Welcome to an exciting year-long project here at The Nerdy. 1982 was an exciting year for films giving us a lot of films that would go on to be beloved favorites and cult classics. It was also the start to a major shift in cultural and societal norms, and some of those still reverberate to this day.
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We’re going to pick and choose which movies we hit, but right now the list stands at nearly four dozen.
Yes, we’re insane, but 1982 was that great of a year for film.
The articles will come out – in most cases – on the same day the films hit theaters in 1982 so that it is their true 40th anniversary. All films are also watched again for the purposes of these reviews and are not being done from memory. In some cases, it truly will be the first time we’ve seen them.
This time around, it’s October 22, 1982, and we’re off to see The Man from Snowy River and Piranha II: The Spawning!
Quick side note: Since we launched this series this year, we’ve discovered that Vintage Video Podcast is doing the exact same project with two differences: First, it’s audio (naturally), and second, they are doing every major film. We’ve listened to numerous episodes and it’s fun checking off their thoughts against my own. Check them out over at Vintage Video Podcast.
The Man from Snowy River
I know that The Man from Snowy River has its fans, so I’m just going to say you might as well turn away now.
I;ll say this for the film, it looks pretty. And then, at that point, I kind of want to stop. This felt so much like a television movie that I should have found on Hallmark one night by chance. The romance storyline is sophomoric at best, and that just plays into the entire film being corny at every turn. There is nothing in this film that makes you sit up and take notice except for one thing, and it does that for all of the wrong reasons.
When you’re going to put Kirk Douglas in dual roles, at least make it worth it. I still don’t understand why he needed to play both roles when they weren’t supposed to be twins. And never mind leaving me confused for the first 10 minutes or so thinking they were the same character in different parts of their life. “Oh wait, did he lose all of his money? … or is about to make all of his money?”
The movie didn’t work for me really on any level, and that’s disappointing.
Piranha II: The Spawning
I really went into Piranha II: The Spawning expecting to hate it. And while it is certainly as dumb as the name implies, it wasn’t without some charms.
Let me be exceedingly clear: I am not calling Piranha II: The Spawning a good movie. It’s not. It’s interesting from a low-budget horror aspect and the view that this was James Cameron’s first directing job. Yes, the guy who is now in love with blue people. And even he jokes about it calling it “the finest flying killer fish horror/comedy ever made.”
Yes, the fish fly. They were crossbred… it’s a whole thing.
Piranha II: The Spawning is worth a watch as an oddity if nothing more. You see one of the biggest directors of all time getting his start (Although he actually says he did very little of the direction and doesn’t consider it his first film), and you get to see flying killer fish. What isn’t too love?
It is definitely one of those films that circles around all the way from bad to good, but keep your expectations heavily in check.
1982 Movie Reviews will return on Nov. 12 with Creepshow, Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, and The Slumber Party Massacre!
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