Tag Archives: 1980s

New Jack City

IMDB Rating: 6.10
6572 votes

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Storyline
In 1989, Nino Brown, a small time drug dealer, is convinced by one of his fellow thugs that the wave of the future is in the cocaine derivative, crack. Brown sees potential in crack and sets out to establish himself as chief kingpin by killing off his rivals and even going as far as to take over a whole apartment complex. Out to stop him are undercover cops Scottie Appleton and Nick Paretti. Appleton especially wants to get Nino because of the fact that he murdered Scottie's mother as part of a gang initiaton. Also involved is Pookie, a former crackhead who wants to bring down Nino as well.
Actors
Nino BrownWesley Snipes
Scotty AppletonIce-T
Gee MoneyAllen Payne

Ricochet

IMDB Rating: 5.70
3959 votes

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Storyline
Rookie Los Angeles cop Nick Styles is at a Los Angeles street fair, where hit man Earl Talbot Blake pulls a double cross on some drug dealers, killing four men. Minutes later, Nick shoots Blake in the knee, and Blake is grabbed by Nick's partner and best friend Larry Doyle. Nick becomes the focus of the media, thanks to an amateur cameraman's footage of Nick disarming Blake. Over the next few years, Nick's career takes off: he's offered a job in the district attorney's office, and his hip media style keeps him in the public eye. Nick marries a woman named Alice and they go on to have two daughters named Lisa and Monica. While Blake is in prison, he vows revenge on Nick. When Blake comes up for parole, he orchestrates a bloody escape — which includes faking his own death. Blake doesn't want Nick dead. He just wants Nick to suffer in spades. He wants to ruin Nick's life as completely as possible, and then have Nick sent to prison for murder so Nick will know how Blake feels. Blake begins his vendetta by killing city councilman U. B. Farris and planting evidence to make everyone think Nick and Farris are running an underage pornography ring. Blake then kidnaps Nick, forces him to take drugs and have sex with a prostitute, videotapes the whole thing, and then releases Nick. Nick tells everyone that it was Blake who kidnapped him, but everyone refuses to believe Nick because everyone thinks Blake is dead. That night, Blake breaks into Nick's house, and makes a threatening videotape with Lisa, Monica, and an ax in it, but Blake didn't actually do anything to Lisa and Monica. Nick is then suspended from the DA's office, with everyone thinking that Nick is mentally ill because he keeps saying that Blake is still alive. Blake then begins the final phase of his vendetta — he kills Larry and frames Nick for it. Blake also links Nick to misappropriation of public funds, specifically, the funds he's supposed to be raising for a children's center in a building at the base of the Watts tower. Nick is forced to turn to his childhood friend, gang leader Odessa, for help in clearing his name and stopping Blake once and for all.
Actors
Nick StylesDenzel Washington
Earl Talbott BlakeJohn Lithgow
OdessaIce-T

Charlie Wilson’s War

IMDB Rating: 7.50
19676 votes

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Storyline
A drama based on a Texas congressman Charlie Wilson's covert dealings in Afghanistan, where his efforts to assist rebels in their war with the Soviets have some unforeseen and long-reaching effects.
Actors
JailbaitShiri Appleby
Larry LiddlePeter Gerety
Avi PerlmanErick Avari

Boogie Nights

IMDB Rating: 7.70
45529 votes

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Storyline
Everyone's born with one special thing, and Eddie Adams uses his humongous "asset" to take the world of film pornography by storm. Things get ugly though when success leads to drugs and ruin. Will Dirk clean up and get back on top? Will Amber see her son? Will Rollergirl ever take off her skates?!
Actors
Maurice T. RodriguezLuis Guzmán
Jack HornerBurt Reynolds
Amber Waves/MaggieJulianne Moore

No Country for Old Men

IMDB Rating: 8.90
12096 votes

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Storyline
Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon some dead bodies, a stash of heroin and more than $2 million in cash near the Rio Grande.
Actors
Sheriff Ed Tom BellTommy Lee Jones
Anton ChigurhJavier Bardem
Llewelyn MossJosh Brolin

K-PAX

IMDB Rating: 7.10
31608 votes

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Storyline
Prot is a patient at a mental hospital who claims to be from a far away planet. His psychiatrist tries to help him, only to begin to doubt his own explanations.
Actors
Mary McCormack
Kevin Spacey
Jeff Bridges

Goodbye Bafana

IMDB Rating: 7.00
833 votes

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Storyline
GOODBYE BAFANA is the true story of a white South African racist whose life was profoundly altered by the black prisoner he guarded for twenty years. The prisoner's name was Nelson Mandela.
Actors
James GregoryJoseph Fiennes
Nelson MandelaDennis Haysbert
Gloria GregoryDiane Kruger

This Is England

IMDB Rating: 8.00
8460 votes

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Storyline
Roland Rat, Margaret Thatcher; Rubik's Cubes, the Royal Wedding; aerobics, skinheads... It's 1983, and the schools are breaking up for summer. Shaun is 12 and a bit of a loner, growing up with his mum in a grim coastal town, his dad killed fighting in the Falklands War. On his way home from school where he's been tormented all day for wearing flares, he runs into a group of skinheads, who against expectations turn out to be friendly and take him under their wing. Soon Shaun discovers parties, girls and snappy dressing, and finds some role models in Woody, Milky and the rest of the gang. But when an older, overtly racist skinhead returns home from prison, the easy camaraderie of the group is broken, and Shaun is drawn into much more uncomfortable territory. Based largely on his own experience as a youngster, this is Shane Meadows' most mature and fully realised film. Handling the complexities of masculinity, violence and race with sensitivity and a lightness of touch, it's hard to imagine a film that would better capture the mood of the time, or that could have any greater an understanding of the allure of being part of a gang.
Actors
ComboStephen Graham
ShaunThomas Turgoose
CynthJo Hartley

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

IMDB Rating: 6.40
12305 votes

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Storyline
This panoramic tale of Savannah's eccentricities focuses on a murder and the subsequent trial of Jim Williams: self made man, art collector, antiques dealer, bon vivant and semi-closeted homosexual. John Kelso a magazine reporter finds himself in Savannah amid the beautiful architecture and odd doings to write a feature on one of William's famous Christmas parties. He is intrigued by Williams from the start, but his curiosity is piqued when he meets Jim's violent, young and sexy lover, Billy. Later that night, Billy is dead, and Kelso stays on to cover the murder trial. Along the way he encounters the irrepressible Lady Chablis, a drag queen commedienne, Sonny Seiler, lawyer to Williams, whose famous dog UGA is the official mascot of the Georgia Bulldogs, an odd man who keeps flies attached to mini leashes on his lapels and threatens daily to poison the water supply, the Married Ladies Card Club, and Minerva, a spiritualist. Between being Jim's buddy, cuddling up to a torch singer, meeting every eccentric in Savannah, participating in midnight graveyard rituals and helping solve the mysteries surrounding Billy's murder, Kelso has his hands full.
Actors
John KelsoJohn Cusack
James 'Jim' WilliamsKevin Spacey
Sonny SeilerJack Thompson

Fargo

IMDB Rating: 8.20
105357 votes

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Storyline
Fargo is based on true events that occurred in Minnesota in 1987 with the names changed to protect the victims. Jerry works in his father-in-law's car dealership and has gotten himself in financial problems. He tries various schemes to come up with money needed for a reason that is never really explained. It has to be assumed that his huge embezzlement of money from the dealership is about to be discovered by father-in-law. When all else falls through, plans he set in motion earlier for two men to kidnap his wife for ransom to be paid by her wealthy father (who doesn't seem to have the time of day for son-in-law). From the moment of the kidnapping, things go wrong and what was supposed to be a non-violent affair turns bloody with more blood added by the minute. Jerry is upset at the blood shed, which turns loose a pregnant sheriff from MN who is tenacious in attempting to solve the three murders in her jurisdiction.
Actors
Jerry LundegaardWilliam H. Macy
Carl ShowalterSteve Buscemi
Gaear GrimsrudPeter Stormare