BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR

YEAR BY YEAR

The 1980s

And continuing with my series of posts on my favorite movies of each year, we are in the 80s and now we come to 1986 through 1988.  As per usual, we will have three picks for each year:  a personal favorite, a best sequel, and an acclaimed pic (and I might mention a few other movies along the way that I really liked).
So here we go:

1986

Personal Pick - Highlander
My personal pick for this year is Highlander from Russell Mulcahy starring Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery.  I always think of this movie as one of the most original ideas for a movie that I have ever heard. Whoever thought of immortals fighting it out until only one survives but the only way they can die is if their head is chopped off so they have to fight with swords is sheer brilliance and makes for one of the most enjoyable movies of the 80s.
Best Sequel of the Year - Aliens
It took seven years for the sequel to Alien to come out but when it did come out it came out with a bang. James Cameron takes over the reins and delivers one of the greatest action movies of all time with Sigourney Weaver back in action and giving one of the greatest female performances on film, this movie is high octane relentless action at its best.  Truly one of the great action films of the 80s
Acclaimed Pick - Hoosiers
I've mentioned before that I love a good sports flick and here comes another one. Starring Gene Hackman as the basketball coach of a small town high school team in Indiana, this masterful film is moving, dramatic and almost perfect as a great sports movie should be.

Honorable mentions and other movies:
I can't get away from 1986 without talking about some of the other movies of the year with the main one being the most successful movie of the year Tom Cruise, in a Megastar making roll brings us Top Gun.
And speaking of star-making roles, let's not forget Jeff Goldblum in The Fly.  Pretty amazing performance even under a ton of prosthetics and makeup.
They're also a couple of the other sequels I should mention including the second Karate Kid movie and the last movie of the Star Trek trilogy, Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home.
And finally a movie that I just have to mention starring Tom Hanks during his comedy phase of acting called The Money Pit.  This movie is hilarious but yet also is done with a lot of pathos.  If you haven't seen it do yourself a favor and check it out.

1987

Personal Pick - Predator
And the action movies just keep coming including this flick directed by John Mctiernan and starring that little actor named Arnold Schwarzenegger and a plethora of other huge he-men, Predator is almost a perfect action movie.  It begins somewhat unsurprisingly but then the alien shows up and this movie goes to a whole other level.

Action Movie Honorable Mention:
Another action movie that came out in 1986 that I would like to mention is RoboCop.  Directed by Paul Verhoeven, this movie is, as his movies are, a bit over-the-top and pretty violent but it's still a great watch with great action.

Best Sequel of the Year - The Living Daylights
Okay so once again I have to cheat a little bit in that James Bond movies aren't strictly sequels but a series of movies but this one just has to go on this list.  In his first outing as James Bond, Timothy Dalton brings a rugged ruthlessness to the character in a good Cold War story that in Bondian fashion offer some great set pieces, action and style.
Acclaimed Pick - The Untouchables
And speaking of James Bond, here's a movie starring a former Bond.  Sean Connery stars as a policeman helping Eliot Ness hunt down Al Capone starring Kevin Costner and Robert de Niro who actually, is not bad in this movie. Connery won his only Academy Award for this movie and directed by Brian de Palma, this is a good one.

Secondary Personal Pick - Dirty Dancing
I just can't leave 1987 without mentioning this movie so I get a second personal pick.  Once again it was a movie that spoke to me as a young man and what I really liked about this movie starring Patrick Swayze was the suave, cool, semi-bad boy falls for the slightly unattractive but cute goody two-shoes girl and he falls really hard for her.  Usually it's the other way around which makes this movie so unique and hey, pretty sexy dancing.


1988

I did mention when I started the 80s that this year would be a unique year just because I can't find a lot of really good movies for this year so there will be only one pick for this year and that pick is:

Die Hard
In his absolute star-making role, Bruce Willis and John Mctiernan deliver, perhaps, the single greatest action movie of all time.  Along with a barnstorming performance by Alan Rickman, this movie is just pure gold in almost every way and even though this year might not have been very good it did give us one movie that was absolutely great.

1989

And whereas 1988 was not a strong Year for movies, the decade finishes up with an incredible year for movies. 1989 was the best year for movies of the decade and it's going to be really tough for me to pick just three movies so hold on here we go:

Personal Pick - Batman
Who knew that Michael Keaton could play Batman but he certainly pulled it off in this movie to great effect.  The 70s gave us Superman and right at the end of the 80s we got Batman directed by a relative newcomer named Tim Burton with a relatively new composer named Danny Elfman, Batman came to the big screen along with Jack Nicholson as the Joker delivering a classic superhero movie.
Best Sequel of the Year - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
This was an easy one as Indiana Jones returns to the big screen after a five-year absence in classic form.  High adventure, great music and riding off into the sunset, it just doesn't get any better.

Honorable Mention - The Little Mermaid
You can't talk about movies in 1989 without mentioning the return to glory for Disney that was The Little Mermaid.  During the 80s Disney had been in somewhat of a slump, but along came this magical movie and all that was forgotten.  With incredible music by Alan Menken and great traditional animation, this movie ushered in a Renaissance for Disney that would continue into the 1990s and beyond.

Acclaimed Pick - 3 Way tie - Dead Poets Society/Glory/Henry V
I told you that it was going to be hard for me to pick just one movie in each of my categories.  For this category I just couldn't pick one so we have three.   The first being Dead Poets Society starring Robin Williams in a surprisingly brilliant dramatic role.  This movie about young men at a prep school once again came at just the right time for me as I was just finishing high school and was looking toward my future.  Powerful, sad and yet incredibly inspiring.
Next we we get one of the greatest civil war movies of all time in Glory starring Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington in his Academy award-winning role, this movie is just what its title implies.  It is glorious.
And to round out this category is Kenneth Branaugh's adaption of Shakespeare's Henry V.  Both directing and starring in this movie Branaugh delivered a tour-de-force which has been rarely equalled in the annals of filmmaking.  This movie and its depiction of medieval warfare and spot-on Shakespearean interpretation is a must-see for any fan of Shakespeare.

And that will conclude the 1980s.  I don't know what format I will use for the 1990s, whether I will continue with the multiple categories or just pick one movie for each year, we'll see, so stay tuned and visit the blog again sometime and hopefully it won't be too long before I can continue this series.
 

BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR

YEAR BY YEAR

The 1980s

Okay continuing with my series of posts on my favorite movies of each year, we are in the 80s and now we come to 1983 through 1985.  As per usual, we will have three picks for each year:  a personal favorite, a best sequel, and an acclaimed pick (and I might mention a few other movies along the way that I really liked).
So here we go:

1983

Personal Pick - War Games
It turns out that 1983 wasn't a very strong year for movies so my personal pick for this year is War Games starring Matthew Broderick and I really like this film because it was about a young guy who was into computers and stumbled onto this big war games scenario just as I was a young guy into computers and this movie was just the right time and right place at that time in my life but beyond that it's actually a pretty good movie so it's my pick.
Best Sequel of the Year - Return of the Jedi
Well of course, this one is obvious.  We reach the end of the Star Wars saga and it concludes the story of Luke Skywalker in stirring fashion. Yeah,sure some people didn't like the ewoks but at the time I thought they were cute and I understood the message about a primitive society overthrowing a vast technological one, so I have no complaints about the movie and of course, we get the great score by John Williams once again closing out the saga. You don't do much better.
Acclaimed Pick - The Outsiders
This movie may come as somewhat of a shock to some people but this is actually a really great movie directed by none other than Francis Ford Coppola. It starred a who's who of young male Hollywood including C. Thomas Howell, Patrick Swayze, Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe and Ralph Macchio. Some people may not be familiar with this film and I would encourage them to check it out because it's a really moving and well done piece and was acclaimed in its time.
 

1984

So if 1983 was a weak year, 1984 was a positively astonishing year for movies. This is going to be tough but here we go:

Personal Pick - Dune
Now this is a personal favorite and I know that I might be in a minority with this pick but I think this movie is amazing. From director David Lynch comes an epic sci-fi adventure based on the epic sci-fi adventure book.  This movie has such style and is a really good adaption of the book.  The standout performance of Kyle McLaughlin and a really all-star cast makes this movie just an incredible cinematic experience and it's my personal pick for this year.

Honorable mentions and all the other movies that came out this year:
As I said, 1984 was an incredible year for movies.  Some of the movies that I want to mention but can't put on the list are movies like Ghostbusters, a much-beloved comedy, The Karate Kid starring Ralph macchio, a movie perfect for its time telling the story of a young man standing up to his bullies as I myself was a young man who too had to sometimes stand up to his bullies.  In that same vein was Footloose with a star-making performance by Kevin Bacon about a young man who wanted to dance in a no-dance town. Again, a movie just right for that time in my life and a good one.
And another sci-fi classic directed by James Cameron and starring a little actor named Arnold Schwarzenegger was The Terminator.  Because it was rated R, I didn't see it at the time but later on when I was older I saw it and can appreciate it for the great action film that it is.
And how about a sequel to the worst movie ever made IMO, 2010: The Year We Make Contact was a sequel to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and it surpasses the original movie in every way mainly because 2010 makes sense and explains everything that happened in 2001.  a really good sci-fi movie IMO.
And how can you leave 1984 without talking about the movie 1984. An adaptation of the book of the same name by George Orwell with outstanding performances from John Hurt and Richard Burton, this dystopian future is brilliantly brought to life on screen.  if you haven't seen it you should check it out.

Best Sequel of the Year - tie - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom/Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock
Indiana Jones returns to the screen in a prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark so this is actually not a sequel but that's just semantics.  The first time I saw this movie I thought it was the most exciting movie I had ever watched in my life.  However, I watch it now and it gets a little tiring especially the female lead performance by Kate Capshaw but it's still pure adventure and pure Indiana Jones.
And continuing the Star trek trilogy as the crew hijacks the Enterprise and goes in search for Spock after his death (sorry spoilers) in Star trek 2, Trek 3 may not be entirely successful and may lack the great pacing and action of Star trek 2 but hey, it's still a good movie and you can't go wrong with the Star Trek trilogy.  

Acclaimed Pick - tie - The Natural/Amadeus

I just couldn't decide between these two movies.

I'm a sucker for a great sports movie and The Natural is a great sports movie with a quiet but powerful performance by Robert Redford.  This movie is just pure inspiration with a great score by Randy Newman that knocks it out of the ballpark (pun intended).
But what can I say about Amadeus that hasn't already been said?  It's simply one of the best movies of all time and certainly of this decade.  It ranks right up there with Gandhi and other great biopics such as Patton and Lawrence of Arabia with amazing, amazing performances from F Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce and absolutely stunning direction by Milos Foreman.  This movie has to be seen and experienced.

1985

Personal Pick - Back to the Future
In his star-making performance, Michael J Fox stars in this incredible Robert Zemeckis directed movie that simply took all of us for a ride in his time traveling DeLorean. Along with a star-making score by Alan Silvestri, and Christopher Lloyd along for the ride, this movie is just a delight to watch over and over again and it never gets old.  You might say it's timeless.
Best Sequel of the Year - Rambo: First Blood Part 2
Now, I don't think I mentioned First Blood in 1982 starring Sylvester Stallone but along comes the sequel which really birthed the action movie in Hollywood which is why I put it on this list.  At the time because of its R rating I didn't see it in the theaters but of course I saw it later on and, whereas the first movie was a drama action movie, this one is just pure action through and through.

Some honorable mentions from this year:
I'm not really a huge fan of comedy movies but this year brought us the adaption of the acclaimed board game, Clue, with an All-Star cast of funny people at their very best.  This movie is a riot to watch and actually has three different endings shown as three different movies in the theaters at the time.  Watch it, enjoy it, and see if you can solve the mystery of who killed Mr. Body.
Another comedy that I'd like to mention is,in my opinion, the star-making role of Chevy Chase in Fletch.  This movie is as intelligent as it is witty and another one that can just be watched over and over again.

And the last movie I want to mention almost made my acclaimed pic and that movie is The Breakfast Club starring a young who's who of Hollywood in a movie about high schoolers at a time when I was in high school but, unfortunately, due to its R rating I actually didn't see this movie until several years later which I regret because I think this would have been a great movie to see when you were in high school but it's still a great examination and revelation of high school kids at the time.

Acclaimed Pick - A Chorus Line
I hope that no one's forgotten my love of musicals and here comes another classic adapted to the screen by Gandhi's director Richard Attenborough that,of course, has the great dance moves associated with that show and is a real joy to watch and see this great play finally come to the screen.

OK, so three more years done. Hopefully, it won't be too long before I can do three more.