In March, ScreenAge Wasteland will have its 2nd annual Movie Madness tournament to determine the greatest movie of the 1980s.
Similar to the NCAA March Madness tournament that starts with 64 teams and ends with one winner standing tall, SAW is going to have 64 of the best movies from the 80s battle it out.
The great thing is you, the wasteoids, will be able to help determine the winner by voting in the matchups!
You will have to check back on March 1, 2021 when voting begins, to see what the matchups are for each region. The movies were picked by an intricate scoring system in order to get the best of the best films from the decade with minimal opinions or bias involved. The top four movies to grade out the highest are your four number one seeds in each region. Also, there was a limit of only two films per director. Lastly, the vote in winners will be marked at the bottom so you can see if your pick made the field of 64.
Here is your VHS Region!
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
“The monstrous spirit of a slain child murderer seeks revenge by invading the dreams of teenagers whose parents were responsible for his untimely death.”
Directors: Wes Craven
Writer: Wes Craven
Stars: Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp, Robert Englund
Airplane! (1980)
“A man afraid to fly must ensure that a plane lands safely after the pilots become sick.”
Director: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
Writers: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
Stars: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Leslie Nielsen
Aliens (1986)
“Fifty-seven years after surviving an apocalyptic attack aboard her space vessel by merciless space creatures, Officer Ripley awakens from hyper-sleep and tries to warn anyone who will listen about the predators.”
Director: James Cameron
Writer: James Cameron
Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
“A filmmaker recalls his childhood when falling in love with the pictures at the cinema of his home village and forms a deep friendship with the cinema’s projectionist.”
Directors: Giuseppe Tornatore
Writer: Giuseppe Tornatore
Stars: Philippe Noiret, Enzo Cannavale, Antonella Attili
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
“An ophthalmologist’s mistress threatens to reveal their affair to his wife while a married documentary filmmaker is infatuated with another woman.”
Director: Woody Allen
Writer: Woody Allen
Stars: Martin Landau, Woody Allen, Bill Bernstein
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
“A troubled child summons the courage to help a friendly alien escape Earth and return to his homeworld.”
Director: Steven Spielberg
Writer: Melissa Mathison
Stars: Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Peter Coyote
Field of Dreams (1989)
“Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella is inspired by a voice he can’t ignore to pursue a dream he can hardly believe. Supported by his wife, Ray begins the quest by turning his ordinary cornfield into a place where dreams can come true.”
Director: Phil Alden Robinson
Writer: Phil Alden Robinson
Stars: Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Amy Madigan
Fitzcarraldo (1982)
“The story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an extremely determined man who intends to build an opera house in the middle of a jungle.”
Director: Werner Herzog
Writer: Werner Herzog
Stars: Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale, José Lewgoy
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
“Between two Thanksgivings two years apart, Hannah’s husband falls in love with her sister Lee, while her hypochondriac ex-husband rekindles his relationship with her sister Holly.”
Director: Woody Allen
Writer: Woody Allen
Stars: Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest, Michael Caine
My Left Foot (1989)
“Christy Brown, born with cerebral palsy, learns to paint and write with his only controllable limb – his left foot.”
Director: Jim Sheridan
Writers: Shane Connaughton, Jim Sheridan
Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Brenda Fricker, Alison Whelan
Platoon (1986)
“Chris Taylor, a neophyte recruit in Vietnam, finds himself caught in a battle of wills between two sergeants, one good and the other evil. A shrewd examination of the brutality of war and the duality of man in conflict.”
Director: Oliver Stone
Writer: Oliver Stone
Stars: Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe
Ran (1985)
“In Medieval Japan, an elderly warlord retires, handing over his empire to his three sons. However, he vastly underestimates how the new-found power will corrupt them and cause them to turn on each other…and him.”
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Writers: Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, and Masato Ide
Stars: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu
Say Anything (1989)
“A noble underachiever and a beautiful valedictorian fall in love the summer before she goes off to college.”
Director: Cameron Crowe
Writer: Cameron Crowe
Stars: John Cusack, Ione Skye, John Mahoney
The Killer (1989)
“A disillusioned assassin accepts one last hit in hopes of using his earnings to restore vision to a singer he accidentally blinded.”
Director: John Woo
Writer: John Woo
Stars: Yun-Fat Chow, Danny Lee, Sally Yeh
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
“A toon-hating detective is a cartoon rabbit’s only hope to prove his innocence when he is accused of murder.”
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Writers: Jeffrey Price, Peter S. Seaman
Stars: Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Joanna Cassidy
Drama Vote In Winner
Rain Man (1988)
“Selfish yuppie Charlie Babbitt’s father left a fortune to his savant brother Raymond and a pittance to Charlie; they travel cross-country.”
Directors: Barry Levinson
Writers: Ronald Bass, Barry Morrow
Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino
What do you think of the films in this region? Have any predictions for which film will make it to the Final Four from this group of films?
