This Is Art, Kids!

After taking some time to check out the music of the year, I’ve finally gotten around to the movie side of things. For this first entry I’m going to be looking at the box office number 1’s for the year. It was an interesting year with a bunch of films I’ve never seen. Let’s take a look at them

Tootsie

Our first number one is actually from ’82. An entertaining film, but it hasn’t aged well. There is a lot of gender stuff here that totally doesn’t work anymore. Bill Murray is very funny in this though.6/10

High Road To China

Basically a Jonessploitation film, but Sellack doesn’t have the charisma or charm that Harrison Ford has. The plot is also basically one long fetch quest where the characters are constantly told to look somewhere else. I do like the scenes with the bumbling villains bickering in their office, but the rest of this bored me to tears. 4/10

Spring Break

A horny 80’s teen comedy that features not one, but three competition scenes(Wet T-shirt, Pie Eating, and Cannonball in case you were curious.). It has a very slapdash structure and there is not a laugh to be found. Must have been a slow week. 2/10

Lone Wolf Mcquade

A Chuck Norris action flick with a script that feels like an excuse for him to kiss all of his pretty costars(There is a scene where he says goodbye to his adult daughter and kisses her on the lips. Seriously, who does that?). Still this has some charm to it(This has a scene where he uses the power of beer to give him the strength to drive out of a pit.) and some of the action scenes do kick ass. 6/10

Flashdance

All of the scenes you know from this are in the first twenty minutes. There are the bones of a good movie here. I find Alex and all her friends to be charming and relatable, but the romance that is at the center of the film is yucky. The dance scenes are pretty fantastic, but I feel like one or two less of them would give the movie more time to flesh out the characters.6/10

Blue Thunder

A gritty conspiracy thriller with helicopters fights. An interesting film, but I do feel that the climax drags a little too long for my liking(It also doesn’t help that there is no score for a lot of the chase scene.). I also wish the actual investigation part of this lasted a little bit longer. 7/10

Spacehunter

Just here to cash in on the success of Star Wars, the lead of this film is basically a charisma-less Han Solo and the prisoners he is trying to save are never given any personality. The cinematography is decent though, it is just a shame that is in service of such bad film.1/10

Return Of The Jedi

It’s Return Of The Jedi. Anything interesting I can say about this has been said before about a million times and better than I ever could. I think he Luke and Vader stuff is really compelling, but all the Ewok stuff just bores me. Worst of the original trilogy, but still a good film 7.5/10

Superman 3

The one with Richard Pryor. I find the villain’s plot to manipulate natural resources for insider trading to be very mundane for a character as spectacular as Superman. I do like some of the scenes with Superman as a jerk, but the rest of this just lacks the wonder you want a Superman movie to have.3/10

Stayin’ Alive

I had never seen Saturday Night Fever, so I decided to watch that one before and the differences are day and night. The former film has a gritty NYC slime attached to it, while this tones that all down in favor of over the top dance sequences. The love triangle that centers this movie has some interesting dynamics, but overall the cheese and the sterility make this a film I can’t really recommend.5/10

Jaws 3-D

Jaws is loose at Seaworld? This is really boring and is mostly quite a drag. Maybe I’m missing something by not having the 3D, but it can’t be too much 2/10

National Lampoon’s Vacation

After seeing so many bad films, it is a real treat to see one with a competent script. There are a lot of great gags here(I love Clark holding up the security guard on the roller coaster.) and the movie moves at a clip. I do find this movie to be unnecessarily cruel in parts though(Especially the Aunt Edna and her dog plotline.), so that’s always stopped me from calling this one of my favorites.7/10

Easy Money

The main plot of this one takes to long to get going and I find that a lot of the humor here is either dated, offensive, or both. I never really got the hubub about Dangerfield, but I guess you had to be there.3/10

Mr.Mom

This mostly feels like a backdoor pilot to a sitcom. Keaton is charming, but this feels more like a series of vignettes than a full story.6/10

Big Chill

A bunch of friends get together to reminisce about their friend that just died. This features good performances all around, but there are moments that feel like clips for a “For Your Consideration” reel. The story was about something very serious, but somehow it never made me feel the emotional underpinning that was there.7/10

Never Say Never Again

The infamous “Bond” film. I feel like so many of these Bond pictures are so interchangeable that the only reason to prefer one over to another is how good the action set pieces are. This has a really good fight in a rehab center, but everything else is hampered by Connery’s age limitations. I do think Fatima Blush is an interesting femme fatale as well, but the movie does so little with her.5/10

Deal Of The Century

Masks off here everybody, I couldn’t finish this one. A war satire from by William Friedkin(?!) that just couldn’t hold my interest. And that’s saying a lot, I watched Jaws 3D.N/A

Amityville 3D

A pretty by the numbers haunted house deal. Another case where I feel like actually seeing this in 3D would help the experience, but I can’t say how much it would. 4/10

A Christmas Story

Would you believe I’ve never seen this from start to finish until now? Upon watching it, I realized that I had in fact seen it all in pieces over the years on network television. I have little to add here, but to say that this is a true classic and worth all the hype.8/10

Terms Of Endearment

This one really jerks the tears right out of you! An amazing ensemble cast with great performances all around(Especially Nicholson and MacLaine.). A beautiful story about a mother and daughter’s relationship throughout the years 10/10

Sudden Impact

Clint Eastwood returns as Dirty Harry! Eastwood’s hero has a charmless stoicism that is refreshing. This has some really good one liners, but the plot is pretty uninteresting and moves glacially.5/10

Overall, a half and half kind of year for the number ones. Of the 21 films I watched, I really would only go to bat for about nine of them and some of those are not strong recommends for me. It will be interesting to see where some of those films place after I watch some more ‘83.