Although it loses some of its momentum towards the end, Maniac Cop has great pacing and multiple surprises up its sleeve that in the end make it stand out head and shoulders above similar titles.
80s-o-meter: 83%
Total: 87%
Kategoria: 1988
#76 Slaughterhouse Rock (1988)
Just when this supernatural prison slasher is about to take off, it just gets too stupid and uninteresting to watch – and stays that way for the remaining 60 agonising minutes.
80s-o-meter: 83%
Total: 19%
#75 The Invisible Kid (1988)
An average comedy that examines the aspects of every teenager guy’s dream of getting to be invisible, but fails to find the really hilariously ones.
Otherwise The Invisible Kid does an OK job as a time passer.
80s-o-meter: 84%
Total: 59%
#73 The Blob (1988)
An alien slime ball eats itself through a small town in The Blob, an underappreciated scifi action comedy gem that has some of the funniest and most creative special effects of the genre.
80s-o-meter: 91%
Total: 90%
#71 Gorillas in the Mist (1988)
The story of Dian Fossey’s work among studying and protecting mountain gorillas feels fresh still to date, and throws in the mix plenty of great African scenery to enjoy.
80s-o-meter: 53%
Total: 81%
#67 Casual Sex? (1988)
An ok’ish romantic comedy I would’ve probably enjoyed a lot more if the year was 1988 and I was a woman in my thirties.
Which I’m not.
80s-o-meter: 89%
Total: 59%
#63 Christmas 2014: Scrooged (1988)
Frank Cross, a hard-boiled eighties TV executive (Bill Murray) wants to smash all the ratings in the christmas time by producing a modernised and bastardised version of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol to the live TV. Soon he finds out himself being haunted by the ghosts as grim as the show he’s putting on.
I’m not too keen on modernisations of the old classics, so every now and then it’s good to see someone get it right for once. Scrooged is one of these rare cases and its meta take on the story-within-the-story of the Christmas Carol works well brought to the modern age.
Murray plays the role of a self-absorbed asshole so beautifully that it’s almost a shame to see him getting soft at the end. Supporting him is Bobcat Goldthwait in his typical typecast loud, trembling voiced, nervous dude and he fits the role here perfectly.
It’s entertaining, it’s very eighties and it still has that message of christmas in it. There’s nobody, NOBODY on this earth who plays a totally self-absorbed asshole better than in a more hilarious way than Murray. Very much recommended!
80s-o-meter: 97%
Total: 91%
#62 Christmas 2014: Ernest Saves Christmas (1988)
Before his untimely death Jim Varney’s Ernest character clowned around throughout the eighties to much amusement for us kids. Rubber-faced Varney’s simple, but good willing doofus character was slapstick at its purest form, with most of the humour relying on pure physical comedy and silly facial gestures. While one could argue this is the lowest form of comedy, Varney was one of the rare talents of the art among with the likes of Jim Carrey.
Ernest Saves Christmas tells a story of an ageing santa who needs someone slightly younger to take over the business, much like a pope. His chosen one is a children TV host called Joe (Oliver Clark), who lives in the faraway land of Hollywood.
There’s not too much to be explained here, it’s a simple movie with no hidden agendas, subtexts or complex plots and something that can be taken with just the face value. It succeeds in delivering most of the stuff it goes after and executes most of it with just the right kind of professional assertiveness.
It’s a good christmas watch for the whole family with a good amount of suspension, humour and kindness, and definitely one of the christmas movies that should not be forgotten.
And Jim, while we are a it; thanks for all the laughs!
80s-o-meter: 95%
Total: 84%
#44 Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988)
A real life David vs Goliath story of an inventor and his revolutionary car with the ever-so-great Jeff Bridges leading the role beautifully.
80s-o-meter: 15%
Total: 88%
#43 The Nest (1988)
Genetically engineered killer cockroaches take over a small town in The Nest, a movie not to watch for its nonexistent plot, but for the goofy gore effects of (very) varying quality.
80s-o-meter: 75%
Total: 68%
#39 The Presidio (1988)
The Presidio is very promising action thriller tries to do it all by adding far too much interpersonal drama to the mix and somewhere along the way loses its original vision.
80s-o-meter: 75%
Total: 55%
#36 Johnny Be Good (1988)
A quarterback star gets lured to shenanigans by corrupt college headhunters in Johnny Be Good, an uneven comedy that would have probably worked better as a drama.
80s-o-meter: 85%
Total: 57%
#31 Miracle Mile (1988)
Harry Washello (Anthony Edwards) answers a phone call by a chance telling him a nuclear strike is to go off in an hour. Should he warn the others? Will anyone believe? Does he?
So begins a frantic search for his date and a way out of the city and a chain of events that feel like a bad dream come true.
Originally written as an episode for Twilight Zone, Miracle Mile is a shortish 70-minute movie that carries well the tension from its first minutes to the very last ones.
80s-o-meter: 65%
Total: 87%
#30 The Accidental Tourist (1988)
A travel guide writer – The Accidental Tourist – who tries avoid all unpleasantness in his journeys and to shelter from life eventually finds out that the life itself manages to find him.
The unravelling events eventually urge him to embrace the marriage, the death – and the unexpected.
80s-o-meter: 65%
Total: 78%
#11 Die Hard (1988)
Look, I’m not a professional critic so I still have a conscience. After bashing Blind Date (1987) yesterday I felt kinda bad and decided to make it up to Bruce by watching this one once again.
This is one movie that’s executed in such a perfect way that I wouldn’t change a thing about it. Scenario in a sky scraper, lead character, just the right kind of baddies, overall pacing and so on. In its genre, there’s no better action movie than this.
It’s a role Willis was born to play or then he just really soaks the character up perfectly.
Top blockbuster action movies at the time, starring the likes of Schwarzenegger, Stallone and Chuck Norris relied greatly on heavy weapons, oiled pecs and an almost invincible lead characters. John McClane is balding, normally build New York cop going through nasty divorce. It’s in this character where the genius of this movie lies. Instead of marching around the skyscraper room to room armed with two machine guns, McClane hides, he struggles and ultimately just barely survives by last minute thinking.
90 minutes of pure awesomeness, a tight action thriller and truly one of the best movies 80’s has to offer.
80s-o-meter: 94%
Total: 100%
#3 Twins (1988)
Starring Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Twins is a treat of an 80s comedy. Having watched this movie over and over so many times I’m almost disqualified to rate this movie objectively. But hear me out.
This being Arnold’s first comedy, the movie seems tailored to him. The unlikely chemistry with DeVito works very fluently, and they really end up complementing each other. The movie also ticks a lot of boxes for the 80s-o-meter with its palm trees, cars, babes, drama and iconic baddies. What can I say, I love it.
Directed by the superb Ivan Reitman (Stripes, Ghostbusters) and features Kelly Preston, easily one of the hottest eighties babes.
And that scene with the Stallone poster. Pure comedy gold.
80s-o-meter: 92%
Total: 94%