Caddyshack (1980)

Four knockout comedic performances by Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight and Bill Murray carry a Marx brothers-style farce set at a snobby golf country club. Chase and Murray improvised most of their dialogue, including their only scene together — ever.

d: Harold Ramis | imdb.com | trailer | Chase vs. Murray
Be the ball. | Cinderella story | A little poem | Dinner at Bushwood

Airplane! (1980)

A spoof of disasters films, specifically the “Airport” movies and “Zero Hour” (1957), this comedy standard is sophomoric and really funny. Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves and Leslie Nielsen are outstanding, satirizing dramatic versions of themselves.

d: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker | imdb.com | trailer
Don’t call me Shirley. | I speak jive. | Rex Kramer | Johnny

Urban Cowboy (1980)

John Travolta rounds out his dance trilogy (“Saturday Night Fever,” “Grease”) with a two-step at Gilley’s, a real-life country bar with Charlie Daniels and a mechanical bull, which Travolta rides right out of his volatile marriage to sexy Debra Winger.

d: James Bridges | imdb.com | trailer | You wanna get married?
Bud and Sissy get married. | Sissy rides the bull. | Swallow his pride.

Where the Buffalo Roam (1980)

Bill Murray does a great Hunter S. Thompson, throwing away every line in a mumbled monotone. The film is funny but too safe in its sketch comedy-style humor. Peter Boyle plays Thompson’s attorney (Carl Lazlo, Esq.), and Neil Young provides the score.

d: Art Linson | imdb.com | trailer | Super Sunday | For writers ...

Hero at Large (1980)

The film wants to say something about fictional super heroes and everyday ones — “people putting themselves on the line for other people.” John Ritter is engaging but not enough to save a script that needs some real substance to counter its cloying optimism.

d: Martin Davidson | imdb.com | trailer