Fantasy films from the 1980s

Surprised no one mentioned maybe the most famous of the genre in that decade, The Princess Bride... Some of my childhood favorites also include The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Time Bandits, The Beastmaster...

 

and you get to see why Bill Maher is a talk show host...

 

yes one of mine as well..I have the DVD it's OK, but not fabulous...

 

Another Rutger Hauer favorite of mine! Jennifer Jason Leigh was great in this too (and nude!) If I am not mistaken, I first saw this on HBO soon after its limited release in only the big markets (never released in my neck of the woods.)

 

I have the DVD...was quite pleased with this...I was expecting less, but it all was top notch!

 

The Ice Pirates.

 

OP here. I remember seeing bits of many of these fantasy films in the 1980s, on cable. But mainly I am watching them as if for the first time now. I think Legend, The Dark Crystal and The NeverEnding Story are visually beautiful, even compared to the CGI movies we watch today. A lot of imagination and craft went into the look and style of these films.

However, the stories come across as overly simplistic, and characters are clearly good or clearly evil. There are specific scenes and individual characters that are memorable, but none of these films feel epic. These are not films that I think I'd get excited about watching again to pick up more depth and discover things I missed before.

I do not know if this is because I am watching them as an adult, versus as a child, or if today we have become more accustomed to sweeping movies like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. Maybe both.

 

The Sword and The Sorcerer. I haven't seen it since it was released. Imlooked at IMDB and Wikipedia. I wonder if it hold up.

 

At least nobody mentioned Howard the Duck:



For 20 years, this was the example I would always use on why Fantasy usually didn't work well for film...

 

Space herpes!!!!

I loved that movie as a kid. Tried to watch it recently. It didn't hold up very well, though it was cool seeing Angelica Huston slumming.

 

I saw Neverending Story in HD a few months ago, and I was appalled at how horrendous the bluescreen work was. I seem to recall the whole thing was shot in Germany, and it looks weird as hell. Very strange film, with a very odd structure... the whole thing is just odd from start to finish. And the sequel was a lot worse.

As far as I'm concerned, the first time anybody got a handle on doing huge, complex fantasy stories right was Peter Jackson with Lord of the Rings. I was blown away that he pulled those films off on so many levels: great casting, good writing, structure and logic, beautiful sets, extraordinary photography, and visual effects that set new standards for the industry. Just about flawless films -- despite the story compromises in having to condense about a 50-hour story into maybe 10 hours of films.

The Harry Potter films were extremely well-done, too. But it's clear to me that nobody had a clue as to how to do films like this in the 1980s. I think the genre was damn near dead by the early 1990s, because of all the fantasy bombs that happened during the 1980s.

 

yeah but the technology got cheaper and better so that is why those films look good!

 

I loved The Neverending Story as a kid. Watched it recently and could not make it through. Just, strange. And the "luckdragon"... well, I don't think we can talk about that here...

 

Gilliam's two are my favourites, but Excalibur and Dragonslayer are also really nice. If you want a film with some moral complexity, Turnaround, then Dragonslayer might be what you're looking for.

 

Yep, that's my problem with many modern horror movies as well, CGI creatures and gore just aren't effective or scary at all...

 

Ladyhawke

 

Another vote for The Sword & The Sorcerer, it's so wonderfully cheesy and over-the-top, it's damn near a perfect "so bad it's good" movie.

 

Swamp Thing...the recalled DVD of course! boobage!

 

A second vote for The Princess Bride ... there's so many memorable lines of dialogue from the film!

 

I saw "Deathstalker" for the first time not too long ago. I thought it was pretty grim. It is funny though how the makeup moves from one side of Munkar's head to the other, and then back again, about 2/3 of the way through. A rather unexplainable continuity error.

 

"The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey" is a dark little film from 1988. A group of villagers go on a quest, led by a boy's visions, to prevent the black plague from overrunning their home.

 

DVD/Blu Ray?

 

This is a little different, but it has one of my favorite soundtracks: "Heavy Metal".