Is it me or was James Spader’s character in Pretty in Pink,”Steff,” the coolest yuppie jerkoff in all of 1980’s American Cinema? In my book he’s the number two 80’s flick asshole after “Johnny” from Karate Kid. Steff’s the man, though. The guy’s in high school even though he’s thirty years old, he smokes everywhere just because it’s cool, he dresses better than any of the teachers (I think Banana Republic based their entire business plan after seeing Pretty in Pink), and treats his rich yuppie girlfriend like total shit in every scene they both appear in because he secretly wants to slum it and bang the poor girl. I’d like to believe that the character James Spader played in Secretary was originally supposed to be Steff grown up and taking out his frustrated yuppie desires on an aging, self-mutilating, less stuck-up “Andy,” but someone said “Maggie Gylenhaal would be hotter than Molly Ringwald” and they scrapped the whole plan for Pretty in Pink 2 and changed the character’s name to “Edward Grey” or something. To me, though James Spader has been playing Steff his entire career.
Does anyone else have a favorite 80’s scumbag?
hmmmm….I have to say that Iceman played by Val Kilmer in the 80s great “Top Gun” was a bit of an asshole. Some may say by the end of the movie he showed redeeming qualities. However, it was his attitude the whole movie that makes him so slimey. Val in general is slimey. It was almost as if he knew his career would end up in the crapper so he put all his machismo in one role. Too bad he was given lines like “the plaque for runner up is down the hall next to the ladies room…”. Oh, and that thing he did where he opened his mouth and chomped his teeth? That is homo-erotic for sure. Maybe Iceman was a closeted Navy pilot and would, therefore, have every reason to be an aggressive asshole.
Believe it or not, this conversation is more or less the one Kim and I had when we first met. Top Gun is the most subtley gay movie of all time. Period. That chomp thing in the locker room makes me more uncomfortable every time I watch it. And the volleyball scene makes me want to take a shower… ALONE. On the whole the movie is basically crap, but I can’t help myself when it happens to be on TNT or HBO on a Sunday afternoon. I have to watch it. The same goes for Summer School, the original Die Hard, and anything with Charles Bronson.
justin - you just slammed one of drew’s favorite movies.
80’s slumbags are cool.