‘Kamikaze 89’ (1982)
I wish I could more effectively talk about this film, but it’s based on a book I’ve never read (“Murder on the Thirty-First Floor”) and produced in a language I don’t speak (German), so I’m somewhat limited in my understanding. However, I can tell you it’s a futuristic dystopian crime story.
‘Kamikaze 89’ is about Inspector Jansen (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, in his final film role), who is given charge of solving the case of a bomb threat at “The Combine”, which controls all media in the land. The biggest problem is that he only has a few days to pull it off, but, fortunately, the list of suspects turns out to be comparatively short. However, the more suspects he meets, the more he learns that things may not all they seem at “The Combine”.
I wanted to like this movie, I really did, but ultimately I’m going to have to throw it in with ‘High-Rise‘ as another dystopian film that looks good and has a lot of cool retro-futuristic elements, but ultimately is missing something. With ‘High-Rise’, I wasn’t really sure how to fix it, but with ‘Kamikaze 89’ it’s plain to see that it lacks energy. I’m usually the last person to call a film “boring”, but ‘Kamikaze’ was definitely leading me down that road.
Some more money in the budget may have helped as well, either that or a director who could do more with less. In the end though, I can’t give it a solid recommendation.
Rating: ★★½
‘Coming to America’
It’s cliché, I know, but I honestly don’t know what to say about this movie that hasn’t been said already.
Everybody involved was firing on all cylinders: John Landis in the director’s chair; Eddie Murphy at his apex; Arsenio Hall threatens to steal the movie; Rick Baker with all the special make-up; Nile Rodgers with the musical score; all the supporting actors (too many to list). Everything comes together to make this a classic (not to mention the New York stuff is great to see).
There are so many great bits and little moments, from “Soul Glo”, to the barbershop, to Reverend Brown. It’s a wonderfully hilarious comedy, but, in addition, it has some real heart, in the form of Akeem and Lisa’s budding relationship.
I know I say this often, but if you’ve never seen it, get on it!
Rating: ★★★★½
‘Wolfen’ (1981)
ⅯⅭⅯⅬⅩⅩⅩⅠ – ANNO LVPVS
1981 – The Year of the Wolf
For those in my generation, the concept of “twin films” is quite familiar. You know, when two high-profile movies come out in the same year and have major similarities (not to say that they are the same, however): ‘Dante’s Peak’ and ‘Volcano’; ‘Antz’ and ‘A Bug’s Life’; ‘Deep Impact’ and ‘Armageddon’; and so on.
1981 offers us perhaps the ultimate example of “triplet films”, as it gave us three horror movies involving wolf creatures: first, in April, came Joe Dante’s ‘The Howling‘; then came ‘Wolfen’ in July; and then August gave us the most famous of the three, ‘An American Werewolf in London‘, directed by John Landis.
Now, I must specify that ‘Wolfen’ is not about werewolves, but about…super wolves? Honestly, the movie doesn’t do a great job of explaining exactly what they are, except that they are portrayed on screen by actual wolves, and somehow they tie into Native American history (in the movie; not in real life).
‘Wolfen’ is a movie I really wanted to love. It has such a cool vibe, it was shot almost entirely in NYC, Albert Finney plays a classic laconic detective, and Gregory Hines absolutely shines in his first movie (technically, ‘History of the World: Part Ⅰ’ was his debut, but ‘Wolfen’ went into production beforehand). And, of the three wolf films of ’81, I think it’s the scariest. The problem is that the story just doesn’t quite gel, especially compared with its siblings.
That said, I think it’s definitely a film worth seeing, and I’d be happy to watch it again. There’s more than enough good work to appreciate.
Rating: ★★★½