BODY HEAT (1981), REDS (1981)

What were the top five box office movies for each year of the 80's? Which were my favorites? Which were my least favorites? I'm not sure...I'll have to think about it. And without any further ado...

80's Top Box Office Month: (1981)

And the top 5 box office movies for 1981 were...

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark

2. On Golden Pond

3. Superman II

4. Arthur

5. Stripes

Favorite of the top 5: Superman II. The second Christopher Reeve Superman movie is probably still my favorite of any superhero movie. It may be a combination of the time it came out and the superhero movie coming into its own. If I had been ten years older or younger, I probably wouldn't pick Superman II from this list. It is what it is. But really how can you beat Terrence Stamp as Zod for a bad guy?

Superman II

Least favorite of the top 5: The last half-hour of Stripes. I like all the top five movies on this list, so it is hard to put one on the bottom. However, though I haven't seen Stripes in years, I do remember the movie peeked during the scene where Bill Murray finishes his basic training with Murray's famous, "Army training sir!"line. And that should have been the end of the movie! But it goes on and they are transporting nuclear weapons or driving around in an Urban Assault Vehicle or something...it really brings the movie down a notch for me, though I still like it and it does have the forever lovely P. J. Soles as the leading lady. But I would have just lopped off the last thirty minutes and gone with a shorter movie.

Stripes

The only 1001 movie from this list is Raiders of the Lost Ark and I've already done a blog on that. So once again, I'm going to have to dig deeper into the list.

Body Heat #33

I was actually a little surprised that Body Heat was only #33 on the box office list for the year as I remember it as being pretty big at the time. It harkens back to film noir as well as any movie from the 80's could, yet updates it with twists and turns that would have never gotten anywhere near the sensors of that earlier time. The plot is full of surprises if you haven't seen it before and Kathleen Turner  is on the short list of hottest film fatales of all-time.

Reds #13

Coming in at #13 is Reds, Warren Beatty's epic story of socialist/anarchist John Reed. I confess to never feeling in the mood to watch this movie before, but now that I've seen it, it does possess the grand sweep that a good epic should possess. At the core of this film is the love story between Reed and Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton). I don't think it's in the Lawrence of Arabia great film category, but it's a worthwhile effort and involving despite the very long running time. 

My favorite part of the movie was the running commentaries and interview excerpts from actual people that actually knew John Reed.