25 From 87: My Favorite Films Of 1987

   The Monster Squad is a modern-day creature features film that, despite the campy premise at its core, I still consider as must-see cinema for anyone who considers themselves to be a true fan of old-skool horror. The main reason for this is because this was one of the last times that we got to see what was commonly referred to as a monster mash movie. Now, while it’s probably pretty much self-explanatory, a "mash movie" is one that features a gathering of cinema's most iconic, fright infested film stars, or more specifically, Dracula, Frankenstein‘s Monster, and the Wolfman (although the roster can also sometimes include the Mummy, and or the Invisible Man). 

  The premise here is that Count Dracula is looking to become king of the world. And not in that Titanic sort of way, either. The Baron of Bloodsuckers wants to plunge the planet into eternal darkness, but in order to do so, he seeks to round up a "universal" band of fellow creature colleagues to make his undead dream come to life.
 This is probably the last time that we get to see the Count in his classic attire of Victorian style tuxedo with the red banded necklace or sash that was often more associated with European diplomats of yore. After this, it became more of a fashion statement that leaned much more towards being an iconic symbol of a parody than it was to any kind of signature look. From here on end, the King of Vampires would rarely pop up on theater screens, and when he would, the distinctive image that had evolved from Bela Lugosi's debut in the role, has dissipated like mist in a graveyard, for the sake of a modern audience who have a much more verisimilar palette when it comes for a taste for blood.

Just when you thought the Evil Dead were dead, this second installment of the series shows that one of the main reasons they're so evil is because they have a nasty habit of not staying dead.



After the surprise success of the first flick, Bruce Campbell revisits the role as the teenage camper who comes back to the cabin in the woods to settle a score. And this time, he taking names and kicking Ash.
Actually, that's a really loose interpretation of what happens in this film since I could never tell just how much of a sequel the story from ED2 was supposed to be from EV1.
Nevertheless, the fact that the follow-up was even more successful than the first film provided enough fuel for this new franchise to shamble much farther and much longer than Sam Raimi and friends could've ever fore"saw".

  Back during the middle of the 1980s, there seemed to be quite a resurgence of movies that were centered around the eternally dead nightwalkers that like to feast upon the life fluid of those of us who are among the living. Vamp, Once Bitten, and Fright Night, are all examples of these kinds of horror films that came out during this time. Heck, in this particular list alone, there are three of 'em. The Monster Squad, Lost Boys, and this one, Near Dark, not only opened in theaters in 1987, but also, they each indelibly left their own mark into the genre and have since developed their own brand of fans, whether they be mainstream moviegoers or cult followers.

  Near Dark is a neo western take on the bloodsucking genre that was written and directed by Kathryn Bigelow, the future ex-wife of record-breaking filmmaker, James Cameron. Their short marriage is not the only connection that they hold towards each other with this movie. Not only does Cameron make a brief cameo appearance here, but also, he lends half of the actors that played the xenomorph hunting soldiers in his 1986 classic science fiction/action adventure, Aliens. Except instead of hunting for acid-blooded face-hugging, extraterrestrials, in Near Dark, they portray a vagabonding band of bloodthirsty bikers who ride through the southwest in search of victims from who they can sink their corpuscle cravin' canines into.  

   Another attribute that these mid 80s vampire flicks shared other than their relative time period Is that most of them made an attempt to update the lore of the vampire to fit within the logic of more contemporary standards. Lost Boys and this one in particular, depict their central creatures outside of their legendary mythology as more as modern models of the macabre. Both films show their vamps as members of a rebellious gang that followed no rules (whether established by man or myth) other than their own. LB did a pretty good job of showing there long aged antagonist as a group of punked out rock ‘n’ rollin' teenage hooligans. whereas in ND, they went down the road as a bunch of dusty worn of Hell's Angels type of motorcyclers with no direction or purpose, other than causing chaos and leaving drained bodies in their wake.

Of course, that is an approach that is quite likely to reveal an obvious flaw that comes with modernizing the concept of the vampire. And that is the idea of them road rampaging through their country would leave behind a long trail of dead bodies. Bodies which would eventually also become one of the eternally dead who walk. Thus, it wouldn’t take too long before authorities would pick up that something quite sinister is happening. In Lost Boys, this is easily skipped over by the whole comic book nature of the film and its premise. But in a movie like Dark, that’s an obvious hole in logistics that tends to blare out a little brighter. And that’s one of the reasons why this movie doesn’t appear higher on this list. While overall, it is a pretty good film with an interesting premise of treating the tale of a bloodsucker in the vein of a neo-Western, the application of gritty, and dirty atmosphere to this kind of genre specific theme tends to open up the kind of can of worms that contradicts the realistic nature of the whole thing. And in order to do that more successfully, I feel as though the writing, as solid as it was, needed a bit more wit to its script, and maybe a higher level of action fantasy to its plot. It’s a juggling that’s difficult to pull off, but it is a side effect that results from just putting forth the effort. When it works, you could have something special that raises the bar of the entire genre. But if it doesn’t work, or in this case, just come in halfway, then we’re left with something that doesn’t make as big of an impression in general audiences as it might to the more hard-core fans. And what we're eventually left with is a vampire movie that reaches for the full blackness of the night, but in the end, only gets as close as being near dark.

During the eighties, the buddy-cop was at it's highest caliber. An this particular one, the genre goes intergalactic. A New York detective finds himself teamed up with an out of this world partner on the case of a serial killer from beyond the stars.
An alien that's smart enough to realize that if it wants to infiltrate into the society of this big blue marble that we call Earth, that it must remain hidden.
Which is what probably inspired the producers of this movie to give it the title that they did.

Okay,
so far, this list has been just a buncha horror cult classics, the kind that make girlfriendless geeks go into a fanboy frenzy (and we're still not done yet, considering the movies that I have listed at numbers 18 and 3).
So, it's seems only fitting that we interrupt this genre-specific spree with a nonmasculine light-hearted romantic-comedy based on a classic play that has a history longer than Pinocchio's famous woody extension.



In this modern take of the timeless tale of a troubled triangle, Darryl Hannah plays the role of the smart, innocent perfect pretty chick that tends to inhabit these kind of chick-flicks and Steve Martin is de Bergerac-esque lead who, when it comes to speaking the language of love, is the man who "nose".

Mel Gibson as a do-gooder whose tends to go a bit unhinged at times.
Considering the the craziness has been coming to light & has help to keep Gibby's name in the tabloid news media lately,
who knew that this would eventually become a case of life imitating art?

I'll be honest; I've never held Brian DePalma in as high regard as his reputation as a filmmaker has become. Mind you, I don't think he's bad. I just don't think that he's at the pantheon level of directors that he seems to be held at.
To me, his skills as a director, though usually capable, mostly seems a bit simplistic, particularly when it comes to intrepreting the story on screen.
This simplicity, however, merges well with the feel & attitude of this particular movie. Under other hands, the Untouchables could've easily come off as a shallow noir-ish mess. But with DePalma's method of storytelling, in the end, it becomes something more like a film version & modern update of those old EC crime comicbooks from the 1950's.

How does one gain the World Championship title belt of Total Badassery? Come from another planet, in full tilt sophisticated battle-gear & then proceed to kick the combined @sses of ""the Terminator", Apollo Creed", Jesse "The Body" Ventura & that one guy who played one of the corrupt cops in Payback. (Not to mention, in following sequels, take on another alien franchise).

Cher in an Oscar-winning role in which she slaps Nicolas Cage hard in the face & then tells him to snap outta it.
And if that's not enough to make you fall in love with this movie,
then, to be honest,
I just don't know what you're looking for in a film.

A pre-plastic surgery Mickey Rourke stars with Lisa Bonet along with a "special guest appearance" by Robert Deniro in this unforgettable neo-noir mystery that contains a plot which takes the kind of unexpected turn that can best be described as darker than Hell. And when I say "darker than Hell", I mean that literally.
Gotta love those twist endings that aren't afraid to go all the way.
And when I say "go all the way", I mean that literally.
And when I say "literally", I mean that literally.

BTW, If this entry description comes off as kinda vague, it's only b'cuz if I got more literal about this movie, I'd most likely be spoiling it.

A fairytale love story that features a Zorroesqoe protagonist, Andre The Giant, Billy Crystal as an old Jewish magician, an ambidextrous fencing master named Inigo Montoya of who's killer of his father must prepare to die, and a Sicillian criminal genius who just finds the whole thing "inconthievable".
All told by Columbo as a bedtime story to the kid from the Wonder Years.

Sometime during the first years of the 1990'S,
in a video store called The Video Archives in Manhattan Beach, CA, worked a store clerk who had a habit of recommending little known movies to his customers. After suggesting Au Revoir Les Enfants to one particular patron, the patron responded with "I don't want to see no reservoir dogs!".
The store clerk's name was Quentin Tarantino.
And the fact that he was a kid who enjoyed foreign works like Au Revoir with the same amount of enthusiasm for exploitation fodder like Switchblade Sisters, showed what kind of passion the future filmmaker had for the medium.
So, after I first heard this story of Quentin's recommendation, it made me seek out this movie out of curiosity, thus influencing the expansion of my then not-so-scopious palette for cinematic fare.
Which help me to approach films like Au Revoir with as much appreciation as I would with Reservoir.
Which, as far as I'm concerned, has gotta count for something.

Now here's a movie from Germany with a story that reveals how all we mortals are walking around this planet Earth with angels on our shoulders.
Well, actually, that we Earth bound beings have angels looking over our shoulders.
This is the "foreign" film which the box office smash City Of Angels was remade from. However, as is standard with most American remakes of cinema from outside their borders, the original subtitled version is the one to see since it's free of all the "Hollywoodifactions" that have a strong tendency to dilute all the conceptual aspects that gave the original it's distinctive flavor.

After Under The Cherry Moon, the disastrously bad sequel to Purple Rain, rock star and 80's icon, Prince, goes back to his musical roots by producing a concert film. This allows Sign 'O' The Times to focus on what the Purple-Meister truly excels at, which is creating and performing music that is a funkadelic fusion of rock, punk and eclectic R&B.
Both the movie and the album of the same name are made up of a stitchwork of songs that jump effortlessly from one music genre to another and provide an excellent example of why His Royal Badness was such a majestic tour-de-force during this particular decade.

A biopic of Ritchie Valens, one of the musical artists who's aspiring career was cut short on that infamous day when the music died.
A down to earth story of how a teenage boy rose from migrant worker to meteoric rock star by winning the hearts of the music world with infectious songs like "La Bamba" and "Donna".

Uhmnnn....
on this site, it's cool to admit to liking a John Hughes movie, right?
If it isn't, then I'm hoping I guessed right when I figured that by puttin' up a buncha "my top ten favorite movie" lists here on Listal, with so many favorite lists by another members up already, no one would really read mine, & therefore, I can feel completely safe with expressing some of these guilty pleasures without fear of being pointed & then laffed at.
And if by the rare chance, someone out there IS reading this, pleease don't tell me.
Cuz, I would literally die of embarrassment.
Or at least, suffer a massive corony of embarrassment.
And even though I do have one of the made-for-the home emergency mini defibrillator kits in the house, I can't find the instructions anywhere.
It came with the kit, but I just don't know what I did with it.

Okay, after the popularity of this movie, we all know by know that Hell hath no fury like that of a woman scorned.
And when when die (God forbid...!), if we end up going to Hell (God forbid....!), we just might find that there are no bunnies to be found in Hell (at least, not anywhere south of the river Styx, that is).
Not because there aren't any bunnies that don't deserve to go to Hell after they've "croaked", mind you....
It's just that, all the scorned women who are down there as a result of the fury that they wrought, well, y'know.... they put 'em all to boil.
I mean think about it,
the heat is already there.
They've been scorned. And since they're in Hell already, it's not like they're gonna get in trouble for boiling the bunnies.
Down there, they can boil 'em to their heart's content.
I guess what I'm trying to say is,
Hell must be Paradise for women who have been scorned.
No wonder there is no fury like their's.

In order to help bail one of her patients out of a jam, psychiatrist Dr. Margaret Ford enters the House Of Games, not realizing that once you check in, you can never leave.
Or is that Hotel California?
Well, whatever it's from, the point is, she quickly finds that the confidence world is one where trust, integrity and friendship are always just a bluff for a bad hand. And just like poker, you've got to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em.
Or is that from The Gambler?
As you can probably tell by the way I've written this entry, I'll never be one who will give David Mamet a run for his money. But what I can do is give his movies a high recommendation. Starting with this one.

Greed is good.
But only if you don't take on a young punk upstart like Charlie Sheen as a prodigy, who'll more'n likely try to frame you later on after you screw him on a big business deal.
But beyond that,
it's still good.

Babynapping (napping as as in kidnapping, not sleep napping) at it's finest. By far, my favorite Nick Cage performance. And also by far, the funniest movie in the whole of the sublimely funny hick movie genre. (Which, BTW, is a genre that I really don't how to clearly define. Which is why I like to categorize Coen Bros. film in it.)

A funny and smart inside-out look into the dynamics of stilted relationships within the modern (well, modern for it's time) workplace of the media.
A love triangle consisting of three career-minded personalities in the fast-paced and often frenetic atmosphere of a newsroom, trying to walk a tightrope between love & ladder-climbing.

The end of not just an ancient and epic era in Chinese history, but probably in world history, also. Depicted through the life a young boy, then man, born into the role of monarchy, yet powerless but to sit on a thrown & watch it happen in front of him.
Told with expansive and colorful scenery, The Last Emperor is an almost quiet yet sweeping story of a life that begins royally in a dynastic palace and yet ends modestly in a humble garden.

Okay, let's just forget the vampires in this movie for a second.....
Any movie from the 1980's that can feature a Corey in it, let alone two, and still come off as cool,
well, that would be a movie that surely had to have been touched by the hand of God.
I wouldn't be surprised if the director, Joel Schumacher was actually the Christ in his Second Coming (I mean seriously.... Jesus did rise from the dead after 3 days, He often spoke of drinking his blood, and simple logic would dictate that He would have developed an aversion to wooden crosses....
so, you'know.... it all fits....)

IMO this is John Candy's best movie role (and yeah, that includes Uncle Buck). He does an excellent job of portraying a pain in the ass who can touch a person's last nerve and yet in the end, have just enough pull at their heartstrings to make him endurable. Plus, his comedic chemistry here with Steve Martin is impeccable.
For me, this is the only holiday movie that I consider as a true Thanksgiving movie. Therefore, in addition to the football game,
I consider Planes, Trains & Automobiles as a must see on my television set every year on that final Thursday of November.

"How tall are you private?"
"Sir, five foot nine, sir!"
"Five foot nine? I didn't know they stacked sh#t that high! You tryin' to squeeze an inch in on me somewhere, huh?"
" Sir, no sir!"
"Bullsh#t! It looks to me like the best part of you ran down the crack of your momma's ass and ended up as a brown stain on the mattress! I think you been cheated! Where in the hell are you from anyway, private?"
"Sir, Texas, sir!"
"Holy dog sh#t! Texas? Only steers and queers come from Texas, Private Cowboy. And you don't look much like a steer to me so that kinda narrows it down. Do you suck dicks?"
"Sir, no sir!"
"Are you a peter puffer?"
"Sir, no sir!"
"I'll bet you're the kinda guy that would f#ck a person in the ass and not even have the godd@mn common courtesy to give him a reach-around. I'll be watching you."



  Oliver Stone released Platoon just a year prior to Full Metal Jacket, Stanley Kubrick's film foray into the Vietnam War. And I remember how most critics loved Platoon, but many were sorta baffled by Jacket, particularly by the second part of the movie.
 The story begins shortly after a batch of "fresh faces" have been recruited into the army and the no holds barred boot camp training that follows. The next half of the story then to the neo-soldiers as they move to and throughout the battlefront. It's here that the more traditional movie fans tend to feel the awkward jump from the reality of the basic training to the blurred illogical nightmare of combat. Me, personally, I'm a hardcore fan of Kubrick's style of storytelling. Therefore, that kind of transition doesn't bother me. I could get into more detail about it, but let's be honest, with dialogue like I posted above, that's all I need to make this movie number one on this list.