Around the World in 80s Movies

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.