The Bedroom Window (1987)
In the early 1980s, filmmaker Curtis Hanson had just come off of directing Losin’ It, a teen comedy about a group of young American men who travel to Tijuana, Mexico to lose their virginity....
Category: 1980s
The Nude Bomb (1980) | aka, The Return of Maxwell Smart
Maxwell Smart (Adams), the dimwitted super-spy from the hit Mel Brooks/Buck Henry-created TV series from the 1960s, “Get Smart” returned in 1980 for a brand new, racier adventure. Entitled The Nude Bomb, it has...
Die Hard (1988)
In 1968, Roderick Thorp’s 1966 novel, “The Detective”, was adapted to the screen by 20th Century Fox. The film version starred Frank Sinatra as middle-aged ex-cop Joe Leland and performed well enough at the...
Blood Simple (1984)
Blood Simple is most notable for being the first film by the Coen Brothers (Barton Fink, Fargo), and also an example of the noir revival in the 1980s (though Chinatownstill reigns for all-time best), culminating in the...
The Philadelphia Experiment (1984)
Based on an urban legend, The Philadelphia Experiment tells a “Twilight Zone”-ish story of a bizarre occurrence during a Naval test in the middle of WWII. This test was an attempt to rig the US battleships...
Vibes (1988)
Pop star Cyndi Lauper’s (Life with Mikey, The Opportunists) debut performance in a feature film is the main interest in this otherwise forgettable comedy that would prove to be the first dud for the...
Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)
Discussions of a sequel to Beverly Hills Cop began before its release in theaters. Nevertheless, Paramount execs took a wait-and-see approach but didn’t have to wait long, as it shattered box office records for...
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
In the mid-1970s, Don Simpson relocated to Beverly Hills for a job developing films for Paramount Pictures. A mechanic’s son from Anchorage, Alaska, Simpson felt out of place residing among the wealthy elite. After...
The Golden Child (1986)
The Golden Child is said to have been originally conceived of as a more serious adventure, intended to star Mel Gibson, but those plans fell through. When Eddie Murphy (Beverly Hills Cop, Trading Places) became available,...
The Hitcher (1986)
The mad hitchhiker film didn’t start with The Hitcher, but that didn’t stop it from leaving an indelible mark on the subgenre. Prior to its release, there had been 1947’s The Devil Thumbs a Ride, the...