Around the World in 80s Movies

Daniel (Ralph Macchio) travels with Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) to his childhood home in Okinawa when he discovers his father is on his deathbed. Miyagi's presence rekindles a feud with his former best friend Sato (Danny Kamekona), whose arranged marriage was ruined by Miyagi's love for his betrothed, Yukie (Nobu McCarthy). Daniel also finds new love in Yukie's niece, Kumiko (Tanlyn Tomita), though his presence stirs up trouble among Sato's Gang.

Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and his mother (Randee Heller) move from New Jersey to Reseda, CA , to start a new life. It seems promising at first, but soon Daniel hates his new environs, thanks to a few run-ins at school with a group of karate-trained bullies. He does manage to irk the leader of the bullies, Johnny (William Zabka), when he starts seeing his ex-girlfriend, Ali (Elisabeth Shue). Johnny and gang belong to a no-holds-barred karate school in town that has a slogan of "no mercy", run by ex-Vietnam vet John Kreese (Martin Kove). After the landlord of Daniel's apartment complex, Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita), saves him from the gang one day, he decides to teach the young man some karate, except in the ways of the honored Japanese tradition. Miyagi and Kreese form a pact that Daniel is to be "off limits" until the day of the big karate tournament in town, where the different styles of karate come to clash, but Daniel is far from ready for the match. With help from Miyagi, he prepares every day for the event, but he finds the teaching methods unorthodox, monotonous, and strenuous.

Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) is the latest Russian creation -- a tall, strong, crushing bruiser that packs more strength in one of his punches than any three regular boxers combined. Although his handlers insist that Drago is the product of extensive genetics testing and advanced training techniques, they do deny the use of strength-enhancing steroids even though their fighter boasts unheard-of levels in terms of strength, stamina, and physical prowess. They openly challenge Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stalone) to a fight, but Balboa's current manager and former heavyweight champ, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), takes them up on the offer. Creed takes the pummeling of his life at Drago's hands, leaving Rocky feeling responsible enough to be next in line. He accepts the challenge to take place in Drago's native country, the Soviet Union, where he must fight for revenge, honor, glory, and national pride in front of thousands of sneering spectators, including the Soviet leader himself.

With Rocky III, director-screenwriter-star Stallone takes the film series into a new direction, although the underdog formula still stays intact. Stallone realizes that it's hard to be the underdog when you're the champion, so to knock Rocky down a few notches, he creates the most terrifying challenger he never faced, the bruising #1 contender, Clubber Lang (Mr. T). Lang has been stalking the ready-to-retire Balboa, showing up at every match and public appearance, egging the champ on to stop dodging him and fight him in the ring. Rocky is ready to take him up on the challenge, but his manager Mickey (Burgess Meredith) reveals that he has been protecting him since he's gotten the title belt, only challenging chumps Rocky could easily beat. Undeterred, Rocky still goes ahead with the match, losing the title and his manager in the process. Can Rocky face retiring as a loser, or will he rise to the most difficult challenge he's faced yet with a rematch?

After a replay of the climax of Rocky, Rocky II picks up exactly where the first film leaves off, with Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) and Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) taken to a nearby hospital after suffering serious injuries caused by the pummeling each fighter took in their 15-round contest. Creed won the bout by a split decision, but the victory isn't so sweet, as many fans accuse him of helping Balboa along, while some even think Balboa should have been declared champion. Contrary to what he said after the fight was over, Creed wants a rematch, but Balboa, at the urging of his girlfriend (turned wife in this film) Adrian (Talia Shire), wants to retire from the ring, suffering from limited vision in one of his eyes as a result of the repeated blows he took from Creed's fist. Between Creed's constant taunts in the media, the inability to find a steady job, and a new house and baby to pay for, Rocky has to face a decision of whether he should risk his life and wife for the money and glory a rematch would provide.

The film tells the tale of Rocky Balboa (Sylverster Stallone), a washed-up Philadelphia boxer who just barely scrapes by, fighting in small clubs for meager pay, while supplementing his income as a thuggish debt collector for a local loan shark. He doesn't have many ambitions; his only real goal is to get to go out with the shy, mousy pet store clerk named Adrian (Talia Shire), sister to his friend Paulie (Burt Young), Opportunity comes knocking in a big way for Balboa when the world heavyweight champ, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), wants to fight a "snow white" nobody for the nation's bicentennial. Rocky agrees and becomes a local celebrity, but with less than five weeks to train, this washed-up fighter has to have the strength, agility, and most of all, heart to have a chance with Creed without embarrassing himself in front of millions.

Sylvester Stallone plays Ray Tango, a flashy narco cop in the LAPD who is all business and efficient. Kurt Russell plays Gabriel Cash, more of a devil-may-care type who just so happens to get the big bust whenever he needs it. Drug kingpin Yves Perret (Jack Palance) wants the two biggest obstacles out of his way, and hatches a plan that will do it: have Tango and Cash brought up on a bogus murder charge. The cops are initially sentenced to a short stint in a minimum security prison, only to find themselves railroaded (thanks to Perret's influence) to a seedy penitentiary, where their lives are in danger at every turn. They have no choice but to try to escape and clear their names, taking down Perret in the process.

Set in the post-world financial demise of the year 2019, The Running Man stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as law enforcement officer and helicopter pilot Ben Richards, who ends up getting framed for instigating the murder of a crowd of innocent civilians engaging in a protest for food in Bakersfield. Richards and a couple of benevolent jail mates spring out of prison and go on the run, only to be captured later and used as scapegoats for the massacre by becoming involuntary contestants on the most popular television show in history, the government-supported 'The Running Man', whereby convicted murders are put into a glitzy game show where they must battle for their lives and the hope of a pardon while being hunted by a rogues gallery of skilled costumed assassins, all for the entertainment of a rabid public fan base. Richard Dawson has a major supporting role as the show's charismatic host, Damon Killian, who is as pleasant as can be when the camera is on, but is an unscrupulous, cutthroat businessman behind the scenes. Killian gets ever more averse to the depiction of the truth as Richards not only manages to stay alive far longer than any previous contestant, he is also in danger of becoming a national hero.

Carl Weathers stars as Detroit cop Jericho "Action" Jackson, who earned his nickname due to putting his body on the line time and again in the line of duty in roughhousing and apprehending perps. Unfortunately for Jackson, the police captain (Duke) demotes him to the role of desk-jockey due to his dangerous reputation that has given the force a black eye by going too far in trying to take down the son of a slimy, power-hungry car company tycoon named Peter Dellaplane (Nelson). Jackson begins to suspect that Dellaplane himself is behind a series of murders of union officials, and he aims to take him down, even if he has to risk his job, and his neck, by leaving the comfy confines of his office desk to do it.

This follow-up to the mega-smash Beverly Hills Cop sees the Beverly Hills police department stymied by the so-called Alphabet Robberies, whereby stores with monographed goods are hit by a gang of highly skilled thieves. One of these armed thieves is a statuesque blonde named Karla Fry (Brigitte Nielsen), who becomes a prime suspect when she attempts to murder Capt. Bogomil (Ronny Cox), shooting him twice and leaving him on life support. This brings Detroit detective Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) back out to the West Coast again, helping out his old friend, joining forces again with Beverly Hills detectives Taggart (John Ashton) and Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) in getting to the bottom of the case, despite the obstacles created by their new police chief, Lutz (Allen Garfield). All clues seem to lead to Maxwell Dent (Jurgen Prochnow), who appears to be using the robberies as a front for a much larger operation, although getting the evidence needed to bring him down isn't going to be easy, especially since Dent's men are armed to the teeth and know how to use their weapons.

Eddie Murphy's superstar-making role has him playing crafty Detroit cop Axel Foley, who travels to Beverly Hills in order to try to uncover the reasons behind the professional hit placed on an old friend (James Russo). His investigative tactics immediately draw the attention of the local law enforcement there, who put a tail on Foley to make sure that his story of being on vacation there holds up. By-the-book detectives Taggart (John Ashton) and Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) are the cops assigned to staking out Foley, and Axel ends up dragging them both into the investigation through his charm, which ends up getting them into more and more hot water with the boss, Lt. Bogomil (Ronny Cox). With the cops on his case, his boss back in Detroit threatening his livelihood, and armed henchmen at every turn, Foley has a hard time trying to maintain focus on his intended prey, the wealthy art dealer, Victor Maitland (Stephen Berkoff). Erratum: For some reason, I referred to Edward James Olmos as 'James Edward Olmos' when discussing "American Me"

New York cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) flies to Los Angeles to attend the swanky party of his separated wife Holly's (Bonnie Bedelia) company on an upper floor of their high-rise corporate building. However, the company didn't intend to have party crashers, particularly gun-toting German terrorists who want to rob the big boss blind while holding the employees hostage. The terrorists are led by international mastermind Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) who makes one major blunder in not taking into account that there would be one guest who manages to get away unseen, McClane, who does his duty as a good cop by doing everything possible to foil their plans. Using his street smarts and physical prowess, McClane throws a monkey wrench in Gruber's works, but these terrorists are ruthless, cunning, and deadly. Not to mention, they also have McClane's wife.

Dr. Richard Walker (Harrison Ford) and his loving wife (Betty Buckley) travel to Paris where he is to speak at a medical convention. In their hotel room, they discover that his wife has picked up the wrong suitcase at the airport, and they report this to TWA. While Dr. Walker is in the shower, his wife gets a phone call and is soon out of the room, and out of sight altogether as she is now missing. With the French police offering little assistance to his plight, Dr. Walker must search through Paris on his own, hoping for some trace of where his wife has gone, forcing him through an odyssey through the underbelly of Paris' seediest locations. Emmanuelle Seigner co-stars in this Roman Polanski film.

Steve Guttenberg stars as Terry Lambert, a businessman who is having an affair with his boss's alluring French wife, Sylvia Wentworth (Isabelle Huppert). After their latest coupling, they are startled by a scream coming from the courtyard outside. Rushing to the window, Sylvia shrieks as she sees an assault on a woman at the hands of a redhead male with pasty white skin. However, she can't report it, as she desperately doesn't want her affair to become known by her wealthy husband. Terry thinks he's doing the honorable thing by pretending that it was he who saw the actual assault, as he suspects that there may be a connection between it and the series of murders in the area. However, circumstances lead to Terry himself being implicated in the murder, and the only person willing to help is Denise (Elizabeth McGovern), the victim he has been trying to assist. Curtis Hanson writes and directs.

Roy Scheider plays a newly divorced New York psychiatrist named Sam Rice, who discovers that George Bynum (Josef Sommer), one of his prominent patients, has been murdered. Bynum was the curator of antiquities for Crispin's, a high-scale auction house, who engaged in a sexual affair with Brooke Reynolds (Meryl Streep), a younger woman who worked with him. During his counseling sessions, Bynum told Sam all about Brooke in such vivid detail that Sam thinks he might have fallen for Bynum's mistress himself. Those feelings get reinforced when Brooke visits Sam's office to hand him Bynum's wristwatch he left in her apartment the night of his death. Sam becomes infatuated with Brooke, but as he pursues her romantically, he's also frightened of her because she might be Bynum's murderer. As the police press him for evidence, Sam begins following Brooke to learn more, only to feel she might already be stalking him as her potential next kill. Robert Benton writes and directs.

A struggling actor (Craig Wasson) finds a job housesitting for a rich friend of another actor (Gregg Henry). While there he spies on a neighbor (Melanie Griffith) who has a naughty habit of doing a striptease every night. He becomes infatuated with the woman and decides he wants to meet her, taking to following her around wherever she goes. He begins to suspect she is in trouble when a suspicious Native American follows her around as well. He suspects she will be murdered.

John Travolta stars as Jack Terry, a sound effects engineer for cheapie horror exploitation flicks. When a producer deems the victim's screams and wind effects used in their slasher film as substandard, Jack determines to capture new recordings. While outdoors, his tape captures audio from a nearby car careening off of a bridge and into a river after its tire blows out. Jack jumps to action to save a drowning woman (Nancy Allen) from the vehicle, but the driver dies, later revealed to be the presidential frontrunner, Pennsylvania Governor George McRyan. While listening to the tape, Jack hears a gunshot just before the blowout, suggesting it was no accident. It's revealed that a photographer in the area (Dennis Franz) captured film of the incident, which Jack synchronizes with his audio, proving an assassin was the cause. The authorities and media want the proof, but an assassin (John Lithgow) seeks to silence Jack's obsessive quest for truth. Brian De Palma writes and directs this potent political thriller.

Angie Dickinson stars as Kate Miller, a housewife so unsatisfied sexually that she often finds herself having vivid and wild sexual fantasies, with violent overtones. She has been seeing a psychiatrist, Dr. Elliott (Michael Caine), about her marital problems, and even makes a pass at him, although nothing comes to pass. Unable to resist the temptation, Kate has an afternoon fling with a complete stranger, only to end up the victim of a brutal and senseless slaying at the hands of a mysterious figure with a straight-edge razor. Only one person witnessed the murder, a spunky prostitute named Liz (Nancy Allen), who describes the perpetrator as a blonde woman in sunglasses. Meanwhile, Dr. Elliott begins receiving phone calls from one of his patients, Bobbi, a pre-op transsexual with homicidal tendencies, and Dr. Elliott's stolen razor.

The events of 1987's Bates Motel take place 27 years after schizophrenic serial killer Norman Bates is arrested and found guilty by reason of insanity for his crimes. While in the institution, Norman is introduced to a troubled young boy named Alex West (Bud Cort), who murdered his abusive stepfather in a giant tumble dryer and ends up staying in the same institution. Norman takes the lad under his wing until his death 27 years later, coincidentally the same year that Alex is finally allowed out of the institution. According to Norman's will (how he is deemed of 'sound mind' to do so is subject to debate), Alex inherits the Bates Motel and his family home that overlooks it. Alex soon takes over the motel and aims to renovate it back to its former glory. However, he finds the Bates house already illegally inhabited by a spunky runaway girl named Willie (Lori Petty), who worms her way into staying and helping Alex realize his dream of making a go of the motel business. However, not everyone wants the business to succeed, as Alex begins to see the ghost of Mrs. Bates around the place, and calamities begin to happen that threaten the establishment's livelihood before it can even begin. In what is obviously the first taste of what the "Bates Motel" series would be like, the final third of the film takes a detour as we're introduced to Alex's first guest to stay in the motel, an aerobics instructor named Barbara Peters (Kerrie Keane), who claims to be wanting peace and quiet to get some writing done, but in actuality, she aims to slash her wrists in the tub ). At this point, she is visited by a young woman (Khrystyne Haje) who stops her and takes her to a 1950s-themed party happening at the motel (I think), where she is pursued by Tony (Jason Bateman), a young cruiser there, and the two have strong feelings for one another, despite her protestations about their age difference. But there is much more to the events that transpire that night than meets the eye. Richard Rothstein directs this made-for-TV pilot to a series based on Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho that never followed.

Psycho IV: The Beginning is the fourth and final film in Universal's Psycho franchise, and the last to portray Anthony Perkins in his most famous of roles. It's the first of the series not to be released theatrically, debuting on the premium cable channel Showtime in 1990. This film is a sequel in theory, as it does take a step forward in showing Norman Bates trying to live the semblance of a normal life today, finally in a relationship with a woman, with a baby on the way. Trouble is, Norman does not want a baby, thinking that being a homicidal maniac is a genetic trait that passes on from generation to generation, and he wants his mother's psychopathic tendencies to end with him. On this night, Norman is listening to a late-night radio program about why sons kill their mothers, and after hearing what the doctors have to say about it, Norman ends up calling the show to tell how it really went down for him. Under the pseudonym of 'Ed', Norman relates the tale of his adolescence, and how his mother Norma's severe mood swings, psychological abuse, and sexual repression drove him to commit murder, including his own mother. Although much talked about in the previous films, Psycho IV: The Beginning is the first to show a living Norma Bates (Olivia Hussey), and to give is a first-hand viewing of how bizarre an upbringing a young Norman (Henry Thomas) would have, resulting in an overwhelming feeling of guilt in his actions that he didn't have the maturity or mental balance to keep a grip on. In addition to Norma's stamping out of her son's masculinity and sexuality, there is also an element of Norman becoming a bit of a surrogate for male companionship in her life in between finding a suitable partner, though never physically consummated between mother and son. Mick Garris directs from a screenplay from Psycho screenwriter Joseph Stefano.