One great thing about the 80s were the HK action movies. From John Woo classics like A Better Tomorrow and The Killer to the early Ringo Lam stuff like City on Fire and Prison on Fire. I love these flicks.
Like IDRM said, the 80s were a great era for sci-fi and action movies. Some more:
Indiana Jones trilogy
Blade Runner
Aliens
Die Hard
Back to the Future(~!)
Brazil
The Thing (!!!), John Carpenter movies in general. I gotta watch Big Trouble in Little China again.
I also love 80s war movies like Platoon, The Killing Fields and Full Metal Jacket. They had a more rough cinematography than today's movies for the most part, which works out very good with war movies.
The 80s also featured some of the finest animation ever made with Grave of the Fireflies, Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro and of course Akira.
Edit: Forgot A Chinese Ghost story, quite possibly my favourite asian movie.