Review of Class of 1984 (1982) by Gimly M — 07 May 2014

Although the seventies was certainly more the era for revenge flicks, the eighties certainly had their fair share, and if I'm completely honest, Class of 1984 does not stand particularly high among them.

But I really did enjoy it. It's nice to go back to some classic R-rated cinema with low expectations and have those expectations met. It may not sound like much of a compliment but Hell, it's better than most can muster. Sure it suffers from that standard catchall where you chuck the villains some Nazi references to make sure nobody can sympathise with them (which actually particularly aggravated me, because the next day they throw you a curve-ball with the leader of the villains by making him actually a three dimensional character, but his gang never amount to more than utterly moronic skinheads-come-punks), but I found its merits outweighed its downfalls.

It was one of Michael J. Fox's first roles (simply "Michael Fox" at the time) and I'm told presents a vision of Detroit, L.A and Chicago schools that is horrifically accurate to this day (having never seen them myself, I can neither confirm nor deny this). Doesn't matter, because what's important is that this dated piece does hold up to this days gauge for entertainment-value. Or at least it does mine.

65%.

-Gimly.