80s Movies: A Guide to What's Wrong with Your Parents

In their follow up to Animal House, Harold Ramis and Doug Kenney toned down the misogyny and upped the Slobs vs Slobs comedy. Tara McNamara, Gen X, and Riley Roberts, Gen Z, look at Caddyshack with the modern lens, identifying how it used comedy to chip away at authority and the pompousness of the rich, but also perpetuated stereotypes about women that took a couple of decades to shake.

Porky's (1981) took '80s audiences back to the '50s -- truly. It was a masive hit with audiences (mostly teen boys) laughing it up at the pranks, ribbing, and hijinks of a bunch of Ft. Lauderdale teens who take on a redneck strip club owner in the next country -- and that was the problem. The objectification and degradation of women for a laugh influenced others (mostly teen boys) to copy the behavior for a laugh themselves. Film critics Tara McNamara, Gen X, and Riley Roberts, Gen Z, look through the peephole at how the definitive teen sex comedy sparked decades of sexual harassment.

Eddie Murphy's widely popular HBO comedy special was watched, rewatched and quoted by young Gen X'rs. Unfortunately, the anti-gay sentiment was also massively influential at a time when society needed assurances about the LGBTQ community, not validation to ostracize and demean them (in recent years, Murphy has apologized). Youth film authorities Tara McNamara, Gen X, and Riley Roberts, Gen Z, look at Delirious with historical perspective and the impact it made on a generation.

Prince and the Revolution set the world on fire with what may be the best music launch of all time: a film that essentially served as a music video marketing tool and established Prince as a creative genius and sexual dynamo. However, as mother-daughter hosts Tara McNamara, Gen X, and Riley Roberts, Gen Z, discuss, it showed the kids of the '80s that intense love means "I Would Die 4 U" with a few punches along the way.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) is John Hughes' most fun film and, aside from the usual '80s offense of making bad boys sexy, it encouraged high schoolers to ditch. Mother-daughter hosts and film analysts Tara McNamara (Common Sense Media), Gen X, and Riley Roberts (Fanlala), Gen Z, look back at what how the film holds up today and its disturbing legacy.

Jodie Foster, Cherie Currie and Scott Baio showed the fast lives of teens living in LA's Valley in 1979 in Foxes (1980). Family film authority Tara McNamara (Gen X) and the youngest film critic in history, Riley Roberts (Gen Z) look at how the coming-of-age drama identifies that the sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll wild lifestyle of kids was a result of the distracted, self-absorbed parenting of the era and how it compares to teen life today.

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Judy Benjamin just wanted to get married, but life had other plans. We've come a long way, baby...or have we? Movie critics Tara McNamara, Gen X, and Riley Roberts, Gen Z, look back at Goldie Hawn's feminist classic about a woman finding her identity and her independence, but as Riley explains, the girls of Gen Z may still be holding on to some of the problems and attitudes that were holding Judy back.

A lot has happened since JD offed the teen mean girls of Westerburg High and blew himself up: mainly, the world has been blowing itself up and schools are a major target. Hosts Tara McNamara (Gen X) and Riley Roberts (Gen Z) asked if there was a connection and screenwriter Daniel Waters responds to this ("Why wasn't my phone ringing? HEATHERS should get some credit!") as well as answers all our questions about the making of "the movie that turned the '80s into the '90s." 

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As more and more skeevy stories about middle-age men who dated (and inevitably raped) young teens come out, you gotta wonder: how did they ever think this was okay (in fact, failed Senatorial candidate Roy Moore actually still says it was okay). While it's NOT OKAY, there was definitely a message being pushed in pop culture that's evident in the movies of the '80s that teen girls were obsessed with sex and, in fact, the girls were the predators Take 1980's Little Darlings, starring two of the most famous teen girls of the era, Kristy McNichol and Tatum O'Neal. It's about two 15-year-old campers who bet they can lose their virginity first - and one of them has her heart set on her 30-year-old camp counselor/high school teacher (it's okay to throw up). Film critics Tara McNamara, Gen X, and Riley Roberts, Gen Y, discuss what was going on in the '80s, how this film was such a massive success at the time, and how the messages the film sent impact society today.

The child nudity and sexuality depicted in The Blue Lagoon caused a stir in 1980, but the fact it was even made shows a real difference in what was and wasn't acceptable during that era. Film critics/analysts Tara McNamara (Gen X) and Riley Roberts (Gen Z) look at the Brooke Shields-Christopher Atkins romance through the modern lens, putting it in context for its era, as well as the impact it made.

For behind the scenes and making of The Blue Lagoon info, go to 80smovieguide.com/the-blue-lagoon/