Saturday 22 November 2014

80 From the 80s - Mannequin


Mannequin
When she comes to life, anything can happen!
Studio: Fox :::::::::: Release Date: 13th February 1987
Director: Mike Gottlieb :::::::::: Starring: Andrew McCarthy, Kim Cattrall
Budget: $7.9M :::::::::: 2015 Equivalent: $16.6M
U.S Box Office: $42.7M :::::::::: 2015 Equivalent: $90M

In one of his many jobs, failed artist Jonathan Switcher creates the perfect mannequin. Fired yet again, he later sees his creation in a shop window and sets about getting a job at the store. Much to Jonathan's amazement, he discovers that when he is alone with the mannequin, she comes to life. But the path of true love is never a smooth one, and soon the duo are dealing with an obsessed night watchman, a hostile takeover and Jonathan’s colleagues, who are getting concerned with him talking to a shop dummy....

Saturday 15 November 2014

80 From the 80s - Romancing the Stone



Romancing the Stone

 She's a girl from the big city. He's a reckless soldier of fortune. For a fabulous treasure, they share an adventure no one could imagine... or survive.

Studio: 20th Century Fox Release Date: 30th March 1984
Director: Robert Zemeckis Starring: Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner
Budget: $10M 2015 Equivalent: $23M
U.S Box Office: $76.5M  2015 Equivalent: $175.9M

Joan Wilder is a timid, lonely romance novelist, but a panicked phone call thrusts her into a deadly South American adventure. Teaming up with smuggler Jack Carlton, she has to contend with all manner of dangers while trying to recover a fabled jewel and save her sister. She'll have the story of a lifetime, if she lives long enough to tell the tale.

A director being fired from a movie is a rare occurrence. One being fired from a future project because their current one is so bad, that's something of a one-off. Yet that's exactly what happened to Robert Zemeckis while working on action-adventure Romancing the Stone. The film was a gamble for all involved, but for Zemeckis, it was make or break; failure would signify the end of his short Hollywood career. In the latter half of 1983, the situation wasn't looking good.

Friday 7 November 2014

80 From the 80s - Wargames


Wargames

Is it a game, or is it real?

Studio: United Artists/MGM Release Date: 6th June 1983
Director: John Badham Starring: Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy
Budget: $12M 2015 Equivalent: $28.6M
U.S Box Office: $79.5M 2015 Equivalent: $189.8M

David Lightman is curious to play a series of new computer games, and sets about hacking into the company's system. However, unbeknownst to him, he's actually found his way into a US military war simulator and he's about to discover that this is one game that could turn very deadly - for everyone. 

For the modern audience, it's perhaps a little baffling to see how prevalent the threat of nuclear war was back in the early 1980s. With Ronald Reagan in power, the Russians and Americans pursued a game of nuclear one-upmanship, whose effects quickly spread to all facets of life. People became survivalists, built fallout shelters and campaigned to 'Ban the Bomb'.  Never one to miss a trick, Hollywood was quick to use the nuclear threat as the central device in a number of projects. Initially the focus was on the dangers of nuclear power, with 1979's The China Syndrome being among the first. The Jack Lemmon/Jane Fonda picture opened just twelve days before the nuclear disaster at Three Mile Island proved the dangers were all too real.