Category: 1980s

On the day of his 21st birthday, young Rex Smith celebrates the end of his pirate apprenticeship, a situation that was caused due to a misunderstanding by his nurse Angela Lansbury, and vows to bring the end to the pirates as his sense of duty dictates. This sense of duty and the ineptitude of the pirate band (they are well known to be lenient on fellow orphans) are underlying themes through the entire story. The art direction is faithful to its theatre roots, offering the viewer the sense of being transported into the middle of a stage performance. The whole production is quite amusing and delightfully campy, most fully embraced by Kevin Kline as the Pirate King.   

Private investigator Mickey Rourke is hired by Robert De Niro to track down a man who owes him a debt. Rourke’s investigation soon leads him from New York to New Orleans, finding the man’s teenaged daughter Lisa Bonet and a supernatural conspiracy people want to keep hidden. There’s some silliness in its telling (De Niro’s 5 inch fingernails being one), but I really enjoyed the performances and the tale as it was being spun. What really sold me though was the climax. The tension palpably swirls around Rourke as he is spun to the solution to his query, the answer more coming for him than him finding it himself.    

Aspiring actor Robert Townsend dreams of his big break, but is worried that being cast as a stereotype in an exploitation film isn’t the way he wants to make it. Interspersed into this tale are fantasy vignettes satirizing other aspects of the film industry told from a Black perspective. Co-written and also featuring Keenan Ivory Wayans, a lot of these bits are similar to some seen in In Living Color. Though they are almost all humorous, I somewhat wish the sketches were nixed and the focus was entirely on the Black actor’s experience in Hollywood. The entire film is less than an hour and a half and it feels like a longer story was sold short.

In Jamaica grieving the loss of her infant daughter, Kathleen Quinlan meets housekeeper Whoopi Goldberg and brings her back to the United States to work. Once there, Goldberg is an unwelcome sight to Quinlan’s young son, Neil Patrick Harris, but they soon develop a bond stronger than any other in the family. The parental characters are quite awful people, both caught up in their own drama to the point where they essentially ignore their son’s desires completely. Luckily Goldberg is divine and together with Harris in his first film role make for an endearing duo.

Public defender Cher is assigned to the case of homeless and deaf Vietnam vet Liam Neeson, accused of murdering a Justice Department clerk. The facts of the case are small and during the trial, Dennis Quaid, a lobbyist and one of the jury members, begins to illegally assist Cher in finding the truth. It’s a somewhat twisty, compelling mystery thriller that is sold by Cher’s solid performance. I only wish she had done more films during this era when she was at the height of her acting career. I also enjoy seeing a young Neeson in his earlier roles where he plays more of a supporting role but his star quality still shines.   

It seems a little weird that I watched three films with the letters F O G in their titles in one day, but such is the way of things sometimes. On the eve of a northern California beach town’s 100th anniversary, a mysterious fog rolls into town bringing with it death. It’s an entertaining scream-fest where the residents, including Jamie Lee Curtis, Hal Holbrook, and Adrienne Barbeau, battling against a natural force that slowly creeps up on them.  

My housemate has fond memories of this film from his childhood and we finally got around to watching it together. Scott Grimes is a young herpetologist who purchases a talking frog, voiced by Paul Williams, who was cursed by a witch 600 years ago. Grimes decides to use his new friend to help him win a science fair, but also tries to help the frog get a kiss from a girl to break the curse. Add in a cute love interest for Grimes and it can’t help follow the expected formula. I’m sure as a kid this could have been delightful. As an adult, it’s a rather short, harmless bit of 1980s nostalgia. 

There’s a lot of heart in this quirky, coming-of-age tale of a Jewish boy growing up in 1960s Manitoba. It includes many sweet little touches involving the young man’s adventures as he grows as an adult in his community from navigating the outsider status as a Jewish person in his small town to befriending and playing a piano duet with a Catholic classmate. It’s definitely a bit low budget but there’s a lovely earnestness in the telling of the tale.