A Fish Called Wanda

Charles Crichton (and uncredited John Cleese), 1988 (8.5*)
A sparkling comedic cast help push this heist satire over the top into rarified waters. There aren’t many crime comedies worth watching more than once, this is one of them.

John Cleese (of Monty Python and Fawlty Towers fame) plays a judge who falls for the wiles of American con-artist Jamie Lee Curtis, who seduces him to order help pull a con on some British partners in crime (without Cleese’s knowledge). Her supposed brother, but partner in crime, is brilliantly played to mucho laughs by an Oscar®-winning Kevin Kline. He is really her dumb boyfriend, whose recurring line is “Don’t call me stupid!”, because he is the proverbial knot-on-a-log thick.

They enlist the aid of inside man Ken, played by another former Python member Michael Palin, with a wonderful stutter (“Ka-ka-ka-Ken!”), who’s a doting owner of an overloved pet fish named Wanda, hence the title. Yes, there's often offensive humor in this, but it's still sedate compared to Python, no gushing arteries or chunk hurling here.

Some of the best stuff to come from the Python group, likely because the Jones-Gilliam silliness is tempered by the veteran direction of master British director Charles Crichton, who directed the classic The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) bw.

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Beetle Juice

Tim Burton, 1988 (8.4*)
Sure, it's silly and uneven, yet this comedy of Tim Burton's is perhaps his funniest film. A young newlywed couple, played by Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin, who excels at comedy, move into a very nice New England country cottage, then nearly immediately drown in a freakish car accident. They wake up as unknowing ghosts, apparently still alive, yet soon realize that they are not in reality any longer.

A new family led by spouses Catherine O'Hara and Jeffrey Jones, and with a young, nihilistic teen played by Winona Ryder, buys the house and moves in. The newlywed ghosts want the family to leave, so they try haunting them away. They fail and enlist the help of "the ghost with the most", Beetlejuice, wonderfully played by a hilarious Michael Keaton.
Actor Glenn Shadix [photo rt] has a wonderful turn as the interior designer, Otho, who dabbles in the occult, pretending to be an expert when he has no real experience. [This review is being posted in his honor, as the actor was found dead today in his Alabama home, at 58, apparently after falling from his wheelchair]

Basic comic nonsense ensues to the delight of the audience. Don't look for much here other than comic fantasy, which this delivers quite well. Actor Keaton chose this film (over Burton's Batman) as the one of his work he'd put in a time capsule if limited to one.

Quote: "Go ahead, make my millenium!"
Quote2: "Hey, this could be a good look for me" (after having his head shrunken)

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Landscape in the Mist

Theodoros Angelopoulos, Greece, 1988 (8.5*)
This is one of those masterpieces that are unforgettable, yet are hard to recommend. This is basically a road movie: two little Greek kids are told by their mom that their dad lives in Germany, so they decide that they need to find him, and hit the road alone. The story begins with them boarding a train without tickets. What follows is a coming of age tale that brutally welcomes them to the real word: walking in bad weather, hunger (food costs money), rude officials with 'better things to do', and both help and abuse from strangers.

This is not a pleasant story, but is a cinematic masterwork filled with some unforgettable images that one will never forget. It's been called Angelopoulos' masterpiece, but it's fairly certain that it is also Greece's cinema masterpiece. Winner of 8 international film awards (but 6 came from Venice alone), and a little slow by modern standards, but still a rewarding parable of the individual's growing alienation in a cold, uncaring soceity.

#319 on our Top Ranked 1000 Films on the net compendium, and the top-ranked film from Greece, followed by another of Angelopoulos, The Traveling Players at #418

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Grave of the Fireflies

a.k.a. Hotaru No Haka
Isao Takahata, Japan, 1988, anime (8.4*)
This is a tough film to watch, as it concerns the efforts of two children to survive in Japan in WW2, but is a very poetic war fable, rarely seen in films. While their dad is off in the navy fighting in the Pacific, a young teenage boy, Seita, is forced to take care of his 4 yr old sister, Setsuko, when their mother is killed by U.S. bombers. Times are harsh for everyone, the schools and factories have been bombed, there's no work, little food, and children like this, in both Japan and Europe, had to fend for themselves in order to survive, and many didn't.

This is done without much preaching or propagandising at all, which is one reason this film is #185 on the IMDB top 250, and placed #324 on our compendium of internet film polls. The story is a nice mix of reality and childish fantasy. The animation still has the cheap "doe-eyed" simplicity on the people, but the backgrounds, landscapes, rain, ponds, and fireflies are all very artistically done, and reminded me of early Disney cartoon art (Silly Symphony series) and actually have the quality of full-length films. The story is from a novel by Akiyuku Nosaka, based on that author's real wartime experiences, so it's a universally authentic war tale that is bound to tug the heart of those with compassion for children orphaned by wars, and the struggle of all the innocent civilians facing wartime deprivations.

[Note: one ignorant commentor at IMDB said, "hey, get a job" - typical uncaring American response. Hey dummy, the country had been bombed into oblivion, there were no schools nor jobs available. Are people really this stupid here? Even in our wealthy, non-wartorn society there are few jobs available and we don't have any excuse other than criminals running a system which is not working for the common person.]

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Dead Ringers

David Cronenberg, 1988 (6.8*)
This is an acting tour-de-force by Jeremy Irons, who plays twin gynecologists, one of whom has a decidely warped sense of reality. The brothers don’t let people know they are twins, which allows them to switch off with a new lover, played by Genevieve Bujold. It also lets them play around in a world of their own fantasy creation for the most part. Somewhere down road to bliss one brother takes a definitely wrong turn, and ends up somewhere between Salvador Dali and Marquis de Sade. Irons makes both brothers just slightly different, and turns in not only a career best performance but one of the best of all-time.

Puzzlingly, Irons wasn’t even nominated for an Oscar®; a group of actresses led a write-in campaign in protest but the Academy refused to accept the ballots. When he won the Oscar® for his next, and definitely inferior performance in Reversal of Fortune, he said “I have David Cronenberg to thank for this, and some of you out there know what I mean.” Like most Cronenberg films, this one is very disturbing and has some gore, which detracts from an otherwise interesting psychological study, but still worth seeing for the Irons performance alone.

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Salaam Bombay!

Mira Nair, 1988, India (10*)
This is one of the great Asian films. One a few films I'd call a masterpiece, and probably my favorite film by a female director, replacing Lina Wertmuller's Seven Beauties.

Unbelievably, this is director Mira Nair's first feature film - "fiction" that is. (Most wil recognize Monsoon Wedding as hers). After making 5 documentaries, she wanted to show the indominable spirit of these kids and their everyday struggle for survival. She used only 3 pro actors (the Madame, Aneeta Kanwar as Rakah the prostitute, Ragubir Yaday as Chillum the street addict), and 24 children of the streets of Bombay (almost none of whom could read the script!), selected from over 150 she had put into her special acting workshop she set up to cast this movie. Shafiq Syed is the amazing lead actor, as Chiapau/Krishna, and 11-yr old kicked out of his home and told not to come back until he could repay 500 rupees; he now delivers tea daily in the brothel district.

Nair based this on her experiences filming India Cabaret, a documentary about strippers, and meeting a lovable "chai wallah", or tea delivery boy (like in Slumdog Millionaire, which owes a lot to this film and Fernando Mierelles' City of God), who personally brought tea to the strippers daily at 4pm. She got financial assistance from the government in making this, giving her access to harsh prison/orphanages, closed to private filmmakers. She then used the profits from the film to set up 3 homes for street kids, which has grown now to 17. KUDOS all-around for making a social film that actually brought change to Indian society in the way they treat and educate orphans, and showed the world a terrific story, beautifully composed by Nair and shot by cinematographer Sandi Sissel, who, along with Nair, provides commentary for the film.

Great movie, DVD, overall experience. If you like Slumdog, this is even better; more real, harder hitting. I would watch both commentaries as well. Deservedly won Nair the best new director award at Cannes in 1988.

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Tucker: The Man and His Dream

Francis Ford Coppola, 1988 (8.7*)
This is the true story of Preston Tucker, American entrepreneur, engineer, and inventor. He saved US lives and made his fortune by designing the ball turret on the B-52 bombers that allowed the machine gunners easy mobility. After the war, Tucker, played with joyous optimism by Jeff Bridges, wants to build a radically different auto for the public: one that’s safe, yet also stylish. His design included things like disk brakes, high beam lights, side crash protection, seat belts. This film covers the period of this design when Tucker challenged the big three automakers and offered Americans something different. When the going gets tough, Tucker starts singing the jazz song "Hold That Tiger!" and grins. This feels a lot like a Frank Capra film (just look at the dvd cover), and is one of Coppola’s more enjoyably optimistic yet often overlooked movies.

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The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Philip Kaufman, 1988 (8.5*)
Kaufman is best known for directing the large budget epic docudrama The Right Stuff, five years after that blockbuster came this erotic romance about a philandering neurosurgeon is set in Prague, during the turbulent years of Russian occupation.

Daniel-Day Lewis, in an early role, plays the doctor, Juliet Binoche, Oscar® winner for The English Patient, plays his wife, and the super-sexy Swedish actress Lena Olin (one of my favorites) plays his main mistress. Perhaps a bit lengthy at over 2:44, it remains one of the most intelligent and erotic romances put on film, and seems especially popular with all the women I know. Need a date film? Throw in this dvd!

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Scrooged

Richard Donner, 1988 (7.6*)
Ok, so it’s not a great movie, it’s still another enjoyable Christmas film, and certainly a unique update of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, with humor replacing the seriousness. Bill Murray is a heartless tv-exec, making everyone perform a live holiday special on Christmas Eve (with Buddy Hackett and a tumbling Mary Lou Retton in a schlocky tv version of A Christmas Carol, no less!). He’s a total scrooge, not even softened by his big-hearted secretary Alfre Woodard.

In some hilarous visits from ghosts, especially a masochistic Carol Kane, he starts to soften up and realize what a jerk he’s become. Lots of great cameo roles here: Karen Allen as Murray’s ex-girlfriend, Robert Mitchum as a numbers-conscious network exec, Bobcat Goldthwaite as a shotgun-toting disgruntled employee, Eliott Loudermilk.

Quote: oooo... you know I like the rough stuff! (Carol Kane)
Quote2: Did our guys do that? We’re gonna get phone calls! (the ghost of Christmas present shows him a vision of hell inside his coat) (Murray)
Quote3: He called you a flatulating butthead, and he likes you in a certain kind of way (Bobcat to Mitchum)

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Midnight Run

Martin Brest, 1988 (7.8*)
Robert De Niro’s first comedy was the perfect vehicle for him: he gets to play a jaded, ‘all-business’ bounty hunter, who catches a white-collar criminal, Charles Grodin, who actually has a flippant, wry sense of humor that works well played against De Niro’s character, and also to get the audience to root for him.

Grodin has actually ripped off a big organized crime boss, and keeps trying to convince De Niro to take a bribe and let him go, but De Niro keeps resisting as if he’s an "honest cop", determined to bring in his man before the deadline, and while being chased by the underworld (who want Grodin dead) and other bounty hunters simultaneously. This is actually a road trip movie, as the pair is forced to take various modes of transportation due to financial circumstances, which also adds to the comedy, as Grodin is handcuffed for the venture.

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Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Dir: Pedro Almodovar, 1988, Spain (7.8*)

This is a screwball comedy from Spain, one of the hottest European directors of the last decade, in fact he's usually known now by just his last name, Almodovar. Primarily a romance about a woman recently broken up, Carmen Maura, Almodovar throws in terrorists, weapons, airplane hijackings, completely over-the-top. Apparently getting past Franco loosened up the artists a good bit, as Almodovar seems to be inspired by the new "punk tabloid" philosophy, perhaps Telemundo soaps as well. Antonio Banderas goes out of character as a nerd.

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Bull Durham

Dir: Ron Shelton, 1988 (8*)
Enjoyable romantic fluff featuring Susan Sarandon as a local minor league baseball groupie, for the Durham, N.C. "Bulls", hence the title. Former collegiate baseballer Kevin Costner was appropriately chosen as an aging minor league catcher, named "Crash" Davis, destined to spend his waning days away from the big leagues. He is brought in to groom "Nuke" Lalouche, hilariously stupid and naïve rookie pitcher, with a very young Tim Robbins in a star-making role. Sarandon picks Lalouche as this years bedmate, and Robbins also met wife Sarandon on this picture. Ken Wahl is also very funny as a coach. A realistic look at the minor leagues, do they have this much fun?

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Big

Dir: Penny Marshall, 1988 (9.0*)
Terrific blend of fantasy and romance, touching and humorous, Penny Marshall’s best as director. Tom Hanks is a "man" who was just a little boy until he visits a magic amusement park "Psychic Seer" machine, and wishes he was grown up, next morning he IS grown, be careful WHAT you wish for!

Oscar®-nominated Elizabeth Perkins is perfect as his grown up would-be girlfriend, who likes his childlike innocence (not knowing he’s still a child). John Heard is a jealous rival at the toy manufacturer where Hanks gets a job, where he shines as a new product tester and evaluator since the toys fit his age group, whose real best friend, still nine or so, comes to visit during the work days with hilarious results.

Many say it was copied (by Vice Versa and others), but the female version of people who swap bodies (adults become children and vice-versa), Freaky Friday, had already been made in 1976 (and later remade with Jamie Lee Curtis). This remains the best of the genre, and should have won some Oscars®, screenplay for one.

Quote: Can I sleep over? (Perkins) .. Well, OK - but I get to be on top! (Hanks, who has bunk beds)

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Dangerous Liaisons

Dir: Stephen Frears, 1988 (9.9*)
A scathing examination of psychological manipulation and emotional torture among jaded French aristocrats. Glenn Close is the master of cruelty, and former lover John Malkovich her witting instigator, Valmont. Close relishes, and seems to trive on orchestrating seductions, using Valmont, and delights in both keeping him at bay and destroying the innocence of others, notably the betrothed young Uma Thurman and moralistic preacher's wife Michelle Pfeiffer, in her best role, garnering an Oscar-nomination for supporting actress.

From a 1670 French play, not dated at all; in fact, so modern that it was remade (without bite) as Valmont, and updated to modern times as the uninteresting Cruel Intentions with Sarah Michelle Gellar, with an equally unmemorable cast, especially vs. Liaisons. Truely unforgettable, this is as good as psychological studies get in films. Close’s best film performance by far, to me (though she is letter perfect in every performance, and now has an Emmy for Damages), and also John Malkovich's.

Seven Oscar® nominations, winner of three: screenplay, art direction, costume design (Lost best picture to the infinitely inferior and forgettable Rain Man, which I don't think is good enough to include here as "1000 to see". Close lost to Jodie Foster in The Accused, not nearly as complex or as subtle a performance; I think the Academy just felt sorry for her being stalked by a maniac)
Awards page at IMDB

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Cinema Paradiso

Guiseppe Tornatore, 1988, Italy (10*)
Best Foreign Film (AA, BAA)
Cinema magic about the magic of movies. A beautiful epic film about growing up with a life that revolves around a cinema theater in a small town in Sicily, and the effect of films on the local townfolk, and one boy in particular, played by Salvatore Cascio as a kid and Marco Leonardi when grown up.

The story starts when a projectionist, wonderfully played by Philippe Noiret, befriends a boy whose dad is missing during the war and who hangs out at the theater whenever he can. The story follows him from boyhood to adulthood, all tied together with movies. Eventually, as an adult, we see the boy all grown up, and now a filmmaker himself.

An all-time top 10 for me, the dvd release also includes the longer director's cut, almost an hour of additional footage (but not really necessary to the story). Winner of both an Oscar® and a BAFTA for foreign language film, something that only five films have done. The others are: Babette's Feast (Denmark, 1988), Almodovar's All About My Mother (Spain, 1999), Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (China, 2000), and The Lives of Others (Germany, 2006).

Currently ranked No. 74 on the IMDB top 250 (as of 5.4.11)

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