American Ninja 2: The Confrontation (1987)

Clip: "It's a Party" barfight



Directed by Sam Firstenberg

Starring Michael Dudikoff, Steve James and Jeff Celentano

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Black Cobra (1987)

Watch the full movie here:



Directed by Stelvio Massi

Starring Fred Williamson, Eva Grimaldi and Bruno Bilotta

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Killer Workout (1987) aka Aerobicide

Stay away from Rhonda!


Soundtrack: Donna De Lory - Only You Tonight


Watch the entire movie here!


Directed by David A. Prior

Starring Ted Prior and Marcia Karr

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Equalizer 2000 (1987)

Directed by Cirio H. Santiago

Starring Richard Norton, Corinne Wahl and Robert Patrick

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Nightforce (1987)

Directed by Lawrence D. Foldes

Starring Linda Blair, James Van Patten, Richard Lynch and Cameron Mitchell

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The Kindred (1987)

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Directed by Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow

Starring David Allen Brooks, Amanda Pays and Rod Steiger

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Hard Ticket to Hawaii (1987)

Official Trailer


Honestly, it doesn't get any better than this.

Directed by Andy Sidaris

Starring Ronn Moss

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Deadly Prey (1987)

Here's a compilation of some of the ridiculous scenes from this 80's classic courtesy of Everything Is Terrible:



Directed by David A. Prior

Starring Cameron Mitchell, Troy Donahue and Ted Prior.

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Jaws: The Revenge (1987)

Trailer for VHS video release...



Directed by Joseph Sargent.

Starring Lorraine Gary and Michael Caine.

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City On Fire (1987)

Directed by Ringo Lam.

Starring Chow Yun Fat.

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As already documented heavily, this film was a major inspiration for Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" but it stands on its own as a massive piece of action filmmaking with some unforgettable brutal violence and slick city atmosphere.

It seems to be just as informed by 70's Italian crime films as it is by the original source American films, but that's just my take on it.

80's Metal Movie Tie-Ins

Dated?

Uh, a little. But horror movies and bad hair metal had a thing going on in the 80's and here's a few samples of some of those glorious train wrecks.

First up, Dokken does the main theme song for 1987's Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. This brings me back to my youth when I took stuff like this quite seriously. I wonder what's more scary to main star Patricia Arquette - Freddy Krueger and his minion of creepy girls skipping rope or Don Dokken's poodle haircut?





Somehow, this one is worse. Alice Cooper continues his embarrasing 80's slide by penning this keyboard driven drivel for 1986's Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives.

Yet the video itself is entertaining as hell. The theatre setting is great and there are some truly bad special effects, such as Jason ripping through the screen and Alice inexplicably trying to scare the patrons by breaking a glass bottle over his forehead. Oooohh scary!





I have to include this one even though it's not really a music video. It's one of the climactic scenes of 1986's Trick or Treat, one of the best heavy metal themed films from that era.

That's actor Tony Fields as rock demon Sammi Curr but the music is really by Fastway, a second-tier act that included a former member of Motorhead and a guy from U.F.O.

This film also had Ozzy Osbourne in a great cameo as a preacher who railed against heavy metal lyrics and musicians, lampooning the PMRC and Tipper Gore who were in the midst of their metal witch hunts at the time.

The best part of this is when the guitar goes flying through the air and someone randomly yells "Rock and Roll!!".

If you can't stand the Fastway stuff, fast foward because there is some hilarious shenanigans towards the end and a ripping guitar solo straight from hell that could have been the inspiration for Will Ferrel's classic Satan and Garth Brooks sketch from SNL.




And while we're going there, I might as well bring this one out. A scene from 1988's Black Roses.

The context of this scene is that a metal band called Black Roses is playing a small town and the local parents and authorities are concerned about the effects on their kids. They sit in on the first song to make sure that nothing is going on and the band do their best to fool everyone with a vanilla sounding soft rock song. Soon the parents leave and the real metal begins!





Now, the best for last. This is a clip from 1985's Hard Rock Zombies. It's not a metal song, but there's a bunch of long hair bangers doing choreographed dance moves in the film's big montage scene and even some miming. Completely retarded and great.



Had enough yet? This is another clip from Hard Rock Zombies. This is quite possibly the most ridiculous scene ever put on 35 mm film. The band have been killed earlier in the day and then rose from the dead, making sure they still turn up to do their soundcheck for that night's show! This is some kind of love song for the main girl Cassie in the movie. Oh unrequited love!

Zombie vs. Ninja (1987) aka Zombie Rival: The Super Ninja Master

Admittedly my knowledge of 80's ninja titles is pretty low but this one caught my eye for the title alone (actually this one has many titles and it took me awhile to confirm that this trailer was for Zombie vs Ninja).

Joseph Lai was the producer on this and he was responsible for about 9 or 10 similar films PER YEAR in the mid-80's. He also directed a handful of them and about 90 percent have the word "Ninja" in the title. Many of these titles were released in North America by the video company Imperial Entertainment and the VHS covers are really memorable (many of which can be seen on Critical Condition Online). Lai went on to produce a whole slew of "Kickboxer" movies in the 90's.

Like a lot of these films, it looks like they were almost entirely shot on one location in the woods and there is plenty of dubbed in phrases like "bastards!" and the like. Fun stuff.

Directed by Godfrey Ho.

Starring Pierre Kirby.

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Summer Camp Nightmare (1987)

Meatballs meets Lord Of The Flies. This trailer gets really good about 1:45 in when we get some great lyp synched rock. I swear they are singing "She just wants my beef baloney", or maybe "beefaroni". Dude. Amazing.

Right at this time there is a shift in marketing style - they seemingly wanted to market this as a serious drama for the first half but quickly change to teenage sex comedy style before ramping up the action aspect. Very strange stuff and somewhat mean-spirited. For 80's completists only.

Directed by Bert L. Dragin.

Starring Chuck Connors and Charlie Stratton.

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The Video Dead (1987)

Watch the entire movie here!



A classic of Mom and Pop video rental places of the 80's. I remember the VHS cover very clearly from those old days. It's funny how the term "Video" was so cutting edge in the 80's that you could use it in a horror film title and be completely serious.

Directed by Robert Scott.

Starring Michael St. Michaels and Thaddeus Golas.

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Mutant Hunt (1987)

Directed by Tim Kincaid.

Starring Rick Gianasi.

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Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987)

Directed by Lee Harry.

Starring Eric Freeman and James Newman.

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Slumber Party Massacre II (1987)

Directed by Deborah Brock.

Starring Crystal Bernard and Jennifer Rhodes.

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Street Trash (1987)

Directed by J. Michael Muro.

Starring Mike Lackey and Bill Chepil.

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The Monster Squad (1987)

Directed by Fred Dekker.

Starring Andre Gower and Robby Kiger.

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A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

Directed by Chuck Russell. Starring Robert Englund and Patricia Arquette.

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