GHOSTBUSTERS (1984), BEVERLY HILLS COP (1984)

What were the top five box office movies for each year of the 80's? Which ones were my favorites? Which were my least favorites? I'm not sure...I'll have to think about it. And without any further ado...

80's top box office month: (1984)

And the top 5 box office movies for 1984 are...

1. Beverly Hills Cop

2. Ghostbusters
3. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
4. Gremlins
5. The Karate Kid

The Karate Kid

Least Favorite Movie from the top 5: The Karate Kid. I've got to confess, I've only seen clips of The Karate Kid. I just never worked up any enthusiasm for seeing this. But what else am I going to pick from this list? Temple of Doom isn't nearly as bad as some make it out to be and it doesn't feel right to pick Gremlins...I think I'll just move on to the top two and I got lucky for this year in that the top two movies for the year are also 1001 book entries.

Ray, Venkman and Egon prepare to do battle in Ghostbusters

Favorite movie from the top 5: Ghostbusters I admit the first time I saw Ghostbusters, I had a hard time getting in to it at first. I mean a bunch of guys start a business where they go around New York and catch ghosts like exterminators? What? But when I took a breath and took it in, I began to enjoy it. Bill Murray was damn funny. So were Rick Moranis and  the Sta-Puft marshmellow man.  It's Ghostbusters. Just enjoy it.

The four Ghostbusters battle the Sta-Puft Marshmellow Man

Beverly Hills Cop

The top box office movie of the 1984 was Beverly Hills Cop. Few movies are more representative of the 80's for me than this one, from the music (The Pointer Sisters, Glenn Frey etc.) to the shootouts, to the just enough plot to let star Eddie Murphy do his schtick, which is really what the movie is all about. He's funny, but at the same time, he's as badass a cop as Shaft or Superfly.

I always heard that this was originally supposed to be a Sylvester Stallone vehicle. I can't even imagine what that would have been like. I'm sure the Lisa Eilbacher character (No one had better 80's hair than Lisa Eilbacher in this movie!) would have been "the girlfriend" if Stallone had been in it. But I guess the producers figured that a romance between the blonde and the black guy would have pushed the envelope a little much for what was certain to be a hit.

Lisa Eilbacher and Eddie Murphy stay platonic in Beverly Hills Cop

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THE BIG CHILL (1983), THE RIGHT STUFF (1983)

What were the top five box office movies for each year of the 80's? Which ones were my favorites? Which were my least favorites? I'm not sure...I'll have to think about it. And without any further ado...

80's top box office month : 1983

And the top 5 box office movies for 1983 were...

1. Return of the Jedi
2. Terms of Endearment
3. Flashdance
4. Trading Places
5. War Games

Favorite movie from the top 5: Return of the Jedi. Hard for me to choose between Return of the Jedi, Terms of Endearment and Trading Places. You have a science fiction movie, a family drama and a comedy. Apple vs. Oranges vs. Avocados. But since Jedi is my favorite of the Star Wars trilogy, I'm going with that one. However, if we are talking about the updated version of Jedi where the apparitions at the end of the film are Yoda, Obi Wan and the young Anakin from the second trilogy!!, I'm choosing Terms of Endearment just for spite.

Return of the Jedi (Acceptable ending)

Return of the Jedi (Unacceptable ending)

Least favorite movie from the top 5: War Games. I'd rate the battle for last of the top five as a toss-up between War Games and Flashdance. I always thought War Games was overrated when it became a hit. It's not bad, but I was never really wild about it. Maybe I just need to see it again, though I don't have much of a desire to do so. Flashdance was a popular movie that is pretty easy to make fun of. The screenplay for Flashdance was written by Joe Eszterhas. And since I recently enjoyed his book The Devil's Guide to Hollywood: The Screenwriter as God, I can't put his movie at the bottom. I know that isn't the best reasoning, but sorry War Games, you lose!

War Games

The Big Chill #13

The funny thing about a 1983 movie where thirtysomethings talking about the days of 1968 and Civil Rights, Vietnam and student protest is trying to imagine these same thirtysomethings in 2014 talking about 1999, since it is the mathematical equivalent. What would they talk about in this 2014 updating? The dot com crash? Y2K?

The Big Chill may be best viewed alongside of the similarly themed (and earlier) The Return of the Secaucus Seven.

The Right Stuff #33

I had to think a bit about my favorite movie of 1983 from the top 5 at the box office, but I won't hedge on naming The Right Stuff as my favorite film from that year. Of course, growing up in an age where the Mercury and Apollo astronauts were revered definitely puts a bias in me from the beginning. Tom Wolfe's book strongly emphasizes the Cold War aspect of the story of the Mercury Seven (and Chuck Yeager). The film stresses that too, but the individuality of the characters and the heroism of their mission is what comes through to me and puts it at the top of my 1983 list. And when Chuck Yeager emerges from the wreckage of a burning plane at the end of the movie, well, how can you not feel the testosterone drip off the screen? 

But why is this award winning classic only at number #33 for the year? I looked at the movies on the box office list for that year directly ahead of The Right Stuff and they include: Porky's II: The Next Day (a forgettable teen sex comedy), Spring Break (a forgettable teen sex comedy), Class (a forgettable teen sex comedy) and My Tutor (which is a forgettable teen...you know). 

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E. T. (1982), TOOTSIE (1982)

What were the top five box office movies for each year of the 80's? Which ones were my favorites? Which were my least favorites? I'm not sure...I'll have to think about it. And without any further ado...

80's Top Box Office Month: 1982

And the top 5 box office movies for 1982 were...

1. E. T.
2. Tootsie
3. An Officer and a Gentleman
4. Rocky III
5. Porky's

Least favorite of the Top 5: 3-way tie between An Officer and a Gentleman, Rocky III and Porky's. I'm completely copping out on this one. The #3 through #5 movies of this year have positives and negatives.

Anyway, it's a three way tie for the bottom (or runner-up depending on you outlook)

Rocky III has more of the standard good Rocky fight scenes, the emergence of Mr. T as Clubber Lang and the interesting twist of Rocky and Apollo Creed becoming allies. It's okay, but not nearly as good as the first one. On the other hand, it's not nearly as bad as Rocky IV.

Rocky III

An Officer and a Gentleman has a winning romantic combination in Richard Gere and Debra Winger, a nice theme song and a memorable ending. It's also pretty emotionally manipulative and fairly predictable.

An Officer and a Gentleman

Porky's is a movie that I'm sure I liked better when I was a teenager than I would like now. It is pretty juvenile and relies heavily on juvenile humor of giving its characters names in accordance with their manhood (like Meat and Pee Wee.)  Hee Hee. It's a little funny at that.

Porky's

Favorite of the top 5: (tie) Tootsie and E. T. I figured since I copped out on the least favorite, I'd cop out on the favorites too. But how can you choose between Dustin Hoffman in drag in one of the best comedies of the 80's and the icon alien adventure E. T.? 

Well, I can't, though the Academy bypassed both for Gandhi that year, but that's another story.

Note to self: Be more decisive in the future about what you like and don't like.

Tootsie

E. T. The Extra-Terrestrial

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BODY HEAT (1981), REDS (1981)

What were the top five box office movies for each year of the 80's? Which were my favorites? Which were my least favorites? I'm not sure...I'll have to think about it. And without any further ado...

80's Top Box Office Month: (1981)

And the top 5 box office movies for 1981 were...

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark

2. On Golden Pond

3. Superman II

4. Arthur

5. Stripes

Favorite of the top 5: Superman II. The second Christopher Reeve Superman movie is probably still my favorite of any superhero movie. It may be a combination of the time it came out and the superhero movie coming into its own. If I had been ten years older or younger, I probably wouldn't pick Superman II from this list. It is what it is. But really how can you beat Terrence Stamp as Zod for a bad guy?

Superman II

Least favorite of the top 5: The last half-hour of Stripes. I like all the top five movies on this list, so it is hard to put one on the bottom. However, though I haven't seen Stripes in years, I do remember the movie peeked during the scene where Bill Murray finishes his basic training with Murray's famous, "Army training sir!"line. And that should have been the end of the movie! But it goes on and they are transporting nuclear weapons or driving around in an Urban Assault Vehicle or something...it really brings the movie down a notch for me, though I still like it and it does have the forever lovely P. J. Soles as the leading lady. But I would have just lopped off the last thirty minutes and gone with a shorter movie.

Stripes

The only 1001 movie from this list is Raiders of the Lost Ark and I've already done a blog on that. So once again, I'm going to have to dig deeper into the list.

Body Heat #33

I was actually a little surprised that Body Heat was only #33 on the box office list for the year as I remember it as being pretty big at the time. It harkens back to film noir as well as any movie from the 80's could, yet updates it with twists and turns that would have never gotten anywhere near the sensors of that earlier time. The plot is full of surprises if you haven't seen it before and Kathleen Turner  is on the short list of hottest film fatales of all-time.

Reds #13

Coming in at #13 is Reds, Warren Beatty's epic story of socialist/anarchist John Reed. I confess to never feeling in the mood to watch this movie before, but now that I've seen it, it does possess the grand sweep that a good epic should possess. At the core of this film is the love story between Reed and Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton). I don't think it's in the Lawrence of Arabia great film category, but it's a worthwhile effort and involving despite the very long running time. 

My favorite part of the movie was the running commentaries and interview excerpts from actual people that actually knew John Reed.

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DRESSED TO KILL (1980), THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980)

What were the top five box office movies for each year of the 80's? Which ones were my favorites? Which were my least favorites? I'm not sure...I'll have to think about it. And without any further ado...

80's Top Box Office Month: (1980)

And the top 5 box office movies for 1980 were...

1. The Empire Strikes Back

2. 9 to 5

3. Stir Crazy

4. Airplane!

5. Any Which Way You Can

Favorite of the top 5: Airplane! Silly in spots and often imitated, Airplane! gets the nod only partly because it is the movie I have quoted the most over the years. Of course, whenever I say "I take my coffee black, like my men," I always make sure to explain the context.

Airplane!

Least favorite of the top 5: 9 to 5. Perhaps I always read this movie wrong, but I actually sympathized with the Dabney Coleman "boss" character when these women took their revenge on him. I'm pretty sure this wasn't the filmmaker's intent.

Nine to Five

Also from 1980: The only two 1001 movies from this list are The Empire Strikes Back and Airplane!. I've already done blogs on them. So I've had to go down deeper on the box office list to find anything.

The Elephant Man #25

Coming in at #25 for the year is the critically acclaimed film, The Elephant Man.

I first heard of The Elephant Man when his story was recounted in a chapter of The book Very Special People by Frederick Drimmer. Drimmer included a chapter written by Dr. Frederick Treves about his horribly deformed patient named John Merrick. 

A couple of years later, I saw the stage version of The Elephant Man, where there is no special makeup for the actor playing Merrick. The audience just had to use it's imagination with the help of the actor playing the part to picture Merrick's aliment.

The movie version of The Elephant Man I saw  at the theater when it first came out and haven't seen since. Watching it again, it strikes me as a very moving piece and succeeds in showing the humanity underneath Merrick's affliction. He comes across as a most noble sort and we root for him to find a shred of happiness in what has been a very bleak existence. 

The question that arises for me in watching the mistreatment of Merrick is...why do we do it? Why do we torture and mock the afflicted and abuse. Why do we do it?

Dressed to Kill #21

At number #21 for the year 1980, we have Dressed to Kill. I actually had to go off the list for this one, but it was one of my favorite movies when I saw it in the Summer of 1980. Even then, it appeared like a reworking of many of the themes of Psycho, but I was willing to overlook that as it was still pretty provocative, well done and suspenseful.

Seeing it again, I still liked it. De Palma certainly knows how to build suspense well, and you may want to check it out if you like the genre or De Palma's other movies. Or if you just want to see Angie Dickinson (actually her body double) naked.

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LIFE, LOVE AND LAUGHTER (1923, GREAT BRITAIN)

Image Credit: British Film Institute via Silent London

 Today's guest blog post is from Spencer Blohm

Film buffs everywhere always have one film they’ve been waiting an eternity to see. For some films, it seems like no matter how hard you sleuth and search, there are no screenings, no DVDs, Blu-Rays, or even VHS tapes available. Perhaps the location of any existing prints of the film isn’t even known, and it’s simply lost to the ages.

For the British Film Institute, on the top of that list was George Pearson’s 1923 silent film Life, Love and Laughter, which, until recently, was believed to have been lost or destroyed. The only reason the BFI even knew the film existed was thanks to six production stills, a campaign booklet, and a publicity leaflet which were distributed to promote the film.

As luck would have it, the Dutch film institute EYE received a shipment of old film tins in November 2012 from a small cinema in rural Holland, which had only been open from 1929 to 1931. Earlier this year, workers at EYE finally began to sift through this shipment and stumbled upon a copy of Life, Love and Laughter. A call to the BFI confirmed that they had found the second of only two Pearson films known to still exist.

The film is noteworthy in many ways, making the find all that better. For one, it’s a full length film, something almost unheard of in the silent film era. The period during which it was created saw more silent filmmakers expanding their format into full length films, and this happened to be one of them. It’s also the film which is largely credited with launching the career of its star, Betty Balfour. Balfour was England’s answer to Mary Pickford in the 20s, who collaborated with Pearson on many films which earned her the nickname “Queen of Happiness” for the perpetual optimism she injected into her characters.

In this particular film Balfour plays Tip Toes, a down on her luck chorus girl who dreams of one day stepping into the spotlight on the main stage. She meets a young man (played by Harry Jonas) who has similarly large ambitions, except his consist of being a famous writer. The two plan to meet up two years later in order to see if either had been able to make it bit. The film served mainly as a unbeat story to comfort a nation shaken by World War I.

The film was both a critical and commercial hit, which is exactly why it was still being screened in the Netherlands six years later. The Daily Telegraph said the film was "destined in all probability to take its place among the screen classics" and the Manchester Guardian called it “spectacular at times, lit and photographed with a beauty to dream of” –a compliment which came courtesy of cinematographer Percy Strong.

While the film currently remains in the Netherlands, the BFI is hoping to obtain a copy so they can translate the Dutch title cards into English and host screenings of the notorious film. Next on BFI’s list of “Most Wanted” is another film by Pearson starring Balfour called Réveille, a film about British life during World War I.

About the Author: Spencer Blohm is a freelance entertainment, film, and pop culture blogger for DirectTelevisionSpecials.org 
While he can’t claim to be the biggest silent film buff, he’s willing to make an exception for this missing piece of film history. He lives and works in Chicago, where he’s been known to catch a talkie or two from time to time.

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THE NATURAL (1984), BULL DURHAM (1987), FIELD OF DREAMS (1989)

Since I'm taking a break from the 1001 blog this month, my friend Droppo3000, the writer of the new Atlanta Braves baseball blog http://atlantabraves19701980.blogspot.com/ and one of the biggest baseball fans I know has asked if he could look at some baseball movies for me. Very nice of him to give me a break. And without further ado, here's Droppo!

___ ___ ___

Thanks, Chris. I certainly love baseball movies, especially old school baseball movies. I was going to look at my all-time favorite, The Bad News Bears, but my old stick in the mud friend says that I need to stick with the ones from some list he's doing. Well, that's all right, I see three listed that I'll be happy to re-watch.

The Natural

The first one is The Natural. I'm not going to lie to you. The first time I saw this movie at the theater I was really..."under the influence of an illegal substance that is ingested orally but seems to have gained a certain recent acceptance in the state of Colorado." That was all right though. The Natural had a certain dream-like feel to it that seemed appropriate to the state of mind I was in at the time. It will be interesting to see it now.

I still can't shake that dreamlike feel I get even after viewing today. That feeling is part of baseball's mystique. This movie could never be about football. It has to be about dreams, redemption and second chances. The music thundering, the ball slamming off the Wonderboy Bat-smashing lights, clocks or nearly decapitating a sportswriter. What exactly happened to Roy Hobbs before he made his comeback? Eh, you fill in the blanks, it isn't what matters here. Accept the mythology, accept the movie.

Bull Durham

The next one on the list is Bull Durham. The church of baseball-It says it in that narration right off the bat. This movie also relies on its own baseball mythology. But it's not a poetic dream (even if you are being read Walt Whitman while you're tied up). It's superstition, it's disappointment, it's low wages, it's hard working class hard knocks and it's everyone living their dream. It's the minor leagues done right by Ron Shelton, someone who lived and breathed minor league baseball during his playing days and shows it for all of baseball's fun and hardships (mostly fun for the audience). Kevin Costner and Tim Robbins play the veteran catcher/goofball-hotshot- young pitcher combo very well. And who wouldn't want to be in the minors if you get chosen for the season by minor league baseball tart, Susan Sarandon?

Field of Dreams

The last one on the list is Field of Dreams. This is closer and probably even goes further than  the mythological baseball dreamworld of The Natural. Sappy, romanticized and illogical...and I love it! I wonder how they figured this one would ever work on the screen? "I mean it's man moves to Iowa with his family and voices tell him to build a baseball field over his crop with the help of a guy who is like the guy that wrote Catcher in the Rye and the ghost of Burt Lancaster." Wow! What an odd synopsis. Only it works. And I won't lie to you, I got more than a little misty when Kevin Costner starts to play catch with his dad!


And for good measure, here's a list of 10 other baseball movies I have an attachment to.

1. The Pride of the Yankees-Certainly a baseball classic with Gary Cooper as the ill-fated baseball legend Lou Gehrig. But the scene where Babe Ruth promises the kid he'd hit a homer and Lou Gehrig trumps him by promising the kid he'd hit two always bothered me. At least, Babe got to play himself.

2. The Babe Ruth Story-Not that well received of a film, and William Bendix playing the teenaged Babe Ruth was pretty ridiculous, but I admit that I still like this sanitized biographical story of the Bambino. So sue me.

3. It Happens Every Spring-Ray Milland plays a scientist who invents a fluid that repels wood. So it's natural that if you dip a baseball with it, they can't hit it. I seem to remember a lot of scenes where a batter would swing at a pitch and the ball would jump over his bat and he would stare back in bug-eyed disbelief. I also remember that Alan "the Skipper" Hale Jr. had a small role as a catcher.

4. Rhubarb-Ray Milland (his generation's version of Kevin Costner, it would seem) in a story about a cat named Rhubarb who owns a baseball team. Or maybe he inherited a baseball team. I remember the movie had a dramatic rain delay scene. Or something like that. Look, I haven't seen the thing in forty years, I can't remember the details. Did I mention that Ray Milland was the 40's version of Kevin Costner?

5. The Pride of St. Louis-Legendary pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander overcomes his drinking problem to get out the Yankees in the 1926 World Series...No, wait. That's Ronald Reagan in The Winning Team. The Pride of St. Louis has Dan Dailey playing the great ole St. Louie pitcher Dizzy Dean, who becomes a broadcaster after his playing career is over and keeps saying "ain't" and "slud into third" during broadcasts and his improper use of English makes the local teachers want him off the air so the kids won't say things like "ain't" or "slud into third!" The teachers do change their minds, and Ole Diz eventually gets his own charcoal brand.

6. Fear Strikes Out-Anthony Perkins plays mentally unstable ballplayer Jim Peirsall. The most famous scene is Perkins climbing the backstop. The fact that Perkins throws like a girl is a bit troubling.

7. Damn Yankees-The movie version of the Broadway musical featuring Ray Walston as the Devil. I have seen this on stage with Dick Van Dyke as the devil. The team Joe Hardy plays for in the movie and I'm guessing during the original Broadway run was The Washington Senators. Since there were no Washington Senators after 1971, some stage versions feel the need to switch the thing to the Cleveland Indians. But I'm old school, so I'd certainly want to keep any production I see as the Washington Senators.

8. Bang the Drum Slowly-Pretty cool to see Robert De Niro as a young, hick baseball player. Also, pretty depressing to see Robert De Niro as a young, hick, terminally ill baseball player. It's sad, but has something to say about unlikely friendships and coming through for your mates. (Sorry if that sounds cornball, as Michael Moriarty's character from the movie says about the song The Streets of Laredo). And don't call it a baseball version of Brian's Song or I'll have to throw you one high and inside.

9. The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings-Enjoyable comedic look at a barnstorming black baseball team from the 40's. The film stars Richard Pryor, Billy Dee Williams and most importantly James Earl Jones, because when he later says "People will come, Ray" in Field of Dreams, Bingo Long has long before established his baseball chops.

10.The Bad News Bears-Got to mention my favorite baseball movie of all and it's not just because I had a teenage crush on Tatum O'Neal. A team of underachiever kid ball players making a great comeback in their season really hadn't been done before. It's been done about 1,000 times since.

That's all I got, Chris. Thanks for letting me have my say.

droppo3000 http://atlantabraves19701980.blogspot.com/

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