1987

Title Screen Film Genre(s), Title, Year, (Country), Length, Director, Description

Angel Heart (1987), 113 minutes, D: Alan Parker
Writer/director Alan Parker's supernatural-mystery-horror neo-noir was a twisting, metaphysically-confusing film set in the mid-1950s in NYC and in New Orleans, LA. The unsettling plot line was simple but still very macabre, atmospheric and complex - a Brooklyn NY private investigator was hired by an enigmatic, black-clad Satanic-like businessman to conduct a missing persons case (for a singer named Johnny Favorite) from the war years. He was haunted by various sights during his investigation in Harlem and in the New Orleans area (dripping blood into a bowl, a dark-clad and hooded figure, bloody walls being scrubbed clean, malfunctioning rotating fans, bloody voodoo rituals, one red-lit window in a tenement building apartment, a winding staircase, a descending freight elevator (to Hell), a singer's tune "Girl of My Dreams," a shattered mirror image, etc.), and he soon left behind a trail of five corpses - many of those he questioned and interacted with during his quest ended up brutally murdered due to an attempted cover-up of his own past.

Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987, Fr./W.Germ./It.) (aka Goodbye Children), 103 minutes, D: Louis Malle

Babette's Feast (1987, Denmark) (aka Babettes Gæstebud), 102 minutes, D: Gabriel Axel

The Big Easy (1987), 108 minutes, D: Jim McBride
Director Jim McBride's romantic, neo-noir crime and romantic mystery-thriller told about a suspected deadly drug war in the "Big Easy" city of New Orleans, LA between Mafia mobsters and African-American drug lords. During an uptick in gangland murders involved in the drug peddling trade, two officers or representatives of the law became both intrigued and at odds with each other over the issue of police corruption, as reflected in the film's two taglines: "He's got to hide the truth. She'll stop at nothing to find it. But tonight everything's off the record," and "It's easy to make a killing in New Orleans..."

Black Widow (1987) , 102 minutes, D: Bob Rafelson
Director Bob Rafelson's R-rated neo-noir dramatic psychological crime-thriller was based upon Ronald Bass' first original screenplay. In the plot, two strong women engaged in a cat-and-mouse game to outsmart each other - a federal agent and a serial "black widow" killer (or Lucretia Borgia, femme fatale). The mostly-forgotten film's tagline - uniting sex and death - described the plodding yet effective plot, similar in some ways to Body Heat (1981) : "Every man she marries is mysteriously murdered. Finally, one woman has uncovered the truth. But proving it could be fatal."

Broadcast News (1987), 131 minutes, D: James L. Brooks
James L. Brooks' romantic drama and comedy/satire of TV news (with commentary on the issue of style vs. substance) opened with an ironic prologue illustrating the formative childhoods of a trio of future broadcast news professionals; the two male TV reporters would become romantic rivals for the love of the female producer at the same news network in Washington DC. Young Tom Grunick (Kimber Shoop) turned out to be a handsome, airhead, narcisistic, charismatic, and slightly dumb news anchor, while young 15 year-old Aaron Altman (Dwayne Markee) was bullied at his high school graduation in 1965, and grew up to become Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks) - a socially-insecure, serious, uncharismatic, and gifted intelligent network news reporter. Thirdly, whipsmart young Jane (Gennie James) by 1981 had become fussy, driven, intense, forthright and strident network news producer Jane Craig (Holly Hunter). During a special live news report on a Libyan attack on a US military base in Sicily (Italy), Tom was clueless and unable to function on-camera during a live-breaking broadcast without a teleprompter. With the assistance of highly-qualified but nervous and under-valued Aaron on the phone, the quick-thinking Jane cleverly fed Tom information via his earpiece. Afterwards, the exhilarated Tom gleefully responded with thanks to Jane at her desk. Over time, Jane was becoming infatuated with Tom. At the news station, in his debut appearance as the anchor of the weekend news, while Jane and Tom attended the White House Correspondents' Dinner together, the uncharismatic and nervous Aaron began to sweat profusely ("flop sweat") as he read the news. One producer commented: "This is more than Nixon ever sweated." After attending the dinner , Jane and Tom left to share a romantic moment on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial. They embraced and passionately kissed when he suggested sex to her in obvious terms. To cool their passion, Jane excused herself to go and console Aaron for his disastrous TV debut. Aaron, who was in unrequited love with Jane, met with Jane and made a desperate attempt to dissuade Jane from a relationship with the media-friendly, vacuous-headed Tom by comparing him to the devil, and by admitting his own love for her. As a result of the TV news station's restructuring, budget cuts and multiple layoffs, Jane was appointed as the replacement for bureau chief Ernie Merriman (Robert Prosky), and Tom was promoted to work in the network office in London, while the dejected-feeling Aaron quietly resigned to take a local anchor position in Portland, Oregon. During Tom's transition period, he and Jane planned to take a romantic getaway vacation together. Before leaving, Jane met up with the embittered Aaron in a difficult farewell scene, when he made a sour-grapes prediction of Jane's future when she asked what would happen to their relationship as friends. Jane felt tremendous anguish and anger when Aaron informed her that Tom had unethically faked tears in a cutaway shot during an earlier, emotionally-powerful date-rape interview; Jane confronted Tom at the airport about the phony staging, and told him that he had "crossed the line." She told him that they were so mismatched that she would not join him for a vacation during her time-off. In the film's poignant epilogue set in the present day of 1987 about seven years later, the trio reunited at a broadcasting conference. Both men were happily married with others (and Jane was in a strong relationship). Jane revealed that she would again be working alongside national anchor Tom in New York as a managing editor. The film concluded with a pull-back shot of Jane and Aaron reminiscing in the rain under a gazebo.

The Dead (1987, US/UK), 83 minutes, D: John Huston

Dirty Dancing (1987), 105 minutes, D: Emile Ardolino
Director Emile Ardolino's popular, coming-of-age, sexual awakening romantic tale and dance film - the 'dirty dancing' of the film's title (choreographed by Kenny Ortega) - referred to numerous sexy dance scenes in the staff quarters of a resort hotel, or in a dance studio (or elsewhere). The plot line of the crowd-pleasing, 'feel-good' blockbuster was about the coming of age of an idealistic teenaged HS grad (Jennifer Grey) whose summer encounter with a suave, lower-class dance instructor (Patrick Swayze) brought unpredictable changes and loss of innocence. The film's time-frame also reflected monumental social, political, and cultural changes occurring from the idealistic and conservative 1950s to the more transgressive and problematic turmoil of the 1960s. Its main tagline was: "First dance. First love. The time of your life."

Evil Dead 2 (1987) (aka Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn), 84 minutes, D: Sam Raimi
See Evil Dead series.
Director Sam Raimi's gruesomely funny, zany horror film sequel (and/or remake) - an exceptionally well-done horror parody with an intense kinetic tone and quick edits, included incredible special effects such as stop-motion animation, reverse motion, and lengthy tracking shots. In the film's opening, this 'remake' or sequel retold (or recapped) what occurred in the first film. At the remote Tennessee cabin, incantations again unleased demonic forces from the dark woods outside, zombifying Ash Williams' (Bruce Campbell) girlfriend Linda (Denise Bixler) and nearly possessing him as well. After beheading and burying her, she was reanimated and her headless body attacked with a chainsaw. When his right hand was bitten, it became an evil body part and needed to be amputated - with the chainsaw. New arrivals at the cabin included the professor's daughter Annie (Sarah Berry), her partner Ed Getley (Richard Domeier), and other local rednecks - which led to more confrontations and possessions. Eventually, all of the characters were killed except Ash, who had clamped the chainsaw to his severed wrist and twirled a sawed-off shotgun into his backside-holster (and then exclaimed: "Groovy!"). Ash was sucked and propelled into a whirling portal or rift, along with his '88 Oldsmobile and other objects, into a time-travel journey to the Middle-Ages, ca 1300s - a set-up for the third film. This was the second of three Evil Dead films in a trilogy, from 1981-1992.

Fatal Attraction (1987), 119 minutes, D: Adrian Lyne
Director Adrian Lyne's R-rated hit, Paramount Pictures' cautionary horror thriller, and popular cultural phenomenon was a wake-up warning about the consequences of careless cheating, with its mix of slasher violence and sex - perfect for the AIDS-epidemic era. The erotic thriller told about the illicit, casual, and dangerous trysting affair-relationship between a happily-married family man (of nine years) and Manhattan attorney (Michael Douglas) and a femme fatale (Glenn Close) - a frizzy-haired literary book editor who turned into a predatory, terrorizing, stalking, obsessed, unbalanced psychopath when scorned or jilted. The film was criticized as being misogynistic for treating the philandering husband as a victim and excusing his callous behavior, while demonizing his tempting, discarded mistress. One tabloid at the time disparaged the adulteress and downplayed the legitimate reason for her resentful anger, calling her "THE MOST HATED WOMAN IN AMERICA." The film's title became a well-known buzz-word: "fatal attraction" - meaning a lethally dangerous romantic relationship.

Full Metal Jacket (1987), 116 minutes, D: Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick's thought-provoking Vietnam War film was partly based on Gustav Hasford's 1979 book The Short Timers, and followed in the footsteps of Kubrick's other anti-war films: Paths of Glory (1957) and Dr. Strangelove, Or: (1964). This was Kubrick's first film after The Shining (1980), and it made an underappreciated appearance the year after Oliver Stone's Platoon (1986) won Best Picture. Kubrick's film was unsuccessful at the box office -- lost in the spate of mostly Vietnam-related war films that came out in Platoon's wake, including Heartbreak Ridge (1986) (about the invasion of Grenada), Hamburger Hill (1987), The Hanoi Hilton (1987), Casualties of War (1989), 84 Charlie Mopic (1989), and Born on the Fourth of July (1989). A two-part drama, the first part of the film took place at Parris Island training-boot camp in S. Carolina (although the entire film was shot in England) in the late 1960s, where drill instructor Gunnery Sgt. Hartman (R. Lee Ermey, a former, real life Marine sergeant) transformed young Marine cadets into killing machines with twisted sentiments, by his verbal, psychological, and physical abuse and torment. The film's viewpoint was provided by Private J. T. Davis (dubbed "Joker") (Matthew Modine), who wore a helmet labeled "Born to Kill," and provided voice-over narration throughout the entire film. The first half climaxed with a chilling, dehumanizing bathroom scene between Hartman, Private Leonard Lawrence (dubbed "Gomer Pyle") (Vincent D'Onofrio) - an overweight, misfit cadet driven lethally insane by Hartman's bullying. The film's second half followed "Joker's" work (serving as a bridge) as a cynical Stars & Stripes military correspondent and photojournalist, and his combat soldiering on the nightmarish, violent front lines within Hue City. It provided a cool, unemotional look at urban warfare on the eve of the 1968 Tet Offensive at the turning point of the war.

Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) , 121 minutes, D: Barry Levinson
In director Barry Levinson's comedy war drama, the story centered around the manic, partly ad-libbed, non-stop, and improvised on-air broadcasts of a mid-1960s Vietnam-era Armed Services Radio DJ. Robin Williams starred as the irreverent, non-conformist and antagonistic disk jockey Adrian Cronauer who boosted GI morale with manic commentary and straight-forward news from Saigon in 1965 (his signature line: "Gooooooooood Morning, Vietnam!"). His early morning, fast-talking, unpredictable mouth, spewing anti-establishment one-liners, predictably alienated other superior officers. During his pursuit of a local Vietnamese girl as a love interest and a friendship with her little brother, he refused to racially stereotype them as "the enemy."

Hellraiser (1987, UK) , 94 minutes, D: Clive Barker
Director Clive Barker's grisly sado-masochistic supernatural horror thriller (his directorial debut feature) was based upon his own 1986 novella "The Hellbound Heart." Its main subject matter was about the existence of extra-dimensional creatures who relished pain and sadomasochistic pleasures.

Hope and Glory (1987, US/UK), 113 minutes, D: John Boorman

House of Games (1987) , 102 minutes, D: David Mamet
Writer-director David Mamet's directorial debut film was this twisting, elaborate, surprise-laden neo-noirish crime thriller about con-games, stings, and confidence schemes. Uptight, cool, repressed and distant psychiatrist Dr. Margaret Ford (Lindsay Crouse, the director's then-wife) and best-selling author, who treated troubled patients, entered the intriguing underworld of trickery and con-games through the tutelage of smooth-talking con-artist Mike (Joe Mantegna) who ran a "House of Games." As she was being taught the seductive tricks-of-the-trade, she was naively unaware that she was becoming the target of a very complex and deceptive sting operation led by Mike and his associates against her, and would ultimately lose 80,000ドル dollars.

The Last Emperor (1987, UK/It./China/HK), 160 minutes, D: Bernardo Bertolucci
Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci's lavish epic biography was one of the most successful films ever, and one of the few films that won all of its Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. The grand, sweeping, visionary, biographical character-driven story, told through flashbacks, followed the bittersweet life of the boy emperor born in 1906, who first sat in the Dragon Throne at the age of three. Pu Yi was the 11th and last emperor of the Qing dynasty of China (the "Lord of ten thousand years and Son of Heaven") before the Communist revolution deposed, imprisoned, and politically rehabilitated him. Based in part on Pu Yi's 1964 autobiography, From Emperor to Citizen, Bertolucci garnered unprecedented support and permission from the Chinese government, something no other Western film company had received since 1949. This was the first film ever to be shot in the Forbidden City in the People's Republic of China, aside from the Lucy Jarvis documentary Forbidden City (1973).

Lethal Weapon (1987), 110 minutes, D: Richard Donner
See Lethal Weapon film series.
Director Richard Donner's police action-comedy and 'buddy cop' film was the superior first film of many installments (also 1989, 1992, and 1998); it was peppered with witty one-liners, and was responsible for resurrecting the buddy-cop film with the added twist that the odd-couple partners were mostly adversaries. One was semi-psychotic, erratic and suicidal, while the other was a family-man with an impeccable by-the-book record, who was playing it safe and on the verge of retirement (and dreaming of spending time on his fishing boat). One of the classic lines stated over and over again was from the harried family man to his crazed partner: "I'm too old for this s--t!" With a production budget of approximately 15ドル million, the film's box-office gross revenues were 65ドル million (domestic) and 120ドル million (worldwide). It received one Academy Award nomination for Best Sound.

The Lost Boys (1987) , 97 minutes, D: Joel Schumacher
The title of director Joel Schumacher's R-rated teen horror vampire film was a reference to "The Lost Boys" in J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan and Neverland stories. The premise was that Peter Pan was a vampire - and that the blood-sucking creatures of the night were mostly young goth-punk biker males who resisted growing up and forming bonds and commitments except to their gang. The cleverly-marketed, influential production, now a cult classic, was a hybrid teen film and comedy horror thriller, evidenced by its tagline: "Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It's fun to be a vampire."

Moonstruck (1987), 102 minutes, D: Norman Jewison
In director Norman Jewison's and MGM's quirky and good-natured romantic comedy about misadventures in love, it was based upon scriptwriter John Patrick Shanley's Oscar-winning, boisterous tale about new and old loves. Throughout the story, many of the couples were caught being unfaithful to each other as a way to reveal the characters' deepest motivations, heartaches, and longings for real love. Cher won an Oscar for her role as an embittered widow who was again engaged, but became passionately "moonstruck" by her fiancee's cynical brother - a hot-headed baker (Nicolas Cage). She delivered the film's most quoted line: "Snap out of it." The mostly-non-cliched plot told about the dilemma of a mid-30s, widowed Brooklyn-Sicilian bookkeeper whose past marital problems continued to plague her. She felt she had been unlucky and cursed when her first husband died 7 years earlier due to a bus accident. With another chance of love, she decided to settle and sleep-walk into accepting a marriage proposal for a month later, with a mis-matched, middle-aged Mama's boy whom she didn't love. While he was away visiting his dying mother in Sicily, she fell in passionate love ("moonstruck") with her fiancee's younger estranged brother. With raw and dangerous energy and vitality, the brother was a baker with a maimed hand who revealed his own deeply-engrained issues about marriage after his earlier fiancee had also left him, although he convinced her to wake up to his love for her. On a budget of 15ドル million, it was a hugely popular and rewatchable film, and grossed 80ドル.6 million at the box-office.

No Way Out (1987), 115 minutes, D: Ronald Donaldson
Australian director Roger Donaldson's suspenseful and dramatic twisting political thriller was this neo-noir action film. It was an update of the 1946 Kenneth Fearing potboiler novel The Big Clock, originally adapted for the big screen as the suspenseful The Big Clock (1948) that was set in NYC and starred Ray Milland and Charles Laughton. Its plot themes included a shocking murder, a hot secret affair and semi-love triangle involving a "kept woman", political intrigue, suspicions of a Russian KGB sleeper-agent/mole, an innocent 'fall guy' wrongly-accused of murder and on a manhunt for himself, and an intense cover-up, with an out-of-the-blue, slightly preposterous and incredulous plot twist that was tacked-on to conclude the film.

Nuts (1987), 116 minutes, D: Martin Ritt
High-class prostitute Claudia Draper (Barbra Streisand) was on trial for first-degree manslaughter, although she had acted in self-defense against one of her abusive clients Allen Green (Leslie Nielsen) (seen in flashback). The main issue in this serious, issue-oriented dramatic thriller was whether the hostile, troubled, uncooperative and disruptive defendant was mentally competent to stand trial. She wanted to be tried, but her parents, mother Rose and stepfather Arthur Kirk (Maureen Stapleton and Karl Malden), to avoid scandal, wanted Claudia to be declared "nuts" and committed for psychiatric treatment (probably indefinitely). They had hired high-priced WASP lawyer Clarence Middleton (William Prince), but he quit after Claudia punched him in the face. Crusty Judge Stanley Murdoch (James Whitmore) then assigned white-haired and bearded public defender Aaron Levinsky (Richard Dreyfuss) to take the case - he was also treated to heavy doses of Claudia's belligerent abuse, tauntings, and suspicions. In the case, Bellevue Hospital pedantic psychiatrist Dr. Herbert Morrison (Eli Wallach) believed that Draper needed to be institutionalized for her anti-social tendencies. The prosecutor was Frances MacMillan (Robert Webber). A competency hearing was held in a closed courtroom, before Judge Murdoch. Draper refused to be silent, interrupted the proceedings continually, and wouldn't obey the Judge. Both of Claudia's parents stated that their daughter needed to be treated rather than subjected to a trial. During cross-examination, Levinsky was able to procure a damning confession from Mr. Kirk - he was guilty of incest against Claudia, bathing her even up until she was 16 years of age. This revelation helped to explain how the bright, upper-class, white girl Claudia chose to become a hooker. Draper took the stand and testified on her own behalf, and admitted how she chose to make a responsible living as a high-priced call girl: "You think giving blow jobs for 500ドル is nuts, huh? Well, I know women who marry men they despise so they can drive a Mercedes and spend summers in the Hamptons. I know women who crawl through s--t for a fur coat. I know women who peddle their daughters to hang on to their husbands. So don’t judge my blow jobs, they’re sane. I know what I was doing every god damned minute and I’m responsible for it." She pleaded with the Judge to allow her to be tried, and judged for her own actions. She refused to be examined by another psychiatrist. Murdoch eventually caved in, and allowed her to be released from custody in order to stand trial for manslaughter. In a short epilogue, Draper was found not guilty through the efforts of crusading Levinsky. Psychiatrist Dr. Morrison resigned from his position.

Pelle The Conqueror (1987, Denm./Swe.) (aka Pelle Erobreren), 157 minutes, D: Bille August

Predator (1987), 107 minutes, D: John McTiernan
In director John McTiernan's exciting, macho-oriented action flick (similar to The Most Dangerous Game (1932) and the space-themed Alien (1979)), Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared as a battle-hardened, cigar-chomping elite soldier named Maj. Alan "Dutch" Schaefer. He was a one-man killing machine commando sent by the CIA into the rainforest jungles of Central America. His job was to combat an invisible, trophy-collecting force preying on them known as the Predator (7'2" actor Kevin Peter Hall in a 200 lb. suit) - it skinned its victims and left them hanging on high tree limbs. The extra-terrestrial, slashing hunter-Predator (enhanced with Stan Winston's special effects) had thermal infra-red vision (it used its 'heat vision' point of view to detect bodies to kill). The camouflaged, morphing, cameleon-like, mysterious, unseen alien creature also used lethal blaster firepower. The brawny and lean Dutch was joined by Dillon (Carl Weathers) and other special-forces commandos who navigated a treacherous Central American jungle while being stalked by the alien nemesis who was only gradually revealed. During the tense hunt, marked by lots of one-liners, gunfire and dozens of dead, Dutch and ultra-braggart Blain (Jesse "The Body" Ventura) tried to out-bully each other and put down the others: ("Bunch of slack-jawed faggots around here. This stuff will make you a god-damned sexual Tyrannosaurus, just like me"), while the one token female in the film, guerrilla hostage Anna (Elpidia Carrillo) displayed no nudity or love relationship. Predator's manly characters spouted cheesy but memorable dialogue: ("I ain't got time to bleed" or "Get to the choppa!" or "If it bleeds, we can kill it"). The film's nearly wordless final half-hour was pure macho Arnold, who had outlived the rest of the film's cast of tough guys. Ultimately by the film's brutal climax and show-down/face-off with mud-covered Dutch, the titular beast Predator was seen with dreadlocks and large mandibles, as Dutch exclaimed: "You're one ugly motherf--ker!"

The Princess Bride (1987), 98 minutes, D: Rob Reiner
Rob Reiner's popular romantic comedy was framed as a classic fairy-tale bedtime story of love and adventure read to a sick little Grandson (Fred Savage) by his kind Grandfather (Peter Falk). The doubting, romance-averse, cynical Grandson didn't believe in all of the fanciful characters and motifs (but was won over at the end). At the heart of the romance in the kingdom of Florin was blonde princess heroine Buttercup (Robin Wright) (the titular Princess Bride) and her true love - a poor farm-boy named Westley (Cary Elwes). Westley (who clearly loved her and often repeated to her the words "As you wish") had left their village five years earlier, to seek his fortune, and was rumored to have died at the hands of Dread Pirate Roberts. Buttercup was reluctantly forced to marry Florin's sinister Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon), aided by evil Count Tyrone Rugen (Christopher Guest) (with six fingers on one hand). But then she was kidnapped (through the machinations of the Prince) by a threesome: wicked criminal mastermind Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), a giant (wrestling legend Andre the Giant), and swashbuckling Spaniard Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin). The latter was seeking revenge against the 6-fingered Count Rugen who had killed his father 20 years earlier: ("Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die"). Buttercup didn't realize that a masked pirate (a transformed Westley) was pursuing her to rescue her. And that the Prince was maneuvering to use Buttercup as an excuse to go to war with Guilder, the neighboring country. His plan was to murder Buttercup on their wedding night and then blame it on Guilder. Action and intrigue were provided by frequent swordplay and dueling scenes, a fire swamp with large rodents, and screaming eels. And last but not least, there were hilarious cameos by Billy Crystal (as life-restoring wizard Miracle Max) and Carol Kane (as his crone wife Valerie).

Radio Days (1987), 96 minutes, D: Woody Allen

Raising Arizona (1987), 94 minutes, D: Joel Coen
The Coen Brothers' and 20th Century Fox's wild, fast-paced, Looney Tunes and Preston Sturges-like screwball crime comedy/fantasy was an original, contemporary, unconventional, madcap slapstick farce about the kidnapping of a baby (one of the Arizona quintuplets) by a mismatched childless couple. A no-nonsense ex-cop and an inept redneck ex-con (Holly Hunter and Nicolas Cage). After the kidnapping of one of the five babies, providing hope for their uncertain future, there were multiple parties wanting the baby, mostly for money -- the original parents, the kidnapping wanna-be parents (the only ones who didn't want a monetary reward), their convict friends, the ex-con's boss, and a Harley-riding bounty hunter - the Lone Biker Of The Apocalypse. Filmed on a budget of 5ドル.5 million, the film grossed 22ドル.8 million (domestic) and 29ドル.2 million (worldwide). The film's two taglines were: "Their lawless years are behind them. Their child-rearing years lay ahead...", and "A comedy beyond belief."

Red Sorghum (1987, China) (aka Hong gao liang), 91 minutes, D: Yimou Zhang

RoboCop (1987), 103 minutes, D: Paul Verhoeven
Dutch director Paul Verhoeven's gory and ultra-violent sci-fi, cyber-cop action-thriller film, a sleeper hit, told about the Frankenstein-like transformation of a police officer after his death at the hands of drug dealers - into a heavily-armed law-enforcement robot. The action-crime film from Orion Pictures presented a violent, crime-ridden, financially-distressed and dystopic world, represented by Detroit in the year 1991. To combat the rampant crime and create a new "Detroit (Delta) City", an evil mega-corporation and its tyrannical Senior President developed a crime-fighting cyborg known as ED-209. He was in a competitive rivalry with another executive who was able to produce a more advanced, state-of-the-art cop known as the RoboCop ("The future of law enforcement") - a hybrid part human-part robot, as the tagline described: "PART MAN. PART MACHINE. ALL COP." As the film opened, good-guy veteran Detroit Officer Alex J. Murphy (Peter Weller) was transferred into the hellish, crime-ridden, Metro West "Old Detroit" precinct from Metro South (suburban Detroit), where he was partnered with fierce veteran Officer Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen). Meanwhile, the mega-corporation OCP (Omni Consumer Products) had been contracted to privatize the police force ("run local law enforcement") and take over the Detroit Metro Police Department. OCP's Senior President Dick Jones (Ronny Cox) announced plans for his company to transform the dystopic, slum-ridden Old Detroit (suffering from the "cancer" of crime) into a utopian "Delta City," with his new robotic ED-209 (Enforcement Droid) for "urban pacification." His preview of the robot in a dramatic presentation resulted in its malfunctioning and the bloody death of a innocent participant. OCP's chairman and head of the board, the Old Man (Dan O'Herlihy), demoted Jones' plan. The contingency plan (after the failure of Jones' ED-209) was the RoboCop program recommended by middle-ranking OCP executive Bob Morton (Miguel Ferrer). While Detroit Officer Murphy was on his first patrol with female Officer Lewis, he was brutally murdered by the "crime boss of Old Detroit" - Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith) and his gang. Murphy's terminally-wounded body was transformed into a half-human, half-robotic crime-fighting super-cop cyborg, known as RoboCop ("The Future of Law Enforcement") by Bob Morton's OCP RoboCop unit. After demonstrating his abilities to fight crime in the city, RoboCop was rapidly becoming a hero in the eyes of Detroit's residents. Morton's success with RoboCop thoroughly enraged Dick Jones, who hired Boddicker to kill his rival Morton. Later, during a shootout in a drug-processing factory, RoboCop was unable to vengefully kill Boddicker because of his programmed Prime Directive 3 ("Uphold the law"). Although Boddicker was arrested, Jones soon after paid the bail and freed him. RoboCop entered Jones' office in the modernistic OCP Tower, played a video recording of Boddicker's confession that he was allied with Jones, charged Jones with "aiding and abetting a known felon" - and threatened to arrest Jones; however, Jones activated the 'Classified' Directive 4 - his system's safeguard (or "insurance policy") to shut down and disable RoboCop; the directive issued a "product violation" - and prevented RoboCop, as an OCP "product," from harming an OCP official. Jones then openly admitted that he had ordered Morton's death: ("I had to kill Bob Morton because he made a mistake. Now it's time to erase that mistake"). Jones ordered the heavily-armed and massive ED-209 to attack, pursue and eliminate the RoboCop, but it clumsily tumbled down a flight of stairs. Jones was adamant that the RoboCop had to be eliminated, because the cyborg had recorded his guilt. At a steel-mill during a violent assault and shoot-out, Boddicker's gang was quickly eliminated by RoboCop and Officer Lewis, and RoboCop was able to maneuver himself to lethally stab Boddicker in the throat. In the film's climactic showdown, RoboCop returned to the OCP Tower, where he confronted and triumphed over ED-209 guarding the front entrance by blasting its entire mid-section. He then went on to approach Jones and accuse him of Morton's murder - with a recording of Jones' confession. The desperate Jones grabbed a gun and took the OCP's Old Man (the corporate President) as his hostage, with plans to flee in a chopper from the roof; his plan failed when the Old Man summarily fired Jones - thereby nullifying Directive 4. RoboCop fired at and killed Jones who was propelled backwards, smashed a window, and fell to his death 95 stories down below.

Siesta (1987), 97 minutes, D: Mary Lambert
In this plot-twisting, surreal, often confusing and odd arthouse film and erotic mystery-drama, it was the first time directorial effort of Mary Lambert. (Lambert's next film was the Stephen King adaptation Pet Sematary (1989), and she followed up with its sequel in 1992.) It was praised for its jazzy-trumpet score by trumpeter Miles Davis. The film's fragmented, often incoherent and subjective plotline about obsessive love and the acceptance of destiny and change told about the strange adventures (fantasies and memories) of a daredevil stuntwoman who had returned back to Spain. There over a 5-day period, she was reunited with her married ex-boyfriend (a Spanish trapeze acrobat and the love of her life) for an eventually-deadly love affair. Much of the film reminded the viewer of the film Memento (2000) with its plot-twist 'death-dream' ending. The title was referenced in the film's tagline: "The time of day when mystery and eroticism become one."

Suspect (1987), 121 minutes, D: Peter Yates
In this mystery thriller, in the opening sequence, US Supreme Court Justice Lowell (Thomas Barbour) made a tape recording, gave a secretary a thick envelope, and then suicidally shot himself in the mouth. Shortly later, Justice Department file clerk Elizabeth Quinn (Katie O'Hare) was also found dead (with her throat cut) and floating in the Potomac River. Derelict, homeless, fierce-looking, bearded Vietnam-Vet Carl Wayne Anderson (Liam Neeson), a deaf mute, was arrested for the crime. He was in possession of a knife and her purse/wallet (with only 9ドル), and had been found sleeping in Quinn's unlocked parked car the night of her murder, in order to keep warm. Burned-out, dedicated D.C. public defender Kathleen Riley (Cher) was assigned to defend Anderson, who could only communicate through writing. He claimed he saw Quinn only after she was dead. He claimed another man with tattoos named Michael (Paul D'Amato) might also be a suspect. The case was to be prosecuted by Charlie Stella (Joe Mantegna), while presiding over the case was Judge Matthew Bishop Helms (John Mahoney). Riley only needed to prove that there was 'reasonable doubt' that Anderson was guilty. The prosecutor claimed that when Quinn returned to her car, Anderson robbed and then killed her. Riley denied that he had committed the murder. The defense was bolstered when one of the jurors, Washington DC milk producer lobbyist, slick Eddie Sanger (Dennis Quaid), conducting his own discreet (and unethical) investigation into the killing, was collecting evidence, providing anonymous clues, and helping defender Riley with legal research - without the Judge becoming suspicious of jury tampering. She was able to have the case's doctor admit that the killer was right-handed, due to the nature of the stab wound. She clearly demonstrated to the court that Anderson was left-handed. With Quinn's filing cabinet key, Riley and Sanger broke into her files, and learned she had been transcribing trial transcripts from federal cases in 1968. In Quinn's car, Riley also found an audiocassette left in her tape deck - it contained the last confessional words of Justice Lowell as he described a 1968 case in which he (and others) had conspired to accept bribes (an important judicial appointment) in order to dismiss the prosecution's charges against a gangster named Cook. [Note: The 1968 prosecutor was presumed to be Deputy Attorney General Paul Gray (Philip Bosco). It was possible that Gray murdered Quinn when she notified him of the impropriety. This was the film's red herring, however.] It was soon revealed in the 'it-came-from-left-field' ending that Judge Helms, not Gray, was the 1968 prosecutor in the fixed case. When Quinn approached Judge Lowell with her evidence, Lowell committed suicide. But when she confronted Judge Helms, he murdered her, to prevent her whistle-blowing from hurting his chances of a promotion. Helms' bleeding right wrist, caused when Riley sliced the wrist of an unknown assailant in a dark basement the day before, also gave him away.

3 Men and a Baby (1987) (aka Three Men and a Baby), 102 minutes, D: Leonard Nimoy

The Untouchables (1987), 119 minutes, D: Brian De Palma
Director Brian De Palma's epic, stylistic crime/gangster drama of the Prohibition era was bolstered by writer David Mamet's brilliant screenplay. The title of the film "The Untouchables" - referred to a group of fearless "special agents" employed by the Bureau of Prohibition, a law enforcement agency in the early 1930s, created to enforce Prohibition laws and to end the criminal activities of the lead crime boss in Chicago, Alphonse (or Al) "Scarface" Capone. The big-budget, energetic production cleverly intermixed real-life events (and characters) - mainly 1930s Chicago gangster Al Capone (portrayed by Robert De Niro), the head of the elite squad of "untouchables" Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner), and Irish beat cop James Malone (Sean Connery), with other similar fictionalized recreations and characters, as the crime boss was brought to justice. The film was enhanced by Ennio Morricone's magnificent score, cinematography by Stephen H. Burum, and wardrobe-fashion design by Giorgio Armani.

Wall Street (1987), 126 minutes, D: Oliver Stone
Co-writer/director Oliver Stone's thoughtful and cautionary treatise on the Me-Decade of stock trading was a 'Faustian' treatise on stock trading. The tale of greed, excess, and corruption was loosely based on the junk bond and unethical insider trading scandals of the mid-1980s. Its tagline was: "Every dream has a price." The film was released only a few months after the massive stock market crash of October 1987 - reinforcing the idea that there was an ugly and excessive side to trading as well - also evidenced by the major economic downturn in 2008. However, on the flip side, it served as a parable of the get-rich-quick American dream - that anyone could transform themselves and succeed (and have the high-flying perks of life: private jets, flashy clothes, luxurious apartments, and trophy females) if they made it as an insider. The character of Gordon Gekko became an enduring symbol of greed. Fortune magazine featured a cover story in June 2005 with a picture of Michael Douglas (as Gekko), asking the question: "Is Greed Still Good?" for a story spotlighting the new greed of Wall Street. It was influential in inspiring other Wall Street-related films, including Stone's own sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010), and Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street (2013).

Wings of Desire (1987, W. Ger/Fr.), 130 minutes, D: Wim Wenders
Director/co-writer Wim Wenders' romantic, visually-affecting and whimsical fantasy was a dramatic, meditative fable about two earthbound, heavy flannel coat-wearing angels Damiel and Cassiel (Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander), who dwelt in post-war West Berlin. They watched over the lives of others, in the divided, traumatized, pre-unified Berlin toward the end of the Cold War. The director and cinematographer Henri Alekan made extensive use of the prominent landmarks of the city and its architecture with sweeping panning shots, although the Wall itself was reconstructed in a studio. Two Berlins were displayed - a transcendental plane above where angels dwelt, and the drab earthly, physical city of streets and buildings below. In many profound scenes, the two guardians (invisible to people) observed and listened in - without judgment - to the thoughts and wishes of wounded souls of Germany's bisected capital city, including commuting subway passengers and library patrons of differing nationalities. A dilemma arose when discontented Damiel, tired of overseeing human activity from his elevated aerial perch on the Berlin Victory Column, expressed his wish to join the earthly world after he fell in love with a mortal - lonely circus trapeze acrobat Marion (Solveig Dommartin) who conversely wished to be immortal. Damiel's urges became stronger when an American movie star (Peter Falk), an ex-angel, tempted him with tactile and sensory sensations (coffee, cigarettes, the feel of cold on one's hands, etc.). The American remake City of Angels (1998) with Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan lacked the imaginative, magical spark of the original German classic.

Withnail & I (1987, UK), 108 minutes, D: Bruce Robinson
In writer/director Bruce Robinson's black comedy and drama, with a script based upon the director's own life in the late 1960s in London; the cult film was filled with endlessly quotable lines and memorable scenes. It told about two unemployed, boozing and drug-fueled, would-be actors living in a squalid Camden apartment who went on a 'holiday' road trip to the countryside for a weekend stay at the Lake District cottage of Withnail's homosexual Uncle Monty (Richard Griffiths). The "I" in the film's title referred to an unnamed character in the film (but known as 'Marwood' in the published screenplay). There were many mishaps and problems that the co-dependent and misanthropic friends encountered (lack of food, non-stop rain and gloom, and the unexpected arrival of the eccentric Uncle Monty, who had an inordinate attraction toward Marwood). The two were not prepared for the challenges of surviving on their own in a rural setting, plus dealing with Monty's flamboyant gay behavior.

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