4. Films Had BAGS of Personality
This point may tie in with some of the previous ones and of course its rather subjective, but my theory is that part of the reason the level of nostalgia towards the 80s is so high is to do with the personality of the films from that period, particularly the kids films, the ones kids of that generation would have seen growing up. Just because they have personality, which is somewhat indefinable, doesnt make them a good movie, but it makes them memorable. For example, there are a number of 80s movies people have fond memories of, that (sorry) arent even that good. Now whilst I dont personally believe Goonies is a great film, Im going to leave this aside because there are many that do. Another example could be The Karate Kid. This was so damn memorable it got a remake, but was it ever good? It had Mr Miyagi, wax-on, wax-off, Daniel san and the crane kick. Good or not, its got personality. To my mind this theory extends to a number of other fairly average movies (please dont hate me), but films such as Flight of the Navigator, WarGames, The NeverEnding Story, Willow, Short Circuit, even Labyrinth (really sorry). Maybe theyre all actually good, but my theory would suppose its their personality that makes them feel like winners. I dont even think its nostalgia; because a lot of the time, be honest, people just like to talk fondly of movies they can remember, not because they necessarily used to love them, but because they CAN remember them. Modern films dont seem to have that indefinable quality. Its possible this theory is hogwash. But Pixar and Studio Ghibli aside, modern day kids movies seem a wash of CGI and soulless animation, where are the characters? Because at the moment the only thing youll be looking back on in 20 years time is Harry Potter and Im not sure he even has a personality (kidding, sorry).