Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986)

Comedy spy thriller directed by Penny Marshall, and very much in the style of Beverly Hills Cop. 

Whoopi Goldberg plays a bank worker who gets involved in international intrigue after her office computer is hacked into.

There are a few funny bits, but not nearly enough. One amusing scene has Whoopi trying to make out the words to the title song by the Rolling Stones and not being able to make sense of Mick Jagger’s phrasing.

The most interesting aspect is seeing what state-of-the-art office computing looked like in 1986.

Ghostbusters II (1989)

A sequel that doesn’t disappoint. Following the events shown in the first film, the Ghostbusters have been sued for property damage, put out of business and forced to work as party entertainers for uninterested children. But then their old friend Dana Barrett sees her baby’s pram being wheeled into traffic by mysterious forces, and at the art gallery where she works a painting comes alive with the spirit of a 16th-century tyrant named Vigo the Carpathian. Meanwhile, a river of pink goo now runs beneath the city. After five years in obscurity, the gang reunite to face this new menace.

It’s slightly less packed with laughs than the 1984 film, but only slightly. The main cast are all superb and the writing by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis is excellent. The snivelling head of the art gallery (Peter MacNicol as Janosz Poha) is too annoying to be pleasurable to watch, but when Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Sigourney Weaver are on screen together everything clicks and comes to life. Rick Moranis and Annie Potts reprise their roles as accountant Louis Tully and secretary Janine Melnitz respectively, but this time they become an item.

There’s a nice theme about the soul of New York City, which has become corrupted but which recovers enough to defeat evil. As with the original film, it’s a feel-good story that’s also intelligent and funny.

Ghostbusters (1984)

This supernatural comedy is close to perfect. There’s so much that’s great about it. The three main characters – Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz and Egon Spengler – are terrifically well drawn, and Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis play them perfectly. The theme tune by Ray Parker Jr. is memorable and distinctive. The visuals are superb for the time, rendering neon ectoplasmic ghosts that gobble down plates of sausages and “slime” their victims. The run-down “Ecto-1” car (a converted hearse) is iconic. Sigourney Weaver seems effortlessly seductive and sophisticated as Dana Barrett, the woman possessed by an evil spirit and who Venkman falls for. Rick Moranis provides endearing slapstick as a nerdy accountant taken over by a demon. There’s an evident love of New York that permeates almost every frame. It’s a quirky film that’s unlike anything else. And, giving hope to all of us, its heroes are not glamorous or good-looking. They are flawed humans you can laugh with and relate to. A masterpiece.

Pretty in Pink (1986)

John Hughes teen drama. The plot is simple: poor girl dates rich boy while social prejudice threatens to tear them apart. Molly Ringwald acts with her lower lip and is a curious mixture of mature and immature. She has three interesting relationships – with her depressed father (Harry Dean Stanton), with her supportive colleague at the Tracks record shop (Annie Potts) and with her nerdy friend “Duckie” who’s in love with her (Jon Cryer). The big flaw is that her central relationship – with preppy, well-off Blane (Andrew McCarthy) – just doesn’t convince. It’s not clear what, if anything, they have in common and this forms a vacuum at the centre of the film. And when they do finally end up together, the film seems to betray its own instincts. Weren’t we supposed to be rooting for Duckie, with his goofy underdog charm? In fact, the ending we see was reshot because the “truer” ending – in which she did wind up with the far more appealing Duckie – wasn’t popular with audiences. That commercial decision was the wrong choice aesthetically and means that the plot and motivations fail to ring true.

The soundtrack is omnipresent and brilliantly of its time (The Smiths, New Order, Psychedelic Furs), but that’s not enough to save the film. Having heard this raved about as a cult classic, I was very disappointed to finally see it.