Feedback:
BOP Answers Its Mail
By Calvin Trager
November 1, 2004
Our list of Favorite 1980s Films has generated a good deal of feedback. Rather than making you wait four months for a response while I tackle feedback from August, I've decided to nuke Feedback's inbox from space and start fresh - it's the only way to be sure. This means all the feedback related to the '80s list project has magically moved up to the front of the queue. My apologies if you've made a Feedback worthy comment in the past few months. However, I think losing those gems is a fair trade in exchange for adding a bit of timeliness to this feature. If you don't agree, well shucks. If only there was a way to express your opinion to the BOP staff...
Without further ado, here's the latest edition of Feedback: '80s Style!
There's totally this saying, "Beware of those who, like, ask for feedback". It means people usually only want to hear the really rad things. Lame! Most people totally want to play it safe, keep doing the generic things they, like, already know how to do. Gag me. Reinforcement is a major element to taking the easy way out; tolerance of bogus mediocrity begets bogus mediocrity. As if! The problem with that little scenario is, like, where's the growth? Where's the satisfaction that comes with improvement, achievement, and a general state of total awesomeness!?
Well, we at BOP think all feedback is bitchin', the gnarly and the grodie. We're all about continuous improvement, word? And fer sure sometimes we are going to follow our own muse, even in the face of heinous feedback. But having said that, we're also not afraid to embrace excellent suggestions, as we've totally shown throughout our tenure here. For that we say, "dude!" Thanks for helping make BOP the kind of totally tubular, excellent place we can be proud of, and the kind of place you can be totally proud of too, dude. To the max!
Here then is some selected feedback and response from October 19 - 28, 2004:
E is like, Whatever!:
You comments on 80's style SUCKED. Wether you liked it or not doesn't matter..todays trends and fashion came from the 80's...70's etc. You personal opinion of 80's fashion should be just that..kept personal!!!!!!!!!!! Who are you to make fun of artist of the 80's that could even now buy and sell you if you were worth anything at all...which I very seriously doubt!
I spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out where you were coming from on this one, E, I really did. My conclusion is you are either David Lee Roth or the Chief Executive Officer of a hairspray manufacturer. Am I close? In any event, rather than craft a substantive defense of our position involving our First Amendment guaranteed right of free speech and pictures of Kirk Cameron in a pink shirt, white jacket (with sleeves rolled up), and string piano key tie, I'm simply going to use my remaining time to point and laugh at you. Bwahahahahahahahahahahaha! Like, thanks for the feedback.
Sander thinks all movies should be filmed in real time:
Hi there, I really enjoyed reading your 80's list. But I will enjoy even more reading your omission articles promised for next week, in which we the readers will learn how the Goonies and Mad Max 2 seemed to have beaten E.T. in your countdown.... (probably didn't have enough of an 80's feel to it, unlike say Full Metal Jacket, right?)
I think most would acknowledge that E.T. is a great movie and worthy of consideration as one of the best films (and certainly as one of the best children's films) of the 1980s. Further, I disagree with the sentiment that E.T. doesn't hold up well. Nor do I penalize the entire movie for Spielberg's revisionist shenanigans involving guns and flashlights. (In a vacuum, I do severely deplore his revisionist shenanigans; however, damning the entire film on that basis seems harsh). That said, E.T. clearly had a few things working against it in our voting process. Our criteria for selection was "favorite" as opposed to best, so selections had to resonate with us as viewers as well as be judged to be quality pieces of filmmaking - you will notice that not too many Best Picture winners made our list. Also, since E.T. isn't really a coming-of-age film, it has less positive nostalgia working for it than something equally PG but with more resonance, like WarGames for example, or something that aims a bit older like Stand By Me. Finally, with only ten spaces on the ballot, something had to give. For many of our voters, there were ten films (at least) from the decade they remembered more fondly than E.T. Like, thanks for the feedback.
Don wrote this feedback with a quill pen by the light of a single candle:
I enjoyed your Best of the 80s feature, but I must say I am disappointed. Unless I just missed it, no "Witness". An absolute classic from Peter Weir, featuring Harrison Ford's best career performance.
Remember that brief period in the late eighties when Kelly McGillis was the hottest thing on two wheels? She parlayed her soap opera exposure into a three picture run that started with Witness in 1985, peaked with Top Gun in 1986, and finally concluded with an Oscar stab in The Accused in 1988. Since then, nothing. Well, nothing worth mentioning. I mean, porno starlets have left more enduring marks on cinematic history. Plus, porn actresses don't have to debase themselves by working with Tom Cruise. Anyway, Witness was a fine '80s movie that didn't make our list because not enough staff members voted it into their top ten. What are you gonna do? Like, thanks for the feedback.
Anonymous hosers are more likely to get arbitrarily edited:
Why no Strange Brew on your top 80's list? huh? huh? You lot aughta be [arbitrarily edited]
Strange Brew is a bit of a one trick pony, eh? Even your tired, edited back bacon reference would be right in Bob and Doug's wheelhouse. Plus, when you consider how many strong comedies spawned from the '80s, the easy conclusion is, there are many better selections than Strange Brew. Not that I don't enjoy it from time to time. However, by the time the brothers infiltrate the Elsinore brewery, I'm usually done. I've already heard them call each other hoser (funny), I've already heard the one tell the other to take off (funny), and I've already seen them rebottle the beer from the dog's food dish and give it to their dad (really funny). From there on it's kind of downhill. Like, thanks for the feedback.
Joel offers a list of seven films that happen to be from the '80s:
important missed 80s films: The Fly, Arthur, Terms of Endearment, Beverly Hills Cop, Unbearable Lightness of Being, Ordinary People, Dangerous Liaisons
Arthur, huh. I can name 25 better comedies from the '80s than Arthur without breaking a sweat. Not only that, I disagree that it was an important movie (which even if granted, wouldn't guarantee it a spot on a list of favorites). I agree that the other movies you mention are all indeed important films and would certainly be strong contenders for a list of most important films of the 1980s. Alas. The only movies on your list that are no-brainer exclusions from a list of favorite '80s flicks are Beverly Hills Cop and Dangerous Liasons. Maybe The Fly. Beverly Hills Cop could certainly be recognized as the pinnacle of Eddie Murphy's '80s career. I happen to love 48 Hrs. the best; others on staff gravitate toward Trading Places. Everyone seemed to agree that there was only room to recognize one Eddie Murphy film in a ten position ballot. Really, Arthur? Who is this, Liza? Like, thanks for the feedback.
Horacio uses the word writing liberally, letter too for that matter:
What about The Ring guys???? I hate horror movies , I saw that one as a mistake, I went to the theater late , I didnt see the posters, I just sat there once the move was started , expecting some spys movie or so...and the. Here I am writing this letter. THE RING
Wrong list, Horacio. Certainly you are referring to our project from a couple years ago, BOP's 50 Favorite Horror Films. We put that together just as The Ring was coming out, so it wasn't really eligible. However, Chris Hyde gives it a shout out in his introduction. Looking back, it's a no-brainer inclusion and arguably the best horror movie to come out in the last several years. Like, thanks for the feedback.
Tim offers a good summary our most eggregious exclusions:
I agree with most of your picks for favorite 80's movies, but it's hard to believe that not one of the following movies made the list: 1. The Blues Brothers (c'mon now!) 2. The Breakfast Club 3. When Harry Met Sally 4. Dead Poets Society 5. Mississippi Burning 6. Beverly Hills Cop 7. The Natural 8. Fletch 9. National Lampoon's Vacation 10. Rain Man
It is hard to argue with any of the films on your list, Tim. I even voted for a couple of them myself in The Blues Brothers and Fletch. Like, thanks for the feedback.
Andrew is perplexed with some of our choices, but offers a perplexing one of his own:
You people, honestly. War Games? Field of Saccharine? Say Anything? Say Anything? SAY ANYTHING???? This list deserves a very large capitalised OMG. How on Earth did you miss a film like Crocodile Dundee, the 13th most popular film (BO) of the 80's? Just to name an obvious omission.
Yes, Crocodile Dundee, how could we have missed that one? I love the part where, because he's from a foreign country, what would seem normal to us is strange and different to him. Plus, remember the part where the bad guy pulls out a knife, and Crocodile Dundee is all like, "That's not a knife, this is a knife" and he pulls out an even bigger, Australian style knife? Well, that was awesome. Like, thanks for the feedback.
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