Moving - 1988 ****

I think Richard Pryor deserves more credit for being a comedian than he gets. He's extremely funny, and remarkably versatile when it comes to different characters.
The job of a lifetime comes up for Arlo Pear with a big pay rise, more responsibility, and generally everything he could wish for. The only problem with this is that it means moving his family from their comfy home in New Jersey, to the outskirts of Idaho. Not only does he have to deal with his stubborn teenage daughter, who would rather marry a pimp than up sticks with him,, but he also has to coordinate the psychotic neighbour next door who keeps setting his remote controlled plane on him, as well as a group of thuggish furniture movers who break all his possessions and then demand payment for doing so.
I found this a really funny film, and I hadn't heard of it before doing some research on Richard, so it's a bit of a lost gem as well.

Working Girl - 1988 ***

'Working Girl' seems to be a bit of an excuse to try and "big up" women in the workplace. It seems to try far too hard to defend how hard women have it, but comes across as a bit desperate. 

Griffith plays Tess, a woman who goes from one job to the next and finally stumbles on what she thinks is her dream position working for the professional Katherine Parker. However the dream is short lived when Katherine goes off sick and Tess discovers that she has been trying to land a deal using one of her ideas as her own. 

Get mad? Or get even? 

Harrison Ford is quite amusing, but I think the standout character is Joan Cusack who quite literally steals each scene she shares with Griffith. 

I didn't mind the film, but it definitely doesn't rank amoung the best rom-coms I've seen.

Vampire's Kiss - 1988 *

'Vampire's Kiss' is a joke of a film. It has a huge cult following due to one frankly forgettable scene involving ingesting a cockroach, but apart from that the pace is slow. And then fast. Then nauseatingly slow again. Nicholas Cage is the sort of actor who makes it difficult to distinguish of he is actually acting or just being himself. Here it couldn't be more obvious that he cannot act to save his life.

(HORROR) Child's Play - 1988 ****

'Child's Play' is a scary film. Especially scary to me because I have a bit of a hysterical nature regarding dolls becoming real. The 'Good Guy' doll itself, even when it's just a doll, has a menacing look about it, but when it starts walking and talking, my god!
A doll being possessed by the soul of a psychotic murderer named Charles 'Chucky' is quite a good idea for a horror film. It's certainly unique, and it's got enough material to spawn a number of sequels. Definitely a must see for horror fans.

The Vanishing - 1988 **

If you read the synopsis on Wikipedia about this film it makes it sound utterly riveting, but in reality, it drags on far too long, it's not particularly interesting, and I found the acting to be too over the top. And yes, I have also seen the remake and thought that was equally as apalling if not worse.

The idea of the disappearance is good, the idea of the obsessive boyfriend is good, and the eventual fate of one of the characters is also good, so why wasn't it better executed??

Why do we spend what seems like hours watching the boyfriend wander around aimlessly, when what he is doing could be expressed in half the time? I really didn't take to this version and I usually steadfastly stand by originals of horror and thriller movies.

Bull Durham - 1988 *

This in my opinion was a very poor excuse for a comedy. I kept seeing it floating around Amazon and decided just to watch it and see what all the fuss was about.

To put it bluntly, the fuss was about nothing. It was rubbish. It's about a baseball player who becomes attracted to a baseball groupie who has an affair with a baseball player each season. That's about it. What a waste of time. Susan Sarandon isn't at her best here, and neither is Kevin Costner. A boring film. Not funny at all. Am amazed that Billy Wilder said he liked it.