The '80s were a turning point for Hollywood in several ways. High-concept fiction began emerging for the first time, introducing audiences to a range of fascinating narrative possibilities. This decade saw the rise of ultra-popular movies like The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Aliens (1986), fine-tuning the blockbuster framework established in the 1970s.

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'80s cinema incorporates a wide palette of genres, including thriller, horror, fantasy, drama, comedy, bildungsroman, action, and animation. Some of them have already been remade and rebooted with varying degrees of success, while others are still in production limbo. That said, there are more than a few '80s movies that deserve 21st-century remakes.

9 Akira (1988) Is A Forerunner Of The Anime Medium & The Cyberpunk Genre

Akira - Anime

As a precursor of the anime medium and the cyberpunk genre, Akira is generally considered to be one of the best movies ever made. The Washington Post's Richard Harrison praised the movie's exhilarating pace, writing that the story "moves with such kinetic energy that [the audience will] be hanging on for dear life."

Akira's kaleidoscopic visual aesthetic looks like something out of a fever dream, a hallucinatory sequence of flesh and metal that illuminates the murky depths of the human condition. A remake wouldn't necessarily be animated, and Warner Bros. has been planning a live-action Akira adaptation for quite some time now.

8 A Christmas Story (1983) Was Praised For Its Good-Natured Ambiance & Wholesome Themes

Ralphie tries to charm the store Santa in A Christmas Story

Bob Clark's A Christmas Story, starring Peter Billingsley as the endearing Ralphie Parker, is frequently ranked among the greatest Christmas-themed movies of all time. The film received universal acclaim for its good-natured ambiance, wholesome themes, and relatable characters.

A Christmas Story earned over twenty times its production budget through the box office as well as regular television airings. Critic Roger Ebert lamented that "A Christmas Story records a world that no longer quite exists in America," so a remake would need to incorporate 21st-century elements into the narrative.

7 The Central Subject In Working Girl (1988) Is As Relevant Today As It Was In The '80s

Melanie Griffith Working Girl

Sigourney Weaver and Melanie Griffith are the two central characters in Working Girl, a film that refuses to tiptoe around sensitive topics like workplace gender equality. The Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus calls Working Girl "a buoyant corporate Cinderella story," alluding to its superbly crafted plot and straightforward mode of expression.

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Working Girl talked about the "glass ceiling" long before the metaphor became a part of the cultural conversation. This film is arguably one of the easiest to remake, as its central subject is as relevant today as it was in the 1980s.

6 A Remake Of The Breakfast Club (1985) Would Need To Incorporate The Influence Of Social Media

Breakfast Club walk through the hallway to the song, 'Dont You Forget About Me'

The Breakfast Club set the benchmark for coming-of-age narratives in Hollywood, influencing countless movies and TV shows. Its iconic ensemble cast includes Molly Ringwald, Paul Gleason, Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, and Anthony Michael Hall, whose memorable performances made them an integral part of pop culture.

New York Daily News' Kathleen Carroll extolled John Hughes' directorial vision, stating that he "has a wonderful knack for communicating the feelings of teenagers." Remaking The Breakfast Club in the post-covid era is an interesting prospect, especially since social media and smartphones enter the equation.

5 A Raising Arizona (1987) Remake With Steven Yeun & Tiffany Haddish

Nicolas Cage's Raising Arizona character stands by a cradle

Raising Arizona is a breezy comedy with a surreal narrative, sustained by career-kindling performances from Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter. Time magazine's Richard Corliss praised the Coen brothers for drafting "a plot that keeps outwitting expectations." The criminal protagonists in Raising Arizona aren't really bad people, they just want children so badly that they're willing to kidnap one.

Raising Arizona embodies the uniquely quirky sense of humor seen in later Coen brothers' offerings, such as O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and The Big Lebowski (1998). A remake of this classic '80s gem would require the perfect replacements for Cage and Hunter, ideally Steven Yeun and Tiffany Haddish.

4 A Remake Could Fix The Problematic Elements In Weird Science (1985)

Weird Science could make a comeback

Weird Science captivated both audiences and critics when it was first released, although several aspects of the story haven't aged well in the slightest. In a review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin criticized Weird Science's childish premise, stating that the movie's "pandering is strenuous enough to be cause for alarm."

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Kelly LeBrock's performance as Lisa, a digitally created supermodel genie, is the highlight of an otherwise ridiculous film. There have been whisperings of a Weird Science remake since 2013, but it's currently unclear if Universal Studios actually plans to take the idea forward.

3 Stand By Me (1986) Is Heavily Saturated In '80s Nostalgia

The boys with their fists together in Stand By Me.

Adapted from Stephen King's The Body (1982), Stand By Me is a heartwarming tale of four boys and their decidedly morbid rite of passage. The movie obtained mixed initial reviews, although critical opinion has steadily improved over the last few decades. Stephen King was delighted by Rob Reiner's adaptation, calling it "the best film ever made out of anything [he's] written."

The nostalgic atmosphere in Netflix's Stranger Things owes a lot to Stand By Me's small-town dynamic. Hawkins, Indiana isn't very different from Castle Rock, Oregon. That said, remaking a film saturated in '80s nostalgia is likely to be an uphill climb.

2 Beetlejuice (1988) Entirely Depends On The Actors' Onscreen Chemistry

Beetlejuice cast image

Tom Burton's Beetlejuice is a radiant blend of comedy, horror, fantasy, romance, and drama, a cross-genre amalgam that gets weirder and weirder as the plot progresses. This film entirely depends on the onscreen chemistry shared by Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Catherine O'Hara, Winona Ryder, Jeffrey Jones, and Michael Keaton.

This comically combustible combination is going to be extremely difficult to reproduce with 21st-century actors, even though there are actors who fit each individual role. Michael Keaton's portrayal of the eponymous character received widespread acclaim, with critic Pauline Kael equating "his uninhibited comic performance" to "an exploding head."

1 A Dead Poets Society (1989) Remake Could Work With The Right Setting & Time Period

robin williams as mr keating inspiring his class

Dead Poets Society hinges everything on Robin Williams' character, a risky strategy that ultimately pays off. Pauline Kael described Williams' "performance [as] more graceful than anything he's done before," an opinion reiterated by retrospective reviewers. The movie was a massive triumph at the box office, earning $236 million over a budget of $16 million.

Dead Poets Society was nominated for multiple Oscars, winning Best Original Screenplay. A remake could work with the right setting and time period, although it might need to tone the melodrama down a smidge.

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