The 100 Project: The Top 10 Movies of 1987

The 100 Project reaches 1987, a year of lots of movies I cycled in and out of my top 10 before settling on the list below. As with many years of this decade, I saw a good number of popular films, not many of the critically acclaimed. This includes having seen only two of the five Best Picture nominees. One made my list, the other made honorable mention. On the flip side, I've seen eight of the top 10 grossing movies of that year, sixteen of the top twenty. So yeah, you've been warned.

My Top 10 Movies of 1987

• According to my Letterboxd account I've seen 57 films released during 1987.
• 5 of the 11 movies I saw in theaters that year made the list
• For the first time in The 100 Project, a stand-up comedy film makes the list

10. Raising Arizona

My family rented this upon my request and I have no idea what drew me to it. Nothing about the cover art on the VHS said that it was like anything else I had seen before. It wasn't. And I still laughed myself silly. The film served as my intro to Nicolas Cage what a hilarious introduction it was.

9. Hollywood Shuffle

When I saw the trailer on TV, it looked funny and starred black people so I wanted to go see it. My friends and I showed up to the theater only half-knowing what to expect. We got a movie way more self-aware and insightful than we thought we were getting and still got tons of laughs. With those laughs came some sadness because even at our young ages, we realized we also got a lot of truth.

8. Angel Heart

The controversy surrounding the release of this movie was all about the female lead, Lisa Bonet. America, including me, watched her as a squeaky clean teenager on The Cosby Show. We were told she did nudity and a fairly bizarre sex scene. The promise of boobs was way too much for 16 year old me to resist so I had to see it. When I did, I got a movie that left my brain in knots. I knew I loved it when I wanted to see it again, not for another glimpse of Bonet's bodaciousness, but to try and piece together the puzzle I just saw.

7. Eddie Murphy Raw

So I'm sitting in the theater between my best and my girlfriend, nobody checked ID's at the movies back then, watching Eddie Murphy in a blue leather suit. He's killing me. I'm laughing non-stop. The opening skit, featuring Samuel L. Jackson by the way, cements the phrase, "And he kicked him in the ding ding!" in my personal lexicon. The actual stand-up is now iconic, but my giggles stopped dead for a minute or two when Eddie says, "Imagine your best friend fucking your girl." I can't say for sure, but that single line might have dropped it six slots on this very list.

6. Fatal Attraction

To help me decide what movies I wanted to see, I used to read the mini-reviews in the Sunday paper. For some reason I can't put my finger on, the review for this stuck with me. When I finally saw this movie, four or five years after its release, I recalled what that blurb said. Basically, it said "good movie, bad ending." When I finished, I said, "Hmph, critics suck." And my love for movies about psycho stalkers was born.

5. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

I loved the original when I saw a few years earlier but hated the second installment. Still, I was willing to go see the third installment. The iconic Freddy Krueger was now as much stand-up comedian as boogeyman. However, this is the one time where the franchise gets the balance between those two things just right. A blast was had that night and the numerous other nights on which I revisited this.

4. Predator

I was a huge Ah-nuld fan growing up, so I'm not sure why I didn't see this when it came out. I was actually about two years late to this party. When I got there, it was clear I came for Arnie. I stayed for the severed arm of Carl Weathers flopping around on the ground still firing his automatic rifle in every direction. Goosebumps.

3. Robocop

The first time I saw this was opening weekend. I loved every minute of it even though I didn't really know what I saw. It wasn't until a few years and a few rewatches later that it dawned on me that this is really a wonderfully violent, gory, unrelenting, and subversive dark comedy. I'll buy that for a dollar.

2. Full Metal Jacket

The first half of this movie is all about Marine boot camp. It doesn't end so well. Even worse, I first saw it about two weeks before I entered the U.S. Army. Scary. After seeing a few more times I've come to appreciate what that half of the film did. I've also come to love the much-maligned second half, too. I'm not so sure what you guys don't like about it.

1. The Untouchables

"A man becomes preeminent, he's expected to have enthusiasms. Enthusiasms, enthusiasms... What are mine? What draws my admiration? What is that which gives me joy? Baseball! A man stands alone at the plate. This is the time for what? For individual achievement. There he stands alone. But in the field, what? Part of a team. Teamwork... Looks, throws, catches, hustles. Part of one big team. Bats himself the live-long day, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and so on. If his team don't field... what is he? You follow me? No one. Sunny day, the stands are full of fans. What does he have to say? I'm goin' out there for myself. But... I get nowhere unless the team wins." Just as he finishes saying this, Al Capone (Robert De Niro) bashes one of his goons in the back of the skull with a baseball bat and hits the guy repeatedly. The camera pulls back to reveal the poor guy's life flowing across the table in a dark red pool of blood. I nearly choked on the popcorn Mama Dell spent her hard-earned cash on, and fell in love.

Honorable Mentions (alphabetically): Beverly Hills Cop II, City on Fire, Evil Dead 2, Flowers in the Attic, La Bamba, Lethal Weapon, The Monster Squad, Moonstruck, The Princess Bride, Throw Momma From the Train, Wall Street, The Witches of Eastwick

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