Back to the Future

Release Year: 1985
Director: Robert Zemeckis

Review: The 80’s at its most fun and entertaining. ‘Back to the Future’ is essential viewing even ignoring the nostalgic impression. A kid gets to go back in time in a Delorean and save his very existence by hooking up his mom and dad. It’s completely silly, but it doesn’t make it any less enjoyable.

What makes this movie work are the now iconic characters. Doc, Biff, Marty and George McFly, when you hear these names you instantly see their characters and their scenes come racing back into your memory. Each one has distinctive personalities which are essential to the success of the movie. Doc is the crazy scientist, Marty the cool kid, George the awkward nerd and Biff the bully. In fact, if you imagine anyone of these stereotypes the imagery of these characters probably enters your mind. You change one aspect of these characters and you ruin the movie.

Watching the movie is a thrill from beginning to end. It combines adventure, sci-fi and comedy in a perfect concoction of awesome. Sure it is campy in parts, but that’s part of the fun. By the time Doc utters the now legendary line ‘Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.’, I was all set to start the movie over and watch it again. There is a reason its one of the most beloved movies of all time. It is pop perfection.

Rating: 4.5/5

After Hours

Release Year: 1985

Director: Martin Scorsese

Review: This isn't a Scorsese film that is talked about as much as most of his other work.  It certainly has a different feel than most.  Paul(Griffen Dunne) is an ordinary New Yorker, who has an ordinary job.  One fateful night he is minding his own business when he strikes up a conversation with an attractive woman and gets her number.  Naturally, Paul gives her a call later that night and is surprised to find that she wants him to come over right away.  Despite the late hour, Paul ventures out to go downtown.  Little does he know he is about to embark on the worst evening of his life.

This is a weird, weird movie.  It takes place during a single night in the SoHo district of New York.  There is a surreal feel to the film.  Paul is continually tortured with unfortunate circumstances, which continue to get worse and worse.  All he wants to do is get home, but everything in the universe is conspiring against him.  It is almost painful to watch as Paul agonizes with the events of the evening.  Although this is a comedy, it felt more like horror, as Paul goes further and further down the rabbit hole, unable to escape from his nightmarish adventure.

One downside is that I never could sympathize with Paul.  He isn't the most upstanding guy, and he makes terrible, selfish, decisions.  That being said, no one deserves the night he is put through.  While there are many uncomfortable moments, and there is definitely a horror thread which runs throughout, it is still a comedy.  There are scenarios in here which are so ridiculous you can't help but laugh.  It is a truly New York adventure movie, and one that is perfectly bizarre.  It may leave you starching your head, but it will also be hard to tear yourself away from it.
Rating: 3.5/5

Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend

Release Year: 1985

Director: Bill Norton

Review: After watching this, you really get a new appreciation for Jurassic Park.  In the African jungle a legend exists of a large mysterious creature.  It turns out that this creature is a Brontosaurus.  An American zoologist and her husband go traipsing through the African wild in search for it, and eventually discover a family of them.  Having the intention of bringing the find to the world, they are thwarted by an evil, greedy, rival scientist who wants the find for himself.  He brought an army, they didn't.  Instead they make it their mission to protect the baby Brontosaurus and rescue it's mother from the army.

There is very little to like about this movie.  It bills itself as a children's movie, but the content doesn't back that up.  It was very violent and borderline disturbing at parts.  This is only the beginning of the mess, but really is the key.  The film doesn't know what it wants to be.  It tries to be a touching family friendly film about a cute dinosaur, but on the other hand there are violent battles and other adult themes.  Top it off with a weak, overdone, plot and terrible acting and you end up with this train wreck.  I did appreciate the animatronic dinosaurs.  Not because they looked real, but because they brought back a certain amount of nostalgia.  It wasn't enough to save the experience though, it was really just offensive.
Rating: 1.5/5

Desperately Seeking Susan

Release Year: 1985
Review: A romantic comedy set in New York City in the 1980's, Desperately Seeking Susan follows the adventure of Roberta, a straight laced house wife who obsesses over the free spirited Susan. This film has the rare trait of being produced, written and directed by females giving a unique take on the familiar romantic comedy genre. Unfortunately the film never really pushes the bounds of the genre, seeming to not want to wander too far from the well worn path of so many similar films before it. Madonna and Rosanna Arquette both give strong performances, but weren't given enough to work with. There are some fun moments, but on a whole there were too many cliche scenarios and standard plot points to make this a great film.
Rating: 3/5

The Purple Rose of Cairo

Review: In the Purple Rose of Cairo, Mia Farrow plays Cecelia, a depression-era working women in an abusive marriage who escapes the hard times in reality by getting lost in movies. Woody Allen often uses fantastic elements in his films to materialize hypothetical situations on screen. In this film Allen employs this fable technique to bring to life a character from a film which Cecelia is infatuated with. The character literally walks out of the screen and whisks her away just like in the film world she is so in love with. Allen brilliantly, if not at times heavy handedly, weighs the pros and cons of fictional perfection against flawed reality. In the end it may not really matter. We are stuck in the real world and films are our great escape. This is a classic Woody Allen film and is among his best work.
Rating: 5/5