48 Hrs. (1982)

It’s a 'buddy cop' movie with one San Francisco cop and one smart-talking convict who's given a 48 hour get out of jail pass card. The usual precinct clichés are in abundance, shouty Chief, hookers getting booked at desks and officers shuffling around in the background, but elsewhere it’s less formulaic.
I don’t like Murphy’s attention-grabbing screen persona very much, but I’m a fan of director Walter Hill’s ability to put us into the dramatic heart of a scene without overplaying it or making it seem false, so even though I was kept at a distance by the former I was pulled back into the story by the latter.
In short, it’s an entertaining 80s cop drama in an overcrowded genre arena.

3½ crummy days out of 5

Superman III (1983)

Prepare your face for a severe palming. A lot of Part III is campy comedy drama. Sure, it's based on a comic book, but that's no excuse for piss poor slapstick. I'm talking custard pie comedy. Really.
It's a shame because in the middle section Reeve gives his best performance of the whole series.
Also, removing him from Metropolis gave him room to let the Clark character grow beyond a clumsy oaf.
Seeing Annette O'Toole play Clark's first love, Lana Lang, was fun. She would go on to play Clark's mom in the Smallville TV series years later.

2 far removed from the Brainiac script out of 5

Stephen King's It (1990)

We all float down here…
Creepy clown terrorizes kids and preys on the fear of the innocent in the peaceful town of Derry, Maine. 7 childhood friends—a merry band of misfits, losers and rejects (aka, STS)—are able to fight together and contain the evil, but only for 30 years at a time. Told concurrently between two timeframes, it’s the best coming-of-age story since Stand By Me. Tim Curry is terrific as the iconic Pennywise who controls through fear in a way that evokes the sinisterism of the original A Nightmare on Elm Street. For those who claim it’s not “scary” enough, remember that it was made for TV (a new R-rated remake is also on the way). I love this movie because it reminds me of the friends I never had, never will have, and why I watch movies in the first place.

5 deadlights out of 5