Die Hard (1988)

And all the Die Hard Franchise-Series sequels: Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990), Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995) (aka Die Hard 3), and Live Free or Die Hard (2007) (aka Die Hard 4), etc. See also Greatest Scenes

This thrilling classic action film from director John McTiernan was set on Christmas Eve in 1988, with NY cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) in Los Angeles at the high-rise Nakatomi Corporation Building (on the Avenue of the Stars in Century City) for his estranged wife Holly's (Bonnie Bedalia) office party.

There, international terrorists had taken party-goers hostage and planned to steal $640 million in negotiable bearer bonds from the corporate vaults.

In order to stem the robbery and dispatch with each of the bad guys one-by-one, a battered and vulnerable McClane stealthily hid in the elevator shaft, air ducts, uncompleted floors, and on the rooftop and eventually single-handedly battled angry henchman Karl Vreski (Alexander Godunov) with macho bravado and then overcame the film's cultured German terrorist villain Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) by dropping him from the side of the building.

"Yippee-kai-yay, motherf--ker!"

- "You know my name, but who are you? Just another American who saw too many movies as a child? Another orphan of a bankrupt culture who thinks he's John Wayne? Rambo? Marshal Dillon?"
- "I was always kinda partial to Roy Rogers, actually. I really liked those sequined shirts."
- "Do you really think you have a chance against us, Mr. Cowboy?"

The scene of McClane leaping off the top of the exploding building with a firehose tied around his waist, in order to shoot and crash his way into a skyscraper window below.

The death of villain Hans Gruber, as he was dangling out a skyscraper window - and holding onto Holly's Rolex watch - until McClane intervened, unlatched the clasp, and the bad man plunged backwards.

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)

And the sequels: The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991), Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994)

Deadpan, bumbling LA detective Lt. Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) starred in this gag-filled comedy from the directorial team of Zuckers and Abrahams (also responsible for Airplane! (1980) and Top Secret! (1984)).

It opened with a speeding LA cop car (shot behind the revolving cherry-top) driving down nighttime streets, into a carwash, and then barreling into a house - and a shower with women - and then down a rollercoaster before coming to a stop in front of a donut shop.

The hilarious film's antics included an embarrassed Drebin falling upon a look-alike Queen Elizabeth character in his attempt to prevent her assassination during the 7th inning stretch of the LA Angels/Mariners playoff game, awkwardly singing the national anthem while impersonating opera singer Enrico Pallazzo (Tony Brafa), and serving as the home plate umpire.

The film's jokes were non-stop and clever, such as:

- "It's the same old story. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, girl finds boy, boy forgets girl, boy remembers girl, girls dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day."
- "Goodyear?"
- "No, the worst."

- "Nice beaver!" - "Thank you. I just had it stuffed."

Drebin's visit to hospitalized and badly wounded Det. Nordberg's (O.J. Simpson) bed and causing his bed to fold up on him, and making insensitive comments to his wife Wilma (Susan Beaublan): "I wouldn't wait until the last minute to fill out those organ donor cards."

The love-making scene between femme fatale Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley) and Drebin with full-body condoms.

At a ballgame, Drebin awkwardly butchered the singing of the national anthem while impersonating opera tenor-singer Enrico Pallazzo.

The final scene at the top of the baseball stadium when Drebin slapped the back of recuperating, wheel-chaired partner Nordberg, sending him down the stadium steps and flipping him 360 degrees to the field below.

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)

The sequel: Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991)

The "stupid humor" of this time-travel fantasy comedy (coming after the success of Back to the Future (1985)) without sex, nudity, or violence typical of most "guy" films, featured two shabby and unbrainy lead characters/dudes or ignorant but loveable slackers:

William "Bill" S. Preston Esq. (Alex Winter)

Ted "Theodore" Logan (Keanu Reeves, in a breakthrough role)

The two traveled through time to pass their 1988 San Dimas High School history class, by creating a report or class presentation on the views of historical figures on the present year, while they wasted time playing in their would-be band the Wyld Stallyns. Ted's police captain father Captain Logan (Hal Landon Jr.) threatened to send Ted to military school if he didn't pass history.

Their dialogue was mostly composed of surfer-talk, such as "dude," "bodacious," "bogus," "whoa," "no way!," and other simplistic phrases.

Their journey was provided by mysterious Rufus (comic George Carlin) who found them hanging out at the local Circle K (Ted: "Strange things are afoot at the Circle K"), and gave them a time-travel phone booth and phone book - and the gateway to meeting Napoleon, Billy the Kid, Socrates (in Ancient Greece), Sigmund Freud, Ludwig van Beethoven, Joan of Arc, Genghis Khan (from medieval Mongolia) and top-hatted Abraham Lincoln. The historical figures were brought back to modern society.

Their stupidity was demonstrated when they were offered the Iron Maiden by their medieval Evil Duke captor ("Put them in the Iron Maiden") - they reacted with "Excellent!" without realizing that it was a torture execution machine and not a heavy-metal rock band ("Bogus!").

The film ended for the two failing students with a last-minute, 2:45 pm presentation for the assembled San Dimas students in an auditorium - the final report of the afternoon. On stage, the two students introduced the 1988 "world tour" of "some of the greatest people who have ever lived," beginning with Billy the Kid, followed by Socrates - and many more.

- "Party on, Dude!"

- "If you guys are really us, what number are we thinking of?"
- "69, dudes!"

- "No way!"

- So-crates - "The only true wisdom consists in knowing that you know nothing".
- "That's us, dude."

The scene of Napoleon going bowling and sliding down the alley, Joan of Arc leading an aerobics dance exhibition-class in a shopping mall, and Genghis Khan destroying an Oshman's sporting goods store with a metal baseball bat, among others.

The fighting armored knights scene.

The on-stage history presentation - with all of the historical characters - delivered by the duo to their classmates.

GoodFellas (1990)

Based on Nicholas Pileggi's non-fiction book Wiseguys, Martin Scorsese's graphically-violent and compelling crime mob-underworld classic was a definitive and stylish, gangster film, with a soundtrack that chronicled the passage of time through three decades of crime (the 50s to the 70s) in the life of a mid-level, aspiring mobster Henry Hill (Ray Liotta). Joe Pesci was featured as meanly psychotic wiseguy Tommy DeVito, and Robert De Niro as paranoid James Conway. See also Greatest Scenes

Raised on the streets of a Brooklyn neighborhood, he married Karen (Lorraine Bracco) and slowly advanced up and climbed the Mafioso ladder.

In the end as Hill's life unraveled, after dealing narcotics and becoming hooked, he protected himself and his wife by testifying and becoming part of the federal witness protection program - and being left in anonymous, suburbanized exile ("I'm an average nobody. I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook.")

In one of the concluding scenes, wiseguy Tommy, who believed he was about to be inducted into the Mafia, was suddenly shot in the back of the head.

"As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a gangster."

"Whaddaya mean I'm funny?...Funny how? I mean, funny like a clown? I amuse you?"

The three-minute, uninterrupted tracking shot from outside the Copacabana nightclub into the crowded restaurant through the back entrance, following an overwhelmed Karen and Henry.

In the Bamboo Lounge where criminals regularly congregated, the loud-mouthed, volatile gangster Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci) pranked the laughing, wise-guy Henry Hill (Ray Liotta as adult), by pretending to take offense and menacingly asking: "What do you mean, I'm funny? Funny how? How'm I funny?"

During the backroom card-game, Tommy DeVito suddenly and casually murdered Spider (Michael Imperioli) during a card game.

The famous montage of the murderous elimination of other conspirators (a couple in a pink convertible, another hanging frozen solid from a meat-hook in a meat truck, etc.) after the successful pre-dawn heist-raid at the Lufthansa cargo terminal at Kennedy Airport that netted millions. All accomplices involved in the heist were ordered whacked or killed by Jimmy Conway and Tommy to sever the links between Jimmy and the Lufthansa robbery - accompanied by the piano bridge from Derek and the Dominos' Layla.

Tommy was 'inducted' into the Mafia when he dressed up to "look good," but was suddenly whacked. After being ushered into an empty room to take a blood oath into the upper echelons of the family, the camera took his point of view; he sensed his days were over - he was shot in the back of the head as he spoke his last words.

In the concluding famous "drug bust" montage sequence (with frenetic jump-cuts and increasing speed), Henry obsessively watched the clock and narrated a paranoid, hyperactive monologue while heavily intoxicated and coked-up with drugs, and juggling multiple commitments. The monologue ended when Henry was arrested by narcotics cops from the DEA when a gun was held to his head.