CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS (1989), DRVING MISS DAISY (1989)

What were the top five box office movies for each year of the 80's? Which ones were my favorites? Which were my least favorites? I'm not sure...I'll have to think about it. And without any further ado...

80's Top Box Office Month: (1989)

And the top 5 box office movies for 1989 were...

1. Batman
2. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
3. Lethal Weapon 2
4. Look Who's Talking
5. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids

Favorite from the top 5: Batman. Clearly between Batman and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. If I had to pick from these two ten years ago, I would have gone with Indiana. On second viewing, I didn't like Indiana quite as much as I did previously and I like the Michael Keaton/Tim Burton Batman more the second time around. But you should still see both at least once.

Batman

Least favorite from the top 5: Look Who's Talking. Not that it isn't without some laughs, but the silly talking baby movie in the top five? Really?

Look Who's Talking

The only 1001 entry in the top five here is Batman, so I'm going to have to dig deeper down the box office list once again.

Crimes and Misdemeanors

Crimes and Misdemeanors (only 61 for the year at the box office) is the final film from Woody Allen's 80's decade where he put together quite a string of quality work: Zelig, Purple Rose of Cairo, Hannah and Her Sisters and Radio Days to name a few.

Crimes and Misdemeanor has two intersecting stories. The first has Martin Landau as Jubal, a successful doctor and family man who has a mistress who has gone off the deep end and threatens to expose their affair to his wife. (Didn't Jubal see and learn from Fatal Attraction?). The second part of the story has Allen as Cliff, a struggling documentary filmmaker who vies for the affection of a pretty associate producer (Mia Farrow) against his obnoxious but successful brother-in-law played by Alan Alda.

The movie hits on a lot of Allen themes, chief of which is expressed by the rabbi who is slowly going blind, "I couldn't go on living if I didn't feel it with all my heart a moral structure, with real meaning, and forgiveness, and a higher power, otherwise there's no basis to live." Cliff and Jubal don't actually meet until the end of the film and I find the resolution to be appropriately unsatisfying. (I mean that in a good way).

Driving Miss Daisy

Driving Miss Daisy, based on Alfred Uhry's play about the friendship between an older white southern widow and her black driver was most successful at the box office (Number 6 for the year) and also won the Best Picture Oscar and Best Actress for Jessica Tandy. It didn't make the 1001 book, maybe because one might see it as an overly sugarcoated exploration of race, especially compared to the other major race movie of 1989, Do the Right Thing. That being said, when looked at as a story about the relationship between the two people, it's a nice character study, though giving it the Best Picture Oscar was probably going a bit too far. I also saw a lot of this movie being filmed in my hometown of Decatur, Georgia, for what it's worth. 

Well, I've run out of years for the 80's. Guess it's time to move forward (or maybe backward?) 

RAIN MAN (1988), WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? (1988), BIG (1988)

What were the top five box office movies for each year of the 80's? Which ones were my favorites? Which were my least favorites? I'm not sure...I'll have to think about it. And without any further ado...

80's top box office month: (1988)

And the top 5 box office movies for 1988 are.. 

1. Rain Man
2. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
3. Coming to America
4. Big
5. Twins

Least Favorite of the Top Five: Big. I have nothing against Big really, in fact it's an enjoyable fantasy for the most part, but I just like the Eddie Murphy comedy Coming to America and the Schawenneger/Devito comedy Twins a little more. (Can you imagine so many comedies in the top 5 movies of the year today?) Big is about a kid (a thirteen-year old) that makes a wish to be big and turns into Tom Hanks the next day. And it is pretty funny to see Tom Hanks act like a kid. In fact, that's the whole movie. The problem is is that Hanks seems to be acting more like a seven or eight year old than teenager. But since Hanks gets involved romantically with a grown woman, having the kid be any younger would make the romantic scenario even creepier than it already is. Hanks also gets a job in a big New York toy manufacturer and we are to assume he can just walk in their offices with no resume or background and get hired and within a few weeks, through his childlike reaction to toys, get promoted to Vice President of toy development (or something like that). Once again, suspension of disbelief.

Perhaps I'm just thinking too much here and should laugh at Tom Hanks pretend to spray foam out of his nose.

Would I watch it with my kids? Yes

Would it make my 1001 list? No

Big

Favorite of the top 5: It's a race for me between the top two entries on this list (and both are on the 1001 list). We have the Barry Levinson film Rain Man, which features Dustin Hoffman as an autistic savant who is kidnapped (sort of) by his younger brother Tom Cruise. How their relationship develops is the core of the film. Rain Man would certainly make my book. It has many poignant moments most of which involve the evolving relationship between the brothers.. It also has a few moments that are a bit forced, such as Cruise finding a small town doctor to examine Hoffman mostly to establish the plot point that Raymond is phenomenal with numbers and a Vegas scene that is fun, but a bit much at times. Still a moving and recommend film.

And an extra toast to the old guy in the doctor's waiting room rambling on about the history of Wells Fargo.

But my choice for favorite my favorite of the top 5 is (kind of to my surprise) is Who Framed Roger Rabbit? This animation/live action combo movie may not seem as technologically revolutionary as it did in 1988, but the character development of the animated (the delightfully goofy Roger and the seductive Jessica) and real characters (the everyman gumshoe Eddie Valiant and the evil, freeway loving Judge Doom) strikes a great balance. And who wouldn't want to have a place like Toon Town to visit? Toon Town is built up throughout the movie and doesn't disappoint when we finally get there.

And an extra toast to Roger Rabbit's human  leading man, the late great Bob Hoskins!

Raymond and his new main man in Rain Man

"DIP!" in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

FATAL ATTRACTION (1987), GOOD MORNING VIETNAM (1987), MOONSTRUCK (1987)

What were the top five box office movies for each year of the 80's? Which ones were my favorites? Which were my least favorites? I'm not sure...I'll have to think about it. And without any further ado...

80's top box office month: (1987)

1. Three Men and a Baby
2. Fatal Attraction
3. Beverly Hills Cop II
4. Good Morning, Vietnam
5. Moonstruck

Least favorite movie from the top 5: Three Men and a Baby. Despite the fact that I'm not real fond of Beverly Hills Cop II, Three Men and a Baby is the winner (loser) here. I mean really? That's the number one movie of the year? A pretty bland remake of a French comedy starring Steve Guttenburg was the number one movie of the year? I ask again. Really?

Three Men and a Baby

Favorite movie from the top 5: I have three 1001 movies left of the top five from 1987. They are  Fatal Attraction, Good Morning Vietnam and Moonstruck.

Fatal Attraction

No movie was more talked about in 1987 than Fatal Attraction. Part horror film, part romance gone wrong, part thriller, it was a film about the possible consequences of infidelity that seemed to hit the theaters just at the right time. Glenn Close as the lovelorn psychopath probably would have been my choice for the Academy Award, but is the film itself my favorite of these three?  

Good Morning, Vietnam

Good Morning, Vietnam was Robin Williams finally getting a movie that was a good fit for his improvisational talents. It came out the year after Platoon and Full Metal Jacket, but is a Vietnam comedy more in the vein of MASH than those other two films. And I'm a Robin Williams fan, but is it my favorite of the three?

Moonstruck

The last film of the three on this list is Moonstruck and was the one film of the three that I wasn't looking forward to seeing again. I hadn't seen it since it was new twenty-something years ago.

So, I put in the Blu-Ray I rented late and night and fell asleep after about ten minutes. I tried again the next night and fell asleep after about thirty minutes. I gave it one more try the next night starting with the parts I nodded off during the previous night. I finally managed to stay awake and see the whole thing and you know what? I really enjoyed it. It's  very well written (by Oscar winner John Patrick Shanley) and observant comedy with a truly fine cast (Vincent Gardenia as the dad is my favorite) and reminiscent of the Woody Allen comedies of the era.

And much to my surprise...Moonstruck is my favorite of the three.

If Music Be the Food of Love, Play On: The importance of music in all three of these movies is worth noting.  The baker Ronny Cammereri (Nicholas Cage) in Moonstruck loves Pucchini's La Boheme, which he listens to before taking Loretta Castorini (Cher) to the opera of the same name which leads to his successful wooing of the girl.

The Psychotic Alex (Glenn Close) listens to Madame Butterfly while turning on and off the light switch in her apartment in one of Fatal Attraction's most famous scenes.

Adrian Cronauer (Robin Williams) doesn't go for opera. In fact, spinning the hits with The Beach Boys and James Brown is what gets him in trouble at his Vietnam radio station in the first place. But I do wonder, if those albums weren't allowed to be played on the air, why were they at the radio station in the first place?

PLATOON (1986), HANNAH AND HER SISTERS (1986)

What were the top five box office movies for each year of the 80's? Which ones were my favorites? Which were my least favorites? I'm not sure...I'll have to think about it. And without any further ado...

80's top box office month: (1986)

And the top 5 box office movies for 1986 are...

1. Top Gun

2. Crocodile Dundee
3. Platoon
4. Karate Kid II
5. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

The Enterprise Crew go back to 1986 San Francisco in Star Trek IV

Favorite movie from the top 5: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

As a long time Star Trek fan, I pretty much have to put what many Trekkies consider the best of the Star Trek movies, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (I'm still a Wrath of Khan guy) in the number one slot here. This one has admittedly a pretty silly plot about the Enterprise crew taking a Klingon bird of prey back in time to 1986 to bring a humpback whale into the future to save humanity. That's a lot to swallow. But if you can suspend your belief enough, this one is awfully fun. The best parts are the crew trying to communicate with the people of the time. (Chekhov looking for "Nuclear Vessel," Scotty trying to start a computer, which is probably a Commodore but I can't remember, by talking to it, Spock trying to figure out what exact change for a bus means, and Kirk trying to use the colloquialisms of the day, "Double Dumb Ass on You!"

Top Gun

Least Favorite movie from the top 5: Top Gun. Top Gun is only listed here because it was the number one movie of the year. Otherwise I would have chosen The Karate Kid II mostly because I had to hear the Glory of Love Song by Peter Cetera about a thousand times at the office I worked at in 1986. Luckily, I haven't heard it in recent years, but the memory remains..

Any more on Top Gun can be referred to here  http://1001afilmodyssey.blogspot.com/2011/02/top-gun-1986.html

Hannah and Her Sisters #30

It often seems that at Academy Award time that there are two front-runners for Best Picture that are truly different. In 1986, we had Platoon, Oliver Stone's penetrating study of his tour of duty in Vietnam and Woody Allen's ensemble comedy Hannah and Her Sisters.

Honestly, I like Hannah better. In fact it is right at the top of my list of favorite Woody Allen movies. The plot threads between the characters are wonderfully placed, the comedy touches are memorable and the cast (Michael Caine, Barbara Hershey etc.) is perfect. I've seen it several times and hope to see it again.

That being said, I have no problem with Platoon winning Best Picture. William Goldman said in referring to the Cannes film festival, that the jury prize really has to go to the movie with the most "weight." I think the same thing can be said of the Academy choices. You can certainly make the case that there were better movies in the 80's than Gandhi, The Last Emperor or Driving Miss Daisy, but the fact that the subjects of these films were important definitely helped the Academy decide to award the top prize to these films. How could E.T., Moonstruck or Field of Dreams compete with that?

No film fits this "weight" definition in the 80's more than Platoon. I saw it when it first came out and am seeing it again for the first time in twenty-seven years.It is a no hold barred account of the Vietnam conflict by someone (Oliver Stone) who was in the middle of it. The scene where the platoon burns a village is probably the best scene and hardest to watch in the movie. The platoon also comes with it's good and evil images (Willem Dafoe as a Christ figure and Tom Berenger as the Devil on earth). It is definitely heavy. It is about as heavy as it gets. And I have no problem with it winning the Oscar, but I'm not sure I'm going to be inclined to ever watch it again.

Platoon