Favorite movies of 1988 anyone?

[Harrycanyon1982]

What a year for movies! i was 6 that year and saw a crapload of movies in theaters and on video and all that.

What's everyone's favorite movies of that amazing year?

My top 25

1. Die Hard.

2. Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

3. Willow.

4. Beetlejuice.

5. Akira.

6. Coming to America.

7. They Live.

8. The Blob.

9. Rambo III.

10. Shakedown.

11. Heathers.

12. The Land Before Time.

13. Big.

14. Killer Klowns from Outer Space.

15. Shakedown.

16. Scrooged.

17. Naked Gun.

18. Crocodile Dundee 2.

19. Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

20. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

21. A Fish Called Wanda.

22. The Great Outdoors.

23. Midnight Run.

24. Oliver and Company.

25. My Neighbor Totoro.



Honorable mentions:

Twins.

Earth Girls are Easy.

Hellbound Hellraiser 2.

Alien Nation.

Dead Ringers.

Pumpkinhead.

The Bear.

Rain Man.
Young Guns.

Fright Night 2.

Pin.

Above the Law.

Brain Damage.

Monkey Shines.

Phantasm 2.

Bloodsport.

Clean and Sober.

Gorillas in the Mist.

Elm Street 4 Dream Master.

Critters 2.

Child's Play.

Friday The 13th part 7.

Casual Sex.

The Dead Pool.

Police Story 2.

Funny Farm.

Ernest Saves Christmas.

Daffy Duck's Quackbusters.

Jack's Back.

Short Circuit 2.

Halloween 4.

Colors.

Comic Book Confidential.

Prison.

Night of the Demons.

Waxwork.

Maniac Cop.

License to Drive.

Lady in White.

Amensterdamned.

Gandahar aka Lightyears.

Serpent and the Rainbow.

Red Heat.



Guilty pleasures:



Slugs.

Troma's War.

Return of the Living Dead 2.

Dead Heat.

The Nest.

18 Again.

Big Top Pee Wee.

Bad Dreams.

 

[Hawki]

Of all those films, only saw Land Before Time.

It was good.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

No mention of the movie that won the academy awawrd for best picture of 1988, Rain Man?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlNwXuHUA8I

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

You were 6 when you saw Rambo III and Die Hard?

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

That's the longest list of honorable mentions I've ever seen.

 

[CheetoDust_v1legacy]

Huh. 88 was probably one of the best years for movie ever, that list is ridiculous and it's missing Heathers and Mississipi Burning so there might be more.

 

[Trunkage]

I haven't watched a single one of these for about a decade. So I cant concur. My favs would have been Akira and Willow

 

[Trunkage]

No mention of the movie that won the academy awawrd for best picture of 1988, Rain Man?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlNwXuHUA8I

Huh. 88 was probably one of the best years for movie ever, that list is ridiculous and it's missing Heathers and Mississipi Burning so there might be more.

Heathers and Rain Man were there

 

[Drathnoxis]

I guess out of the one's I've seen I'd rank them like this

1. My Neighbor Totoro.
2. Crocodile Dundee 2.
3. The Land Before Time.
.
.
.
4. Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Not really a huge fan of any of them, though. I can barely remember Crocodile Dundee 2, and I'm pretty sure I watched it last year.

 

[Harrycanyon1982]

You were 6 when you saw Rambo III and Die Hard?

Yes i saw in theaters in theaters in my city as i saw the first 2 on cable and had a Rambo action figure and all as rambo was popular with kids, Stallone was one of my heroes since i saw Rocky IV in theaters at age 3 being one of the first films i saw and i was 4 when i saw Cobra in theaters being the first r-rated film i saw in theaters with Aliens.

Yes i did saw Die Hard in theaters with my mom, dad and 12 year old big brother in t was a blast seeing it on the big screen and i watched it every Christmas time since.

I also saw Return of the Living Dead part II, Critters 2, Bambi 1988 re-issue (2 times), Fox and the Hound 88 re-issue (2 times), Willow (3 times and had some stuff), Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Dead Heat, Coming to America, Elm Street 4 (yes i saw Elm Street 3 the previous year when i just turned 5 as i saw the first 2 on HBO in 86 with my big brother and saw Elm Street 4 on the big screen with my brother and my dad), Beetlejuice (3 times), The Blob, They live, Child's Play, Monkey Shines, Shakedown, Land Before Time (Saw it on a field trip with my first grade class and saw it 2 more times one with my mom and one with my dad as i had stuff even Pizza hut puppets i remember), Big, Great Outdoors, Who Framed Roger Rabbit (5 times and i had some merchandise as a kid even lunchbox to talking roger doll), Scrooged (2 times), Hellbound Hellraiser 2 (saw the first one in theaters with my dad and brother the previous year), Crocodile Dundee 2, Alien Nation, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Midnight Run, Twins, Pumpkinhead, Gorillas in the Mist, Phantasm, Bloodsport, Halloween 4, Ernest saves Christmas, Big Top Pee-Wee, Friday The 13th part 7, Lady in White, Serpent and the Rainbow, Naked Gun and Oliver & Company (3 times as i even had merchandise as a kid especially the CD soundtrack being my first CD).

Amazing eh?

 

[Chanticoblues]

1. Distant Voices, Still Lives
2. A Tale of the Wind
3. Dead Ringers
4. Die Hard
5. Bird
6. The Age of Success
7. Frantic
8. The Thin Blue Line
9. Wuthering Heights
10. Ariel

Honorable Mentions:
-Landscape in the Mist
-They Live
-My Neighbor Totoro
-Cane Toads: An Unnatural History
-Hotel Terminus
-The Vanishing
-Alice
-Tales From the Gimli Hospital

 

[CrazyGirl17]

Wow, that was an awful lot of movies seen in one year! Or are they just from that year?

My favorites:
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
The Land Before Time
My Neighbor Totoro
Oliver and Company
Beetlejuice

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The
Beetle Juice
Big
Dead Ringers
Die Hard
Frantic
Mississippi Burning
Naked Gun: From the Files of the Police Squad!
Neco z Alenky
Nuovo Cinema Paradiso
Rain Man
They Live
Tonari no Totoro
Unbearable Lightness of Being, The
Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Good year!

 

[Natemans]

Big
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Die Hard
The Land Before Time
My Neighbor Totoro
Akira
Beetlejuice

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Is Akira only good because it was "FINALLY a work of animation where the animation quality is actually as good as the old 40s-50s Animation and not that cheap Yogi Bear/Flinstones limited animation garbage that has plagued the animation industry for years!"

Or does Akira actually good on its own merits because I seem to notice Akira is appreciated more for its legacy on animation rather on its own merits as a movie and story.

 

[Dismal purple]

Die Hard

 

[Kyrian007]

Just re-watched one of my favorites from '88. "Naked Gun: From the Files of the Police Squad!" These days its as bittersweetly sad as it is funny.

Let 'er rip.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Is Akira only good because it was "FINALLY a work of animation where the animation quality is actually as good as the old 40s-50s Animation and not that cheap Yogi Bear/Flinstones limited animation garbage that has plagued the animation industry for years!"

Or does Akira actually good on its own merits because I seem to notice Akira is appreciated more for its legacy on animation rather on its own merits as a movie and story.

Who makes that kind of comparison?

Yogi Bear and The Flintstones were television series made on a shoestring budget lower than the 45k USD the average Tom & Jerry episode got during the 40s. Meanwhile, Akira was a theatrical movie with a then unprecedented 1.1 billion yen budget (~9 mil USD). A better comparison would be to contemporary animated theatrical movies like The Land Before Time (1988), My Neighbor Totoro (1988) or The Little Mermaid (1989), none of which were exactly slouches in the animation department.

That said, aside from setting a benchmark for exceptional animation quality and a good movie in its own right, I'd say that yes, Akira's legacy and influence on pop culture is indeed greater. It's a landmark film in the cyberpunk genre and science fiction in general, is generally credited with leading the way for the popularity growth of anime outside of Japan, and is seen as one of the works that helped animation get out of the animation age ghetto (animation isn't "only for kids").

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Is Akira only good because it was "FINALLY a work of animation where the animation quality is actually as good as the old 40s-50s Animation and not that cheap Yogi Bear/Flinstones limited animation garbage that has plagued the animation industry for years!"

Or does Akira actually good on its own merits because I seem to notice Akira is appreciated more for its legacy on animation rather on its own merits as a movie and story.

Who makes that kind of comparison?

Yogi Bear and The Flintstones were television series made on a shoestring budget lower than the 45k USD the average Tom & Jerry episode got during the 40s. Meanwhile, Akira was a theatrical movie with a then unprecedented 1.1 billion yen budget (~9 mil USD). A better comparison would be to contemporary animated theatrical movies like The Land Before Time (1988), My Neighbor Totoro (1988) or The Little Mermaid (1989), none of which were exactly slouches in the animation department.

That said, aside from setting a benchmark for exceptional animation quality and a good movie in its own right, I'd say that yes, Akira's legacy and influence on pop culture is indeed greater. It's a landmark film in the cyberpunk genre and science fiction in general, is generally credited with leading the way for the popularity growth of anime outside of Japan, and is seen as one of the works that helped animation get out of the animation age ghetto (animation isn't "only for kids").

Because I feel that until Akira, there has not been a work of animation where the animation quality is breathtaking and smooth from since the end of the Golden Age in the 50s (I consider Sleeping Beauty the last Golden Age animated work) and when I am talking about Animation, I am talking about the actual "movements" of things in an animated work where something as cheap as Yogi Bear looks all stilted and janky compared to something like Tom and Jerry in the 40s.

The 60s and 70s were a dark time for quality animation because they all went cheap thanks to the rise of televison, and even theatrical movies from Disney and such looked cheaper then usual. Robin Hood re-used animation from Jungle Book.

The 1980s was the start of a turning point on the return of quality done animation that we haven't seen since the Golden Age and Akira to me was the spearhead. It showed the industry you can do the same quality style animation that was done back in the 40s and 50s again.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

snipBecause I feel that until Akira, there has not been a work of animation where the animation quality is breathtaking and smooth from since the end of the Golden Age in the 50s (I consider Sleeping Beauty the last Golden Age animated work) and when I am talking about Animation, I am talking about the actual "movements" of things in an animated work where something as cheap as Yogi Bear looks all stilted and janky compared to something like Tom and Jerry in the 40s.

The 60s and 70s were a dark time for quality animation because they all went cheap thanks to the rise of televison, and even theatrical movies from Disney and such looked cheaper then usual. Robin Hood re-used animation from Jungle Book.

The 1980s was the start of a turning point on the return of quality done animation that we haven't seen since the Golden Age and Akira to me was the spearhead. It showed the industry you can do the same quality style animation that was done back in the 40s and 50s again.

Oh, ok. I can sort of agree with that, although I'd say that Don Bluth played an at least equal or even greater role in that respect.

Bluth worked as an animator for Disney in the 70s but left in '79 because of how the company was run. He wanted to revive the classical animation style of Disney's early years, so he nabbed some fellow animators and founded his own studio, Don Bluth Productions. They released The Secret of NIHM in 1984 to modest success, but then partnered up with Steven Spielberg for An American Tail (1986) and The Land Before Time (1988).

Those two both had that classic traditional animation style, and more importantly, big box offices. The biggest ever for a non-Disney animated film at the time, actually. Bigger than Akira (~$85m vs $49m) or their direct Disney competitors. They're probably what made Disney get off their asses, leading to The Little Mermaid and the Disney Renaissance.

Their influence might not be as great as Akira's on the whole, but money talks, so if Akira proved you can do high quality animation and also be profitable, these two did it even more.