It occured to me that alot of movies made in the last few years (probably starting with The Wedding Singer - which veered all over from, like 1979-1986) that are set in the '80s often tend to either blend the years together, or try too hard to scream "80s!".

For instance, I just watched 13 Going On 30, which was set in 1987, and the younger Jenna was really into Pat Benatar and had a huge crush on Rick Springfield (at the time "Jessie's Girl" was a 6 year old song, which she's watching on MTV). Her good friend, Matt, was also a big new waver listening to Talking Heads in the beginning of the movie. If someone were basing it off the first part minutes of the movie without knowing, they'd probably think it was 1984 or even the early '80s. ;)

Of course in real life, there's people into "older" things (I stuck with the '80s all throughout the '90s myself, and I still like the '90s now). But since movies and TV usually try really hard to be current so that people identify with them in the present tense, I just thought that was interesting.

P.S. Movies that were really made back then, of course alot of them scream '80s too, but in a more "natural" sense, if you know what I mean.

Why the h*ll would you want to watch some phony-baloney '80s wanna-be movie made in 2002 when you can as easily watch the real thing, like Ferris Bueller's Day Off or Sixteen Candles?

'80s movies made in the '90s/'00s are like '60s movies made in the '80s.  They only work if you weren't there.

Any monkey business is ill-advised!

Doc Brown: "One of those nostaligic places (movies), not done very well".

;)

Yeah the same thing happened with the 60s and still happens with the 60s.  Everyone listened to the Beatles, was a hippie and/or protested the Vietnam War.

Doc Brown: "One of those nostaligic places (movies), not done very well".

;)

Yeah the same thing happened with the 60s and still happens with the 60s.  Everyone listened to the Beatles, was a hippie and/or protested the Vietnam War.


Big 10-4 on that one, good buddy. My parents are late period Silents. They get more than a little annoyed when one suggests that the above applies to them, lock, stock and barrel.

I think The Wedding Singer seemed to have the music, clothes. hairstlyes, etc, right for that year (I think it was 1984 or 85). I only thing I question is the scene where Adam Sandler tells his ex-girlfriend to take off the Van Halen shirt. The transfer design was the same as my first VH shirt  back from 1979. I think when they do movies based on the 80s they need to research the it a little more.

If anybody watched the short lived That 80s Show might have noticed that they weren't correct with alot of stuff for that time period. For example the coffeemaker in the kitchen was the same model Mr.Coffee as the one I currently have. I remember what an 80s model coffemaker looked like and it wasn't that one.

For instance, I just watched 13 Going On 30, which was set in 1987, and the younger Jenna was really into Pat Benatar and had a huge crush on Rick Springfield (at the time "Jessie's Girl" was a 6 year old song, which she's watching on MTV). Her good friend, Matt, was also a big new waver listening to Talking Heads in the beginning of the movie. If someone were basing it off the first part minutes of the movie without knowing, they'd probably think it was 1984 or even the early '80s. ;)




that is one of my favorite movies....it gives me that warm, nostalgic feeling inside! :)

If anybody watched the short lived That 80s Show might have noticed that they weren't correct with alot of stuff for that time period. For example the coffeemaker in the kitchen was the same model Mr.Coffee as the one I currently have. I remember what an 80s model coffemaker looked like and it wasn't that one.



Alsosome comments like "Mash" being cancelled, but since "That 80s Show" took place in 1984, that show was already long cancelled.

Also some pop culture refereances were off, like on the Valentines episode they mentioned "Miami Vice", which wasn't on tv yet for several months.


Also many tv shows like "Grounded For Life" have flashback scequences of the parents as teens in the '80's.

I think The Wedding Singer seemed to have the music, clothes. hairstlyes, etc, right for that year (I think it was 1984 or 85). I only thing I question is the scene where Adam Sandler tells his ex-girlfriend to take off the Van Halen shirt. The transfer design was the same as my first VH shirt   back from 1979. I think when they do movies based on the 80s they need to research the it a little more.


But that kind of thing still happens every day.  I have a hat I wear every day, and it is a Pink Floyd hat, with the image from their "Dark Side Of The Moon" album.  I also have a matching T-shirt I wear on occasion.  I simply do not care that it is old, it is something I like to wear.

And until a few years ago, I still wore the concert t-shirts I got from various Weird Al concerts in the 1980's and early 1990's.  I even wore my "Weird Al In 3-D" concert shirt (1984) until around 1997 when I finallly retired it.  So somebody wearing a t-shirt or fashion after it is old or out of style is not nessicarily out of character.

After all, look at punk rockers.  They have come in and out of style many times over the years, but they still hang around.  Some drop the look then pick it up again, some never stop wearing the look.

Remember The Wonder Years?  Now that was a TV show that did it's research and got detail right.  You didn't even have to be around in the 60s or early 70s, you could just feel the authenticity they were striving for.  When that show first came on, I was 12 and for a while I wondered if it was actually made in the late 60s, just because it seemed so real.  Granted the older sister was a stereotypical weirdo hippie, but the show still felt authentic overall.  Good detail is like putting older cars from some years before in a movie set in 1987, and not just having 1987 models around.  

that is one of my favorite movies....it gives me that warm, nostalgic feeling inside! :)


Me too, I love that kind of thing. In fact, I'm also probably the only guy I know who likes it, lol (when it came out a couple years ago, alot of people at work I recommended it to were like "Oh man, that's such a chick flick").

It's such a good movie, even if the beginning looks more like 1983 than 1987. ;)


Another thing I read alot was people saying it's just a ripoff/modern female version of Big, but I actually preferred it and thought it was better done.

For instance, I like that Jenna actually time travels 17 years instead of simply getting older. There was some cool stuff about that, such as her response to Eminem being on the phone (i.e. "Plain! Umm, peanut!" ;D ), which is a believable answer for someone from the '80s. On the more serious side, she had to piece together everything that happened in the interim time. Mostly from Matt. This inspired her to change herself once she found out the type of person she'd became since her 13th birthday in the Original History. I did think it was nice to seem them become friendlier again in the second half of the movie (even if it wasn't a full blown romance).


Jenna was more believable as the misplaced kid/young teen than Josh was in Big. He just never struck me as a typical 12 or 13-year old of 1988 (based on personal memory as well as what I've seen later). He acted more like he was 8, although I'm guessing Penny Marshall did this on purpose so there was more of a "contrast" between him and having to live as the 30ish adult Josh.

The movies that work best in the '80s are those that have it as a background theme and aren't shoving it in your face. Like The Squid and the Whale. Anything that nostalgia is the point of invariably fails...That '70s Show succeeded because the '70s were a backdrop and not the point of the show. Also, inaccuracy bugs me alot. I think this persists in most movies made about any period with pop culture. They want to throw everything in. The Wedding Singer was a particularly bad culprit. Stuff in it like the "coolness" of new wave made it seem more like 1982 or 1983 than 1984 or 1985, from my knowledge of pop culture from then.

Remember The Wonder Years?  Now that was a TV show that did it's research and got detail right.  You didn't even have to be around in the 60s or early 70s, you could just feel the authenticity they were striving for.  When that show first came on, I was 12 and for a while I wondered if it was actually made in the late 60s, just because it seemed so real.  Granted the older sister was a stereotypical weirdo hippie, but the show still felt authentic overall.  Good detail is like putting older cars from some years before in a movie set in 1987, and not just having 1987 models around.  


Yeah, although I only saw pieces of a few episodes of TWY back in the day, it definitely made me aware of the '60s revival at the time when I was 6-7. That show, along with songs like "Touch of Grey" by the Grateful Dead and "You Got It" by Roy Orbison.

I know what you mean about some nostalgia movies not really being truly accurate with the era.

It's true that most TV shows and movies try to be current, and anything from more than 2-3 years before is usually depicted as silly and old. They'll often only feature or talk about it if they're making fun of it - i.e. some kid at school being a "dork" for being into a 1983 band in 1989. Although if you're really trying to be genuine with the picture, of course there's gonna be people into some older things along with what's brand new, and there'll be cars from 10, even 20 years ago on the road.

Maybe some filmmakers don't bother with things like that because they think nobody will notice or care.

The movies that work best in the '80s are those that have it as a background theme and aren't shoving it in your face. Like The Squid and the Whale. Anything that nostalgia is the point of invariably fails...That '70s Show succeeded because the '70s were a backdrop and not the point of the show. Also, inaccuracy bugs me alot. I think this persists in most movies made about any period with pop culture. They want to throw everything in. The Wedding Singer was a particularly bad culprit. Stuff in it like the "coolness" of new wave made it seem more like 1982 or 1983 than 1984 or 1985, from my knowledge of pop culture from then.


Well said, my friend. ;)

Yeah, That '70s Show included elements of the '70s, but didn't shove it in your face. In fact, the laid back feel among things like that made it seem almost like it could've actually taken place in the present (a few years ago), minus any tech and pop culture references of the interim, of course. Eric sometimes wore Tshirts from slightly older bands, like The Rolling Stones, too.

Conversely, That '80s Show was the other way around. Even from the promos, it seemed to scream "1984!" with all the references to giant cell phones, Lionel Richie, and the preAIDS sex atmosphere (i.e. there was a line about some guy being "bisexual" to mean he "might wake up with two women").

As cool as it looked to me, I had a feeling it wouldn't last since it was trying way too hard.

Me too, I love that kind of thing. In fact, I'm also probably the only guy I know who likes it, lol (when it came out a couple years ago, alot of people at work I recommended it to were like "Oh man, that's such a chick flick").

It's such a good movie, even if the beginning looks more like 1983 than 1987. ;)


Another thing I read alot was people saying it's just a ripoff/modern female version of Big, but I actually preferred it and thought it was better done.

For instance, I like that Jenna actually time travels 17 years instead of simply getting older. There was some cool stuff about that, such as her response to Eminem being on the phone (i.e. "Plain! Umm, peanut!" ;D ), which is a believable answer for someone from the '80s. On the more serious side, she had to piece together everything that happened in the interim time. Mostly from Matt. This inspired her to change herself once she found out the type of person she'd became since her 13th birthday in the Original History. I did think it was nice to seem them become friendlier again in the second half of the movie (even if it wasn't a full blown romance).


Jenna was more believable as the misplaced kid/young teen than Josh was in Big. He just never struck me as a typical 12 or 13-year old of 1988 (based on personal memory as well as what I've seen later). He acted more like he was 8, although I'm guessing Penny Marshall did this on purpose so there was more of a "contrast" between him and having to live as the 30ish adult Josh.



Yes, I thought it was really well written...just a very entertaining movie (and having Mark Ruffalo in it was an added plus ;)).

Me too, I love that kind of thing. In fact, I'm also probably the only guy I know who likes it, lol (when it came out a couple years ago, alot of people at work I recommended it to were like "Oh man, that's such a chick flick").

It's such a good movie, even if the beginning looks more like 1983 than 1987. ;)


Another thing I read alot was people saying it's just a ripoff/modern female version of Big, but I actually preferred it and thought it was better done.

For instance, I like that Jenna actually time travels 17 years instead of simply getting older. There was some cool stuff about that, such as her response to Eminem being on the phone (i.e. "Plain! Umm, peanut!" ;D ), which is a believable answer for someone from the '80s. On the more serious side, she had to piece together everything that happened in the interim time. Mostly from Matt. This inspired her to change herself once she found out the type of person she'd became since her 13th birthday in the Original History. I did think it was nice to seem them become friendlier again in the second half of the movie (even if it wasn't a full blown romance).


Jenna was more believable as the misplaced kid/young teen than Josh was in Big. He just never struck me as a typical 12 or 13-year old of 1988 (based on personal memory as well as what I've seen later). He acted more like he was 8, although I'm guessing Penny Marshall did this on purpose so there was more of a "contrast" between him and having to live as the 30ish adult Josh.


You know what, the innacuracies in 13 going on 30 didn't bother me to much.  I'm not sure why, perhaps it is because I too liked the movie and when you actually like the story then you become more forgiving of things like this.  I noticed the flaws of this movie immediately. 

I'm basically the same age as the character of Jenna, she was 13 in 1987, I turned 12 that year.  I knew who Pat Benatar was, but I didn't know who the hell Rick Springfield was in 1987.  Just never heard of the guy, I bet half the people my age didn't know who he was, becuase he was from 1981 and he didn't really having staying power where "Jesse's Girl" was still talked about later in the 80s.  It's a catchy tune, but that's about all you can say for it.  Bad came out in 1987, so why listen to Thriller?  I guess Jenna was supposed to be eccentric.  I also don't remember the candy they were eating in the movie, I do remember we ate a lot of candy, especially sweettarts, but not that one.  For this movie, these things somehow didn't rile me up too much, becuase the story and characters seemed so endearing.  I guess if you have a good story, you are allowed more screwups like this.  I suppose 13 going on 35 didn't sound too right for them, which would have been a more accurate title for this movie back in 2004. 

One thing I actually thought they got right was the clothes, they didn't go too overboard or anything.  The clothes seemed pretty close to what the reality was.  Plus when those "cool" older kids drove up in that old 70s car, that seemed accurate to me too.  There were a lot of souped up muscle cars from the 70s still lingering around in the 80s.  Something about that cool boy Jenna liked seemed disturbingly accurate as well, he actually seemed like was from 1981 as well.  His hair and style, but something about that felt right for him in 1987.  I can't explain what I'm saying.  I think I'm remembering some "out of time" kids from back then that looked early 80ish in the late 80s, but they were older and bigger so you didn't dare call them on it. 

I do like Big though, despite the character acting 6 years old.  Maybey it's because once again the character's age closely matched my age in 1988.  He was about 12 or 13, as was the Fred Savage character in Vice Versa.  Love those movies because it's from back when I was a kid in that age range during the late 80s.    

You know what, the innacuracies in 13 going on 30 didn't bother me to much.  I'm not sure why, perhaps it is because I too liked the movie and when you actually like the story then you become more forgiving of things like this.  I noticed the flaws of this movie immediately. 

I'm basically the same age as the character of Jenna, she was 13 in 1987, I turned 12 that year.  I knew who Pat Benatar was, but I didn't know who the hell Rick Springfield was in 1987.  Just never heard of the guy, I bet half the people my age didn't know who he was, becuase he was from 1981 and he didn't really having staying power where "Jesse's Girl" was still talked about later in the 80s.  It's a catchy tune, but that's about all you can say for it.  Bad came out in 1987, so why listen to Thriller?  I guess Jenna was supposed to be eccentric.  I also don't remember the candy they were eating in the movie, I do remember we ate a lot of candy, especially sweettarts, but not that one.  For this movie, these things somehow didn't rile me up too much, becuase the story and characters seemed so endearing.  I guess if you have a good story, you are allowed more screwups like this.  I suppose 13 going on 35 didn't sound too right for them, which would have been a more accurate title for this movie back in 2004. 

One thing I actually thought they got right was the clothes, they didn't go too overboard or anything.  The clothes seemed pretty close to what the reality was.  Plus when those "cool" older kids drove up in that old 70s car, that seemed accurate to me too.  There were a lot of souped up muscle cars from the 70s still lingering around in the 80s.  Something about that cool boy Jenna liked seemed disturbingly accurate as well, he actually seemed like was from 1981 as well.  His hair and style, but something about that felt right for him in 1987.  I can't explain what I'm saying.  I think I'm remembering some "out of time" kids from back then that looked early 80ish in the late 80s, but they were older and bigger so you didn't dare call them on it. 

I do like Big though, despite the character acting 6 years old.  Maybey it's because once again the character's age closely matched my age in 1988.  He was about 12 or 13, as was the Fred Savage character in Vice Versa.  Love those movies because it's from back when I was a kid in that age range during the late 80s.    


I loved Vice Versa probably the most out of all the late '80s "switch" comedies! 8) It felt the most authentic to me for how they might actually act if that were to happen in real life. That kid Charlie seemed more typical of how I remember older kids in the late '80s.

My best friend in early Elementary School was actually four years older than me (unfortunately I lost touch with him a couple years later - we both moved a distance away, etc). Also, the younger son of my parents' good friends used to babysit me alot. He was 12 when I was 6 or 7, and I recall him doing stuff like blasting Bon Jovi songs, talking to girls, or watching TV shows with me. My friend was like this too. That's probably why Josh seemed way too young in Big, although I enjoyed the movie nonetheless.

True, 13 Going On 30 did portray Jenna as being a little "different" (and her wanting to be cool like the Six Chicks - of course that led to her being self centered in the future). Perhaps they did the Rick Springfield thing on purpose to enforce how she was a little behind on her interests.

The whole concept about being out of time is weird, it could go both ways. In 1994 or '95 when I was 13, I was into alot of "up to date" things, but I also still listened to '80s music (especially stuff around 1984 I always liked, such as Bruce Springsteen and Hall and Oates) and hung onto NES games. I'm thinking those older guys at the party were a little like that.

For instance, I just watched 13 Going On 30, which was set in 1987, and the younger Jenna was really into Pat Benatar and had a huge crush on Rick Springfield (at the time "Jessie's Girl" was a 6 year old song, which she's watching on MTV). Her good friend, Matt, was also a big new waver listening to Talking Heads in the beginning of the movie. If someone were basing it off the first part minutes of the movie without knowing, they'd probably think it was 1984 or even the early '80s. ;)


There was such a thing as Friday NIght Videos that would show cool videos no matter when they were made.  Just cause Jessie's Girl was six years old in 87 does not mean it would not have been on TV

There was such a thing as Friday NIght Videos that would show cool videos no matter when they were made.  Just cause Jessie's Girl was six years old in 87 does not mean it would not have been on TV


Oh it's cool, I definitely agree if we're talking about a real life setting. Heck, I watched VH1 alot back in the early '90s which showed tons of '80s videos. Even the early '80s stuff that was basically a decade old was in decent rotation then.

I more meant it in the sense of the movie portraying "Jesse's Girl" as being cool at the time. Of course if that were real, there's no reasn Jenna couldn't like a six year old song, but I did find it interesting since movies usually try to be current with things like that.

That was the most surprising and dissapointing thing about 'Wedding Singer'..although there was a character dressing up like Madonna in her 'Like a Virgin' phase, the star, Drew Barrymore had a conservative bob hairstyle, with a middle part. She even wore a boring necklace which, if anything looked more'70s. They could have done sooooo much with her style.  :-[

That was the most surprising and dissapointing thing about 'Wedding Singer'..although there was a character dressing up like Madonna in her 'Like a Virgin' phase, the star, Drew Barrymore had a conservative bob hairstyle, with a middle part. She even wore a boring necklace which, if anything looked more'70s. They could have done sooooo much with her style.  :-[


I remember quite a few girls that wore hair like that.  Especially in the more rural areas.

When I lived in Idaho, most of the hair and clothing styles were 1-3 years behind what they wore in California.  I did not see my first "Valley Girl" until I moved back to California in 1982.  And by that time, the fashion was already dying off.  And when I went up there in 1995, the Grunge look was still going strong, even though it was already dying off in most of the country.

Even though the 80's are mostly remembered for the "Big Hair", quite a few gals also wore the "Pixie Cut".  I know that my ex was one of them, and that was in Los Angeles.