Sunday, June 08, 2014

Movies by year: 1988

(Don't call me stupid - I'm warning you now about spoilers!)

1988 was a pretty good year, I have a lot of good memories from that time of my life. Including movies!

Dangerous Liaisons was a tightly-woven tapestry of sexual intrigue and one-upmanship in the 1700s - John Malkovich was hypnotic. Beetlejuice warned us that, when you die but you don't go away, you really should just read the manual and not turn to shysters in stripey pants. The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey was out of left field - The Black Death is coming to a 14th century Cumbrian village, and their only hope is to install a new cross on the biggest church in the world - which they find by digging downward and ending up in 20th century New Zealand. Terry Gilliam brought us The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen, a weird (of course) tale of a distracted hero who may or may not be just a senile actor. Willow was tasked with protecting Elora Dennan from the evils of the world, with the help of some great stop-motion animation. And Young Einstein proffered the theory that Albert Einstein was, in fact, from Tasmania (amazing soundtrack).

My choice?

A Fish Called Wanda


OK, so George (Tom Georgeson), Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis), Otto (Kevin Kline) and Ken (Michael Palin) are a team of thieves who have just pulled of a successful jewelry heist - problem is, the cops have caught George and it turns out there was a witness who has to be taken care of. Meanwhile, Wanda and Otto plan to make off with the jewels themselves, and George's lawyer Archie (John Cleese) will probably be able to get him out before they can get away. Wanda must keep Archie from getting George out, but they fall for each other in the process. Meanwhile, Ken's animal lover must try to off the witness, but keeps getting her dogs instead, which eats away at him. Fun, right?

Kevin Kline almost steals the show, he's deliciously stupid and cruel. Ken's horror at his own mistakes and then Otto's torture by fish ingestion is genius. And Archie's slow fall from grace at the hands of the irresistible Wanda is a thing of beauty.

Be careful watching it though, it could be lethal.

There was a sequel-of-cast in Fierce Creatures, but I've never seen it - have you?

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