25 From 88: My Favorite Films Of 1988

To be honest, I was never a big fan of animation that told stories that could've told as a live action film. To me, it always felt like if you had the unlimited tools of animation at your disposal, not using it to go into realms of the "too fantastic" for the real world (like a sci-fi, the talking animals' genre or what have you) or use it to distort features or creatively caricature its characters and/or elements of the story to enhance the plot's premise. Therefore, even though I heard a lot good things about Fireflies, I held off on it for a while before I finally got around to watching it. As it started, I felt the same blase feeling that I usually get from such a feature. But as the movie progressed, I did find myself eventually surrendered into a story that untraditionally seemed more to center on victims of war that it does on the basic heroic (and according to formula, usually triumphant) struggles of war.



Though there have been countless tales of the human effects of this period in human history, this movie is reminder that for those lives that eventually become reduced to numbers in the tolls of such conflicts, each one of those numbers is an individual story that essentially, at best will be forgotten, or more typically, will never even be told.

Working Girl proves that when it comes to career ascension, office politics, whether they be straight or crooked, affect the female side as much as the male. More so if the female is wearing a skirt, since it's usually best not to reveal one's unmentionable secrets when climbing the corporate ladder.
Today's ambition-driven woman would look smart in something more along the lines of a nice conservative pant suit.

After the Disneyfication of Alice In Wonderland, now considered a classic in Uncle Walt's early efforts at full feature cartoon flicks, many people have forgotten or are completely unaware that "Lewis Carroll's" original version of the story had a bit more of an edge to it.
This film adaptation from the Czech Republic is a depiction that is much closer to the author's original intent and employs a creative use of stop-motion animation in a manner that enriches the premise of the story.
With it's myriad onslaught of fluid moving puppetry and "action figures", along with it's dark undercurrents, this Alice is one that captivates movies viewers of a matured sense of imagination while at the same time, it may satisfyingly add a touch of disturbance to the experience of those younger audiences who are used to a more fluffy romp inside the rabbit hole.

One day, a doorbell rings in a rectory. The priest living there answers it, only to find a man with no arms or legs at his doorstep. The limbless man asks the priest if he has any jobs for him. The priests asks what he can do? The limbless man tells the priest to take him to the bell tower of the church. The priests does this and when they reach the top, the limbless man jumps up high enough to ring the bell using his head. So, the priest decides to hire the man. That following Sunday, just mass in the church is about to let up, the limbless man jumps up against the bell, bounces off it, accidentally
falls out the window and dies on the front steps. When the parishioners come out, they ask the priest who the guy is. The priest responds, "I don't know his name, but his face rings a bell".
The following week, another limbless man shows up at the rectory and asks the priest for the same job. The priest hires him, and the next Sunday, same thing happens. The limbless man falls to his death. After the parishioners ask again the man's name, the priest replies "I don't know, but he's a dead ringer for the other guy".



I know that this joke has nothing to do with this movie,
but for me, it always comes to mind whenever I hear the phrase "dead ringer".

In just one afternoon, Harry has met the love of his life.
However, he misses out on their first date when a power outage prevents his alarm clock from waking him up thus causing him to over sleep passed the rendevous time.
And if that wasn't bad enough, in an effort to call her and explain, Harry discovers information which indicates that the world will come to an apocalyptic end in just a few hours.
Boy, I tell ya,
If Harry's luck with love was any worse,
then he'd probably be me.

If anybody out there who has ever had a strong disliking towards the popular preppy girls in high school,
this is the film for you.
Christian Slater does his best "Jack Nicholson" slant in an effort to put some edge into this bad boy/good girl teenage love affair.
And back before Winona was stealing clothing accessories from major department stores,
she was stealing our hearts on the big screen as one of the major 'it" girls of 80's cinema.



Heathers is a film with a touch of romance, a touch of dark comedy, a touch of satire, and a whole lot of death for any girls named Heather.

The French Riviera is a coastline resort for the wealthy that has room only for one con-man. Therefore, it becomes a bit crowded when it finds itself the stomping grounds for two scoundrels, one smooth and sophisticated, the other, crass and crude, but both of them, dirty and rotten.



With comedy not as sharp as it first might appear or with as much confidence as other like-minded films, DRS's strength comes from the pitch perfect chemistry of Steve Martin and Michael Caine. Their combined thespian antics provide this film with the kind of scams and schemes that'll swindle a smile out of any one who decides to take a chance on this excellently executed snow job.

A big giant glob of pink snot that only gets bigger and bigger as the movies progresses.
Could somebody hand me over a city-sized piece of tissue, please?

After starring earlier in the year as a "ghost with the most" in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice, Michael Keaton proves that he can serve up more than just heaping helpings of humor as far as acting is concerned. With stints such as Johnny Dangerously and Mr. Mom under his belt, the future Birdman decides it's it's time to stretch those acting chops, as a drug addict/alcoholic who's lookin' ta get clean and sober. A path that eventually would lead to him landing the role of the Batman as the first kick-ass portrayal of the Dark Knight of justice.
Kinda makes me wanna go get drunk just for the experience.

I once had a fish for a pet. But it wasn't named Wanda. I called it Abe Vigoda.
And unless you grew up watching 70's television, that "joke" probably doesn't make too much sense.
However,
if you do get that joke, then you're probably sharp enough to get many of the ones in this Britannically sharp heist flick/rom-com.

In the year that follows this one, Kevin Costner will star in another film that was also successful with the fans of baseball, called Field Of Dreams. And I believe that the reason why it made such a connection with the male species of the sport was because, deep down, the little kid inside all of us yearns for those simplier times when, as a kid, we could just head out to the pitch and play catch with our dads during his prime.
In Bull Durham, I believe that the reason why this movie made such a connection with the male species is because we all wish we could play ball with Susan Sarandon back during her prime.

What dreams may come from the imagination of a little girl. Especially when those dreams can become reality. First on paper, then into the world of the awakened.
This is a movie that I don't actually recall when it first came out, but whenever I mention it to anybody around me, most of them tend to respond with "Oh that's right, I remember that....". Paperhouse turned out to be a pleasant surprise for me and a good example of the best thing that can happen when going about these types of movie-viewing marathons.
Though the ending doesn't seem to come together as well as a majority of the first part of the story, over-all, I really liked the sparse fantasy element of the film, the way the sleep sequences are interwoven with the main character's life situation, and the slow build-up that starts out from a young girl's dreams and then leads into the fears of her nightmares.

As the title of this movie suggests, this is part two of a documentary trilogy that reveals the behinds the scenes lifestyles of various music scenes in the L.A. area during the middle 80's through the early 90's. Obviously, the Metal Years focuses on the metal years and shows the excesses that many of the heavy metal bands of the time, big or small, indulged in and which led to the decline of many of them in this particular part of the Western world. And while the negative aspects of the headbanging way of life are typical of what we would expect within the perimeters of La-La Land,
when captured on film, they can reveal just how gruesome the glam of lead laden rock'n'roll can truly be.

In the movie King Kong, the story is about how it was "beauty that killed the beast". Well in this movie, it's the opposite. Here, it is the "beauty" who gets killed because of her love for the beasts.
Not only did Gorillas In The Mist make me feel sad about the plight of the gorillas, but it also made me realize that the only things I like poached in this life, are my eggs.

When ya wanna bust up a family to scare 'em outta a house, who ya gonna call? Ghosts!
But if you already are a ghost who hasn't yet developed the haunting chops needed to muster up a flight fright,
who ya gonna call?
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice!



A year before they brought Batman as a dark knight to the big screen for the first time, director Tim Burton and Michael Keaton teamed up to bring this freaky film full of fantom foible and fear-themed farts.
Oops, I meant farce. Fear-themed farce.

Worlds collide as the cartoon universe and the "real" universe meet in this who-dunnit "tail" of a wascally wabbit with claims that he has been
fwamed.



A groundbreaking modern day film noir with enough color, comedy and star-studded cartoon cameos to make any hardcore animated film buff want to play pattycake with themselves.

Salvatore is a boy who lives in a small Italian village.
And passing the time at the local cinema is the villager's favorite pass-time. With the exception of Salvatore. For him, the movies aren't just a way to kill a few hours. They're an obsession. The movie images that flash on the theater screen provide him with a window to the life and to the lessons that exist beyond the borders of the hamlet he calls home.



Basically, Cinema Paradiso is a simple story that's just simply about love.
Love for the cinema,
love for a lifelong friend,
and of course, love for a woman.

My first look at anime. Well, kick ass anime that is.
When I first saw this, I realized that, if I didn't have to work for a living, I would spend all of my time lookin' up at what those crazy asians were concocting on the animation tip, yo.



Before Akira, my first foray into this Asian style of animation came from a couple cartoon series when i was kid. Shows like Prince Planet and Speed Racer, stuff that aimed at little kids, and just the American cartoons at the time, not much effort was put in the artwork that would make up the animation in the end. So, Speed and Planet were quickly erased from my head once I reached adolescence. It was because of this that I didn't pay much attention to any of the films once they started to come into my awareness (which was a result of going to many comic book conventions when I was a teen, and which were places that sold a lot of VHS tapes of this stuff). Even when fellow comic book enthusiasts tried to convince me to watch it, I usually just responded with almost absolute indifference.
But then, one day when i was in college, my illustrator instructor got to the of his syllabus where he was going to teach about animation and all the various forms in which it was done, which, of course, included, anime. And as example of this manga method of drawing movie stills, he decided to show his class the movie Akira. Now I obviously showed no signs of excitement on this day and half expected to just a bigger production of that Speed Racer and Prince Planet stuff that I barely remembered watching as a kid.
By the way I set it up, you probably may have surmised by now that I was blown away at how good it was. Considered by many as Katsuhiro's manga movie masterpiece, it is a piece of 2D film animation that is as vibrant, eye-catching and energetic as any cyberpunk cinema out there, live, drawn or computer generated. For me it ranks up there with The Road Warrior when it comes to a dystopian action flick. It also inspired me to pick the comic book manga series, which contains some of the most amazing and technically detailed art I've ever seen in any comic book ever but is even more impressive when considering the time period in which it was published.
This entry is running pretty long at this point, so I'll save any analysis into Akira's story for another list, but for now, all i can say that it's almost like a high-quality Speed Racer type of story, if Speed was on cocaine. And lived in a violent, street gang infested future. And as I already said, this may be an overly obvious number one pick, but I truly believe who watches it for the first time, especially if they know nothing about the predominately Japanese medium, will recognize almost immediately that it's one the most famous anime full length features for a reason.

During a car ride while on holiday, a Dutch husband suddenly finds himself unexpectedly and "casually" separated from his wife and ends up never seeing her again. Spending the next couple of years trying to balance his life with moving on and at the same time, obsessing over her disappearance, a clue to his investigation finally comes to light.



The Vanishing is a great movie from the Netherlands but set in France that I love talking about with anyone else who has watched this. And I could go on and on, discussing the fine points of how the plot of this film unfolds into what I think is a high quality psychological thriller. But it's also one of those stories that relies heavily on it's ending to give it a distinction that separates it from others of it's kind. So, in order to prevent myself from revealing any spoilers, I should probably try to keep my comments about this film buried underneath the surface.

Contrary to one of the themes of this movie, K-Mart does NOT suck. I buy all of my three striped gym socks from this fine department store franchise.
Not to mention my tighty whiteys, epson salts, Musilex and 'Tussin cure-alls.

The director of some of the best mobster movies ever made moves from the tales of the Mafia to the scriptures of the Messiah. Martin Scorsese steps outside of the Cosa Nostra and it's sins and instead, decides to explore the temptations that may come from the most famous of Divine Inspired prophets whose ultimate destiny was to die for our sins.
Controversial for it's depiction of The Christ as a fallible human being, for me, I found this film so far to be the best version of "The Greatest Story Ever Told".

A movie that starts the trend of delving deeper and closer into the dynamics of the reality of the modern gangsta's lifestyle and it's street-level relationship with law enforcement.
The result is a progressive step into the lives, attitude and behaviors of cops who deal daily with the almost insane and hopeless situations that dominate the gang-infested areas which they have sworn to serve and protect.

Back before he was a multi-Oscar winning actor, Tom Hanks was one half of the crossdressing duo from Bosom Buddies. While wearing a dress, it was a role that found him surrendering his heart to a blonde bombshell. Soon he parlayed his TV comedic skills to the movie screen, making a Splash in Hollywood whilst giving his heart up to a beautiful lady who was half fish.
Which he quickly followed up with Bachelor Party, as a character who's up and getting hitched with 80's super-vixen Tawny Kitaen.
With all this funny business in the early 80's, who knew at the time that, as a serious actor, he would eventually end up becoming so big?

Bruce Willis goes moonlighting from his role as a balding TV hunk to a balding blockbusting star in the first of a franchise that is still going strong. Well,
maybe not strong, but it is still going.
Guess when it comes cranking out sequels of a formula that's pretty much run it's course, some habits die hard.
However, back in 1988, it was a formula that helped to invigorate the action film genre after experiencing a bit of a burn out. In the vein of previous action stars like Steve McQueen, Burt Reynolds and Charles Bronson, Willis brings a little smirky smartassery to the role as the lone wolf cop who against all odds, brings down the bad guys, even if means bringing down an entire building.



This first installment of the Die-Hard series is quite a Christmas favorite of mine.
And as anyone knows, the true test of any holiday film is if answers this question: Does it inspire the holiday spirit within you?
The answer: Yippy-kay-yay, mother-f#cker.
This is how great Christmas-themed action movies are supposed to be made.

This is one of those movies that I never get tired of watching. If I'm flipping thru channels and come across even just the last minutes of Midnight Run, I have to watch it.
And even though it's a good film to watch on TV, I really recommend watching it uncensored. Robert Deniro's use of the F-word is really crucial in depicting his absolute frustration with Charles Grodin's character. I laugh every single time to DeNiro's facial reactions whenever Grodin pushes him to the limit. Words are not enough to describe the slight pause in Deniro's expression every time he says, "Shut up.... just shut the f#ck up!!"
So for me, I say screw the "Meet The Parents" franchise. IMO, Midnight Run is the road to travel if you really want to see Bobby D at his comedic best.