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.
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 April 23, 1982, and we’re off to see The Sword and the Sorcerer and Tag: The Assassination Game.
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 Sword and the Sorcerer
The Sword and the Sorcerer is one of those 1980s movies that seems to surface in just about every discussion of films from that decade, and for the life of me I can’t figure out why.
This was released towards the start of a lot of cheaply made sword and sorcerer movies that found a rich life in video rental stores. But that didn’t stop them from also getting theatrical releases, and that meant some real garbage made its way to the big screen.
In the case of The Sword and the Sorcerer, it’s a confusing film in search of a throughline. It’s at one point a revenge story, but at another point it has something to with the creature getting revenge… there’s a lot of revenge.
But the thing everyone remembers from this film is the tri-blade sword that could fire off two of its blades. This is never explained. You have no idea where it came from, why it exists, how many spare blades there are at any one time, you just get to go, “AWESOME! He just fired off a blade!”
It has found a cult following over the years, but as to why is completely beyond me. It’s video store garbage that should be left in the age it came from.
TAG The Assassination Game
TAG The Assassination Game follows a group of college kids playing a game that sounds just like the name of the movie. Each uses suction cup darts to take out their marks, and then they are tasked with going after that person’s target.
The film starts off as a bit of a college comedy/slash rom-com that somehow begins to turn into a slasher film. When the top dog of the game gets “killed” by accidental shooting, he loses his mind and decides to start killing his targets for real.
The most notable thing about this movie – other than how poorly it is lit the vast majority of the time – is the very young Linda Hamilton in the lead.
It’s a strange little movie that needed a stronger hand to figure out what it was going to be, and it definitely needed more competent people behind the camera.
1982 Movie Reviews will return on April 30 with Next of Kin and Partners!
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