The 80s were one of the greatest decades of the 20th Century. It was the decade that gave us Springsteen, Indiana Jones, and kickstarted console gaming. For many, the 80s was also the birth of the modern blockbuster. The 80s had huge releases including the final two Star Wars movies, the Indiana Jones trilogy, and E.T. The nostalgia for the Eighties has been on a high recently, with the release of Stranger Things and IT showing how much love we have for the decade. Nevertheless, while certain properties are benefitting from being set in the eighties, other modern movies have been adopting the negative traits and cliches of the eighties.
So putting all of our nostalgia aside, these are 10 bad 80s movie traits that have returned in the 2010s.
Russians Can Be Villains Again!
One of the main cliches of movies throughout the eighties was the Russian villain. This was largely a cultural issue that came from the real world Cold War that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union. However, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1991 symbolized the end of the Cold War, and the Russian villain slowly started to stop appearing in films.
The recent international political climate has started the return of more Russian villains to our screens, such as in 2015's Child 44.
Cheap Horror Movies
While the 1980s had their fair share of iconic and stellar horror movies, such as Poltergeist, The Shining, or Nightmare on Elm Street, they also had an overwhelming amount of dross that was released in order for the studio to make a quick profit.
This is one aspect of 80s horror that is still present in modern horror filmmaking. Studios have noticed that a horror movie can be relatively cheap to produce, but brings in far more money in box office sales. This leads to poor, badly thought out productions and gives horror a bad reputation.
Body Swap Comedies
Body swap comedies were all the rage in the 1980s. Movies like Vice Versa, 18 Again, and Like Father Like Son were extremely popular in the 1980s and helped to introduce a new kind of comedic movie to the masses. However, while there was the occasional body swap movie that was enjoyable, most of them were formulaic and predictable.
This body swap genre has started to resurface in recent years to varying degrees of success. The most recognizable body-swap comedies of recent years were the Change Up and, to an extent, Shazam.
Dependence On Franchises
The 80s were the decade of the blockbuster. After the massive hit of 1977's Star Wars, the 80s allowed the blockbuster genre to truly take off. It was the decade of Indiana Jones, Batman, E.T., and the final two movies in the Star Wars Trilogy.
However, while the decade undoubtedly gave us some of the best movies of all time, it also showed that studios could rely on the gravitational pull of a franchise to sell movies. This means there was less pressure on the studios to create a new and original movie when they could just continue a franchise. The 2010s are perhaps the best example of franchise cinema with the MCU, Star Wars, and even the DCEU being huge cultural draws in the last decade.
The Bumbling Yet Cool Henchman
This one is largely limited to Star Wars, but is still worth mentioning due to the recent Sequel Trilogy. In the Original Trilogy, Boba Fett was seen to be this cool bounty hunter who must be very skilled. However, all we see him do in the trilogy is look cool and fall into a pit.
This was mirrored with the introduction of Captain Phasma in the Sequel Trilogy. Phasma was a cool looking character who just seemed like she was either the unluckiest character ever or the most inept character in the trilogy.
Muscular, Sword Wielding Heroes
While the 80s is known for its campy science fiction, it also matched its science fiction output with an impressive number of fantasy epics. Movies such as Clash of the Titans and Conan the Barbarian were gargantuan hits with the 1980s audience.
While there is nothing inherently wrong with a sword and sandals epic, there is a typical story beat that these movies generally seem to follow. The Clash of the Titans remake was an example of something from the 80s that should've stayed in the 80s.
Adults In High School
This may be controversial, as it is a trend that has been present in cinema for decades, but it is worth including as the 2010s may finally be the final decade of the 'adult in high school' trend. During teen movies, it is clear that some (or most) of the students are about 28, some students even have stubble.
However, the 2010s may finally be the one to end this ridiculous practice, as the new Spiderman movies appear to show a move away from this strange standard
Native American Burial Grounds
Is your house haunted? Do you live in America? If you answered yes to those questions, then your house is probably built on a Native American burial ground. This was the conclusion of several horror movies in the 1980s, including both Poltergeist and Stephen King's Pet Sematary, becoming a cliche in the process.
In a kind of mirror image, the 2010s also saw the release of a Poltergeist and Pet Sematary remake that both featured Native American burial grounds.
Buddy Cop Movies
While the buddy cop concept can lead to a great movie, as the Lethal Weapon franchise has shown, it can also lead to a fairly predictable and dull plot. Usually, there is a straight-laced and stern cop who is paired with a (usually) younger and more light-hearted cop.
While the genre didn't end in the 1980s, it was a movie concept that certainly had its roots in the great decade. The concept has made a comeback recently with both The Nice Guys, The Other Guys, and the Jump Street franchise.
Lazy Slasher Movies
One of the main cinematic trends of the 1980s was the slasher movie. The 70s showed that a slasher movie could be highly influential with the release of Halloween. The 80s learned their lesson from the release of Halloween and released Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Prom Night.
However, some of those movies started to become formulaic, with many parodies pointing out the vast flaws in the slasher movie genre. The recent slasher movies have not learned from their ancestors' mistakes.