Probably my idea of a great movie at that point in my life was The Chipmunk Adventure, which I remember being obsessed with and I have vague memories of dragging my father to a theater to let me see it.
It's an amazingly adorable movie. I recommend the 'chip-ette' Eleanor's song, which she sings to cheer up a sad baby penguin, to anyone in need of a good guy. And the number about the girls vs. boys "of rock n' roll" may have been oddly prescient about the gender wars writ large that our country is still fighting.
But alas, my palette has grown more refined over the years and I have consumed a lot more sophisticated fare.
1987 is an interesting year. A movie like Three Men and a Baby managed to be the year's biggest box office hit, but it was a banner year for commercial filmmaking. And it was certainly a highlight year for Michael Douglas and Cher, who both took home top acting Oscars for roles in films that year, and who also both headlined more than one iconic hit. Which leads me to ...
10) Moonstruck - An irresistibly cute romance which seems to exist in a fantasy, culturally uniform version of New York City, where the accents are broad and the stakes are farcical. What makes it work, besides the lovely score, atmosphere and cracking dialogue, is Cher and Nicolas Cage, who have unlikely chemistry as a middle aged woman coming into a late bloom sexual awakening and an eccentric, but romantic baker with a wooden prosthetic hand. This is not a deep, profound movie, but it is a lovely diversion and Cher is luminous in the lead.
9) Lethal Weapon - Before Mel Gibson alienated a lot of us with his Anti-Semitism, racism, and alleged abuse of women -- he charmed us by playing a truly unpredictable and volatile cop opposite and gruff but lovable Danny Glover. 48 Hrs. may have modernized the black-white buddy crime film, but Lethal Weapon set a new gold standard, and flipped Hollywood conventions on its head by making the white character the unstable one. The sequels got sillier, but the original was a tightly constructed, exciting and brutal action classic.
 |
| The Witches of Eastwick |
7) Wall Street - A modest hit when it first came out, Oliver Stone's ferocious expose of insider trading and the go-go world of 80s finance has only grown in esteem and influence since its first release, for better or worse. Not unlike Scarface, far too many people have missed the anti-corporate message of this movie, and instead romanticized its villain Gordon Gekko (played unforgettably by Michael Douglas). Oh well, it's still wildly entertaining -- and showed that even Charlie Sheen could carry a picture before he devolved into self parody.
6) Fatal Attraction - Another movie that has really permeated the pop culture lexicon. People who have never even seen the film remember the "bunny scene." A movie whose sexual politics are at best debatable -- modern viewers may find Glenn Glose's 'other woman' sympathetic at first -- that really changed the way people think about affairs and obsessive romances. Douglas has a difficult balancing act here, to play a jerk who we still sort of root for. It's action packed climax is a copout but it's fun nevertheless. The rare movie for and about adults that we almost never see anymore.
5) The Witches of Eastwick - A gorgeous, stylish fable featuring a trio of glamorous stars at their best (Cher, Susan Sarandon and Michele Pfeiffer) opposite a kinetic and amped up Jack Nicholson, giving one of his most memorable star turns as the Devil himself. Director George Miller uses his Mad Max style of filmmaking on this wacky romantic comedy, which combines elements of horror with humor, eroticism and supernatural undertones. It's a lot of fun, albeit not for everyone's tastes. But if you're a Nicholson fan, this is one of his signature roles; he chews all the scenery and is having a ball.
4) Full Metal Jacket - Another Stanley Kubrick war movie masterpiece, a bookend with his classic Paths of Glory. This film takes dead aim at the dehumanization of the military. It's first, famous half, provides the most rigorous and unflinching portrait of basic training ever caught on film (with real life drill sergeant R. Lee Ermey blowing the doors off, and Vincent D'Onofrio as the victim of most of his abuse). The second half is just as stirring, as the film plunges into some truly harrowing war scenes and a kind of cold cyncism missing from some of the more romanticized Vietnam films.
3) Raising Arizona -This is one of the Coen brothers' funniest and most accessible films. They put Nicolas Cage's eccentricity to perfect effect opposite Holly Hunter as a couple that irrationally kidnaps a baby because they can't have one. The camera work is extraordinary, and the laughs are gut busting, but what makes this film so special and so fun to rewatch, is its sincerity. The leads are genuinely likable and the story has a fairy tale like quality to it. If Blood Simple announced the Coen brothers' arrival, this movie showed they were here to stay.
2) Robocop - A brilliantly realized satire of corporate greed and excess disguised under the veneer of an uber-violent sci-fi action movie. What the remake and even some viewers of the original never understood is how deeply funny this movie is. At its heart is a soulful, sympathetic performance from Peter Weller as a good cop who is horribly maimed and reconstituted as a killing machine for law enforcement. It still holds up as an iconic entry in director Paul Verhoeven's impressive filmography.
1) The Untouchables - One of the great gangster movies of its time, or any time -- Brian DePalma took what could have been a hokey remake of a television show and supercharged it with star turns from the likes of Sean Connery (who won an Oscar for it), Robert De Niro and Kevin Costner and unforgettable action sequences like a slow motion gun battle on the steps of a train station. A big, bloody commercial breakthrough hit that is satisfying from start to finish. This was an after school staple for me growing up.
No comments:
Post a Comment