Through the Decades 10 Film Collection: 1980s DVD review

Apr 04, 2022- Permalink

Mill Creek’s Through the Decades 10 Film Collection: 1980s DVD set presents a sampling of ten films released between 1980 and 1989. Spread over four discs, these movies cover the spectrum from comedies and thrillers to dramas. The ten included films (with synopses from Mill Creek) are:

  • Like Father Like Son (1987) – An uptight doctor (Dudley Moore) struggles to relate to his trouble-making, laid-back son (Kirk Cameron) until an experimental potion causes them to swap identities.
  • Vice Versa (1988) – A wish made upon a mysterious Tibetan artifact causes divorced executive Marshall (Judge Reinhold) and his son Charlie (Fred Savage) to switch bodies, and they both find the other’s life isn’t quite so easy as they thought.
  • Roxanne (1987) – C.D. Bales (Steve Martin) has always been shy because of his abnormally large nose. To win over his love Roxanne (Daryl Hannah), he enlists the help of Chris (Rick Rossovich), a handsome man who Roxanne loves. C.D. uses his gift with words to write letters as Chris professing his love to Roxanne.
  • Punchline (1988) – Steve Golden (Tom Hanks) and Lilah Krytsick (Sally Field) meet on the New York stand-up comedy circuit and become friends, helping each other improve their acts. But when a competition comes to town with a star-making grand prize, their friendship may be left in the dust.
  • Who’s Harry Crumb? (1989) – A hapless private investigator (John Candy) stumbles and bumbles along the trail if a kidnapped young heiress (Renée Coleman), managing to get closer and closer to solving the case despite making mistakes every step of the way.
  • Blue Thunder (1983) – LAPD Pilot Frank Murphy (Roy Scheider) is assigned as a test pilot for the experimental Blue Thunder police helicopter, designed to pacify riots. But Frank soon begins to suspect there is more to Blue Thunder than he is being told.
  • Suspect (1987) -Defense attorney Kathleen (Cher) and jury panelist Eddie Sanger (Dennis Quaid) work together to prove Kathleen’s client (Liam Neeson) innocent in a murder case involving a judge’s secretary and corrupt officials.
  • Band of the Hand (1986) – Five teen criminals are shipped out to the Everglades, where a war veteran (Stephen Lang) tries to whip them into shape by teaching them to survive in the Florida wilderness. Also starring Leon Robinson, James Remar, Lauren Holly, and Laurence Fishburne
  • Little Nikita (1988) – On the hunt for a Soviet agent, FBI agent Roy Parmenter (Sidney Poitier) investigates the family of young Jeffrey Grant (River Phoenix), whose parents are both suspects. Things get complicated when Roy forms an unexpected friendship with Jeffrey.
  • The New Kids (1985) -Orphaned siblings Abby (Lori Loughlin) and Loren (Shannon Presby) move to Florida to live with their aunt and uncle to help run their amusement park. They soon find themselves at odds with a local gang of teenage ruffians, forcing them into a confrontation at the amusement park.

Mill Creek’s 1980s collection’s ten movies are contained on just four DVD discs, so be aware that these are not movies that will have the clarity or colour palette of an individual Blu-ray presentation and some compression artifacts are visible. If you’re willing to accept that, the presentations are okay.

On the audio side, the movies come with Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks. Subtitles are available for English. Again, because of the quantity of films, these are not lossless tracks but they do have clarity in dialogue and effects.

The collection does not come with digital code or bonus materials.

The Through the Decades 10 Film Collection: 1980s DVD set is perfect if you want a low-priced sampler pack of movies from the decade or are buying this for a relative who still might be rocking a DVD player and just wants a bunch of movies at a good price. Not everyone is buying the latest 4K with a restored scan and this type of collection fills that niche of the market.