40 Awesome Movies from the 80s & 90s To Binge Watch While in Lockdown and Quarantine

With the whole world facing the COVID-19 outbreak, you may find yourself in self-isolation or stuck in one of the unfortunate countries that have been put on lockdown.

So, what can you do to get through those days, weeks and even months you may be stuck inside?

We have compiled a list of moves that we will be watching over the coming weeks. We won’t be watching Contagion, REC, Outbreak or 28 Days Later. Although watching the move The Crazies might be ringing true with all the people panic buying toilet paper and pasta out there!

This collection is some of our favourites from the 1980s and 1990s. You may remember these being the best decades of all time, but if you’re under 30 years of age then you may not have even seen or heard of these great movies!

Whatever you decide to watch please stay safe!

The 80s Selection

We’ll start with some easy viewing first with an absolute classic from 1988.

Big

• Year – 1988
• Director – Penny Marshall
• Starring – Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia, John Heard

The film stars Tom Hanks as Adult Josh Baskin, a young boy who makes a wish “to be big” and is then aged to adulthood overnight. Read our take on the movie – What Would Really Happen at the End of 80s Movie ‘Big’

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

• Year – 1987
• Director – John Hughes
• Starring – Steve Martin & John Candy

To be honest I would say this is my all-time favourite 80’s movie and maybe even my all-time favourite movie. I love John Hughes movies (see previous post) and this is pure gold.

The film has everything you need in a family fun film – perfect cast (including the cameos) and characters, humour, warmth, the locations, action and a lot of heart. I think I can relate to this film because I’ve endured quite a few travelling woes in my time with having my family scattered around the country.

The film stars Steve Martin as Neal Page, a high-strung marketing executive, who meets Del Griffith, played by John Candy, an eternally optimistic, outgoing, overly talkative, and clumsy shower curtain ring salesman who seems to live in a world governed by a different set of rules. They share a three-day odyssey of misadventures trying to get Neal home to Chicago from New York City in time for Thanksgiving dinner with his family.*

There is one scene where a frustrated (Martin) says the most ‘F’ words in one sentence in any movie. It’s actually the only bad language in the whole movie.

* Taken from 10 of the Best John Hughes Movies

Back to the Future

• Year – 1985
• Director – Robert Zemeckis
• Starring – Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover

The movie stars Michael J. Fox as teenager Marty McFly, who accidentally travels back in time from 1985 to 1955, where he meets his future parents and becomes his mother’s romantic interest. Christopher Lloyd portrays the eccentric scientist Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown, his friend and the inventor of the time-travelling DeLorean automobile, who helps Marty repair history and return to 1985. See the original concept art for Back to the Future II.

Mannequin

• Year – 1987
• Director – Michael Gottlieb
• Starring – Kim Cattrall, Andrew McCarthy, Estelle Getty

A modern retelling of the Pygmalion myth, the film tells about a chronically underemployed artist named Jonathan Switcher (played by Andrew McCarthy) who gets a job as a department-store window dresser and falls in love with a mannequin (played by Kim Cattrall)—the attraction is that she comes to life on occasion, but only for him. See our take on this movie – Mannequin – The Awful Crazy 80s Movie That’s So Bad It’s Good!

They Live

• Year – 1988
• Director – John Carpenter
• Starring – Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster

Never has a film about control, consumerism and capitalism been more relevant today than it was way back in the greedy 80s.

It follows a drifter named John Nada (Piper) who discovers through special sunglasses that the ruling class are aliens concealing their appearance and manipulating people to spend money, breed and accept the status quo with subliminal messages in mass media.

Starring the late great WWE superstar ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper in the lead role. Must see is the drawn-out fight scene in the alley between Nada and Frank (David) which was parodied in South Park in perfect synchronisation.

Electric Dreams

• Year – 1984
• Director – Steve Barron
• Starring – Lenny Von Dohlen, Virginia Madsen, Max Caulfield

The film depicts a love triangle among a man, a woman, and a personal computer. Yes, it is that crazy! “But, I love her”!

The Thing (1982)

• Year – 1982
• Director – John Carpenter
• Starring – Kurt Russell, Keith David, Wilfred Brimley

Based on the 1938 John W. Campbell Jr. novella Who Goes There?, it tells the story of a group of American researchers in Antarctica who encounter the eponymous “Thing”, a parasitic extraterrestrial life-form that assimilates, then imitates other organisms. The group is overcome by paranoia and conflict as they learn that they can no longer trust each other and that any one of them could be the Thing. Awesome effects with no CGI!

Stand By Me

• Year – 1986
• Director- Rob Reiner
• Starring – River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Will Wheaton, Jerry O’Connell, Keifer Sutherland

A superb 1986 ‘coming of age’ comedy/drama movie based on a novella by Stephen King called ‘The Body’. The film gets its title from the Ben E. King song of the same name. The film tells the story of four boys from a small town in Oregon who go on a hike across the countryside to find the dead body of a missing child.

Brilliantly cast and starring Will Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O’Connell and Kiefer Sutherland as the main bad guy.

The Goonies

• Year – 1985
• Director – Richard Donner
• Starring – Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Corey Feldman, Jeff Cohen

A band of kids who live in the “Goon Docks” neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon, attempt to save their homes from foreclosure and in doing so, they discover an old treasure map that takes them on an adventure to unearth the long-lost fortune of One-Eyed Willy, a legendary 17th-century pirate. During the entire adventure, they are chased by a family of criminals who also want the treasure for themselves.

Flight of the Navigator

• Year – 1986
• Director – Randell Kleiser
• Starring – Joey Cramer, Paul Reubens (Credited as Paul Mall as the voice of Max)

It stars Joey Cramer as David Freeman, a 12-year-old boy who is abducted by an alien spaceship and finds himself caught in a world that has changed around him. He returns back to Earth eight-years later with no recollection and he hasn’t aged at all. Only Max the alien spaceship can reveal the truth.

Money Pit

• Year – 1986
• Director –
• Starring – Tom Hanks, Shelley Long,

The Money Pit stars Tom Hanks and Shelley Long as a couple who attempt to renovate a recently purchased house which after they have purchased realise they have been conned and now have to renovate and repair with hilarious consequences.

The ‘Burbs

• Year – 1989
• Director – Joe Dante
• Starring – Tom Hanks, Bruce Dern, Carrie Fisher, Corey Feldman,

Did we mention we love Tom Hanks? We preferred him in his early career as a comedy actor (think ‘Big’, ‘Money Pit’ and ‘Turner & Hooch’.) Here he is at his finest.

The ‘Burbs is a great black comedy film that pokes fun at suburban environments and their eccentric dwellers. Basically a handful of neighbours suspect their new neighbours are devil-worshipping maniacs who have killed one of the missing residents of the cul-de-sac.

Mad Max 2 – The Road Warrior

• Year – 1981
• Director – George Miller
• Starring – Mel Gibson

Mel Gibson reprising his role as “Mad” Max Rockatansky. The film’s tale of a community of settlers who moved to defend themselves against a roving band of marauders follows an archetypical “Western” frontier movie motif, as does Max’s role as a hardened man who rediscovers his humanity when he decides to help the settlers. The film’s post-apocalyptic and punk aesthetics popularised the genre in film and fiction writing

Commando

• Year – 1985
• Director – Mark L. Lester
• Starring – Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rae Dawn Chong,  Alyssa Milano, Bill Duke

Retired United States Army Special Forces Colonel John Matrix is informed by his former superior Major General Franklin Kirby that all the other members of his former unit have been killed by unknown mercenaries. The mercenaries, among them Bennett, an Australian ex-member of Matrix’s team discharged for excessive violence, attack Matrix’s secluded mountain home and kidnap Matrix’s young daughter Jenny. While trying to intercept them, Matrix is also overpowered and abducted by the mercenaries.

Rocky IV

• Year – 1985
• Director – Sylvester Stallone
• Starring – Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Burt Young, Talia Shire Brigitte Nielsen

This is probably the most ridiculous of the six Rocky films, but it’s also my favourite. Written and directed by Stallone, the story is about the ‘evil’ Soviet Union and their best boxer who make an entrance into professional boxing with their best athlete Ivan Drago (Lundgren), who initially wants to take on World Champion Rocky Balboa (Stallone).

His best friend Apollo Creed (Weathers) is having none of Drago’s bullshit and decides to fight him instead, but is literally beaten to death in the ring. Enraged by this, Rocky decides to fight Drago in the Soviet Union to avenge his friend and defend the honour of ‘Merica. The movie is worth watching for the cheesy robot that features and for the best movie montage of any movie. “Draaaaaaggggoooo, Drrrraaaaagggoooo!” Read our take on the movie – Why Rocky IV is the Best 80s Movie You Will Ever See.

The Breakfast Club

• Year – 1985
• Director – John Hughes
• Starring – Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald, Paul Gleason, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy

It stars Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy as teenagers from different high school cliques who spend a Saturday in detention with their authoritarian assistant principal (Paul Gleason). Although the plot doesn’t sound that great, just watch and appreciate it. You’ll love it!

National Lampoon’s Vacation

• Year – 1983
• Director – Harold Ramis
• Starring, Chevy Chase, Beverley D’Angelo, Anthony Michael Hall, Randy Quaid, John Candy, Christie Brinkley

Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase), wanting to spend more time with his wife Ellen (D’Angelo) and children Rusty (Hall)  Audrey, decides to lead the family on a cross-country expedition from the Chicago suburbs to the southern California amusement park Walley World, billed as “America’s Favorite Family Fun Park.” Ellen wants to fly, but Clark insists on driving, so he can bond with his family.

Ghostbusters

• Year – 1984
• Director – Ivan Reitman
• Starring, Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, Harold Ramis, Sigourney Weaver, Ernie Hudson, Rock Moranis

Ghostbusters stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd, and Ramis as, respectively, Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler, a trio of eccentric parapsychologists who start a ghost-catching business in New York City. The film also stars Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis.

Labyrinth

• Year – 1986
• Director – Jim Henson
• Starring – David Bowie, Jennifer Connelly

It revolves around 16-year-old Sarah’s (Jennifer Connelly) quest to reach the centre of an enormous otherworldly maze to rescue her infant brother Toby, whom Sarah wished away to Jareth the Goblin King (David Bowie).

The Lost Boys

• Year – 1987
• Director –
• Starring – Corey Haim, Jason Patric, Kiefer Sutherland, Corey Feldman, Diane Wiest

Remember in the 80s when the two Corey’s were actually bankable? Kiefer Sunderland seemed to thrive throughout the 80s as a bad guy! This is a much better teen vampire film than the crap we get now. The film is about two Arizona brothers who move to California and end up fighting a gang of young vampires. The title is a reference to the Lost Boys in J. M. Barrie’s stories about Peter Pan and Neverland, who, like the vampires, never grow up.

Predator

• Year – 1987
• Director – John McTiernan
• Starring – Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Jesse Ventura, Bill Duke

Another of my all-time favourite movies. If you are watching 80s action then somewhere in there has to be an Arnie movie. It was a toss up between this, The Terminator or Commando. I chose Predator because I think it is is one of Arnie’s best movies and is exactly how a sci-fi/action/horror movie should be.

It stars Arnie as the leader of an elite special forces team who are on a mission to rescue hostages from guerrilla territory in Central America. Little do they know that they are being secretly stalked and hunted by a titular extra-terrestrial antagonist, who is way more technologically advanced in weapons and cloaking devices.

It has a great plot, great selection of actors and great effects for its day. Great sound effects and music. A cool bad guy. It has loads of over the top action sequences, it has a guy who goes mad in the jungle and so, so many great quotable lines.”Get to the chopper!”

Can you believe the actual Predator was originally going to be played by Jean-Claude Van Damme? I can’t either! See our take on this movie – Why the 1980s Predator Movie is Pure Sci-fi Perfection

Robocop

• Year – 1987
• Director – Paul Verhoeven
• Starring – Peter Weller, Ronnie Cox, Nancy Allen

A cyberpunk action film set in a crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan, in the near future, RoboCop centres around police officer Alex Murphy (Weller) who is brutally murdered by a gang of criminals and subsequently revived by the megacorporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP) as a superhuman cyborg law enforcer known as RoboCop.

This film works so well. The story is great, it’s ultra-violent like a comic book and it’s how a sci-fi action movie should be. Kurtwood Smith is convincingly cast as the gang leader Clarence Boddicker and so is Ronnie Cox who plays it brilliantly as the evil corporation VP and his creation ED-209.

The scene where Emile crashes into the toxic waste silo and starts melting is a scene that will stick with me forever! God knows why they made a reboot of it in 2014, which absolutely sucked!

Evil Dead 2 (Dead by Dawn)

• Year – 1987
• Director – Sam Raimi
• Starring – Bruce Campbell

Our last film of the 80s and time for something scary. Okay, it’s a comedy horror, but it’s pretty scary too! The movie is kind of like a better remake of the original and is about Ash (Campbell) who is a lone survivor of an onslaught of flesh-possessing spirits holds up in a cabin with a group of strangers while the demons continue their attack. Loads of great scenes in this film especially when Ash’s hand gets possessed which results in him cutting it off with a chainsaw. Bruce Campbell just revels in this part and doesn’t take it too seriously. Groovy!

Welcome to the 90s

Get some more popcorn ready. Switch your phone onto airplane mode because we got 90s movies to watch.

Home Alone

• Year – 1990
• Director – Chris Columbus
• Starring – Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, Catherine O’Hara, John Heard

The film follows an eight-year-old boy (Culkin), who must defend his home from two burglars (Pesci and Stern) after his family mistakenly leaves him behind on their Christmas vacation. See our take on this movie – Home Alone: We Just Have Some Questions You Need to Answer.

Jumanji

• Year: 1995
• Director: Joe Johnston
• Starring – Robin Williams, Kirsten Dunst, Bradley Pierce, David Alan Grier, Bonnie Hunt, Jonathan Hyde, and Bebe Neuwirth

The thing that makes this movie is Robin Williams. If Williams wasn’t in this movie I wouldn’t even have given it much of a chance. You just have to look beyond the ropey special effects and see this is a great story and cast. It almost feels like this part was written for him. It’s just a good family-friendly and funny film from start to finish.

It is an adaptation of the 1981 children’s book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg. The story is about a young Alan Parrish, who becomes trapped in a board game while playing with his best friend Sarah Whittle in 1969. Twenty-six years later in 1995, siblings Judy and Peter Shepherd find the game, begin playing and then unwittingly release the now-adult Alan. After tracking down Sarah, the quartet resolves to finish the game in order to reverse all of the destruction it has caused. See our take on this movie – Can Jumanji Be the Greatest 90s Movie?

The Matrix

• Year – 1999
• Director – The Wachowskis
• Starring – Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishbourne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving

It depicts a dystopian future in which humanity is unknowingly trapped inside a simulated reality, the Matrix, created by intelligent machines to distract humans while using their bodies as an energy source. When computer programmer Thomas Anderson (Reeves), under the hacker alias “Neo”, uncovers the truth, he “is drawn into a rebellion against the machines” along with other people who have been freed from the Matrix.

Jurassic Park

• Year – 1993
• Director –
• Starring – Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Sir Richard Attenborough

The film is set on the fictional island of Isla Nublar, located off Central America’s Pacific Coast near Costa Rica. There, wealthy businessman John Hammond (Attenborough) and a team of genetic scientists have created a wildlife park of de-extinct dinosaurs. When industrial sabotage leads to a catastrophic shutdown of the park’s power facilities and security precautions, a small group of visitors and Hammond’s grandchildren struggle to survive and escape the perilous island. You can see the original concept art for Jurassic Park here – Welcome to Jurassic Park – The Original Concept Art for the Movie.

Dumb and Dumber

• Year: 1994
• Director: The Farrelly Brothers
• Starring – Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, Lauren Holly, Teri Garr

This is a film that people either love or hate. It’s the first feature film of the Farrelly Brothers who are now famous for their gross-out comedies such as There’s Something About Mary and Shallow Hal. I know that one particular scene still has me in stitches to this day, and it’s the broken toilet scene!

The film tells the story of Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne, two dim-witted friends from Providence, Rhode Island who set out on a cross-country trip to Aspen, Colorado to return a briefcase full of money to its owner, only to be pursued by a group of criminals who are after the briefcase.

Jeff Daniels is amazingly well cast as one half of the dumb duo and he wasn’t even a comedy actor before this film.

Nothing to Lose

• Year: 1997
• Director: Steve Oedekerk
• Starring – Tim Robbins, Martin Lawrence

You’ve more than likely never heard of this film, but it’s a real comedy gem. It stars Tim Robbins and Martin Lawrence (when he used to be funny!)

Advertising executive Nick Beam (Tim Robbins) thinks his life is going very well—until he returns home from work and discovers that his wife Ann (Kelly Preston) is apparently having an affair with his boss, Philip Barlow (Michael McKean). On the edge of a nervous breakdown, Nick drives around the city until small-time carjacker T-Paul (Martin Lawrence) jumps into Nick’s SUV and attempts to rob him. Turning the tables on his mugger, Nick accidentally kidnaps T-Paul on the spot and drives him to the desert. After T-Paul robs a gas station in the Arizona desert, the mismatched pair devises a scheme to rob Philip in revenge for the affair.

The standout scene involves a spider, Tim Robbins with his feet on fire and the song ‘Scatman’.

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

• Year – 1995
• Director –
• Starring – Jim Carrey, Ian McNeice, Simon Callow, Bob Gunton

Jim Carrey reprises his role as the title character Ace Ventura, a detective who specializes in retrieval of tame and captive animals. This time the film is based in Africa and Ace is on the lookout for a sacred white bat.

Fight Club

• Year: 1999
• Director: David Fincher
• Starring – Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham-Carter, Meat Loaf, Jared Leto

This is a cleverly crafted film and there is so many subliminal messages and images throughout the film to give you a clue at the big twist. If you’ve ever watched the TV series Mr. Robot then the whole plot may seem a bit familiar!

Norton plays the unnamed protagonist, an “everyman” who is discontented with his white-collar job. He forms a “fight club” with soap maker Tyler Durden, played by Pitt, and they are joined by men who also want to fight recreationally. The narrator becomes embroiled in a relationship with Durden and a dissolute woman, Marla Singer, played by Bonham Carter.

Point Break

• Year: 1991
• Director: Kathryn Bigelow
• Starring – Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, Gary Busey

People always go on about how ‘Speed’ aka ‘The bus that couldn’t slow down’, was Keanu Reeves action hero break out movie. No, it wasn’t! He made this movie in 1991, three years before that movie and I’m sure this role was pretty much a deciding factor in giving Keanu the lead in Speed. Hey, that rhymes!

Reeves stars as rookie FBI agent Johnny Utah, who is investigating a string of bank robberies possibly being committed by surfers. Johnny goes undercover to infiltrate the surfing community and develops a complex friendship with Bodhi (Swayze), the charismatic leader of a gang of surfers.

Watch this movie. It’s got high-octane thrills. It’s got surfing. It’s got free-fall parachuting. It’s got guys wearing dead presidents masks who rob banks, it’s got crazy AF Gary Busey.

Hard Target

• Year – 1993
• Director –
• Starring –

Chance Boudreaux (Jean-Claude Van Damme), plays a sailor who is skilled in martial arts (obviously). He is employed to guard Natasha Binder (Yancy Butler) while she is trying to track down her father, an itinerant Vietnam veteran living in New Orleans named Douglas (Chuck Pfarrer). They soon uncover a sinister group of wealthy men who like to hunt homeless people for sport, paying them $10,000 if they can survive a crosstown journey to the river. When Chance discovers that Natasha’s father was one of their victims, he decides to destroy the asshole hunters Van Damme style, yeah! See our take on this move – Why Van Damme’s ‘Hard Target’ is a Cheesy, But Great Movie!

The Truman Show

• Year: 1998
• Director: Peter Weir
• Starring – Jim Carrey, Ed Harris

Okay, it’s another Jim Carrey film, but this film really showed us that Carrey is more than pulling faces and goofing around. We see him at the other end of the spectrum here. This film proved he could be a serious actor if he wanted. It’s all about reality TV way before reality TV became what it is today.

The film stars Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, an unwanted baby raised by a corporation inside a simulated television show revolving around his life until he discovers it and decides to escape; additional roles are provided by Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Natascha McElhone, Holland Taylor, and Ed Harris.

Falling Down

• Year: 1993
• Director:
• Starring – Micheal Douglas, Robert Duvall,

Michael Douglas is having one bad day in this movie. The film follows Foster as he treks on foot across the city of Los Angeles, trying to reach the house of his estranged ex-wife in time for his daughter’s birthday party. Along the way, a series of encounters, both trivial and provocative, cause him to react with increasing violence and make sardonic observations on life, poverty, the economy, and commercialism. Robert Duvall co-stars as Martin Prendergast, an ageing LAPD Sergeant on the day of his retirement, who faces his own frustrations, even as he tracks down Foster.

It’s the perfect rebel against the system movie. It’s about a guy fighting for his rights. Whether it be the cut off time for fast-food breakfasts. Standing up against nazi sympathizers or getting revenge on those pesky roadworks!

Boyz N the Hood

• Year: 1991
• Director: John Singleton
• Starring – Cuba Gooding Jnr, Ice Cube, Maurice Chestnut

This is the film debut of Ice Cube and Maurice Chestnut and brilliantly acted by all the main characters. This film really gives you an insight into how tough it can be growing up where gang violence thrives in places like South Central, LA.

Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is sent to live with his father, Furious Styles (Larry Fishburne), in tough South Central Los Angeles. Although his hard-nosed father instils proper values and respect in him, and his devout girlfriend Brandi (Nia Long) teaches him about faith, Tre’s friend’s Doughboy (Ice Cube) and Ricky (Morris Chestnut) don’t have the same kind of support and are drawn into the neighborhood’s booming drug and gang culture, with increasingly tragic results.

If your brain is quite frazzled by this time you have a choice of 2 movies for the final slot. A complex mystery crime thriller or horror-comedy…

The Usual Suspects

• Year: 1995
• Director: David Fincher
• Starring – Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Benecio Del Toro, Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollock, Pete Postlethwaite.

This film is what earned Kevin Spacey his first Oscar and it was well-deserved, but let’s not talk about him any more. This is another movie in our list with a brilliant final twist. The standout moment of the whole film though is the police line-up scene which will have you in stitches.

The film follows the interrogation of Roger “Verbal” Kint, a small-time con man who is one of the only two survivors of a massacre and fire on a ship docked at the Port of Los Angeles. He tells an interrogator a convoluted story about events that led him and his partners in crime to the boat, and about a mysterious mob boss known as Keyser Söze who commissioned their work. Using flashback and narration, Kint’s story becomes increasingly complex.

Army of Darkness

• Year: 1993
• Director: Sam Raimi
• Starring – Bruce Campbell

We end this playlist on another Evil Dead movie. This is the third and final in the series of Evil Dead. Although not as good as the second movie it’s all a bit of fun that doesn’t take it’s self too seriously, if at all!

Ash (Bruce Campbell) finds himself trapped in medieval times. He must quest for the Necronomicon, a book of evil which can return him to his time. Unfortunately, he releases the evil trapped inside the book and unleashes an army of the dead.