The Running Man

Release Year: 1987

Director: Paul Michael Glaser

Review: "Who Loves You, and who do you love?!"  This is my favorite lines from one of my favorite 80's action movies.  'The Running Man' is based on a Stephen King novel set in a future where government controls media.  One of the most popular shows is a reality program in which death row inmates compete for their freedom.  All they have to do is survive being stalked by trained killers.

Watching the movie back again revealed a lot of flaws.  It is painfully stuffed full of 80's cliches, cheesy dialog and stiff acting.  All of this can be forgiven though.  Its a flat out fun movie.  From beginning to end its packed full of action.  Over the top action to be sure, but its done in a way where it manages not to be annoying.  The concept is brilliant.  We get Scharzenegger basically as a super hero, who turns the the tables on the oppressors.  It's an underdog story, where the underdog gets to lop the bad guys heads off.  

The feel is very much like a professional wrestling match.  You get the over the top theatrics, gaudy costumes, specialized weapons, custom arenas and gratuitous violence.  It's dumb entertainment, but its true to itself.  There is something satisfying watching Scharzenegger decimate each stalker one by one, and watching the crowd gradually start to root him on.  It seamlessly is able to be a shallow action flick as well as something with a bit of meat.  For all the brainless camp, it also gives commentary on exploitation in the media.  It may be a guilty pleasure, but I can't help but watch this every time it comes on.
Rating: 3.5/5

The Dead

Release Year: 1987

Director: John Huston

Review: It is poetic that in John Huston's last film 'The Dead', he himself is dying while filming it.  Directing the film in a wheelchair, he adapts a short story about Gabriel (Donal McCann) and his wife Gretta (Angelica Huston), who attend a family holiday party at the turn of the century in Ireland.  The party evokes strong emotions from Gretta after she hears a song that makes her remember a love who died long ago.

This is a brutally dull film.  There just isn't anyway around it.  From the first scene, to nearly the end, we are cramped inside a stuffy house party with guests so boring its nearly painful.  There is subtlety in the things they say to one another, and it does eventually contribute to the ultimate payoff, but it doesn't make watching it any more enjoyable.  The acting is oddly stiff, and there is absolutely zero connection between anyone making the whole thing very uncomfortable. It's entirely reminiscent of one of those bland Hallmark channel movies that you immediately click off of when you stumble upon it and wonder why anyone would watch it.  From the lighting to the monotone dialog it's enough to put anyone to sleep.  It's not the slow pace which I have a problem with, its just the lack of anything interesting to latch on to.

I was all set to hate this film until the very end, when we mercifully leave the party.  It's at this point that Gretta is effected by the memory of her formal love, and her husband coaxes out of her what's wrong.  The final monolog is so eloquent and moving that it just about makes up for the drivel which came before it.  It was if I were watching two completely different movies.  It's a shame that I had to sit through the first part, as the ending was actually a film I could recommend.  While Huston ultimately goes out on a high note, it was too little too late. 

Rating: 2/5

The Last Emperor

Release Year: 1987

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci

Review: Biopics can be messy, and even a director as talented as Bernardo Bertolucci can stumble in relaying the details of even an extraordinary life without becoming bogged down in the minutia.  That is ultimately my problem with the film.  It was long, and it felt long.  It is absolutely beautiful to behold.  The colors explode on the screen.  The costumes and scenery are overwhelmingly spectacular.  The problem was, I never felt like any message was trying to be conveyed, or at least not one I could identify with. 

The the story itself is interesting at least in premise.  I'm very interesting in 'the last' of something.  An end of an era, of a way of life.  And that is very well represented in the film, but ultimately I didn't become vested in the emperor in the least.  The rest of the characters drifted in and out of the film with little emotional impact on the emperor or for me.  For someone who held such a high position, he was a bit of a pushover and not all that interesting.  There was very little to grab a hold of here.  The cultural battle that could have been the focal point of the movie, was present, but decidedly underdeveloped.  The biggest flaw however was the dead dialog and forced exposition.  Especially in the first third of the film, the acting and dialog was downright uncomfortable.  It felt like they had a lot to say, but were rushed and just decided to try to cram as much background into as few lines of dialog as possible.  It came off unnatural and forced and completely clashed with the elegance and authenticity of the visuals.  In the end, that's what I took away from this. It has stunning visuals.  The story is lacking, but vibrancy is not.
Rating: 3/5

Three O'Clock High

Release Year: 1987
Review: 'Three O'clock High' is one of those 80's high school comedies that is wrought with camp and and should be a terrible movie, but you just have too much fun watching it to mind. It follows the oh-so-familiar plot of the geek having to overcome some obstacle to gain acceptance and popularity. In this case that obstacle is a bully. Not just any bully, but a very adult looking felon who has near superhuman strength and is on a mission to beat up the hero after school. Yes, the plot is ridiculous and the film doesn't go two minutes without running into a cliche, but you can't really expect great cinema here. It's a fun, campy, high school comedy that doesn't take its self too seriously and should entertain.
Rating: 3/5

Lethal Weapon

Release Year: 1987

Review: I couldn't get into this buddy cop film. It felt as though it didn't know what it was itself. On one hand there were corny one-liners and lighthearted dialog, and on the other there was some pretty graphic violence and sex. The plot was extremely impractical, making a season of 24 seem reasonably realistic. It was a case of dumb cops taking on dumber criminals. But its a buddy cop movie, I could forgive the plot if there was decent chemistry, but I never bought Mel Gibson and Danny Glover together. The acting was weak, the lines fell flat and I ended the movie not caring about either of them.

Rating: 2/5