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Film

Like it’s 1988

It’s been a while since I’ve written up a mini review for one of my year-based movie marathons (196719681977, 1978, 198519861987), and that’s because I was still planning on watching a few more movies for 1988, but I sort of stalled at the start of the year. Even though there were a few more films I was planning on watching, I think I’m going to call it here, and move on. Next up should be a viewing of films released in 1969, but I’m in no big hurry. For now, here’s the list — in alphabetical order — of all the movies I watched from 1988 (or you can find the posts through the “1988” tag).

  1. Appointment with Death
  2. Child’s Play
  3. Coming to America
  4. Dangerous Liaisons
  5. Die Hard
  6. Frantic
  7. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
  8. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
  9. Heathers
  10. Johnny Be Good
  11. License to Drive
  12. Monkey Shines
  13. Rambo III
  14. Red Heat
  15. School Daze
  16. Scrooged
  17. The Naked Gun
  18. They Live
  19. Twins
  20. Who Framed Roger Rabbit
  21. Willow
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Debaser

Dangerous Liaisons

I’d completely forgotten that Uma Thurman and Keanu Reeves were also in this — 1988 really was Thurman’s year (Johnny Be Good, Baron Munchausen). It was interesting to watch this again, even if the story feels so small and petty — which I guess is the point here, that the nobles of the era really were nothing more than what is portrayed here (small and petty). There is the weirdness of having American accents in a period drama, which always feels a bit off, but the quality of the actors is never in doubt. The costumes and sets are beautiful too, and the ending is appropriately cathartic.

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Debaser

Rambo III

Re-watching this, I will say that it wasn’t as enjoyable as I remembered it being. I think First Blood Part II is still quite decent as an 80s actioner, but here we start seeing Rambo make quips, which feels too out-of-character to be enjoyable. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still fun to be had, with the ridiculous “let’s fight the Russian army” storyline, but this does end up being the weakest film in the series (I liked the 4th Rambo film more). I will say that I am looking forward to seeing the upcoming 5th one. Based on what we’ve seen with the last Rocky movie and the Creed movies, I think Stallone is capable of giving this series a good end. Oh, and that hair, oh my.

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Debaser

License to Drive

Look, I’m not going to try to defend this movie, but I was kinda looking forward to watching it. Come on, the two Coreys, together, in a stupid teen comedy. My biggest surprise was that Heather Graham is the “girl” of the movie, which I’d completely forgotten. Also, this really is Haim’s movie, with Feldman playing a secondary role. It’s not a good movie, but it was fun to dive back into that era of teen comedy, at the “height” of the Coreys.

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Debaser

Twins

Between this and Red Heat, this is definitely the better Schwarzenegger film of 1988. Silly and goofy, him and Devito do have some great chemistry on-screen, and the ridiculous premise ends up working lovingly. Sure, I wouldn’t describe it as being a great comedy, but it’s a movie you watch with a big ol’ smile on your face.

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Debaser

Red Heat

It’s not one of Schwarzenegger’s better films, but it’s not bad either, and is decently directed by Walter Hill. It does the stereotypical “buddy cop” film things, partners at odd and all that, but Arnie does have some fun reactions as the Russian cop, and the cast is not bad either (hey, it’s got Gina Gershon). I don’t regret re-watching it.

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Debaser

School Daze

I had very little memory of what happens in this movie, and so was quite looking forward to re-visiting it. It’s certainly an odd film, and all over the place, but there’s definitely some interesting sequences to take in, especially the musical numbers (I really like the frat face-offs with no music). And it’s pretty fun seeing a very young Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad‘s Gustavo Fring),

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Debaser

Appointment with Death

I was a big fan of Peter Ustinov’s Poirot, and I’m a bit surprised that I didn’t really remember much about this movie — I’m assuming I saw it though. It’s about what you’d expect from these Agatha Christie adaptations, which is to say that they’re not terrific, but are still quite enjoyable to watch. The setting here is nice (Palestine), and it’s got quite the cast (including Carrie Fisher), but the one thing that marred the film for me is the awful soundtrack — it’s unfortunately very 80s, which is incredibly awkward for a film set in the early 20th century.

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Willow

I can always tell that I used to love and re-watch these movies a lot, even though I haven’t watched them since back in the day, if I’m constantly remembering lines and specific sequences from the film. Such is the case for Willow — even though it was a bit of a bomb back then, I always really liked it. At the same time, it’s not like we got a lot of good fantasy films at the time. I still think it’s too bad we didn’t get more movies set in this world, which I’m sure was Lucas’s intention. I’d suggest it would be cool to try and revisit that world now, but at the same time, this movie takes so much from The Lord of the Rings that it probably wouldn’t make much sense — and god knows we’ve had enough Middle-Earth movies.

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Debaser

Child’s Play

First off, I had completely forgotten that Brad Dourif plays Chucky, which was a pleasant surprise. I can’t remember what the last Chucky movie I saw was (probably the second or third), but I had a fun time with this. Sure, there’s lots of cheesy moments, but there’s still something pretty creepy about a doll running around killing people (and cursing). I hear they’re doing a remake film, as well as a new TV series, and re-watching this has made me more interested in checking out these new takes than I normally would have been.