Stuck on the 80s: movies and series to take you back to the future

Ah, the 80s… a decade where neon-coloured garments were worn during the day, hair was an architectural endeavour and everyone loved The Cosby Show. This was an otherworldly time before the internet, when synth music ruled and an actor played President of the United States for eight years running!

The 80s may be fondly remembered and regularly mocked for its collective naivete but it’s also an era that brought us some epic movies and TV series. Many lucky enough to have been a part of the travelling circus that was the 80s will probably sing, hum or smile if you play them the theme tune to Cheers, The A-Team, MacGyver or Murder, She Wrote.

It’s in this same nostalgic and playful spirit that we share movies and series streaming on Showmax that will take you back to the future. 

The Hardy Boys S1

Many of today’s “old”  people had something known as a “library card” in the 80s. Before e-commerce (and before the name of the world’s biggest jungle was appropriated to sell papery things made from self-same trees), you could go to a building where thousands of these were available, free! In exchange for your silence, you could roam about corridors of books as if you were doing a trolley dash. Ask your parents.

A popular detective series for brats was The Hardy Boys – now a series starring Rohan Campbell and Alexander Elliott as Frank and Joe. When kids grew tired of “reading” Asterix and Tintin, the intrepid investigative brothers provided a great escape into a “good, clean fun” world of small town crime-solving.

The series has been revived and adapted to television by Nelvana, the Canadian company that lovingly converted the Tintin graphic novels into a series of faithful animated adventures. Taking a page from The Goonies and more recently Stephen King’s It, The Hardy Boys is set in the 80s and has a nostalgic edge… bicycles, torches and milkshakes sold separately.

As we get to know the charming and intrepid Hardy boys over the course of the series, the suspenseful mystery is unfurled. Instead of investigating stolen bicycles, the boys trail clues that lead them to more information about their mother’s untimely death as they stumble upon a secret society. It’s totally tubular!

Girls Can’t Surf (2020)

Girls Can’t Surf is a sports documentary (or “docco”, which will make sense soon) that chronicles the emergence of the professional era of women’s surfing. Taken from an Aussie perspective (ta-da), probably something to do with most of the world champs originating from Down Under, this entertaining film captures the highs and lows of the time with a special focus on the 80s.

Through interviews with surfers about their glory days, we get a broad overview of the sport, inequalities, challenges and surf politics. While this docco could have been as dry as day-old toast made on a barbie, the filmmakers focus on the colourful characters whose honest interviews and hilarious chirps make for a rollicking time, no jokes, mate.

Dialling the DeLorean’s digital time thing even deeper into the 80s, archive footage of surf competitions and home videos keep things upbeat and fun in spite of the serious subject matter. Mostly blonde and blue-eyed, the interviewees recall the life and times from the joy of sporting achievement and livin’ the dream to the dizzying disappointment of constantly fighting the stigma of being a woman in a male-dominated sport.

South African-born Wendy Botha relocated from East London to Oz to pursue her promising surfing career. As just one of many absolute characters, her off-the-cuff comments are priceless as this bittersweet documentary opens up. Girls Can’t Surf is a compelling blast from the past and makes some powerful statements, comprehensively unpacks the history and shows how influential these early pioneers were in the sport.

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins barnstormed the superhero genre after unleashing a brilliant origin story film for Wonder Woman. If we’re honest, anchoring Diana Prince’s story in reality must have been one of the more difficult superhero stunts to pull off. When you break down most superhero stories they can sound dumb if not outlandish. Let’s contrast Wonder Woman’s longtime sidekick, for instance. Superman starts out as an alien baby from a planet he can’t stand, and Wonder Woman hails from an island where a perpetual ladies-only game of Survivor is on the go.

Supplanting the story in the time of a World War, Jenkins creates an out-of-time place where both foreign worlds can co-exist and even collide. Going for something similar, the sequel presents a new time and place – the starship 80s. While the Cold War saw tensions mount during this decade, it was a blissful time for the United States. George Orwell wasn’t a fan of the year, but 1984 has enough edge to give the movie title wings.

Set in this unmistakable time, the mis-en-scene is off the hook with the hair and wardrobe department going to town on the extras. Jenkins gives a knowing wink to the 80s but doesn’t become lost in the time’s comical faux sophistication or over-the-top style. Chris Pine’s makeover being the exception, organic and classic options enable the filmmaker to immerse us in the story without becoming distracted by stuff that used to hang out in your wardrobe.

As expected, it’s a spectacular and spellbinding adventure that captures the wish fulfilment, innocence and magic of the era. Trying to undo the chaos caused by a powerful artefact in the hands of a megalomaniac as Wonder Woman, Diana is also torn by her desire to rekindle an old flame.

The Glass Castle (2017)

It may come as some disappointment that The Glass Castle isn’t a sequel to Frozen. Our advice is to let it go. What you will find in this nostalgic throwback to growing up in the 80s is an honest and wistful drama based on the memoirs of Jeanette Walls and her poverty-stricken and unconventional upbringing. Come on, you know… Jeanette Walls?

While the drama captures Jeanette’s happier moments as the nomadic family lives on a whiff and a prayer, it’s not as fuzzy as The Wonder Years – in picture or sentiment. The Glass Castle also leans in to tell you about the more traumatic aspects of growing up in the Walls household under the influence of an alcoholic father (played by Woody Harrelson).

Glass is transparent. Walls… not so much. Through the power of metaphor we have a movie title that speaks to the fragility of familial bonds, the vulnerability of shared existence and works as a neat homage to the 80s band Glass Tiger. Just Google them. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (way too easy), who seems to be on a roll with Just Mercy and Shang-Chi, it’s a wonderful dramatic showcase for Oscar hunters Brie Larson, Naomi Watts and Woody Harrelson.

Harrelson may have played a happy-go-lucky bartender on Cheers but shows just how far he’s come since his days on the hit 80s sitcom. Now more likely to be a patron trying to avoid the dodgy beer nuts than to serve them, Woody steals scenes like Buzz Lightyear. A clapped-out station wagon, crowded swimming baths, rubbing two coins together… this movie brings the 80s rushing back in all their bittersweet glory.