Some things that happened in 1989:
- The Lexus and Infiniti car brands were launched.
- Serial killer Ted Bundy was executed in Florida.
- Union Carbide payed $470 million to the Indian government as a result of the Bhopal disaster five years before.
- Iran's Ayatollah Khomenei issued a fatwa calling for the death of author Salman Rushdie.
- President Bush met with Deng Xiaoping in China.
- The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred off the coast of Alaska.
- Rain Man won the Oscar for Best Picture.
- The Tiananmen protests took place in China.
- The Berlin Wall came down.
Excellent
1. Lean On Me
As someone licensed to teach in American public schools, I loved this movie. Also as someone licensed to teach in American public schools, I realize that this movie simply couldn't have happened that way. Expelling half the school on the first day? No way, not given the bureaucratic nature of even the most progressive public school. So while I loved this movie, I realize that it's almost %100 fantasy. Movies like this make us feel great, but day-to-day teaching is another story.
This said, in Lean On Me Morgan Freeman turns in one of his best performances as the new principal of a failing high school. Consistently underrated director John G. Avildson assists him in this endeavor, and the rest of the cast is excellent.
Fun Fact: If you look real close you can see Tony "Candyman" Todd as Freeman's head of security.
2. Do the Right Thing
Let's get everyone in America together in one big room. Then we'll watch Do the Right Thing. We'll also watch Lean On Me. Between the two movies we might actually come to understand each other better. Maybe.
This might be my favorite of Spike Lee's movies. I love Malcolm X too - I've seen it multiple times - but Do the Right Thing is also unquestionably great. The way the characters in this movie come to a slow boil, the way race relations in their neighborhood are illustrated, the way the camera tells the story - it's all as compelling - and as timely - as it could be. Mad about police brutality? Watch this movie. Mad about discrimination? Watch this movie. I can't say I've loved every movie Spike Lee has ever done, but this movie? Yeah.
Fun Fact: Martin Lawrence is in this. I'd totally forgotten about that.
3. Driving Miss Daisy
1989. Good year for Morgan Freeman. Not only was he getting noticed for Lean On Me, but he also starred in Driving Miss Daisy.
In Driving Miss Daisy he plays chauffeur to Jessica Tandy's wealthy matron. Both of the leads in this film were well cast, and Dan Ackroyd more than pulls his weight as Tandy's son. I can't say that it illustrates the problems of race relations as well as Do the Right Thing, but as a character study it's just about perfect. It won both Best Picture and Best Actress, and as far as I'm concerned it deserved both honors.
4. The Decalogue (a.k.a. Dekalog)
Polish director Kryzystof "Buy a Vowel" Kieslowski co-wrote and directed this series of one-hour films based on the Ten Commandments. Biblical interpretations aside, it's best viewed as a series of moral problems, all of which are resolved in surprising ways. I wouldn't recommend trying to watch it in one sitting, but if you take your time it's very enjoyable.
5. The War of the Roses
Romancing the Stone/Jewel of the Nile costars Kathleen Turner, Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito reunite for this story of a marriage gone bad. It's arguably the best thing Turner, Douglas and DeVito ever did, and DeVito is/was a good director to boot. Gotta love that low angle shot of the dinner table as Douglas and Turner are eating.
Some Good Ones
1. A City of Sadness 悲情城市
Taiwanese film about the establishment of KMT rule over the island, and the White Terror that followed. I liked how this film demonstrated a collective search for identity through a series of conversations, even though it could have been a lot shorter.
And yeah, in real life gangsters ruin everything. No one follows the rules, and everyone's always out trying to get their individual slivers of every pie. I've had some Taiwanese gangsters counted among my in-laws, and I shudder to think of a time in which they roamed more freely.
2. Mystery Train
Another one from Jim Jarmusch. I'm really NOT trying to work my way through his filmography, it's just that his movies keep finding me. I can't say I'm a fan, but I do like some of his stuff.
In Mystery Train several strangers cross paths in a Memphis hotel. Critics loved it. I didn't, but it was OK.
3. Back to the Future Part II
A. Given our current understanding of quantum mechanics, Doc's alternate timeline (or alternate universe or multiverse) theory makes sense. For each possible event in a given universe there would be nearly infinite alternative universes, limited only by space/time configurations which collapsed in upon themselves.
B. (Causal) paradoxes would only be a problem if one universe was possible. Worrying about such paradoxes in the presence of multiverses would be, in itself, paradoxical. Some time travel movies have attempted to correct for this by positing a "self-correcting" chain of causality (i.e. It's impossible to go back in time and kill Hitler because something always stops you). These time travel movies always end up being less convincing, not more.
C. This universe fails to take the butterfly effect into account. The minute Biff's older self travels back into the past, the odds against his profiting from all future sports bets become astronomical. This is equally true for Marty's travels into the past and future. The chain of causality involved is simply too vast for them to manipulate. They would create alternate timelines/universes, but they would be unable to anticipate the results of certain actions beyond a few seconds into the future.
D. Marty's comment on his own guitar solo makes me think about my own kids. If I could somehow travel into the past and play one of Tosin Abasi's guitar solos at my high school prom, would the reaction be any different?
E. Yes, I'm thinking about this movie trilogy too hard. Just the same, it can be a fun exercise. I saw all of the movies in the theater back in the 80s/90s, but watching them now is a whole other thing. Keep in mind that Part II is partially set in 2015. It's fun to think about how we advanced and how we didn't advance with respect to that vision of the future.
F. I never loved these movies, I never had the same sense of nostalgia about them, but from a pop cultural standpoint they are essential viewing. In a sense they are the summation of the late 80s, and even though Part III came out in the 90s it still says a lot about the era of Reagan and Gorbachev.
ˋ4. Kickboxer
Jean-Claude Van Damme travels to exotic Thailand to learn the exotic art of muay thai and kick exotic guys in the face. All while not missing arm day.
This movie and Bloodsport are the two movies that made Van Damme. And where I'd have to say Bloodsport is more "So Bad It's Good" (especially given its fictitious origins), Kickboxer is better as a straight-ahead action movie. Is it Shakespeare? No. But it's got the lead, it's got the supporting cast of characters, it's got a good villain and it's got the 80s power ballads. It looks back to a time when many of us were reading Inside Kung-Fu and obsessing over ninjas.
Fun Fact 1: Dennis Alexio, who plays Van Damme's brother in this film, was a former world kickboxing champion. Is it me, or are there a whole lot of "former world kickboxing champions?"
Fun Fact 2: There are seven movies in the Kickboxer franchise, with an eighth supposedly on the way this year. Van Damme only starred in the first one.
Fun Fact 3: "Tong Po," billed in this movie as Tong Po, is actually Belgian-Moroccan actor Michel/Mohammed Qissi. He grew up with Van Damme in Belgium. Besides also appearing with Van Damme in Bloodsport and Lionheart, his and Van Damme's first movie was 1984's Breakin', in which they both appear very briefly.
5. Road House
Side kick! Roundhouse kick! Knee smash! Repeat!
Patrick Swayze (R.I.P.) stars as the toughest bouncer in small town Kansas, with the great Ben Gazzara as the town mobster. Dudes alienated by Dirty Dancing and disappointed by Steel Dawn need look no further than this movie. It's got all the Swayze you can handle.
Fun Fact 1: Swayze's speech to the bar staff ("Be nice until it's time to not be nice.") has been used as a police training video.
Fun Fact 2: Bill Murray is a huge fan of this movie.
Fun Fact 3: There's a great parody of Swayze's lakeside yoga scene in the 2007 movie Hot Rod.
6. See No Evil, Hear No Evil
I've never been a big fan of the Wilder/Pryor movies, but for what it's worth this one is my favorite. Gene Wilder plays a deaf man, with Richard Pryor as his blind friend. Critics hated it, and to be fair it borrows heavily from the earlier Stir Crazy and Silver Streak, but there are some funny scenes in the beginning.
6. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
Sexual jealousy in a cavernous French restaurant. Helen Mirren covered similar territory in Caligula, but my main complaint is how easily the bad guy gives up in the end. He really doesn't put up much of a fight. Is it good? Well it's definitely arty, and ending will stay with you.
What. The. Actual. Fuck.
1. Santa Sangre
Part Freaks, part Psycho, part I don't know what. Most people will consider turning this one off about ten minutes in, but I recommend watching at least a third. Once you get a third of the way in you'll know if you're going to like it or not. I couldn't sit through Jodorowsky's earlier films, but I found my patience rewarded in this one. It reminded me a bit of Dario Argento's Inferno.
?
1. Tongues Untied
A movie? A documentary? A series of poems? Whatever it is, Tongues Untied is a look at what it means to be black and gay. One of the more interesting things I've seen lately.
Less Than Van Dammaging
1. Cyborg
I have the feeling the original script was very different from the movie they ended up filming. There's a lot of Christ imagery in the story, and whoever wrote the screenplay was probably leading up to a completely different conclusion.
As it is this movie is cheesy as hell at times, and really boring at others. When Van Damme isn't running around and/or kicking people, he's trying to save a cyborg lady who's carrying the cure for a world plague.
Fun Fact: Director Albert Pyun would go on to helm Captain America the following year. Yes, THAT Captain America.
Some Bad Ones
1. Field of Dreams
Corny as fuck. I get that it's supposed to tug on my heartstrings - and.I do enjoy watching a baseball game now and then - but this movie is damn silly. The Natural? Sure. Loved it. This one? Eh....
Kevin Costner was perfect casting though. In this movie he either a) experiences a psychotic break and hallucinates the rest of the plot, or b) the souls of dead baseball players return to the world of the living to make things right. And yes, just typing that last sentence made me nauseous.
Fun Fact 1: Ben Affleck and Matt Damon appear as extras in this movie.
Fun Fact 2: Critics loved Field of Dreams. It was even nominated for multiple Oscars.
Fun Fact 3: The field used in this film became a tourist destination in its own right. The land eventually sold for 5.4 million, and MLB games were held there.
2. Kiki's Delivery Service
I know, right? Who the hell do I think I am? First I trash talk Field of Dreams, and now I dare to say Kiki's Delivery Service is... bad? The animation is great of course, and Hayao Miyazaki's fingerprints are all over this film, but I just couldn't concentrate on it. In it a young witch sets up shop in a small town and... what? I don't know. I felt like this movie was missing something.
Fun Fact: The conservative Christian group Women for America boycotted this movie when it (finally) appeared in American theaters 9 years after its initial theatrical run in Japan. At Disney, which released the movie in partnership with Studio Ghibli, zero fucks were given.
3. Tango and Cash
The late 80s/early 90s: that golden age of self-aware action movies. Trouble is that this movie is painfully unfunny, and it's hard to care about either Tango or Cash. In a perfect world this movie would have featured both Stallone and Schwarzenegger, but Schwarzenegger, then the biggest action star in the world, probably thought this movie was beneath him.
Fun Fact: This movie was originally going to feature Stallone and Patrick Swayze. Swayze, smartly enough, opted to do Road House instead.
4. UHF
Not funny unless you're 12. If you liked Weird Al's humor this is definitely more of the same, but I can't say it's aged well. Remember when we all thought he was amusing?
So Bad It's Hilarious
1. Wild Orchid
Things get erotic after international lawyer Carre Otis travels to Brazil to close a hotel deal and overcome her sexual hangups.
By 1989 costar Mickey Rourke's career was definitely on a downswing. He hadn't broken his face yet, but movies like Angel Heart and the underrated Barfly were rapidly fading from the public consciousness. Later movies such as this one and Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man also weren't doing him any favors. To make matters worse, Carre Otis, his soon-to-be ex-wife, was a terrible actress.
But yeah, that group therapy scene in the limo. The weird Lambada orgy at the "renovated slave quarters club." The bizarre fight with sailors at the beach. I laughed so hard people came upstairs to see if I was alright.
Fun Fact: This movie's similarity to 9 1/2 Weeks can be traced to more than Rourke's presence in both movies. Wild Orchid director Zalman King also collaborated with Adrian Lyne on 9 1/2 Weeks.
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