List: Best 80's Theme Songs

10. Weird Science by Oingo Boingo
Featured in Weird Science
This is not the last movie to make this list by the late John Hughes. During his heyday he managed to make highly entertaining teenage films with catchy tunes including this 1985 sci-fi comedy about a pair of dorky kids who create the woman of their dreams. Featuring the sounds of Oingo Boingo fronted by cut and paste soundtrack maker Danny Elfman, Weird Science is a silly but sound piece of work.

9. Love on a Real Train by Tangerine Dream
Featured in Risky Business
Teenage sexual exploration and 80's superficial culture gets much needed lampooning in this Tom Cruise vehicle. Enticed by a seductive hooker and egged on by his friend, Joel (Cruise) reluctantly uses his upper crust family house as a brothel. Tangerine Dream provides the tantalizing music for a few of the key scenes. No words, just seduction.

8. Back in Time by Huey Lewis and the News
Featured in Back to the Future
Who isn't familiar with this Robert Zemeckis classic. Back to the Future has so many just great songs packed into its 116 minute run time. Still the stalwart little ditty that got into everyones heads as the credits rolled was Back in Time by Huey Lewis and the News. Also featured by them is The Power of Love played by Marty's band in the beginning of the film.

7. Footloose by Kenny Loggins
Featured in Footloose
Need I say more? It's Footloose!

6. Flash Gordon by Queen
Featured in Flash Gordon
This movie is partially saved from obscurity due to Queens epic introduction. Featuring a dull sports hero who saves the planet Mongo from certain devastation from the hands of Emperor Ming, the intro reminds us how truly silly the whole concept is; which is a good thing.

5. The Time of My Life by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes
Featured in Dirty Dancing
This song eventually won an Oscar as it was featured in a pivotal moment between teen heartthrob Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey. While the movie might be the quintessential 80's chick-flick one couldn't help but get a little melancholic hearing it after Swayze's tragic death. Patrick, we miss you.

4. Holiday Road by Lindsay Buckingham
Featured in National Lampoon's Vacation
Part do-wop, part AM pop, Holiday Road is one of those songs that gets in your head and never lets go. Unlike, say Build Me Up Buttercup or the Batman theme song, it isn't much of a bother.

3. Don't You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds
Featured in The Breakfast Club
This song however is a bit of a bother, but no 80's theme song list can be complete without The Breakfast Club and Simple Mind's memorable Don't You (Forget About Me).

2. Twist and Shout by The Beatles
Featured in Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Having fun can be hard work but Matthew Broderick's Ferris Bueller makes it look damn easy. Perched atop a parade float, the titular character moves and groves lip-syncing to The Beatles as the entire city of Chicago gyrates along.

1. Brazil by Geoff and Maria Muldaur
Featured in Brazil
Repeatedly looped into Terry Gilliam's opus, the song Brazil has the asinine catchy-ness and ironic optimism that makes it perfect for this dystopian masterpiece. Not quite a pop sensation, Brazil torments the brain until you end up silently muttering it to yourself whilst dazed out in front of the television.

Honorable Mention
Killer Klowns (From Outer Space) by The Dickies
Featured in Killer Klowns from Outer Space
The movie was awful but trust me when I say the song is good and very 80's

Review: The Visitor

Year: 2007
Genre: Drama
Stars: Richard Jenkins, Haaz Sleiman, Hiam Abbass & Danai Gurira
Director: Thomas McCarthy

Overview: Richard Jenkins stars as Professor Walter Vale a widower who apart from a lackluster interest in the piano has started phoning in life. Forced to attend a conference in New York City, Walter returns to his old apartment in the city to find two illegal squatters living in it. Reluctantly he allows them to stay and what starts as an uneasy relationship between Walter and his new roommates Tarek and Zainab becomes a warm friendship that is tested when Tarek becomes at risk of deportation.

Writing: The Visitor is a very low-key film with an understated tone that is highlighted in the gentle script. Characters are fleshed out to a fault as the character Walter's malaise makes him initially hard to deal with. Luckily Tarek's natural positivity not subtly changes the mood of the film but elevates Walter's disposition. The movie however falls into familiar territory during its third act when Tarek is faced with deportation and Walter watches and waits hopelessly with his mother played by Hiam Abbas. Fortunately the fine acting from the entire cast offsets any predictability and the end provided some emotional heft.

Directing:Thomas McCarthy's first film The Station Agent showed the emotional legitimacy of a group of odd but relatable characters. While the characters are no less fleshed out it seems he reined in his more fanciful predilections which shows in his direction. McCarthy's New York is shown with a realistic grittiness that while appropriate, isn't quite groundbreaking. McCarthy's strengths however aren't necessarily technical but rather in his ability to capture the emotions of people. In one scene Walter, not realizing anyone is home sits down in a chair and starts to play Tarek's drum. When Tarek appears he teaches Walter a few tricks starting Walter's gradual process of stripping his protective outer shell.

Acting: Veteran character actor Richard Jenkins shines in this movie, shedding off the layers of Hollywood typecasting to become a leading man. Films like this likewise give unrecognizable players like Haaz Sleiman and Danai Gurira opportunity to prove they can do their jobs just as well if not better than the top grossers. Much due applause however must be given to Hiam Abbass who simultaneously expresses remorse and strength as Tarek's mother.

Bankability: Richard Jenkins is the Stephen Tobolowsky of our generation obscuring himself through a varied and impressive body of work. Still most people would only know him as "that guy" so wouldn't be immediately drawn to this picture. Hiam Abbass has had some exposure to American audiences in small films like Amreeka and The Nativity Story but otherwise not a real draw either. Still, featuring topical subjects like immigration and having an overall uplifting message may be just what one needs to expand their horizons and the pacing of the movie keeps things on an even keel.

ALL-Factor: Despite a few awkward moments between Walter and his new cohorts, specifically learning how to play the drums, the film is essentially laugh free. The drama while lukewarm is accessible and doesn't sputter into melodrama territory. What is left is Thomas McCarthy's humanistic realism that has been the hallmark of his short but laudable directing career.

Conclusion: Conveying a realism that treats an abstract topic with humanity while expounding on the universal message that it is never to late to start something new gives this movie a sense of immediacy that rocks the attentive watcher to his/her core. Still, when one tries to expound realism in their art the consequences are nothing less than the risk of being dull or worse preachy. Luckily The Visitor avoids most of these pratfalls by giving a simple and earnest tale of humanity.

Review: The Shining

Year: 1980
Genre: Horror
Stars: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd & Scatman Crothers
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Overview: Jack Torrence (Nicholson) is a down and out writer in need of some alone time to work. Hired on as a caretaker, Jack brings his family along(Duvall and Lloyd) to a secluded hotel during its off-season months. But an evil presence lurks in the empty hallways of their Rocky Mountain resort that soon consumes Jack and threatens the lives of his family.

Writing: Based on the famed Stephen King novel, the author criticized the movie and its director for removing too many of the supernatural elements. But this movie isn't about ghosts, its about madness. By changing the source of the horror, Stanley Kubrick is allowed the freedom to really dig deep to unsettle the audience. Aside from the son's psychic abilities and a deus ex machina moment in the pantry, you're never really quite sure if the evil presence is real or in Jack's twisted head. In either case the the writing is solid.

Directing: Though I like a good Stephen King novel as much as anyone, his books are fairly predictable and though claims to that effect can be pinned on this film, Kubrick manages to really get the heart pounding with his psychological predilections and fancy camerawork. Kubrick manages to craft a unique work that is often imitated but never executed quite as well. Somewhere in the midst of the director's insanity, he even makes the hotel itself a character; icy, creepy and foreboding.

Acting: Jack Nicholson's Jack Torrence has become one of the actor's most recognizable roles. Letting loose his inner-psycho proves not just fun for him but exhilarating for the audience as well. That being said however, Nicholson's penchant to overact hits a barrier when it comes to relatability. Even in his saner moments Nicholson is just begging you to hate him. Shelley Duvall's crying and screaming doesn't help the situation as her "resourcefulness" is limited to a half-assed swing of a baseball bat. The real star in this movie has to be Danny Lloyd whose psychic, borderline schizophrenic Danny ups the creep factor to a solid ten.

Bankability: Stanley Kubrick is known the world over for his perfectionist streak; the results of which are no less than a body of work nearly flawless in their artistry and notoriety. Whether that notoriety is deserved is a different matter. Though cerebral and esoteric, Kubrick films in general seem to have an isolating distance that removes the characters from most emotional resonance. Thankfully this can only help The Shining as numbing isolation becomes ugly, gangrenous and interesting to watch.

ALL-Factor: This film is scary. It maximizes the horror potential of such a small main cast and when not reveling in crimson tides of blood it still manages to creep you out.

Conclusion: Having the deliberate pacing that has become the hallmark of all Kubrick films, The Shining remains arguably the late artiste's greatest work. Imitated, referenced and quoted to the point of tedium, The Shining is one of the few films you heard so much about that doesn't disappoint.