Best Comedy Films Turner & Hooch Tapeheads Best Ensemble Cast Treasure Island – Charlton Heston, Christian Bale, Oliver Reed, Christopher Lee, Nicholas Amer, and Isla Blair Best juvenile performance Christian Bale – Treasure Island  Notes from awards committee: 1989 was not the best year of the 80s decade for quality films made for grown-ups. The weak crop of films may help explain why a movie about a man dressing up like a bat and wearing a cape was box office gold – coming in second to the reliable money making machine of Spielberg and Indiana Jones. The HouseClark best picture award goes to Always – the other 1989 Steven Spielberg directed movie. Always is a rare bird, as Spielberg tones down the wild action scenes and cranks up the romance. In the first act, we are introduced to a good old-fashioned love story starring Richard Dreyfuss (Pete the pilot) and Holly Hunter (Dorinda the air traffic controller) with plenty of charm and smiles. The second act begins with Pete’s heroic death scene then shifts to an offbeat supernatural tale. The third act sparkles with brilliant acting by Holly Hunter as she takes this odd ghost story to a tender and moving drama about love and loss and the pain of moving on with your life. She gave the best performance of the year and was not even nominated for Oscar. Holly is awarded the Simpson for Best Actress. The World at Large
Fun Surprises – Let it Ride – is a fun movie with a talent packed cast. Richard Dreyfuss plays Jay Trotter with great enthusiasm, as he exclaims, “I’m having a very good day.” David Johansen (Looney) is his goofy buddy who is not having a good day. Robbie Coltrane takes a small role as the betting-window employee and embellishes it with charm and wit. Jennifer Tilly is pitch perfect playing the gold digger of the Jockey Club. A flawless film; I would not change one scene. Treasure Island - I’ve seen other screen adaptations of TI, and for my money, this TV movie version is the best pirate movie ever made. The film remains faithful to the novel and most importantly, the actors are perfectly cast across the board, with a stand-out performance by Charlton Heston as Long John Silver. A young Christian Bale as Jim and Oliver Reed as Billy Bones and Christopher Lee as Blind Pew were all fantastic. These are NOT the sanitized Disney pirates wearing eye liner, they're cut-throats all, a scurvy lot of dirty thieves with rotten teeth and rum soaked brains. You can almost smell their stench under the hot tropic sun of Treasure Island. Fat Man and Little Boy - is a forgotten gem that puts a human face on one of the most intriguing sagas in modern history. It's the story of the Manhattan Project -- the massive Allied World War II effort to build the first atom bomb, featuring two key leaders who made it happen, Gen. Leslie Groves (Paul Newman) and Dr. Robert Oppenheimer (Dwight Schultz). The title comes from the code names for the first, and thankfully only, two atomic bombs used in war. This film has since been eclipsed by the flashy, big budget remake named Oppenheimer by Christopher Nolan. Kill Me Again - Vince and Fay are small time criminals until they steal a briefcase full of cash ($800k) from the Las Vegas mob. Fay (Joanne Whalley) is a greedy, sexy, lying fem fatale and Vince is a trigger-happy, dangerous psycho. Fay double-crosses Vince, steals the loot and his car, and flees to Reno. Fay fakes being an innocent damsel-in-distress, and hires PI Jack Andrews (Val Kilmer) to arrange for her disappearance and a new identity. Lots of gun play and sadistic violence ensues when Vince picks up Fay’s trail. KMA is an underrated film without a wasted scene, and the best film noir of the 80s decade  Disappointments - Batman – On a weekend night out with friends we ended up at the local Multiplex where I was cajoled into watching Batman on the silver screen. I have no interest in the Batman fairy tale but soldiered along with the group. The acting was terrible especially that blockhead Nicholson over-playing, with moronic delight, the demented Joker. A good time was not had by all. The most striking, and I admit, positive impression I saw were the shots of Gotham City – one of the remarkable alternate worlds on film in the 80s. It’s not New York City in disguise, nor is it Philadelphia or Chicago during garbage workers strike. Gotham here is its own decaying city in stunning, dull gray art deco. The Batmobile charges around Gotham like a furious war chariot adding some real life to the film only to be snuffed dead again when the talking and “acting” starts again. Production designer and Art co-Director Anton Furst was awarded an Oscar and a BAFTA award for his work on Batman. Anton committed suicide in 1991 at age 47, cutting short a brilliant career. Driving Miss Daisy – It is startling how a glorified stage play was so successful in the Motion Picture business. The film is full of talking and more talking, leaving us watching a pleasant but not particularly interesting series of events devoid of any essential cinematic impact or excitement. Excepting Dan Ackroyd with his terrible fake Southern accent, the performances are solid. Morgan Freeman proves once again that he is America’s favorite Uncle Tom - a white fantasy of a subservient black man with canine loyalty and essentially no life outside of serving the white characters. The critical and commercial success of the film (and the play) is a testament to America's willingness to embrace a feel-good, racial fairy tale. Field of Dreams - Amy Madigan plays a loyal beyond-belief wife to Kevin Costner, supporting him unconditionally when he hears a “voice” telling him to tear up their Iowa cornfield and build a baseball diamond so that Shoeless Joe Jackson will come and play ball in their backyard. I am a lifelong baseball fan, but this story was just over-the-top silly. Dead Poets Society - Robin Williams plays Mr. Keating, an English high school lit teacher with plenty of charm and wit. But Keating’s selfish, free-spirit message goes too far when one of his students blows his brains out rather than attend military school. The sour ending shows Keating being sacked. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade – has a thrilling opening scene that flashes back to Indy’s boyhood, a life changing Boy Scout adventure, and the first of many Shark Jumps. The plot is very similar to Raiders of the Lost Ark: Indiana must beat the Nazis (Yes, them again) to obtain a holy Christian, ancient relic. The storyline also includes Indy’s father (Sean Connery) who was absent and not even mentioned in the two previous IJ films. Act 2 lags with Connery and Ford unconvincing as father and son. At times, it seems the two behave almost as strangers, with nothing more in common than interest in archeology. Last Crusade cascades to the grand finale with more Shark Jumps and a 700 year old Crusader. Flaws and all, Last Crusade was the Box Office king of 1989, but it was obvious the Law of Diminishing Returns had asserted itself with a vengeance on the IJ franchise.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWritten by Ben Clark. Copyright 2016-2023. All rights reserved. Archives
August 2025
Categories |
RSS Feed
