Top 10 Cheesiest Movies from the 1980s

Featuring a down on his luck artist named Sonny, a magical girl coming to life from a drawing, and more neon than a dozen other films combined, Xanadu is quintessential 80s cheese. The fantasy musical tells the tale of an ancient Greek muse that arrives in Los Angeles in 1980 and inspires Sonny to create a fantastic roller-disco. The film was so reviled by some that it helped create the notorious Golden Raspberry Awards. Yet, the film, and its soundtrack, featuring star Olivia Newton-John and Electric Light Orchestra, earned a number of fans. In fact, it endures to this day as a cult classic.

Evil karate instructor John Kreese has fallen on hard times since his student lost a tournament and vows revenge against Daniel and Mr. Miyagi. Rather than enact it himself however, he calls a previously unmentioned Vietnam War buddy, Terry Silver. Being an 80s bad guy, Silver is naturally an evil billionaire with slicked back hair who casually discusses dumping nuclear waste and makes calls from his sauna on a very large cell phone. Bizarre elements include climbing down a cliff to save a bonsai tree, Ralph Macchio playing a teenager while in his late twenties, and a finale carbon copied from the original. It even had one of the best, and cheesiest, scenes of the decade with a deranged Kreese jumpscare.

Collaborating with Kurt Russell for the third time in the decade, Big Trouble in Little China finally allowed director John Carpenter to realize his dream of making a martial arts film. In addition to being a martial arts action film, Big Trouble was a comedy, fantasy, and monster movie all rolled into one. Russell plays normal guy and truck driver Jack Burton, who inadvertently gets caught up in an ancient battle between good and evil when trying to collect on a bet. That evil is of course the immortal and powerful Chinese sorcerer David Lo Pan, now residing in San Franciscos Chinatown, and played by fellow 80s legend James Hong.

Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis long held the film rights to a Flash Gordon adaptation. During the 70s, relative unknown filmmaker at the time, George Lucas, lobbied to make the film. However, De Laurentiis refused, preferring a more comedic take for the adaptation of the comic and film serial character. The effects paled in comparison to the space opera Lucas went on to make, Star Wars. The script for Flash Gordon was tonally confused and starred a complete unknown - all of which gave it a certain charm. Most importantly was the decision to forgo a traditional score for a soundtrack from glam rock legends Queen.

In this film, a technological genius, Chris Knight, would rather use his talents to invent floating lounge chairs and attend parties than work on his college assignment - a giant laser. However, after some light blackmail from his professor Hathaway, played by frequent 80s bureaucratic bad guy William Atherton, Chris and his roommate eventually create the laser. Of course, Hathaway is secretly working for the CIA and they plan to use the laser to illegally assassinate targets from space! This leads to a finale where the team of geniuses must stop the agency from using their invention for evil. In the end, they save the day and use the laser to pop a tsunami of popcorn in Hathaways house - all while Tears for Fears plays over the closing credits.

Based on the massively popular toy line from Mattel, and the subsequent animated series, the live action version of Masters of the Universe forwent the fantastical locations on planet Eternia for much of the runtime. Instead a scantily clad He-Man, played by a frequently overdubbed Dolph Lundgren, and his nemesis Skeletor, played by the over-the-top in the best way possible Frank Langella, traveled to a much more budget friendly 1987 California. The film faced a number of budgetary problems and restrictions due to Mattels tightening purse strings, leading to a final duel between He-Man and Skeletor that was shot in near darkness. Its no wonder that, despite a post-credits stinger, there was no sequel.

Taking place primarily in the far off year of 2019, the masses are distracted from the fascistic world they live in by a colorful blood sport on TV known as The Running Man. Criminals don bright spandex and must survive a deadly gauntlet to allegedly win their freedom. In their way are the stalkers, killers with outrageous costumes and weapons boasting signature themes and creative ways to dispatch their targets. Playing a cop framed for an atrocity by his government, Arnold Schwarzenegger understood the assignment and absolutely hams it up in a wonderfully over-the-top performance thats full of his signature one-liners.

A year after Return of the Jedi ended the original Star Wars trilogy, studios wanted to make the next great space opera - and quickly. So quickly in fact that The Last Starfighter was shot in just thirty-eight days. However, the film is not necessarily memorable for its production, but rather its post production. You see, it was one of the first films to use CGI extensively. This early use of CG firmly gives it an unmistakably 80s look. And seeing how its plot involves a talented arcade video game player using his skills to save the galaxy, it really could not have come out in any other decade.

Sly Stallone was in his fair share of cheesy 80s movies, finding more and more ways for him to show off his physique - not to mention ego. His overly serious demeanor as an action hero, along with his muscles, were on display for cheese-fests like Cobra, (xref) but on the premise alone we have to give this slot to Over the Top. Stallone, who also co-wrote the film, plays a long-haul trucker named Hawk. On a mission to reconnect with his estranged son the only way he knows how, Hawk partakes in some high stakes arm wrestling. Set to an electronic score by Giorgio Moroder, who teamed with Kenny Loggins for the films signature track, Hawk competes in the arm wrestling world championships in Las Vegas, looking for glory and redemption!

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.


Batteries Not Included (1987)
Little Aliens Save the Apartment Complex




UHF (1989)
Weird Als Magnum Opus


The Apple (1980)
A Biblical Allegory Musical Set in the Far-Off Future of 1994




Three O'Clock High (1987)
A Battle With an 80s High School Bully



Road House (1989)
A Peaceful Bouncer Rips Throats to Save A Small Town

The titular Buckaroo, a half-Japanese physicist, rock star, and neurosurgeon who acts as a test pilot in his spare time, has invented a way to travel through solid matter. However, a group of evil aliens, led by John Lithgow doing an Italian accent, seek to steal his device in order to bring their maniacal leader out of interdimensional exile. Cheesy elements include: an attempt to start World War III, a previously unknown twin sister of Banzais deceased wife that he falls in love with, and Jeff Goldblum in a cowboy suit - and thats just scratching the surface. The fact Buckaroo Banzai was even made by a major studio is kind of a miracle.



Which was your favorite slice of 80s cheese? Let us know in the comments below!