Tuesday, May 13, 2014

GHOSTBUSTERS (1984), BEVERLY HILLS COP (1984)

What were the top five box office movies for each year of the 80's? Which ones 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: (1984)

And the top 5 box office movies for 1984 are...

1. Beverly Hills Cop
2. Ghostbusters
3. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
4. Gremlins
5. The Karate Kid

The Karate Kid


Least Favorite Movie from the top 5: The Karate Kid. I've got to confess, I've only seen clips of The Karate Kid. I just never worked up any enthusiasm for seeing this. But what else am I going to pick from this list? Temple of Doom isn't nearly as bad as some make it out to be and it doesn't feel right to pick Gremlins...I think I'll just move on to the top two and I got lucky for this year in that the top two movies for the year are also 1001 book entries.

Ray, Venkman and Egon prepare to do battle in Ghostbusters

Favorite movie from the top 5: Ghostbusters I admit the first time I saw Ghostbusters, I had a hard time getting in to it at first. I mean a bunch of guys start a business where they go around New York and catch ghosts like exterminators? What? But when I took a breath and took it in, I began to enjoy it. Bill Murray was damn funny. So were Rick Moranis and  the Sta-Puft marshmellow man.  It's Ghostbusters. Just enjoy it.


The four Ghostbusters battle the Sta-Puft Marshmellow Man

Beverly Hills Cop
The top box office movie of the 1984 was Beverly Hills Cop. Few movies are more representative of the 80's for me than this one, from the music (The Pointer Sisters, Glenn Frey etc.) to the shootouts, to the just enough plot to let star Eddie Murphy do his schtick, which is really what the movie is all about. He's funny, but at the same time, he's as badass a cop as Shaft or Superfly.

I always heard that this was originally supposed to be a Sylvester Stallone vehicle. I can't even imagine what that would have been like. I'm sure the Lisa Eilbacher character (No one had better 80's hair than Lisa Eilbacher in this movie!) would have been "the girlfriend" if Stallone had been in it. But I guess the producers figured that a romance between the blonde and the black guy would have pushed the envelope a little much for what was certain to be a hit.

Lisa Eilbacher and Eddie Murphy stay platonic in Beverly Hills Cop


2 comments:

  1. I would have had a difficult choice picking my favorite of these five. They remind me that 84 was an awesome movie year. I liked Karate Kid better than you. It is so quotable and a million times better than its sequels. But at the end of the day I would probably agree with you in picking Ghostbusters for the very same reasons. Murray and Moranis rule that movie.

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  2. I also noticed the #6 movie of the year was Police Academy. I had forgotten how popular that series was and I don't think I watched any past the second one.

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