Tag: 1989

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Movie Review

Tunnels (1989) Movie Review

Tunnels – Movie Review

Tunnels follows two investigative reporters uncovering a deadly cover-up linked to missing homeless people and disturbing truths beneath the city sewers.

First Reaction – Tunnels gives a truly disturbing truth behind the crime world.

Director: Mark Byers

Writer: Daniel Yost (Screenplay)

Cast

Plot: Two investigative reporters track down reports of giant rats in a city sewer system.

Runtime: 1 Hour 33 Minutes 

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Tunnels starts when two desk reporters Pam (Bach) and Sharon (Dallas) decide to investigate reports of missing homeless people. It takes them into the sewers and stories of giant rats. However, their investigations tend to lead to a different direction and the reporters uncover a much deadlier cover-up.

The pair discover a bigger story than what their publisher is willing to publish. However, it means they are getting in more danger and face off against the truth in the sewers.

Verdict on Tunnels

Recap

The movie follows two journalists who decide to investigate the story of giant rats in the sewers. However, their journey sees them discover a much more disturbing truth and trying to break it puts their lives in danger.

Best Parts

The bigger mystery and cover up is disturbing and brings to life a real-life situation the rich might get involved in. also, the idea we live in the darkness of the shadows for operations only improves the bigger shock involved.

Worst Parts

The problem comes from it being sold as a creature lurking in the shadows and goes in a completely different direction. It also makes one of the reporters out to be extremely naïve to what is going on. This ends up being more of a crime drama than a horror in the sewers.

Final Thoughts –Tunnels has a disturbing series of events to reveal a shocking truth.

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Movie Review

Sea of Love (1989) Movie Review

Sea of Love – Movie Review

Discover the thrilling crime drama 'Sea of Love' and the captivating performances of Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin.

Director: Harold Becker

Writer: Richard Price (Screenplay)

Cast

Plot: A detective investigating a series of murders becomes involved with a woman who may be the culprit.

Runtime: 1 Hour 53 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Sea of Love starts when Detective Frank Keller (Pacino) gets an unusual murder case. It seems random, but a chance encounter with another Detective, Sherman (Goodman) leads to Frank wanting to investigate more. The pair decide to work together, which creates a sting operation where they create a fake personal ad.

However, Frank falls for one of the women, Helen (Barkin) and the pair start a steamy relationship. Even if she is the prime suspect, he continues the investigation, which could put his life in danger.

Verdict on Sea of Love

Sea of Love is a crime thriller following a detective leading a sting operation searching for a killer using personal ads. However, he falls in love with the prime suspect and finds himself caught between two worlds as he tries to solve the murders.

The movie brings to life a different type of killer being hunted. It uses a string of personal ads to create a suspect unlike anything we have seen before. This also balances police work with personal life, leading to the mystery of what is going on. It does a good job of keeping us guessing and leaves us surprised by the truth. However, it feels like it falls a little bit short with how everything unfolds. Despite Pacino being great and an all-around great cast performing well through the movie.

Where to Watch

JustWatch

Final Thoughts – Sea of Love is a tense mystery thriller, which keeps us guessing.

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Movie Review

Batman (1989) Movie Review

Batman – ABC Film Challenge – Comic Book Movies – V (Vicki Vale) – Batman – Movie Review

Batman

Director: Tim Burton

Writer: Sam Hamm, Warren Skaaren (Screenplay)

Writer: Bob Kane (Characters)

Cast

Plot: The Dark Knight of Gotham City begins his war on crime with his first major enemy being Jack Napier, a criminal who becomes the clownishly homicidal Joker.

Runtime: 2 Hours 6 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Batman starts as Bruce Wayne (Keaton) has started fighting crime as Batman. Gotham City has started to find itself outnumbered by criminals causing chaos. Corruption has taken over the city and gangster Jack Napier (Nicholson) is thriving in it.

When Bruce clashes with Jack, he believes he has been killed in an accident. However, Jack survives and turns the scars he is left with to become The Joker. The Joker decides to take over the criminal empire demanding the death of Batman. This leads to Batman needing to figure out how to stop his biggest threat to date.

Verdict on Batman

Batman is an action-adventure movie following the adventures of Batman against the Joker. It sees how he has started to become the vigilante we know and now he looks to stop crime. On the other side of things, the Joker looks to gain power over the city and needs to stop Batman.

This is often considered one of the best Batman movies, being the first big-budget vision of the project. We get to see the massive gadget and high-tech vehicles used to bring this movie to life. The performances are wonderful and Keaton really brings to life the dual characters, as does Jack Nicholson. While the story keeps things within the city battling corruption and criminal power. We get to see the one trying to stop this with everything he has to give himself an advantage.

Final Thoughts – Batman is one of the greatest comic book movies ever made.

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Movie Review

Communion (1989) Movie Thoughts

ABC Film Challenge – Sci-Fi – C – Communion (1989)

Communion is an interesting sci-fi horror, based on reality of what one man’s claims is true.

Director: Philippe Mora

Writer: Whitley Strieber (Screenplay) Whitley Strieber (Book)

Starring: Christopher Walken, Lindsay Crouse, Frances Sternhagen, Andreas Katsulas, Terri Hanauer

Plot: Oct.4 and Dec.26 the Strieber family drives from NYC to their cabin in the woods. Both nights there are some powerful lights outside and maybe aliens. The dad is mentally affected by the “bad dream”, goes to the shrink and is hypnotized.

Runtime: 1 Hour 47 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Communion starts when the Strieber family start to have unexplained occurrences at night. Whitley (Walken) finding his encounters more vivid than anyone else, causing him problems in everyday life.

As Whitley continues to be unsure of the truth. He is taken through hypnosis in a hope to get to the bottom of what has been happening. Which will reveal a terrifying truth.

Thoughts on Communion

Communion is a sci-fi horror based on the real events that Strieber went through during a couple of months. Which involved an unknown set of events. This will look at how the world will change for these people. With not many people will believe in on and they will see themselves being questioned by every angle.

The performance from Christopher Walken is entertaining even if certain parts of the performance are over the top. Overall this film will ask the bigger question about aliens and whether they are real in this world or not. The weakness in this film does come from the lack of pure horror from the visits that you would think would happen during them.

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Movie Review

ABC Film Challenge – Adventure – B – Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) Movie Review

Director: Stephen Herek

Writer: Chris Matheson, Ed Solomon (Screenplay)

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin, Terry Camilleri, Dan Shor, Tony Steedman

Plot: Two seemingly dumb teens set off on a quest to prepare the ultimate historical presentation with the help of a time machine.


Tagline – History is about to be rewritten by two guys who can’t spell..

Runtime: 1 Hour 30 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure starts as two slackers Bill (Winter) and Ted (Reeves) who are wanting to be music roskstars but leaves them struggling in High School and they both need to past a history exam or they will flunk the year.

Rufus (Carlin) has been sent back through time to put the pair back in line, which will see them travelling through time to meet some of the most important historical figures, causing more problems than they could ever imagine.

Thoughts on Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure

Characters & Performances – Bill & Ted are the best friends who want to be in their band Wyld Stallyns, they have one day to finish their history reports or face flunking high school. Little do the pair know, they are a major part of history and they need to pass this class, which will see them needing to travel through time to meet different historical icons that will give them the answers they need and learn how to take life that little bit more seriously. Alex Winter & Keanu Reeves are both great together with great chemistry through the film. Rufus is the guide for the two, who does work very well in the film. Where the characters fall short is in how the historical figures are portrayed, as poor comic book like characters, instead of showing a remote amount of serious behaviour.

Story – The story here follows to high school slackers who get to travel through time to meet historical icons to help them with a history report which sees them getting involved of a string of miss-adventures. This is a story which at the time of release would have been a lot of fun, but the world has changed and nearly everything feels outdated. The idea of the different people from history being studied in school in confusing, as a select few that they meet would never come up in any history class either. The idea that the slackers are the heroes of their own destiny is important, with the musical dream being something that is easy to get behind. We do get the story which will commit to the silly side, holding back any attempts to keep things serious in anyway.

Themes – Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure is a film that will take the adventure through time, which does work and give plenty of comical moments, well in the eyes of the writers, not taking history too seriously, we do get to head to different locations in time, which will show us how important learning history can be.

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure is an adventure comedy which hasn’t aged as well as it would have liked to, even if it has two enjoyable lead characters.

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Movie Review

ABC Film Challenge – 80s Movies – # – Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) Movie Review

This is under the numbers because of the fact it is a sequel.

Director: Steven Spielberg

Writer: Jeffrey Boam (Screenplay) George Lucas, Menno Meyjes (Story)

Starring: Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliott, Alison Doody, John Rhys-Davies, Julian Glover

Plot: In 1938, after his father Professor Henry Jones, Sr. goes missing while pursuing the Holy Grail, Professor Henry “Indiana” Jones, Jr. finds himself up against Adolf Hitler‘s Nazis again to stop them from obtaining its powers.


Tagline – Have the adventure of your life keeping up with the Joneses

Runtime: 2 Hours 7 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade starts when Indiana Jones (Ford) learns his father Professor Henry Jones (Connery) has gone missing in search of the holy grail, his life’s work, this returns Indiana to Europe where he meets Elsa (Doody) and comes face to face with the Nazis once again.

Indiana and Henry must put aside their differences and get to get to the holy grail first and stop it getting into the hands of pure evil.

Thoughts on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Characters – Indiana Jones returns to his double life of a history professor teaching about fact and the adventurer that goes in search of treasures, only this time he will need to go in search of his father, he must deal with the fact his dad was distant from him growing up and now he must continue his fight against the Nazis. Professor Henry Jones is Indiana’s father and has been studying the Holy Grail his whole life, to which Indiana believes is only paperwork, but his time in the field is now causing more problems for Indiana. Marcus is the smart friend of the Jones family, only he is useless in the field, usually gets laughs along the way. Elsa is the Austrian scientist working for the Nazis looking to get the book belonging to Henry, we are never sure completely which side she is fighting for though.

Performances – Harrison Ford continues to be wonderful to watch in this role, showing excellent chemistry with Sean Connery who brings us the older figure that is played for laughs we never thought he could handle. The rest of the cast are entertaining to watch through the film, bringing to life their different roles with ease.

Story – The story here follows Indiana Jones on his latest adventure to help search for his missing father who went in search for the holy grail. This does bring Indiana back to his fights with the Nazis who want to use historical religious artifacts for their own benefit, this time the holy grail. We continue to build the world here, with an on going rival for Indiana to face, one that he has been up against for his whole life, one that is greedier, but one Indiana has started to get ahead off, along with a father son relationship that needs fixing despite knowing there is love between them.

Action/Adventure – The action sequences continue to follow what we know from the Indiana Jones trilogy, we have big chase sequences, one through Venice, one through the skies above Germany and the desert tank one is brilliant too.

Settings – The film takes us around the world on the adventure as we get to see each location with history being used to help lead the path to the answers.


Scene of the Movie – The Holy Grail.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – Nothing in this one.

Final Thoughts – This is an excellent conclusion to the trilogy, one that builds a bigger world for Indiana and returns to a familiar foe for him to face.

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Movie Review

ABC Film Challenge – 80s Movies – Y – Black Rain (1989) Movie Review

This is going under Y because of the involvement of the Yakuza.

Director: Ridley Scott

Writer: Craig Bolotin, Warren Lewis (Screenplay)

Starring: Michael Douglas, Andy Garcia, Ken Takakura, Kate Capshaw, Yusaku Matsuda, Shigeru Koyama

Plot: Two NYC cops arrest a Yakuza member and must escort him when he’s extradited to Japan.


Tagline – An American Cop in Japan. Their country. Their laws. Their game. His rules.

Runtime: 2 Hours 5 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Gritty Drama

Story: Black Rain starts when bad boy cop Nick Conklin (Douglas) and his partner Charlie Vincent (Garcia) look to clean up their own problem, they stumble into a Yakuza gangster killing the godfather of the Japanese mafia.

Nick and Charlie find themselves needing to escort the killer, only for them to hand him over to an imposter, the pair need to work with the locals to try and recapture the killer in a country that has a battle between two deadly gangs.

Thoughts on Black Rain

Characters – Nick is the bad boy detective that doesn’t always play by the rules with how he gets the job done, this has landed him in trouble on countless times, his latest hearing ends up with his catching an international killer and needing to escort him back to Japan, only to find himself needing to investigate the gang war raging on in the country. Charlie is the by the book cop that knows how to keep Nick in line when he starts going too far, he is willing to be more open about the difference in culture, even if he doesn’t agree with everything, being the good cop to the bad cop attitude to Nick. Masahiro is the local Japanese cop that is assigned to show the detectives around, he ends up working with them to try and get deeper into the bigger case going on within the city. Joyce is an American living in Japan, she does fill in certain parts the locals don’t want to give up.

Performances – Michael Douglas does do his best at trying to be more of a bad boy figure within the film, he has the attitude required for the role, Andy Garcia does bring a more relaxed approach which works well for the film, with the rest of the cast working well with what they need to bring to their roles.

Story – The story here follows two New York detectives who travel across the world to escort a prisoner only to lose them and need to find themselves in the middle of a war for power in Japan, trying to understand the bigger picture. We are given a story here that shows how the change in culture will change how an investigation might well be addressed, it does seem to focus more on how Nick is more aggressive at times than he needs to, he is a shady cop. The investigation doesn’t seem to get into the intense level it should because we don’t focus on any of the criminal activities through the film though.

Action/Crime – The action is simple enough, with most circulating around the motorbike usage of Nick and how controlled he is behind the world, with the criminal side of the film focusing on how everything will be different for the American cops in a new land.

Settings – The film uses the Japan setting to show the cops with a new setting, which will operate in a different manner to what they are used to dealing with. It does show us how the world will feel darker to the criminal world they have come from.


Scene of the Movie – The motorbike riding sequences.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – Not enough focus on the criminal’s actions.

Final Thoughts –This is a by the book crime drama, it has a cop that isn’t a smooth around the edges forced into a world he knows nothing about.

Overall: By the Book.

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Movie Review

ABC Film Challenge – 80s Movies – J – The ‘Burbs (1989) Movie Review

We are under J because of the director Joe Dante.

Director: Joe Dante

Writer: Dana Olsen (Screenplay)

Starring: Tom Hanks, Bruce Dern, Carrie Fisher, Rock Ducommun, Corey Feldman, Wendy Schaal, Henry Gibson

Plot: An overstressed suburbanite and his fellow neighbors are convinced that the new family on the block are part of a murderous Satanic cult.


Tagline – He’s a stranger in an even stranger land… Suburbia

Runtime: 1 Hour 42 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Silly Comedy

Story: The ‘Burbs starts as we head to the suburban neighbourhood, where Ray (Hanks), Mark (Dern) and Rick (Ducommun) all start wondering about the newest member of their neighbourhood, a mysterious family that don’t tend to their garden or come out in day time, with the rumours spiralling out of control, the guys do look to find an answer.

The deeper the group get, the wilder the imagines run with just who the neighbours are, from vampires, to satanic cult members, but just how far with the rumours go.

Thoughts on The ‘Burbs

Characters – Ray is the member of the neighbourhood everyone turns to, he is trying to have a week away from the stress of work, which only gets caught up when the rest of the neighbours want to learn about the mysterious new neighbour, where he must lead the investigation, being the most normal of the three main group. Mark is the military nut that will be able to undercover, but wants to solve the problems quickly, letting other people do the more dangerous tasks. Art is the member of the group that gets thrown into the wackier ideas, which sees him getting the slapstick laughs through the film, with Carol being the long suffering wife of Ray that just wants him to have fun on his time off.

Performances – Tom Hanks is strong enough in the leading role, he does make himself the most likeable of the three main guys, while Bruce Dern does get the most laughs, even if we waste Carrie Fisher at times.

Story – The story here follows three neighbours that start to question the new neighbours believing there is a bigger mystery about who they are, which leads them to investigate the mysterious family. This is a story that just shows how suspicion will only escalate into something deadly, when the rumours are just looking to make the boring lives interesting. We don’t get into the levels we could get too, with the hints of something big, only for it to end up being more of a problem between grown men.

Comedy/Mystery – The comedy in the film is a mix of slapstick, which doesn’t really hit, while the clever movements of Hanks which will get some low key laughs, with the mystery being about the neighbours being the main part of the story.

Settings – The film is set in suburbia and shows how the neighbours are getting too close and suspicious about what is going on within their street.


Scene of the Movie – Ricky watching the events unfold.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – It kind of feels flat.

Final Thoughts – This is a comedy that misses more often than not and ends up lacking in the story side of the film.

Overall: Flat Comedy.

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Movie Review

ABC Film Challenge – 80s – D – DeepStar Six (1989)

Director: Sean S Cunningham

Writer: Lewis Abernathy, Geof Miller (Screenplay)

Starring: Taurean Blacque, Nancy Everhard, Greg Evigan, Miguel Ferrer, Nia Peeples, Matt McCoy, Cindy Pickett

Plot: At the bottom of the ocean, the DeepStar Six has just discovered a new and deadly alien menace.


Tagline – Six miles below the surface of the ocean, something beyond your imagination will scare the hell out of you.

Runtime: 1 Hour 45 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Standard TV Level Sci-Fi

Story: DeepStar Six starts as an underwater contracting team in the ship with the title in its name are digging for missile silos, with the contract running out, they are being forced into blowing a hole in unstable surface at the bottom of the ocean, Captain Laidlaw (Blacque) agrees to the job, with Joyce Collins (Everhard) running the operation.

When the explosion seems to release something unknown, one of the subs goes missing, while another one comes under attack, it turns into a rescue mission for the crew as they need to survive an attack from a deadly enemy from the deep.

Thoughts on DeepStar Six

Characters – Laidlaw is the captain of the crew, he keeps the deadlines running, while wanting to put his team first, he will lead the investigation into what is happening and isn’t going to let them get injured for their actions. Joyce Collins leads the scientific side of the job, she is here to question decisions for safety, even if she doesn’t always getting given the same respect back from the rest of the crew. McBride is the confident member of the team, he believes he can have any woman too which shows him needing to make the difficult life decision during the rescue mission. Snyder is the member of the team that doesn’t want to still be on the team, he believes he has done his time and when things start going wrong he hits the panic button.

Performances – The performances in the film are basic at best, each actor does see them get their moment to shine with most of them usually performing before their big death scene, Miguel Ferrer is the exception to this rule, with his performance that is the highlight of the acting.

Story – The story here follows a group of underwater engineers building missile silos for the military that accidently release an unknown life form that isn’t happy about being disturbed and wants to kill them, which sees them racing to find a way to the surface without injuring themselves through decompression. This story does feel like a low budget version of ‘The Abyss’ which is easy to see with just how the everything unfolds, the characters having the same kind of arc, with this having a horror side, rather than a mystery side with the unknown lifeform. This does fit into the 80s styles of story telling and production which is all simple and enjoyable to watch.

Action/Horror/Sci-Fi – The action is mostly the group screaming when they get attacked by the creature, it isn’t very intense which does disappoint for the most part, this goes for the horror too, which just never gets past the weak creature style, even if the sci-fi side of the film does want to become much more of a central point of the film.

Settings – With most of this film being set underwater, it does give the film a contained environment for the film when it comes to the race to survive.

Special Effects – We do go into practical effects here which should be praised, even if it is mainly just a creature wobbling around all over the screen.


Scene of the Movie – Decompression mistake.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – The characters aren’t very interesting.

Final Thoughts – This is one of the attempts to copy a much more popular film, by putting characters in the similar environment only with a horror twist to everything.

Overall: Simple Sci-Fi