I saw this movie years ago. Tried to watch it again a couple months ago. I had to shut it off after about 20 minutes in. Good god, I did not remember it being this bad. This movie could pass as a bad comedy, nothing else. To each their own..

LOL. This was an absolutely terrible movie. Totally implausable, and downright laughable in many parts. Even the combat scenes are laughably low budget and unrealistic. And, of course, the paranoid politics behind it make it even more ridiculous. It's an NRA fantasy come to life ("yup, we fought off them thar commies thanks to are right ta beer arms!") In fact, it's nearly as silly as the remake (which is laughable beyond belief! North Koreans? Heck, they'd line up a MacDonalds and Walmart before they ever got to shooting at us.)
But that being said, I have to say I enjoy watching it. The cast is good, and if you are willing to suspend absolutely any and all disbelief, it's entertaining. And always good for a laugh.

I love it, the libs that hate gun ownership are the ones that hate it.

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I was six when this movie came out and I can't really remember when I first viewed it. It could have been in the theaters or shortly thereafter at home on VHS or HBO. I grew up with this movie and I can honestly say gets better each and everytime I watch it. Yeah there is flaws in it, but they are redeemed by two scenes. Thomas Howell going out yelling Wolverines and Harry Dean Stanton yelling "Boys, avenge me! Avenge me!!!!!" Those two scenes are iconic of 80's cinema.
"Were changing from a code 3, direct pursuit, to a code 347completely lost due to incompetence"

It helps to watch and view the movie as a fantasy film and NOT a literal, political film that both the left and right try to use to adore/discredit the film.
I view as a fantasy film and an entertaining, dirty, grungy one at that.
The remake on the other hand looks to be a politically correct, pussy footing, glossy model of a film with no substance.
It looks pretty, all the characters look hot and not dirty or grungy looking at all in hope I suppose of gaining that key teenage demographic.
Unfortunately the people behind the remake forgot what the hell they were remaking in the first place.
A fantasy war film, not a film where we look at hot people in a poor attempt to be like Michael Bay's glossy looking films.

I just watched this movie and it surprised me. I watched the trailer before watching it and I thought the trailer was really silly, but the movie is nothing like the trailer. There's actually some good scenes with good dialogues and acting in there.

What most people miss in this movie is that Washington D.C. and several other cities were wiped out by nuclear strikes and also the Chinese were our allies but over half of them were wiped out by nukes. Paratroopers were dropped from fake commercial airliners to seize key positions. Cubans in Mexico defeated opposition and came up from there. I see so many actual movie reviewers and critics who have missed this important bit of information that is given by LTC Tanner in the movie.

Apparently they think the human race has evolved so much in the last 200 years that our country (or any country) is no longer under threat of an invasion by a foreign country.
The US is safe not because of any evolution in humanity, but simply because neither of the United States' neighbours have ever been capable of an invasion on their own and because an invasion from overseas has simply not been possible sine before the middle of the nineteenth century. You'd need to scrap most of the US navy and a great deal of the Army and Air Force for it to be at all feasible. Nothing at all like that is being contemplated.

I've always enjoyed the way they portrayed the invasion. The scene where the teens hide from a passing Huey at the petrol station always has that striking feel of realism.
If only the remake followed the same style, but having seen the trailer, it looks more like a popcorn action flick.

I find it frightening that there are people who mock this and don't see the value in the messages within. Apparently they think the human race has evolved so much in the last 200 years that our country (or any country) is no longer under threat of an invasion by a foreign country.
because obviously countries don't do that kind of thing anymore, right?
Watch this movie and "Machete" back-to-back and you will no longer be a doubter.
My "#3" key is broken so I'm putting one here so i can cut & paste with it.

I was 4 when this movie came out, so I had to wait a few years to see it. I liked the movie and still do. It has some good messages.

You are not alone among strangers, a way has been chosen.

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I love it. I just finished watching again.
Slinky + Escalator = Endless Fun

It is far from an excellent movie.
To echo a lot of already posted commentsit's cheesy, poorly acted, unbelievable to an extreme, downright bloodthirsty at times.but i still Love it !
I was just out of college when this came out and i thought it was pretty silly then too. But i have seen the thing no less than 30 times and i will again.
Guilty pleasure maybe? Whateverit just entertains me so who cares if it's really a "good" movie or not.

Let's see, I was 16 in 1984. When I first saw it, it certainly wasn't the best movie I'd ever seen, but I liked it. Even then I found the plot to be a tad difficult to buy into, but like some other posters already mentioned, in an era when we felt like at any moment it could literally be raining nuclear missiles, it made one feel (for a helpless teenager) empowered. Like, "hey I could do that!"
Whenever it's playing on TV, I usually watch part if not all of it. The on-screen TV guide thing gives it 1 starLOLI mean, yeah it's cheesy. But in a good 80s kinda way. Probably most of the people bashing it are too young to remember 1984. If I was only 20 now, I'd probably be saying the same thing - "I don't get it. It's an awful movie." In this day & age it must seem like a very silly movie.
|{(V)
I can't understand your crazy moon language.

I loved it then, I love it now, it gets too much hate from revisionists.
Well said, HyperU2! Couldn't have put it better myself.
"Good night, and grease for peace."

I loved it then, I love it now, it gets too much hate from revisionists.

I was a teen and loved this movie. At a time when people were still on edge about a possible war with the Russians (albeit a nuclear one), this was a movie that came out with decent timing, a cast full of up-and-coming actors, and the sort of 80s David vs. Goliath mentality that made so many films of that era fun to watch.
Forget the naysayers. Some people are only happy when they are unhappy.

I was in 5th grade when I first saw it. Watched it again recently. There's some pretty heady stuff in there amongst the action having to kill a friend because he sold you out, for example. Flawed movie, indeed, but those that go to extremes to debase this movie are either disingenuous or extremely poor at being objective.

My dad was a teenager when the movie came out and now i'm watching it and its a pretty good movie 7/10 stars at least.

Well, this waste of celluloid had no respect for history or even common sense. Only a card carrying loony from the Birch society or the NRA could like this piece of fecal matter, even at age ten. And since this was made while the US was invading Nicaragua in support of that invasion, it is particularly obscene.

I was a teenager in 1984. The movie was a fun ripsnorting action flick for an American boy. History just hasn't been kind to it.

I don't know that I'd call it excellent, but it's certainly entertaining.