Category: Comedy

#680 Brewster’s Millions (1985)

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One of the many filmatizations of the 1902 novel of the same name by George Barr McCutcheon, Brewster’s Millions tells a tale of a baseball journeyman who gets to inherit a cool 300 million dollars on the condition that he first spends 30 million in a month which – of course – turns out to be harder than anticipated.

Despite the obvious plot holes (it just kills me he doesn’t hire more people, throw around multiple parties across the town or duplicate any of his successful money spending schemes) Brewster’s Millions plays just like an 80s comedy should and it makes for a entertaining watch. For Richard Pryor this is definitely one of his better movies of the era, and there’s a good deal of chemistry between him and John Candy.

80s-o-meter: 88%

Total: 84%

#679 Intruder aka Night Crew: The Final Checkout (1989)

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A serial killer starts whacking off the nightshift staff in Intruder, a low budget slasher.

The movie is most famous for its ultra violent kills, that clearly surpass the movie’s budget. There’s no plot to speak of, but the overall setting is above your average slasher and although shoddy at times, the movie is not stuffy like most of its early 80s counterparts.

Although the movie is categorised as a horror movie, Intruder never takes itself that seriously and every gory kill and the following aftermath scene is done very much tongue in cheek.

Sam Raimi visits the movie a supermarket clerk and Bruce Campbell also makes a quick appearance towards the end of the film.

80s-o-meter: 85%

Total: 71%

#678 The Hotel New Hampshire (1984)

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Based on John Irving’s 1981 novel of the same name, The Hotel New Hampshire is an artsy tale of a family put through tons of random events none of which don’t either seem to make sense or affect the family that much: Random events follow one after another and the end result feels like every time the writer started a new chapter he got immediately bored with the weak and uninteresting choice of events and then tried something completely new with a throw of a dice.

The characters don’t seem to be affected by the events either in any realistic fashion, and by the half way through the movie I couldn’t be any less bothered what happened to them next.

Neesless to say, this is not a good thing in a movie.

The pacing of the movie feels like everything in the book has been tried to cram in here, and there are even clumsy scenes with speeded up playback for that humoristic effect.

80s-o-meter: 20%

Total: 4%

#676 In God We Tru$t (1980)

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Straight out of Mel Brooks’ school of comedy comes out In God We Tru$t, a Marty Feldman’s solo project that he both wrote, directed and plays the lead role in.

The overall feeling of the movie is very mid-70s both in its gags and the cinematography. In other words, stuffy. The movie aims its taunt at the TV evangelists who monetise on the religion. Andy Kaufman is seen in the role of Armageddon T. Thunderbird, but instead of en evangelist, he seems to play himself in a silly wig instead.

There are funny gags here, some of which are genuinely original as well. But those few chuckle worthy moments simply don’t make a good movie.

80s-o-meter: 27%

Total: 42%

#673 Fright Night Part 2 (1988)

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The big success calls for the inevitable sequel, so enter Fright Night Part 2.

The sequels rarely perform better than the original, usually either offering more of the same, or taking the franchise to a weaker direction. This is the case here as well.

Part 2 continues four years after the events in the original movie. In a hilarious theme that follows the movie through its running time Charley (William Ragsdale) has been going to a therapy sessions where he has been convinced that vampires don’t really exist. This all changes when a juvenile group of vampires appears to haunt him.

This group doesn’t really cut it as a memorable antagonist, bringing down every encounter and the eventual showdown with the enemy quite a notch. Mood wise the movie still gets it quite right, and the few effects there are, are quite inventive.

80s-o-meter: 92%

Total: 80%

#672 Fright Night (1985)

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A surprise vampire hit of the 1985, Fright Night gathered a strong following when it was first released and it still enjoys something of a cult status.

It’s a fun movie with an excellent execution, and while the plot isn’t anything to write to home about, Fright Night more than compensates it all with its superb mood and great special effects.

The performances are solid. The cowardous TV vampire killer has-been played by Roddy McDowall is a memorable hero against his own will, and Stephen Geoffreys is simply hilarious as the geeky oddball friend turned into a vampire.

Fright Night’s reputation has preceded it, and as good as it is, it’s not quite epic enough to get the label of being the best horror comedy of the 80s. But it’s close.

80s-o-meter: 94%

Total: 90%

#671 The Stunt Man (1980)

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Although this blog is all about movies of the 80s, I do have to admit many of the early films of the era don’t tickle my fancy too much as their roots are clearly more in the seventies than the eighties. Same pretty much goes for this one; it has that poor seventies movie making style written all over it.

The Stunt Man tells a story about a fugitive at large who gets hired by a director who is making what seems like the worst movie ever about WW2. Far too long scenes about making the movie are meant to be an impressive look behind the magic of making movies, but in 2017, there’s really nothing here that’d astonish anyone.

While the original movie-within-a-movie idea with the director and the stunt man playing mind games is somewhat fresh, it’s the overall poor execution here that renders it all very tedious and tiresome to watch.

80s-o-meter: 0%

Total: 32%

#670 Eating Raoul (1982)

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Shot on leftover reels on a shoelace budget, Eating Raoul is truly one of the greatest among indie movies. The script is naturally pretty sharp, but the biggest surprise is how professional they managed to make it all look and feel – I had no idea of the budget restrictions until I dug deeper into the subject after watching the movie.

80s-o-meter: 80%

Total: 78%

#669 Burglar (1987)

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If a computer AI was fed a few parameters like genre and actors, and asked to compose a feature film using some existing movie footage as the input data, the end result would be pretty close to Burglar: Somehow familiar and recognisable as an actual movie, but somehow eerily off in a weird way you couldn’t never really put your finger on it.

What we have here is a collection of characters that all seem somehow lost or out of place in the movie. There’s G.W. Bailey and Bobcat Goldthwait on a lease from the Police Academy series, both still in character, Lesley Ann Warren straight out of the Clue mansion, John Goodman rocking a fake moustache and of course Whoopi Goldberg who seems the most distracted waving the guns around, making a public scene to distract the guards like a female version of Eddie Murphy and delivering snappy one-liners like ‘I gotta stop doing this shit’.

Burglar is a case of typecasting the actors and then violently hammering them into molds that don’t allow the actors neither to do their thing nor to show any versatility. It’s a strong cast with many thespians that could’ve fully supported a movie of their own, all of them wasted with this mediocrity.

What a pity.

80s-o-meter: 88%

Total: 52%

#668 Johnny Dangerously (1984)

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A crazy comedy in the vein of Airplane and Top Secret, Johnny Dangerously is a little known box office failure that gets a pretty good amount of chuckles out of its absurd comedy style.

Starring Michael Keaton, the comedy is a far cry from his best ones like Gung-Ho that followed this movie – and quite honestly, if you liked his work elsewhere, having him starring here isn’t a good enough reason to bother watching this one.

But instead, if you’ve already seen Police Squad, UHF and Airplane more times you care to count, Johnny Dangerously could well be your ticket to spend 90 silly minutes.

80s-o-meter: 43%

Total: 76%

#666 National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)

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For those not familiar with National Lampoon, it was a humour magazine that ran from the seventies to the beginning of the 90s, and ventured successfully into movies in the late 70s with the hugely popular Animal House. Vacation, starring Chevy Chase, another Saturday Night Live actor was their second big success.

(with this history lesson out of the way, it’s worthwhile to note that the hugely popular Mad Magazine tried the very same thing, inspired by National Lampoon, only to crash and burn spectacularly)

It’s been a while since I last time saw the movie, but luckily it was just as funny as I remembered. What I didn’t remember was all the raunchiness, tits and black comedy elements. Mind you, it isn’t anything X-rated, but still lewd enough to safely say a saturday afternoon whole family movie this isn’t.

National Lampoon’s Vacation is a milestone in 80s comedies that inspires many other comedies still to date.

80s-o-meter: 94%

Total: 95%

#665 Soul Man (1986)

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Oh dear, this will be a hard one to review.

Let’s get the most obvious out of the way: The idea of building a comedy on the premise of masquerading a white dude to resemble an Afro-American is an idiotic one. Good news is that Soul Man totally acknowledges this and makes its best effort to keep things politically correct and instead pokes fun of the double standards and the prejudice of the society.

The best news is that it’s actually a pretty good comedy despite the controversial theme best enjoyable and not nearly as awkward to watch as the synopsis suggests.

The biggest problem with the movie is that despite the snappy and accurate social commentary (like the rich chic who refuses to see colours, only shades of grey), the issues it raises are so profound it can never really address them.

80s-o-meter: 87%

Total: 72%

#664 The Survivors (1983)

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The Survivors is a comedy in two acts. In the first act we’re presented with two very different kind of gentlemen, joined together by inadvertently stopping a heist. The plot tightens when the robber returns to make sure there aren’t any eyewitnesses to send him behind the bars permanently.

This is the part of the movie that works as it is.

The second part begins when Donald (Robin Williams) joins a survivalist camp in the wilderness. While the new theme itself is an interesting and unconventional one, the tone of the movie now seems to have unfortunately changed to a less confident one: More confused and needy for laughs with a lot of more nonsense hereon to get the chuckles from the audience.

Williams’ trademark over-the-top act works here and Walter Matthau provides a quaranteed snicker with every laconic line he deliveres.

80s-o-meter: 75%

Total: 65%

#663 Born in East L.A. (1987)

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It’s obvious that Cheech Marin is a very funny guy and the kind of person that’d have you choking on your beer if he sat at your table in a pub. While it’s the kind of talent that doesn’t necessarily translate well to the silver screen, thanks to Marin’s goofy, lovable way of delivering the lines he manages to pull it off movie after movie.

Born in East L.A. is Marin’s first solo project after parting ways with Tommy Chong, and compared to the awful The Corsican Brothers, the decision seems like a good one. The story of an US born citizen of Mexican heritage getting deported to Tijuana by immigration agents is definitely a delicious one. The overall experience is enjoyable, but there are certainly a lot of unnecessary, loose plot ends here that could’ve used some streamlining (read: leaving on the cutting room floor), like the clueless Mexican cousin wandering around back in LA.

Born in East L.A. is a one man show that will most likely please most of his fans, and the movie doesn’t feel badly dated, thanks to the immigration theme that is these days even more topical now than back then.

80s-o-meter: 85%

Total: 72%

#661 Joysticks (1983)

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Joysticks is a movie about arcade games – but it could’ve been just as well about fidget spinners, had they been the rage at the time. The theme of the movie was selected simply to lure in teens.

And a teens movie it is in all accounts.

If you’ve seen another early 80s sex comedy like Porky’s, you know what to expect here: Tits, sexual innuendo and juvenile humour are aplenty. The movie’s vision of an arcade is a studio like warehouse with half naked teens dancing around in front of cabinets, and the jokes mostly consist of someone farting or dressing up like women.

80s-o-meter: 74%

Total: 17%

#660 Risky Business (1983)

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An erotic drama thriller, sparkled sparingly with some comedy bits, Risky Business

The dreamlike soundtrack by Tangerine Dream not only compliments the dream like sequences sen on the screen, but really takes the scenes up a level or two. If this wasn’t enough, the movie pinnacles in Phil Collins’ in the air tonight,

Risky Business is a tight, powerful youth movie that leaves most of its competition miles behind and one that loses its tight focus only with its needlessly comedic ending. Until then Risky Business is a xxx, yyy and a final proof that young Thomas Cruise Mapother IV can carry a full length feature film with ease.

80s-o-meter: 90%

Total: 80%

#659 Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

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Based on the off-Broadway musical comedy, which is based on the 1960 film of the same name, Little Shop of Horrors is a delightful little black comedy horror musical. That’s a mouthful.

Musicals, especially the movie adaptations are far more often misses than hits, but similarly to the musicals on stage, the movie adaptations really gain from having big and strong production quality to them. Little Shop of Horrors gets this part right; the pseudo 1950s American city streets build into a massive studio work well as a magical, movie-like backdrop to the scenes, and the (funny) musical numbers as composed, arranged and performed with exceptional professionalism.

The same goes for the antagonist plant. Its lifelikeness is exceptional, and it just might be the best animated puppet even seen on the silver screen.

80s-o-meter: 68%

Total: 82%

#658 Zorro The Gay Blade (1981)

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Let’s get this out of the way: Zorro The Gay Blade is not a good movie.

It’s a tiresome watch that although quirky at times rarely manages to make one laugh – that is unless an overacted, flamboyant gay characterisation and men wearing a drag still passes as a humour for you in 2017.

Zorro, a disguised Spanish nobleman fighting against the powers that be was a source for countless books, series, comics and movies from the 1920s on, but hasn’t been any part of the pop culture for the last 30 years or so. This, in addition to the movie being outdated when it came out in the first place underline its total irrelevance as a spoof.

80s-o-meter: 15%

Total: 22%

#657 Modern Problems (1981)

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Starring Chevy Chase, a star of many top comedies of the era, I really wanted to like this movie, but I’m afraid it’s not good news.

You know those randomising algorithms that take known genres, words, adjectives and verbs and then generate something with a roll of a dice. Modern Problems feels like its been written by one: It introduces one completely loose concept after another and never follows one through to the finish.

The characters are bit of a similar kind of mess and Chevy Chase as the lead hams his way through the movie without any kind of enthusiasm. Performance wise Dabney Coleman’s self-absorbed self-help book writer is spot on, but little good does that do when the rest of the movie is so off.

In the end, Modern Problem’s problem is not a modern one, but a very ancient instead: Finding a reason to exist.

80s-o-meter: 58%

Total: 34%

#656 How I Got Into College (1989)

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Boasting what could only be described as the ugliest movie poster of the 80, How I Got Into College fortunately fares better as a movie.

A lot better, as a matter infact.

Directed by Savage Steve Holland, the movies real charm is in its quirky humour that is not unlike in his former comedy Better Off Dead, but this time around working much more sophisticated way that doesn’t feel detached or interfere with the pacing of the movie. The movie stars off great, but some of that superb initial momentum is lost as the events unravel and the movie turns into a more generic 80s teen comedy. Still good and enjoyable, but less unique and memorable.

When How I Got Into College wishes to be funny, it succeeds – and that’s what counts. Just don’t let that poster fool you!

80s-o-meter: 86%

Total: 84%