i came home to some hot soup and Valley Girl, because i haven’t seen that movie since i was about 13 and it was time to watch it again. it’s totally awful in the way that most 80s B movies are, and i, of course, loved it. the bad hair, the bad fashion, the bad acting, it was all totally rad. totally.
i remember watching these kinds of movies (just one of the guys was another all-time fave) when i was a kid and thinking they were just the most romantic thing ever. i was convinced that this was how love was, and once pretty girl and doofy, but cute guy over came the cool-kid mafia obstacles, they would get married and have babies and that, my friends, would be happily ever after.
of course, now, i know it doesn’t work that way. beause you have to go to college first. then you have to have your heart broken a few times, and break a few hearts in the process. you have to spend some time alone wondering what it’s all about and if it’ll ever happen. then, of course after all that, when you’re like 31 or 32, you meet the punkrockrandy of your dreams and then the world stops so he can melt with you.
that’s how it works, right?
Have you noticed that the 80s movies we all loved really haven’t stood the test of time? About the only ones that I can still stand to watch are Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club. I tried to sit through Fast Times at Ridgemont High the other night and was appalled at how bad it was.
Oh, and Just One Of The Guys was only worth watching once, just to see the bodacious ta-tas.
😉
Somehow, I missed the mid-eighties movies; Maybe it was my Star Wars obsession, but I skimmed them over. Only later, as an adult, have I seen these 80’s gems (With a notable exception of “Just One Of The Guys” which I saw at a Band Camp party. [One time, at Band Camp…] And yes, they paused it for a good 5 minutes during the “reveal”.)
I still don’t understand the Sophomoric humor, the Ringwaldian angst or the bohunkian factor. I guess I missed out on all the fun by not being emotionally vulnerable to their theme.
Those movies were written for lonely new wave outcast girls who identified with the underdog-comes-out-on-top and gets to be herself/himself and get the cute girl/cute boy at the same time theme. Most of the movies have the same plot. At the time it really worked for me. I can say now looking back, that well, dreams really do come true.
“Some Kind Of Wonderful” is still one of those eighties John Hughes boy/girl movies that I absolutely love. Absolutely predictable plot of course, but no one plays the high school mafia godfather better than Craig Sheffer. It’s a basically a gender reversed Pretty in Pink, but it works!
The soundtrack is pretty good and I still have a crush on Mary Stuart Masterson. I want to buy her those diamond earrings and be her boyfriend. You never outgrow true angst..