25 From 85: My Favorite Films Of 1985

 Enemy Mine is a film that starts out as a "bad alien" movie and but then evolves into a "good alien" movie by intergalactically pondering the question of "Why can't we all just get along?"
 The truth is, no matter what planet one is from, when it comes to reaching racial harmony, even on an interplanetary scale, we all need to follow Jerry Seinfeld's advice and try to take a bite out of both sides of the black and white cookie.
Look to the cookie, my fellow Listophiles.
We must all look to the cookie.
 Oh, and to all you science fiction geeks out there,
that's cookie, not wookie.
So don't start looking towards Chewbacca for any kind of sage words on the subject. No matter how much your geek infested brain is going to try to convince you otherwise, unlike Klingon from Trek, there isn't a single one of you out there who is going to be able learn how to speak Wookie.
 And to the rest of the non-sci-fi nerds out there reading this, the sad thing here is that we all know that there is some sci-fi nerd who responded to that last sentence with "Challenge accepted!".



Okay. okay, I know this list has started off by me going off the rails a bit when it comes to the purposes of these kinds of lists, but my senses have returned, and I won't waste anymore of the entries here on any more of the kind of non-sequential, non-sensical shit that I just filled this description box with....

I'll be honest here, the main reason I liked the first First Blood was because of the manner that Rambo was able to seriously kick ass without as much snickering or as many eyerolls from movie viewers that the character began to get starting with Part II. For me, that first chapter in this series was was able to straddle the fine line of being over the top and yet down to earth at the same time.
After R:FBP2 however, Sly's crazy ex-soldier easily crossed over that line and just sorta became more of a cartoon-like character of violence that he's become famous for since then.



Still, for all the bloated brawny ridiculousness that has infested this franchise, I've been able to accept this particular movie for the fiery explosion-laden popcorn escapist fare that it is.
Though, that doesn't mean I have to like any of the sequels that followed up after this one. For me, those all still suck.

Prince's ex-nasty girl, Vanity teams up with a dragon that can catch bullets with his teeth.
Sho-Nuff.

Two Secret Service agents are hot on the trail of a Master counterfeiter through the corrupted grit of the L.A. underground.
With the criminal proving to be elusive, the agents start participating in activities that will put their badges and their police codes into jeopardy.



Directed by William Friedkin, To Live And Die In L.A. is a police story that winds and weaves through the path of compromised processes and whatever-it-takes tactics that can lead to the kind of in-department corruption and above-the-law vigilantism that any officer can easily fall prey to in the obsessive pursuit of the perp.

Fred, a small time safe-cracker, stumbles through life down in the subterranean passages of the Paris Metro, along with a "secret society" of fellow eccentrics who share his "passion" for petty crimes, stylistic clothes and avante garde music.
Starring the Highlander guy and with a look that has
been described as "visually vibrant", Subway is an artistically French underground movie about the French who like to live artistically underground.

   Some things are better left alone. That was my initial reaction to this third Mad Max movie when I first saw in the theater on its opening night. 

 Griffith Dunne is what could be a called a "computer nerd of the 80's". So when a pretty girl who shares a same interest as him gives him her number, he does what all nerds do. He comes up with some flimsy excuse to see her.   However, as Griffith travels through the neighborhood where she lives, he finds himself facing one misadventuring turns after another, each one stranger than the previous.
 In other words, he experiences what it's like to be on in Soho after hours.
A black comedy that I didn't find to be as funny as most critics, yet it was still a movie that, over-all, proved to be an interesting trip through lower Manhattan in the street level manner that only Martin Scorsese can provide.

 Yet another entry into the genre for the venerable Mr. Eastwood and yet another one where he portrays a mysterious man who rides into town to save the day from rough-riding thugs who have a penchant for terrorizing the locals. If it weren't for the lengthy time span between Pale Rider and Clint's 1973 cowboy outing as the High Plains Drifter, it'd be really easy to get the two flicks mixed up. Many of the basic elements of both movie premises are similar enough, with the major difference being that in Drifter he plays a Man-With-No-Name from "Hell", whereas in Rider he plays a heaven-sent "Preacher-With-No-Name from hell. Nevermind the fact that we've seen similar elements all chapters of the Dollars trilogy.



  The saving grace of this typical cowboy Clint chronicle is that, at the end of the day, it's still a solid Eastwood shoot-em-up.
  More than any other decade, the 80's seemed to lack the numbers when it came to western thrillers. Therefore, despite the rerunning of certain formulas, Pale Rider helps to fill in a quota of cinema iconography that we've gotten used to seeing in the 60's and in the 70's; the shadowy, roughly cut visage of Eastwood's face under a dusty cowboy hat with silently gritted teeth, ready to dish out some six-shooting justice to any "black-hatted" hombre lookin' to stir up some trouble.

  The original Fright Night is one of those movies that holds a very special place in my heart, and a very happy memory in my head. I remember sitting in the theater when this was first released and just thinking to myself of how lucky I felt to be living at a time (which were the mid 80s) when Hollywood was producing great escapist scare-fare such as what I was watching on the big screen before me. It was vampire flix like this one, and others like Lost Boys and The Monster Squad from two years later, that made it seem like movie makers were finally moving away from the 70's decade full of B-movie level, camp-infested double-billers that were made more to be shown at the drive-ins and therefore act more as act as excuse to 'neck with your girlfriend" that they were to be actually watched. They were also an improvement above from the slew of lousy, lazy uninspired work of Christopher Lee vamp vehicles that were being continually cranked out by Hammer and the Hammer wannabe studios that were still trying to cash in Lee’s earlier and more vibrant efforts of donning the cape of the classic Count.
 Don’t get me wrong, I know that there really wasn’t all that much substance within the plot of FN, but the truth is, what it does manage to do very effectively is present itself as a sort of spoofy love letter to the movies that used to fill up the creature features content of horror TV shows that were so popular with young horror fans and which were run and rerun during late weekend nights pf the 70's and 80's.



  The story here centers on Charlie Brewster, a high schooling teen whose favorite show, appropriately enough named Fright Night, is the inspiration into his belief that his two new male neighbors are in actuality, a vampire and his human familiar. Obviously, no one around him shares this fantastical belief, but that doesn’t stop Charlie from seeking out the host of the Fright Night television series, a washed-up actor, Peter Vincent, with nothing better else to do outside of shooting his TV show and who therefore decides to investigate, in return for an easy paycheck.

 Despite the dated look of the special effects and make up used to make the concept of a blood sucking dead walker come alive on the screen, it is still pretty apparent to modern eyes that these were the highest quality level of visual techniques of the time that were being utilized. The plot, still buried deep within the nature of camp of which this material is built for, is still written with the level of integrity that balances between suspending one’s sense of disbelief towards dead humans rising from the grave with appetite for the blood, and the  subsisting continuity of the corpse lore that doesn’t insult the intelligence, at least to the point where your brain has to be left at the door. 

  Fright Night captures spirit of the best lightweight horror films that featured the classic creatures with longtime legends has to offer and updates them to fit within the aesthetics of enjoyable cinema that was the 1980s. It may not have scared you out of your pants, but it did make it enjoyable to sit down in a dark theater with a big bucket of popcorn, a small half barrel sized cup of blue, frozen slushy, and the mindset of fiendish fun that tends to rise out of this particular brand of fanged fandom.

I guess that the main reason why I like this movie is b'cuz it shows something we rarely get to see on the bigscreen (or anywhere else, for that matter);
a partially naked Amish woman.
And let's be honest....
the image of something like that is just downright hawt.



Back in the 80's, Harrison Ford always seemed to get the best roles.

A "what-if-John-Hughes-was-suicidal" type of off-beat romantic-comedy
that will either touch your heart or make you reach into your pocket with the hope that you'll have at least two dollars in there (for those of you who may not get that, it's a "running" joke {pun intented} of the movie).

Back in the day, quality sword & sorcery movies were incredibly rare. Ladyhawke (why the "e" at the end?) and Legend were the only ones I ever really liked (wasn't much of a fan of Willow), up until when LOTR finally got made many years later.
And while Legend focused more on it's stunning sets and character designs, this one was geared more thru it's storytelling and character development (although, this one's also was very appealing to the eyes).
A love story appropriated through the genre, it stars Ferris Bueller, Scarface's girlfriend and a very moody replicant.

Pee-wee's first big adventure is featured in his big screen debut, aptly titled "Pee-wee's Big Adventure.
And no, this movie's title is not referring the "big adventure" that landed him in jail and thus made this playhouse dwelling man-child infamously kinda creepy.
But maybe it's that slight touch of creepiness that seems to add a bit of edge to this quirky cross country comedy about a "boy" and his bike.

Legend was probably the first movie to come into my life where I felt that it truly captured the fantasy element of a sword and sorcery saga that I always wanted to see on film when it came to this genre. The visuals in this movie are amazing, bright and filled with an abundance of energy (especially for it's time). The designs of the landscape and the characters encapsulate the kind of style that I would have envisioned whenever I read a book featuring elves, trolls, unicorns and whatnot. Even the devilish full body make-up of the primary antagonist, Lord Of Darkness, was spared no expense at the baddassery of his gigantically horned self.
I think that Legend was an aptly titled big step into what these types of movies had the potential to be.

After the mysterious murder of a Bay Area heiress, Teddy Barnes, a lawyer who hasn't tried a case in years (and who despite her manly name, is played by a beautiuosly curved Glenn Close) suddenly finds herself in the courtroom. And shortly thereafter, finds herself in bed with her client.
A tense-filled court-room thriller filled with enough twists and turns in it's story that, if there were another courtroom movie playing after this one, it's plot would probably benefit from the spill-over.

After almost achieving the typical neo-classic high-middle class lifestyle, yuppie couple David and Linda realize they're basically on a "road to nowhere". So they decide to take a chance, buy a mobile home and hit the road to somewhere to see if they can find what it is that they're looking for. However, after an early detour to Las Vegas, they discover how easy it is to veer away from their path and quickly find all of their hopes and their dreams lost in America.
Directed, co-written and starring Albert Brooks, LiA is wistfully witty look at how easy it is to lose the pursuit for the American Dream when driving through life with no real sense of direction and without Lady Luck on your side.

A couple of convicts manage to escape prison, only to find themselves fighting the elements as they trek across the frostbitten Alaskan wilderness. But the pair soon stumble upon a railway yard and quickly find refuge on a train of "stacked" locomotives. Only to discover that the train has no driver or engineer and is quickly speeding out of control.
A case of bad luck that can only be described as "out of the frying pan and into the fire... and then more fire".



With his acting skillz running on all cylinders, Jon Voight stars alongside Eric Roberts in another example that demonstrates that Eric really can act, if only he could find a way to say no to all those B-movie scripts that keep coming his way.

Two boys from well-to-do backgrounds but on different paths grow up to find themselves on the same road of international espionage.
Based on true events, this is a tale of two men who, fueled by disillusionment and greed, end up in a unlikely position where they can sell governmental secrets of the U.S. to the then-rival government of the then-communist Soviet Union.



Driven by the combined thespian skillz of two actors at the peak of their careers (Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton), The Falcon And The Snowman is an excellent story of two low-profile citizens caught up way over their heads in high-profile stakes.

The decade of the MTV Generation hits its halfway point with a detention hall chock full Brat Pack icons, like Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy, and that one guy with the really big nostrils.



Let's be honest here,
despite the connection that the majority of John Hughes' films have to the 80's,
when it comes to The Breakfast Club,
this is the movie that has the decade saying "Don't you forget about me".
In a simple mind kind of a way, that is.

There have been movies made that have depicted the devastating effects of war since the inception of moving motion pictures. And I have watched more than my fair share of them. But when I think of the films that best show at just how horrifying the battle between nations can get, particularly on it's noncombatant citizens (films like Apocalypse Now, Schindler's List and Platoon), Come And See ranks at number one, by far.



In this Soviet produced war drama, we follow a peasant boy on his military journey as he goes from being "drafted" into a severely under-supplied resistance group to the atrocities that ensue as a troop of drunken Nazi soldiers blaze through a hapless village and it's towns people.
It's very difficult to capture in words just how visceral the experience of watching this can be other to say that you will most unlikely ever see another movie that effectively and genuinely depicts the dehumanizing aftermath of military battle as this one.
Truly one of the best war films ever made.

The aliens have touched down, and they're not here to conquer us, morph into our bodies, drain us of our energy sources, or steal our sun. They just want to take home a few of their "left-overs" from their first visit.
And maybe, even take a few of our senior citizens with 'em.
Which is fine by us.
Cuz in space, no one can hear an old man fart.

Jack Nick and Kathy Turn star in this tale of one hitman and one hitwoman who hit it off with each other.
In more ways than one.

This is one of those movies whose title is atually a play on words, to give an indication of what the heart of it's subject matter really is.
Disguised as a film about traveling through a bus,
this is actually a great introspection into the life of someone who's been on the journey of life and kinda wishes that she could do it all again, but this time, behind the wheel of her own vehicle.

Before movies like Crouching Tiger/ Hidden Dragon and Hero came along and added the artistically flair fantasy elements to these types of epic movies, there was Ran. Featuring some of the most beautiful and grand visuals ever in an Akira Kurosawa film. The fact that his name was associated with this project guaranteed this film's sweeping quality. And, the added high budget seemed to compromise his vision not in the slightest. Instead, it seemed to open up the potentiality that Mr. Kurosawa had holding in his already abundant visionary dreams.
Definitely my favorite of his works.

 Anyone who was a fan of 80's sitcom television at the time would have looked at the initial previews of Back to the Future and responded with "'Ey look, it's that's one dude from Family Ties teaming up with that one other dude from Taxi and that one chick from Howard the Duck".
  Michael J. Fox, Leah Thompson, Christopher Loyd, along with Crispin Glover, form a cadre of actors whom, during the period that this movie was dominating in cineplexes everywhere, were not considered top marquee celebrities, a situation that would change practically overnight, particularly for Fox, after this surprise summer hit's release.



Marty McFly may seem like just a typical, white bred kid from the 1980's, but the truth is, well.... he really is just a typical white bred kid from the 1980's. Okay, maybe his dad never shrugged off his 1950's brand of nerdiness, but let's be honest here, back in the 80's, we all sorta knew that that this was more the norm than what was usually portrayed on TV and in the movies as to what typical was. And maybe every once in a while, Marty tended to hang around with an offbeat, weirdo professor, but the fact that Marty could play guitar pretty good, was in a band, and had a good looking 80's style girlfriend, sorta balanced all that out, didn't it? And if you could believe it, this was an 80's kid whi wasn't doing drugs.
 But whatever, this so-called "atypical" kid gets caught up in one of his professor friend's experiments, and the next thing you know, he's driving a super-souped-up DeLorean (the "car of the future") not on the road, but through time itself, which puts him in the fantastical predicament of being stuck in the past. And with an empty flux capacitor, a younger version of the professor and his teen-aged so-to-be dad, McFly must find a way back.... to the fut....well.... you know the rest.



Directed by Robert Zemeckis, Back to the Future is a time-traveling tale which inarguably solidified the fact that it's never a good idea to take your mother to the school dance. Especially if it's before she becomes your mother. As I mentioned in the beginning of this entry, it was one of the biggest surprise hits, not just of the year, but also of the whole decade. To the point where it considered a zeitgeist example of that decade. Recently, it has also been gaining the reputation of being one of rare "perfect" movies, but that is one reaction to this movie that I take issue. Just about every motion picture ever made that has a premise based on time travel is flawed because none of 'em have tried to iron out the peculiar dynamics that come with the concept of skipping through the chronological stream of the universe. And for good reason, because it would require too much focus on trying to explain the science, which would then become quite a sacrifice to the "amount of time" left over to tell the story.
  Back to the Future skates around this this in a pretty effective fashion by establishing the character of Doc Brown as a nutty professor who presents the dynamics of time travel in a very comic booky fashion, thus allowing for the zany antics that ensue the pursuit of returning things back to normal. It's the basis of what makes BttF such an endearing blockbuster of 1980's cinema, but it definitely does not prevent its premise to be without flaws. There are quite of number of them upon closer inspection, but to start pointing them out now loses the overall point of what this movie is and what it has become since then. This is not a perfect film, but what it is, is a perfect mixing of weird science, non-angst coming-of age life lessons, and lightweight comedy gold. It's feelgood filmmaking that stands up to the test of time.