How about I recommend some exciting older movies that the younger generation might not have had a chance to watch?
Do you find old movies to be kind of... slow? I know I do. Even when watching the classic Star Wars, I find it a little slow compared to today's fast paced movies. It's worse when I watch stuff from the 50's and 60's. Anyway, here are some great movies from the 80's that you definitely won't find slow!
Airplane! (1980) - The birth of deadpan comedy and precursor to movies like The Naked Gun series. It's basically a parody of 1970's disaster movies and is so saturated with sillyness that you can't help but belly laugh from beginning to end. And don't call me Shirley.
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - Everyone has heard of Indiana Jones, but have you seen the movie that began it all? A fusion of mystical Egyptology (which everyone finds fascinating), one breathtaking cliffhanger after another and just enough humour to keep it light hearted. There's no CG here - when you see someone inches away from being run over by a moving truck, there really IS a stuntman inches away from being run over by a moving truck! This realism adds more to the excitement that you could imagine.
Thing, The (1982) - Horror tale of an artic outpost that encounters an alien something. It builds up the biohazard fear factor until it goes off the scale. Its amazing use of props and practical effects creates a creature gorier than the best of todays CG creations. Watching it, you'll be afraid to touch ANYTHING or trust ANYBODY. Forget the inferior 2011 prequel.
Terminator, The (1984) - This where the franchise started with Arnold Schwarzenneger as the infamous cyborg. The first thing you'll notice is that this is actually a low budget movie, but with James Cameron at the helm, he transforms the cyborg into the most relentless, terrifying assassin ever to hit the silver screen. The first half is a bit on the slow side (by today's standards) and feels like a typical police procedural, but the ending will leave you gasping for breath.
Back to the Future (1985) - A delicious action/suspense/comedy mash-up of what happens when a teenager accidentally goes back in time 30 years, meets his parents when they were teenagers and tears a hole in the fabric of the space-time continuum. Supported by the definitive mad professor who converts a Delorean sports car into a time machine. I wouldn't put this movie on this list unless it has laughs and/or pulse-pounding excitement beginning to end and in this case, it has both.
Aliens (1986) - IMHO, the best of James Cameron's movies. This is the movie that popularised the grizzled space marine trope. A group of badass soldiers armed to the teeth with hi-tech weaponry go to investigate a distant mining colony that has lost contact... and they get their butts kicked. The most relentlessly exciting movie that I've ever seen. Everything in Aliens franchise that came after this was sadly inferior.