Tim Burton’s and Michael Keaton’s take on a deceased couple doomed to haunt a mansion is a truly unique, delightful and entertaining movie experience.
Category: Comedy
#502 Xmas 2016: A Smoky Mountain Christmas (1986)
A country star flees the city to find herself in a house full of orphans in a so-so modern day fairytale adaptation really recommendable if you’re a fan of Dolly Parton and her music.
#495 Adventures in Babysitting (1987)
Although it can be a tad too childish and generic at times, Adventures in Babysitting is a solid adventure for the whole family – with that Playboy reference for the fathers too.
#492 Critical Condition (1987)
A con artist disguises as a doctor to avoid going to jail in a comedy that’s just as much goofy as it sounds, but miraculously manages to be ultimately better than its synopsis.
#491 Losin’ It (1983)
Three kids take a road trip to Tijuana to lose their virginity in an atmospheric roadtrip movie that gets watered down towards the end, but luckily gets a few good laughs along the way.
#490 Bachelor Party (1984)
Bachelor Party is basically your average early 80s sex comedy in the vain of ’Porky’s’, but with the exceptional bonus of having the always superb Tom Hanks aboard.
#489 Seems Like Old Times (1980)
Goldie Hawn and Charles Grodin set up a marvellous show that keeps the movie afloat, but the script leaves Chevy Chase with nothing but an endless series of unwitty remarks.
#488 The Man Who Loved Women (1983)
A sleazeball wants to have sex with all the women in the world in a tragicomedy that’s possibly the hardest and the most mind numbing two hours I’ve ever had to stomach through.
#485 Halloween 2016: Night Life aka Grave Misdemeanours (1989)
While the zombies themselves are bit of a letdown, Night Life is nonetheless a cleverly written shoelace-budgeted horror comedy that still manages to best 90% of the genre.
#480 Halloween 2016: A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 – The Dream Master (1988)
No matter what the movie is actually like. by the third sequel the stigma of being that ’just another sequel’ really starts to set in – and usually makes it challenging to watch the movie with just a face value. With that in mind, let’s dive into Elm Street part 4, directed by a fellow finn Renny Harlin.
Harlin’s directorial take of the franchise is flashy and at times almost music video like, in a true tradition of the eighties generation MTV. Effects are top notch and a step up from the previous movie.
The take is funny with obvious humoristic elements scattered throughout the movie, but on the other hand also without depth or substance. The seemingly quickly hacked up plot is a mere the necessity to move from a imaginative kill to another and Freddy’s lines throughout the movie consist mainly of just various kinds of wisecracks.
Freddy movies were never scary movies in a traditional sense and The Dream Master takes the franchise even further away from pure horror, and towards the main stream dark tongue-in-cheek adventure. Three sequels for one movie is already obviously too much, but Harlin’s decision of not even bothering to explain everything but just have a good time actually translates well to the silver screen.
Ultimately The Dream Master is much more entertaining than its predecessor The Dream Warriors, and remains the second best sequel of the series.
The Dream Master may have the depth of a long music video, but it does the best out of what the series has left at this point and makes an entertaining 90 minutes out of it
#471 Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989)
A movie that plays like an episode of a soap opera spiked with some likable scumbags, the roster of interesting characters here makes the experience well worth your while.
#469 Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988)
It has to be admitted: A movie about the last stud searching for fertile women prisoned in the post apocalyptic wasteland by a bunch of mutant frogs while wearing a pair of explosive underpants sure sounds like a riot. Starring the always sympathetic Roddy Piper known from the later cult classic They Live (1987), Hell Comes To Frogdown plays all its cards with the awesome synopsis and within the 15 first minutes of the movie, and the rest of the film can’t keep up with the built up premise.
Obviously made with campiness in the mind, the movie could’ve been one of the great cult classics of the era – but as it is now, it somehow just tries and promises too much and delivers too little.
It’s not a completely lemon though, and still worth your while just as long as you know not to expect too much out of it.
Although it has the makings of a cult movie written all over it, Hell Comes To Frogtown doesn’t just deliver enough quirkiness and fun to make it to the hall of fame
#468 Tootsie (1982)
A solid, but ridiculously implausible comedy offers sticky situations, a few laughs and some food for thought, and is ultimately let down only by its sloppy ending.
#467 Paramedics (1988)
One of the bastard childs of the Police Academy series, Paramedics is a patchy, aimless effort to copy and paste elements from the more successful comedies of the era.
#466 Head Office (1985)
Head Office makes a series of successful, hilarious stabs at the grim dog-eat-dog big corporate world before losing its focus during its final 20 minutes.
#463 Radio Days (1987)
The autobiographical Radio Days is a charming trip down the memory lane to the golden days of the radio – and a true tribute to Woody Allen’s masterful story telling skills.
#461 Vice Versa (1988)
Superior one of the two very similar body switching movies (the other one being Like Father Like Son) of the late 80s, Vice Versa is a perfect vehicle for Judge Reinhold, who’s portrayal of a 12-year old feels spot on throughout the movie.
#460 Like Father Like Son (1987)
Based on the utterly silly premise of body switching, Like Father Like Son’s generic approach ends up an passable movie experience of a few hits – and multiple misses.
#458 Get Smart, Again! (1989)
Based on the 60s TV series, some of Get Smart Again’s visual gags surprise with their cleverness, but everything else in this made for TV movie feels badly outdated.
#456 Doin’ Time on Planet Earth (1988)
Adam West as a cult leader aiming to leave the earth with a spinning restaurant, DTOPE was obviously aimed as a cult classic, but ultimately is just not weird and/or good enough.