Kickboxer Series (1989 - 1995)

An American action series directed by Mark di Salle, David Worth, Albert Pyun, Rick King and Kristine Peterson, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme.
A man's brother is injured in a Thai boxing match and he trains with an old man to get revenge. Then it all goes down the toilet.
This series had a great start, faltered in #2, came back with drama/comedy in #3 and then died. I can't believe someone re-booted it (2016, 2018, 2020) after what a disaster #5 was. The first one is a classic. It has style, the viewer cares about the characters and there are extended training scenes. The second was annoying at best, but there was a kid with a King Diamond shirt (image) in the beginning. The third resurrected the series. There was a large sub-plot about kidnapped girls, but the main plot was about the hero, the old man and 2 kids. Sasha Mitchell did a great job in his role as David Sloane. He was expressive and charismatic. He was not so great in #2 and #4. Speaking of #4, it was one of the worst films I've ever seen. The main plot of the tournament would have been fine, but there was this added thing with an abducted wife, a ninja and an EXTREMELY graphic sex scene. If it were not following such crap, #5 would have been terrible. I thought it was really boring. The moral of the story here is to watch #1 & #3, but not the rest. I'm rating the whole series o.k. because of the wildly variable quality.

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)

An American science fiction comedy directed by Joe Johnston, starring Rick Moranis.
A scientist's machine accidentally shrinks his 2 children and the neighbors' 2 children as well. He sweeps them up and leaves them in a trash bag across the yard.
Late '80s classic. I have no idea why I'm writing about these obvious movies. They are mostly made around the same time and all get decent to good reviews. I've seen a "making of" about this and lots of physical effects were used. Large props and sets look way better than CG to me. Another interesting note is that Matt Frewer (neighbor Russell) also played trash can man in The Stand (1994). The first time I watched this after finding out about these roles, I couldn't help thinking about neighbor Russell saying "bumpty bumpty bump, thumpty thumpty thump". I rate this good. You really should watch it.

Venus Wars A.K.A. ヴイナス戦記, Vinasu Senki (1989)

A Japanese science fiction anime directed by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko.
A reporter from Earth and a motorcycle racer are caught in a war on Venus.
One of the classic anime that I watched on the Science Fiction Channel before it became known as syfy. I remember overplaying the VHS that I recorded from TV. The song, "Shakunestu no Circuit" by Eiko Yamane/Joe Hisaishi still plays in my head when I think of this movie. The single-wheeled motorcycles were a great touch, which carried over into military vehicles. Heroes named Hiro are all too common in anime though. Late '80s / early '90s anime visual and audio style are too divine to express in words. I rate this best. Watch it!

National Lampoon's Vacations: regular, European & Christmas (1983, 1985 & 1989)

American comedies directed by Harold Ramis, Amy Heckerling and Jeremiah S. Chechik, starring Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo.
Mr. Griswold tries to show his family a good time on hollidays, but things never go as planned.
Another set! I have to take these back-logged movies down as efficiently as possible. This set, like Indiana Jones, peaked in the middle. I like European Vacation most because it was still funny and fresh at that point, but without Aunt Edna. I think Edna really crapped on the middle of the first film. My favorite scene from European was shopping for Italian clothes. The French waiter mocking the Griswolds was funny and, holding a personal grudge against a douche-hound myself, seeing one jump off the Eiffel Tower was cool. Chevy Chase is an alright actor, but I liked him more in Caddyshack (1980). He seems a little too goofy in Lampoon's Vacations, but has Beverly D'Angelo to play the "straight man" for his funny man act. What really bothers me about this set is switching actors for the children in every film. They seem to be teenagers in European and it almost works, but are back to small children in Christmas. I have not included the newer films because I just plain don't like them and won't watch them (yet). I rate this set o.k. and would recommend European over the others.

Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the Temple of Doom, and the Last Crusade, and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (1981 - 2008)

American action adventures directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Harrison Ford.
An archaeologist is trying to get the ark of the covenant before nazis do, rescue magic stones from a cult in India, searching for his father and the holy grail and returning a crystal skull to aliens before the soviets get it.
Pretty cool stuff. I like Temple of Doom the most because of the action scenes and comedic relief of Short Round. I think Indy gets beat up a little more in this than the others too. The rest are alright and fill out the story of the main character. One of the film classes I took cited Raiders of the Lost Ark as being filmed well. I can see them all being filmed well, with lots of planning to get timing right. This is one of the sets that I like to watch consecutively, just because of length. I rate it adequate because it all just blends together into a whole story to me and it's relatively good, but there are far better films.

See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989)

An American crime comedy directed by Arthur Hiller, starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder.
A blind man (Pryor) and deaf man (Wilder) are the only witnesses to a murder. The cops arrest them, but they escape and encounter the real murderers, finding that a gold coin which was dropped in their tip jar was in dispute. They must avoid the cops until they can locate the real criminals.
I thought this was funny in some sections. I also thought it was very standard of the place and time. A good example of this is knowing when the car chase was done because the chase music stopped. It's just all so obvious to anyone who grew up watching late '80s and early '90s movies. Come to think of it, this would have been at home, even in the 1970s. Both actors would have been around and the plot is not specific to 1989. I really like the combination of Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. Their comedy duo worked great in this film because they can both act foolishly and make it seem sincere. The immature chief cop was a character which most folks would not write about, but I found him to be acting rather childishly. "We went to all this trouble to catch them and now you're telling me I can't shoot them?" This was right after a regular deputy has to tell him that the real criminals have been caught. I rate this adequate because I found some of it funny. Watch it if you like comedies made in this era.

Paganini Horror (1989)

An Italian horror directed by Luigi Cozzi.
A pop band decide to use the famous composer's music and house for a song and music video. Unfortunately, this awakens some type of evil in the house.
I don't even need to list everything that was wrong with or bad about this. A list of what was right or interesting is much shorter. Most of the camera-work was terrible, but there were a few city scenes (probably in Venice) which looked amazing (image). All of the playing of musical instruments was faked extremely unconvincingly, but an amplifier is seen in one of the shots toward the end which matches an amp that I have. It's a Peavey VXT Classic from the early 1980s. That's all that's worth mentioning. I rate this shit because I should have turned it off and would not recommend it to anyone, even to mock.

House series (1986 - 1992)

An American horror produced by Sean S. Cunningham, starring William Katt.
1: A writer moves into his aunt's house where his son disappeared. 2: A man and his wife move into a house which is missing a crystal skull and dig up the man's great grandfather. 3: A killer haunts the house of a police detective. 4: A house that was built over a healing spring is inherited by a man's wife when her husband is killed by his brother, who wants to demolish the house.
The only common themes which tied these films together were title and being produced by Sean S. Cunningham. I really liked the first 2 because the first film was a more serious horror and a horror classic. The second film was a horror comedy, which is one of my favorite genres, but only from the 1980s, which this was. It was even made in the magic year of 1987 (golden age of modern cinema, see other posts). Number 3 had nothing to do with any of the others, mostly because nobody moved into the haunted house to get the film started. However, it did have Lance Henriksen who played Bishop in Aliens and Alien 3. Number 4 brought back William Katt as Roger Cobb, but his character died at the beginning. I rate them like so: 1 awesome, 2 good, 3 bad, 4 bad. I would recommend the first 2, but not the others.

Always (1989)

An American romance directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter and John Goodman.
A man flies an airplane to put out forest fires, but his girlfriend wants him to become a flight instructor. He crashes his plane, dies and is assigned to be inspiration for his ex's new boyfriend.
Stupid, terrible and vapid. The audio sounded like modern films: the fire scenes sounded like they were happening in my room and the dialogue was a few blocks away. In a dialogue-driven plot (even what little there was of it), the dialogue needs to at least be audible. The characters were all shallow and lacked back-story. The audience never finds out what any of them were doing before the first scene of the movie. When all of this is piled on top of me not liking romance films, it does not end well. At the ending, when the woman sunk her plane, I was saying "drown, bitch, drown!" at the screen. I rate this bad. Do not watch!

All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)

An Irish British American animated musical directed by Don Bluth, starring Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise.
A German Shepherd and his Dachshund friend break out of the pound and return to the life of gambling that they had left behind. A Bulldog is now running the casino and has a human girl hidden in the back room who talks to rats and determines winners in their races. The escaped convicts rescue the girl and proceed to exploit her animal communication skills in exactly the same manner as the Bulldog.
Bad music! Don Bluth directed The Secret of NIMH, which was not a musical and was much better. I think the songs only hurt this film. He also directed Pete's Dragon with good music. Ralph Burns did the music for ADGTH and Irwin Kostal did the music for PD, so that explains the difference. Much of the music problem was in audio mixing, with the vocals too loud and instruments too quiet. On an interesting note, the girl star of this film, Judith Barsi, was abused and eventually murdered by her father before he shot himself. Wikipedia reports that she had begun plucking her eyelashes and her cat's whiskers because of the trauma. I thought the plot of this film reminded me of a combination of Oliver Twist and Paper Moon. The innocent child is thrown into a life of crime and her "guardian" is not qualified to take care of her. I think I saw this in the theater when it was originally released. I rate it o.k., but it would have gotten a much better rating without the songs.

God of Gamblers A.K.A. Doe San, Dǔ Shén (1989)

A Chinese action comedy directed by Wong Jing, starring Chow Yun-fat and Andy Lau.
An extremely skilled gambler accidentally falls into a trap laid by a small-time and his friend, hitting his head multiple times and losing his memory. The friends pick him up and soon find out that he can gamble well if they feed him a certain kind of chocolate that reawakens part of his memory. Gambling debts of the unskilled gambler, a bodyguard from the high level gamblers and a team of Triad assassins all converge in a parking garage and the skilled gambler is injured again, restoring his memory. He then goes to one final game before leaving the country.
2 hours of this was a little bit too much. The complex plot had too many sub-plots (as always). There were lots of characters and even more extras, but the few main characters stood out quite well. Their dialogue was written well enough to identify them and their acting was pretty good. Sets and costumes were slightly varied. There were rich people and places as well as poor, seedy ones. My favorite set was the bamboo scaffolding. Camera-work was done very well. Not only was there a variety of shot distances, but a good mix of shot lengths. It was a little heavier on short takes and close-ups, but there were enough medium and long takes and framings mixed in. I think there was something wrong with the version that I got because white items at night had halos around them. This may have been true of the original, but probably not. Special effects were pretty standard of the time and genre: a few shootings, a knifing, some falls and high altitude acrobatics. I watched a version dubbed into Thai with English subtitles, but everything sounded to be mixed correctly. IMDb lists a rating of 7.4/10 and Rotten Tomatoes lists 87% audience score for an average of 80.5%. I rate this o.k. It would have been better if it were shorter and fewer sub-plots.

The Killer A.K.A. dip6 hyut3 soeng1 hung4, Diéxuè shuāngxióng (1989)

A Hong Kong action film directed by John Woo, starring Chow Yun-fat.
Chinese gangsters and cops have guns. They use them.
Oh, man! What a steaming pile! The plot was muddy and not communicated well. The characters were difficult to differentiate. I'm not being racist here. Simple fact is that tons of guys from the same country look the same when they all wear business suits and have the same hairstyle. The video was over-dramatized and so '80s cheesy that it hurt to watch. The slow motion and freeze frame was the worst part. The audio was in Chinese with accurate English subtitles. The soundtrack was like the video: how '80s cheesy can we make it? Overall, you're better off staring at a wall in silence than watching this crap. Apparently, '80s China's film industry was similar to that of Italy in the '60s. They just cranked out crap. I rate this bad because I've seen much worse. DO NOT WATCH!!!

How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989)

A British comedic tragedy written and directed by Bruce Robinson, starring Richard E. Grant.
An advertising writer is stressing out over an ad for pimples. He has a nervous breakdown, questions the ethics of advertising and grows a boil on his shoulder. The boil comes to life and starts talking.
This went downhill fast. The plot started off like a prequel to Branded (2012), but then the boil spoke and the rest was like a toilet flushing. I really liked the main character and he freaked out so well when he was against advertising. I wish the wife had watched his re-edited video. All the other characters were extras. The video was pretty standard of the time. The boil speaking was annoying and there was a quick scene of cartoon birds that came out of nowhere and had no impact on the plot. The audio was standard of the time as well. I could hear most of the dialogue and soundtrack music kept to the background. Overall, they screwed it up around 27 minutes in. I rate this poor because it started out so well before turning into shit.

Godzilla vs. Biollante A.K.A. Gojira tai Biorante (1989)

A Japanese daikaiju science fiction directed by Kazuki Omori.
Scientists use Godzilla cells when genetically engineering a plant. A monster results that fights Godzilla.
Those darn scientists just can't keep their filthy digits off of Godzilla's cells and genetic material. They have known since the 1970s that it doesn't turn out well, but keep doing it anyway. The unique monster for this film was alright. It's final form was only shown for a few minutes of battle time and most of the film was taken up by talking scenes about genetic engineering and G cells. Godzilla's acting was moderately expressive and his costume was one of the better ones. It even had eye articulation. I'm really becoming familiar with the Godzilla series by watching so many in a row. I would not recommend this activity because of redundancy and repetition. Overall, this is not one of the better Godzilla films. It's not so bad that you would be better off just viewing a picture of the unique monster, but it's not really worth watching either. I rate it tolerable.

Do the Right Thing (1989)

An American drama directed by Spike Lee, starring Danny Aiello, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, John Turturro and John Savage.
A young black man delivers pizzas for an Italian restaurant. Racial tension rises in the neighborhood on a hot day.
This is amazing. Such style, such grace. It flows so smooth. The plot is simple and worth paying attention to. There are lots of characters and they are stereotypical, but that's what makes them great. The video is seamless. It looks like you're there with these people and know them. The audio featured a repeating song, but I think that adds to the atmosphere of the film. The plot calls for hot and it looks and sounds hot. Setting is in an urban neighborhood and we feel like we're there. The variety of characters with dialogue written so well. I could sing the praises of this film forever. I know I've turned on "Racist Cowboy Mode" and said that Spike Lee makes "Nigger Movies", but this absolves him of any and all crimes of cinema. Overall, WONDERFUL! I rate this best! WATCH IT!!!!!

Herdsmen of the Sun A.K.A. Wodaabe - Die Hirten der Sonne (1989)

A West German documentary directed by Werner Herzog.
The lives of an African tribe called the Wodaabe are shown. Their general activities and some refugees of drought stuck in a city are shown, but the main focus is on a large gathering with rituals and dancing.
This was very unique. That's mainly what it takes to impress me. From the first shot of the men's faces I could tell that it would not be boring to watch. Herzog includes lots of interviews with various people, usually through a translator with voiceovers and subtitles added later. The video was the most varied, showing the extremes of trash pickers in the city to vibrant costumes of the dancers. At only about 50 minutes, anyone should have time to watch this. Overall, my favorite Herzog documentary. I rate this awesome. WATCH IT!!!

Meet the Feebles (1989)

A New Zealand musical comedy directed by Peter Jackson.
Basically, an R rated version of The Muppet Show. A variety show staffed by puppets has problems including a drug deal gone wrong, overweight star, sex scandals and tabloids.
This was great. I like the Muppets, but this was better. All of the jokes were filthy, there was violence, etc. There was a drug addict frog knife thrower, a rabbit worried that he might have an STD, the hippo woman takes off her clothes, I could go on and on. You get the picture. I thought it was really funny and enjoyed watching it. I rate this awesome. Watch it!

New York Stories (1989)

An American drama directed by Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, starring Mia Farrow and Nick Nolte.
3 stories happen in New York City. In the first, a painter breaks up with his girlfriend. The second concerns a rich and spoiled girl whose parents are away and in the third, a man's overbearing mother appears in the sky.
This was actually enjoyable. The plots followed the infamous UPO, but with 3 of them, it seemed better. The characters were all stereotypical and shallow, but I almost liked that about them. The pacing was just quick enough to keep things moving in all 3 sections. The only negative criticism that I have for this is that it was a little too hokey at times. I'm rating it good though. Watch this!

Physical Evidence (1989)

An American crime drama directed by Michael Crichton, starring Burt Reynolds, Theresa Russell and Ned Beatty.
A ex-cop is accused of murder and a young female public defender takes his case. They work together against all odds to find the real killer.
This was so stereotypical. The characters were exactly what you would use if you were making a film to mock late '80s courtroom flicks and the plot was no better. The ending was extremely inconclusive. Style reeked of 1989, with big shoulder pad suit jackets for the female lead and a big reel-to-reel tape recorder for the male. There was nothing interesting to note on camera-work or editing. Overall, it's very mediocre and should only be watched for 1980s nostalgia purposes. I rate it poor.

Der Todesking A.K.A. The Death King (1989)

A German horror directed by Jorg Buttgereit.
Various people kill themselves in various ways over the course of a week while a rotting corpse decomposes.
This is a great film for the whole family. Wives and children will really dig it. It was recommended to me by the same person who recommended Necromantik, so I knew what I was in for. There was really no plot and the characters were different in each scene. This character change was necessary because the ones from the last scene died. The style was similar to Necromantik. The pacing was slow to start, but settled into a regular groove eventually. Because I prefer death to come on the field of battle with samurai style honor or in a kung fu battle, I was not impressed. I'll give it a strange pink rating because it's just not for me. It was well made and all, but not what floats my boat.