Oh this has not dated one bit.
Cinema in the early 1980s didn’t seem to think itself too clever, either that or it didn’t think much of the attention span of its audience. Most films of the era are essentially three scenes;
Action films
1/ meet the good guy
2/ meet the bad guy when he kills good guys friend/partner/wife
3/ good guy kills bad guy.
Romance
1/ guy and gal meet
2/ guy and gal break up
3/ guy and gal get together forever
Drama
1/ meet the guy(s)
2/ the guys face a dilemma
3/ the dilemma is resolved one way or the other
Think I’m being too simplistic?
1/ Rambo walks into town.
2/ Cops give Rambo the shits
3/ Rambo cuts a swathe through the bad guys.
End
Deliverance
1/ The guys go on a trip
2/ ‘Bad things’ happen to the guys *soooooooeeeeee!!!*
3/ (Some) guys escape
End
I guess you could argue the same thing about many of today’s blockbusters, which seem to rely on catchy songs, blurry action, stunts and cameos to hold your attention. I think many 80s films are so linear that when they finish you can’t help but ask “Is that it”, where often nowadays I ponder “What exactly was that?”
I’ll leave it to you to decide which you prefer, personally I think the 90s got the mix about right.
Fear City is an 80s film.
1/ Meet the cast
Nicky and Maddy Rossi (Tom Berenger) are ‘entertainment facilitators’ (Read: stripper pimps). Maddy is an ex-boxer and used to be with their main attraction Loretta (Melanie Griffith).
Billy Dee Williams is a local cop who openly detests the fact that his city has become so depraved and sinful, always on the look out for an excuse to shut down any clubs or venues that break the rules.
2/ Something happens
A guy starts randomly slicing and dicing through the ranks of strippers – in unnecessarily theatrical ways. The girls get understandably reluctant to go to work, which hurts the business of all involved parties, and riles up Billy Dee.
Is the “New York Knifer” a business rival, a gang or… a random guy working on his personal opus and working out in the nude?
3/ The situation is resolved.
Will ex-boxer Maddy – who has seriously cheesy flashbacks about his final fight and abhors violence – ever fight again?
Will the NY Knifer target Loretta?
Will Maddy and Loretta get back together?
Will Melanie Griffith’s shrill whiny voice give me the shits?
I leave that for you to find out, but if by now you are unsure you’ve never seen an 80s movie before.
Final Rating – 5.5 / 10. An amusing snapshot of the 80s: lousy synth music, big hair, small unsurgerised bosoms, wooden acting and casual racism, all around a threadbare plot that might have been cutting edge at the time, but hasn’t dated at all well…
P.S. Mel G’s voice sure did give me the shits.
