80s Movies: A Guide to What's Wrong with Your Parents 80s Movie Guide

Before John Hughes, a movie couldn't be made that was just about who was going to take a girl to prom. But with a high school divided into the haves and the have nots, Hughes was able to make a love story of Romeo and Juliet proportions. The relationshp was bigger than working-class Andie and Yuppie son Blane: there was Duckie, the OG simp. Pretty in Pink (1986) was ahead of its time in celebrating emotional males with feminine energy and highlighting a parentified child dealing with a deeply depressed dad. However, it doesn't go far enough. Film authorities Tara McNamara, Gen X, and Riley Roberts, Gen Z, look back at the teen classic with a modern lens and call out the impact it had on a generation.

Wolverines! Red Dawn is one of the few teen action films of the '80s -- and definitely the most influential. It showed that teens were responsible, skilled, and capable enough to save their town and, possibly, the United States. It's a blow 'em up, shoot 'em up, and set them on fire pic. But the intended message never reached its young audience and the result, as hosts Tara McNamara (Gen X) and Riley Roberts (Gen Z) identify, is that the film has continued to inspire in all the wrong ways. 

The Outsiders (1983) is one of the most popular teen books in the 1980s, and teens couldn't wait to see the movie directed by one of the biggest names in cinema. Featuring a Who's Who of Who Was and Who Would Become Famous -- including Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Diane Lane, Emilio Estevez, Ralph Macchio, C. Thomas Howell, Leif Garrett, and Tom Waits -- it was a film both genders lined up to see in 1983. Not only was this a period piece, written by a then teenage S.E. Hinton in the mid-60s, it also depicts a band of brothers born on the "wrong side of the tracks" -- and Hinton was female. The screenwriter who adapted the book was also a woman, Kathleen Rowell, who went under cover at a high school to be sure the film addressed how teens interacted in the early 1980s. Using a modern lens, film authorities Tara McNamara, Gen X, and Riley Roberts, Gen Z, examine this Francis Ford Coppola classic with an eye to how a teen girl may have influenced a generation of teen boys on this episode of "'80s Movies: A Guide to What's Wrong with Your Parents."

After listening, let us know your opinion on how you believe the film impacted a generation in the comments below or on social media (@80sMovieGuide).

Beverly Hills Cop was the No. 1 movie in 1984, a year that many consider one of cinema's best. As Detroit police detective Axel Foley (a role originally written for white actors Mickey Rouke and then Sylvester Stallone), Eddie Murphy made headway for black authority figures as lead characters -- a huge step toward positive representation for the black community. Film authorities Tara McNamara (Gen X) and Riley Roberts (Gen Z) look back through a modern lens to evaluate how the comedy classic holds up and how it doesn't.

Urban Cowboy took America from disco to country within weeks, its popularity buoying a desire for all things "country-western" from Wranglers and boots to riding pretend animals.Film authorities Tara McNamara and Riley Roberts look at the film thorugh the modern lens to assess what it tells us about life in 1980 and now.

FLETCH (1985) is Chevy Chase's favorite character - and the favorite of most of Gen X. Film authorities Tara McNamara, Gen X, and Riley Roberts, Gen Z, look at the PG-rated film through a modern lens. While it doesn't carry shockers of bad behavior like other '80s comedies, it's there...just as Irwin M. Fletcher throws away most of the zingers, it's the subtleties that shows how '80s humor influenced a generation.