1980 movies

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Sunday, April 13th, 2008
Genres: Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Sci-Fi
Countries: USA
Actors: Hamill, Mark | Ford, Harrison | Fisher, Carrie | Williams, Billy Dee | Daniels, Anthony | Prowse, David | Mayhew, Peter | Baker, Kenny | Oz, Frank | Guinness, Alec | Bulloch, Jeremy | Hollis, John | Purvis, Jack | Webb, Des | Revill, Clive
Directors: Kershner, Irvin
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The story of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia and the others didn’t end with the destruction of the Death Star - it continues in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. Imperial forces have since driven the Rebels to hide on the ice world Hoth. But even on such an icy, backwater world, they cannot escape the wicked Darth Vader’s eye for long, and he devastates the Rebel base in an assault with the horrible AT-AT walkers. Luke flees to Dagobah to begin Jedi Knight training with Yoda, while Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia and C-3PO run the blockade of Imperial Star Destroyers in the Millenium Falcon. The Imperials pursue them across the galaxy and eventually catch up with them at Bespin. Now Darth Vader plans to use them as bait to lure Luke Skywalker to him, and turns Han Solo over to Boba Fett as a prize to be delivered to crime lord Jabba the Hutt. Luke learns a terrible family secret after losing a swordfight with Vader. Will he - and the others - escape the Empire’s clutches?

Rising Damp (1980)

Friday, February 22nd, 2008
Genres: Comedy
Countries: UK
Actors: Rossiter, Leonard | de la Tour, Frances | Elliott, Denholm | Warrington, Don | Strauli, Christopher | Jones, Carrie | Edwards, Glynn | Cater, John | Griffiths, Derek | Brody, Ronnie | Clare, Alan | Cecil, Jonathan | Dean, Bill | Roach, Pat
Directors: McGrath, Joseph
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First broadcast in 1974, the ITV bedsitland sitcom Rising Damp was an instant and enduring success. It starred Leonard Rossiter as the miserly and lovelorn landlord Rigsby who is constantly needling young lodger Alan (Richard Beckinsale), a science student whose long hair and earrings are symptomatic to Rigsby of the parlous effeminacy of the modern age. He’s also in love with Frances De La Tour’s dowdy spinster Miss Jones, though his tentative advances are forever rebuffed. She in turn carries a torch for Philip (Don Warrington), the elegant son of an African chief who also resides at Rigsby Towers.

Some aspects of Rising Damp have not aged well, principally Rigsby’s stream of racist jibes at Philip. Although these were doubtless well-meant and supposed to illustrate Rigsby’s foolish bigotry, you suspect that that was a convenient cover for audiences in the 1970s to enjoy racist humour. However, Rossiter’s Rigsby—stuttering, stammering, bent perpetually over backwards—remains a great comic creation, embodying all the festering prejudices, small-mindedness and self-delusion of the lower middle class Little Englander.

Octagon, The (1980)

Monday, February 18th, 2008
Genres: Action
Countries: USA
Actors: Norris, Chuck | Carlson, Karen | Van Cleef, Lee | Art Hindle | Bagdasarian, Carol | Yamashita, Tadashi | Lankford, Kim | Mann, Larry D. | Grayson, Kurt | Norton, Richard | Shimoda, Yuki | Gleeson, Redmond | Chappuis, Alan | Libby, Brian | Gibbel, Ken
Directors: Karson, Eric
Download: DivX iPod 

Scott’s life is plagued by two kinds of flashbacks. First are the childhood memories of the rigorous training he and a friend endured under a martial arts master. The second is of a mission Scott went on that ended with him watching his friend get murdered. Scott later becomes drawn closer to a vicious crime ring known as The Octagon. As he gets closer to the truth, Scott learns that these may be the men that murdered his friend so long ago.

Airplane! (1980)

Sunday, February 17th, 2008
Genres: Comedy | Romance
Countries: USA
Actors: Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem | Bridges, Lloyd | Graves, Peter | Hagerty, Julie | Hays, Robert | Nielsen, Leslie | Patterson, Lorna | Robert Stack | Stucker, Stephen | Otto | Ashmore, Frank | Banks, Jonathan | Berenson, Craig | Billingsley, Barbara
Directors: Abrahams, Jim
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Ted Striker just got dumped by his long-time girlfriend Elaine Dickinson, who works as a stewardess at Trans American Airlines. In his wish to get her back, he follows her aboard the plane, although he has had a deep aversion against anything winged since he lost several men in the war. During flight, he tries to contact her again and again, but as the crew and many passengers get seriously ill due to a bad fish meal, he has no chance to get to her. In fact, Ted Striker seems to be the only healthy person aboard that has piloting experience. Now, it is up to him to get the bird down in Chicago safely, before the poisoning starts causing casualties. But Ted Striker’s aversion really is a serious psychosis, which breaks open and needs to be cured - right now.