In the 80s there were a few films that seemed to be sort of everywhere. I was a little young to actually go and see these films at the cinema but I remember seeing (presumably age-appropriate) trailers for them when I did go to the cinema - probably to see Willow or something. Because of their tantalizingly out of reach ubiquity and because they had adult themes that I didn't understand these films attracted or at least intrigued me. I also had older, cooler cousins who lived in the mighty metropolis - actually Watford but to my young self that was right smack dab in the beating heart of culture and it conveyed on them a jaw-dropping amount of urban sophistication to which I would never be able to aspire. And they would casually name-drop and even discuss these unreachable films making them even more desirable.
Only later when I was oder did I find out that David was so scared by Nightmare on Elm Street that he refused to go to bed for ages after seeing it... but at that point he was totally the arbiter of cool, teaching me the latest words each time we visited such as, for example "cool" to name one.
Anyway, I digressed a little there, back to the films; I guess I'm thinking of Top Gun, Crocodile Dundee, Beverly Hills Cop and, perhaps more than anything, with its neon title plastered across my memory of that time, Cocktail. What else should be added to that list?
Over time I saw all of those films except Cocktail and they I'd say they were pretty average at best.
Last week Cocktail was on, and as I'd half expected it was a slight story about a couple of wankers doing very little - despite the desperate attempts of the moronic chorus, the excitable camera and the empty soundtrack to hype it up, there is very little to be said about or gained from watching the big nose dwarf chucking some bottles around and grinning homoerotically at his partner. It seems to me that the the second I was able to understand the film I was old enough to see how empty and unsophisticated it was. I suppose it's possible that for some people there could be a lag between those two moments, but I don't get how that provided such a large audience for the film.
But it does seem that I'm feted to work my way through all these films with older wiser eyes, today Beverly Hills Cop is on and, I can say it's probably less shit than Cocktail, if only cos of Axel F, I think that counts as a recommendation with reservations. Got there I'd the end, phew.