Beware The Savage Jaw

People were waiting for the year 1984 so long that by the time it came it seemed like an anticlimax.  But what about the movies?  Let's return to a time when scores had synthesizers and blockbusters had no CGI.

Here are Jesse Walker's top ten for the year:

1. Repo Man
2. Love Streams
3. This Is Spinal Tap
4. Once Upon a Time in America
5. Nothing Lasts Forever
6. Antonio Gaudí
7. Secret Honor
8. Amadeus
9. Ghostbusters
10. Blood Simple

I still remember how wild it was to see Repo Man--I had no idea what it was, and it looked to be pretty stupid, but it sure wasn't. How come Alex Cox's career fell apart?  Love Streams is one of those Cassavetes titles I haven't gotten around to, but if it's anything like his other films, I doubt it'll make my top ten.  (My favorite Cassavetes film is Mikey And Nicky and it's not even his.)  This Is Spinal Tap was, like Repo Man, a wonderful surprise.  Rob Reiner started out so strong in his first few features and then...  There are some fine sequences in Once Upon A Time In America, but I don't consider it a classic (though I don't think I've seen the long version, even if I doubt it would make a difference).  Haven't seen numbers 5 and 6.  Many times I've walked by the building where Secret Honor was shot, but I only caught about half an hour of it once, so I can't comment on the actual film. I consider Oscar-winner Amadeus minor--probably shouldn't be on this list.  But Ghostbuster should definitely be here.  I blow hot and cold on the Coens, and consider their debut, which got them so much attention, to not quite work--it wasn't until Raising Arizona that I became a fan.

 Honorable mentions:

 

11. King Lear
12. Before Stonewall
13. Favorites of the Moon
14. There Will Come Soft Rains
15. After the Rehearsal
16. Paris, Texas
17. Return to Waterloo (Ray Davies)
18. Stranger Than Paradise
19. Two Tribes (Kevin Godley, Lol Creme)
20. A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven)

Jesse's seeing a lot of them arty films.  I haven't caught 11, 13, 14, 15 (which is a TV movie originally), 17 or 19 (is that a video?).

Before Stonewall is a well done doc.  Paris, Texas isn't bad, but could profitably lose half an hour.  Stranger Than Paradise should be near the top of the top ten.  A Nightmare On Elm Street is better than most slasher films but it's not a genre I go for (I prefer The Simpsons parody.)

Other films that might make my top ten:

The Brother From Another Planet

Choose Me

Comfort And Joy

Gremlins

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Splash  (Ron Howard's career reminds me a bit of Rob Reiner's)

Stop Making Sense

The Terminator (surprised this didn't make Jesse's list)

What Have I Done To Deserve This?

Wheels On Meals


Other films I liked:

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (seriously flawed but still fascinating), Bachelor Party, Broadway Danny Rose, Finders Keepers, Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, The Last Starfighter, Night Of The Comet (quite a year for Catherine Mary Stewart), Revenge Of The Nerds, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (if not as good as II or IV), Streetwise, A Sunday In The Country, The Times Of Harvey Milk (if I have to pick one gay documentary from 1984 it'd probably be this one), Top Secret!


Other films of note:

Against All Odds, All of Me, Alphabet City, American Dreamer, Angel, Another Country, Bad Manners,  Beat Street, Best Defense, Beverly Hills Cop, Birdy, Blame It on Rio, Blind Date, Body Double, Bolero, The Bostonians, The Bounty, Breakin', The Buddy System, C.H.U.D., Cal, Cannonball Run II, Carmen, Cheech & Chong's The Corsican Brothers, Children of the Corn, City Heat, Cloak & Dagger, The Company of Wolves, Conan the Destroyer, The Cotton Club, Crackers, The Dollmaker, Double Trouble, Dreamscape, Dune (it does have a good look), The Dungeonmater, Electric Dreams, Falling in Love, Finders Keepers, Firestarter, Firstborn, The Flamingo Kid, Footloose, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Garbo Talks, Give My Regards to Broad Street, The Glitter Dome, The Goodbye People, Grandview, U.S.A., Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, Hardbodies, Harry & Son, Heartsounds, The Hit, Hot Dog…The Movie, The Hotel New Hampshire, The Ice Pirates, Iceman, In Heaven There Is No Beer?, Irreconcilable  Differences, Johnny Dangerously, National Lampoon's Joy of Sex, The Karate Kid,  The Killing Fields, Lassiter, Le Bon Plaisir, The Little Drummer Girl, The Lonely Guy, Love Letters, Maria's Lovers, Marlene, Mass Appeal, Meatballs Part II, Micki & Maude, Mike's Murder, Missing in Action, Moscow on the Hudson, Mrs. Soffel, The Muppets Take Manhattan, Nadia, The Natural, The NeverEnding Story, Nineteen Eighty-Four, No Small Affair, Oh, God! You Devil, Oxford Blues, A Passage to India, The Philadelphia Experiment, Places in the Heart, Police Academy (it had some nice gags), The Pope of Greenwich Village, Protocol, Purple Rain, Racing with the Moon, The Razor's Edge, Red Dawn (fun concept almost makes it work), Rhinestone, The River, Silent Night, Deadly Night, Sixteen Candles, Slapstick of Another Kind, A Soldier's Story, Songwriter, Starman, The Stone  Boy, Streets Of  Fire, Supergirl, Swann in Love, Swing Shift, Talk to Me, Tank, Terror in the Aisles, Thief of Hearts, Tightrope, The Toxic Avenger, Toy Soldiers, Twist and Shout, Under the Volcano, Unfaithfully Yours, Until September, Up the Creek, Where the Boys Are '84, The Wild Life, The Woman in Red