Rumble in the Jungle

I can almost imagine the pitch session. It must have gone down something like this:

20th Century Fox Studio Brass: "Whatcha got for me?"

Jim and John Thomas (writers): "How about an action flick where an alien attacks soldiers in the jungle? Think Rambo meets Alien."

20th Century Fox Studio Brass: "Kick ass! Have it done for next summer."

The result is Predator (1987), a hybrid war/sci-fi/horror movie. The characters in this outing are paper thin, but who wants in-depth character studies when you're dealing with Schwarzenegger and a dreadlocked space creature? We are treated to stock war movie types: the squirrelly guy with thick glasses that needs to prove he's a man by telling jokes about his girlfriend's anatomy, the Native-American scout with mystical powers of perception, the commander with a cigar butt perpetually dangling from the corner of his sneer. You get the idea.

The men are recruited to go into the jungle on a rescue mission that secretly is something more. You know the drill. We've seen it done before and done better. BUT, that's not what this movie is setting out to do. After the mission is complete, the film kicks into high gear.

You see, there's something out there in the trees hunting our boys. The suspense is pretty effective as they start getting picked off one by one. In the end, the movie boils down to a one-on-one battle between Schwarzenegger and the creature.

Don't go into this one looking for any big messages and you should have fun. (Although, there may be a statement in there somewhere about new technologies in warfare.) If for nothing else, check it out for the acting debut of Jesse Ventura. Man, these guys need to just stay out of politics! It's also interesting that the director John McTiernan's next film was Die Hard, another genre defying action movie.

National Lampoon's Vacation

National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983) is a hilarious comedy the Griswold family taking summer road trip from Chicago to visit Wally World amusement park in California. Everything goes wrong during their travels. The car breaks down, family members die and they run out of money, (among other things). This is not the type of movie to look for deep meanings or complicated characters.

Many hilarious scenes almost cross the line between what should and shouldn’t be funny; everything from twisted humor on canine death to infidelity, but it seems to work. Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) wants nothing more than a fun time with his family, so he packs up his children, wife, aunt Edna and her dog for a vacation that turns into one disaster after another, eventually ending up with family bonding moments over gun point.

Some of the characters are kind of flat, but Chases’ character makes up for it, with his know it all ideas that seem to never work. This movie is funny from the beginning to the end and I can honestly say I have not seen another comedy repeat the same momentum of laughter.


The family tries to convince Clark to end the trip…………

“I think you're all fu**ed in the head. We're ten hours from the fu**ing fun park, and you wanna bail out! Well, I'll tell you something, this is no longer a vacation . . . it's a quest! It's a quest for fun! I'm gonna have fun, and you're gonna have fun! We're all gonna have so much fu**ing fun we'll need plastic surgery to remove our Goddamn smiles! You'll be whistling Zip-a-dee-doo-da out of your a**holes! I've got to be crazy! I'm on a pilgrimage to see a moose! Praise Marty Moose!”…Clark Griswold

Ghostbusters

Many funny characters throughout this movie add to the comedy. Dr. Ray Stanz opens up the movie with a bogus psychic scam that invites giggles and shows off his womanizing personality that remains present throughout the flick. Ray is a pessimist and doesn’t even believe in ghosts, while his partners, Dr. Peter Venkman and Dr. Egon Spengler are the geeky scientist types who take their work very seriously.

The three struggling scientists in New York City become an over night sensation trapping ghosts and raking in some major cash after starting their own business. This movie is obviously completely fictional, but some scenes such as showing the office set up like a fire station, complete with a pole and emergency car while a theme song plays in the background, singing, “we aint afraid of no ghost,” makes it almost animated.

Although the ghosts should seem scary, they are funny and even cute, (i.e. green slime). The animation of the ghosts and the lighting while big budget in the eighties comes across a bit cheesy now, but adds to viewing of the movie on a more comedic level.

Eventually the team is faced with a huge challenge and must save a client (and love interest of Ray) from being possessed. As the movie progresses, the Ghosts and goblins seem to get harder to kill. The roof top scene gets very dramatic and shows off the movie's special effects to the max with witty comments from the team while trying to kill the ghosts. The dooming music suggests something of a horror movie, but it is nothing close. In the end, the Ghostbusters save the city and their client from Zuul, a demonic figure.

Everyone has to enjoy Ghostbusters at one point in their life. I remember watching it for the first time as a kid. Shortly after it was released, everywhere I turned around paraphernalia from the movie were featured in every kid meal at restaurants and toy stores. I can see how the producers could hype up the ghostly characters, because although they should be horrific, they are actually funny and just as likeable as the other human characters.

Fairy Tales Do Come True

Fairy tales do come true, or at least for one Hollywood hooker in this movie.


Vivian (Julia Roberts) walks the streets of Hollywood asking men if they are up for a “good time.” One night she hits it big and is picked by Edward (Richard Gere), a wealthy and attractive businessman looking for company. Vivian shocks the very expensive hotel guests and staff when she walks in wearing a mini skirt and black knee high boots with an obnoxious attitude.


After one night with the witty prostitute, Edward figures out that Vivian is really not as rough as her exterior first suggested and they are more alike than different. "We both screw people for money," says Edward. He makes her an offer she can’t refuse: to stay with him all week in his penthouse suite and be his lady friend at dinners and social functions while he courts Mr. Bellamy and son to negotiate a big business deal. One of the most enjoyable scenes in the movie is when Vivian walks into a Rodeo Drive boutique and is snubbed for her appearance even though she has a pocket full of Edward’s money to spend on “lady like” clothing. After help from the hotel manager and Edward, Vivian buys bags of beautiful dresses and hats, then walks back to the boutique where she was snubbed and said, “you guys work on commission right, big mistake,” while holding up her packages. She becomes stronger and confident the more she is transformed into a lady from a hooker as this scene shows compared to the classless, yet spunky hooker she was first shown as.

Witty and humorous comments from Vivian’s character continually come out that suggest no matter how much the hooker is transformed with manners and clothing; Vivian’s naive ness of a wealthy lavish lifestyle never fully embraces her. Edward sees this and falls in love with her carefree, yet innocent personality and his ability to be the same when with her. At one point though, his serious side reminds him that the two made a business deal for one week with no strings attached. After Vivian refuses to take his money and leaves the man she has fallen in love with Edward comes to his senses and goes to find her. A dramatic fairy tale like ending of Edward driving up in a white limo with roses completes the love story. Edward wins back Vivian and it is assumed life will be happily ever after.

I enjoyed this movie. It is a classic chick flick that can stand up over time. Watching Vivian transform and find her own prince charming is the type of love story with its own uniqueness to a classic Disney fairy tale. I recommend this chick flick. It definitely puts an 80’s spin on the Cinderella story.

It's fun to be BIG!

Big is the kind of movie that makes you want to be a kid again. Tom Hanks plays a convincing thirteen-year-old boy trapped in the body of a thirty-year-old man.

Josh is a normal kid who loves to ride his bike and joke around with his best friend. After being denied from riding a roller coaster at the fair because of his height, Josh decides that he wants to be a grown up. After dropping a quarter into the Zoltar machine, he makes a wish to be “big.” The next morning Josh woke up as a grown man. His mother who doesn’t know he has been transformed then chases him out of the house.

With a little help from his best friend, Josh gets a cheap hotel room in New York City and a job at a toy manufacture. While working in the corporate world, Josh stays a kid at heart and ultimately lands a demanding and competitive promotion with a huge salary increase, which he buys toys, bunk beds and a soda machine among other
things not normally found in a thirty year old bachelor's NYC apartment, (very funny). His child like qualities are enticing to a lady co-worker, but mocked by others. The audience is then shown how quickly the kid at heart gets caught up in an adult world of working relentlessly, complicated relationships and responsibilities. Josh loses the child inside and his friendship with Billy for money, deadlines and competition. After a while Josh misses his family and childhood. He realizes that he is missing out on growing up to be big. In the end he finds a Zoltar machine, makes a wish and is transformed back to being a kid.

This movie is sweet and touching. It has themes running throughout that remind you not to take life too seriously and lose the child inside. It also had a deeper meaning on eighties materialism and corporate America; a sort of reference that it creates greed and anti-family values. Over all, Big is a enjoyable movie to watch with a great message and should be watched by many generations to come.

THE TERMINATOR (1984)

Trailer

The Terminator is one of those movies that is always on TV, and I always watch snips of but never actually sit down to view it in it's entirety. Not being the biggest sci-fi fan, I've never given it much more attention than mildly amusing background noise. However, after actually giving it my full attention, I found it mesmerizing.

The future seemed not too distant and not too far-fetched as I watched a post-apocalyptic man vs. machine. When the movie was released the population was just beginning to distrust and resist the impact computers and machines were having on their lives. Blaming machines for our destruction seemed almost the natural discourse, because we could still blame the government for their blind trust in the artificial intelligence they created.

James Cameron used the physicality of Arnold Schwarzenegger brilliantly. By keeping him the stoic, determined killer that never has to speak, his body language is all that's needed to scare and intimidate. He projects the unquestionable knowledge that he will not ever stop until his mission is carried out, and he gives us one of the most unforgettable villains of all time.

The movie still finds time in the action for a sweet but subtle love story that has crossed decades but is fulfilled for only a short time...

Sarah Connor, becomes a strong character with the fate of the world in her hands. But first she must get passed the fact that it is a machine trying to kill her, and the physically and emotionally scarred soldier sent to protect her is on her side.

Great visuals and music give you the 80's punk/cult feel and set the scene for an action-packed ride with a nasty streak. Once you give it you're full attention you "will be back".

Noteworthy: From truck driver to the first man to direct a $1o0 million and $200 million film, The Terminator was James Cameron's first movie and the theme recurs in his later films.

Protocol

Protocol (1984)

Starring Goldie Hawn

View the trailer

Protocol is a comedy about an average girl named Sunny Davis. Sunny's life is radically changed after she takes a bullet meant for an important foreign diplomat. The selfless act lands Sunny a great job with the United States Department of Protocol. Only, it's all a set up to dupe Sunny into marrying the diplomat, so the U.S. can build a military base in his country.

Goldie Hawn's character is fun, well intentioned, a bit naive, but mostly uninformed. She is bound by a sense of patriotic duty, and she is flattered when the President personally calls to congratulate her. The whole saga is closely followed by the press who treat Sunny as a media darling, but quickly turn on her as the story unfolds.

This movie is a commentary on current political and social events disguised as a comedy. The villains of the movie are the U.S. government because they lie to Sunny under the guise of patriotism. The movie shows one of the first signs of the media's emerging role as spin doctors, not the unbiased observers. The closing scene of the movie reminds the viewer that it is all Americans' civic responsibility to pay attention and question the government. Whether out for a casual laugh or a political barb, Protocol delivers both.

What happened in the 80's

Legends and sequels

Raiders of the Lost Arc (1981) What??? You've never seen Raiders? No, I've never seen any of the Indian Jones movies! Well I finally watched one, so here's what I thought...

How do you follow two of the most unforgettable and legendary films of all-time, Jaws and Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind? Well, if you're Steven Spielberg you team up with fellow genius George Lucas and create one of the most beloved, larger than life, action/adventure heroes ever to be graced on silicon... a fedora hat more legendary than Tom Landry's...Impossible, right... Indiana Jones isn't just a character, he's an icon. This movie can't really live up to this many years of hype, can it? Yes!

With high adventure, romance, really bad villains, humor, and lots of snakes, the movie starts out fast and never lets go. Indiana Jones, archeologist extraordinaire, fights his way through all kinds of close encounters and narrow escapes, in a race with the Nazi's, to secure one of the most powerful and mysterious weapons of all time!

The action scenes were big and original, racing from giant balls, natives, car chases on horseback, submarines, snakes, and lots and lots of explosions. I thought this was a really fun movie with something for everyone. The sets were great, from the opening Paramount logo dissolve to the opening sequence, Nepal, Cairo, the map room, markets, all the way to the end every set was completely different and authentic, really bringing you into the time period of the 30's without ever really feeling like you're watching a period piece.

The opening film of what a lot of people argue is the best trilogy ever, Raiders was followed by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), both highly successful and an as yet untitled 4th film is currently in pre-production and scheduled to be released in 2008. If you haven't seen these films, you are really missing out.

"Snakes, why did it have to be snakes!" Quotes:

According to Indy.com, the Dream team of Lucas and Speilberg wouldn't have brought Raiders to fruition if not for their meeting in Hawaii and Steven just being turned down for a James Bond film that he really wanted to work on, Lucas offered him this "adventure serial" and the rest is history...

For anything you could ever want to know: Indy.com

In the Game of Love

How successful can someone be in the manipulation of another's emotions when she can't even get a handle on her own feelings? Unfortunately, fairly successful. (It doesn't hurt when she is surrounded by some of the most sumptuous costuming and scenery ever put on film.)

Dangerous Liaisons examines a world in which French aristocrats, bored with their lives of privilege, have nothing better to do than toy with the amorous lives of those they see as their intellectual inferiors. The sexual game of cat and mouse played between the Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil (Glenn Close) and the Vicomte Sebastien de Valmont (John Malkovich) takes no prisoners.

Dangerous Liaisons is the type of film that can only grow better with repeat viewings. The language used is so rich in innuendo and sophisticated wordplay that it is almost impossible to catch it all the first time around. Both Close and Malkovich supply an air of evil that is punctuated by a sadness boiling just below the surface.

The supporting cast (including Michelle Pfeiffer, Uma Thurman, and Keanu Reeves) supply a youthful vulnerability that is ripe for the picking. (Thankfully, KeanuÂ’s dialog is limited to a few lines. He is much better at just looking pretty in front of the camera.) PfeifferÂ’s Madame Marie de Tourvel is no match for Valmont. I found myself hoping that she could just escape him with at least a shred of dignity intact.

The sentiments on male/female relations Madame de Rosemonde shares with Madame Tourvel are fascinating. They almost sound like passages from a Rococo edition of HeÂ’s Just Not That Into You.

The opening of the film, Merteuil and Valmont waking and dressing for the day, was very interesting. The viewer sees their facades being lifted into place with the tying of each lace and the selection of each wig. It is immediately clear that there will be no easy way to get to the real person behind the reputation.

In the end, Merteuil and Valmont get what they deserve, but it left me feeling hallow. Their wicked diversions seem grotesque magnifications of the emotional games that are played everyday to hide true emotions.

Hollywood certainly has an affinity for this material, making it into a movie no less than three times (including Cruel Intentions and Valmont).

Red Dawn

Red Dawn (1984)

Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Charlie Sheen, Jennifer Grey, and Lea Thompson

The movie centers on a group of high school teens whose hometown is invaded by Mexican and Russian troops. The group of teens manage to escape the invasion and hide out in the mountains. As World War III ensues no American is safe, and the town is now completely occupied by enemy forces. Gun owners are sent to "reeducation camps" or executed, and the citizens are under constant watch. Soon, hiding is not enough and the teens form the Wolverines, a platoon devoted to fighting the invasion.

Each time the Wolverines set a trap, kill an enemy soldier, or blow up a tank they leave their tag with spray paint. It is inspiring to watch everyday kids become heroes as they fight for their country, town, and families that were lost in the invasion. The best line of the movie is when a Spanish soldier asks, "what's a wolverine?" with a thick accent.

The eighties was filled with a prevailing fear that the United States could be attacked and overthrown at anytime. The political issues in 1984 were the Cold War and immigration. The villains in Red Dawn are obviously the Russians and Mexicans, which makes the movie distinctly eighties. However, the theme of Red Dawn is timeless because America is constantly threatened by other countries seeking to undermine our power.

Did you catch the link between the actors in Red Dawn?

C. Thomas Howell and Patrick Swayze in The Outsiders-1983

Charlie Sheen and Jennifer Grey in Ferris Bueller's Day Off-1986

Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey in Dirty Dancing-1987