Movies: 2833

The American crime comedy film, Happy New Year (1987), directed by John G. Avildsen and starring Peter Falk, follows two aging thieves named Nick and Charlie on their last heist before retirement in ritzy Palm Beach, Florida. Their target is the well-guarded Harry Winston jewelry store, which has high-tech security. Edward, the store’s manager, unknowingly welcomes a disguised Nick, posing as an elderly customer looking for an expensive gift for his terminally ill wife. Meanwhile, dressed as his true self, Nick meets Carolyn, a sophisticated and attractive woman who ...

The American film, The Untouchables (1987), was directed by Brian De Palma, produced by Art Linson, and written by David Mamet. It is set in Chicago during Prohibition, where notorious gangster Al Capone controls the illegal liquor industry. Bureau of Prohibition agent Eliot Ness is assigned to stop Capone’s illegal activities. His first attempt at a raid is unsuccessful due to corrupt police officers tipping off Capone. However, he meets veteran officer James Malone, who opposes corruption and offers to assist Ness. ...

Oliver Stone’s drama film, Wall Street (1987), tells the story of Bud Fox, a junior stockbroker at Jackson Steinem & Co. in New York City. Bud idolizes Gordon Gekko, an influential Wall Street player. Despite calling Gekko’s office 59 days straight in hopes of securing an appointment, Bud finally takes matters into his own hands and shows up at Gekko’s office on his birthday with a box of Cuban cigars – Gekko’s favorite forbidden indulgence. Impressed by Bud’s boldness, Gekko agrees to meet with him and listen to his stock pitches. However, none of them impress Gekko until Bud ...

Gardens of Stone (1987), an American drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, is based on Nicholas Proffitt’s novel of the same name. Sergeant First Class Clell Hazard, a hardened veteran of the Korean and Vietnam Wars, would prefer to serve as an instructor at the U.S. Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, preparing soldiers for the conflict in Vietnam. However, he is instead assigned to the 1st Battalion 3d Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) at Fort Myer, Virginia. This unit serves as the ceremonial honor guard for fallen soldiers’ funerals and guards the ...

September (1987), a drama film written and directed by Woody Allen, takes inspiration from Anton Chekhov’s 1899 play Uncle Vanya. However, the gender roles in the film are often challenged. Following a suicide attempt, Lane retreats to her country house in Vermont to recover. To accompany her for the summer, Lane’s best friend Stephanie joins her, seeking a break from her husband. Along with them comes Lane’s bold and tactless mother, Diane, and Diane’s husband Lloyd, who is also a physicist and Lane’s stepfather. Lane finds solace ...

Radio Days (1987), an American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen, nostalgically looks back at the golden age of radio in the late 1930s and 1940s. Set in Rockaway Beach, New York, it follows a working-class family, with fictional narrator Joe (voiced by Allen himself) recounting their adventures. Among these is how two burglars stumbled upon a radio show while robbing a home. For Joe, old radio songs evoke childhood memories of his time living with his modest Jewish-American family in Rockaway Beach during the late 1930s and early 1940s. His mother was ...

Ridley Scott’s Someone to Watch Over Me (1987) is an American neo-noir romantic thriller that follows socialite Claire Gregory as she attends a party and art show hosted by her long-time friend, Winn Hockings. Her boyfriend, Neil Steinhart, joins her for the evening. Meanwhile, newly appointed NYPD detective Mike Keegan is at a separate party in another part of town. Tensions arise when Winn is confronted by his former partner, Joey Venza, who is upset that Winn didn’t come to him for money to fund his new art studio. The altercation takes a deadly turn when Venza stabs Winn in front of Claire. As she ...

Creepshow 2 (1987) is a follow-up to the American comedy horror anthology film, Creepshow, both directed by Michael Gornick. Gornick previously served as the cinematographer for the first film, while the screenplay was once again crafted by George A. Romero, who directed the original. In the small town of Dexter, Maine, a delivery truck makes a stop at a newsstand. Excitedly, young Billy follows on his bike as the truck’s back shutter opens to reveal the Creep. The mysterious figure drops off copies of the ...

Opera (1987) is a renowned Italian giallo, co-written and directed by Dario Argento. The story follows Mara Cecova, the lead in an innovative performance of Verdi’s Macbeth at the Parma Opera House. During a heated disagreement with the director outside the theater, Cecova is tragically struck by a car and left injured. In her place, the young understudy Betty steps into the role of Lady Macbeth. Despite her initial hesitation, Betty’s debut proves to be a triumph. However, on the night of her opening, an unknown individual sneaks into the opera house and watches her performance from an unoccupied box. When ...

China Girl (1987) is an independent neo-noir romantic thriller film directed by Abel Ferrara and written by his longtime partner Nicholas St. John. Set in 1980’s New York City, the story follows teenage boy Anthony ‘Tony’ who lives in Little Italy and works at a pizzeria making dough. During a night out at a nightclub, he meets and dances with the beautiful Chinese teenager, Tye. Their encounter is cut short when Tony is pursued by the local Chinese street gang led by Tsu Shin, but he is saved by his older brother Alberto ‘Alby’, who heads ...

The film The Sicilian (1987), directed by Michael Cimino, is a sweeping historical crime drama. Its screenplay was written by Steve Shagan and later revised by both Cimino and Gore Vidal, based on Mario Puzo’s novel of the same title from 1984. The story follows Salvatore Giuliano, a notorious bandit who leads a group of rebels in an attempt to liberate Sicily from Italian control during the early 1950s and turn it into ...

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) marks Chuck Russell’s directorial debut and is an American fantasy slasher film. It takes place a year after the events of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge and follows the story of Kristen Parker. Despite having already awoken from her nightmare, she finds herself in another one where Freddy Krueger is chasing her. In this terrifying dream, he attacks her in the bathroom and makes it appear as though she has slit her wrist in reality. Concerned for Kristen’s well-being, her mother has her admitted to Westin Hills Psychiatric ...

Wings of Desire (1987) is a romantic fantasy film, both written and directed by Wim Wenders. Set in a divided Berlin, two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, watch over the city. While invisible and unheard by humans, they observe the thoughts of its inhabitants. These include a pregnant woman being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, a young prostitute standing on a busy road, and a broken man feeling betrayed by his wife. As Cassiel puts it, their purpose is to ‘gather, bear witness to, and preserve’ reality. These angels have always existed; they were present in Berlin before it was even established as a city ...

The Fourth Protocol (1987), a British spy film set during the Cold War, boasts a star-studded cast with Michael Caine and Pierce Brosnan. John Mackenzie directed this adaptation of Frederick Forsyth’s 1984 novel bearing the same title. In 1968, world powers establish an agreement to halt nuclear proliferation, which includes the Fourth Protocol that strictly prohibits unconventional delivery of nuclear weapons to targets. However, when MI5 officer John Preston discovers ...

The Living Daylights (1987) is a spy film, the fifteenth entry in the James Bond series by Eon Productions, and the first of two to feature Timothy Dalton as MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by John Glen, it is named after Ian Fleming’s short story and is loosely based on its plot. This was also the last film to use an Ian Fleming title until Casino Royale in 2006. Agent Bond’s mission is to assist KGB ...

Empire of the Sun (1987) is an American epic coming-of-age war film, directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Tom Stoppard. It is based on J.G. Ballard’s semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. Set amid Japan’s invasion of China during World War II, the story follows Jamie ‘Jim’ Graham, a British schoolboy from a privileged background living in Shanghai’s International Settlement. When Japan begins occupying the city after attacking Pearl Harbor, Jamie’s family evacuates but he ...

Bad Taste (1987) is a film from New Zealand directed, produced and filmed by Peter Jackson. The Astro Investigation and Defence Service (AIDS) dispatches agents Derek, Frank, Ozzy, and Barry to look into the sudden disappearance of the entire population of Kaihoro. Upon arriving, they discover that man-eating space aliens have taken over the town by disguising themselves as humans wearing blue shirts. During their encounter with one of the aliens, Barry is killed and the others are attacked. Derek then contacts Frank and Ozzy before proceeding to interrogate an alien they had captured earlier named Robert. However, his ...

The American neo-noir psychological thriller film, The Bedroom Window (1987), was directed by Curtis Hanson. After an office party, Terry invites his boss’s wife Sylvia to his apartment and they end up in bed together. When Sylvia sees a man attacking a young woman outside the window, she calls out and the assailant flees. The next day, when it is reported that the young woman was murdered near Terry’s apartment that night, he decides to inform the police about what Sylvia witnessed but claims that he saw it instead in order to protect her. However, during a police lineup neither Terry nor the victim Denise ...

Stand by Me (1986) is a coming-of-age drama film directed by Rob Reiner, based on Stephen King’s 1982 novella The Body. In 1985, writer Gordon ‘Gordie’ Lachance reads a newspaper article about the fatal stabbing of his childhood friend, Chris Chambers. He reminisces about an incident from when they were 12 years old, searching for the body of Ray Brower alongside their friends Teddy Duchamp and Vern Tessio, during Labor Day weekend in1959 near Castle Rock, Oregon. As a child, Gordie’s parents were preoccupied with the death of his older ...

Maximum Overdrive (1986) is an American horror film written and directed by Stephen King. On June 19, 1987, as the Earth crosses the tail of a rogue comet, Rhea-M, previously inanimate machines suddenly come to life; insults are hurled by an ATM at a customer and a bascule bridge rises during heavy traffic, causing vehicles to plummet into the river or crash into each other. Pandemonium spreads as machines worldwide begin attacking humans. At a truck stop outside Wilmington, North Carolina, employee Duncan Keller is left blinded when gasoline sprays into his eyes from a pump. The waitress Wanda June is injured by an ...