These movies took the culture and politics of the '80s down a peg. The satire was biting, but it also could be funny or thought-provoking.

The '80s were one of the best decades for movies and saw the start of plenty of franchises that continue to this day, including Top Gun and Predator, which both saw successful sequels in 2022 that recaptured the decade's charm. Of course, not everything about the decade evokes fond nostalgia, and there was plenty to criticize about the decade, as well.

Many movies made since the 1980s have put the culture and politics of the era on blast and attempt to take the culture down a peg. The satire here can be biting, but it can also be funny or thought-provoking.

There were tons of great '80s action movies, but most of them were very overtly "American" in their themes and featured big macho men who were as overtly masculine as possible. While this genre has been parodied many times, the Hot Shots! movies arguably did it best.

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The first movie satirizes Top Gun, with the second lambasting Rambo and they take the genre's clichés and show them in a new light to mock them. One such scene is seen when Charlie Sheen yells manically while he fires his gun until the casings pile up waist-high. The intent here is obvious: the classic hero is instead shown as frightening and buffoonish instead of the hero who can do anything.

Hot Shots! didn't come out long after the '80s were done and so the nostalgia for a neon aesthetic and VHS tapes hadn't fully formed yet. As such, the comedy film Kung Fury might do a better job at satirizing the era's look, as everyone in it is wearing leather, denim, headbands, and mullets.

Part of the charm of '80s cop shows was their heightened tone. Shows like Magnum PI and Miami Vice added more action to their worlds to make them exciting. Kung Fury dials this up to 11, having its supposedly "normal" cop hero have a noir-style office, a talking car, and fight Adolf Hitler. These are all exaggerations, but call to mind Magnum PI, Knight Rider, and numerous '80s time-traveling films to both pay homage and poke fun at their over-the-top-ness.

Given the technology boom in the 1980s, it was inevitable that the technology-focused series, Black Mirror, would set a story there eventually, and Bandersnatch was just that, which satirizes the tabletop and computer game boom that occurred then. The film shows the attempts of the programmer, Stefan, to adapt the titular tabletop to the computer and sees his story branch into dark paths through the film's unique "choose-your-own-adventure" format, with every choice ending in failure.

Stefan feels like he's in control with his mastery of the then-emerging technology, but it's actually shackling him. Despite Stefan having so many options, the movie portrays the technology of the '80s as giving people more ways to fail rather than any way to succeed. It's a metaphor for the era's technology merely giving people false hope rather than success.

When it comes to DC properties that satirize the '80s, Watchmen is forever on top. It wasn't originally a film, though, so other DC works tried similar themes. Joker is perhaps the best example of this, being a clear tribute to the works of Scorsese and taking place in the decade with a literal clown protagonist who destroys society.

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The society of the '80s is portrayed as weak here, despite having confident, rich folks ruling it. Despite their power, a literal clown accidentally ends up taking them down at the end of the film. So, while the structures of the '80s seem unstoppable, even someone weak-spirited could destroy them and the movie criticizes the leaders of the era as being weak despite their bravado.

21 Jump Street is another satire of '80s cop dramas and it even bares the name of the franchise it's mocking. The original show was about two undercover cops infiltrating a crowded high school, which also allowed the original 21 Jump Street to have tons of guest stars.

The movie makes a lot of fun of the original premise and it's satire comes from the fact that the movie is largely a comedy rather than a police procedural, like the original. Tropes like the "tough guy" that was popular in the '80s are shown to be ineffectual in the modern day. The original stars even appear and joke about how the premise seemed cooler in the '80s.

Boogie Nights is the movie that put Paul Thomas Anderson on the map and satirizes the porn industry of the '70s and '80s by treating the subject with both glitz and dirty realism.

The characters are full of themselves, which leads to them getting in way over their heads and embroiled in some tough conflicts. The juxtaposition between the adoration of these porn stars and their situations is what makes this work a satire. The movie also takes a hard look at the overt cocaine use of the decades and portrays it with a gritty realism rather than as the glitzy party drug that it was so often during the time.

Computer Chess is one of the more obscure movies that parodies the '80s. It's based on real efforts to beat the world's best chess player with a chess-playing robot. The real effort was a significant event that took years and tons of effort, but the satire downscales the real-world event to a single college dorm room, making fun of the programmers by treating them as just stereotypical nerds.

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In the real world, the Pentagon took notice of the event because of the emergence of AI. The film pokes fun at this by making the Pentagon elite hang out with a bunch of dorky nerds who only really care about a niche goal.

Plenty of movies have satirized the technology, culture, and movies of the '80s, but sports were also a big part of the decade. This overlooked Andy Samberg comedy movie makes fun of the aggressive doping of the era by showcasing a Tour de France race that goes completely off rails.

The movie's plot starts with a public groping incident that leads to bribery. Neither of these is a concern of the race staff next to doping, though. The movie also satirizes the sexual lives of the athletes, who literally stop racing to have sex. It's a raucous comedy that never stops skewering '80s athleticism and the topics that surrounded the sports of the time.

Wet Hot American Summer was so successful that it spawned an entire franchise that included a documentary, music, and two miniseries. The film was initially a critical and commercial failure but became a cult hit in part due to its satirical angle that criticized the teen comedies of the '80s and the overall obsession with sex in those films.

The characters becoming so devoted to each other over such a short time is a big part of the joke of the film. Poking fun at the tropes in these '80s movies that juxtaposed themes of sexuality versus the innocence of youth is also on full display, but it also helps that Wet Hot American Summer is very quotable.

Corporatism was the real star of the 1980s. Wall Street was the king of the financial sector and every businessman wanted to be like the traders on it. The Wolf Of Wall Street film takes this glamorization and thoroughly debunks it. Not only is all a lie here, but it also shows how it can leave those who participate as broken shells.

The movie tells the story of the real-life stockbroker, Jordan Belfort, and recounts how he and his company's tales of rampant success were actually fabrications and fraud covered up by rampant corruption. It portrays its characters with almost no sympathy at all and yet doesn't glamorize their eventual downfall either. It's a satire that takes no prisoners when it comes to showing the moneylenders as morally (and sometimes literally) bankrupt. The cherry on top is that it's primarily based on the real Belfort's memoir, giving every chilling scene a sardonic edge.

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James W. Potvin is a freelance writer for Screen Rant. He has been making infographics about nerd culture for years and is excited to use that skill at Screen Rant. Screen Rant is his first professional writing job, but he has been working there for over nine months as of August 2022. He chiefly writes about video game content, but will also occasionally write about anime and comic books. In the past, James has worked in education. He loves video games, and his favorite is Kirby. His favorite anime is Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood.