Category: 1980s

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Tanner ’88 (1988)

During the 1988 Presidential election, director Robert Altman and cartoonist Garry Trudeau created a candidate, played by Michael Murphy, to run alongside the other real presidential hopefuls. I admittedly did not watch the entire series. The first two episodes didn’t really grab me, though its influence on future political dramedies is obvious, so I skipped forward to the last. Trying to look like a reality series, especially one in the late 1980s, makes for a very amateur looking and sounding production. Coupled really slow character development, it didn’t feel like it was going to deliver on the time investment. One prescient highlight involved Tanner’s daughter, Cynthia Nixon, being asked if she had any interest in going into politics.

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Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)

Eddie Murphy returns to sunny California after Captain Ronnie Cox is shot by the perpetrators of the Alphabet Crimes, a series of heists whose committers have alluded Murphy’s friends from the previous film, detectives John Ashton and Judge Reinhold. An attempt at reprising the success of the previous film, it tries to follow the same formula with bigger shoot-outs and bigger stars (Brigitte Nielsen and Dean Stockwell as bad guys), but lacks the surprising charm of the earlier release. It doesn’t help that the plot begins on the idea that a well-funded crime syndicate would follow a pattern as if they were a gang of serial killers.  Action  Crime  Comedy

Oscar Nomination: Best Music, Original Song

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The Aviator (1985)

Though he generally refuses to travel with passengers after an accident during World War I, 1920s mail pilot Christopher Reeve is forced to transport the owner of the plane’s daughter Roseanna Arquette. The passenger curse holds true when the plane crashes in a remote mountain area. I do enjoy survival films as a form of disaster story. Reeve is quite appealing and dashing as a troubled, early aviator. Arquette is often annoyingly shrill, which at least works early in the film when her character is at her most brattiest. The story itself isn’t particularly remarkable, though the mail pilot theme is unusual.

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Beverly Hills Cop (1984) – Rewatch

After childhood friend James Russo suddenly arrives in town with some mysterious German bearer bonds and is murdered soon after, brash Detroit detective Eddie Murphy takes a vacation from his job and heads to southern California to investigate his friend’s activities. This is Murphy at his absolute best. The film is an ideal blend of comedy and action taking advantage of Eddie’s natural talents, working nicely off of local, straight-laced cops John Ashton and Judge Reinhold.   Action  Crime  Comedy

Oscar Nomination: Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

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Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985)

New York cop Fred Ward’s death was faked without his permission so he could be recruited into a secret government organization run by Wilford Brimley. Fred spends almost the entire film being trained by a Korean martial arts master bewilderingly played by Joel Grey in yellow face. The highlight of the film is a battle scene set on the Statue of Liberty while it was being refurbished. Like the rest of the movie, this is oddly not the climax to the story.     Action

Oscar Nomination: Best Makeup

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The Official Story (1985)

During the final year of the last Argentinian dictatorship, high school history teacher Norma Aleandro begins to ask tough questions regarding the adoption of her five year old daughter. A visit from a friend who had been persecuted by the regime and a student who is unwilling to just accept the party line make it impossible for her to ignore the facts despite her controlling husband’s best attempts to keep her in the dark. It’s a harsh reminder of the resonant pain and damage caused by authoritarian governments and pairs well with Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo in illustrating this reprehensible episode in Argentinian history.

Oscar Win: Best Foreign Language Film

Oscar Nomination: Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

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Still of the Night (1982)

After the murder of one of his patients, Roy Scheider is visited by Meryl Streep, the mistress of the patient. Working with her through the clues of the murder, he must come to terms with the fact that she committed the crime even while finding himself falling in love with her. The star power of its leads does not make this anything more than a middle of the road mystery film. It’s entertaining, but also forgettable overall.  Crime  Mystery

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The Long Riders (1980)

Another telling of the history of the James-Younger gang, the conceit in this tale is that the various relatives are played by real-life brothers: James and Stacy Keach as the Jameses; Keith, David, and Robert Carradine as the Youngers; Dennis and Randy Quaid as the Millers; and Christopher and Nicholas Guest as the Fords. While not as glossy as some other renditions, it’s still a solid telling of the story, but again the fun is watching the various brothers working with and against each other.   Western

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Broadway Danny Rose (1984)

During a lunch with a bunch of comedians, one of them shares an anecdote about Danny Rose, played by Woody Allen, a hapless talent agent who works mercilessly for his clients. It’s relatively amusing, but it heavily features Woody Allen being Woody Allen. The standout is Mia Farrow playing bawdily against type as the mistress of Rose’s top client whom he must escort to the client’s big performance dodging gangsters who are commanded by her ex-boyfriend.

Oscar Nomination: Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

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Heat and Dust (1983)

Told through parallel tales, Julie Christie travels to India guided by the letters of her great aunt Greta Scacchi written almost 50 years earlier. I’ve long wished to visit India and this Merchant-Ivory production makes it both more gorgeous and more foreboding to the novice traveler. I far preferred the earlier story though the obvious similarities between the two makes for interesting comparing and contrasting. Aside from what I’ve gleaned from movies, I don’t know a lot about the British Raj and this provides a window into its heyday and its aftereffects.

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