A lot of my friends love 80s movies and always recommend a lot of them to me. But unlike every other era, where great films of aged well, a lot of 80s classics seem forever trapped in the 80s, with some acceptions such as Platoon or Raging Bull or The Last Temptation of Christ, or something like that.
Sure, a good many films from the 80s scream 80s. Then again, 70s movies generally scream 70s, etc. I can usually tell when a movie was made (within about 3-4 years) by watching a few minutes of film. Lighting, framing, color, aspect ratio, camera movement, music, etc. give the game away pretty quickly. And some films that are definitively 80s are also definitively great (e.g., Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Terminator, Die Hard, When Harry Met Sally, The Big Chill).
The sociology of film in this decade was a hell of a lot of fun. There were still midnight movies. You could still do quirky movie things like watch Rocky Horror in any major city. There were still regularly 70mm prints on big screens. Audiences weren't checking their cell phones every 5 minutes. It was still regular for people to line up opening week for big releases. These were "must see" events. Home viewing was now on the scene to allow for watching films with friends or at parties at home, and a whole market of cheesy films emerged (direct to video), but this technology was emergent and no one was yet imagining that they would rather stay home to watch a VHS on a fuzzy CRT rather than on the big screen.
If I were from another time, I might pine for weekly serial cliff hangers. If I were from another place, I might report good times in watching schlock on 42nd Street in New York (i.e., "the Deuce"). But I am just an average person who grew up in the 'burbs that were so often featured in 80s films. But... ...I did see the original trilogy in 70mm when these films were released. I did get to see
Raider of the Lost Ark, ET, Blade Runner, The Terminator, The Thing, Dangerous Liaisons, A Fish Called Wanda, Star Trek II, The Princess Bride, etc., as new releases on clean prints on big screens.