Best 80s film

Just off the top of my head, the Last Seduction is a better film than St Elmo's.

To hell with all that "artsy" crap... I have only two words for you - THEY LIVE.

They Live is a good one too. Some more good films from the 80s: Raiders of the Lost Ark Body Heat Tootsie Star 80 The Right Stuff Amadeus This is Spinal Tap Prizzi's Honor Hannah and Her Sisters House of Games Running on Empty Do the Right Thing

American Psycho Donnie Darko

Sometimes I think you are too clever for your own good pal. What, no Wedding Singer?

I think you meant three words: THE. LOST. BOYS.

Do the Right Thing and King of New York

Footloose.  Gotta be Footloose.

Frank White: What's in the cup? Jimmy Jump: Rootbeer. [finishes and crushes cup] Oh, did you want some? Frank White: There are some things I don't do.

Their casts do not include Molly Ringwald or any other Brat Packers that some of you so fondly associate with the era, but the best American films of the 1980s in my opinion are: Comedy: Moonstruck Drama: Crimes and Misdemeanors

American Psycho Wall Street Jon.

80's movies: Top Gun - Tom Cruise - need I say more. Rocky 4 - the most 80's of the entire series - A Russian bad guy? Rocky fights for the USA. A James Brown show in Vegas? What else do you need. And even though I loved St. Elmo's Fire, the ultimate 80's movie has to be: Fast Times at Ridgemont High This one had everything - surfers, stoners, sex, valley girls, mallrats. Sean Penn, Judge Reinhold, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Phoebe Cates, Eric Stoltz, Nicolas Cage, Anthony Edwards, Forest Whitaker. This film not only had an awesome cast, it introduced new language into the general vocabulary - "gnarly dude." - popularized an entire look - checkerboard Vans and skate wear for the guys, valley girl attire for ladies and really set the stage for the teen ensemble casting of films such as The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire. Bradford P.S. Hate to break it to all of you, even though it's about the 80's,  American Psycho came out in 2000. The book was released in either the late 80's or the early 90's, but was extremely controversial and as I recall, dropped by one publishing house before being picked up by another. If you want another Bret Easton Ellis book and movie that is even more representative of the 80's, check out Less Than Zero. The book was great and the movie with Andrew McCarthy, Jami Gertz and Robert Downey Jr. stays fairly true to the novel.

And I hate to break it to you that the original post indicated: "I'm not talking about the best movie made in the 80s, but the best 80s film" Thus, American Psycho counts. Jon.

True - but I would argue that while the film version of American Psycho may have been set in the 80's, the movie world in which Patrick Bateman exists is clearly more influenced by the mentality of the Clinton 90's than the Reagan 80's. I would certainly agree that the original book version of American Psycho is representative of the 80's and fits the version of 80's Manhattan laid out in other novels like Janowitz's "Slaves of New York" and McInerny's "Bright Lights Big City" (and I will not discuss the travesty of that movie starring Michael J. Fox.) Unfortunately, the movie version of "American Psycho" views the 80's through the prism of the 90's. Thus, I do not consider it to be an 80's film. To me, it would be like saying that "Starsky and Hutch" with Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson counts as a 70's film. Bradford