The last film I mentioned on the previous page, Class, which featured the debut of Andrew McCarthy also starred Rob Lowe. In the 80's there was a collective group of actors known as "The Brat Pack". The core members of The Brat Pack consisted of Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Anthony Michael Hall, Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald & Ally Sheedy. The Brat Pack made many films together and a Brat Pack film is classed by having 2 or more members of this group in them. I've mentioned some Brat Pack teen films earlier on such as The Breakfast Club, Class, Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink.
Other 80's Brat Pack teen films include:-
15) The Outsiders
16) Oxford Blues
The Brat Pack made a ton of other films together but I don't consider them to be teen films. I'll give them a quick mention if anyone is curious - St Elmo's Fire, Blue City, About Last Night..., Wisdom & Fresh Horses.
As well as making films together, they've starred in a lot of their own 80's teen flicks that aren't classed as Brat Pack films. I'll give a run-down of their individual films that I've seen but haven't previously mentioned.
While John Cusack's finest 80's teen film was Say Anything, it was released in 1989 and before then he had starred in a whole heap of other 80's teen films. One of them I have previously mentioned while talking about John Hughes films, Sixteen Candles in which he had small part.
The next best John Cusack 80's teen film after Say Anything is in my opinion the film in which he landed his first leading role :-
10) The Sure Thing
After The Sure Thing, John Cusack continued landing lead roles in 80's teen films. He starred in this trio of 80's teen films during the run up to Say Anything.
11) One Crazy Summer
12) Better Off Dead
13) Hot Pursuit
Before all these films where John Cusack was the lead character and before Sixteen Candles, he made his feature film debut in Class. This 80's teen film also featured the debut of other actors and actresses who went on to become well known such as Andrew McCarthy, Virginia Madsen and Alan Ruck.
As mentioned before John Hughes could be considered the master of the 80's teen flick but he isn't the be all end all of this magnificent decade/genre match up. There are many 80's teen films out there that Mr Hughes had no involvement in and are right up there with the best of them. Another person who wrote a couple of 80's teen films before making his directorial début with one (and a mighty fine one at that) was Cameron Crowe.
Cameron Crowe is responsible for writing the 80's teen film which contains a scene that made every single male in the 80's wear out their VHS tapes with constant rewinding. A scene where the ever so beautiful Phoebe Cates emerges out of a swimming pool in the infamous red bikini and then takes it off. The film I'm speaking about is of course:-
7) Fast Times At Ridgemont High
Cameron Crowe also wrote this severely underrated film. Most people I know have never heard of it, let alone seen it which is odd considering the great cast it has made up of people like Lea Thomson, Rick Moranis, Christopher Penn & Eric Stoltz.
8) The Wild Life
The final 80's teen movie which Cameron Crowe was involved in and was also his directorial debut is one of my personal favourites. Very well known for the John Cusack boombox scene where he is holding it above his head outside of Ione Skye's house with In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel blasting out the speakers. I'd place this film in my top 3.
I've been a fan of 80's Teen Movies since as long as I can remember, It's one of my favourite genres and also one of the best genre/decade match ups ever to exist in the world of film (Along with 70's horror & 90's thrillers). There's something about them that keeps pulling me in, tales full of first loves, teen angst & coming of age mixed with elements of comedy, drama, adventure & even sci-fi but all with that 80's charm. There's nothing I like better than sitting down with a bowl of popcorn in front of an 80's Teen Movie with a feel good ending.
Hopefully as I ramble on about 80's Teen Movies of all kinds including the more popular and well known ones to the heavily underrated and also the hidden gems that have been completely forgotten about (Hiding on VHS in the deepest depths of your attic) you'll enjoy watching the trailers I include for them.
First of all I'm going to start with the one name that is synonymous with 80's Teen flicks and can probably be considered the master of this genre. Whether he directed, produced or wrote them, you can guarantee that they'll be the crème de la crème with his name attached and that name is.......JOHN HUGHES.
The first 2 John Hughes films I'm going to list are also 2 of my very favourites which he directed :-
1) The Breakfast Club
2) Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Other 80's Teen Movies that John Hughes also directed include:-
3) Sixteen Candles
4) Weird Science
The next couple of films John Hughes is credited as writing. He didn't direct them himself, that honour fell to Howard Deutch who did a great job as both are fantastic.
_04.jpg)
