The 80s Movie Podcast

This episode, we take a look back at the short-lived production and distribution company American Cinema Releasing, pioneers of two ways of finding financing for independent films and releasing them into theatres, and the company responsible for making Chuck Norris a star. ----more---- Movies discussed on this episode include: Beatlemania (1981, Joseph Manduke) Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen (1981, Clive Donner) Cheaper to Keep Her (1981, Ken Annakin) Dirt (1979, Eric...

On this episode, we discuss the history of 3-D movies, and take a look at the ones that were made and released during the 1980s. ----more---- The titles discussed during this episode include: Amityville 3 (1983, Richard Fleischer) Bwana Devil (1952, Arch Oboler) Chain Gang (1984, Worth Keeter) Comin' At Ya! (1981, Fernandino Baldi) Dial M for Murder (1954, Alfred Hitchcock) Friday the 13th Part III (1982, Steve Miner) Hit the Road Running (1987, Worth Keeter) Hot Heir (1984, Worth Keeter)...

In time for the start of the baseball season, we talk about the numerous baseball movies that were made for movie and television screens during the 1980s. ----more---- Movies discussed during this episode include: Amazing Grace and Chuck (1987, Mike Newell) Blue Skies Again (1983, Richard Michaels) Brewster's Millions (1985, Walter Hill) Bull Durham (1988, Ron Shelton) The Comeback Kid (1980, Peter Levin) Don't Look Back: The Story of Leroy 'Satchel' Paige (1981, Richard A. Colla) Eight...

On this episode, we take a look back at the life and career of director Peter Bogdanovich, with a focus on his forgotten 1981 comedy They All Laughed, and the love affair with one of the film’s leading ladies, Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten, which would lead to her murder at the hands of her estranged husband, Paul Snider.

On this episode, your host, film critic and historian Edward A. Havens III, talks about the late, great Dennis Hopper, his mostly forgotten 1980 film Out of the Blue, and how it is getting a new lease on life in 2022. ----more---- The original 1983 theatrical one-sheet for Out of the Blue Dennis Hopper in a scene from Out of the Blue

On this episode, film critic and historian Edward A. Havens III concludes his two-part look back at the 1980s films of one of cinema's truly gifted storytellers, John Sayles. ----more---- We talk about his three movies from the second half of the decade, as well as many of the films he would make after the end of the 1980s. The movies discussed in this episode, all directed by John Sayles, include: Brother from Another Planet (1994) City of Hope (1991) Eight Men Out (1988) Limbo (1999)...

On this episode, film critic and historian Edward A. Havens III begins a two-part look back at the 1980s films of one of cinema's truly gifted storytellers, John Sayles. ----more---- We talk about his beginnings in upstate New York, his college years, where he would meet several of his regular future collaborators, his early career as an author, his time as a screenwriter for the legendary film producer Roger Corman, and into the first three movies of his filmmaking career. The movies...

This episode continues an irregular series that takes a look back at a minor cinematic phenomenon that happened more often in the 1980s than in any other decade: the one-time-only distribution company. Today, we’ll be talking about the 1980 movie Union City, which featured the film debut of Blondie lead singer Deborah Harry, the 1981 Canadian erotic drama Head-On, which would not get released in America until 1985 and under a much different title, and the 1985 dystopian sci-fi action drama...

On this episode, film critic and historian Edward A. Havens III takes his Wayback Machine back forty years, to look back at the movies you could have seen after Christmas dinner in 1981. ----more---- The movies covered during this episode include (released in 1981, unless otherwise noted): Absence of Malice (Sydney Pollack) Arthur (Steve Gordon) Atlantic City (Louis Malle) Buddy Buddy (Billy Wilder) Chariots of Fire (Hugh Hudson) Cinderella (1950, Clyde Geronimi and Hamilton Luske and...

This episode continues an irregular series that takes a look back at a minor cinematic phenomenon that happened more often in the 1980s than in any other decade: the one-time-only distribution company. ----more---- We talk about the 1985 cocaine crime drama The Texas Godfather, featuring Vince Edwards and Paul L. Smith, the 1986 comedy Vasectomy: A Delicate Matter, starring Paul Sorvino, Abe Vigoda and Lorne Greene, and the 1986 gender switch comedy Willy/Milly (aka I Was a Teenage Boy,...

This episode begins an irregular series that will take a look back at a minor cinematic phenomenon that happened more often in the 1980s than in any other decade: a one-time-only distribution company. ----more---- We talk about the 1980 Tinto Brass erotic historical drama Caligula, starring Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, and Peter O'Toole, and the 1985 Bud Yorkin family drama Twice in a Lifetime, featuring Gene Hackman, Ellen Burstyn, Ann-Margret, Amy Madigan, Ally Sheedy, and Brian...

On this very special episode of the podcast, we discuss the life, career, and death of Alan Smithee, one of the most prolific filmmakers of the 1980s... who never actually directed a film, or, really, ever even existed. It's a twisted tale of incompetence, greed, and saving face. ----more---- The movies discussed in this episode: Accidental Love (2015, Stephen Greene) An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (1998, Alan Smithee) Appointment With Fear (1985, Alan Smithee) The Barking Dog...

In this very special episode, we do something that only 13,948 other podcasts have already done or are in the process of doing this week: taking a look back at the Halloween movies. ----more---- The movies covered in this episode: Halloween (1978, John Carpenter) Halloween II (1981, Rick Rosenthal) Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982, Tommy Lee Wallace) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988, Dwight H. Little) Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989, Dominique...

In this episode, we discuss the career of one of the best filmmakers to come out of 80s cinema: Scottish filmmaker Bill Forsyth. Oh, you've never heard of him? Or you're only familiar with one of his films? Join us on a cinematic journey through the career of a filmmaker who regularly revisited themes of loneliness, isolation, and alienation, and made them hilarious, touching, and poignant. ----more---- The films discussed during this episode (all directed by Bill Forsyth): That Sinking...

On this very special episode of The FilmJerk Podcast, we talk not about a specific movie or filmmaker or actor or distribution company, but of a moviegoing concept that was huge in the 1980s but has all but disappeared from the movie-going landscape: the dollar house. AKA the discount house, the bargain house, and the second run theatre.

As we conclude our multi-part miniseries, The United Film Distribution Company, one of the first distributors to be operated by a motion picture exhibition company, has become Taurus Entertainment, and will go on one of the worst runs of film releases any distribution company has ever had. ----more---- Before you listen to this episode, please make sure you have already listened to Parts One and Two of this series, as some things discussed on this episode are continuations of ideas and...

We continue our multi-part miniseries on The United Film Distribution Company and Taurus Entertainment, one of the first distributors to be operated by a motion picture exhibition company. This week, we talk about several of their biggest successes, including Mark L. Lester's Class of 1984, Richard Hiltzik's Sleepaway Camp, and the Gone With the Wind of zombie movies, George A. Romero's Day of the Dead. ----more---- Titles covered during this episode: 1990: The Brox Warriors (1983, Enzo...

We begin a multi-part miniseries on The United Film Distribution Company and Taurus Entertainment, one of the first distributors to be operated by a motion picture exhibition company, who teamed with filmmaker George A. Romero to produce and/or distribute several of his most popular and enduring movies, including Dawn of the Dead and Creepshow. ----more---- The movies discussed in this episode include: Class of 1984 (1982, Mark L. Lester) Creepshow (1982, George A. Romero) Dawn of the...

This episode completes a two-part miniseries on an interesting concept in examining genre movies in the 80s, Grounded Genre. Joining us for this miniseries is our very special guest Sarah Bullion, an award-winning director, producer and screenwriter who also spent ten years on sets as a prop master and second assistant director.

This episode starts a two-part miniseries on an interesting concept in examining genre movies in the 80s, Grounded Genre. Joining us for this miniseries is our very special guest Sarah Bullion, an award-winning director, producer and screenwriter who also spent ten years on sets as a prop master and second assistant director.