RLLMUK's films of the Year - The Eighties (All results declared)

[Ork1927]

Sorry - this has gone a bit quiet, but I've pretty much written up 85 and 86 now as well as doing a fair bit of work on the last 3 years so expect to see some more results flying in this week-end.

 

 

[Ork1927]

1985

 

U.S Box Office

 

Back To The Future $210,609,762

Rambo: First Blood Part 2 $150,415,432

Rocky IV $127,873,716

The Colour Purple $94,175,854

Out of Africa $87,071,205

 

Best Picture – Oscar: Out of Africa

 

Best Picture – BAFTA: The Purple Rose of Cairo

 

A year with a lot of picks and a very 'eighties' year.

 

Best picture at the Oscars and 5th biggest film at the U.S box office was was epic romantic drama, Out of Africa directed by Sydney Pollack (who also won best director) starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. BAFTA winner was Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo. 4th at the box office was Stephen Spielberg's The Colour Purple adapting the Pulitzer prize winning novel of the same name. Spielberg's first historical/'serious' film chronicling the life of a black woman played brilliantly by Whoopi Goldberg. William Friedkin directed To Live and Die in L.A starring William Defoe,

 

Sly Stallone bagged the 2nd and 3rd biggest films of the year. In third was Rocky IV as he fights evil Russian, Ivan Drago played by Dolph Lundgren to win the cold war and then 2nd at the box office with Rambo: First Blood Part 2 where he wins Vietnam 2. USA, USA, USA!!! Michael J Fox's other film of 1985 was high school werewolf comedy, Teen Wolf which is not without its charm, but not as good as you might have remembered it.

 

Tim Burton made his directorial debut with the madcap Pee-wee's Big Adventure as Paul Reubens searches for his missing bike. Daniel Day Lewis starred in two films: My Beautiful Laundrette & A Room with a View. Joel Schumacher directed the critically panned St Elmos Fire starring half the brat pack. Claude Lanzmann directed acclaimed holocaust documentary, Shoah.

 

Numerous ‘younger’ kids films that I recall going to see at the cinema: Care Bears: The Movie; Sesame Street: Follow That Bird; Santa Clause: The Movie; Disney’s The Black Cauldron.

 

Indiana Jones ‘homage’ King Solomon’s Mines with Sharon Stone; A year previously was the Final Chapter so this year we get Friday the 13th, Part V: A New Beginning. Freddy quickly returned in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge. In the horror/comedy genre we had Ghoulies, Re-Animator and Return of the Living Dead. <Blue Oyster bar music>: Steve Guttenburg and chums returned in Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment and Guttenburg also appeared in Ron Howard’s Cocoon.

 

Chevy Chase had 3 movies out including his return as Clark Griswold for National Lampoons: European Vacation and teamed up with Dan Aykroyd for Spies Like Us. John Cusack starred in two teen comedies with Better Off Dead and Rob Reiner’s The Sure Thing. Roger Moore made his 7th and final appearance as James Bond in A View To A Kill while Mel Gibson made his third and final appearance as Mad Max opposite Tina Turner in Mad Max:Beyond the Thunderdome. Douglas, Turner and De Vito followed up Romancing The Stone with The Jewel of the Nile. Ridley Scott directed Tom Cruise in Legend as Cruise battles the terrifying Lord of Darkness (scared the hell out of me at the cinema) with Tim Curry playing a very different role to his other 1985 board game film.

 

Sam Raimi directed Bruce Campbell in Crimewave co-written by the Cohen Brothers; Madonna appeared in Desperately Seeking Susan; Jeff Goldblum in Transylvania 6-5000; Arnie turned up in Conan spin-off Red Sonia with Brigitte Nielsen; Mel Gibson made his third and final appearance as Mad Max opposite Tina Turner in Mad Max:Beyond the Thunderdome. Fred Ward as Remo Williams and Lawrence Kasdan directed quite the ensemble in Western comedy, Silverado (Kevin Kline, John Cleese, Kevin Costner, Jeff Goldblum to name a few).

 

Films that even if you never saw them at the cinema you certainly at least saw them sitting on the shelves at the video store with D.A.R.R.Y.L; Joe Dante’s Explorers and Dennis Quaid in Enemy Mine.

 

1 Point

 

Chevy Chase is investigative reporter, Fletch in a comedy adaptation of Gregory Mcdonald's novels. Tom Holland directs vampire horror, Fright Night with one of the decades great posters. Clint Eastwood directed and starred in Pale Rider: the highest grossing Western of the decade and Eastwood's first Western since 1976. Lars Hallstrom directs Swedish film My Life as a Dog following a 12 year old in the late 1950s. John Huston directs gangster film, Prizzi's Honor starring Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston who won the best supporting actor Oscar. Japanese noodle comedy western, Tampopo; John Boorman directs The Emerald Forest as a man searches for his abducted son in the Brazilian jungle. New Zealand film, The Quiet Earth following the survivors of a disaster that has wiped out everyone. Barry Levinson directs the rather good Young Sherlock Holmes which is notable for the first fully CG animated character (created by John Lasseter) and being one of the scarier PG films of the era. I'm still slightly traumatised by the mummification ceremony scenes. Another very scary PG film is Return to Oz; a very dark sequel to the Wizard of Oz which starts with a very bleak asylum scene and then gets even more dark.

 

2 Points

 

Martin Scorsese’s under-rated and fairly unknown After Hours. A black comedy about a man having a very bad night out in New York. Brazillian/American film, Kiss of the Spiderwoman directed by Hector Babenco and starring William Hurt. Considered by many as John Hughes’s best film and certainly his most iconic is The Breakfast Club as 5 very different teenagers spend time together in detention. Its considered one of the best High School films ever made. Finally, Harrison Ford starred in Peter Weir's excellent Witness as Ford goes undercover in Amish country.

 

3 Points

 

Rowan Morrison’s favourite is Death Wish 3 in which mother f*cking Charles Bronson cleans up the big apple by killing the gangs of New York. It also spawned a very violent (for the time) 8 bit computer game, where as well as killing dastardly gang members you could also shotgun the odd granny (not that I ever did that). Fitzcarrado’s favourite is Kurosawa's epic Ran, the story of a warlord giving his empire over to his three sons. At the time, the most expensive Japanese film ever made. And’s favourite is Weird Science - he second John Hughes film of the year as two geeks use their computer knowledge to create their perfect women who happens to be Kelly Le Brock. Robert Downey Jnr and Bill Paxton make early appearances on screen. Finally, George Romero’s third zombie flick is Day of the Dead as scientists and the army don't get along in dealing with the zombie plague.

 

4 Points

 

Jackie Chan directs and stars in what he considers his best action film in Police Story which spawned numerous sequels.

 

5 Points

 

Russian World War 2 drama, Come and See tells the story of a boy in the Soviet resistance fighting the occupying Nazis in a film acclaimed for its graphic portrayal of war.

 

6 Points

 

Originally, a 1902 novel remade into a movie numerous times, the 1985 version of Brewster’s Millions stars Richard Pryor as Brewster who has to spend $30 million in 30 days to inherit $300 million. He is assisted by best mate, John Candy as they come up with increasingly inventive ways of spending the money. It’s not considered a classic, but for me one of the only films I agonised over excluding as Richard Pryor and John Candy in a high concept comedy is a great combination and its swipe at politics is quite apt as Brewster’s None of the Above party would probably have done quite well in a few elections recently.

 

Goose’s favourite is Clue and if he doesn’t mind, in this instance, I’ll link to this article he wrote about it -

 

and also remind everyone to buy his whole book 80 from the 80’s containing more great articles on a host of films that I’ve rushed passed while doing this. It’s the only film of the 20 long articles in the book that he has picked as a favourite of a particular year and the director, Jonathon Lynn fact-checked it for him. So read Goose’s article and come back......... For my part, Clue is bloody brilliant, still holds up today with an awesome cast headed up by Tim Curry’s exceptional performance as butler, Wadsworth. Apparently, a remake is one the way which will be some sort of international mystery with hopes of becoming a franchise. Let us hope that it gets hung, shot, stabbed and battered before it comes to the screen.

 

9 Points

 

Hey you guys!! The Goonies. Based on a story by Stephen Spielberg (who was also executive producer); Richard Donner directs this classic adventure tale as a gang of kids go looking for treasure and find criminals, traps, pirates and Supersloth on the way. Its a cracking story with a great mix of action, laughs and the occasional scare with great villains in the Fratelli brothers and their terrifying mum. The kids are all great with distinctive personalities and screen time including early appearances from Sean Astin, Martha Plimpton and Josh Brolin and the traps gives it a junior Raiders of the Lost Ark feel.

RLLMUK's 3rd BEST FILM OF 1985

COMMANDO

15 Points

Favourite film of D ebolenk (9 picks – 1 1st, 4 2nd, 4 3rd).

From 1st place last year, Arnie loses out on 2nd place in 1985 on a tie breaker as he plays Col. John Matrix in forum favourite, Commando. Directed by Mark L. Lester: Matrix is ex Delta Force and also Arnie so kidnapping his daughter turns out to be a very bad idea for the bad guys who want to force him to carry out a political assassination. Making decent money at the box office, its Arnie's first contemporary role as a gun wielding good guy with a memorable turn from Vernon Wells as villain, Bennett. The film was originally written with Gene Simmons in mind!!. There were also a range of action figures released after the film to jump on the GI Joe bandwagon.

 

RLLMUK's 2nd BEST FILM OF 1985

BRAZIL

15 POINTS

Favourite of Dirk-beefhammer, Mr Do 71 & Cosmic_Guru (6 Picks – 3 1st, 3 2nd).

 

Beating Commando on 1st place picks is Brazil. Terry Gilliam's vision of a nightmarish, bureaucratic, Orwellian world with added incompetency and lots of pipes. Jonathon Pryce takes the lead aided by Robert De Niro, Bob Hoskins and Michael Palin in one of Gilliam's best and most visually memorable films. Like Bladerunner (as an aside – the happy ending tacked onto the original cut of Bladerunner uses footage stock for the Shining!) and Once Upon a Time in America, studio interference led to a shortened version with a happy ending being released in U.S (Europe got the proper version) with Gilliam taking out an ad in Variety to complain about Universal's treatment of the film.

RLLMUK's BEST FILM OF 1985

BACK TO THE FUTURE

54 Points

Favourite film of Azrael, Benny, Commander Jameson, Johnny Nolan, Lord Cookie, NeoElite, Nick R, Ork1927, papalasarou, Rsdio, Saberman, SeanR, CactuarBill, Arc'Tan'Gent, beenabadbunny & krenzler. (19 Picks – 16 1st 3 2nd)

 

1984’s winner was a sci-fi horror action thriller about an evil time travelling robot trying to change the past in order to make a post-apocalyptic future even worse. 1985’s winner is a sci-fi action high school comedy about a nice teenager trying to not change the past so that he still exists in the future while avoiding the advances of his Mum and trying to get her together with his peeping tom Dad with the help of a mad scientist. Which makes it sound a bit crap, but of course, it is anything but. The winner, and 2nd highest points scoring film of the decade (just) is Back To The Future which also topped the U.S Box office this year.

Directed by Robert Zemeckis (who co-wrote the script with Bob Gale) and produced by Stephen Spielberg (meaning films released in 1985 he produced this, Goonies and Young Sherlock Holmes as well as directing The Colour Purple) it is one of the best and most original films of not just the eighties, but of all time. Brilliantly and cleverly written, directed and executed, well-paced, funny and exciting with great characters brought to life by cracking performances by the cast from Christopher Lloyd’s Doc Brown, Crispin Glover and Lea Thompson as Marty’s parents (and parents to be) and Thomas F Wilson as (that) Biff (what a character). At the centre is Michael J Fox as Marty McFly (famously replacing Erik Stoltz after filming had begun meaning that Fox worked on TV show Family Ties during the day and BTTF at night) who is a rare leading man in the best films of the eighties who isn’t a scientist, archaeologist, Jedi, soldier, robot, superhero or in possession of powers of some sort. Just a normal teenager.

 

It is full of memorable lines, set-pieces, imagery, sets and props. The score is fantastic (bet it’s just not me that has it automatically playing in his head if you suddenly find yourself speeding on the motorway wondering whether to speed up a little bit more to hit 88 MPH?) with songs forever linked to the film (Power of Love, Johnny B Good, Earth Angel).

But, on top of all that, I reckon it might have the best third act of any film in terms of a mix of paying EVERYTHING off and jumping between tension and punch the air/hooray moments all enhanced by the awesome score. From the moment, Marty gets locked in the trunk and George says “Hey you, get your damn hands of her” we get:

- Biff attacking Lorraine and trying to break George’s arm THEN George knocking Biff out.

- Marty fading away as George walks away from Lorraine THEN George pushing that annoying ginger kid on the floor and kissing Lorraine/Marty stops fading and his sibling re-appear on the picture.

- Musical Interlude: Marty plays Johnny B Good playing off getting rejected in his audition at the start of the film.

- Doc Finds Marty’s letter/the DeLorean won’t start/Doc’s hanging from a clock THEN car starts/plugs connected/lighting strikes and Marty goes back to the future.

- The DeLorean won’t start again and Marty is too late to stop Doc getting killed THEN Doc isn’t dead after all!!!!

- And we aren’t finished there as Marty’s parents and siblings are no longer losers and even Biff gets some redemption as he has his own business and Marty has a shiny new jeep and is back with the girl who isn’t his Mum.

- THE END – Nope, in what has to be the best set up for any sequel ever – Doc returns, Mr Fusion!, “Roads, where we're going, we don't need roads”, the DeLorean flies into the screen and goes Back to the Future.

 

So, overall, I quite like it ;-)

[Rowan Morrison]

I almost felt bad while reading that for top-slotting Death Wish 3 in a year that included Come and See, My Beautiful Launderette and Ran, but then I remembered that in none of those films do any characters a] purchase a mail-order rocket launcher or b] kill The Giggler. So ultimately I stand by my choice.

[SeanR]

And obviously king Solomon's mines predates raiders by about 100 years and had been filmed a couple of times before.

 

And its Remo Williams. 

 

Sorry.

[Ork1927]

1986

 

U.S Box Office

Top Gun $176,781,728

Crocodile Dundee $174,803,506

Platoon $138,530,565

The Karate Kid Part 2 $115,103,970

Star Trek IV $109,713,132

 

Best Picture – Oscar: Platoon

 

Best Picture – BAFTA: A Room with a View

 

4th at the box office was The Karate Kid Part 2 which sends Daniel-san and Mr Miyagi to Japan in the usual not as good as the original sequel. Best picture at the BAFTA's was the Merchant Ivory adaptation of A Room With a View which also won BAFTAs for Maggie Smith and Judi Dench. French drama, Jean de Florette would win the BAFTA the following year.

 

Keanu Reeves made his big screen debut in ice hockey film, Youngblood, starring Rob Lowe & Patrick Swayze. Reeves also starred alongside Crispin Glover in River's Edge. Spike Lee directed She's Gotta Have it; Sean Connery and Cristian Slater were in The Name of the Rose; John Woo directed A Better Tomorrow; Harrison Ford was directed by Peter Weir in The Mosquito Coast; Kim Bassinger & Mickey Rourke were in the steamy, Nine and a Half Weeks; Martin Scorsese directs a sequel to 1961 film, The Hustler as Paul Newman & Tom Cruise star in The Colour Of Money.

 

An early role for Gary Oldman in Alex Cox's Sid and Nancy. Robert De Niro starred in The Mission with Jeremy Irons. Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins starred in Mona Lisa. Bryan Brown and Brian Dennehy in FX: Murder by Illusion: an interesting special effects/detective mash up. Francis Ford Coppola directed Kathleen Turner and Nicholas Cage in the Back to the Future-esque, Peggy Sue Got Married. Michael Rooker was not a nice guy in the controversial, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and Beatrice Dale was Betty Blue.

 

In animation, we have Don Bluth's An American Tail; My Little Pony: The Movie; Basil: The Great Mouse Detective and Gobots: Battle of the Rock Lords.

 

In comedy, John Landis directed the enjoyable Three Amigos with Steve Martin (who co wrote it), Chevy Chase and Martin Short. Martin also appeared alongside Rick Moranis in Frank Oz's brilliantly crazy, Little Shop of Horrors. Eddie Murphy has a modest hit in The Golden Child – a strange mix of Murphy comedy and fantasy. John Cleese was an uptight teacher in Clockwise; The Zucker Brothers had a hit with Ruthless People with Danny Devito and Bette Midler. Rodney Dangerfield went Back to School; Whoopi Goldberg and Jonathon Pryce in Jumping Jack Flash; Tom Hanks and Shelly Long fell into The Money Pit; Ivan Reitman directed Robert Redford in Legal Eagles and Gene Wilder directed and starred in Haunted Honeymoon.

 

John Hughes wrote, but didn't direct, Molly Ringwold and James Spader in Pretty In Pink. Steve Guttenberg and Ally Sheedy teamed up with a sentient robot named Johnny 5 in the memorable (at the time anyway)Short Circuit. Kate Capshaw didn't scream all the way through Space Camp and time travel shenanigans in Biggles.

 

In horror, we have evil creature films with Critters and Troll; the inevitable Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives; sequels with Poltergeist II: The Other Side and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and a haunted House.

 

A bad year for musicians turned actors as David Bowie stars in Absolute Beginners and Madonna in Shanghai Surprise. Both of which were badly received. Anthony Perkins directed and stared in Psycho 3; Arnie had a quiet year with the underwhelming Raw Deal while Stallone had better box office, but not any better reviewed with cop film, Cobra which he wrote after pulling out of Beverly Hills Cop. Finally, the very first Marvel movie to hit the big screen, with involvement from George Lucas, was Howard the Duck!! Marvel would obviously go onto better things, but not so much Lucas.

 

1 Point

 

Oliver Stone directed Salvador in his first of two films in '86 as journalist James Woods gets involved in the Salvadoran civil war. Jim Jarmusch directs Down By Law about three mismatched prisoners escaping jail. Talking Heads' David Byrne directs and stars in True Stories. C. Thomas Howell desperately tries to escape The Hitcher, Rutger Hauer. Clint Eastwood directs and stars in war film, Heartbreak Ridge. Orsen Welles final film was Transformers: The Movie which was jaw droppingly awesome if you were a fan of the comics/tv series with an insane body, erm..robot death count. Leonard Nimoy also did voice work on the film as well as starring and directing in the 5th biggest film in the U.S: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Much lighter in tone than the first three films as the Trek crew travel back in time present day, 1986 to steal some whales.

 

2 Points

 

Soviet sci-fi film Dead Man's Letters is the story of the aftermath of nuclear war on a small town. Woody Allen directs himself in Hannah and Her Sisters with Michael Caine and Dianne Wiest picking up the best supporting Oscars. Eric Rohmer direct French film, The Green Ray about a young women travelling around France. Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery chop off some heads in Highlander; Jim Henson directs Labyrinth with George Lucas involved as executive producer, Terry Jones on script writing duties and David Bowie writing songs and starring as the Goblin King opposite Jennifer Connelly and an insane amount of imaginative puppets. Finally, Michael Mann directs Manhunter which marks the first appearance of Hannibal Lecter on screen in an adaptation of Thomas Harris' Red Dragon. Brian Cox does the honours as the first Lecter opposite William Petersen.

 

3 Points

 

Narrowly losing out as the biggest film at the box office was Crocodile Dundee as Australian comedian Paul Hogan came up with an idea of an Australian bushman travelling to New York and raised the money to see if he could make an Australian film that would appeal to American audiences. Turned out it did more than that, becoming a global smash hit thanks to a funny and likable script and performance by Hogan. Just beating it to number one at the box office was Top Gun as Bruckheimer and Simpson produce another massive hit based on a magazine article. The film made Tom Cruise a massive star (Mathew Modine turned down the part of Maverick) and also starred Val Kilmer, Tim Robbins and Kelly McGillis. Fitzcarraldo picks Taiwanese film, The Terrorizers and finally, Flight of the Navigator – a great kids sci-fi/adventure film as boy meets alien spaceship and its robotic commander (voiced by Paul Reubens).

 

4 Points

 

Rsdio's favourite is David Lynch's dark mystery film Blue Velvet starring Kyle MacLachlan and a crazed Dennis Hopper alongside Isabella Rossellini and a severed ear.

 

5 Points

 

Lord Cookie's favourite is Hayao Miyazaki's animated classic, Laputa: Castle In the Sky: the first film officially by Studio Ghibli. Two kids go on an adventure to uncover the legendary last remaining floating castle.

 

6 Points

 

Ork1927's favourite is the John Hughes' classic Ferris Bueller's Day Off as Matthew Broderick decides to skip school and, rather than hanging around the park for the afternoon drinking 20/20, he decides a trip to Chicago might be more fun. Its arguably Broderick's best ever performance as the charasmatic Bueller, backed up by great turns by Alan Ruck, Jennifer Grey and Jeffrey Jones. Very funny, loads going on – its excellent.

 

9 Points

 

Rowan Morrison's favourite of 1986 is David Cronenberg's best known (and best performing at the box office) The Fly. A remake of a 1958 film, Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis find that teleportation isn't as easy as they make out on Star Trek in a great sci-fi horror film featuring Cronenberg's trademark body horror.

 

11 Points

 

Azrael & CactuarBill pick Stand By Me as Rob Reiner adapts a Stephen King short story to create an excellent coming of age tale as 4 school friends go looking for a body. Reinier was in the middle of his amazing run and the young cast are great creating one of the best Stephen King adaptations. Will Wheaton, River Phoenix and Kiefier Sutherland are among the cast.

 

RLLMUK's 3rd BEST FILM OF 1986

PLATOON

12 Points

 

Favourite of Johnny Nolan (6 Picks 1 1st 4 2nd 1 3rd)

 

Platoon was written and directed by Oliver Stone based on his own experiences in the Vietnam war. It won Stone best director at the Oscars as well as best film: a big reward for a film he had been trying to make for years with studios not believing there was any market in the 80s for Vietnam films. Widely considered one of the best war films ever made it starred Charlie Sheen, William Defoe and Tom Berenger. It was also a commercial success finishing 3rd in the U.S box office.

 

RLLMUK's 2nd BEST FILM OF 1986

BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA

13 Points

 

Favourite of D ebolenk & Goose (7 Picks 2 1st 2 2nd 3 3rd)

 

John Carpenter once again teams up with Kurt Russell to deal with Big Trouble in Little China in a fairly bonkers action, adventure, martial arts comedy about a trucker taking on an evil Chinese sorcerer with some help from Kim Cattrall. Some great action and Russell is excellent as usual against the fantasy elements. The film was fast-tracked to compete with Eddie Murphy's Golden Child.

 

RLLMUK's BEST FILM OF 1986

ALIENS

53 Points

 

Favourite film of And, Benny, Commander Jameson, Dirk_beefhammer, Mr DO 71, NeoElite, Nick R, papalasarou, Sabreman, SeanR, Arc'Tan'Gent, beenabadbunny, krenzler & Cosmic_Guru.

 

Winner of 1986 with the 3rd highest points total overall across the whole poll and giving James Cameron his 2nd win in three years is Aliens. Seven years on from Ridley Scott's fantastic original: Cameron takes the reigns and delivers a sequel as good, if not better. Sigourney Weaver returns and is again excellent as Ripley with a great supporting case including Bill Paxton, Paul Reiser, Michael Beihn & Lance Henriksen and the rest of the cast and most importantly, a shit load of Xenomorphs. Its a roller coaster ride of action, horror and sci-fi with loads of tension as Cameron delivers one of the decade's best film which he took inspiration from the Vietnam War and Starship Troopers.

[Commander Jameson]

Tim Robbins gets a mention in the Top Gun review, but Anthony Edwards misses out? Poor @Goose. 

[And]

I fucking love Aliens. It's awesome. 

I remember clearly as a kid being on holiday in Spain with my mum and little brother (being poor and northern, we went on the coach, which with hindsight was awful. )

There was this cafe bar that we'd go to in the evening that had a massive telly (for the time) and they'd show pirated films. 

 

One night they showed aliens. I'd seen a trailer or maybe just a poster in our local videoshop, I don't know what it was exactly - but for whatever reason I was terrified of this film. I must have been 10 or 11. Just the idea of it was scary. 

So I was obviously determined to watch it. 

 

It starts and I lasted as far as the point where the rescue team starts cutting through the door of the nostromo shuttle and I just get the fear and nope right out of there. 

Spent the next 2 hours in the arcade next door playing enduro racer and operation thunderbolt for 25pesetas a go. 

 

I watched her it a year or two later and was blown away by how awesome it is. And it truly is a masterpiece of science fiction. 

 

But Almost 30 years later my fear that night is still there. Still visceral.  Nothing has come close. 

 

 

I don't like scary films that much. But this was just different

 

 

[Commander Jameson]

I've got very strong memories of not just seeing Aliens (me and three friends in my bedroom, sat on my bed with our backs up against the wall, watching a VHS rental copy and one of them having tremendously bad BO that day), but also of Film 86 with Barry Norman and seeing a very short clip of Aliens (Ripley sorting her weapons out as she goes down in the lift). I distinctly remember how much my heart started beating faster and faster. I was practically frantic by the end of the clip when the lift doors opened.

[Goose]

That's how I felt seeing the short clip of Robocop on Film 87

[Rowan Morrison]

Aliens was the first film I got into underage. There were three of us, all barely 15, with zero hope of passing ourselves of as 18. The ABC was managed by a little character who'd been there for years - he used to become very irate during the Saturday Morning Cinema Club if people didn't stand for the national anthem (or if they stood up and then danced, as was often the case).

 

The ticket seller didn't give a damn, so we bought those fine. As we were heading down the carpet to the screen, the manager suddenly popped up. Hello, lads. How old are you, then? Oh, we're all eighteen, mate, just going to see Aliens, got our tickets here. He looks at us. We look at him. Hold your nerve. The door to the screen is right there. The door to the street is just behind us. We're all stood with our backs straight, eking out another few millimetres of height. We're just slightly taller than the manager. Several people who very clearly are at least eighteen pass by our little group.

 

Finally he nods. Enjoy the film. And we do! So here's to you, uptight cinema man, you delivered when it counted.

[Goose]

Robocop was mine - mate and I turned up in a our school shirts and despite the woman at the desk completely not buying we were 18, she still let us in, with the warning that if the police came, we'd told her we were 18. 

[Rowan Morrison]

12 minutes ago, Goose said:

Robocop was mine - mate and I turned up in a our school shirts and despite the woman at the desk completely not buying we were 18, she still let us in, with the warning that if the police came, we'd told her we were 18. 

 

THIS IS A BUST! That really would be the best viewing of Robocop in cinema history.

[And]

I've done a thread to collect these memories of illicit 80's video nasty viewing so as not to derail this thread. 

 

 

[Ork1927]

1987

 

U.S Box Office

 

1 Three Men and a Baby $167,780,960

2 Fatal Attraction $156,645,693

3 Beverly Hills Cop II $153,665,036

4 Good Morning, Vietnam $123,922,370

5 Moonstruck $80,640,528

 

Best Picture – Oscar: The Last Emperor

 

Best Picture – BAFTA: Jean de Florette

 

1987 is, for me, the best year of the decade. Loads of great films across most genres.

 

Starting with the top 3 at the U.S box office none of which had any picks. In reverse order is Eddie Murphy returning as Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop 2 which, like most cop action sequels of the era is alright, but not as good as the original. 2nd is Adrian Lynne’s steamy Michael Douglas thriller Fatal Attraction and the box office smash of 1987 is Three Men and a Baby which was a sort of 80’s likeable comedic leading men Expendables (but with no guns & explosions & violence & action) as Ted Danson, Steve Guttenberg and Tom Selleck combine forces to take on…… parenthood. Made loads of money, was an okay comedy 30 years ago, but I’ve no real interest in watching it again to see how good/bad it actually was. 1987 is broadly a year where quality and box office do not match up. Bernardo Bertolucci directed Oscar and BAFTA winning The Last Emperor an epic account of the final emperor of China spanning decades.

Richard Attenborough directs Denxil Washington and Kevin Kline in apartheid drama, Cry Freedom. Chow Yun-Fat starred in the John Woo directed A Better Tomorrow 2 as well as City of Fire (which would inspire a Mr Q Tarantino). Woody Allen directed Radio Days; David Mamet directed House of Games. John Boorman directed Hope and Glory based on his experiences growing up in London during WW2 while David Leyland directed Emily Lloyd in a post World War 2 seaside town in Wish You Were Here. Warren Beatty directed mega flop, Ishtar. Cher, Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeiffer were The Witches of Eastwick with Jack Nicholson. Kevin Costner and Gene Hackman found they had No Way Out in Roger Donaldson's clever thriller. Arnie's other film of 1987 is The Running Man: a loose adaptation of a Stephen King short story – its a great fun Arnie flick as he is forced to compete is a murderous game show. Oliver Stone directs Wall Street with Charlie Sheen, Daryl Hannah and a very famous turn by Michael Douglas as Gordon Gecko.

 

Some very good comedies without any picks: Steve Martin and Darryl Hannah team up in Roxanne, the very funny contemporary re-telling of Cyrano de Bergerac. One of two great performances by Steve Martin this year. His partner in that other great performance was John Candy who starred in Mel Brooks’ Star Wars spoof, Spaceballs with Bill Pullman and Rick Moranis. Its full of funny and stupid stuff and the best Star Wars related film until JJ Abrahams got involved last year. Tom Hanks and Dan Aykroyd team up for Dragnet which was sort of the eighties version of 21 Jump Street (spoof of a serious cop show) with great stuff from Hanks and Aykroyd. The Cohen’s present their first comedic film with Nicholas Cage in Raising Arizona and cupid draws back his bow for Inner Space as Dennis Quaid gets shrunk and flies around inside Martin Short in a very likable action comedy by Joe Dante.

 

Other comedies of varying degrees of quality: James L Brooks directed an all-star cast in Broadcast News. Danny Devito teams with Billy Crystal for black comedy Throw Momma from the Train. My favourite teen comedy of the eights is, for some reason, Can’t Buy Me Love with Patrick Dempsey and a very young Seth Green. Another one I loved when it came out was Elizabeth Shue in Adventures in Babysitting which also features an early film for West Wing star, Bradley Whitford and, bar Howard the Duck, is sort of the first Marvel film to hit the big screen. Whitford also appeared in Revenge of the Nerds 2. Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez were involved in a Stakeout. star of TV show Moonlighting, Bruce Willis made his big screen debut alongside Kim Bassinger in Blind Date (they should probably him in some sort of action movie). Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn went Overboard; Jason Bateman replaced Michael J Fox in Teen Wolf Too. Terry Jones directed Julie Walters in Personal Services; Kim Cattrall was a Mannequin and Madonna starred in Who’s That Girl while Shelly Long and Better Midler had some Outrageous Fortune. Barry Levinson directed Danny Devito and Richard Dreyfuss in Tin Men.

Dolph Lundgren is He-Man in Masters of the Universe with Courtney Cox; Jessica Tandy stars in the rather lovely, Batteries Not Included; The wolf-man has no nuts in Monster Squad and the animated GI Joe…..Action Force: The Movie. Lou Diamond Phillips danced in La Bamba. Matthew Broderick and some chimps were part of Project X. Stallone takes a break from boxing and instead enters the world arm wrestling championship in Over the Top.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (one of the better Nightmare films); House II: The Second Story; more anthology stuff with Creepshow 2 and a new franchise kicks off with the friendly Pinhead and his magic box in Hellraiser. Alan Parker directed Mickey Rourke and Robert De Niro in horror/crime thriller Angel Heart and Peter Jackson made his first film (doing pretty much everything) with the low budget Bad Taste.

And finally, as great a year as it was, we get two terrible ‘4’ films that were pretty much the opposite in terms of quality as the originals that spawned them: Jaws (4): The Revenge where Bruce the sharks brother (or something) decides to go after the Brody family and Michael Caine turns up and then Superman IV: The Quest for Peace which spends its entire budget to get Gene Hackman back as Lex Luthor and forgets that a decent script, special effects, story might be a good idea. Terrible stuff as Superman destroys all the nukes and fights Nuclear Man. Death Wish 4: The Crackdown also came out – no idea if it was as bad as the other two films here, but I’m guessing it wasn’t great.

1 Point

 

Christian Bale stars in Spielberg's acclaimed story of a schoolboy in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in Empire of the Sun. Robin Williams stars as an army DJ in Gooooooooood Mooooooooorning Vietnam (impossible to type without hearing William’s delivery in your head) which was a big hit gaining 4th at the box office. 5th biggest film of the year was romantic comedy Moonstruck which gave Cher a best actress Oscar alongside Nicholas Cage. Michael J Fox starred in office comedy farce, Secret of My Success with Helen Slater which is a mix of some great comedy and endless cityscape/80's music montages. William Dear wrote and directed Harry and The Hendersons as John Lithgow meets bigfoot. Kathryn Bigelow directs Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton in vampire film Near Dark.

 

2 Points

 

Jack Sholder directs Kyle MacLachlan in alien parasite sci-fi  film, The Hidden while Canadian/French animated short film, The Man Who Planted Trees also picks up two points.

 

3 Points

 

D ebonenk’s favourite of the year is Jackie Chan’s Project A2, his sequel of his 1983 hit. Rowan Morrison’s favourite is Amazon Women on the Moon – a collection of comedy sketches from multiple directors including John Landis and Joe Dante. Cosmic_Guru’s favourite is another Vietnam film this in John Irwin's Hamburger Hill while Nick R goes for The Living Daylights as Timothy Dalton takes over as James Bond. Also with 3 points are Wim Wender's angelic Wings of Desire and John Carpenter’s devilish Prince of Darkness.

 

 

4 Points

 

Brian De Palma’s excellent The Untouchables as Kevin Costner’s Elliot Ness faces off against Robert De Niro’s Al Capone with support from Sean Connery and Andy Garcia. One of De Palma’s best films containing some cracking set pieces and memorable scenes and dialogue. Two comedy classics: Bruce Robinson’s Withnail and I where two shambolic out of work actors accidentally go on holiday to the country while having a couple of drinks and, my favourite comedy of all time, is John Hughes' Planes, Trains and Automobiles as Steve Martin’s stressed out ad executive tries to get home for Thanksgiving while being helped and hindered by John Candy’s shower ring salesman. Candy and Martin are both brilliant in a perfect road movie filled with great, funny moments.

 

7 Points

 

Benny & Dirk_beefhammer pick Sam Raimi’s sequel/remake: Evil Dead 2 which is just a great horror/comedy and as Benny calls it “scary, hilarious and riotous fun” as Bruce Campbell heads to a cabin in the woods. Mr DO 71 picks Richard Donner's Lethal Weapon which made Mel Gibson a superstar and is one of the best mis-matched buddy cop films in the genre. Gibson and Danny Glover play off each other brilliantly and it’s written by Shane Black so we get Christmas and some great dialogue, plus evil Gary Busey. Donner was also originally going to direct vampire horror/comedy, The Lost Boys which was instead directed by Joel Schumacher as two brothers battle a bunch of cool vampires in California.

 

9 Points

 

Now I wish I’d gone with first picks instead of total score so this could have got into the top three and slightly surprisingly, it gets 4th place on the basis of Fitzcarraldo, Ork1927, beenabadbunny picking it as their best film, but no-one else giving it a mention. It is Rob Reiner’s classic, The Princess Bride. Firstly, if you haven’t seen it/don’t know what it is and are wondering why some middle aged geeks have picked some Anne Hathaway type “little girls” princess film then go and watch it NOW. Based on William Goldman’s novel  - it is an epic fantasy/comedy with a ridiculously good cast all putting in great/funny performances of varying lengths with great dialogue and swordfights, oversized rodents and a bit of kissing (but don’t worry – you’ll want to see it by the end) and it’s got Andre the Giant in it! Alongside, Robin Wright-Penn, Cary Elwes, Christoher Guest, Mandy Patinkin, Billy Crystal,etc, etc. But on top of all that its got the best pay-off scene of the decade – forget any single bit from BTTF or whatever Arnie or Stallone or Ripley were up to. Nothing beats the scene near the end of this “Hello, my name is……….”

 

RLLMUK's 3nd BEST FILM OF 1987

FULL METAL JACKET

10 Points 

Favourite film of Arc'Tan'Gent – 5 Picks (1 1st 3 2nd 1 3rd)

 

Stanley Kubrick's take on Vietnam in Full Metal Jacket where Matthew Modine and Vincent D'Onofio face boot camp with a very memorable performance by drill commander, Lee Ermey. Its a film of two halves – the brilliant boot camp part and then the tense Vietnam scenes. It was Kubrick's penultimate film.

 

RLLMUK's 2nd BEST FILM OF 1987

PREDATOR

26 points

Favourite film of And, papalasarou & CactuarBill (13 Picks 3 1st 7 2nd 3 3rd)

 

And from Vietnam to central America as its Arnie’s second film of the year (both of which starred former wrestler, Jesse Ventura), Predator where him and his special forces crew are more than capable of winning Vietnam, but come unstuck when an alien hunter targets them after they complete a mission. Directed by John McTiernan from a script that originated from the joke that Rocky would need to fight an alien, Shane Black also had a cameo role as a favour from producer Joel Silver. Benny sums it up with “from the typically ultraviolent opening scenes, this could have been just another Arnie action movie. But once the hunt starts it's anything but”

 

RLLMUK's BEST FILM OF 1987

ROBOCOP

38 Points

Favourite film of Commander Jameson, Goose, JohnnyNolan, Lord Cookie, NeoElite, Rsdio, Sabreman, SeanR, krenzler (16 Picks - 9 1st 4 2nd 3 3rd)

 

And the best film of 1987 is Paul Verhoeven's superb sci-fi action satire, Robocop. Quotable, funny, insanely violent (Murphy getting shot up at the beginning is still shocking today) with an absolute bastard load of really nasty bad guys, big guns, stop motion robots and great action. A worthy winner in a great year.

[SqueakyG]

On 25/11/2016 at 22:41, Ork1927 said:

1985

 

Mel Gibson made his third and final appearance as Mad Max opposite Tina Turner in Mad Max:Beyond the Thunderdome.

 

You made the same mistake I made for decades! I had a "mind blown" moment when I recently found out that that film is not called Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome.

 

It's called Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.

 

[Ork1927]

1988

 

U.S Box Office

 

1 Rain Man $172,825,435

2 Who Framed Roger Rabbit $156,452,370

3 Coming to America $128,152,301

4 Big $114,968,774

5 Twins $111,938,388

 

Best Picture – Oscar: Rain Man

 

Best Picture – BAFTA: The Last Emperor

 

5th biggest film of the year was comedy Twins as Danny Devito teams with Arnold Schwarzenegger in his first comedic role. Loved it as a kid suspect it’s not so great now Arnie also appeared alongside James Belushi in Walter Hill's Red Heat. 3rd biggest film at the box office in the U.S was another comedy as Eddie Murphy is Coming to America. Another comedy that I suspect doesn’t entirely hold up today.

Comedy time (and there are a lot of them) starting off with stuff that wasn’t so great: Paul; Reubens returned as Pee Wee Herman in Big Top Pee-wee; Matthew Broderick starred in Biloxi Blues. For some reason, my brother and I used to love twin mix-up film, Big Business with Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin.

Chevy Chase was back in Funny Farm and Caddyshack 2 alongside Bill Murray and a gopher who would go on to be in some Indiana Jones spoof about some skulls. Paul Hogan was back as Crocodile Dundee 2 following up the smash hit of a few years previously and Dudley Moore returned in Arthur 2: On the Rocks and in another comedy sequel: Johhny 5 was still alive in Short Circuit 2 and a load of pensioners were also still alive in Cocoon 2: The Return (that’s enough sequels).Michelle Pfeiffer was Married to the Mob. Steve Guttenberg and Darryl Hannah were in High Spirits.

 

Yahoo Serious was Young Einstein. Alison Hannigan’s first major role was My Stepmother is an Alien which would also star her Buffy colleague, Seth Green alongside Kim Bassinger and Dan Aykroyd. A rare dud for John Hughes with She’s Having a Baby and Richard Pryor was Moving while it turned out that Earth Girls Were Easy with an early Jim Carrey role alongside Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum. Fred Savage and Judge Reinhold were in body swap comedy Visa Versa. Keenan Ivory Wayans declared I’m Gonna Get You Sucka while Michelle Pfiffer was Married To the Mob. Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley were Without a Clue. Easily the best comedy of the year without any picks was Charles Crichton's A Fish Called Wanda written and starring John Cleese with Kevin Kline picking up best supporting actor at the Oscars as well as Jamie Lee Curtis and Michael Palin.

 

John Sayles directed John Cusack in baseball drama, Eight Men Out; Jodie Foster won the best actress Oscar and Kelly McGillis starred in The Accused. Cinema Paradiso won all the best foreign film awards going. Martin Scorsese directed the very controversial The Last Temptation of Christ with William Dafoe and Harvey Keitel. Clint Eastwood directed Bird and returned as Dirty Harry in The Dead Pool. Eventually becoming the only film  ITV every seemed to show was Mike Nichol’s Working Girl with Sigourney Weaver, Melanie Griffiths and Harrison Ford. Weaver also appeared in Gorillas in the Mist while Ford appeared in Roman Polanski’s Frantic. 

Stephen Frears directed Dangerous Liaisons; Oliver Stone directed Talk Radio and Michael J Fox went serious in Bright Lights, Big City. Dennis Hooper directed Colours. Bette Midler starred in super weepie Beaches. Spike Lee directed School Daze; Luc Besson directed the Big Blue. Pedro Almodovar directed Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Krzysztof Kieslowski directed a Short Film About Killing. Sally Field and Tom Hanks were stand-up comedians in Punchline.

Jackie Chan stars, directs, stunts, etc in Police Story 2. Tom Cruise, Brian Brown and Elizabeth Shue made a Cocktail. Phil Collins and Julie Walters starred in Buster. Half the Brat Pack played cowboys in Young Guns retelling the story of Billy The Kid played by Emilio Estevez. Don Bluth directed animated feature, The Land Before Time. John Waters directed musical, Hairspray and Michael Jackson starred in Michael Jacksons' Moonwalker featuring the music of Michael Jackson. Stallone made his third appearance as Rambo III which wasn't very good.

Horror franchises rumble on with Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood as well as Fright Night 2, Poltergeist III & Hellraiser 2: Hellbound and Chucky the doll appeared for the first time in Child’s Play. There were also some Killer Klowns from Outer Space and a remake of The Blob as well as a Night of the Demons.

1 Point

 

Hungarian drama, Damnation; Another film penned by, but not directed by, John Hughes is The Great Outdoors – not as good has his excellent directorial output in this period, but you can’t go to wrong with a Dan Aykroyd and John Candy team-up. Excellent Dutch/French thriller The Vanishing which is not to be mixed up with the inferior American remake from 1993

 

2 Points

 

Polish drama, A Short Film About Love; David Cronenburg directs Jeremy Irons and Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers; Frank Oz directs Steve Martin & Michael Caine in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels which is a great con-man comedy; Ron Howard directs a George Lucas story idea in fantasy adventure Willow with Warwick Davis taking the lead.

 

3 Points

 

NeoElite favourite is Rain Man which topped the U.S box office and won Best Picture at the Oscars as well as Best Director for Barry Levinson and Best Actor for Dustin Hoffman giving a great performance as an autistic savant. Tom Cruise is also very good as his brother in a great road movie. 4th biggest film at the box office was Penny Marshall's Big a wonderful boy gets turned into a grown up thanks to a fortune telling arcade machine at a fair tale featuring a great performance from Tom Hanks.

 

The Zucker brothers resurrect their cancelled TV series for the big screen as Leslie Nielsen returns as Lt. Frank Drebin in the excellent The Naked Gun which finished 8th at the box office. Fitzcarraldo picks Terence Davies' Liverpool drama, Distant Voices, Still Lives starring Pete Postlewaithe. Arc’tan’Gent likes Mike Leigh’s political family drama, High Hopes with Phil Daniels. Alan Parker directs Mississippi Burning as Gene Hackman and William Defoe investigate missing civil rights workers while dealing with the KKK in an great thriller. Finally, John Carpenter directs an arse kicking, out of gum Roddy Piper in sci-fi/horror/comedy film They Live which would be Carpenter's last film for 4 years.

 

6 Points

 

Christian Slater and Winona Ryder in the very dark and very good teen murder comedy, Heathers which took next to no money at the box office. Martin Brest directs Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin in Midnight Run as De Niro decided he wanted to turn his hand to comedy and we get a great action bounty hunter comedy. Initially De Niro was interested in the lead role in Big and once attached to Midnight Run the studio wanted Cher in the Charles Grodin role. Unfortunately, plenty of rubbish bounty hunter rom-coms would be developed in later decades.

 

And everything from here on has ties to at least one of: Christmas, Ghosts or Animation.

 

7 Points

 

Benny & Dirk_beefhammer go for Studio Ghibili animation, Grave of the Fireflies as two siblings try to survive the final months of WW2 in Japan. Richard Donner directs a contemporary comedy-retelling of A Christmas Carol starring Bill Murray in the very funny Scrooged alongside Bobcat Goldthwait and Karen Allen. A film that'll put a little love in your heart.

 

8 Points

 

Lord Cookie favours another Studio Ghbili film in My Neighbour Totoro as Miyazaki directs a tale of two sisters and some fantasy woodland creatures. papalasarou picks Who Framed Roger Rabbit as Robert Zemekis directs Bob Hoskins and Christopher Lloyd opposite a host of toons in his excellent detective real-life/cartoon mash-up. A big box office hit finishing second in the U.S with a very memorable voice performance by Kathleen Turner. Spiellberg was heavily involved in the film and Harrison Ford was his original choice to play the Bob Hoskin's role of Eddie Valiant. Bill Murray and Eddie Murphy were also in the frame.

 

RLLMUK's 3nd BEST FILM OF 1988

BEETLEJUICE

9 Points

Favourite film of D ebolenk– 4 Picks (1 1st 3 2nd)

 

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice. Tim Burton’s insane imaginative horror comedy with Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, Winnona Ryder and an amazing performance by Michael Keaton as the ghost with the most. The studio wanted to call the film House Ghosts.

 

RLLMUK's 2nd BEST FILM OF 1988

AKIRA

17 Points 

Favourite film of Mr Do 71, Rsdio, Sabreman, krenzler– 7 Picks (4 1st 2 2nd 1 3rd)

2nd place goes to the Anime film that everyone's seen (or at least heard of) Akira. Directed by Katsuhiro Otomo adapting his own magna comic that he wrote and pencilled. Its an epic tale of cyberpunky biker gangs and widely considered one of the best animated films of all time.

RLLMUK's BEST FILM OF 1988

DIE HARD

44 Points

 

Favourite film of And, Azrael, Commander Jameson, Goose, JohnnyNolan, Nick R, Rowan Morrison, SeanR, CactuarBill, beenabadbunny, Cosmic_Guro & Ork1927 - 17 Picks (12 1st 3 2nd 2 3rd)

 

A runaway winner is the best action film of all time. John McTiernan’s Die Hard. Based on a Roderick Thorp novel from 1979, the film's lead role originally had to be contractually offered to Frank Sinatra and a number of other actors were then considered for the role. Eventually the role of cop, John McClane went to TV comedy actor Bruce Willis immediately creating a new action star once the film came out, but crucially for the film itself giving it a down to earth hero that wasn't larger than life or portrayed by an established movie star. It is part of the brilliance of the film as McClane is clearly a competent cop, but out of his depth and in no way superhuman. He gets battered, bloodied, bruised and everything looks like it hurts. The effects looks real and solid – no rubbish CGI helicopter blades narrowly avoiding decapitating someone here.

 

The dialogue is great, the supporting cast are all excellent, interesting and all have some degree of character even if they aren't on screen long from McClane's allies in Holly, Al and Argyle and the sub-bad guys in Karl, Thornburg, Ellis and some dickhead FBI agents. The setting is great, the action is excellent, the ending is extremely satisfying, but on top of all that is Alan Rickman giving his first ever movie role as main bad guy, Hans Gruber who is quite probably the best screen villain of all time. I'm going to have to go and watch it again right now.

[Commander Jameson]

One thing I love even more about Die Hard from watching it again nowadays is how well-structured it is, compared with recent action films. Even scene makes sense and is there for a reason.

 

Two things I love about Die Hard is the structure and those little character touches; Hans's glance outside the building as he locks the front door, Al Leong's penchant for candy bars.

 

Three, three things I love about Die Hard is the structure, the character touches and how often Bruce Willis gets distracted by women. Next time you watch it, keep an eye out.

[Benny]

On your third point: there is a moment where he acknowledges a pin up poster, which seems like just a kind of throwaway character moment at first, but later on in the film he ends up in the same location, and he places his hand on the poster as if to reassure himself, as it's a permanent thing in his constantly changing environment. This also has the effect of reminding the audience that they are in a familiar place, and that John is still "safe" as a character and hasn't entirely lost his marbles. It's a perfect framing device. I may have to watch this again now....

 

It's on Netflix for any of you mentalists that have never seen it.

[Loik V credern]

Quote

Martin Brest directs Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin in Midnight Run as De Niro decided he wanted to turn his hand to comedy and we get a great action bounty hunter comedy. Initially De Niro was interested in the lead role in Big and once attached to Midnight Run the studio wanted Cher in the Charles Grodin role. Unfortunately, plenty of rubbish bounty hunter rom-coms would be developed in later decades.

 

Wha-...I can't imagine him attempting that. De Niro is at his coolest in Midnight Run, that's the kind of role I associate him with. Did he do anything silly before Analyze This in 1999? Plus he'd be too old for Big. 

[Darwock]

We're No Angels

[Loik V credern]

2 hours ago, Darwock said:

We're No Angels

 

Yeah I thought of that, but remembered it more that Sean Penn's character was more the silly one, though looking at the trailer again De Niro is more over the top with his facial expressions. 

[Ork1927]

1989

U.S Box Office

 

1          Batman                                                        $251,188,924           

2          Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade           $197,171,806           

3          Lethal Weapon 2                                         $147,253,986           

4          Look Who's Talking                                     $140,088,813

5          Honey, I Shrunk the Kids                             $130,724,172         

 

Best Picture – Oscar:  Driving Miss Daisy

 

Best Picture – BAFTA: Dead Poets Society

  

The decade ends with the most picks of any year and the lowest scoring winner in what is not really a great year to finish off the eighties, but there are still plety of films to love.

 

5th at the box office was Rick Moranis in trouble with the wife in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids while John Travolta and Kirsty Alley star in a rom-com with the twist that their baby is voiced by Bruce Willis (but they can’t hear him) in Look Who’s Talking. A massive surprise hit at the box office (4th place). Has anyone at all watched it in the last 20 odd years – I suspect it has not held up at all (if it was actually any good then). Two big films with no picks in Kevin Costner’s well regarded ghostly baseball film, Field of Dreams and less well regarded ghostly, err ghost busting film, Ghostbusters 2 which is not without some of the charm of the original, but pretty disappointing.

 

Steven Soderbergh made his directorial debut with Sex, Lies, and Videotape while John Hurt was involved in a Scandal. Patrick Swayze busted some heads in Roadhouse while Ralph Macchio made his final appearance in Karate Kid 3 (which I undoubtedly saw at the time, but can remember nothing about it). Christopher Guest made his directorial debut with The Big Picture. Brain Yuzna directed body-horror Society.

 

Douglas, Turner and Devito (who also directed) teamed up again in The War of the Roses;  John Candy starred in detective comedy Who’s Harry Crumb; Jeff Goldblum was The Tall Guy with Emma Thompson; Michael Keaton and Christopher Lloyd were part of The Dream Team; Nick Nolte and Martin Short teamed up with a little girl in Three Fugitives; Mario, Mario, Mario! Fred Savage  starred in The Wizard which unveiled Mario 3. He also starred (Savage not everyone’s favourite plumber) in Little Monsters. Eddie Murphy directed and starred in the poor Harlem Nights with Richard Pryor. Christian Slater starred in skateboard film, Gleaming of the Cube.

 

In the battle of the police dogs, John Belushi in K9 lost out to Tom Hanks in Turner and Hooch <sniff>. Hanks also starred in Joe Dantes’ very good comedy The Burbs. Chevy Chases returned  in Fletch Lives and as Clark Griswold in National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.  Ron Howard directed Steve Martin in Parenthood. Terry Jones directed Tim Robbins and some Python chums in Erik the Viking. Charlie Sheen and Wesley Snipes in Baseball comedy Major League. Jeff Bridges and brother Beau were The Fabulous Baker Boys.

 

In random crap: Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan; Hulk Hogan fought Zeus (not the God, but actor turned temporary wrestler Tony Lister) in No Holds Barred; Kylie was in The Delinquents and, erm, dead boss comedy Week-end at Bernies.

 

Michael Moore debuted with documentary, Roger and Me. Brian De Palma sent Michael J Fox and Sean Penn to Vietnam in Casualties of War while Matthew Broderick, Morgan freeman and Denzil Washington fought in the American Civil War in Glory. Ridley Scott directed Black Rain with Michael Douglas. Mark Hammil returned to the big screen after 6 years and bombed in Slipstream. Spielberg’s other film of 1989 was underwhelming rom-com Always and Jennifer Jason Leigh starred in Last Exit to Brooklyn.

 

Dolph Lundgren was the first actor to portray The Punisher on screen. Sylvester Stallone starred in Lock Up and teamed with Kurt Russel in buddy comedy, Tango and Cash (interested to see if this holds up today as a used to watch it loads). William Shatner directed and starred in the Star Trek film that cemented the odd number curse with the very poor Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (aka - Are you there God? Its me Kirk). Timothy Dalton finished up as Bond in License to Kill.

 

Mario, Mario, Mario! Fred Savage  starred in The Wizard which unveiled Mario 3. He also starred (Savage not everyone’s favourite plumber) in Little Monsters. Peter Jackson directed naughty puppets in Meet the Feebles and Disney went under the sea (where they’ll be no accusations, just friendly crustaceans) with The Little Mermaid.

 

1 Point

 

Sam Neil and Nicole Kidman in thriller on the water, Dead Calm; Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor teamed up for the last time in See no Evil, Hear no Evil; Charles Bronson's 9th and final film with director, J. Lee Thompson in Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects. Studio Ghibili  present Miyazaki's Kiki’s Delivery Service and cyberpunk Japanese horror, Tetsuo. And not sure if it technically qualifies as a feature film?, but I’m not excluding the absolute genius of Nick Park and Aardman so Wallace and Gromit: A Grand Day Out began something rather brilliant.

 

2 Points

 

Oscar Best Picture was Driving Miss Daisy with Jessica Tandy also winning as best actress alongside Morgan Freeman and Dan Aykroyd. While at the BAFTAs: Robin Williams gave a brilliant performance in Peter Weir directed  Dead Poets Society which won best film.

Daniel Day Lewis bagged his first Best Actor Oscar for My Left Foot, Woody Allen directed Crimes and Misdemeanours; Kenneth Branagh directed and starred in his adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry V; Herbert Wise directed The Woman in Black without a wizard in sight.

 

3 Points

 

6 films this time that are the favourite of someone, but have no other picks.

 

NeoElite picks Oliver Stone's Born on the 4th of July as Tom Cruise gives his first great performance in the story of a paralysed Vietnam veteran. Sabreman goes for Spike Lee's explosive race drama, Do The Right Thing. Arc’Tan’Gent likes  Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy with Matt Dillon and Kelly Lynch. D ebolenk  opts for Jackie Chan's 1930's set Miracles. Rsdio chooses Mexican horror, Santa Sangre and Cosmic-Guru's favourite of 1989 is Peter Greenaway's The cook, the thief, his wife and his lover.

 

4 Points

 

Azrael's favourite is Cameron Crowe's second directorial feature in Say Anything as John Cusack stars in his last, and one his best, teen comedies.

Austrian drama, and Michael Haneke's directorial debut, The Seventh Continent about a family that commits suicide and finally, the most excellent rock and roll, time travelling comedy Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure as Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter have to pass a history exam.

 

5 Points

 

CactuarBill  picks Lethal Weapon 2. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover are back as they team up with Joe Pesci to fight evil South Africans with dodgy accents (none dodgier than Pasty Kensit’s) in a decent enough sequel to the original which finished 3rd at the box office. Rowan Morrison’s favourite is John Woo’s The Killer as Chow Yun-fat’s hitman takes on one last job in a film that became Woo’s calling card to Hollywood (which generally didn’t work out that well). Rob Reiner directs yet another great film this decade in the Nora Ephron penned When Harry Met Sally as Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal star in an excellent romantic comedy that’s heavy on the actual comedy.  The famous diner scene was mainly improvised with Crystal coming up with the “I’ll have what she’s having” line which was delivered by Reiner’s mother.

 

6 Points

 

Fitzcarraldo and Lord Cookie pick Dekalog, which is sort of cheating as its ten 1 hour films based on each the 10 commandments about the lives of inhabitants of a Polish apartment block.

 

9 Points

 

JohnnyNolan picks John Hughes penultimate film as a director and one of the last great ones he was involved in with Uncle Buck. John Candy is brilliant as a shambolic uncle asked to look after his nieces and a, pre Home Alone Macaulay Culkin, nephew. It is one of Hughes’ darker/more adult films in places and it is full of great scenes, dialogue and Candy’s excellently inappropriate surrogate parenting. The kids are great as well and it is also got a weird, but great score.

 

11 Points

 

James Cameron misses out on third place by a point with his underwater, sci-fi film The Abyss (favourite of Mr Do 71) starring Ed Harris, Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Michael Biehn. A box office disappointment and a hellish shoot, but Cameron introduced a jump in special effects that he would use to even greater effect at the start of the nineties and the film is generally well regarded.

 

RLLMUK's 3rd BEST FILM OF 1989

BACK TO THE FUTURE 2

12 Points

Favourite film of Commander Jameson, Nick R & krenzler (5 Picks – 3 1st, 1 2nd 1 3rd).

 

3rd place is Robert Zemekis going Back to the Future 2 as Marty, Doc Brown and Jennifer (2) go and do something about the kids. The sequel to the incredible 1985 hit is a bit of a mixed bag. Filmed back to back with the 3rd film its got a complicated, but clever time travel/alternate reality plot, a lot of the charm of the original and especially good in the 2nd half as they go back to 1955. But it’s a bit too dark at times and the beginning in the future with fake Crispin Glover and Michael J Fox in drag is probably the low point of the trilogy (not that the future scenes don’t have good bits). Plus, alternate 1985 Hill Valley is a good indicator of Farage’s vision for post Brexit Britain. Overall, its not a good as the original, but there is still a lot to love – if its better than the third one is a different argument.

  

RLLMUK's 2nd BEST FILM OF 1989

INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE

21 Points

Favourite film of Dirk_beefhammer, Goose, Ork1927, papalasarou & beenabadbunny (10 picks – 5 1st 1 2nd 4 3rd)

 

Harrison Ford misses out on being in the best film of 5 of the 10 years of the decade by a single point in a controversial result as 2nd place gets 5 people picking it 1st while the winner has only 3 1st place picks, but scores more points overall. In 2nd place and also runner-up at the box office is Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade which sees the return of the Nazis, a non-screeching female lead, Brody and Sallah which would be enough to make it great, but add in an excellent performance from Sean Connery as Indy’s dad who plays off Harrison Ford brilliantly, an entertaining origin story with Young Indy (River Phoenix) and some great set pieces, plenty of action and some good comedy. It is not quite as good as Raiders, but it isn’t far off. Very watchable, very entertaining and one of the few threequels that considered to be worthy of its original.

 

 

RLLMUK's BEST FILM OF 1989

BATMAN

22 Points

Favourite film of And, Benny & SeanR (11 Picks – 3 1st 5 2nd 3 3rd)

 

And the final winner is (Because I’m) Batman. After Adam West and before Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale and Ben Affleck is Michael Keaton’s portrayal of the Dark Knight under the direction of Tim Burton.  A massive box office smash, it was also the first summer blockbuster to really ramp up the merchandising and tie-ins with Bat stuff everywhere. The film also gave us pre-internet fan boy casting outrage as Michael Keaton was not a popular choice, but turned out to be quite brilliant, especially as a slightly deranged Bruce Wayne. In the UK, it was the first 12 rated film either giving a load of kids a decent chance to sneak into a film underage or legally get to do something age restricted for the first time. The film itself is very good – Keaton is great, Nicholson excels as the Joker and it’s a great mix of dark, Burton weirdness and comic book action.

[Sabreman]

Great work, Ork 

[SeanR]

On ‎11‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 18:19, SeanR said:

 

 

[And]

Great stuff ork. Thanks. 

 

Are you going to do the stats? Or are you now doing the 90's. 

 

00's next?

[Ork1927]

4 hours ago, And said:

Great stuff ork. Thanks. 

 

Are you going to do the stats? Or are you now doing the 90's. 

 

00's next?

 

Some stats are done - just need to figure out a decent way to post them without horrible formatting. I will kick off a 00's one shortly although I'm a bit scared of workload given the massive increase in films released and I suspect a very diverse opinion on the best films

[Ork1927]

4 hours ago, GMass said:

You got the subtitle of Star Trek v wrong.

 

brilliant write up.

 

Doh - now fixed.

 

Apologies in general for any spelling and grammar mistakes and also skipping past some films without a lot of comment. As much as I've enjoyed writing it all up - its a potentially never ending time sink.

[Ork1927]

Participant Stats Time

 

4 tables below the attached (crap) screenshot

Picking the Winner (out of 10) – How many of your favourite films (No 1 pick) matched the overall winner for each year.

Winner in Top 3 (out of 10) – How many of your top three films matched the overall winner for each year.

In Sync (out of 30)– How many of your picks exactly matched the overall result (so your 2nd placed pick in 1980 was 2nd overall in 1980, 3rd placed pick in 1989 was 3rd overall in 1989, etc)

30 from 30 (out of 30) – How many of your 30 picks were in the overall top 30 irrespective of where you placed them.

 

 

Time for a couple of awards

 

The Biff Tannen – Luckiest Man On Earth award

And

who topped 3 of the 4 tables and finished 3rd in the 4th. 8 of his winners matched the overall result and the other 2 winners were in his top 3 for those years. 14 out of 30 of his picks exactly matched the overall result and he had 18 of the 30 top films in his list.

 

Honourable mention to Cactuar Bill for also picking all 10 winners in his 30 picks and Commander Jameson for winning the 30 from 30 list by having 20 films of the top 30 in his list.

 

The Lt. Pete Mitchell – Maverick award

Fitzcarraldo

who finished bottom of 3 of the 4 tables and 2nd bottom in the 4th. 0 of his winners matched the overall result and he only had 2 of the winners in his top 30. Only 1 pick in sync with the final result and 8 of the top 30 films in his list overall.

 

Honourable mentions to Rowan Morrison who ran Fitzcarraldo very close finishing joint bottom of the winners in top 3 list with 3 and bottom of 30 from 30 with 6 picks. Also, a mention of eighties king, Goose who only had 3 picks that were exactly in sync with the overall result

 

More stats tomorrow dealing with the actual films and some alternate charts.

[Commander Jameson]

 

Excellent work, @Ork1927.

 

orsonwellesclap.gif

[Benny]

5 hours ago, Ork1927 said:

 

Doh - now fixed.

 

Apologies in general for any spelling and grammar mistakes and also skipping past some films without a lot of comment. As much as I've enjoyed writing it all up - its a potentially never ending time sink.

 

It puts my efforts in the 2015 top 100 Rllmuk games thread to shame, as you've included so much detail of the films released each year. After spending months doing that thread I can attest to how time consuming it is!