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Tag Archives: 1980s

Valley Girl

Posted on August 29, 2022 by LizLocke
Image credit: Valley Girl, 1983

This week, let’s stop the world and watch a totally rad slice of SoCal life, Valley Girl (Disc/Download). If you ever wondered whether Nicolas Cage was a teen heartthrob, I am here to tell you, YES he was, and NO, his onscreen chest hair was not normal. But we love him anyway.

I thought I’d heard all the high school slang worth hearing after repeat viewings of Clueless, until I watched its 1980s precursor. As the “Juliet” of this Romeo & Juliet-inspired love story between Valley Girl and a Hollywood Punk, Julie loves to use choice phrases like “Gag me with a spoon” and “Like, fer-SHUR” during trips to the mall, the beach, and meals at the local diner. When she meets her bad-boy “Romeo”, Randy (Cage) at a party, he’s everything she shouldn’t want—he doesn’t wear pastels, he’s not likely to be voted Prom King any time soon, and his hair has a lot of product. But god, can he kiss. Seriously, young Nicolas Cage knew how to do a Hollywood Kiss, and forty years later, it still affects me.

But back to the slang. The language is what makes this film so endearingly funny, and I can’t help but think of how I’d use these words in my own life. These days, I’m in desperate need of a chill pill, but alcohol will have to do. You might think using a whole egg in a cocktail is grody, but I say that’s bogus. I use egg whites frequently, so like, why not a yolk? While watching Valley Girl, I recommend drinking this My Parents Are Gonna Flip! cocktail.

My Parents Are Gonna Flip!

2 oz Silver Rum

1 oz Pineapple Juice

1 oz Coconut Milk

1 oz Lime Juice

½ oz Simple Syrup

1 chopped strawberry

1 Whole Egg (yolk + white; no shell)

Strawberry Garnish

Muddle chopped strawberry in the bottom of a metal shaker with lime juice and simple syrup. Add ice, rum, pineapple juice, coconut cream, and egg. Shake vigorously for at least one minute to emulsify. Strain contents out into a separate glass and dump out the ice in the shaker. Put the liquid contents back into the shaker and shake hard again for 2 minutes to make it extra frothy. Strain into a glass filled with fresh ice. Garnish with a strawberry.

Another standout element to this movie (beyond Nic Cage’s make-out skills) is the soundtrack. With hits from The Psychedelic Furs, Men at Work, The Plimsouls, and Modern English, the track list will transport you to a time when popped collars were all the rage, and peanut butter sushi was served as an hors d’oeuvre. One more time, for emphasis—Gag me with a spoon!!!

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The Goonies

Posted on June 20, 2022 by LizLocke

Image credit: The Goonies, 1985

As a child of the 1980s, I feel a certain responsibility to honor the inexplicable love my generation has for The Goonies (Disc/Download). I may have come along too late to really understand why this movie was and is such a big deal (I was only two when it premiered), but nevertheless, people still go nuts for this group of extremely loud kids and their Pacific Northwest pirate adventure. Let’s pour one out and deconstruct.

Conceived by Steven Spielberg, directed by Richard Donner, and written by Chris Columbus, this movie was practically guaranteed to be a blockbuster. These guys know storytelling. The fact that the plot is 100% ludicrous doesn’t really matter—we must keep watching to see if these kids can find the pirate treasure hidden under an Italian restaurant, escape the criminals trying to murder them, and save their family homes from foreclosure. Where things unfortunately fall apart for me is with the character of Sloth, which seems like a lame excuse for special effects and makeup in a movie that doesn’t really need them. I would even argue that we don’t need the Fratelli family at all—there’s enough action surrounding the booby-trapped treasure hunt to keep things exciting. The whole movie is one giant Rube Goldberg machine full of adventurous production design that makes you feel like you just played a game of chutes and ladders, under a steady PNW drizzle.

Having never seen this before in its entirety (I know, I KNOW!!), I was delighted to find so many tiki influences. The pirate ship, Chunk’s Hawaiian shirt, all the skulls and buried treasure—it’s like Don the Beachcomber died and went to Oregon. On that note, let’s try a cocktail that’s perfect while counting your doubloons, the Pearl Diver.

Pearl Diver

1 ½ oz Gold Puerto Rican Rum

¾ oz Demerara Rum

½ oz Gold Jamaican Rum

1 tsp Falernum

¾ oz Lime Juice

1 oz Orange Juice

¾ oz Gardenia Mix (people with more time on their hands might want to make their own. I am not that person)

1 cup ice

Fresh orchid (for garnish)

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend for about 15 seconds, then strain through a wire mesh into a Pearl Diver glass filled with fresh crushed ice. Garnish with orchid.

Even though I don’t hold an abiding love for The Goonies like a lot of people my age, I recognize its impact. It was a movie that appealed to the youth market, but adults could feel comfortable enjoying it too. Perhaps that’s what’s given it so much staying power— ‘80s kids may have grown up, but we’re still looking for an adventure. Cheers!

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Fletch

Posted on June 13, 2022 by LizLocke

Image credit: Fletch, 1985

Y’all have no idea how much I struggled this week to find a movie that fully captures 1980s comedy. I went through a lot of picks, suffered through Girls Just Want to Have Fun, realized St. Elmo’s Fire was NOT the comedic Brat Pack follow-up to The Breakfast Club I thought it would be, before landing on that tall, tan mainstay of the ’80s, Chevy Chase. If you mistakenly thought the National Lampoon’s movies were the peak of his career, then let me introduce you to Fletch (Disc/Download).

Like a precursor to Jeffrey Lebowski and Doc Sportello, Irwin M. “Fletch” Fletcher spends his days bumming around the beach, pissing off cops, and becoming embroiled in rich white lady drama. Except the difference here is that Fletch actually has a paying job, as an investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times. He’s undercover trying to expose a drug ring when the wealthy Mr. Stanwyk (Tim Matheson) attempts to hire him for a murder/suicide indemnity plot. I can practically hear Billy Wilder’s laughter from beyond the grave. Using a variety of disguises, Fletch manages to sniff out the real criminal plot, involving the LAPD, a secret wife in Utah, and an ex-con named Gummy. It’s a wild neo-noir comedy full of hilarious one-liners, nods to classic film, and Chase’s trademark deadpan humor. Truly, I never thought this mainstay of my Saturday afternoon movie binges could pull off a Homeless Brody Jenner look, but the man is a chameleon.

Speaking of looks, Fletch has a lot of them. Everything from surgeon, to hillbilly airplane mechanic, to Lakers basketball player, to rollerskating spiritual leader. But my favorite disguise of all is Country Club Fletch, who wears his little white shorts and polo shirts like he was born to them. Let’s toast “Fancy Fletch” with this take on a classic Royal Bermuda Yacht Club daiquiri, a drink I like to call the Proper Attire.

Proper Attire

2 oz Aged gold rum

3/4 oz Falernum

3/4 oz Lime juice

3/4 oz Paula’s Texas Orange liqueur

Lime Wheel and Pineapple leaf (for garnish)

Combine Rum, Falernum, lime juice, and orange liqueur in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with lime wheel and pineapple leaf.

It makes me happy to know this movie has been in talks for a modern reboot because the character of Fletch is a joy in any era. But when it comes to representing the 1980s, you really can’t do better than the original. The Harold Faltermeyer score, the angry old Republican country club villains, dobermans as a security system… we really did have it all. Cheers!

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The Breakfast Club

Posted on June 6, 2022 by LizLocke

Image credit: The Breakfast Club, 1985

I’m halfway through my journey through late-20th century pivotal movie years, and after falling in love with the 1960s, then being terrified by the 1970s, it’s now time to turn my focus to the 1980s. Was it all greedy capitalists and neon clothes like nostalgia projects like Stranger Things and The Wedding Singer would have us believe? Was there an element of rebellion against the dark grittiness that preceded the era? Let’s turn to 1985 for answers, beginning with the maestro of teen angst, John Hughes.

For anyone who has ever spent a summer in Texas, The Breakfast Club (Disc/Download) will feel extremely familiar. Sitting in the air conditioning, fearful of being burned alive by stepping outside, you start to believe you’re one of these bored kids in high school detention all day. Although I can empathize with them, I’ve still never been blown away by the film as a whole. I understand it’s trying to be one of those movies where character development is more important than plot (the kind of film Richard Linklater makes so well), but I walk away from this feeling like the five main characters never really developed or changed. It’s fun to see Judd Nelson take on the authoritative Vice Principal, less fun to see him bully his classmates. Relationships and alliances are formed almost on a whim, and I frankly don’t buy that any of these people will speak to each other again when detention ends. But they had one unusual day together, and I guess that’s enough sometimes.

Speaking of unusual, Ally Sheedy makes a pretty weird cereal sandwich during the course of detention, so this week, let’s have a brunch drink fit for a teenager with terrible dietary habits. While watching The Breakfast Club, I recommend drinking this Captain Crunch Milk Punch.

Captain Crunch Milk Punch

1 1/4 oz Bourbon

1/2 oz Dark Rum

2 oz Milk

1/8 oz Vanilla Extract

1/2 oz Simple Syrup

Captain Crunch Cereal (for garnish)

Combine bourbon, rum, milk, vanilla extract, and simple syrup in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, about 30 seconds. Strain into a glass filled with fresh ice, and garnish with Captain Crunch cereal.

It’s extremely tempting to watch this movie and then ask the question, “Which one was I?” I suppose I was half-Princess / half-Brain, but maybe there was a dose of Basket Case in there too. The Breakfast Club is a movie I revisit every few years to see if it appeals to me more as I get older, and at this point the answer is still no. However, I like it enough to keep trying. On that note, save me a spot in Detention 2025, kids. Cheers!

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Staying Alive

Posted on September 20, 2021 by LizLocke
Image credit: Staying Alive, 1983

Two great things came out of the year 1983—me, and this week’s Cinema Sips pick, Staying Alive (Disc/Download). I know what you’re thinking: isn’t this the movie where John Travolta does hip thrusts next to Jamie Lee Curtis? The answer is no, that’s a weird little flick called Perfect. Which, I admit, is what I thought I would be watching when I put on Staying Alive. Nevertheless, my accident turned into a happy one when I realized I might be the only person on the planet who thinks this is a decent sequel to Saturday Night Fever. Allow me to make my case.

First, I think we’re far enough away from that Bee Gee’s disco fever dream to admit that while SNF had some gritty, hard-hitting moments, it was still John Travolta in a tight white leisure suit strutting his hips on a light-up floor. It’s cheesy as hell. So when Sylvester Stallone directed him to shake those hips again in a Broadway chorus line, why was that suddenly too cheesy? Any fan of Showgirls will be wowed by Tony Manero’s big Broadway debut in “Satan’s Alley”, and yacht rock fans will delight in the soundtrack, featuring the vocal talents of Cynthia Rhodes of Dirty Dancing fame. Honestly, I want to believe that Penny left the trauma of her back-alley abortion behind in the Catskills and reemerged twenty years later as a successful Broadway dancer. This all seems totally plausible to me.

Back when I covered Saturday Night Fever, I paired it with a Brooklyn cocktail, a lower borough version of the Manhattan. But now that Tony’s moved downtown, it’s time to class things up with this brandy version. While watching Staying Alive, I recommend drinking a Metropolitan cocktail.

Metropolitan

2 oz Brandy

1 oz Sweet Vermouth

½ tsp. Simple Syrup

2 dashes Angostura Bitters

In a cocktail shaker with ice, combine all ingredients. Shake well, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a twist of lemon, if desired.

Maybe I have an overly generous view of Staying Alive because I’ve been where Tony is (hell, at the time of writing this, I am Tony). I’ve crossed some hurdles in the road toward publication, but I still have a few more to go. Like Tony, I’m hustling, trying to make sure my dream stays alive. It can be a hard thing to accept the fact that not everyone can be “one of those people” who encounter success incredibly early in their lives. To feel like you’re not good enough, never going to be good enough, because it didn’t happen fast for you. Tony and I really have to work for it, but man—do we have potential. Cheers!

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Coming to America

Posted on May 17, 2021 by LizLocke
Image credit: Coming to America, 1988

There’s a rumor I’ve heard, and maybe you’ve heard it too. Apparently, a long time ago, in a land not so far away, Eddie Murphy used to be funny. You’ll forgive me if I’m skeptical—after all, I grew up in the era of The Nutty Professor. I know Eddie as the strange guy in the fat suit.  So when my husband sat me down and told me the comedian had starred in a really great 1980s rom-com called Coming to America (Disc), I decided to take a chance. And shock of all shocks—I loved it!!!

Although there are a few absurd disguises in this (Eddie as an old Jewish man? Pass.), for the most part Murphy keeps his juvenile gimmicks in check. As Prince Akeem, he’s surprisingly earnest for a man who has rose petals thrown at his feet wherever he goes. This royal yearns for true love instead of an arranged marriage set up by his parents, so he and man servant Semmi go to the most logical place for a future king to find his mate—Queens, NY! Once there, he finds shelter in a literal crime scene, a job at the local knock-off fast food joint (McDowell’s anyone?), and a sweet romance with the boss’s daughter. Rather than reveal his true identity, he pretends to be a poor immigrant student in order to ensure that his lady loves him for who he is instead of what he has back in Zamunda. Aside from some cringe-worthy scenes in a barber shop, this is a solid A+ rom-com that left me smiling from beginning to end.

Prince Akeem goes to great lengths to find his queen, but luckily you don’t have to. Just make this aptly named cocktail and pretend you’ve got Royal Bathers waiting for you in the shower. While watching Coming to America, I recommend drinking a Queen’s Park Swizzle!

Queen’s Park Swizzle

2 oz Aged Rum

½ oz Lime Juice

½ oz Simple Syrup

2-3 dashes Angostura Bitters

5-6 leaves Fresh Mint

Muddle mint in the bottom of a glass, dragging it up to coat the sides with oils. Add the rest of the ingredients and fill the glass 2/3 full with crushed ice. Use a swizzle stick to mix, until the outside of the glass becomes frosty. Fill the glass the rest of the way up with crushed ice, and garnish with more fresh mint.

If you’re curious about this film’s recent sequel (the oh-so-cleverly titled Coming 2 America– 🙄), don’t feel like you’re missing much if you decide to skip it. While it’s fun to watch some of these actors again, it in no way justifies having to sit through another Sexual Chocolate song. Randy Watson can stay back in 1988. Cheers!

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Cocktail

Posted on March 8, 2021 by LizLocke
Image credit: Cocktail, 1988

It’s finally happened– at long last, I have given in to the rallying cry of readers begging for a Cocktail cocktail. Or maybe I just got tired of having this 1988 cult classic reappear like a bad penny every time I type “movie cocktails” into Google. It should be Cinema Sips that comes up, goddamn it! So on a particularly uninspired week, I picked the lowest hanging fruit and gave Cocktail (Disc/Download) a shot. Verdict? Full of flair, with very low risk of hangover.

What do I mean by flair? I mean that Tom Cruise is juggling bottles and shakers like a circus performer in order to distract from the fact that this movie’s script is bananas. There is not one character to root for, and yet I can’t look away. I must know if “Cocktails & Dreams” will ever become a reality. I must try to understand why the lovely Elisabeth Shue would waste her time on a sleazy bartender in Jamaica. And above all, I must learn what the hell happened to TGI Fridays to turn it from New York craft cocktail hot-spot to airport den of desperation. Not all of these questions get answered (I’m still scratching my head about the Fridays thing), but that’s okay. It becomes clear early on that this movie isn’t interested in making sense, and we should just have a drink and enjoy the ride.

Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of all is that for a movie about cocktails, this one features a truly disgusting signature drink. The “Red-Eye” gets made frequently on screen, but fear not- I refuse to subject you to this concoction of tomato juice, beer, vodka, and a raw egg. Instead, I’m focusing on Tommy C’s time in Jamaica with a tropical drink that’ll make you feel like you’re saddled up to the wooden bar of your neighborhood Fridays. While watching Cocktail, I recommend drinking a Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri.

Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri

1 1/2 cups Crushed Ice

2 oz Rum

1 oz Lime Juice

1 oz Strawberry Simple Syrup (boil 8 oz strawberries with 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar until softened, then strain out solids).

1/2 oz Coconut Cream

Combine all ingredients in a blender, and blend until smooth. Pour into a hurricane glass, and garnish with a fresh strawberry and paper umbrella. Then sit and think about the guy who invented the paper umbrella, and how rich he must be by now.

Typically, I would not include coconut cream in a daiquiri, however for home blending, I find it helps with frozen drink consistency (and you can’t even taste the coconut). If you’re a longtime reader of this blog, you should be able to shout out the ingredients of all the drinks Tom Cruise has to master at the beginning of the movie. Nobody will have to tell YOU that a Cuba Libre is just a rum & Coke. And if you’re still learning, that’s okay. Cinema Sips is my Cocktails & Dreams, and it never closes. Cheers!

*For more Tom Cruise, be sure and check out the Tommy C Appreciation Club on moviejawn.com! Cinema Sips is proud to be a member :-).

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Footloose

Posted on January 15, 2018 by LizLocke

Footloose

Image credit: Footloose, 1984

I recently got an email from a Cinema Sips reader who politely pointed out that I have zero Kevin Bacon films on this website. I thought surely this can’t be true (six degrees, and all) but she was right! All these years I’ve been ignoring this hunky staple of American cinema and drunken party games. Of all the films in Bacon’s canon, nothing says party quite like Footloose (DVD/Download). After all, the ending is basically one big glitter bomb. Of course it needs a cocktail!

I’ll confess, Footloose has never been one of my favorites. Is it a musical? A teen comedy? A discourse on censorship and the rise of evangelicalism in our country? After watching it again, I’m still not sure what this movie is trying to be. However, Kevin Bacon is a joy to watch in just about anything, and his scenes with Chris Penn always make me smile. As the new kid in town, Bacon’s city-slicker character Ren could have gone the tortured artist route, never connecting with anyone. But immediately, he gets his posse together, and they unite under the goal of overturning the dance ban in backwards, rural Bomont. I couldn’t believe there would ever be a ban on dancing anywhere in America, but research tells me that this was once an actual thing in Oklahoma. Remind me never to go to the midwest Bible Belt- when Beyonce comes on the radio I can’t be held accountable for my actions.

Although the kids in this film are more interested in dancing than drinking, I personally think a little party punch can’t hurt.  While watching Footloose I recommend drinking a Ginger Pop Punch.

Ginger Pop Punch

2 cups apple cider

2 cups ginger beer

2 cups pomegranate juice

1/2 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup vodka

2 cups Prosecco

Fresh cranberries

Combine all ingredients in a punch bowl with ice. Garnish with fresh cranberries.

Ginger Punch

Footloose is such a celebration of music and dance that despite its shortcomings, it’s easy to see why this film (and its soundtrack) became so iconic. John Lithgow’s conflicted preacher does his best to drag down the entertainment level, but you just can’t stop that music. I know it makes me want to cut loose. Cheers!

 

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