Some things that happened in 1988:
- The soon-to-be-former Soviet Union began an economic restructuring plan under Mikhail Gorbachev.
- Lee Tung-hui became President of Taiwan. He passed away recently.
- The Eritrean War of Independence began.
- The Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan (see Rambo III).
- Medical waste began washing up on beaches in the vicinity of New York.
- Thousands were killed in anti-government demonstrations in Burma.
- Al-Qaeda was formed by Osama bin Laden.
- The Iran-Iraq War ended.
- George H.W. Bush was elected President of the United States.
- Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland.
- The first internet connection was made between North America and Europe.
Linked entries can be viewed in their entirety on YouTube.
Excellent
1. My Neighbor Totoro
Two girls in rural Japan encounter forest spirits. Studio Ghibli released this after Laputa: Castle in the Sky and alongside Grave of the Fireflies (below). It arrived two years after Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. To say this movie was a huge success would be an understatement.
On a more personal note, the theme music from this movie is played in the Taiwanese elementary school where I work. It's played once a day, every day, before the students are sent home. Many Taiwanese people cherish this movie.
2. Grave of the Fireflies
If this movie doesn't bring you to tears - or at least close to tears - you've got issues. In Grave of the Fireflies two orphans in Imperial Japan struggle to survive at the end of World War II. I liked the earlier Barefoot Gen, but this one tells a more compelling story.
And by the way FUCK that kid's aunt. I've never wanted to throttle anyone so much in my life.
3. Cinema Paradiso
A young boy and a projectionist form a friendship that endures for decades. On another level it's about our relationship with cinema, and how everyday life is magnified into the stories we tell one another onscreen.
4. Time of the Gypsies
Ok, you've seen A Serbian Film, but have you seen a Yugoslavian one? Yugoslavia, by the way, stopped being a thing in 1992. In 1992 it was broken up into a confederation consisting of Serbia and Montenegro.
In a way it's easy - too easy - to laugh at the people in Time of the Gypsies. They cast spells. They keep turkeys as house pets. But then the local gangster gets involved, and before you know it the protagonist is literally buying and selling people. Gang rape and human trafficking will suck the humor right out of any situation.
All of which is a roundabout way of saying that Time of the Gypsies is by turns tragic and funny. It's also a very overlooked movie.
5. The Thin Blue Line
Documentary following the travails of a Texas man falsely accused of murdering a police officer. It tells a very nuanced story, and Philip Glass's score is wonderful.
Ah, the Nostalgia...
1. Willow
Between the animated Rankin-Bass version and Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy this is what we had, and we loved it. A little bit Tolkien, a little bit Disney, with just a splash of Indiana Jones. Some of the effects haven't aged well, and there's are some huge plot holes near the end, but Warwick Davis, Val Kilmer and Joanne Whalley (Kilmer) are all still great in this movie. It was director Ron Howard's 6th movie, between Gung Ho (an underrated classic) and Parenthood. You can tell he was somewhat out of his depth with this effects-heavy, George Lucas-produced spectacle, but he had a good feel for the characters and what makes a scene compelling.
Fun Fact 1: George Lucas approached Ron Howard to direct Willow during post-production for Howard's film Cocoon. Howard was also one of the stars of Lucas' American Graffiti.
Fun Fact 2: Warwick Davis also played one of the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi. Lucas had him in mind for the part of Willow during the filming of that movie. He was 11 when he appeared in Jedi, and on the shoot Mark Hamill bought him all of the Star Wars action figures he didn't have.
Fun Fact 3: There may be a television series on the way. Ron Howard is involved in its development, and Warwick Davis will probably reprise his role from the movie.
Fun Fact 4: Check out the arcade game. Oh, the memories...
Some Good Ones
1. Young Guns
On the plus side, Emilio Estevez does a good psychopath. He'll never remind you of his father more than he does in this movie. On the minus side, the scenes where they all stand and pose with their guns are very silly, as is their method of escape from the shootout at the end of this movie.
Fun Fact: Tom Cruise is in this movie somewhere.
2. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
It's still funny, but it won't have you rolling around on the floor or anything. Canadian Leslie Nielsen stars with Elvis's ex-wife (or Michael Jackson's ex mother in law), with George Kennedy as his sidekick.
3. The Blob
How exactly does Kevin Dillon get from the bridge jump to the inside of that sewer in time to rescue Shawnee Smith? We will never know the answer to such mysteries. The Blob isn't a masterpiece, but it's an effective film, and it's easy enough to overlook its inconsistencies.
4. On the Silver Globe
So you and your Polish drama class friends want to make a philosophical science fiction movie - and why shouldn't you? If you play your cards right, in about 32 years your movie will be reviewed on a blog like this one, to be read by a hundred or so people.
Part of me wants to dismiss this movie as "low budget," but that's not it exactly. It's more like it was community-funded, and at certain points the community failed to realize parts of the story. I had a REALLY hard time figuring out what was going on toward the end, what planet they were supposed to be on, and whether such and such person was making love to a human or an alien, and if that even mattered. This film about human society starting again on another world is definitely one of the weirdest things I've seen in a while, but it's also REALLY long and it sets its sights extremely high. If you enjoy books like Roadside Picnic or movies like Stalker, you might give this one a go.
5. Stand and Deliver
Compared to 1989's Lean On Me, which I also saw recently, this is definitely a more realistic take on high school. Edward James Olmos' math teacher isn't Superman, just a guy who wants to make a difference. The trouble is that this movie fails to show how he wins the class over in the first place, and demonstrating that process would have made the ending a lot more powerful. It also seems unsure of what kind of story it wants to tell. Is it about showing barrio kids a brighter future? Or is it illustrating the struggle against institutional racism? I liked it, and Olmos deserved the Oscar nomination, but Lean On Me's sharper focus makes it a better film.
Not-So-Fun Fact: In real life at least some of those students did cheat on the AP exam.
Some Bad Ones
1. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
I'll see your Marvel Cinematic Universe and raise you another, older universe wherein the Looney Tunes characters, the Disney characters and some other, older characters live in the same space as actual people. It ain't always pretty, but that's what Who Framed Roger Rabbit was aiming for.
The biggest problem with this movie is Roger Rabbit. He is so consistently annoying that he takes you right out of the movie. Another big problem is when the camera moves. When the camera remains stationary the mixture of live-action and animation isn't too jarring, but the minute they start panning in or out the animated characters looks completely two dimensional, regardless of how the animators accented shadows. The story is a third problem: is all of this supposed to be funny? Serious? Film noir or cartoon?
This movie made me feel sorry for Bob Hoskins. At the time he was probably glad to land the leading role, but putting him in a movie where he had to outperform cartoons wasn't exactly fair play.
All of the above said, critics at the time loved this movie. So what do I know?
Fun Fact: Bob Hoskins was one of the last choices for Eddie Valiant. The list of other, more favored contenders included Harrison Ford, Chevy Chase, Bill "Space Jam" Murray, Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams and even Sylvester Stallone. Tim Curry auditioned for the villain, but was deemed "too terrifying" by the producers.
2. The Big Blue
BEAUTIFULLY photographed movie directed by Luc Besson. Unfortunately the story's really thin, far too thin to sustain a film of this length. I really enjoyed the first half of it, but the second just goes on and on and on. The sex scenes in it are also really, really unnecessary.
Fun Fact: The star of this movie, Jean-Marc Barr, would go on to appear in several of Lars von Trier's films.
3. Short Circuit 2
Christ this movie is dumb. And not dumb fun like the first one. Just dumb. Fisher Stevens returns, with Michael McKean as his business partner. The romantic subplot is grindingly dull, and their means of escaping from the freezer has to be one of the most contrived things ever.
Fun Fact: Kenneth Johnson, the director of this film, did a lot of good work in TV. He created V: The Miniseries, The Bionic Woman, The Incredible Hulk and the TV adaptation of Alien Nation.
4. Pumpkinhead
A group of irresponsible young adults find themselves on the business end of a supernatural entity. Star Lance Henrikson and director Stan Winston had previously worked together on Aliens. Pumpkinhead, the real star of this movie, resembles a xenomorph.
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