nixsight

It is turning out to be a sad week, so to try and distract myself, and maybe generate some enthusiasm for tomorrow night (when if all goes to plan, Girl One and I will be watching Dark Knight), here is the next part of the meme from last week, as inspired by Rol.

1984 – Gremlins

This was close. I actually started writing up “This Is Spinal Tap” before realising that this was the year Gremlins came out.

There were a lot of crowd-pleasers in ’84, as well as a couple of less-seen classics – I was so tempted to put forward “Company Of Wolves”, for example. But really, Gremlins is the one that I remember the best, and most fondly. And the fact that they relied more on excellent puppetry then on lifelike puppets really works in the film’s favour.

1985 – Back To The Future

Another great year, and it feels weird, considering how much I’ve watched “The Goonies”, “The Breakfast Club” and “Brazil”, but really, when Michael J Fox was good, he was awesome, and any Christopher Lloyd appearance is worth it’s weight in gold.

1986 – Stand By Me

1986 was pretty much the year of sexually formative movies for me, between Jennifer Connelly in Labyrinth, and the sex scene in “Highlander”. Either one of those movies makes it into my top ten of all time, depending on the criteria, as do “Little Shop Of Horrors”, and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”. Also, “The Fly”.

But we watched Stand By Me recently, and it hasn’t aged a bit. The young cast showed incredible potential, which in most cases sadly never got realised, and the whole thing is beautifully framed by Richard Dreyfuss. Girl One loved it, watching for the first time, and I love it too. Funny, heartbreaking and thrilling. So it has to be this movie.

1987 – Predator

Jeez, I don’t remember the eighties being all this good. In Wikipedia’s list of films for 87, there are five films that I’d class as personal favourites, including Predator, and a further six that I’d be happy to sit down and watch right now. You may try and guess the identity of those ten other films, if you wish. You know, for fun!

Predator gets the nod, though, because seeing it on a big screen for the first time around 2000, I realised quite how beautifully shot it is. And because Stan Winston died not so long ago, so we won’t ever get another one of his creature effects. Easily Arnie’s best.

1988 – My Neighbour Totoro

On any other day of any other week, I’d have expected myself to put “Die Hard” here. Because, well, let’s not be daft, it’s fucking John Mclane. And then I’d be shocked to find myself typing “Biloxi Blues”, because the combination of an incredibly witty Broderick performance with Christopher Walken’s often overlooked, and probably most scary role, and Neil Simon’s sing-song voice, actually gets me every time.

But sometimes you want whimsy, and Totoro is easily one of the most re-watchable and warm films ever made.

(“They Live” gets an honorary mention, because I think it’s a lot smarter then it gets credit for…)

1989 – Do The Right Thing

Probably Spike Lee’s only repeat viewer, this one distinguishes itself by effectively delivering a feeling of tragic inevitability to the events that unfold.
Although Lee used to get criticised a lot for making racist films, I always remembered this movie as being quite even-handed.
Later Lee films would tend towards the African American view, but with this movie, each group is shown to be flawed and responsible for the state of play.
Danny Aiello, as always, is awesome.
Of course, if Jack Nicholson’s performance hadn’t started to wind me up, down through the years, “Batman” would have nailed this. Also, Michael Keaton makes an ideal Bruce Wayne, but a slightly clunky Batman.

1990 – Edward Scissorhands

This was a tough one for me. Goodfellas is undeniably a cooler film, and “Miller’s Crossing” an awful lot better. But Burton’s fable came along at the right time for me, and I must have seen it about four or five times, by myself, at the little cinema round the corner when I lived in Sleaford. It was also the first real sign that if Burton thought it in that odd head of his, he could put it on the screen.
Oh dear, did I have a boy-crush on Johnny Depp. Of course, it’s all gone now…

1991 – The Last Boy Scout

This was a tough year. Two often overlooked Bruce Willis classics, the best of all Trek movies, a great Gilliam, two great Oliver Stones, the great “Boyz N The Hood” and “Ricochet”, a perfect, tight little action-thriller, with overclocked performances from Denzel Washington and John Lithgow.
“The Last Boy Scout” takes it, though, for being the best Die Hard movie, despite it not being a Die Hard movie at all, and for having my all time favourite car-bomb in it. Solid script, great action.

1992 – Sneakers

It could have been “Batman Returns”, which I preferred to it’s predecessor. It could have easily been “Deep Cover”, if it hadn’t been years since I saw it, or “Hard Boiled” or “The Player”.
It probably wasn’t going to be “The Mighty Ducks” or “Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot”.
“Sneakers” wins because even if it wasn’t a peculiar yet successful mix of espionage and funny high-jinks – even if it didn’t have an incredible cast giving fizzy performances, and a brilliant script – even if it wasn’t for those things, the final scene always brings out a soft part inside me, and gets a big old smile.

1993 – Naked

I agree with Rol about “True Romance”, and it could have been my ’93 film. As could “Benny And Joon”, a film that could have been cheesy, or could have been too quirky and cute, but for it’s unwillingness to flinch from letting Mary Stuart Masterson’s performance as Joon be as real and harrowing as it is, and it’s refusal to do a Hollywood number on Depp’s Benny – he is never more then a whimsically blank fellow, with no explanation or motivation ever asked for or given for his behaviour.

But Thewlis’ ferocity in Naked scared me, at the same time as I found myself agreeing with him when Leigh wanted me to, and identifying with him in his failings when Leigh wanted me to, and that is masterful film right there. Leigh has been pulled up on the perceived exploitation of the common man in his other, milder films, but this film doesn’t pretend to be anything other then harsh and cruel, and it works.

Is Thewlis still with Anna Friel? If he is, the film gets points for that, too…

1994 – The Hudsucker Proxy

A tough year for me, regardless of Rol’s insistence that it was a cinematic anus horribilis. It actually pains me to leave “The Shawshank Redemption”, “Leon”, “The Paper” and “Ed Wood” off the top spot. Any other year, “The Crow” would have got a look in, as Proyas showed us for the first time what it should look like, seeing a superhuman figure running across rooftops.
But the Coen brothers did such a good job of making “Hudsucker” both sardonic and whimsical, with such a charming cast, that it has to go in here.
It’s a beautiful looking film, too.

Righto. That’s your ten [edit - actually, no, it's not. There's your eleven]. At this point, I’m, what, 21 years old? Ah, heady days. No longer a virgin. First proper heartbreak – the ones where you didn’t sleep with them don’t count, I have decided, so Jess of the Sixth Form, you don’t count. It’s better that way. The year of slacking off, and living with crusties. Whatever next, for our young hero?