What Other 80s Classics Should Feature?
The producers of the Netflix documentary series The Movies That Made Us have renewed the show for a second season.
A recently-released retro VHS teaser offers no news on the premiere date or which movies it would cover. Here’s the clip that was posted on the Toys That Made Us Twitter account –
“Thank you for your cooperation.”
🎥🍿✌️ #TheMoviesThatMadeUs #TheNacelleCompany pic.twitter.com/eMd4CGiA7k— Toys That Made Us (@toysthatmadeus) February 24, 2020
In 2017, The Movies That Made Us creator Brian Volk-Weiss first created the Netflix documentary series The Toys That Made Us. Each episode profiled a different toy and told the story of how the creators developed that toy.
The first three seasons covered He-Man, G.I. Joe, Barbie, Transformers, Star Wars, Star Trek, LEGO, Hello Kitty, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, My Little Pony and wrestling toys. After season 3, Volk-Weiss released The Movies That Made Us.
Like Toys That Made Us, the first season of The Movies That Made Us contained four episodes. Each one devoted one hour to a single film. The films were Ghostbusters, Die Hard, Dirty Dancing, and Home Alone.
Director Ivan Reitman and writer/star Dan Aykroyd participated in Ghostbusters and returned to the firehouse location. Reclusive director John McTiernan participated in Die Hard and actor Reginald Veljohnson returned to the Fox Plaza building. Each episode also became a eulogy to someone who is no longer with us: Harold Ramis for Ghostbusters, Alan Rickman, Alexander Godunov, and more for Die Hard, Patrick Swayze and director Emile Ardolino for Dirty Dancing, and John Hughes for Home Alone.
Suggestions For Season 2
Back To The Future
It will be challenging to find stories that director Robert Zemeckis and screenwriter Bob Gale have not yet told. There have been 20th, 25th and 30th-Anniversary editions of the film. Even the story of replacing Eric Stoltz with Michael J. Fox is now well known.
The Terminator
After 36 years, James Cameron’s sensational sci-fi thriller still stands up tremendously well with outrageous verve, excitement, and Arnie.
Top Gun
This year sees the release of Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel to the Tom Cruise classic from 1986. It has the killer cinematography, the killer soundtrack and performance that cemented Cruise as the action star he is today.
E.T.
E.T. was the biggest film of all time until Steven Spielberg’s own Jurassic Park overtook it in 1993. There was already a huge laserdisc box set of E.T. before DVDs and Blu-rays continued to explore it.
Really though, this barely scratches the surface of the goldmine of pop-culture that the 80s duly delivered.
Did you enjoy the first series of The Movies That Made Us? What movies would you like to see them cover this year?
