The Boy Who Could Fly (1986)
[7] The Boy Who Could Fly is a goofy movie, but it has a lot of heart. Lucy Deakins stars as Milly, a fourteen-year-old girl who has just moved to a new town after her father committed suicide. She discovers her next…
Can’t Buy Me Love (1987)
[4] Bless Patrick Dempsey for acting his little heart out in this schmaltzy, cliche-ridden '80s overdose. It's basically a story of boy rents girl. Dempsey's character is a loser who pays a popular girl (Amanda Peterson, also acting her heart out) one…
Dreamchild (1985)
[6] A provocative film about the real Alice in Wonderland, who at 80 years of age begins recollecting her memories of author Lewis Carroll. Through flashbacks with Carroll (played superbly by Ian Holm) and in twisted fantasy sequences featuring creations from the…
Jumpin’ Jack Flash (1986)
[3] Whoopi Goldberg stars as a bank computer specialist who inadvertently decodes a plea for help and gets roped by the mysterious sender into a series of dangerous spy games. Jumpin' Jack Flash was Whoopi's second major role after her auspicious debut…
Daniel (1983)
[6] Sidney Lumet directs this fictionalized account of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a married couple who were accused of being Soviet spies and executed in the midst of 1950s' McCarthyism hysteria. Lumet cuts back and forth in time throughout the movie, balancing…
Cruising (1980)
[8] Al Pacino plays a New York police detective who goes deep under cover within the city's S&M community to catch a serial killer preying on gay men. Director William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection) stirred controversy for his depiction of…
Heartburn (1986)
[4] Meryl Streep stars as a food critic reluctant to remarry. But who can resist the charm of Jack Nicholson? The two marry and squeeze out a kid, and then sure enough, he cheats on her and the infidelity escalates from there.…
To Be or Not To Be (1983)
[7] Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft star as leaders of a Polish theater troop forced to entertain the Nazis while simultaneously plotting their escape to Allied territory. You might think the material is too heavy for a comedy, but To Be or…
Scrooged (1988)
[5] I thought I'd get a lot more from a dark comedy directed by Richard Donner (Superman, Lethal Weapon) and starring Bill Murray, but Scrooged is neither dark nor funny enough to leave much of a lasting impression. Murray plays a cutthroat…
Sophie’s Choice (1982)
[8] Meryl Streep snared the best actress Oscar for her disarming performance as a Polish refugee forced by a Nazi soldier into one of the cruelest scenarios a mother could imagine -- choosing which of her two children will die. The Auschwitz…