Best 80s Action Movies, Ranked

Hey everyone, welcome to Past Times at 80s High. Got another great one for you today. Got the boys here again. Mark, Kevin, and Donald. How are you doing, guys? Fantastic. How is it? Awesome. Awesome. And of course, I am AJ, and we are going to do our top seven favorite action movies today. We've excluded science fiction, fantasy, western, and war movies. Now there might be a few errors here, and there may be, you know, a few, you know, that can be associated with one of them, but not necessarily in that category. But just to get the ball rolling, like I say, we are going to start off today with Donald. So Donald, number seven to you.

All right. And I'm going to kick it right into First Blood. Ah, yes. You drew first blood, not me.

I don't think you understand. I didn't come here to rescue Rambo from you. I came here to rescue you from him.

I love First Blood. It's probably my favorite of the series because this was an actual movie, actual plot. Um, you know, Vietnam guys coming back, PTSD, all that stuff, small town, bad sheriff going after him. Uh it was just an awesome, incredibly free movie.

Yes. I mean, it was totally realistic.

I mean, but now that's this is a perfect example out of the gate, though, where that could be war associated, but that's fine. Right. And that's war adjacent, I guess.

Exactly. War adjacent. There you go. There's there's that's that's a I'm sure in the Washington term.

I mean, the the to all the whole war sci-fi, it's it was tough because I mean there's 15 subgenres of sci-fi, and you know, oh yeah. Is it does it a war movie? Is it an actual war like Vietnam World War II, or is it something that is just people shooting at each other?

Correct, correct, right? Yeah, or is it people shooting at each other and science? A lot of good one-liners on war, right? A lot of good one-liners, yeah. Awesome. All right, yeah. So that's number seven to you, then Kev.

Number seven to me was 1984's Red Dawn. Yes. Oh, cool. Such a great movie, such targeted it at us at that time. I mean, it was it was just amazing. And you got to think about, or I always thought about the fact that as they were planning the invasion of the United States, something that nobody's ever done before, somebody somewhere in in a general said, you know, if we take that high school in in Calumet, Colorado, the rest of the US falls. Oh no, don't you? We just need we need to get that high school. Um, one of the interesting backstories to this though is the there there is a uh very extensive backstory that they came up with for the movie, and it was by Melissa the the director and Alexander Haig, who was later to become Secretary of State, um, who was on the board of MGM and got very excited about the movie, kind of hijacked it a little bit, interesting, and and made it, you know, a rah-rah movie. It was supposed to be an anti-war movie. Um but the budget like exploded and tripled and all that once Haig got involved in it. Um but part of the planning that they used was some of uh Adolf Hitler's plans from World War II. If he were ever to invade the US, that was coming in through Alaska, bringing South America into it, Nicaragua and whatever else. So those were actually um part of Hitler's plans that they used as a blueprint for for the backstory of the movie.

Yeah, awesome. But yeah, I mean, uh it was the Soviet Union and Cuba with a uh basic adversaries in this one.

Yes, and Nicaragua.

Nicaragua was in there too. Okay. Mixture. That was a what an awesome movie. It was so good. Yeah, not many survived at the end there, unfortunately.

Um, all right. Uh, so that's number seven to you, Mark.

Okay, uh, this is a movie based on a rescue mission going back to Vietnam. The name of the movie is Uncommon Valor.

Oh, yes.

Directed by directed by Ted Kochev. This has a lot of iconic moments. Uh well the the movie starts in Vietnam. They're getting on a helicopter, including Tex Cobb, and and you know, they're on the helicopter and they couldn't get ever all every man on. And um it uh you know they felt terrible about it, but they get their their men together and they decide we're gonna go get those those guys over there. And um so yeah, Patrick Swayze's also in this group, and you know, they don't like him. They don't like him that much because they think he's green and just not part of the team. And there's a scene where Tex Cobb and Patrick Swayze get in this big fight, and just before that, I want to be on the team, we are the team, assholes. And then uh great scene. And this this was such an incredible scene where um you know he Swayze gets his ass kicked pretty much at the end, and then Gene Hackman basically says, you know, yeah, his dad's out there. Yes, you want to know why? Yeah, I'll tell you why, right? And from that point, that was a game changer in the movie.

They changed how they treated him at the point. He became part of them at this point.

His dad was killed in action, I think. Not missing, but killed in action. He was killed in action, and he wanted to help out.

So, yeah, that's my number seven. What an awesome fucking pick.

I love Sailor in that movie.

Yes, well, yeah, Sailor.

Randall Text. That's Randall Text, yeah. Who also lost in a fight in 1980 to Muhammad Ali.

I'm a collaborator anyway. Yeah, all right. So now let's see now if I'm gonna make any changes to my list here. All right. Um, my number seven, um, I had to take it, and it's the karate kid. A good one. And is it considered action? It is according to Google, so I'm running with it.

Yeah, I would call that action for sure.

I am one of the few people out there that um roots for uh William Zabka, Johnny. I I feel like when you go back and you watch it and you watch Cobra Kai nowadays, right? Well, did you root for him back in 1980, whenever it was? I didn't, but I slowly started You got there. I got there before Cobra Kai, too. There was like a YouTube thing or something, yes. And they were like, wow, he's right. He's stealing my girl, he new kid in town.

Yeah, I mean they phrased it in a way that was like, you know what? He makes a good point.

I won't go into too much deep uh, you know, too deep about it, but I love Cobra Kai as well.

Even though he just had that one move, uh the crane kick. Yeah, yeah, which Johnny still says is illegal.

That was the stupidest karate move I have ever seen. Wax on, wax off. There is no defense.

Right.

There is no defense. Well, if you like swept his leg while he had his other one up in the air, or punched him in the face while both arms were up in the air.

How about the Mortal Kombat Johnny Cage where he just punches him right in the nuts while he's flying through the air? I think that's that's that's a way you could counter it.

Alrighty. So that brings us to number six, Dongo.

Yes.

Yeah.

Is that the name of the movie you picked?

No.

Uh this one is uh, you know, I don't know if it's necessarily action, but it popped into my head as a as a good one from the time that had me on the edge of the seat, kind of thing, and it's war games. War game, which is again it's war adjacent. Um, it's Matthew Broderick, 1983, Ally Sheedy, where you know, it's like before hacking was cool, he hacked into the US Department of Defense mainframe that had a new AI type of um war machine, basically, and he started playing games with it, and he basically started global thermal nuclear war game and almost you know destroyed the planet. The whopper kind of interesting, yeah, that's right. It is the like to play a game and uh shall we play a game?

Oh I think I missed them.

Yeah, weird, isn't it? Love to how about global thermal nuclear war? Later, let's play global thermal nuclear war.

I just thought it was a cool movie, and and there was like a lot of action scenes in it.

Especially when they're trying to chase him down, chase him down and stuff, yeah. Yeah, so and yeah, edge of seat, of course, definitely. Yeah, yeah, I would consider that action for sure.

All right, so that's 60 UCAM. Number six to me, I had to go with one of my all-time favorite movies, Mad Max 2, The Road Warrior. Yes. I mean, action. Yeah. We're full of it. We've got it everywhere. Right. No, just just great movies, well done for the budgets that they had. Obviously, the budget was much bigger on on this one, but not as big as Beyond Thunderdome.

Yeah, right.

But having, and I think I mentioned this to you, AJ, having watched it again recently, you know, they're outside of the of the of the gas city where they're where they're pumping the gas and and humongous and and all his lieutenants are are uh they're out there and they they want to get the gas. But in a post-hopp apocalyptic world where where where there's no gas, they wasted a lot of it driving around every day outside doing jumps with the motorcycles and driving around the cars.

They might have figured out some, you know, like how the US Army uses um their tanks can use any type of fuel, basically. Oh, I'm sure. Bio diesel and they might have developed some kind of engine like that.

Possibly, but if that's the case, then why do they need to kill the people and take the the gas city? You know what I mean? So just I don't know. Uh just just a great fun movie. I mean, if if you didn't the first time you saw it, if you didn't jump out of your seat when Wes came up over the the front of the Peter belt or whatever it was, and that hand came and you thought he was gone, and that hand comes up and grabs the little feral boy, and you're just like, if you didn't jump out of your seat, then you're you're lying.

What a great series, man. All right, let's see, number six to mark.

Okay, I have the original Top Gun. Um of course I I try to Google it to get some info, and it always came up Top Gun Maverick.

The new one, yeah.

Yes, but um, yes, obviously everyone's seen this. It's total classic. Tom Cruise is the main character. You have Val Kilmer, and it's you know, I have I feel the need for speed. And uh Ice Ice was Val Kilmer, and he didn't really he didn't really like uh Ice Ice uh Tom Cruise's character there. Uh no. And anyway, so but it's by the end that when they went out on their last mission, he came out and you know, the the big warm, fuzzy moment is when you're you're still way too dangerous, but I'll go fight with you anytime. And it was just a really nice way to end the movie. And you know, great movie. Yeah, I mean it's classic. It's a classic, and you guys are probably gonna have it too.

I mean, as annoying as Tom Cruise is. Well, you know what? You know what?

There's one thing I like about him. Exactly. He's he's about my height, so I might even actually be taller than him. I think I am actually taller than he is, so so I'll take that.

That in Scientology, right?

Oh god. If you want to get into that, no, no, no, it's only a billion-year contract.

That's why I was telling him no.

So I stepped right into it kook. But this is back in the 80s, obviously. I don't think he got there yet, you know.

All right, so six to me, and this is one that a lot of you probably may not even know, but I just remember loving these types of movies, and it just meant a lot to me. And it's with Tom Selleck, and it's called An Innocent Man. Oh, and you know, he's framed, set up. They go to the wrong house. I think it's Oak Way and Oak Drive or something, they fuck it up, and he's got a blow dryer in his hand, so they shoot him and then they frame him, set him up because they fucked up on their whoever their you know, informant was fucked up. But just such a great movie. He has to go to prison, of course, and he gets his revenge at the end, and just such a fun movie while he's in there, you know what I mean? Just going from you know, like a businessman or whatever he was. I think he was like an air traffic controller, and then he had to become a badass, which was a little no annoying in the movie because once he did, like everyone's like looking up to him. It's like, yeah, he's probably still a poor street cred. Yeah, street cred, exactly. But I don't know, it was just a real fun movie to me, man, and I had to put it on this because these movies are the ones that mean something to me.

So anyway, five to you, Dongo. Cool. Well, I'm gonna go with not the first in the series, but the second, and it's Lethal Weapon 2. Oh, yes. Because I love the Lethal Weapons series, but I I love the second one more than the first, just because it had more humor along with, and it's not a comedy, it's not a comedy, it's an action. Absolutely. I mean, yeah, you can never get it. There was some classic, you know, it had like uh, was it Joe Pesci was in it? Hilarious. There's plenty of humor in the drive through. You know, there's a lot of like classic uh whatever Leo wants, Leo gets. So he's like, is it one, two, three, go? Or anybody's ever been in that situation? You have to like check, you know, is it one, two, three, go on three? Or go?

It's always one, two, three, go in my break.

Yeah, in case we're ever in that situation, guys. Let me know.

All right, yeah, so we can right awesome pick.

Yeah, gonna retire today.

So do you kept for five?

Number five to me. I I I struggled, but it has to be mentioned. So I'm going with uh 007, James Bond for your eyes on lead. Yes, 1981. Oh yo. Absolutely. Was that Sheena Sheena Easton? It was a really song, though. There's so many of these things. But I mean, you've got all of the fun of of the spy gadgets and all of the international espionage. You got the hot chicks, you got the fast cars. I mean the ski chase. Yeah, absolutely. Bond was just great.

And that was our Bond because um Roger Moore. Roger Moore was more our king's bond.

No, I've I was a Roger Moore. Roger Moore guy.

Yeah. He was he was really Connery was awesome, but he was pre-pre predecessor. Right.

I I would say I can't, I would probably at that time I probably would have said Roger Moore. At this point, I I still put Connery first just because he's such a badass. Yeah. Um shake down, shit down, I'll take S words for a thousand marks. Um swords? Swords. Anal bum cover. Oh god. Um Lazenby and Timothy Dalton in in my world don't exist. As they those were just well, two off in in Dalton's case, but one off in Lazenby's case that just didn't fit. I didn't mind Pierce Brosnan. No, I thought he was okay. Or Craig. Oh, Craig is okay, but it's it changed the whole thing. But like everything else, it kind of changed everything. It did. That it's he wasn't that. But that's why Moore was that Moore and Connery were those like very, very suave, right, you know, kind of dudes. They weren't necessarily like the badass that worked out in the gym all the time, right? Right, right. But but they were skilled. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

That's a one opening of a movie that was just incredible. You know, the hot chick silhouette the whole time, and that song, just an incredible song. Like, man, that's a great pick, and I'm glad you did it because it was on my honorables. So you have nice awesome. So five to you then, Mark.

All right, this is a dirty hairy movie with the most hateable antagonist that you could ever meet in your life. Um, and I love the way this movie begins. It's sudden impact. Yes. And um I love the way it begins where uh he goes into a a ship store and there's somebody trying to rob it. And he says, uh Clint Eastwood says, We're not gonna let you get out of here. Who's we, sucker? Me, Smith and Wesson. Yeah, I love that one. So that you know, that that's how it started. And what the movie's based on this this these two sisters that get raped and just absolutely beaten up and everything. One of them is catatonic, and the sister, the other sister that survived it is really into vigilante justice. Good for her. Oh no, it's nice and played. No, but um it it was just the most hateable people.

Yeah, just another great fucking series, man.

All of those movies, and you know, Clint East Clint Eastwood's my favorite actor of all time, and uh, he was so friggin' badass.

Go ahead, make my day.

Go ahead, make my day.

I knew that'd have to get thrown in here. You gotta force himself.

Did he shoot five times or six times?

Oh, that's one of the best.

I have no idea. Is it 10? You know, was it pre-ban or is it 16? Or is it right?

No shit. Wasn't her a six shooter. Right. All right, so number five to me, another one people probably will not have, and that is Iron Eagle. I thought that's one of my all-time favorites.

I don't know if you heard my sigh.

Yeah, anyway, just great movie. Jason Gedrick, just terrible actor, but you know, just a fun, fun movie where he has to rescue his dad, and you got Lewis Gossett Jr. with his lisp that is just the fucking greatest. And I mean, I can't say a lot about it. He just has his group of friends, and he got failed out of the academy, and goes to rescue his dad with Chappie. Yeah, just so fun. I watched it over and over, and just another tie-in here is when you watch Cobra Kai at one point, I think in season one, he's uh Johnny Lawrence is sitting on his couch and he's watching Iron Eagle. And it's the scene when Chappie goes down, Chappie, but just a fun movie to me that I had to have on here.

Chappie! Chappie, where are you? Just put in that tape that's a long enough. Nothing you can do about me. Chappie, I'm gonna help you! Where are you?

Anyway, so that brings us up to number four, then Don.

Cool, and this is a little bit of a deep cut, not really a total popular movie, um, but it was really awesome. It kind of touches on the sci-fi, but not not in the way I see sci-fi, and it's Dreamscape. Ooh. Which is 1984 with Dennis Quaid, which is a real obscure movie, but it's really cool. I don't think I know this movie. Yeah. So it's a movie about a psychic who can enter people's dreams, and it's kind of like associated with a like an MK Ultra kind of thing, government agency that is gonna use this to like. Assassinate the president. So historical fact. Yeah.

Right. Yeah.

So in the preface of the movie, if you die in a dream, you die in real life. Because there's a lot of people. Oh, geez, that sounds like you know, you always wake up before you die. You know, so um they they enter these spies or whatever you want to call them into people's dreams. Yes. Yeah. And it's kind of cool. And it had like Max Von Shadows are really cool. Um, actor and Christopher Plummer, both really awesome villains. You know, yeah.

I need I remember it vaguely, but it's coming back to me. I need to I need to rewatch that. Yeah, which is something that happened throughout researching this, is I saw so many movies that I'm like didn't fit with what we're doing, but I need to I need to see that movie again. Or like I said to AJ earlier, it's it's one of those movies that you remember seeing it advertised, but you never get to go see it.

I've been Dennis Quaid's one of his first isn't that he's the guy that plays Reagan in the new Reagan movie, I believe.

Yeah. Yes.

Oh, Dennis Quaid? Yeah.

But yeah, the other movie, of course, that if if you die in your sleep, you you actually die. Sometimes you might even end up in the the killer's belly and become a meatball like Rick. But that would obviously be uh in the Freddie Krueger series. Oh, yeah. Yes. Never sleep again. Okay, tree more.

Off topic, but yeah. All right. So four to you, Captain.

Four to me is a little different take on one of our heroes, and that is any which way you can. Yes. With Clint Eastwoods. Right turn, Clyde.

This time ain't gonna be no any road. No, this time it's gonna be uh eight rolls.

Right turn, Clyde.

I mean, this one was a little bit more humor in it than some of the other you know, but not not a straight-up comedy by any means. Still plenty of actors, yeah. Although uh uh Ruth Gordon that played his mother was friggin' hilarious. And then the uh what were the the Black Widow spiders, the motorcycle gang that were just awesome, so so stupid. Exactly, just so dumb. And then just you know, the the the bare knuckle prize fighting and all that. He was just it was just great, you know. I mean, a guy driving around with a gorilla. Orangutang, wait a minute. Sorry, get your apes straight. The orangutan's of the scientist, okay?

Right, let alone any child.

I'm sorry, Mark, I didn't mean to come on.

But next thing you're gonna call up these apes monkeys.

But just a fun, great, action-packed film. Those the whole series was was awesome.

Oh, incredible. I mean, Clint Eastwood just timeless, you know.

Oh, of course.

All right, brother, four to you.

All right. Well, uh, you better get a very large supply of body bags for this one.

You want a war you can't win? Are you telling me that 200 men against your boy is a no-win situation for us? You send that many. Don't forget one thing. What? A good supply of body bags.

My number four is also First Blood. Uh a great movie. As we know, he shows up in this northwestern town, and Brian Denihy's character, you know, says, Which way are you going?

Such a dick, yeah.

North. Right. And then, you know, he gets in the car and uh he he because he says, Can I give you a ride? And he's wants him to get the fuck out of town. Right. So is there any place I can eat around here? Yeah, there's a place about 60 miles or 30 miles, I think it was. And, you know, of course, that didn't go over well. And the next thing you know, he's in jail. And uh you had this character, I think he was the uh deputy. What a piece of shit he was. Oh, yeah. You know, then speaking of the apes, there was a scene in this movie, of course, where uh where he's take they're taking a hose to um John Rambo in his uh jail cell, just like in the original Planet of the Apes with Charlton Heston. And um it, you know, it it's not realistic, as I said when you picked it. But son of a bitch, did he not kill that bastard deputy when he was up in a helicopter? I thought you were gonna use the deputy dog voice there, but no, I mean, I'm just saying that uh, you know, this motherfucker is the best, the most trained. Um he was into gorilla, he was Green Breet. Yeah, guerrilla warfare.

He was like, it's my town, I don't want any vagrants. Like he put him in the vague. No, he called him a vague get out of Malibu, Lebowski. You know, the guy's a veteran. He should have just said, hey, I'll buy you a bunch. Yeah, buy a breakfast and I'll give you a lift, and it wouldn't have been a movie. The movie would have been pretty boring.

Very short and short movie, and we would not be talking about it. He got the big breakfast and the end.

Yeah, yeah. But yeah, so I mean he was the ultimate survivalist. Oh, yeah. Of course, he went on to do more movies after this.

Uh well, then they became gratuitous. Like the the Rambo part two was him just you know, yeah, shooting five million rounds of ammunition. Yeah, never reloading once.

So, yeah, they if I took John Rambo on my list, I would have gone with the second one.

I know, I love interesting, right? But I didn't. That was kind of war. But the coolest thing in that movie, not to go off track, was the explosive arrowheads. Oh, yeah. Coolest weapon in movies.

And when he was in the mud wall, yeah. Yeah, that was pretty much right. Yeah. But uh, all right, so four to me, and here's another one with some incr this incredible acting. But it's a movie called Blood Sport and Jean-Claude Van Damme, and then you have Donald Gibb. All right. Now, that would be Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds. Right. And just what a it's a it's a true story about Frank Dukes, who was, you know, they claim recruited to go into special forces and CIA, which um, of course, they can't admit that kind of stuff anyway, but he was actually shot down and told no. Like nobody when he tried to say his story, they just they denied it, of course. But oh, it's just talk about Rocky movies and stuff. Um uh I had in my notes, it's just so Rocky Four with like Sylvester Stallone looking back at um Apollo's death, but that was MMA before MMA was big, you know, MMA became huge, and that was like what MMA was like in in the dark shadows before it became mainstream. And one of the greatest scenes in it is when they're doing all the fights, you know, they're they're kind of scrolling through a bunch of them, you know, to get to the finals, and it's and it's like put to an 80s tune, and now the tune left me. I didn't write it down, but just what a fucking fun movie, true story, and you want to talk about action, it's total action.

Van Dam, lousy actor, though. Oh, that's why I let off with it. That is like you'd have to see it on video, but when he's like, oh yeah, with his eyes split, and he punches the guy in the groin or whatever, and he's like, it's all like a crazy meme.

Right? Because he throws like the salt pill in his eyes, yeah, because he was blind. Yeah.

But but at that time you had a choice. You had somebody that could do mixed martial arts, or you could have somebody that acts. Yeah, right. Chuck Norris could do mixed. You can't have both. Well, Chuck was yeah, Chuck was an exceptional rule for sure, but morning kick.

Funniest thing I've seen, just a sidebar, was Chuck Norris and uh uh what's his name? The famous karate guy. Bruce Lee, and they're like music means everything, and it's like dee dee dee dee dee dee dee.

And it's like them taking it right, yeah.

Yeah, they're getting ready to fight or whatever. It's just the funniest thing ever.

Yeah, they put some sexy music over them getting ready to fight, and it looks like they're uh getting ready to do something else.

Yeah, funny. Awesome. So three, Donald.

All right, so this one is snake pliskin' and escape from New York. I was hoping someone would have. Yeah, I had to take it. Um again, that can kind of slip into the sci-fi post-dystopian world, but it worked. I mean, I mean, we're almost there, really. Right. And you know, San Francisco it would probably be San Francisco before New York City. They'll just wall it off and make it a prison, you know. Yeah, um, you know, a nice, pretty city, and it's just gonna be like, oh, this is a prison now.

Yeah, and the prisoners will be the ones running the prison.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it it's just an awesome, you know, post-dystopian great movie. He's awesome in that movie, and he's a lot of actions.

What I meant really was the bad guys would be the ones on the outside at free, running the prison where people like us will be. There's a lot of movies like that.

They copied that and really did that, like the one on the island there, I forget what that was called, but anyway, it's amazing the number of great action movies that Kurt Russell has been in.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, he was just just going from 1980 to 1989. Yeah there's a bunch of stuff in there. I'm not gonna say anything because I don't want to tip anybody's hand, but and and then you think about the fact that I mean his career started when he was what, like five or something at Disney.

You know, from he's married to Goldie Hahn, right?

Yes, yes. We are at number three to you, Kev. Number three to me is another one of those, like AJ's been talking about. Some that some people might not remember, some people might not have put on this list, but I did. I love the movie, great soundtrack, Streets of Fire. Yes, I guess you know something, Waldo? We're gonna be rich. Yeah, long live rock and roll. I guess such an awesome. I mean, Willem Dafoe really just kind of freaks you out in this one pretty bad. Yeah, um, Diane Lane is um Oh, that's a girl. Yeah, at her finest in this. Rick Moranis, uh E.G. E. G. Daly, who is I'm trying to think. She she was in a couple other ones. Another uh oft mistaken for P is Adora. Um but Bill Paxton as well. But again, that's one of those ones that with the soundtrack I think might have eclipsed the movie. Um still one of my favorite songs is is uh I Can Dream About You, the Dan Hartman, and you know you're onto something. If you're white and they've got black guys singing your part, you're doing okay. You got some soul brother right there. So I I give that up to him. But great movie if you if you missed it back there in in 1984, go find it now. It's still a fun, great movie.

And you you actually did bring that one up when you picked Diane Lane in Did I mention that before when we did the uh odds and ends.

Thanks for thanks for reminding me of my senility.

Yeah, no, it was awesome. No, obviously it has meaning to you, is what I'm saying. Well, yes, great. All right, so that's number three to you, Mark.

Alrighty. Well, uh, this is a repeat. This was my surprise pick. It's Iron Eagle. Ah I saw your face and your size. Never heard of it. Yes. My wife has seen this about 50 million times, and she convinced me to watch it yesterday. And I You never saw it? I I might have, AJ. My memory might not be all that great from the 1980s. Thank you very much. But it was just such a great, great movie, and it was very it was just a happy movie, really. Feel good. It was a feel-good movie. You had that little prick in the very beginning. It's a feel-good movie. Had that little prick. No, that little punk of the blonde hair on the motorcycle, the very beginning. And um, they actually had a race with a motorcycle and a small plane. Nice. And it was he only won.

I didn't have to watch it. I don't think I've seen it. Oh, it was great. Oh, it's been decades.

And there's a there's a couple characters or actors in this movie that I picked out.

I I love Lewis Gars Jr.

Yeah, yeah. But when he came out of the car, he he was running up to the main character. And uh I at first it didn't dawn on me. He reminded me of Hero from uh the uh show Heroes. And anyway, I looked at him, I'm like, wait a minute. Is that the guy that played Oliver in the Brady bunch? No, yes, it is Robbie Wrist was Milo Brazen. Wow, I gotta look that up. I did I looked it up while the because during the movie I looked it up, and that is absolutely believe you.

I'm saying I want to see it.

And there is also okay, so the guy from uh Revenge of the Nerds, I believe, was Larry B. Scott playing Reggie in this movie. Nice. And um, he he looked familiar. I mean, I may be talking out of my ass, people, which is I don't want to do it. So, I mean, obviously, this was very realistic. An 18-year-old kid flying all the way to some whatever Middle Eastern country, and um, you know, it it was just fun, man. It was just such a fun movie, and that was my favorite one I watched yesterday for the most part. And Oliver wasn't a klutz in it either. No, he was not a klutz. They must edit that out, yeah. Yeah, so you didn't know that, I guess. All right, well, I thought I was just so worried you were gonna bring that up when you picked it.

Who was the guy from from Revenge? Was it the the uh Lamar? Was it Booger? I think yeah, Lamar. Lamar, yeah, yeah. He's the man on the mic, that's me. Lamar! Yeah, really good at throwing the javelin once they adjusted it to his limp wrist.

Oh man. A lot of revenge of the nerds uh tie in here. Yeah, nerds, goose.

Um, you know, yeah, all right.

Yeah. So what do we got here? My number three. All right, and I couldn't leave this off. Just one of my favorite movies. And no, it's not a blockbuster, but how can I leave out Lincoln Hawk? Lincoln Hawk would be over the top of Sylvester Stallone.

Oh man, that was a that was a hard cut for me, AJ.

Such a fun movie about arm wrestling, and Lincoln Hawk is trying to, you know, his his wife dies, passes away, and the grandfather, this rich prick, you know, is trying to take in the kid, and Lincoln's fighting for him the whole movie, and go and he's a truck driver and just kick ass. Lots of uh um extra, not extras, but actors in the movie that used to wrestle and arm wrestle, and just it's it's fun, you know, extremely not deep, but man, just a fun movie. And the just remember this the world doesn't meet anyone halfway. So that's right. And the kid, the kid was a little brat at first. Yeah, oh, he's a a little, I would have smacked him around. Yes.

Now it's been a long time, so I don't remember, and and I cannot remember if there's is there a metric, is there an actual measurable difference of like foot pounds of pressure that you gain by turning your baseball cap backwards? Oh my god. Is it like a is it like a 10-pound boost? Is it a 20-pound boost?

Yeah, but you flip that hat around, I think it's and then the over the thumb move to oh my god, that just turned the how many people broke a wrist in that in that movie.

Oh, many, yeah, many. How many people drank motor oil to intimidate the opponent?

Wasn't it the guy that said second place is the first loser or second place sucks?

Second place sucks, yeah. Which is true, people. Your intensity is you can shit. There's one winner.

Not everyone gets a trophy, people.

That's right.

If you win first, you're last.

Exactly. All right. So that brings us to dose. Oh my god.

So I'm probably gonna start stealing now. Um, but this is one that could fall into another category of Christmas movies. Uh, but it's really not a Christmas movie. It's die hard. No, it is a Christmas movie. It's a Christmas movie. It's a Christmas movie. Very big debate out there that whether it's a Christmas movie or not, because it occurred during Christmas. It was a Christmas party. And a soundtrack. But just an amazing Bruce Willis pure action movie with some of the best villains in it, you know. Uh Alan Rickman played an amazing villain. Incredible, man.

Did you notice how he when he was up, they met up with uh uh John McClain up in the uh rafters or whatever it was, you know, a different floor. Right. And he went into like this flex fake, yeah.

He was just an American and the building, one of the employees.

Yeah, what was the actor's name? What was the actor? No, what the party played him. Hans Gruber. Hans Gruber Hans Groom. Hans Gruber. Right, exactly.

And the guy, uh, what is it? John Phyllis, no, what's his name? Alexander Gudnoff. Goodnoff. Yes. Who's the long blonde hair of noff. Oh, he was the last threat in the whole movie. In the movie. And he had a brother, right? Yes, he did. Yes, yeah. Oh, oh, I but what what movie are you talking about? Oh, the movie with Tom Hanks where they're trying to fix up a house. Money pit. Yes. He plays like the boyfriend in the money pit. Right. Right. Conductor of a but he plays a great villain, you know. Incredible.

And he gets pissed when his brother gets killed. Oh, he sure does. Yeah.

You know what's so funny though is um just in the world that we live in today, the people that are like, oh, the behind the scenes stuff and the things you didn't know. As I was looking through, I saw somebody like had a still shot of the rubber feet that Bruce Willis had on during filming now because McClain was supposed to be barefoot. And I'm like, I'm pretty fucking sure I understood that Bruce Willis wasn't actually walking around barefoot on glass during the movie. It's like what are you talking about? Maybe I didn't need that bit of background information. I kind of figured that one out on my own, but thanks for the video, guys. Appreciate that. Oh man.

Shoot the glass.

That was great. Shoot the glass.

Such a great villain. Oh god. Awesome. So two to you, Kev.

Two to me is something I know. I'm probably stealing this from somebody's list, but I absolutely loved this movie. This was it was the Miami Vice era, and it was actually it was it was directed by Paul Michael Glazer, who was from Starski and Hodge.

Yes.

Oh it was called Band of the Hand. Oh my god, I love it.

And it was a great fucking movie.

Band of the Hand. Band of the Hand. Yes. Band of the Hand. And you know, you had Salamander and you had all the other um kind of inner city kids that were in Miami and they were going to jail because they'd done bad things. Trouble. And the troubled youth and this troubled youth and this one individual decided he was going to take them in and make a fire team out of them, which, you know, in retrospect, correct, maybe not a great idea as far as you know, rehabilitating kids by giving them guns and having them fight a war with drug dealers. I don't know if that's the best form of rehabilitation, but it worked in this movie. But absolutely great flick. Again, another one a lot of people missed. Um, if you get the chance, watch it because it's fun and it's got that that Michael Mann Miami Vice feel to the whole thing as well.

So you're like, I mean, when I was growing up, there was the scared straight program, and it was very similar where they tried to like make you fight ute and I went to one of them. They made you fight drug cartels? No, well, they they would try to um you know put you in a group of troubled people that weren't in jail but yet going to jail and then trying to divert.

Yeah, yep, yeah. This was a bit of an extension of that.

Yeah, they they like had their own house in Miami, and yes, you know, but man, what a great pick, Kevin. Awesome. Because that didn't pop up anywhere. No, I dug specifically for it because deeper. Yeah, that's a deep one.

The blonde kid, Lauren, Lauren Hawley, the punky weird kid. Yes, no, he was awesome. The punk wasn't Salamander. Salamander was the one that was kind of off. He was definitely like it probably, I can't remember if he burnt his parents or something like that. He was fun.

But yeah, you had you had um you um the tall uh like Hispanic guy. I forget. He's in a lot now. Like he's a big, not big actor, but Calderon? Maybe Calderon.

But you did have Lauren Hawley played Nikki, yep, and you had uh Larry Fishburne. Yes. As uh as cream. So there was uh you know there were some people that moved on, and I think it was uh Bob Dylan I think did the the title track. Um and I want to say that I want to say that Robbie Robertson from the band was also involved.

Yep. I mean that's quite the uh original name for a package.

That's him right there, Carlos Quinn.

Or Danny Quinn.

Yep. What a great picture. I love that. Yeah, I gotta look that movie. Oh, yeah. You haven't seen it?

I probably have but a long time. But it was it just a fun. And I did probably five, seven, ten years ago. I watched it again. Yeah. And it was it was still fun. Still fun. Well, a little dated, but still fun. Mostly the clothing.

All right. So number you two to you, brother. Okay, well, we had a little break between this, but I'm going with diehard myself. Nice. It uh has so many friggin' great one-liners in this one. Yeah, my favorite one wasn't even spoken, it was written on a shirt. Okay. Ooh, say it. Okay, when he comes down the elevator, the the brother of the guy that you were talking about with the long hair there um gets killed by John McClain, and uh he sends him down with a shirt, the dead body, it says, Now I have a machine gun. Oh, yeah.

That's a note he posted to his shirt. Right.

But uh Kaye, motherfucker.

So that's the other one.

He can't leave out the cop, too.

Well, I was gonna say, Oh, that's exactly it. Reginald Vell Johnson there is a fan theory that he yes, yes, that's where I that that same character because of everything that happens, leaves because you know, he leaves that force and he goes and he and he ends up being the character that's in Family Matters. They tried to tie it together. They tie like every film and TV show that he was in together and make it the storyline. Yeah, it was it was it was somewhat believable.

But when they first brought him into the movie, it seemed like he was just gonna be a buffoon cop, you know. Oh yeah. Got his twinkies and you know, yeah, basically, but he ended up being one of the top three stars of the show. Yeah, okay. And and the way when they embraced at the end there, that that was touching. And of course, uh the tall blonde guy comes to, and uh fortunately uh he pulls out his gun for the first time since he shot a 13-year-old boy. Right, right, yeah, right. But it was it was just back in the saddle, yep, and Holly and uh John are back together. But we have a lot more sequels to come on that, so we'll see how that goes. So that was my number two pick.

Awesome. So number two to me is one of actually few. We haven't had that many repeats today. Thanks for gene. I believe Mark stole from me on his first or second pick, and that would be uncommon valor. I could not leave this off my list. I mean, you went pretty deep into it, Mark, so I can't say a whole lot more about it, but just Gene Hackman, of course. It starts out with him heartbroken because his son is still MIA, and of course, we find out that you know his son didn't make it in the end, but just this group of guys they pull together. You know, I love Sailor too, like you said. Oh, great, he's goddamn just an unbelievable movie. Um, Gene Hackman is one of my favorite actors.

I don't think there's a movie with Gene Hackman that you can't enjoy.

Yeah, I don't know if he's ever made a baby anyway. I I I mean, just incredible. I couldn't leave it off my list. It was just fucking fun to watch and cool. And I loved uh Fred Ward in this movie too, the sewer rat, and very claustrophobic, but just you come up behind them, you put it in this soft spot behind the head, just above the neck, and you scramble their blade, their brains. He's just cool too. Another iconic moment a movie that I want to bring up at the end of this list that I took off, but I will wait until after my number one.

I was just gonna talk about that when he I think it's an Eric Clapton Clapton song that he's dancing to. That was Texan, that's that was Text Cobb. Yep. That was that was a classic movie memory from back in the day.

Yeah, it was great. All right, so we are at our number ones here. Number one. That's right, and that's you, Donald.

So I have to do it. Sorry, but it's one of my favorite movies of all time. Not just action movie, but Raiders of the Lost Ark. Ah, yes.

I mean, it's just yeah, a little questionable at the end, but we'll allow it. Go on.

A questionable, is it sci-fi?

Is it no, it look maybe a little bit of fantasy when they open the ark and everyone's faces melt. But go on.

But you gotta go somewhere with the story, right? I mean, and they got the ark and they brought it back to the museum, and everybody lived happily ever after.

Right, right. Classic last scene is them putting it in a big government warehouse. But I mean, it's just it it spanned the gap between our generation and an older generation of comic book heroes and some serials incredible. Yeah, just you know, amazing end-to-end adventure and swashbuckling and however you want to describe it. Just great music, acting, and you know Harrison Floyd.

Yeah, yeah. And I hope I'm not stepping on anyone here, but honestly, I one of my honorables here was I would probably go with um uh maybe I won't say anything here. I'm getting a look from across the table. So I'm just gonna shut up and I'm gonna go to Kevin's number two. Uh number one.

Where are you? Number one if you're done.

Okay, yeah.

So by the skid of my teeth, Donald did not take my number one pick. He took the movie that came out two before that. So I chose The Last Crusade. Ah, I shut up. Because you were gonna take it, I chose two after that, though.

Two after that, yes, yes.

Yeah, um, which was you know, it's it's funny we talk about these trilogies. I mean, and and like I would say, with Last Crusade should have been the last Indiana Jones movie. Absolutely. Unfortunately, it wasn't, right? But there it is. But it was kind of, you know, there's like we always talk about Star Wars and the Rocky movies and whatever, and it seems like, you know, the second one, Godfather, the second one, the first one's always good, Mad Max. The first one's always good, the second one they get it right, and then the third one they kind of get lost in like merchandising and making it cute, you know, bringing in the ewoks and shit like that. But I don't think Last Crusade did that. You brought in, you brought in River Phoenix, who was as great as a young Indiana joke. Yeah, incredible scene. Bringing in Sean Connery again as as as his father. Right, hilarious. We called the dog indie. I mean, and he was just great. So I think they really that was one where they just continually got better. Although there's an argument, some people didn't like Temple of Doom. I loved it. I thought it was great. I didn't care that it was as dark as it was.

Yeah. You have chosen wisely. What a great yeah. Yes.

How do you know she talks in her sleep?

Yeah.

That was one of the best things when they were tied up together. Wow.

Dad, how do you know she talks in her sleep?

Yeah. Oh, take it. Now what you'd have to diary in your pocket.

Do you think my son would be that stupid that he would bring my diary all the way back to you? You didn't, did you? You didn't bring it, did you?

Uh you did. Look, we'll discuss this later. I should have mailed it to the mark, bro. Will you take it easy? Take it easy! Why do you think I sent it home in the first place so it wouldn't fall into their hands? I came here to save you. Oh yeah! And who's gonna come to save you, Junior? I told you! Don't call me Junior.

And he the face John Cover made at that point and kind of smiled.

That was really figured out, Junior.

About the umbrella that scares the seagulls up. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, awesome, awesome movie, awesome series. Three, yeah, three out of five or six or whatever it's at now. Yeah.

Definitely action, perhaps a bit of fantasy. But anyway, we'll we'll show you.

But it wasn't they didn't they didn't climb onto the back of a flying furry beast at the beginning of it. It was it was I figured it was.

And then the supernatural, which was towards the end.

But again, that's all supernatural in life. Whether yeah, there is, and the the uh the Nazis were very much into collecting artifacts, supernatural. I mean, there was a whole division of of of Hitler's folk that uh when they weren't burning books, they were all right, number one to you, Mark.

Well, I find it interesting, Kevin, that you said usually when you get to the third part of the uh franchise, it it usually goes downhill. Well, this is probably one of my favorite movies of all time. It's called Rocky III, yeah, and I was very happy about it. And I mean, this movie has Mr. T in it, obviously. He was awesome. Oh my god, and um Hollow Creed. Um so yeah, so do you have this guy that comes in, he's just friggin' full of himself, just full of adrenaline, full of muscle, full he he's a southpaw boxer, by the way. Clubber Lang. Clever Lang, Clever Lang, and uh, well, Rocky Balboa, he you know, he's not really he he maybe have a little bit of a big head at this point. He's had a lot of matches that aren't, you know, they're more like spars and everything. And well, he's getting ready to fight Kleber Lang, and unfortunately, Mickey has a heart attack. And he's not dead when he goes into the ring to fight him.

And his head's not in the right place.

His head's not in the right place, and and Kleber Lang just comes out and you know, Rocky comes the all his fights were basically like uh they were all like Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler. Yeah.

Who filled the shoes of, you know, it was Apollo Creed stepped up. Yes, you know.

I mean, he came out, he was one of the announcers, and he came out, and of course, uh Mr. T was a you know a dick to him. And um he says, just go kill him. And and uh it just it didn't work out. He came Rocky came out swinging, and then he got just overpowered by Clubber Lang. And of course, we have the great part where Hulk Hogan You know, Hulk Hogan plays Thunder Lips. Thank you. I wanted that name. Oh, don't worry, Thunder Lips, that was coming, EJ. Don't you worry a little bit about that. You know, this is just an incredible movie, and typical feel-good rocky ending. And you know what? This movie also, there's a man out there who should have a very big debt of gratitude for this movie, and that man would be Vince McMahon. This absolutely propelled World Wrestling Federation into the stratosphere.

That's what made it, I'm telling you. I agree.

And um, and as we know, whether they had the rock and wrestling connection, probably ruined Steve. Uh I beg your pardon, Cindy Lauper's career. You know, because they held her back and Madonna filled in the vacuum, you know. Right. But uh, so yeah, that this absolutely brought in the cartoon era in wrestling. It was one of the the most fun eras in wrestling history. So that's my number one.

It had a lot to do with it for sure. Yep. Well, I'm last, and I'm on to my number one, so I know I'm not gonna ruin anyone's pick. But the Rocky movie I actually took off my list was number four with Draga. I will break you. I must break you. And that's just a memory to me because my mom and dad brought me to Brattleboro, the theater in Brattleboro, Vermont. I think that's the only movie I ever saw with both of my parents. And enjoyed it. You know, normally your parents take you to a movie that they want to see, you're probably gonna fucking hate it. Like James Brown. Live in America. But anyway, it's not my. Okay, so it's not your pick. Okay. It is not. My pick is something that nobody is gonna know. And I watch this movie probably at least once a month, if not more. All right, and you want to talk about a soundtrack and feel good. And this movie is called North Shore. And it I'm gonna get emotional. I love this movie so much, but it is a surfing movie. Kid from Arizona wins a contest in the movie.

Big, huge waves in Arizona. Surfing in Arizona?

How did he learn how to surf in Arizona? If everyone would shut the fuck up, I'll tell you how. He wins a wave contest in a wave tank. A surfing contest in a wave tank. That's cool. And he wins 500 bucks. And what are you gonna do with that money, Rick? I'm gonna surf the big waves of Hawaii because I guess back then 500 bucks would get you there and fucking place to stay for the season. 500. But anyway, he goes, he goes to Hawaii. Um, this guy's supposed to put him up, and he's like, I don't care what I said, just drink up and take off. And he takes off, and it's just fucking stock full of one-liners. Um, just if nobody has seen this, I'm telling you. It's a good one. It's so fun and just I'd like to learn how to sand.

Yeah, you kind of gotta learn how to surf first of all. Yeah, I'm pretty good. Yeah, I can tell your name by the way you wear your shorts.

Soundtrack. You got Blue Hotel by Chris Isaac. You have Am I the One by Gary Wright, Nature of the Beast by Angel City, just all of these while surfing or fighting or whatnot, and it just pulls you in. This guy takes he meets this kid, this guy, Turtle, who's fucking hilarious with everything he says.

I mean, brah. The reef starts just about here and it stretches all the way down to there. Reef, there's a reef. That's right. So when a wave breaks here, don't be there, or you're gonna get drilled.

It's a cult classic, and there are sites out there that just have turtle lines. Interesting, just have Vince lines, and you know, you got the Hui, which is the you know, the gang of surfers, the wave surfing club, and you know, they don't like the howlies or the kooks or the Barneys, you know, like people coming over from the mainland and fucking up their their trip out there, you know what I mean? But just this movie is so important to me, and I'll never forget the first time I watched it, and I will continue to watch it at least once a month.

I will have to watch that for you, AJ.

Yeah. So HA, is it can you get fucking amazing? It's on Amazon Prime, is what Kevin told me today. I think it's available.

So I'm looking at the cast and Laird Hamilton's in it.

Laird Hamilton is Matt Adler, John Philbin, who John Filbin, may I add, was in um Tombstone, which was a tough cut from here once we stopped Westerns. But anyway, uh Nea Peebles, just Gregory Harrison with Chandler. Yeah, just awesome. So um that wraps it up, boys.

It is available for purchase currently on Prime. So yes, you can rent it for $4.29 or buy it for the full price for another dollar $14.99 or something like that. No, it's that high rather actually probably because you watch it so much they've raised the price of it.

Probably. Anyway, um, mine's off football for a minute, boys.

Fumble!

He could go seven.

He was going into the end zone for God's sakes.

All right, awesome list, guys. So that wraps it up for the day. Um, one thing I did want to get out there, and thank you all so much out there for listening. And the downloads are going crazy. And, you know, I I would like to give you our new email address because the last one, quite frankly, was a little difficult. So we tried to simplify it a bit. And that is pta80H at gmail.com. I'm gonna say it again because we really want to hear from some of you people. Once again, that is pta80H at gmail.com. And man, we can't appreciate the downloads more, the five-star reviews, um, and the uh the comments you've been making. And another thing I want to let you all know is that we are now up on YouTube. So please give us a look there. Um or a listen. Yeah, it is a listen. Thank you, Donald, because yes, there is no video just yet, but we are on there, so you're all fine handsome. So we'll eventually we'll take our word for it. Podcaster bodies, perfect faces for anyway. Um, thank you all so much. Donald, thank you. Thank you, Mark. Thank you. Oh, my pleasure. And Kevin, thank you for the hosting here and hospitality and the food.

I thank you all, and I did just want to give a shout out to our food today, has been provided by our friends at Birch Rise Farm.

Yeah, yeah.

Farmer Kate and Farmer Ken hook us up nicely with some steak and cheese sandwiches.

Homegrown food. Thank you very much. Awesome. Yeah, awesome boys. Well, that was a lot of fun, and we are out.

Oh, stuff looks good.

I've been plenty of all these turfers, but we'll blow them away, but I'm gonna go.