Red Heat
A Russian officer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and a Chicago cop (Jim Belushi) team up to bring down a drug kingpin (Ed O’Ross) in 1988’s Red Heat. There are parallels with Rocky […]
Tag Archives: 1980s
River’s Edge
The murder of a teenage girl is met with juvenile apathy and misplaced loyalty in 1986’s River’s Edge, AKA Stand By Me on crack. Loosely based on a real case […]
Police Academy
An understaffed police department opens its ranks to recruits of any gender, age or weight in 1984’s Police Academy, AKA If…. meets On the Buses. This comedy sees a new […]
Beverly Hills Cop
Eddie Murphy turned down Ghostbusters to make the movie that would narrowly beat it, as Beverly Hills Cop cleverly comes top of the 1984 box office. This action-comedy about a […]
Red Sonja
Arnold Schwarzenegger steals Sylvester Stallone’s wife in 1985 fantasy flop Red Sonja, a warrior woman’s (Brigitte Nielsen) quest for revenge against the evil queen (Sandahl Bergman) who killed her family. […]
The Untouchables
Having decided he was done making Psycho (until Raising Cain at least), Brian De Palma turned to crime (filming it rather than committing it) in the 1980s, directing Al Pacino in […]
Commando
Sylvester Stallone claims this film was made in response to Rambo, during the Stallone/Schwarzenegger cinematic arms race that claimed more onscreen lives than the Cold War. An invincible ex-military man […]
Demons
The great thing about genre is that classics and VHS bargain bin staples are often one and the same. Demons is such a film; a “Spaghetti Splatter” cult favourite about a zombie […]
Video Nasty 37: Tenebrae
Before Misery and In the Mouth of Madness, Dario Argento explored the idea of horror novels causing real violence in 1982’s Tenebrae; the story of an American novelist (Anthony Franciosa) […]
Legend (1985)
A young Tom Cruise stars in this largely forgotten fantasy flop ironically titled Legend. Bringing an abrupt halt to Ridley Scott’s early run of classics (The Duellists, Alien and Blade […]
Screen Goblin 