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.
Check out the entries already announced in other regions to see possible Final Four matchups:
The VHS Region | The Training Montage Region | The DeLorean Region
Here is your Yippie Ki Yay Region!
Big (1988)
“After wishing to be made big, a teenage boy wakes the next morning to find himself mysteriously in the body of an adult.”
Directors: Penny Marshall
Writer: Gary Ross, Anne Spielberg
Stars: Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia
Blue Velvet (1986)
“The discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminals who have kidnapped her child.”
Director: David Lynch
Writers: David Lynch
Stars: Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper
Come and See (1985)
“After finding an old rifle, a young boy joins the Soviet resistance movement against ruthless German forces and experiences the horrors of World War II.”
Director: Elem Klimov
Writers: Ales Adamovich, Elem Klimov
Stars: Aleksey Kravchenko, Olga Mironova, Liubomiras Laucevicius
Das Boot (1981)
“The claustrophobic world of a WWII German U-boat; boredom, filth, and sheer terror.”
Directors: Wolfgang Petersen
Writers: Wolfgang Petersen
Stars: Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann
Die Hard (1988)
“An NYPD officer tries to save his wife and several others taken hostage by German terrorists during a Christmas party at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles.”
Director: John McTiernan
Writer: Jeb Stuart, Steven E. de Souza
Stars: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia
Ghostbusters (1984)
“Three former parapsychology professors set up shop as a unique ghost removal service.”
Director: Ivan Reitman
Writers: Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis
Stars: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
“A young boy and his little sister struggle to survive in Japan during World War II.”
Director: Isao Takahata
Writer: Isao Takahata
Stars: Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Akemi Yamaguchi
The Killing Fields (1984)
“A journalist is trapped in Cambodia during tyrant Pol Pot’s bloody ‘Year Zero’ cleansing campaign, which claimed the lives of two million ‘undesirable’ civilians.”
Director: Roland Joffé
Writer: Bruce Robinson
Stars: Sam Waterston, Haing S. Ngor, John Malkovich
The Last Emperor (1987)
“The story of the final Emperor of China.”
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Writer: Mark Peploe, Bernardo Bertolucci
Stars: John Lone, Joan Chen, Peter O’Toole
Love Streams (1984)
“Two closely bound, emotionally wounded souls reunite after years apart.”
Director: John Cassavetes
Writer: John Cassavetes, Ted Allan
Stars: Gena Rowlands, John Cassavetes, Diahnne Abbott
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
“When two girls move to the country to be near their ailing mother, they have adventures with the wondrous forest spirits who live nearby.”
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Writer: Hayao Miyazaki
Stars: Hitoshi Takagi, Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto
Paris, Texas (1984)
“Travis Henderson, an aimless drifter who has been missing for four years, wanders out of the desert and must reconnect with society, himself, his life, and his family.”
Director: Wim Wenders
Writer: Sam Shepard
Stars: Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell
The Princess Bride (1987)
“While home sick in bed, a young boy’s grandfather reads him the story of a farmboy-turned-pirate who encounters numerous obstacles, enemies, and allies in his quest to be reunited with his true love.”
Director: Rob Reiner
Writers: William Goldman
Stars: Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Robin Wright
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
“In 1936, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before Adolf Hitler’s Nazis can obtain its awesome powers.”
Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers: Lawrence Kasdan
Stars: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman
The Untouchables (1987)
“During the era of Prohibition in the United States, Federal Agent Eliot Ness sets out to stop ruthless Chicago gangster Al Capone and, because of rampant corruption, assembles a small, hand-picked team to help him.”
Director: Brian De Palma
Writers: David Mamet
Stars: Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro
The Verdict (1982)
“A lawyer sees the chance to salvage his career and self-respect by taking a medical malpractice case to trial rather than settling.”
Directors: Sidney Lumet
Writers: David Mamet
Stars: Paul Newman, Charlotte Rampling, Jack Warden
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?
