My Favorite: Movies: 1987

1987 wasn’t a bad year. I graduated from high school and some pretty memorable movies came out.

The Untouchables is easily my favorite movie from that year – a stylish dynamic crime thriller with brilliant performances from Robert DeNiro, Sean Connery and yes, Kevin Costner. This had to have been one of Andy Garcia’s first roles, right? Everybody in the movie is quite good. The staircase scene is classic — I now it’s a huge lift from the 1925 Russian film, Battleship Potemkin, but that doesn’t take anything away from the tension inspired by director Bryan DePalma’s take on it.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTtj-VXxgbc?rel=0]

You’ve also got a classic performance from Sean Connery. So many classic lines; the death scene.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOvH-7lcjb0?rel=0]

I saw a lot of movies that year. A bunch were really great movies, including Full Metal Jacket, Wall Street, Lethal Weapon, La Bamba… I also missed a lot of good ones – I really have to add some of these to the streaming queue.

HAVE SEEN: The Untouchables, The Princess Bride, Full Metal Jacket, Wall Street, Dirty Dancing, RoboCop, The Living Daylights, Lethal Weapon, Space Balls, The Lost Boys, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Fatal Attraction, Raising Arizona, The Running Man, Evil Dead II, Good Morning, Vietnam, Adventures in Babysitting, Some Kind of Wonderful, La Bamba, Can’t Buy Me Love, Near Dark, 3 Men and a Baby, The Secret of My Succe$s, Less Than Zero, Dragnet, No Way Out, Blind Date, Project X, Summer School, Throw Momma from the Train, Roxanne, Stakeout, Born In East LA, The Pick-up Artist, Hollywood Shuffle

HAVE NOT: Empire of the Sun, Angel Heart, Wings of Desire, The Last Emperor, Withnail & I, Bagdad Cafe, Broadcast news, Babette’s Feast, The Monster Squad, Barfly, Suspect, Cry Freedom, Hamburger Hill, Ironweed, Radio Days, House of Games, Pelle the Conqueror, Gardens of Stone, Prick Up Your Ears, Walker

After The Untouchables, I have to pick The Princess Bride. Smart, funny comedic fantasy. Not quite Python but brilliant in its own cheerful way. So many funny lines; such great characters.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIP6EwqMEoE?rel=0]

There were a lot of great comedies that year — Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Raising Arizona, Roxanne, and Good Morning Vietnam were all great. I think Raising Arizona gets the most love, it’s a Coen Brothers movies and Nick Cage is totally committed in it but Planes is pretty damn funny, Roxanne has some classic scenes and Good Morning Vietnam is probably Robin Williams best pure comedy movie.

Evil Dead II and RoboCop are technically comedies but they are pretty funny. People forget about RoboCop but it was a pretty aggressive parody of society when it came out. Evil Dead II is the funniest horror movie I’ve ever seen. I also always liked Some Kind of Wonderful more than just about any of the John Hughes movies – not for nothing the one with Mary Stuart Masterson in it.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZJVFu-c9DI?rel=0]

Last but not least, The Lost Boys is a cult classic for me, if for no other reason than I saw it freshman year in college with a bunch of friends from that year; saw it a bunch more times and it was a small touchstone for that group.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsv_NQFbQzo?rel=0]

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