Since I had a fun time making a top 50 movie of all time list.  I might as well share my list of my top 50 from a decade where I almost watched every major movie so here is my top 50 movie of the 1980's list:

1. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

2. Aliens (1986)

3. Back to The Future (1985)

4. E.T. (1982)

5. Platoon (1986)

6. Das Boot (1981)

7. Raging Bull (1980)

8. Die Hard (1988)

9. Grave of The Fireflies (Hotaru no Haka) (1988)

10. The Elephant Man (1980)

11. The Thing (1982)

12. Glory (1989)

13. The Right Stuff (1983)

14. This is Spinal Tap (1984)

15. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

16. First Blood (Rambo Part I) (1982)

17. Airplane! (1980)

18. Police Story (1985)

19. Police Story 2 (1988)

20. Lethal Weapon (1987)

21. Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)

22. Poltergeist (1982)

23. The Goonies (1985)

24. Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)

25. The Shining (1980)

26. Amadeus (1984)

27. Scarface (1983)

28. Rain Man (1988)

29. Gremlins (1984)

30. Footlose (1984)

31. The Great Mouse Detective (1986)

32. Evil Dead 2 (1987)

33. The Evi Dead (1981)

34. The Neverending Story (1984)

35. The Terminator (1984)

36. Predator (1987)

37. Tootsie (1982)

38. The Fly (1986)

39. My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari no Totoro) (1988)

40. Back to The Future Part II (1989)

41. RoboCop (1987)

42. The Lost Boys (1987)

43. The Karate Kid (1984)

44. Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)

45. The Princess Bride (1987)

46. Rocky IV (1985)

47. Ghostbusters (1984)

48. Born on the Fourth of July (1983)

49. The Outsiders (1983)

50. Batman (1989)

Feel free to post your own list of your favorite movie of the 1980 it doesn't have to be a top 50 and you don't have to rank them if you don't feel like it.

A few honarable mentions most of which haven't been mentioned yet:  The Dark Crystal (1982), A Christmas Story (1982), Beverly Hills Cop (1984), Gandhi (1982), Spaceballs (1987), The Last Unicorn (1982), They Live (1988), The Dead Zone (1983), Do The Right Thing (1989), Coming to America (1988), Mask (1985), Revenge of the Nerds (1984) and Police Academy (1984).

1:  A Chinese Ghost Story (1987)

2: Full Metal Jacket

3: Wheels on Meals

4: Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo 

5: Armour of God (1986) 

6: The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)

7: God Of Gamblers (1989) 

8: Project A (1983)

9: The Quit Earth (1985)

10: As Tears  Go By (1988)  

11: Dragons Forever (1987)

12: Police Story (1985)

13: Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

14: Predator (1987)

15: Aliens (1986)

16: Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

17: Batman (1989)

18: Blue Velvet (1986)

19: Mad Mission aka Aces go Places (1984)

20: A Better Tomorrow (1986)

21: Tetsuo (1989)

22: Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars (1986)

23: The Neverending Story (1984)

24: Scarface (1983)

25: Heart of a Dragon (1985)

26: My Lucky Stars (1985)

27: Winers and Sinners (1983)

28: The Shining (1980)

29: Legend (1985)

30: Infernal Affairs (1989)

31: Kagemusha (1980)

32: Akira (1988)

33:  Das Boot (1981)

34:  Back to The Future (1985)

35: Poltergeist (1982)

36: Ran (1985)

37: Society (1989)

38:  Die Hard (1988)

39: A Short Film About Killing (1988)

40: Raging Bull (1980)

41: Project A part II (1987)

42: Wrath of the Khan (1982)

43: Cats Eye (1985)

44: Ghostbusters II (1989)

45: Time of the Gypsies (1988)

46: Conan the Barbarian (1982)

47: Short Circuit (1986)

48: Rambo (1982) 

49: RoboCop (1987)

50: Police Story 2 (1988)

It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. The first 9 are from my top 50.

1. (3) Blade runner, 1982, Ridley Scott
2. (7) Akira, 1988, Katsuhiro Ôtomo
3. (12) My neighbour Totoro, 1988, Hayao Miyazaki
4. (22) Brazil, 1985, Terry Gilliam
5. (26) Grave of the fireflies, 1988, Isao Takahata
6. (27) The last emperor, 1987, Bernardo Bertolucci
7. (30) Das boot, 1981, Wolgang Petersen
8. (35) The never ending story, 1984, Wolfgang Petersen
9. (44) The princess bride, 1987, Rob Reiner
10. Castle in the sky, 1986, Hayao Miyazaki
11. Nausicaa of the valley of the wind, 1984, Hayayo Miyazaki
12. The Abyss, 1989, James Cameron
13. The shining, 1980, Stanley Kubrick
14. Dune, 1984, David Lynch
15. The adventures of Baron Munchausen, 1988, Terry Gilliam
16. The dark crystal, 1982, Jim henson
17. Aliens, 1986, James Cameron
18. Willow, 1988, Ron Howard
19. Indiana Jones and the last crusade, 1989, Steven Spielberg
20. Who framed Roger Rabbit, 1988, Robert Zemeckis
21. The Terminator, 1984, James Cameron
22. Back to the future, 1985, Rober Zemeckis
23. Labyrinth, 1986, Jim Henson
24. Starwars V The Empire strikes back, 1980, Irvin Kersner
25. Indiana Jones and the temple of doom, 1984, Steven Spielberg
26. Back to the future part II, 1989, Robert Zemeckis
27. Star trek II The wrath of Khan, 1982, Nicholas Meyer
28. A fish called Wanda, 1988, Charles Chrichton
29. Raiders of the lost ark, 1981, Steven Spielberg
30. Wir Kinder von Bahnhof Zoo, 1981, Uli Edel
31. Legend, 1985, Ridley Scott
32. Ladyhawke, 1985, Richard Donner
33. Die hard, 1988, John McTiernan
34. The naked gun: From the files of Police squad!, 1988, David Zucker
35. Alice, 1988, Jan Svankmajer
36. Blue velvet, 1986, David Lynch
37. Rain man, 1988, Barry Levinson
38. The lathe of heaven, 1980, Fred Barzyk, David R. Loxton
39. Full Metal jacket, 1987, Stanley Kubrick
40. The thing, 1988, John Carpenter
41. Lethal Weapon, 1987, Richard Donner
42. Throw momma from the train, 1987, Danny DeVito
43. Christmas vacation, 1989, Jeremiah Chechik
44. Firestarter, 1984, Mark L. Lester.
45. The breakfast club, 1985, John Hughes
46. The black cauldron, 1985, Ted Berman, Richard Rich
47. Enemy mine, 1985, Wolgang Petersen
48. The last starfighter, 1984, Nick Castle
49. Planes, trains and automobiles, 1987, John Hughes
50. Romancing the stone, 1984, Robert Zemeckis

Nice list.  It wasn't hard for me either since the top twelve where from my top 50 movies of all time list.

I still had my short list from making the top 50, so that was 20 sorted already.
Then it was simply looking through a bunch of top 100 lists and checking what I have bought over the years or watch every time it's on tv.

I initially forgot Wir Kinder von Bahnhof Zoo, only saw it recently from the top 50 thread and didn't realize it was from the 80's. And I confused the untouchables with the usual suspects, easy fix.

I don't think I have seen Raging Bull, Glory, The right stuff, The evil dead 2 and The outsiders from your list.

You should definitely try to watch those movies I'm pretty sure you would like them.  As for The Oustiders I only own and watched the extended version and apparently a lot of people like the regular version better because they don't like the music that was added to the extended cut and the score that was removed but I thought the music fits the movie and with the extended cut you get to know the characters better.  Speaking of scores Glory and The Right Stuff are worth watching just for their excellent scores alone.

Love that List - May change change a few things round but its a pretty awsome list - i love the 80's.

finished my list I hope you guys find something interesting to watch

im so proud of myself :*D

finally someone lists that movies besides me lol

this was hard for me its my first top50 80s list.. never done it before :*(