
1988
A Fish Called Wanda
Manners, mendacity and a key hidden in fish food — a very English heist with teeth.
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The year was
1988 balanced enormous mainstream hits with cult horror, comedy and action. It was a year of unlikely heroes, memorable villains and films that would influence their genres long after the decade ended.
Die Hard, Beetlejuice, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Rain Man, They Live, Bloodsport and Child's Play sit alongside comedies, slashers, fantasy adventures and crime movies in another remarkably deep year.
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66 movies so far

1988
Manners, mendacity and a key hidden in fish food — a very English heist with teeth.
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1988
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master: parents protecting their children and friendship, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Above the Law: freedom, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Action Jackson: heroism and courage, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
A haunted house, a rules-bound afterlife and one gloriously unhelpful bio‑exorcist.
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1988
Big: our relationship with technology and friendship, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Black Eagle: courage and parents protecting their children, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Kumite, loyalty and a very particular kind of 80s machismo.
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1988
Bright Lights, Big City: family and mortality and lifespan, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Mentorship, rites of passage and a catcher called Crash — Bull Durham still teaches a lesson.
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1988
Child's Play: family and freedom, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
A love letter to mentorship, the little reels that keep memory alive, and the reason we go to the pictures.
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1988
Cocktail: family and greed, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Colors: authority and loss, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
A prince in disguise, a fast-food job and a fairy-tale that prefers laughs to pomp.
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1988
Critters 2: The Main Course: fear and mortality, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Crocodile Dundee II: friendship and parents protecting their children, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Dangerous Liaisons: love and mortality and lifespan, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Revisiting Dead Ringers and the reasons it still deserves to be watched.
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1988
One cop, a Christmas party gone wrong and a marriage he can't ignore.
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1988
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels: greed and consumerism, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Eight Men Out: loss and greed, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Frantic: our relationship with technology and mortality and lifespan, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood: the safety of home and fear, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Fright Night Part 2: friendship and fear, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Funny Farm: family and the safety of home, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Gorillas in the Mist: mortality and love, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Hairspray: family and parents protecting their children, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers: the safety of home and freedom, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Heathers: peer pressure and the safety of home, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Hellbound: Hellraiser II: freedom and family, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Teenagers spot a circus in the woods, everyone else shrugs — then the popcorn guns start firing.
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1988
License to Drive: family and the safety of home, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
A cross-country manhunt that’s really about two very different men learning how to care — and how to argue for money.
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1988
Mississippi Burning: family and the safety of home, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Mystic Pizza: family and love, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Night of the Demons: the safety of home and freedom, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Oliver & Company: family and greed, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Phantasm II: freedom and mortality, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach: authority and mortality and lifespan, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Pumpkinhead: family and parents protecting their children, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
A road trip about brothers, cash and an extraordinary memory.
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1988
Rambo III: courage and heroism, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Red Heat: authority, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Return of the Living Dead Part II: freedom and family, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Scrooged: fear and belief in the supernatural, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Shoot to Kill: family and the safety of home, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Tequila Sunrise: love and the safety of home, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
The Accused: fear, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen: loss and mortality, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Teenagers, a creeping alien goo and a whole town that won't listen — welcome back to The Blob.
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1988
The Great Outdoors: family and greed, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Is it a vampire movie? Folk horror? Monster movie? Black comedy? A wildly sexual Gothic nightmare involving an ancient snake g
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1988
A small longneck, a fierce loss and a journey that still finds you where you live.
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1988
A fierce, searching film about a man who can’t stop being human — and the choices that make him more than that.
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1988
A straight-faced detective, a ridiculous assassination plot and enough sight gags to make you snort tea through your nose.
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1988
The Serpent and the Rainbow: mortality and lifespan and corporate power, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
The Vanishing: family and parents protecting their children, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
Sunglasses, slogans and a man who will not let you look away.
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1988
A mismatched pair, a lab experiment and a very 1980s idea of family.
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1988
There are vampire movies that creep quietly through the shadows, and then there is Vampire’s Kiss.
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1988
Waxwork: family and parents protecting their children, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
A private eye, a jittery rabbit and a very British fondness for messing about with genre.
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1988
Willow: family and freedom, and why this 1988 movie still matters.
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1988
One woman's Staten Island ferry commute to the boardroom.
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1988
Young men, a murdered mentor and a young Billy the Kid riding herd on revenge and loyalty.
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