Demon City Shinjuku (1987), Having It All (1982), Somewhere Tomorrow (1983)

This was an interesting 80s anime - demons erupt in central Tokyo (of course), and infest it with evil. If mankind doesn't soon find a savior to battle the demon ninja who is bargaining with the devils, the whole globe will be given over to the demons. Uh oh.

Luckily our hero proves to be just such a savior, and along with his female companion and various sidekicks he does battle with demon after demon, fighting his way to the main bad guy. 

The animation is superb, the story is interesting, and the whole thing piqued my interest. Recommended. 

Creepshow 2 (1987), Mortuary (1983), Neon Maniacs (1986), The Heavenly Kid (1985), Liquid Sky (1983)

I remember seeing Creepshow and Creepshow 2 on Fox 5/45 on a Sunday at my grandmother's house. Back then, Fox was the upstart new network, and would run a lot of movies (must have been cheap) late at night and back-to-back-to-back on Sundays. 

Starchaser (1985), Frog Dreaming (1985), Green Ice (1981), The Ninth Configuration (1980)

Starchaser: The Legend of Orin is an interesting animated movie that plays like a mix of barbarian movies and Star Wars. Orin is a slave in the crystal mines, who one day finds a magic laser sword that summons a vision of a long-dead previous owner, who guides him to escape his bonds. Orin meets many new people, most of whom want him dead, and goes on a grand adventure before finally confronting The Big Bad Guy. 

Space Raiders (1983), The Sisterhood (1988), The Zero Boys (1986)

Of the two Corman-produced Star Wars knockoffs, I much prefer Battle Beyond the Stars; Space Raiders comes off as "what if Han Solo had to babysit a 10-year-old?" The plot is distressingly thin: 10 year boy (the same kid from Over the Top!! He's refreshingly innocent here, which is annoying in its own special way) stows away on a stolen cargo ship. The "space raiders" who steal the cargo ship discover him and argue about him fate: do they hold him for ransom? Bring him along? Kill him? The main raider takes a liking to the kid - the only person in the universe, he notes, who doesn't think he's a loser - and makes it a mission to simply return the child.

Battle Beyond the Stars (1980), Thunder Alley (1985), Grotesque (1988), Decline of Western Civilization II: Metal Years (1988)

For a really blatant Corman-produced Star Wars clone, this wasn't half bad! Probably because it crosses the Star Wars DNA with The Seven Samurai (!), which actually works out really well.

Our hero, Shad, is trying to save his planet "Akir" (named in tribute to Akira Kurasawa) from the evil Sador. He flies around in his talking spaceship (imagine the Millennium Falcon with C3P0 built in) recruiting various mercenaries and aliens, who all agree to help him for reasons of their own. Then, in one epic space battle, the end is decided. I won't spoil, but it hews closely to the Seven Samurai roots. 

Creator (1985), Nomads (1986), Never Too Young To Die (1986)

This was a strange one. I really wanted to like this movie - Peter O'Toole in his greasy perverse professor mode (trying to clone his late wife!), Vincent Spano as his fresh-faced assistant, Mariel Hemingway as the strong-minded young lady with her heart set on the professor, Virginia Madsen as the fellow college student that Spano falls hard for. 

UHF (1989), The Dead Zone (1983), Eight Men Out (1988), An Officer and A Gentleman (1982), Dirty Dancing (1987)

It took me forty years, but I finally saw UHF, a cult classic that all my childhood friends would quote incessantly. "Red SNAPPER!" "Conan... the Librarian!" "Gandhi... II!" and so on.