There are a few decades in film history that have been as scrutinized as the 1980s, but to really understand the decade and its movies, it's going to take a couple of someone's who were there for it the first time around. Drew McQueenie and Scott Weinberg are ready to review every major film of the decade, one month at a time. The look at what worked then, what endoers now, and how it felt to be there when it all went down. Turn back to calendar with us. It's the 80s all over. The MPAA, officially introduced a new rating called the PG-13, is a way of giving parents more options to be confused about what their kids might see in a theater.

The National Minimum Drinking Ajack made it illegal for anyone under 21 to buy or consume alcohol in any state that wanted federal highway funding. Walter Mondale and Geraldine Farah were chosen as the Democratic Presidential and Vice-Presidential nominees, even as Vanessa Williams was asked to resign as Miss America over nude photos that appeared in Pint House magazine. And finally, George Michael released Careless Whisperers a single because life was freaking

awesome in July of 1984. ["Fake Me, I Love You"] Hi, everybody. I'm Drew McQueenie. And as always, welcome to 80s all over. I'm joined by my co-host Scott Weinberg What's up Scott Walter Mondale won one state Mondale beast mode. Yeah, I didn't know much about politics back then and I actually thought Ronald Reagan was a good president That's how stupid You were 13. It's okay June 1984 I'm so happy to see the way people reacted because I think for so many people so many of their favorite films got wrapped up

Month, even if you didn't love something they seemed like they were pretty happy with how we handled it a friend of mine from high school

It was complain that we didn't mention the song goes. I know several people brought that up and

It's not my favorite song in the film. I really like I believe it's magic

That's I think my favorite sounding song in the Ghostbusters soundtrack. I'll just take Elmer Burns to be beautiful, Shlubby, Walter Mathau of the school. That's what I like about that. That's a great description of it

because it's like John Williams

Otis theme. It shambles the same

way. Like it fits Bill Murray

perfectly. When I was writing that Ghostbusters book, I went to Ray Parker Jr.'s house in Encino, and he has a room that is just the Ghostbusters room, and it is covered with every gold record he got from every country on the planet. And it was, I have to say, a treat. And clearly, that song paid for everything in Ray Parker Jr.'s world. It was very clear when I was there that Ghostbusters will always be the thing. I am afraid of the old ghost. There's also something that was going on this month that really made a difference to the box office And it even shows up on box office reports from that month because they made so much money It was the studio sneak preview Fox and Universal both really leaned on them this summer and this month Both revenge the nerds and cloaked dagger Revenge of the nerds ended up playing two different weekends because Fox was so confident they had an audience hit. Let me explain how that would work. The new Harry Potter film just came out and they would say, oh, come to see Harry Potter and this fantastic Beast sequel, part 9a, and stay to see blank for free. So it was essentially a double feature. When did they stop doing those around the mid 90s I think? But yeah, but my most formative one was like you just mentioned go to see last starfighter state of sea cloak and dagger brand new. And I was at that one. What a great night that was. Well, we'll wrap up with that, but let's get started this month since we're talking about re-releases and odd things. What did Disney put back in theaters this month Scott? to look out for the most fighting, fighting, swinging, flinging, jungle tale ever. Somebody do something with that cap. And it's only a theater near you. Wolf is me, classic, good jungle boy, great a G. Now playing at a theater near you. Thanks so much. You know what I think I noticed, Drew, over June and now July, there is a definite dearth of animated features. This was that era where animation was dead, dude. There's nothing this summer for little kids. And I think it was the beginning of that sort of mad scramble to just put the teenager at the center of everything. So little kids really were kind of left out and we'll get into what past his kids programming this month. Kids were not well served this summer. Where would you place the jungle book on the pantheon of animated classics from Disney? I'm a big fan of that era, really love the songs. And it's the last time that Disney's hand was on any of that stuff. And even though he passed, like his influence is still in the animation, and in some of the story choices, and in the projects that have been initiated while he was still alive, King Louis song I I wanna be like you, is one of my favorite Disney songs. And I'm a big fan of the Disney heroes, like Mowgli or the little girl from the rescuers who look like just teeny little twigs, little beanpoles who are just all angles and elbows and those kids make me laugh so hard in these Disney films. And the animation is always so great them. Arthur and Sword of the Stone is the same way. Mugli's one of my favorites. His relationship with Blue is great. Those vocal performances by the adults in the film Phil Harris is so good in that way. Great is blue. My sister brought this up on the bonus episode that it was like, you kind of knew in the back of your head that these were older cartoons, they were re-released,

but that didn't really register that much

because to me, I was into the jungle book as if it was brand new. We had the album that was like a big double album that Disney put out. Yeah. And it's kind of a shame that this era of re-releasing things for the big screen is kind of past. uh, um, so hey, Scott, this next movie, it's funny. I had people tell me that they saw this as an art house movie, which

says a lot about what the art house was in 1984. When and where did you finally lay eyes on? The gods must be crazy. The unusual story of Key, the Bushman, as he travels to the edge of the earth to return by God's mistake, a most unpredictable journey, fraught with dangerous grills, a modest schoolteacher, a dedicated scientist, a tree-bearing strange fruit, bizarre machinery. The God's must be crazy, an epic comedy of absurd proportions. Yeah, this is a great fable from South Africa that drives me in Africa, finds in a bottle that was carelessly thrown out of a passing airplane. He is tasked with throwing it off a cliff. And it's just a very clever idea. I'm of mixed opinion on this because I think there is a part of this film that I like in a childlike sort of very simple, very broad way. But Jimmy Oease, the guy who directed it, is a white South Africaner. And he talks about them in ways that are not, it's not cruel, it's certainly not ugly, but it is condescending and very colonial and it is definitely a movie made before South Africa had to start contending with what it was. It's fascinating to see the way violent revolution between The governments and rebels is treated as slapstick comedy in this. That segment is a bit awkward. It gives me an insight into like,

if you were in South Africa and you're reading the horrible terrible things about American politics and then you see a movie where Americans are mocking their own politics, you're like, oh, I see, it gives you a little insight into like, they are mocking their own culture in a way. But your argument is, it's Jamie Oiz mocking a culture that's not his.

That's what's so complicated is the white South Africaners were the people in power at

that point and it was their country.

Yeah, he essentially is showing you how it felt for white Afrikaners at that point.

You know, the two main characters, the guy and the girl who sort of are the white western

faces they get put on everything are just as broadly drawn and just as goofy as anybody else in the film. So it's certainly not like he's mocking just one group of it. Everything is a cartoon. Everything is ridiculous. Everything is very silly. And for a lot of us, this was one of the first glimpses we got of what modern Africa looked like at all. Like it's not a terrible portrait of that. It had the same sort of cultural impact that crocodile dundee did, but on a smaller scale, which was, here's this comedy from another country and from another culture. And for a moment, hey, we're all going to get really into this because of this comedy. It was a commercial hit in America and around the world. It was sold everywhere. But the idea of this as an art house film

makes me laugh because it is,

it makes Benny Hill look subtle.

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