TV and movie watchers have always enjoyed examining the lifestyles of the rich and the famous. These films from the 1980s do just that.
1. Arthur (1981)
Starring Dudley Moore and Liza Minnelli, Arthur follows billionaire playboy Arthur Bach, forced to marry a woman he doesn't love. Otherwise, he's cut off from his massive fortune.
Bach instead realizes he's in love with a poor waitress and must choose between money and true love.
2. Less Than Zero (1987)
Less Than Zero tells the story of Clay (Andrew McCarthy), a first-semester college student returning home to Los Angelos after experiencing disturbing encounters.
Sadly, his former love (Jami Gertz) is passionate about his childhood friend (Robert Downey Jr.) and has developed a severe cocaine addiction. Clay attempts to help them sober up, but it's complicated by drug dealer Rip (James Spader).
3. Wall Street (1987)
On the 1980s Wall Street in New York City, Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) is an ambitious stockbroker who stops at nothing to get to the top. He befriends Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), a corporate thief who mentors Fox through insider trading.
However, things become challenging quickly when Fox's decisions threaten his father's (Martin Sheen) financial livelihood.
4. The Secret of My Success (1987)
The Secret Of My Success follows college graduate Brantley Foster's (Michael J. Fox) move to New York City to pursue a finance career. Sadly, when he arrives, the job position's been eliminated.
So he takes a mailroom job at his inept Uncle Howard's company. However, he begins moving quickly up the corporate ladder after posing as an executive.
5. Brewster's Millions (1985)
Brewster's Millions tells the story of Montgomery Brewster (Richard Pryor). After discovering his great-uncle has left him $300 million, he's tasked with a complicated set of rules to obtain it.
Brewster must spend thirty million dollars in thirty days without donating anything to charity or accumulating any new assets. He sets out to spend the fortune under the supervising eye of a paralegal.
6. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels follows two con (Steve Martin and Michael Caine) men in competition for swindling an heiress out of $50,000. Lawrence Jamieson (Caine) is a longtime resident of a luxurious resort in the French Riviera when Freddy Benson (Martin) shows up and complicates his hustle.
Jamieson challenges Benson to a winner-takes-all competition resulting in the loser of the swindle leaving town forever.
7. Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986)
Down and Out in Beverly Hills tells the story of displaced Jerry (Nick Nolte) at the end of his ropes. He drowns himself in a stranger's backyard pool before the homeowner (Richard Dreyfuss) pulls him out of the water, inviting him into his home. The film co-stars Bette Midler as Dreyfuss's status-obsessed wife.
8. The Toy (1982)
The Toy tells the story of an unemployed journalist Jack Brown (Richard Pryor) trying to make ends meet as a night janitor in an expensive department store.
On his annual visit to his father's and Louisiana millionaire U.S. Bate's (Jackie Gleason) store, Eric (Scott Schwartz) is allowed to choose any item he wants from the toy department. However, he chooses Jack as his playmate, who agrees to spend a week with Eric after being paid a large, convincing sum.
9. Trading Places (1983)
A modern take on Prince and the Pauper, this comedy stars Saturday Night Live alums Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd, along with Jamie Lee Curtis.
Two greedy investors perform a “social experiment” when they reverse the lives of one of their snobby employees with a con artist.
10. Overboard (1987)
Overboard is a riches-to-rags story that follows the story of an heiress (Goldie Hawn) falling overboard from her luxurious yacht in the middle of the night.
She recently employed a carpenter (Kurt Russell) to build a closet on the yacht, but she didn't like it, pushed him and his tools off the ship, and didn't pay him.
She wakes up in a hospital with amnesia, and after seeing it on the news, he picks her up, posing as her husband. He figures she can work off what she owes him. Oh, and the job comes with mothering three boys she's made to believe are her own.
11. Batman (1989)
In the second live-action Batman film, Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) leads a double life in Gotham City. He's a billionaire industrialist by day and a caped vigilante out for justice at night known as Batman.
This movie is the first in the Tim Burton Batman franchise. Jack Nicolson gives an outstanding performance as the infamous Joker. Batman must stop him before he “laughing gasses” Gotham City to their painful deaths.
12. Scarface (1983)
Scarface follows Tony Montana (Al Pacino) staking his claim in Miami, Florida's drug trade in the 1980s. He received a green card in exchange for eliminating a high-ranking Cuban government official.
However, he eventually becomes Florida's biggest drug lord, controlling all of the cocaine smuggling and taking care of anyone who stands in his way.
Source: Reddit.
This article was produced and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.