Miami Vice: Victims Of Circumstance (1989) ***

Jeux de societe (1989) ***

Dekalog (1989) *****

Night Trips (1989) ***

Lonesome Dove (1989) ***

Driving Miss Daisy (1989) **

Jessica Tandy won a well-deserved Oscar for her superb performance in this hopelessly old-fashioned, conventional comedy-drama about a stubborn old lady and her wise black chauffeur.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) **

Fifth entry in the "Star Trek" saga. The special effects are excellent, but the plot is quite mediocre.

Glory (1989) **

Historical drama starring Denzelm Washington and Morgan Freeman. Possibly the first film since "The Birth Of A Nation" (1915) to tackle the subject of black soldiers fighting against slavery during the Civil War.

Internal Affairs (1989) **

A disturbing thriller about a corrupt cop (Richard Gere), who faces an internal investigation. Slow, but violent.

Steel Magnolias (1989) **

Witty, but hopelessly sentimental film about six women living, loving and dying in a small Southern town. A blend of comedy and melodrama.

Young Einstein (1989) **

Yahoo Serious plays Albert Einstein, a Tasmanian farmer, who invents rock 'n' roll, beer and the atom bomb... while falling in love with Marie Curie... and saving four kittens from being roasted in a pie. It's an ultra-wacky dose of pure ridiculousness, quite funny, but not nearly as inventive as one might expect.

All Dogs Go To Heaven (1989) **

Pleasant animated tale about a dog who takes care of a little orphan girl. Very corny, but often entertaining. A curious mix of "Little Miss Marker" (1934) and "Here Comes Mr Jordan" (1941).

Back To The Future II (1989) *

Fast-paced, but disappointing, complicated and confusing sequel to the 1985 blockbuster. This time, Marty and Doc travel to the future only to discover they've unintentionally changed history. So now, they have to travel back to repair the damage.

Eric The Viking (1989) *

A soft Viking warrior (Tim Robbins) finds a magic horn that takes him over the edge of the world. A poor man's "Baron Munchausen".

A Dry, White Season (1989) *

Preachy drama about white South African teacher's gradual realization of horrible racial injustices in his country. Conventional (i.e. white) point of view (presented in far too many films about apartheid), but a good performance from Marlon Brando.

Fields Of Dreams (1989) *

A young farmer (Kevin Costner) hears some voices and builds a baseball field in the middle of his cornfield. Yes, corny.

The Scenes Of The Class Struggle In Beverly Hills (1989) *

Black comedy about two servants trying to seduce their employers.

Always (1989) *

A remake of "A Guy Named Joe" (1943). The immortal Jerome Kerns' song "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" adds a touch of black humor to this otherwise boring and sentimental story about a fire-fighter pilot dying in a plane crash. Some scenes are deeply moving, but the film is too corny and ultimately too depressing. Directed by Steven Spielberg; probably the least impressive film of his career.

Black Rain (1989) *

Not to be confused with an excellent Japanese film of the same title (also released in 1989). This is an average thriller starring Michael Douglas as a New York cop chasing Japanese criminals in Osaka. As directed by Ridley Scott, the film has some style, but very little substance.

Blaze (1989) *

Paul Newman stars as Louisiana governor Earl K.Long, a flamboyant populist who falls in love with a stripper.

Eat A Bowl Of Tea (1989) *

Boring drama about the tribulations of a Chinese-American couple.

Gross Anatomy (1989) *

A little film about a group of first-year med students.

Look Who's Talking (1989) *

A single mother falls in love with her babysitter. Some jokes misfire, others loose their momentum. Only gossiping infants are funny - the idea of using Bruce Willis' voice for the kid was definitely inspired.

Music Box (1989) *

A successful lawyer (Jessica Lange) defends her father accused of being a Nazi war criminal. A profoundly depressing film, scripted by Joe Esterhaus.

National Lampoo's Christmas Vacation (1989) *

A wacky Christmas in a weird family with crazy relatives and zany neighbors. All jokes miss their punch, comic situations are ill-conceived and the whole film is an undigestible Christmas turkey.

Parenthood (1989) *

Joys and sorrows of parenthood are presented in this comedy/drama.

Prancer (1989) *

A dreadful "Christmas miracle" movie with plenty of sugar and corn. The story concerns a lost reindeer.

Romero (1989) *

Political drama about the courageous archbishop of San Salvador, who was killed by death squads in 1980 for opposing the military dictatorship.

She-Devil (1989) *

A sitcom feature starring Roseanne Barr as a cheated wife plotting against her former husband and his mistress.

Top 10 Films of 1988

1. ''The Unbearable Lightness Of Being'' (Philip Kaufman, USA)

2. ''Dangerous Liaisons'' (Stephen Frears, USA)

3. "A Fish Called Wanda" (Charles Crichton, UK)

4. ''Married To The Mob'' (Jonathan Demme, USA)

5. "Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown" (Pedro Almodovar, Spain)

6. "Who Framed Roger Rabbit ?" (Robert Zemeckis, Disney)

7. "Die Hard" (John McTiernan, USA)

8. "Cinema Paradiso" (Giuseppe Tornatore, Italy)

9. "Ice Palace" (Per Blom, Norway)

10. "Bagdad Café" (Percy Adlon, Germany)

Other great films:

The Accidental Tourist

Akira (Japan)
Another Woman
As Tears Go By (Hong Kong)
Big
Bird

Chocolat (France)

The Dead Pool

Dead Ringers (Canada)

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Dragons Forever (Hong Kong)

Drowning By Numbers (UK)

The Everlasting Secret Family (Australia)

Hairspray

High Hopes (UK)
Hôtel Terminus (France)
In The Line Of Duty 3 (Hong Kong)

Karhozat (Hungary)

Krotki film o milosci (Poland)

Krotki film o zabijaniu (Poland)

La Lectrice (France)

Little Dorrit (UK)

Maitre de musique (Belgium)

My Neighbor Totoro (Japan)
The Naked Gun
Oliver And Company
L'Ours (France)

Plaff! (Cuba)
Police Story II (Hong Kong)
Powaqqatsi

Rain Man

Salaam Bombay (India)
Salsa

School On Fire (Hong Kong)

The Summer Of Aviya (Israel)
Tales From The Gimli Hospital (Canada)
Talk Radio

Tangerine Taxi (Canada)

A Taxing Woman's Return (Japan)

Tetsuo: The Iron Man (Japan)

Thin Blue Line

La Vie est un long fleuve tranquille (France)

Willow
Working Girl

Top 10 Guilty Pleasures of 1988:

1. "Pelle The Conqueror" (Bille August, Denmark)

2. "The Last Temptation Of Christ" (Martin Scorsese, Universal)

3. "Le Grand Bleu" (Luc Besson, France)

4. "Little Vera" (Vasili Pichul, Soviet Union)

5. "Coming To America" (John Landis, Paramount)

6. "The Rainbow" (Ken Russell, UK)

7. "Her Vengeance" (Lam Ngai-Choi, Hong Kong)

8. "Sensual Escape" (Gloria Leonard, Candida Royalle, USA)

9. "Emmanuelle 6" (Jean Rollin, France)

10. "The Ghostess With The Mostess" (Alex de Renzy, USA)

Short Top 3:

1. "On s'est tous défilé" (Jean-Luc Godard, France)

2. "Gullah Tales" (Gary Moss, USA)

3. "Puissance de la parole" (Jean-Luc Godard, France)

Other great shorts:

Fingered

Gerçure (Canada)

Whoregasm

Top 3 Music Videos:

1. "When We Was Fab" (Godley and Creme, George Harrison)

2. "Simply Irresistible" (Terence Donovan, Robert Palmer)

3. "Roll With It" (David Fincher, Steve Winwood)

Top Commercials:

"Revolving Door" (Bush For President)

Other great commercials:

Felix Pommes strips (Sweden)

TV Top 3:

1. "Yes Prime Minister: The Tangled Web" (Antony Jay, Jonathan Lynn, BBC, UK)

2. "Moonlighting: A Womb With A View" (Jay Daniel, ABC)

3. "Yes Prime Minister: The National Education Service" (Antony Jay, Jonathan Lynn, BBC, UK)

Other great TV shows:

Golden Girls: Sophia's Wedding Part 1

Trio en mi bemol (France)

Cartoon Top 3:

1. "One Of Those Days" (Bill Plympton, USA)

2. "The Cat Came Back" (Cordell Barker, NFB, Canada)

3. "Love At First Sight" (Pavel Koutsky, Czechoslovakia)

Other great cartoons:

Academy Leader Variations
Pas a deux (Holland)

Les Quatre voeux (France)

Super Powers (Iran)
Technological Threat
Tin Toy

Weak films of 1988:

Une Affaire de femmes (France)
Alice (Czechoslovakia)
Au-dela du vertige
Beetlejuice

Bull Durham
Cannibal Woman In The Avocado Jungle Of Death
Clara's Heart
Deadbeat At Dawn
Gorillas In The Mist
Let's Get Lost
Mississippi Burning
The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey

La Petite voleuse (France)
Les Portes tournantes (Canada)
Red Sorghum (China)
Stand And Deliver
Sur (Argentina)
Tiger Cage (Hong Kong)
The Vanishing (Holland)

Weak shorts:

Appointments Of Dennis Jennings

Weak cartoons:

Arnold Escapes From The Church
Candy Jam (UK)
The Dingles (Canada)
Disconnected (Canada)
Lettre d'amour (Canada)
A Nice Day In The Country (Canada)
The Writer (Holland)

Top Musical of 1988

"Salsa" (Boaz Davidson, Cannon)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit ? (1988) *****

Die Hard (1988) *****

Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown (1988) *****

Married To The Mob (1988) *****

A Fish Called Wanda (1988) *****

Dangerous Liaisons (1988) *****

The Unbearable Lightness Of Being (1988) *****

The best film about the Prague Spring of 1968, Philip Kaufman's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" is an adaptation of Milan Kundera's excellent novel of the same title. The film tells the story of a young surgeon, Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis) who attempts to float above the mundane world of personal responsibility and commitment to practice a sex life that has no traffic with the heart, to escape untouched from the world of sensual pleasure while retaining his privacy and his loneliness. His relationships with two women, Juliette Binoche and Lena Olin, as well as various short flings, dominate the story. But the real subject of Kaufman's film is freedom (the 'lightness' of the title). Rita Kempley described the film in Washington Post as a mix of ''glitzy garter belt look of "Cabaret" and the somber Angst of Bergman. Puckered lips and rounded bottoms are intercut with invasion-era newsreels of bodies under sheets. Artful compositions, with hats off to Magritte, are set to the eerie arpeggios of Leos Janacek's score. It's an atmosphere that stirs the heart, the hormones and the head. Allegorically, Tomas is torn between the two women, as he is between East and West, anarchy and order. And the movie is held together by the constant tension between people and nations, the power of love and the love of power''. It's a Hollywood movie, but with a very European sensibility, due not only to the original material, but also to the fact that the script for adapted by the great French screenwriter, Jean-Claude Carrière (''Belle de jour'', ''The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie'', ''Milou en mai'', ''Cyrano de Bergerac'').