about watching on cinema some day.
I love dune and the remake/reboot is actually decent too!
truth
The ending was crap. He made it rain. It almost as if the writer didn't read the source material instead reading the cliff notes.
I'd argue that far more movies from the 80s are worth watching than from the last 15 years.
None of these are ' bombs ' unless you consider them ' thunderous bombs' they're classics!!!❤😂
They are now, which is the point. I watched Labyrinth in the cinema and there must've been about 10 of us in all
I've always loved Legend. Had it on VHS and watched it all the time.
Every single person involved in the creation of Enemy Mine should be immensely proud of what they brought to the screen. It’s still holds it’s own to this very day.
Dune is amazing.