Geek Movies From The Summer of 1982 - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn

The Summer of 1982 reviews wraps up with my favorite film from that summer.  Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn is a film I generally watch at least once a year possible more.  I can remember waiting in line and finding out it was sold out.  Then my parents decided to go to the next show.

It was a rainy Saturday and with so many good movies out at the same time the cinemas were filled to capacity.  At the time movies very rarely were in more than one theater so the crowds were huge and the lines were long.  Face it that June had a lot of great movies and the fans were out.

Geek Movies From The Summer of 1982 - Blade Runner

Blade Runner is a movie that you either love or hate (for the sake of this article I’ll be referencing the 1982 US original cut of the film).  I am in the camp of those who love Blade Runner.  Here you have Harrison Ford taking a departure from his normal role as Han Solo to play a grittier character in Rick Deckard.  As luck would have it this movie was released in between Empire and Jedi.  Blade Runner is a movie that I watched on video when it came out back in the early 80’s and have been a fan of it ever since.

Geek Movies From The Summer Of 1982 - TRON

Here is the last movie that was released for the geek cycle but not the last to be reviewed.  The last two are my favorites and those I will save for last.  But I do like Tron.  I really do and after watching it again on Blu Ray I just marveled at how awesome it looked.  It looked amazing with the bright colors and visuals of the computer world.  It looked really great.

Geek Movies From The Summer Of 1982 - Conan The Barbarian

Before he uttered the sentence that became his catch phrase with “I’ll be back’ Arnold Schwarzenegger was Conan The Barbarian.   Conan The Barbarian kicked off the summer of 1982 geek films and this movie isn’t all that bad.  Plus there is some good sword play in this movie also.

Geek Movies From The Summer of 1982 - E.T. The Extra Terrestrial

E.T The Extra Terrestrial was indeed the big money maker of the summer of 1982. E.T. was a movie with a PG rating and a family movie that everyone went to see over and over again.  In fact I know for a fact that my parents took me and my brothers to see this movie way back in 1982.  Yes it’s all coming back to me the Reeses Pieces, the tears, the bike flying and trying to do the same.

Geek Movies From The Summer of 1982 - The Thing

Here is a movie that I watched 30 years ago and did not like.  I often harass ShadoKP about it all the time.   I tease him all the time about it mainly because he is a big John Carpenter fan and I’m not.  Plus I love the original The Thing which starred James Arness and was actually called The Thing From Another World and was released in 1951. 

So for my voyage through the eight geek movies of the summer of 1982 I hemmed and hawed about watching it again.  It was a long time since I watched it quite possible 30 years since the last time.  Well I did and you know what?  I might have been wrong about this movie and a certain someone will be teasing me now.

Geek Movies From The Summer of 1982 - Poltergeist

Poltergeist was a movie that was billed as being really scary.  I remember my Dad renting this movie from the video store to watch one evening.  I wasn’t too impressed with it back in the 80’s (not sure if I saw it in 1982) and was kind of hesitant watching this Steven Spielberg written and produced (some say directed but that is a conspiracy theory of sorts) film again. But for the sake of the Summer of 82 reviews I marched on.

Geek Movies From The Summer of 1982 - The Road Warrior

Here we have the post-apocalyptic movie entry for the Summer of 82.  The Road Warrior stars a young leather clad Mel Gibson.  A Mel Gibson years away from making it big in Lethal Weapon and years away from revealing himself to be the complete nut job we all know him to be now.  But first he is starring in the sequel to 1979’s Mad Max.

The Geek Movies From The Summer Of 1982

The summer of 1982 has been heralded as one, if not the best, summer for movies.  Hell the whole damn year was pretty awesome for movies.   Films like Ghandi, Tootsie,  The Dark Crystal, 48Hrs and An Officer and A Gentlemen.  Heck a certain action hero had two movies out that year as Sylvester Stallone starred in Rocky 3 and brought Rambo to us for the first time in First Blood.   Stalwarts like Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson had movies out also with Firefox and Death Wish 2.  But I’m going to focus on a particular geek selection of movies that came out during the summer movie season. Now there won’t be any reviews in this article but more of a remembrance.  The reviews will come later and be more in depth.  Now let’s go back 30 years to 1982 and remember that summer of some of the finest movies to hit the geek world.