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Fantasy > A Ranking of 1980s Fantasy That Would Please Crom Himself!

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message 1: by Yoly (new)

Yoly (macaruchi) | 795 comments Saw this cool article on Tor.

A Ranking of 1980s Fantasy That Would Please Crom Himself!
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2015/03/rank...

Here's a quick list of all the movies in the article:

18. Cave Dwellers (AKA Ator l’invincibile 2, The Blade Master, Day of The Sword Man—1984)
17. Krull (1983)
16. Highlander (1986)
15. Masters of the Universe (1987)
14. The Black Cauldron (1985)
13. The Beastmaster (1982)
12. Excalibur (1981)
11. Clash of the Titans (1981)
10. Legend (1985)
9. Willow (1988)
8. Labyrinth (1986)
7. The Last Unicorn (1982)
6. Conan the Barbarian (1982)
5. Dragonslayer (1981)
4. Ladyhawke (1985)
3. The Dark Crystal (1982)
2. The Princess Bride (1987)
1. The Neverending Story (1984)

I'm ashamed to say I have only seen The Beast Master, Clash of the Titans, The Princess Bride and The Neverending Story from this list. I have some serious catching up to do.

Think of any other movie that should have made this list?


message 2: by Mark (new)

Mark | 55 comments interesting, i have seen them all but the cave dwellers.


message 3: by Amber (last edited Mar 06, 2015 12:23PM) (new)

Amber Martingale | 662 comments The sword play I remember from The Black Cauldron isn't that good, even for a Disney cartoon... .

Not to mention it completely BUTCHERED the original story by Lloyd Alexander! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...


message 4: by Mark (new)

Mark | 55 comments Been thinking about what's missing.

Time bandits
The flight of dragons.


message 5: by Amber (new)

Amber Martingale | 662 comments Ralph Bakshi's animated version of LOTR... .Oops! never mind: 1978!

Rankin-Bass' version of THE RETURN OF THE KING (1980): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Retu... And this is a clip from it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWjt6... John Huston is Gandalf... .


message 6: by Gary (last edited Mar 06, 2015 05:08PM) (new)

Gary | 1472 comments I've not seen The Last Unicorn or Masters of the Universe.

Some random thoughts:

I remember #18 being called The Invincible Ator in English when I saw it... but that's about all I remember about that movie. The rest has, apparently, been blocked from my mind like memories of childhood abuse.

Krull was similarly cringe-worthy when I watched it a second time in the 90's. Somebody'd have to have some serious crudites and wine to get me to sit through that again. The Beastmaster was also epically bad, but it had an about 5-second topless shot of Tanya Roberts. (My girlfriend at the time reached over and covered my eyes when we were watching the movie, so... yeah.)

Highlander.... Instead of "There can be only one!" they should have said, "We will make only one!" Sequels. Yeesh.

I thought Clash of the Titans was very odd when I saw it. A robot/clockwork owl? Huh?

OK, Legend. It looks good. There's always stuff flying around in the air, though.... Glittery bits of pollen or random sparkly stuff. I swear just watching that movie activates my allergies... and I don't even have allergies.

Willow. Yes. Watch this movie. Don't read the "sequel" Shadow Moon by George Lucas and Chris Claremont. Seriously. DON'T READ IT! I'm telling you. Just let your memories of the film reside as they are. DON'T EVEN TOUCH THE SEQUEL/NOVEL! Rilly! I'm serious. Don't do it.
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Now you thinking about it. Think about purple monkeys or something. Don't think about reading the sequel.

Labyrinth. Jennifer Connelly is so pretty. I'll watch her do anything. If she makes a movie about changing a tire, I'll watch that. I'll even sit through David Bowie in whatever "Look at me! Look at me!" outfit he puts on that week if she's standing in the shot. (Shots with Bowie and no Connelly are insufferable.)

Conan the Whatever. Please, stop with the sequels.

Ladyhawke I liked this when I first saw it, but watched it again later and the retroactive suckiness was bad. Needs editing. Pacing, people, pacing.

The Princess Bride. Well, this is just de rigueur. As far as I'm concerned, see this movie or crawl under a rock somewhere. It's not the greatest film ever made, but if you're not a proponent of under-rock living then you should have seen this.


message 7: by Mark (new)

Mark | 55 comments Have to agree with you about Shadow moon, have tried to read it many times and never got past the first quarter.


message 8: by Gary (new)

Gary | 1472 comments Mark wrote: "Have to agree with you about Shadow moon, have tried to read it many times and never got past the first quarter."

In my GR review I felt obliged to note that it's the only book I've ever taken back to the bookstore for a refund. I'm sure that's what led to the inevitable closure of the Crown Bookstore empire.


message 9: by Leonie (new)

Leonie (leonierogers) I love The Princess Bride :)


message 10: by Sparrowlicious (new)

Sparrowlicious | 160 comments Neverending Story on # 1?
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Okay. But as an adaption it unfortunately fails a bit because it leaves out the second part of the book completely (can't make it up in any of the sequels either!), which in turn twists the meaning of the story. ): Needless to say, Ende supposedly hated the book because of this (and because of the big-breasted naked sphynxes).

Funny enough I've actually seen some of these movies when I was a kid, I simply can't remember much about them though. I know my parents still have them somewhere on VHS. Badly copied and probably mostly gone due to being super old.

If I remember correctly, I've seen: Highlander, Masters of the Universe, The Black Cauldron (rather recently actually, 2 or 3 years ago?), Legend, Labyrinth, The Last Unicorn and of course The Neverending Story.


message 11: by Amber (new)

Amber Martingale | 662 comments I hated the live action version of He-Man and The Masters of the Universe. You're better off watching the original cartoons!


message 12: by Marina (new)

Marina Finlayson | 62 comments I've seen most of these. There are no words to describe my love of Ladyhawke when it came out. I was an impoverished uni student but I went to see it three times at the cinema. At the time it seemed like the most romantic thing I'd ever seen. I could probably still recite great slabs of the dialogue.

I was also pretty fond of Highlander (and yes, there should have been only one!). Christopher Lambert's Scottish accent was divine. I rewatched it recently with my kids and they fell about laughing at the special effects. Some things are better left as beloved memories!

Greystoke isn't on this list? Doesn't Edgar Rice Burroughs count as fantasy?


message 13: by Amber (new)

Amber Martingale | 662 comments Only his Barsoom novels, Marina. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlvYK... dosen't count for this topic because it came out 3 years ago.


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