25 Years Ago This Month: April 1988

We start with the movies I've seen

Stand and Deliver is one of those inspirational Hollywood movies about a teacher stepping into a bad classroom situation and turning the students around. This is based on a true story and the movie is well-regarded and was even selected for preservation as culturally significant by the Library of Congress. Edward James Olmos plays math teacher Jaime Escalante, who helped Mexican-American students in a high schoo lin East L.A. succeed at the AP Calculus exam.

I reviewed Bad Dreams last October as part of my 31 days of horror reviews. I saw the film a few times as a kid I think because my older sister had it dubbed on VHS.

Rising star Sharon Stone played alongside Steven Seagal in his film debut in Above the Law. Seagal plays Nico, an ex CIA special ops trained in martial arts, now a Chicago police detective investigating drugs and corruption. Thus began a short, but bright career of breaking arms and necks.

Colors was a not entirely bad Los Angeles cop movie focusing on gang violence directed by Dennis Hopper and starring Robert Duvall and Sean Penn. It was the month's box office winner.

George Burns made his second to last starring role in 18 Again!, yet another of the 1980s switcheroo movies in which he changes places with his teenage grandson. The twist in this is that the older man remains in a coma from the accident that switched them. So only the younger actor, Charlie Schlatter (who went on to play Ferris Bueller on the short-lived TV series), gets to showcase his talent for imitating Burns.

Then there's the stuff I'm vaguely familiar with and may have even seen pieces of during cable runs

Michael J. Fox starred in Bright Lights, Big City about the decadence and night life of 1980s New York City living, based on the novel by Jay McInerney.

I'm sure I've seen most of Lady in White but I don't really remember a lot of it. I remember it as atmospheric and genuinely suspenseful. Although that's how my 12 year old brain recalls it. Who knows what a new viewing would suggest?

Then of course there's the horror sequel Critters 2: The Main Course. Enough said.

Finally there's the stuff I'm not familiar with at all

Demi Moore and Michael Biehn starred in the judgment day drama The Seventh Sign.

I can't even make sense of the Wikipedia plot summary for A Time of Destiny, a drama starring William Hurt, Timothy Hutton, and a young Melissa Leo (all three now Oscar winners!). Maybe that's because it's based on a Verdi opera - not a medium known for simplified plots.

Arliss Howard is a cop who goes undercover in his brother's high school to flush out the murder for which his brother is accused in Plain Clothes.

A reaction to the AIDS epidemic, Casual Sex? is a comedy about two young women (Lea Thompson and Victoria Jackson) who go to a vacation resort in search of the perfect man free of disease.

Keanu Reeves starred in a story about a high school student who seems to have everything, but kills himself in Permanent Record.

Appointment with Death was a an adaptation of the Agathie Christie novel featuring the detective Hercule Poirot, played by Peter Ustinov.

News

11th - 60th Academy Awards, Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor wins 9 awards including Best Picture.

12th - Sonny Bono was elected mayor of Palm Springs, CA, beginning a political career that would bring him to the United States Congress.

28th - Aloha Airlines flight 243 loses a section of its upper fuselage while in flight. The plane landed safely with only one fatality - a veteran flight attendant who was pulled out of the plane.

30th - Canadian Celine Dion won the Eurovision Song Contest for...Switzerland?

Music

Tracy Chapman's debut eponymous album was released.

"Weird Al" Yankovic's Even Worse, which parodied "Bad" as "Fat" was released. 

Celebrity Weddings

29th - Burt Reynolds and Loni Anderson (divorced 6 years later)

29th - Mike Nichols and Diane Sawyer (still married! Happy anniversary)

30th - Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson (still married! Happy anniversary)

Births

10th - Haley Joel Osment. Remember him? You know, Oscar nominee for The Sixth Sense?

Deaths

21st - Oscar-winning screenwriter I. A. L. Diamond, best known for his writing of Some Like It Hot and The Apartment.