Quintessential/Forgotten 80’s Comedies
My personal list of quintessential and forgotten 80’s comedies… well, plus a couple from the late 70’s and a few from the early 90’s… but mostly from the 80’s. And in no particular order.
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- DirectorRick MoranisDave ThomasStarsRick MoranisDave ThomasMax von SydowCanada's most famous hosers, Bob and Doug McKenzie, get jobs at the Elsinore Brewery, only to learn that something is rotten with the state of it.
- DirectorJim AbrahamsDavid ZuckerJerry ZuckerStarsVal KilmerOmar SharifJeremy KempAn American rock and roll singer is invited to a cultural festival in East Germany in order to distract from a plot to destroy NATO submarines, but he accidentally becomes involved in a resistance plot to rescue an imprisoned scientist.
- DirectorMartha CoolidgeStarsVal KilmerStacy PeraltaDaniel AdesAn uptight teenage prodigy enters a top engineering college, but feels awkward among the freewheeling students. When a professor aims to turn their laser project into a military weapon, he and his offbeat roommate plot to ruin the plan.
- DirectorNeal IsraelStarsJohn MurrayJennifer TillyJames KeachThe goofy students of a remedial drivers education class find themselves butting heads with their abusive police instructors.
- DirectorSavage Steve HollandStarsJohn CusackDemi MooreLinda WarrenAn aspiring teenage cartoonist and his friends come to the aid of a singer trying to save her family property from developers.
- DirectorJohn HughesStarsMolly RingwaldAnthony Michael HallJustin HenryA girl's "sweet" sixteenth birthday is anything but special: her family forgets about it, and she suffers from every embarrassment possible.
- DirectorAmy HeckerlingStarsMichael KeatonJoe PiscopoMarilu HennerSet in the 1930s, an honest, good-hearted man is forced to turn to a life of crime to finance his neurotic mother's sky-rocketing medical bills.
- DirectorJonathan LynnStarsEileen BrennanTim CurryMadeline KahnSix guests are anonymously invited to a strange mansion for dinner, but after their host is killed, they must cooperate with the staff to identify the murderer as the bodies pile up.
- DirectorMel BrooksStarsCleavon LittleGene WilderSlim PickensIn order to ruin a western town, a corrupt politician appoints a black Sheriff, who promptly becomes his most formidable adversary.
- DirectorMel BrooksStarsGene WilderMadeline KahnMarty FeldmanAn American grandson of the infamous scientist, struggling to prove that his grandfather was not as insane as people believe, is invited to Transylvania, where he discovers the process that reanimates a dead body.
- DirectorSavage Steve HollandStarsJohn CusackDavid Ogden StiersKim DarbyAfter his girlfriend ditches him for a boorish ski jock, Lane decides that suicide is the only answer. However, his increasingly inept attempts bring him only more agony and embarrassment. Filled with the wildest teen nightmares.
- DirectorRichard CorrellStarsRoger RoseT.K. CarterYvette NiparA developer attempts to sabotage the safety record of a ski resort.
- DirectorJohn HughesStarsJohn CandyMacaulay CulkinJean Louisa KellyLaid back commitment-phobe Buck babysits his brother's rebellious teenage daughter and her cute younger brother and sister.
- DirectorNeal IsraelStarsTom HanksTawny KitaenAdrian ZmedA soon-to-be-married man's friends throw him the ultimate bachelor party.
- DirectorJohn R. Cherry IIIStarsJim VarneyVictoria RacimoJohn VernonErnest, a lovable loser who works as a summer camp handyman and dreams of becoming a guidance councilor, must find a way to inspire a group of juvenile delinquents as well as stop a shady strip mining company from closing the camp.
- DirectorJay LeveyStars'Weird Al' YankovicVictoria JacksonKevin McCarthyAn unemployed visionary becomes the manager of a local television station. The station becomes a success, with all sorts of hilarious sight gags and wacky humor.
- DirectorJoe DanteCarl GottliebPeter HortonStarsRosanna ArquetteMichelle PfeifferArsenio HallA spoof of low budget 1950s science-fiction movies, interspersed with various comedy sketches and fake commercials making fun of late-night television.
- DirectorJohn LandisStarsEvan C. KimBong Soo HanBill BixbyThe daily programming of a fictional local TV channel presented as a series of highly irreverent skits.
- DirectorMichael GottliebStarsAndrew McCarthyKim CattrallEstelle GettyA young artist, searching for his vocation, makes a mannequin so perfect he falls in love with it. Finding the mannequin in a store window, he gets a job there and his creation comes to life.
- DirectorDennis DuganStarsJohn TurturroBob NelsonMel SmithThree manic idiots; a lawyer, cab driver and a handyman team up to run a ballet company to fulfill the will of a millionaire. Stooge-like antics result as the trio try to outwit the rich widow.
- DirectorCharles CrichtonJohn CleeseStarsJohn CleeseJamie Lee CurtisKevin KlineIn London, four very different people team up on a jewel heist, then try to double-cross one another for the loot, complicated by their efforts to fool a very proper barrister.
- DirectorJamie UysStarsN!xauMarius WeyersSandra PrinslooA comic allegory about a traveling Bushman who encounters modern civilization and its stranger aspects, including a clumsy scientist and a band of revolutionaries.
- DirectorArthur HillerStarsRichard PryorGene WilderJoan SeveranceDave is deaf, and Wally is blind. They witness a murder, but it was Dave who was looking at her, and Wally who was listening.
- DirectorMel BrooksStarsMel BrooksGregory HinesDom DeLuiseMel Brooks brings his one-of-a-kind comic touch to the history of mankind covering events from the Old Testament to the French Revolution in a series of episodic comedy vignettes.
- DirectorJim AbrahamsDavid ZuckerJerry ZuckerStarsRobert HaysJulie HagertyLeslie NielsenAfter the crew becomes sick with food poisoning, a neurotic ex-fighter pilot must safely land a commercial airplane full of passengers.
- DirectorJohn HughesStarsMatthew BroderickAlan RuckMia SaraA popular high school student, admired by his peers, decides to take a day off from school and goes to extreme lengths to pull it off, to the chagrin of his Dean, who'll do anything to stop him.
- DirectorTim BurtonStarsAlec BaldwinGeena DavisMichael KeatonThe spirits of a deceased couple are harassed by an unbearable family that has moved into their home, and hire a malicious spirit to drive them out.
- DirectorJohn HughesStarsAnthony Michael HallIlan Mitchell-SmithKelly LeBrockTwo high-school nerds use a computer program to literally create the perfect woman, who promptly turns their lives upside-down.
- DirectorMel BrooksStarsMel BrooksJohn CandyRick MoranisA star-pilot for hire and his trusty sidekick must come to the rescue of a princess and save Planet Druidia from the clutches of the evil Spaceballs.
- DirectorJohn LandisStarsJohn BelushiDan AykroydCab CallowayJake Blues rejoins with his brother Elwood after being released from prison, but the duo has just days to reunite their old R&B band and save the Catholic home where the two were raised, outrunning the police as they tear through Chicago.
- DirectorTed KotcheffStarsAndrew McCarthyJonathan SilvermanCatherine Mary StewartTwo idiots try to pretend that their murdered employer is really alive, leading the hitman to attempt to track him down to finish him off.
- DirectorHugh WilsonStarsSteve GuttenbergG.W. BaileyKim CattrallThe mayor declares that anyone can enroll in the police academy irrespective of their physical condition or education level, and many misfits descend on the academy, including a young troublemaker who's forced to apply or go to jail.
- DirectorCarl ReinerStarsJohn CandyRichard CrennaRip TornAn overworked air-traffic controller takes his family on a beach vacation but is soon beset by series of mishaps.
- DirectorHal NeedhamStarsBurt ReynoldsRoger MooreFarrah FawcettA wide variety of eccentric competitors participate in a wild and illegal cross-country road race. However, the eccentric entrants will do anything to win the road race, including low-down, dirty tricks.
- DirectorDavid S. WardStarsTom BerengerCharlie SheenCorbin BernsenThe new owner of the Cleveland Indians puts together a purposely horrible team so they'll lose and she can move the team. But when the plot is uncovered, they start winning just to spite her.
- DirectorStephen HerekStarsKeanu ReevesAlex WinterGeorge CarlinTwo rock-'n-rolling teens, on the verge of failing their class, set out on a quest to make the ultimate school history report after being presented with a time machine.
- DirectorJohn LandisStarsSteve MartinChevy ChaseMartin ShortThree actors accept an invitation to a Mexican village to perform their onscreen bandit fighter roles, unaware that it is the real thing.
- DirectorMichael SchultzStarsTaimakVanityChristopher MurneyIn New York City, a young man searches for a Master to obtain the final level of martial arts mastery known as the Glow.
- DirectorJohn LandisStarsChevy ChaseDan AykroydMark StewartTwo bumbling government employees think they are U.S. spies, only to discover that they are actually decoys for Nuclear War.
- DirectorGeorge Roy HillStarsChevy ChaseMadolyn Smith OsborneKevin O'MorrisonA couple swap city life for the country, but their picturesque new hometown turns out to be just a little bit different to what they were expecting.
- DirectorBlake EdwardsStarsDavid NivenRobert WagnerHerbert LomEnsuing after the events of Clouseau's disappearance, his bosses at the Surete put a computer into service to elect a new shrewd detective, Sleigh, who turns up just as inept as Clouseau.