Top That!
This scene from 1989s Teen Witch might be the exact moment which hip hop died.

Top That! - Watch more free videos

A young boy chases his dog into the woods, falls in a ravine. He loses consciousness for a few seconds. When we comes to and runs back to his home, he finds that his parents are not there. He is 8 years in the future. He is still 12, but his family and the world are 8 year in the future (1986). How did he get 8 years into the future? And can he return?

This is one of my favorite movies of the 80’s. It plays on the fantasies of a 12 year old boy having control of a highly advanced space craft. The boy is Joey Cramer. Cramer played in a few other 80s movies. Flight of the Navigator has a group of very familiar faces: Cliff De Young, Veronica Cartwright, Howard Hesse, and Sarah Jessica Parker. Paul Rueben actually did a voice over in the film. One thing I noticed is that of the 40 or so credited actors only about 6 have still active and doing movies and TV regularly, so only 15%. I wonder if this means there is only about a 15% chance of the serious actors making it.

Aside from the story, Alan Silvestri’s music to Flight of the Navigator is my favorite thing about the movie. Looking through is extensive body of work, I can see hes done a lot of my favorite movie music: Polar Express, Forest Gump, The Bodyguard, Back to the Future II, Predator, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the Abyss and many others (he’s done over 100 movies).

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006293/

Some of Alan Silvestri’s Music:

I have to say it: Ghostbusters 2 is just not as good as part 1. There.. I said it. I do recall that it had way more hype and anticipation than Ghostbusters 1. For one thing, there were no Terror Dogs. After seeing Dan Akroyd (the writer of Ghostbusters) speak on the DVD its easy to see he is the mad genius behind the whole thing. Harold Ramis (co-writer) mentions in the commentary on part 1 that Dan had originally wanted it to be about a future in which “ghost busting” is like a bug exterminator type job, blue collar and common place. Its easy to see that Dan was very much held back in his creativity.

Speaking of commentary, you won’t see that or any other extras on the GhostBusters 2 DVD, which, for me, makes it unbuyable. Correction, it has something on there about the GhostBuster’s cartoon but thats about it (unless you count scene selection).

I always thought the Statue of Liberty bit was corny (unlike the Stay PUft Marshmallow Man in part 1, which was somehow brilliant). The bad guy was kind of cool, but then he’s defeated by “NYC happiness” as soon as he’s about to put his foot in New York City’s collective ass (let me just say - New York City happiness is like saying “holy war” or “compassionate conservative” - a meaning contradiction. The cast was great (you can’t go wrong with Bill Murray & Rick Moranis) but the plot seemed too commercialized for me.

Another thing that really sucked to me was the GhostBusters II Run DMC rap. It is embarrassingly weak especially considering that I idolized these guys after Tougher than Leather.

Whatever is said about GB2, the GhostBusters franchise still captures the imaginations of people all over the world:
Return of the GhosterBusters
GhostBusters 3: Ghostbusters in Hell
GhostBusters Exteme

So I watched the movie again the other day and got flooded with a ton of memories. It’s still a great movie in the “popcorn movie” sense, but the huge leaps of logic and screenplay guffaws will ask that you check your 80’s basic world military pecking order arrangement and good common sense at the door before taking a seat. The day firkin’ Cuba catches the USA with its collective pants down and proceeds to invade us and march clear up to Illinois ravaging and pillaging all the way , monkeys will promptly fly from my arse.

So go ahead and rent it, you’ll enjoy it at least as much as a re-showing of “American Ninja” or “The Toxic Avenger”.

In fact, I loved the trip. I sat back in the plush leather of our Yellow 70’s caddy and listened to the entire Thriller album on cassette tape. We would play the whole thing at least twice there and twice back. Mom would always fast forward through the actual song Thriller because my sister, DeAmber, thought it was too scary… what a wussy… she would later join the deck swabbin’, squid lovin’ Navy… so that should tell you everything you need to know about the Navy.

The songs grew on me.. even “the girl is mine” but only because I would switch some of the words with curses such as the chorus: “because the g*d damn girl is mine”. That makes the song more fun and full of filthy flavor.

When I finally got to see the actually Thriller video, I was blown away. It was genius. I started trying to copy the dances. When I went back to school, we all talked about Thriller and attempted to Moonwalk in shitty Converse sneakers on the asphalt. I’m not sure you can really appreciate Mike unless you were an 80s kid effected by the “Thriller phenomenon”. Back then he was like a god.

Needless to say things are different now. In fact, my buddy told his daughter that Michael was black and she did not believe him. I think the old man still has it - but Thriller was a once in a generation thing that can never be repeated. I have no doubt the someone will eventually beat his record breaking sales but… it won’t be Thriller.

What can you say? Thriller was sonically amazing. The accompanying videos changed the way any and all videos where conceived, written, produced, directed, and presented thereafter. His costumes, the glove, the socks, the pant cuffs, the jackets, everything was mimicked and copied by the kids. Everyone would sport the one glove style whether it was a dingy winter mitten or a former cotton garden glove now adorned with glued on sequence or rhinestones. I knew more than one kid that rocked the famed multi-zippered “Beat It” style jacket (in red or black, it didn’t matter) and even a few “Thriller” editions. And of course many kids yearned to dance like him. A few gifted and dedicated souls like my good friend Ron genuinely perfected the art. Another friend, David, went on to professionally perform as a Michael Jackson impersonator in Vegas. Michael Jackson was just bigger than life. But it definitely wasn’t all circus hype. Thriller the album was insane. It’s not the greatest selling album of all time for nothing. Seven of the nine original tracks went on to become Top Ten singles.

But enough of what I remember, what do I think now? It’s a banger dude. The damn thing still rocks. Now I still loathe, The Girl Is Mine, (sorry, I just do) but the rest of the album is as solid as it was to me in the fourth grade. Billie Jean will always be my favorite track, but Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ and P.Y.T. still make me want to get up and dance. Thriller? C’mon now, I started doin’ the dance routine as soon as the chorus came on. LOL! The bottom line is if you don’t have this historic album in some shape or form (physical or digital), go out and get it. I promise you’ll be singing along, dancing, and grabbing your crotch like its 1983.

Of course the Temple of Doom Diddy would come out 3 years later and be even better! Shit, sequels just don’t do that type of shit no more. Part two’s, sequels, and now - prequels (oh my!) nowadays seem to be pretty wack. Exceptions of course for the LOTR series, Spider Man 2, X-MEN 2, and maybe 2 or 3 others (the Bourne series comes to mind). Anyway, I digress. I thought the movie was dope back then. Simple as that. Just dope.
So what do I think now? Watching it as an adult ghetto geek on the wrong side of 35? In a word, it’s classic. Dude is still bustin heads like I remembered. And doin it with his bare hands at that! With green screen CG, wire-fu, and an over dependence on firearms and blades that’s rampant in today’s silver screen fare, watchin this cat just chunk ‘em like that was refreshing. Like snackin on something you ain’t had in a minute (shout out to Honeybuns, Slapstix, and watermelon flavored Now & Laters). I admit, yeah, he may have pulled his pistol and capped a few cats here and there, but only when throwin’ hands wasn’t an option. Was it all good? Nah. A few technical flaws, some forced logic leaps of faith (the German sub scene comes to mind), and slight pacing issues were noticeable to my adult eyes. But all in all, not enough to mar this piece. Before I forget special recognition to the costume crew and Lucas for making/allowing Indy to look so grimy and dirty. It totally sells the character. Folks, I definitely endorse re-watching it again. I introduced my 10 year old to it last night and he thought it was pretty cool. Though he did ask me why he (Jones) didn’t just shoot everyone instead of taking the arse kickings he was getting in a few of the fights.
“Son,” I say,”they just don’t make ‘em like they used to no more.”

Toplessrobot.com created an awesome list of the terrible 80’s Cartoon images that should not have been shown to children. Sadly, neither animators or Ronald Reagan gave a shit about us 80’s kids. The topless list missed one of the greatest and most trouble enigma’s of hideously inappropiate cartoon history. Ladies and gentlemen I submit to you.. Tranzor Z:

(in spanish - but you’ll get the idea.. its screwed up)

The ‘80s were supposed to be a harmless time for toys and the cartoons that sold them. In spite of this, cartoons sometimes snuck in certain moments that were clearly designed to break impressionable minds and pervert the youth of America. Here are the 10 worst.

read more | digg story

Under $300 hundred dollars, the wonder computer of the 1980s, the Commodore Vic-20.

*Coming soon: Commodore brings you Gorf, the wonder arcade game and Omega Race in home version.

more on Gorf