Agent Palmer

In 1982, two years before Charles in Charge teamed up Scott Baio and Willie Aames, they were together in Zapped!, a cheesy 80’s science fiction romp if ever there was one.

It had everything a teen 80’s movie required: a heartthrob as the lead character Barney Springboro played by Baio, a best friend played by Willie Aames, high school drama, your standard teen angst, a crazy old wise-cracking character in Scatman Crothers as Dexter Jones, a standard Eddie Deezen playing a geek character, your typical 80’s tunes and, well, lots and lots of boobs.

On Sept. 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy addressed the United Nations General Assembly in which he can be quoted as saying, “Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness.”

This was three years before his assassination would move the original release date of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, which was eventually released on Jan. 29, 1964.

The third and final installment of The Hobbit, is more a bridge to the initial Lord of the Rings trilogy then farewell fanfare to The Hobbit trilogy, at least that’s how I see it.

There are two ways to look at this movie, as an end to the trilogy of The Hobbit or as the third act in a six part play. It’s much better overall to look at it as the latter, because of all of the extra stuff added into this trilogy to make it a bridge from one trilogy to the next.

I just can’t see it any other way.

How many movies can claim to have a star studded cast, an amazing soundtrack, and a football game named after them? One: The Big Chill.

Released September 30, 1983 starring Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, Meg Tilly, and JoBeth Williams, The Big Chill is about a group seven college friends reuniting following the untimely death of one of their friends in South Carolina. It’s about an extended weekend with estranged friends, with explorations of life, death, money, loss, gain, sex, and love.

WarGames is a classic 1983 American Cold War science-fiction film. The film is about hacker David Lightman, played by Matthew Broderick, who unknowingly hacks into the United States Military WOPR (War Operation Plan Response) computer when trying to get early access to some ProtoVision video games.

What is it about this movie that makes it a classic and one of my favorites? Is it the acting? The plot? The Lesson? The Nostalgia? It’s a wonderful combination of the acting, the plot, the lesson, and most recently the nostalgia that sets it apart for me.