1. Gremlins (1984 – Directed by Joe Dante, Produced by Steven Spielberg, Starring Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates, with Howie Mandel) What an iconic film. Ironically, it’s pretty much my favorite Christmas film. (Yes! It IS a Christmas movie, albiet a bit depressing and quite dark, but it IS a Christmas movie.) In one scene, I think (a gremlin maybe rides up it and flies out the window or something..) it even features the WEColator (named after my great-Uncle, who invented it Wallace. E. Cheney) – which is a stairlift, and this particular model, which is designed to operate on only one stair raling, so that the rider doesn’t need their own individual staircase with 1 rail on either side, if I am not mistaken, the actual patent of this version of the device was actually fully or in part obtained by my late father, Robert Wallace Cheney. through the Cheney Company… This stairlift/chairlift was also featured in another film called “The Farmers Daughter” as well as an episode of the Beverly Hillbillies and an episode of Seinfeld. So, a little tie-in to family history gives this the #1 spot on my list!!
2. The Last Starfighter (1984 – Directed by Nick Castle and Starring Lance Guest) Fond memories of watching this one growing up, although I have a memory of being somewhat grossed out by something in this movie, although I can’t fully remember what exactly it was, might deserve a re-watch 20-30 some odd years later. But! I do remember it had something to do with a video -an arcade- game at that. Excellent. I doubt the special effects hold up to today’s standards, by any means.
3. Starman (1984 – Directed by John Carpenter), Starring Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen) Okay, now I am maybe a little confused, was it TLS or Starman that had me grossed out?! Anyways, at any rate, all I can really think of now is the David Bowie song of the same title, which featured the lyrics, “There’s a Starman waiting in the sky / He’d like to come and meet us, but he thinks he’d blow our minds.”
4. Flight Of The Navigator (1987 – Directed by Randal Kleiser, Starring Joey Cramer and Sarah Jessica Parker) This one, I consider a real gem, a “classic.” I luckily had the pleasure of re-watching FOTN relatively recently, since it is available on Disney+ currently, so I had run out of The Mandalorian and other Star Wars Universe episodes to re-watch. Good flick. Somewhat ambiguously, the special effects (mostly practical, mind you) ACTUALLY have seemed to hold up!! Bravo! Spielberg again I am sure, no… well.. it WAS a Disney production, but in fact it was directed by Randal Kleiser. And it had a very young Sarah Jessica Parker in it as well!! Wait a sec, why isn’t E.T. on this list??! Hmmm…
5. The Running Man (1987 – Directed by Paul Michael Glaser and Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger) Ah-nold pulls it off in this one quite well. For the actor-and-bodybuilder-turned politician (decades later) I liked this flick for his extra cheesy one-liners “What a hothead” and stuff like that. Pretty gory for it’s time. It’s kind of almost ultra-serious, really. Pretty good, pretty good.
6. The Gate (1987 – Directed by Tibor Takács and Starring Stephen Dorff ) Now it’s been ages since I watched this one as a kid.. Definitely deserves an adult re-watch, but I remember it being quite an intellectual and brain-teasing thrill ride with decent special effects. But, it’s got a pretty epic story and a good amount of action. I am going to go ahead and guess these movie magic moments are probably pretty fakey-seeming by today’s spec FX standards. We’ll see.
7. Total Recall (1990 – Directed by Paul Verhoeven, Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Ronny Cox, and Michael Ironside) I absolutely adore this film and probably always will. It ignited my own fascination (along with undoubtedly a whole generation of others’) with the planet Mars. It’s also a complete cerebral mind-f*ck when it comes to, “what is really real, who can you REALLY trust” as it deals with virtual/alternate realities, mind-control, mind/memory implantation/erasure, lobotomies and so forth. Excellent movie, good storyline, fun action, really gives you a feeling of panic and being on the run, pretty anxious pace right from the start and I still like it better than that 2012 Total Recall Colin Farrell / Kate Beckinsale re-make which, I’ll admit, wasn’t terrible (even with Cranston and Cho) but left me wishing that they had kept a few key elements the same from the original besides the “you’re making me wish I had three hands” scene (if you know what I mean, nudge nudge, wink-wink), and you know, maybe a couple other non-consequential tidbits and what-nots. Check back with us regularly as we add more products to our showcase – we will have a lot of DVD’s and Movies in stock soon!