Heavy Metal (1981)

Chock full of impressive imagery and loaded with an epic 80s rock soundtrack, one would think Heavy Metal could do no wrong. Unfortunately, despite the ambitious animation, Heavy Metal falls flat. Told as several vignettes tied loosely together by an evil green orb, the film doesn't give itself enough time to develop characters, emotional investment, or even an overarching narrative. The framing of the vignettes didn't make any sense, and the inevitable destruction of it at the end was completely random. The creativity of the stories and settings is evident, and it was pleasant to see animation that was adult-oriented. The unfortunate byproduct of this surplus of creativity was a handful of irrelevant sequences to put the creativity on display. Another unfortunate byproduct of the film being "adult" oriented is that every woman gets naked and has sex with complete disregard for character, plot, or pacing. I know you're probably thinking "how could that be bad?" but after you've seen the first sex scene, the rest of them are the same. It just seemed like time wasted on juvenile self-indulgence.

5/10

Footloose (1984)

The 80s were a wonderful time for pop hits in film. In Footloose, you've got the gargantuan Kenny Loggins writing and performing two great hits as well as songs like "Let's Hear It For the Boy" and the dramatic (is there any other kind?) Bonnie Tyler song "Holding Out for a Hero." Kevin Bacon dances his way into conflict with a fundamentalist Christian town led by John Lithgow in a surprisingly well-rounded "villain" role. The film is cheesy, and it's hard not to be when full-length synth-laced 80s pop hits are playing every five minutes. When Kevin Bacon dances in the warehouse to his little car stereo, they don't even attempt to make the music sound like it's coming out of a car stereo. The instant he turns it on, it's already completely omnipresent and blasting full volume. This logic follows for every boombox and stereo in the film. And that's how hard they must have been pushing the Footloose soundtrack to sell. It worked.

7/10

Edit--corrected the title of the Bonnie Tyler song