And now to the last year I was an only child. This one was too tough, there were some cuts, but they were a bit easy to make. This is the year that Leatherface returned to rev his chainsaw at audiences and Star Trek saw its biggest hit of the franchise until AbramsTrek happened.
Here's the 'Best Picture' breakdown, of course
WINNER - Platoon
Children Of A Lesser God
Hannah And Her Sisters
The Mission
A Room With A View
And now my 6 faves
Aliens
Hell of a sequel! There is a good number of folks who even prefer this to the original. While, I'm not one of them, I do indeed love this movie and consider one of the best sequels of all time. The key thing with Cameron's second take is that while it takes a different approach than the first one, he manages to keep in tone and spirit with Ridley Scott's original Sigourney Weaver brought her A-game and was even nominated for an Oscar for her performance in this. Its one of the best action movies of the whole decade here too, as it crafts together the Colonial Marines (a bunch of fun, lovable one-liner, one-note stereotypes) to fight a mass amount of xenomorphs.
John Carpenter's Big Trouble In Little China
If you have no sense of fun with your movies, or enjoy fantastical things...you probably don't care much for this movie. But, I say "lighten up!" as this movie is a heck of an enjoyable little action romp. Kurt Russell as Jack Burton is the ultimate satire on the badass action hero that consumed the 80s. He's having a blast in this thing and its quite infectious. I also swear up and down that this movie was the inspiration for Mortal Kombat. Look at some of the characters here and tell me Shang Tsung, Goro, Raiden and other things didn't come from this movie. This is a crazy and out there action movie, but that's what is unique about it and its so much fun to join in on the fun.
Blue Velvet
This is one of David Lynch's more easily accessible films, but still one of his very best. This modern noir picture follows Kyle MacLachlan as he discovers an ear and tries to find where it came from. The film is crazy weird and sexual making it a tense discomforting trip to get through and I love every second of it. Plus, once you see Dennis Hopper in this movie, you'll never be able UN-SEE Dennis Hopper in this movie. Its a really big and "all in" performance that will make you laugh and frighten you all at the same time. Also credit Isabella Rossalini for a very strange and committed performance herself. This might be the best...if you could call it "mystery" movies of the 80s.
Cobra
Yes, we talked about this one recently, too! LINK
Jason Lives: Friday The 13th Part VI
And if you see 2 Friday the 13ths, see this one. You know what, some may enjoy this more than 4, and I won't argue that. This one is a satirical romp that manages to maintain its integrity as a horror film and also reinvent Jason Voorhees into the pantheon of a more classical movie monster. Its a movie that will have you laughing and it will have you saying "Ouch!". Once again we are treated to a rather rock solid cast of youths that you enjoy spending time with and feel bad for when they die. This is a fun film that hits high marks in horror, comedy and action. It also features TV's Horshack!
Manhunter
This isn't the film that put Hannibal Lector on the map, but I'm not sure if audiences were ready for this film at the time of its release. Michael Mann's take on Red Dragon is a heavy stylized piece that seems very ahead of its time. Looking back, it is clearly the second best feature to have the character of Hannibal Lector, it just wasn't appreciated or respected at the time. The film was kind of hidden for a long time as nobody really gave it any recognition or credit during the wave of success of Silence Of The Lambs and Hannibal. Its almost like they didn't want people to know this film existed or to keep it on more of an underground level. Its a damn fine film as you'll see if you give it a chance. This is definitely the candidate for the 1986 film that wasn't appreciated at the time as it would come to be years later.
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