Category Archives: The 80’s

Watch This: Pixels by Patrick Jean

This video is for all you old school gamers out there…if you have not seen it already

Check out Patrick Jean’s latest creation where he has 80’s video game characters take over NYC.  Simply amazing to watch.  I loved seeing Arkanoid incorporated in the video – one of my fav NES games of all time.

Like it?  Head over to One More Production to see some more insane videos.

Times Of Yore: Repo Man

"A lot o' people don't realize what's really going on. They view life as a bunch o' unconnected incidents 'n things. They don't realize that there's this, like, lattice o' coincidence that lays on top o' everything. Give you an example; show you what I mean: suppose you're thinkin' about a plate o' shrimp. Suddenly someone'll say, like, plate, or shrimp, or plate o' shrimp out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin' for one, either. It's all part of a cosmic unconsciousness." - Miller

Back in 1984 a certain movie came out focused around a group of men who ideally remove people’s cars from their property once the owners failed to pay the bank what was owed.  The movie, Repo Man, of course was not just about stealing back cars for the bank and had a twist of sorts including aliens, drugs, and also offered one of the best punk rock movie soundtracks to date.  The movie is a comedic sci-fi cult classic to many and still to this day one of my favorite movies to watch.

Starring a young brat pack Emilio Estevez (The Outsiders, St. Elmo’s Fire, Men At Work) as well as Harry Dean Stanton (Cool Hand Luke, Alien, Escape From New York) the movie focuses on Otto (played by Estevez), a young punk kid with hippie parents and no plans on life.  Soon Otto meets up with Bud (played by Harry Dean Stanton) who takes him under his wing into the twisted world of booze, drugs, hi speed chases, and of course hot wiring cars.  Soon Otto is part of the repo crew and he is slowly discovering a sense of maturity.

If the movie sounds boring to you then maybe I should also mention the hunt for a certain 1964 Chevrolet Malibu from New Mexico driven by crazed old man who has something hidden in the trunk.  I am not going to ruin it for you but I can tell you the contents in the truck emit incredible heat and also vaporize anyone who opens the trunk door to see the actual contents.  With a hefty reward for repossessing the car no one will stop at trying to get it.

Add a crew of druggie punk rockers raising hell in the city, a girl who wants to help the said aliens, and the lady with the tin foil hand this movie really goes all over the place.  This crazy trip through the mean streets of L.A. is one hell of an adventure.

One of the highlights during the film for me is to see punk rockers The Circle Jerks playing as a lounge act at a bar that Otto visits.  The song they play is a slowed down version of “When The Sh*t Hits The Fan”.  I also loved all of the generic food products in the movie.  Beer is labeled “Beer” and chips are labeled “Chips”.  So generic yet so perfect for the movie especially when Otto eats of an open can of “Food”.

The soundtrack to the movie was one of the first of it’s kind as it was full of punk rock songs from major punk acts of the 80’s. Featuring Iggy Pop, The Plugz, Suicidal Tendencies, and Black Flag just to name a couple the soundtrack was like no other soundtrack of it’s time and remains a classic to this day.

I had actually purchased the soundtrack on cassette when I just was a young kid before I even saw the movie.  Seeing a soundtrack featuring Iggy Pop and the Circle Jerks was good enough for me.  I eventually grabbed a VHS copy of the move and watched that movie over and over.  It was really one of the first movies I repeatedly would watch.  Once DVDs came out a good friend of mine bought me the Repo Man collector’s DVD tin box that includes the movie and the soundtrack on CD.  Score.

This movie is not going to ooh and aah people who are looking for something serious.  It is a comedy action sci-fi punk rock movie with no structured plot other than a bunch of hoodlums trying to get the car to get the reward.  Punk music backing up a movie about repo men, guns, drugs, violence, car chases, and a surprise ending.  Can a movie get any better than this?

“Repo Man” performed by Iggy Pop:

Daft Punk To Score Tron 2 (a.k.a. TR2N)

Disney and Daft Punk?  Seriously?

I guess it is possible.  Journey after all did supply the first soundtrack to the sci-fi cult flick Tron.  Then again Journey are not French robots….or are they???

I was/am a Tron fan so the news that a sequel to Tron is coming out got me all sorts of excited.  I still have one of my Tron toys from the 80’s made by Tomy somewhere in my mess of a computer room.  I loved that movie as a kid and recently was able to see it again in HD and loved it even more.  I am very curious to see how TR2N follows the original and more importantly see how Daft Punk does with the score.

If you forgot or do not know, I am a huge Daft Punk fan.  I think it would be awesome if Daft Punk made a cameo in the movie, after all they are not human.

Looks like I get the best of both worlds with this movie slated to release in 2011.

It kills me now to see this video of what Journey thought music from the 1990’s would sound like:

Related Links:

Billboard.com talks about Daft Punkscoring the TR2N soundtrack
Pitchfork.com talks about Daft Punk

80’s Falshback Animation Style

When you feel like there is nothing left to do inside your house and the cold weather prevents you from doing anything outside the internet can be your best friend.  Now there is plenty for me to do inside, I just choose not to.  Instead I have been watching my favorite 80’s cartoons via YouTube.

I thought I would share some of my favorites with you all:

M.A.S.K. (Mobile Armoured Strike Kommand) is quite possibly my all time favorite cartoon from the 80’s. I do not think I missed an episode when I was a kid. I always dreamed of my first vehicle being a M.A.S.K. vehicle… Funny thing is, I still remember the opening lyrics but forgot how cheesy the music is. Got to love that 80’s music! I really wish they would put this cartoon on DVD already (I have only found bootlegs). I would buy it in a heartbeat for sure.

“In the near future, Doc Terror and his cyborg companion Hacker…” Hahaha, I never noticed that line before during the opening. Maybe there was much more to Centurions then my young mind could handle when I watched this show. It was on at like 6am on channel 61 right before the newly created Home Shopping Network began and I made sure woke up and quietly watched it so not to wake my folks up.

The Gobots… Transformers retarded cousins… This Hanna Barbara cartoon cracked me up with the voices and odd looking robots.  Do you think they will make a Gobot movie???  I hope not.

Visionaries… Not a huge fan of the cartoon but I loved the group herculean intro. Makes you feel super manly!

…umm… Not a favorite of mine at all… Love the intro song though! Also love the face that Pole Position was an arcade game and this cartoon was more Speed Racer….

Danger Mouse. The only reason I loved Nickelodeon.  Well that and You Can’t Do That On Television, Salute Your Shorts, and the Adventures of Pete & Pete…(some of which were more 90’s shows…)

Ghostbusters. It was ok, but not as entertaining as the next…

This version of Ghostbusters was way more entertaining and tripped out…  I could not get enough of this show.  It was whacked.

So there is my small list of some 80’s favorites.  I know I am missing a few but I can not for the life of me remember some of them.  I admit I watched a lot of cartoons when I was younger.  I left the obvious ones out like Ducktales, Tale Spin, TMNT and Transformers because I think that pretty much everyone remembers those cartoons.  I was trying to point out the obscure.

What are some of your favorites?