1987 - GANDAHAR, another interesting science fiction film from René Laloux

Another visually striking science fiction film from Rene Laloux.  Gandhar has a fascinating story and at times some weird visuals.  It's the third and final feature for Laloux which had been preceded by Fantastic Planet and Time Masters.

 Gandahar's story is set in a future earth like planet inhabited by a female lead ruling council.  The council's scientists has developed a sophisicated organic technology over a more machine based approach in their daily existence.  One day Gandahar comes under attack by some robotic men who appear to be programmed to destroy Gandaharian society.  Needless to say the organic science is no match for the robot men.  Sent out by the ruling council, Sylvain, one of Gandahar's agents is tasked with learning the secret of the robot men and stopping them if possible

 

Simply put the film just looks interesting from a design point of view. The creatures featured in this film have fascinating looks to them particularly a race of mutants.  The animation is little more fluid than the animation in Fantastic Planet and the story moves along without any slow spots.   Definitely worth a look for science fiction fans not scared off by the animated film format.  This film also exists in an English version called The Light Years which replaced the original French music soundtrack with a more American sounding score.  It's probably best to stick to the original film.

 Gandahar was written by Rene Laloux, the running time is 79 minutes.

1987 - STAKEOUT, popular comedy thriller from the 1980's.

This buddy cop film was very popular at the time of release.  The critics gave it fairy decent reviews and it made good money for Disney Studios.

The plot is sort of a mash up of Hitchcock's Rear Window. Two cops played by Richard Dreyfuss and Emilo Estevez are on a stakeout at the home of a former girlfriend of a dangerous escaped convict.  The girlfriend just happens to be a real knockout and the Dreyfuss character manages to meet her and eventually sleep with her.  The last part of the film is an action climax with the cops taking on the escaped convict.

Richard Dreyfuss was at the peak of his career as a movie star.  He essentially played a cocky smart ass in film after film.  Emilio Estevez was probably at about the height of  his popularity and was considered a member of "The Brat Pack," a group of young actors that the press usually heaped scorn on.  In this film they both wear what can charitably be called "porno star mustaches."  The female lead was played by an actor named Madeline Stowe who naturally has to show some skin.

The film was produced by Disney's Touchstone division which released mildly R rated films without the Disney label on them.  A clever trick.  The director John Badham was a good studio craftsman who had bailed out Saturday Night Fever a film that was in chaos during production.  Needless to say Saturday Night Fever was very popular.

 

Stakeout is what you could call a crowd pleasing somewhat contrived studio production.  It has action, comedy and some leering sex jokes but it's all presented in a way so as to not offend the 80's audience.  It's kind of dated and really not that good, a time killer of a film for the most part.  Nothing special to see here.

The film was written by Jim Kouf, the running time is 117 minutes.

1987 - THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS, a good James Bond film

In my opinion and for what it's worth this James Bond film is one of the better ones.  Roger Moore had finally committed the sin of getting to old and it was decided by the production team to go in a new direction with a serious and tougher Bond than the lightweight comedic character that Moore had turned James Bond into.

Timothy Dalton was cast as the new Bond and he certainly went for a more realistic approach.  Dalton may have been a little too much for the audience which had been used to the quip uttering Moore.  The public and more importantly United Artists didn't really seem to embrace him. It was only after the Pierce Brosnan Bond years that the sullen Daniel Craig got all the credit for being the tough guy James Bond for some reason.

The film has excellent action scenes courtesy of the director John Glen who had been with the series since On Her Majesties Secret Service, Glen had been the 2nd unit director and editor on that film and certainly knew his way around staging exciting scenes.

The Living Daylights played down the sexism that had finally become uncomfortable to watch.  The model Maryam d'Abo actually has a fairly chaste relationship with Bond in this film.  In a lot of ways The Living Daylights is a throwback to the classic Sean Connery Bond years.

 

The film was written by Richard Maibaum and Michael Wilson, the running time is 130 minutes.

1987 - SPACEBALLS, Mel Brooks takes on Star Wars.

After having exhausted just about every film genre he could think of.  Mel Brooks and his writing team turned their attention to the Star Wars series with very mixed results.  The outcome is a combination of bad jokes, lots of jokes about men's crotches and even more jokes about women's breasts, and this was clearly a film aimed at the adolescent Star Wars adolescent. 

As was the way with Brook's recent films at the time he wrote a substantial part in the film for himself, in this case two parts as he drifted between the role of President Skroob, (get it) and the Yoda character in this case named Yogurt, (ha ha).  The rest of the main cast is as dull as dishwater.  Bill Pullman is "Lone Star" the Han Solo character, John Candy is "Mog," the Chewbacca character and Daphne Zuniga is stuck with the Princess Lela character who unfortunately has to put up with a lot of jokes about being a Drudish princess (get it again).  And so it goes. I guess it's okay for Brooks to do the ethnic Jewish humor jokes.

 

The film is also loaded with a bunch of sight gags which are mostly not funny although you occasionally get a few gems.  Brooks and his writing team have stuck fairly closely to the plot line of the Star Wars films with some nods to Star Trek and Planet of the Apes.  The humor is not of the sophisticated Ernest Lubitsch caliber and the whole movie probably plays best for gross 13 year old boys.  Since that is what Brooks seems to be at times.

 

The film was written by Mel Brooks, Ronny Graham and Thomas Meehan.  Spaceballs is now considered a cult film but you can be sure this writer didn't vote for it. The running time is 96 minutes.

1987 - EASTERN CONDORS, non stop action film

Sammo Hung along with his buddy Yuen Biao star in this fast paced and action packed war film.  The inspiration for this film was clearly Aldrich's The Dirty Dozen.  You can't say they exactly ripped off that film but the similarities are shall we say remarkable.

Sammo is a member of an elite United States Army unit which consists of a group of army prisoners promised a pardon if they go on a dangerous mission to destroy a North Vietnamese military base.  Sound familiar?  What this film is really about it Sammo staging lots of amazing actions scenes as only those Hong Kong stunt guys could do even though they look and probably are really dangerous.

As previously stated along for the ride was Sammo's buddy Yuen Bian who along with Jackie Chan had been trained in martial arts and acrobatics at the "Peking Opera School."  The three of them became part of a group called "Seven Little Fortunes," a touring theatrical company.  From there they all eventually ended up in the Hong Kong film world and the rest as they say is Hong Kong action movie history.

 

Eastern Condors has been accused as being an anti American film. But the criticism of the United States is so mild that it's almost impossible to detect.  I've seem more anti American films financed by major American studios in such films as Three Days of the Condor, Enemy of the State, Dances With Wolves, Little Big Man and Wag the Dog that are a lot more critical of the United States than the mild knocks on this country that are in this film.

If you are a big fan of action movies, Eastern Condors should satisfy you.

The film was written by Barry Wong, the running time is 100 minutes.

1987 - A TAXING WOMAN, a film about an heroic tax auditor

This is Juzo Itami's follow up to his ramen noodle epic Tampopo and is equally as entertaining.  The film again stars Tsutomu Yamazaki and Nobuko Miyamoto although this time playing very different characters than they did in Tampopo. 

It seems in the 1980's the Japanese government had some of the highest tax rates in the world.  This fostered a climate where many Japanese citizens attempted to hid their wealth from the government instead of being taxed to death.  The plot of A Taxing Woman is basically Nobuko Miyamoto playing a very sharp tax inspector who matches wits with Tsutomu Tamazaki a business man who owns a series of for want of a better word "sex hotels."  

 

You would have to give Juzo Itami credit, it would seem almost impossible that a film could be made out of not paying your taxes and have the heroic tax inspector detective played by a woman.  The film has a lot of interesting and amusing encounters with the Japanese public as they attempt to outsmart the Japanese National Tax Agency.  A high recommendation for this film.

 

A Taxing Woman was a big hit in Japan and unsurprisingly led to a sequel called what else, A Taxing Woman Returns.

Written by  Juzo Itami, the running time is 127 minutes.

1987 - 84 CHARING CROSS ROAD - dull quality entertainment

This is the supposedly true story of Jewish writer Helene Hanff played by Anne Bancroft a devote of English fiction particularly that stuff that John Donne, Alexander Pope and lots of obscure classical English authors jotted down in the 18th century.  Hanff begins a correspondence with a rare book shop in London, England called Marks & Co, run by Frank Doel played by Antony Hopkins,  The movie basically consists of letters written between Hanff and Doel which are read mostly in voice over as they correspond about English literature and other stuff.

The acting is at a very high quality Anne Bancroft was an excellent actor who really made her mark when she moved to Broadway.  Anthony Hopkins has had a long career in the English theater and Hollywood movies.  He's the guy you hire to class up your films such as Silence Of The Lambs, or the Thor movies and what naught.

 

The film was produced by Mel Brooks,  Bancroft's husband and was clearly a labor of love to give her a showy role as the rather flamboyant writer.  Oh Judi Dench is in it as well playing Hopkin's wife, this was before Dench became the great thespian in such pictures as Cats and The Chronicles of Riddick.

 

There's nothing wrong with the film, it's just very boring.  It probably would have played better as a one hour television special or something.

Written by Hugh Whitemore, the running time is 100 long minutes.

1987 - WALKER, strange doesn't begin to describe this film

It's hard to know where to begin with a film like this.  Walker is apparently a combination spaghetti western, comedy, and criticism of the United States foreign policy in Latin American during the Reagan Administration.

Ed Harris in what can only be described as a crazed performance is William Walker a "soldier of fortune" bent on taking over the country of Nicaragua.  William Walker was a real life individual who actually did overthrow the government of Nicaragua with the purpose of establishing slavery. Marlon Brando played the same character in Gilberto Pontecorvo's Burn.  That is about where the two films have any kind of commonality.

In Alex Cox's version of the William Walker story anything goes.  The film is so full of  anachronisms that it completely perplexed the critics at the time of it's release.  Cox's purpose was to point a finger at what the United States was doing to delegitimize the government of Nicaragua which Ronald Reagan saw as being a communist front. 

 

Well regardless, the film is quite the wild ride with it's shootouts and scenes of 1850's William Walker reading about himself in People magazine and being picked as Time magazine's "Man Of The Year."

 

Unsurprisingly the film was a commercial disaster.  Looking at the film today the surreal touches in the film are fascinating and the film maintains interest.

Written by Rudy Wurlitzer.  The film runs 95 minutes.

1987 - JAWS THE REVENGE aka Jaws 4

Jaws The Revenge is what happens when a good director, in the case Joseph Sargent goes horribly wrong.

Clearly made at the insistence of the studio in order to squeeze every last dollar out of the giant man eating shark franchise.  The film is enjoyable in a stupid sort of way.  The whole premise that the giant shark is on a mission of revenge against the Brody Family from the first film is to ridiculous to be believed.  

As one critic put it, if a giant shark is trying to eat all the members of your family, maybe you should move to North Dakota.

 

The film runs 90 minutes.  Michael de Guzman wrote this film but he should probably leave it off his resume.  The damn thing did make money apparently.

1987 - THE UNTOUCHABLES, mainstream success for De Palma

After a couple of less than successful box office pictures.  Brian De Palma came roaring back with this remake of the popular late 1950's early 1960's television show.

This was a large scale production,  The screenplay was by David Mamet, Ennio Morricone composed the score and the cast had the soon to be very hot actor Kevin Costner.  Sean Connery had a supporting role as an Irish cop and he certainly brought a lot of authority to his performance.

  

The movie has a lot of De Palma touches, from the use of overhead shots to long tracking shots.  The expected De Palma violence was toned down but there are still a couple of fairly graphic scenes.  The outstanding scene is obviously the train station shoot out which was apparently improvised by De Palma to save time and money.

The film couldn't miss and it didn't it was a big box office hit when it came out that summer. 

119 minutes.

1987 - SUMMER SCHOOL, a very mild comedy

The director Carl Reiner a fairly funny writer and director somehow got mixed up with this very mild comedy.

 The plot is about a bunch of low performing high school students stuck in summer school after flunking out during the school year.  The teacher is pretty boy Mark Harmon playing a gym teacher tricked into teaching them for the summer.

 

There are a few amusing moments with a couple of obsessive high schooldorks who are completely into the film Texas Chainsaw Massacre and for the most part the cast is decent enough to make a lot of the underdeveloped comedy work.

This is one of those films where the kids and teacher learn lessons about life on the way to being better citizens etc.  An OK time killer but don't expect to much from this film.

97 minutes, written by Jeff Franklin.

1987 - HE MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, yes I sat through this

Total no brainer, all they had to do was follow the crappy animated TV cartoon from the 1980's.  The film was so inept they couldn't even get that right. 

The story has the gang from the TV show, He-Man, Teela, Man-At-Arms, Skeletor and Evil-Lyn but that's about all they got right  Where are the sexy costumes for the women?  What is a time travel plot featuring Courtney Cox of all people doing in this? Finally, why is the action so inept, all they had to do was copy Star Wars laser battles to keep the kids happy.

The film was a flop, even prepubescent boys weren't taken in by the poor quality of this film.

 

106 minutes, written by David Odell.

1987 - BABETTE'S FEAST - a very good film.

Babette's Feast is one of the best films I have seen.  How could it miss, the film was based on a story by Karin Blixen a highly regarded writer who was admired by Hemingway, Orson Welles, Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe (?).  The film is a meditation on a certain type of austere Christianity told without a trace of irony or a patronizing smirk.

The cast of the film is made up of actors who had worked with Carl Dreyer, Ingmar Bergman and Claude Chabrol of all people.  Stephanie Audran who had played cool sexy redheads for Chabrol would have seemed an odd choice for the title character but she gives a very good performance in a real change of pace role for her.  The rest of the cast was made up of Danish actors with considerable reputations one of them Bridget Federspiel had worked with Dreyer in Ordet a film which is not unrelated to Babette's Feast in theme.

Needless to say the preparation of the feast is photographed so well and made such an impression on the audience, you can find the recipes for the seven course meal all over the internet.  Particularly fascinating is Babett's signature dish the "cailles en sarcophage", a pastry stuffed with a quail which is in turn stuffed with foie gras.

In the end this is one of the best foreign films I have seen.

102 minutes

1987 - THE QUICK AND THE DEAD, an early HBO film

The Quick and the Dead is an early HBO film and by early I mean that no women were required to walk around topless which is the current HBO policy regarding their films.

For a western which was mostly a dead genre at this point this film isn't that bad.  It has a good cast, Tom Conti, Sam Elliott, Matt Clark and Kate Capshaw (Mrs Spielberg).  The action is decent, the story is interesting and the film is short and doesn't push it's luck with a lot of padded out exposition and violence.

Probably the main standout of the film is the photography by Dick Bush who usually worked with wild man director Ken Russell.  The film was shot in Arizona in some scenic locations. 

Nothing special here but the acting is decent and this is a pleasant reminder of the virtues of a good western.


90 minutes.

1987 - THE RUNNING MAN, looks pretty good these days

When I first saw this film, it was amusing but looked pretty dumb and obvious with it's satire of TV game shows. 25 years later The Running Man holds up very well and actually plays better since most of the satire isn't really satire any more.

A lot has been written about Richard Dawson essentially playing himself, the host of a game show and he is funny.  Dawson the writer and director definitely have the worst elements of the reality show business down, the stupid audience members, the smary banter and even a home version of The Running Game for lucky studio guests. 

For all the flash and dash the director loads into the film, this is still another version of The Most Dangerous Game.  The film is loaded with ex rock stars, football players, wrestlers and Arnold's legendary one liners.

101 minutes, written by Steven E. de Souza.

1987 -RADIO DAYS, Woody Allen nostalgia

 Woody Allen reflects on growing up in Queens, New York.  A large part of this trip down memory lane is Allen reflecting on the radio programs he enjoyed as a kid.  

This is a very minor Woody Allen film, sort of funny, episodic and completely forgettable.  Allen seems to be in a very nostalgic mood.  He's loaded the film up with old music from the 1940's.  He's also stuck in some of his favorite actors from his previous films, like Jeff Daniels, Tony Roberts, Dianne Wiest, Julie Kavner and his former leading lady Diane Keaton.  

The film has beautiful photography from Carlo Di Palma who had worked with Antonioni and the art direction and production design are of a very high quality, the film looks like it was actually filmed in the 1940's.  One of the enjoyable things about Woody Allen films is that they look good and are extremely well made. 

 

The problem with Radio Days is that is is a nothing film.  The comedy in the film are vignettes with no real thread holding them together.  The film is nothing more than a time killer which at least has the benefit of being short if not sweet.   

85 minutes.

1987 - DJANGO 2 or DJANGO RIDES AGAIN or DJANGO STRIKES AGAIN

The actual sequel to Corbucci's Django is a mighty big letdown. Django's been in a monastery trying to make up for his gunfighter ways.  But a film about a guy in a monastery would be very boring to watch so after some contrived story line business about his daughter being abducted by bad guys we are off and running with another blood bath.

 

 

Franco Nero is back and so is the machine gun.  Nero shoots about as many people as he did in the first Django but this film completely lacks any of the style of the first film, it's just a mediocre Italian western.

About the only thing of interest is the actor Donald Pleasence showing up in yet another Italian film.  He may be cashing a paycheck but he's always fun to watching playing another quirky character, his specialty.

88 minutes, written by Franco Reggiani, Nello Rossati, Dialogue: Anna Miserocchi.
Anna Miserocchi.

1987 - BARFLY - amusing film about low life drunks

Mickey Roarke and Faye Dunaway are a couple of drunks hanging out at a flea trap of a bar in Los Angeles.  The director is Barbet Schroeder and the writer is former drunk Charles Bukowski. 

Roarke is the whole show.  He looks like a bum and speaks in some sort of weird dialect.  An educated man, he listens to classical music and is a writer when he's sort of sober.  His drunken rants about life are very amusing.  I'll take this version of a Mickey Roarke loser over his overrated performance in The Wrestler. 

Faye Dunaway is also pretty darn good as his sort of girlfriend, another big boozer.  Dunaway was a good looking glamour girl in her day and she could act.  Her performance is also far more interesting than her cold fish career woman in Network. 

The film is expertly photographed by Robby Muller a German cinematographer who usually worked with Wim Wenders.  Barfly has a nice European feel to it considering it was filmed on location in some very seedy parts of Los Angeles.

The director Barbet Schroeder makes interesting if not always successful films.  Schroeder is also a producer, who has worked with Rohmer, Goddard,  Rivette, Fassbinder and Chabrol

97 minutes