My Favorite Top 30 Movies of 1988
by pardonemepaddre | created - 22 May 2017 | updated - 5 months ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
R | 108 min | Comedy, Crime
In London, four very different people team up on a jewel heist, then try to double-cross one another for the loot, complicated by their efforts to fool a very proper barrister.
Directors: Charles Crichton, John Cleese | Stars: John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin
Votes: 153,895 | Gross: $63.49M
2. Mississippi Burning (1988)
R | 128 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Two F.B.I. Agents with wildly different styles arrive in Mississippi to investigate the disappearance of some civil rights activists.
Director: Alan Parker | Stars: Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe, Frances McDormand, Brad Dourif
Votes: 110,969 | Gross: $34.60M
3. Bird (1988)
R | 161 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The troubled life and career of jazz musician Charlie "Bird" Parker.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Forest Whitaker, Diane Venora, Michael Zelniker, Samuel E. Wright
Votes: 13,482 | Gross: $2.18M
4. A Cry in the Dark (1988)
PG-13 | 120 min | Biography, Drama
A mother whose child was killed in a dingo attack in the Australian Outback fights to prove her innocence when she is accused of murder.
Director: Fred Schepisi | Stars: Meryl Streep, Sam Neill, Dale Reeves, David Hoflin
Votes: 11,204 | Gross: $6.91M
5. Talk Radio (1988)
R | 110 min | Drama, Thriller
A rude, contemptuous talk show host becomes overwhelmed by the hatred that surrounds his program just before it goes national.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Eric Bogosian, Ellen Greene, Leslie Hope, John C. McGinley
Votes: 14,614 | Gross: $3.47M
6. Wings of Desire (1987)
PG-13 | 128 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
An angel tires of his purely ethereal life of merely overseeing the human activity of Berlin's residents, and longs for the tangible joys of physical existence when he falls in love with a mortal.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Curt Bois
Votes: 76,990 | Gross: $3.33M
7. Running on Empty (1988)
PG-13 | 116 min | Crime, Drama, Music
The eldest son of a fugitive family comes of age and wants to live his own life.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: River Phoenix, Christine Lahti, Judd Hirsch, Jonas Abry
Votes: 17,907 | Gross: $2.84M
8. Imagine: John Lennon (1988)
R | 100 min | Documentary, Biography, Music
A biography of the rock music star.
Director: Andrew Solt | Stars: John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney, George Harrison
Votes: 5,180 | Gross: $3.75M
9. Mystic Pizza (1988)
R | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Three teenage girls come of age while working at a pizza parlor in the Connecticut town of Mystic.
Director: Donald Petrie | Stars: Annabeth Gish, Julia Roberts, Lili Taylor, Vincent D'Onofrio
Votes: 32,466 | Gross: $12.79M
10. Babette's Feast (1987)
G | 103 min | Drama
During the late 19th century, a strict religious community in a Danish village takes in a French refugee from the Franco-Prussian War as a servant to the late pastor's daughters.
Director: Gabriel Axel | Stars: Stéphane Audran, Bodil Kjer, Birgitte Federspiel, Jarl Kulle
Votes: 22,034 | Gross: $4.40M
11. Salaam Bombay! (1988)
Not Rated | 113 min | Crime, Drama
Young Krishna struggles to survive among the drug dealers, pimps, and prostitutes in the back alleys and gutters of India.
Director: Mira Nair | Stars: Shafiq Syed, Anjaan, Amrit Patel, Murari Sharma
Votes: 10,092 | Gross: $2.08M
12. Rain Man (1988)
R | 133 min | Drama
After a selfish L.A. yuppie learns his estranged father left a fortune to an autistic-savant brother in Ohio that he didn't know existed, he absconds with his brother and sets out across the country, hoping to gain a larger inheritance.
Director: Barry Levinson | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino, Gerald R. Molen
Votes: 546,504 | Gross: $178.80M
13. Buster (1988)
R | 102 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Based on the story of Ronald Christopher "Buster" Edwards (Phil Collins), one of the thieves involved in "The Great Train Robbery" of 1963.
Director: David Green | Stars: Phil Collins, Julie Walters, Larry Lamb, Stephanie Lawrence
Votes: 4,369 | Gross: $0.54M
14. The Accidental Tourist (1988)
PG | 121 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
An emotionally distant writer of travel guides must carry on with his life after his son is killed and his marriage crumbles.
Director: Lawrence Kasdan | Stars: William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, Geena Davis, Amy Wright
Votes: 17,274 | Gross: $32.63M
15. Things Change (1988)
PG | 100 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Shoe-shiner Gino is hired to take the rap for a mafia murder. Two-bit gangster Jerry watches over Gino and gives him a weekend to remember.
Director: David Mamet | Stars: Don Ameche, Joe Mantegna, Robert Prosky, J.J. Johnston
Votes: 4,064 | Gross: $3.53M
16. The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)
R | 171 min | Drama, Romance
Central Europe, 1968: A Czech doctor with an active sex life meets a woman who wants monogamy, and then the Soviet invasion further disrupts their lives.
Director: Philip Kaufman | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche, Lena Olin, Derek de Lint
Votes: 38,637 | Gross: $10.01M
17. Working Girl (1988)
R | 113 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
When a secretary's idea is stolen by her boss, she seizes an opportunity to steal it back by pretending she has her boss' job.
Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Alec Baldwin
Votes: 62,397 | Gross: $64.00M
18. Eight Men Out (1988)
PG | 119 min | Drama, History, Sport
A dramatization of the Black Sox scandal when the underpaid Chicago White Sox accepted bribes to deliberately lose the 1919 World Series.
Director: John Sayles | Stars: John Cusack, Clifton James, Jace Alexander, Gordon Clapp
Votes: 22,083 | Gross: $5.68M
19. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
PG | 104 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
When a cartoon rabbit is accused of murder, he enlists the help of a burnt out private investigator to prove his innocence.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Joanna Cassidy, Charles Fleischer
Votes: 216,787 | Gross: $156.45M
20. Bellman and True (1987)
R | 150 min | Crime, Drama
Hiller, a computer expert, was bribed by group of bank robbers to obtain details of the security system at a newly-built bank. Having obtained the information, he thought he'd seen the last... See full summary »
Director: Richard Loncraine | Stars: Bernard Hill, Derek Newark, Richard Hope, Ken Bones
Votes: 529 | Gross: $0.23M
21. Bagdad Cafe (1987)
PG | 95 min | Comedy, Drama
A lonely German woman ends up in the most desolate motel on Earth and decides to make it brighter.
Director: Percy Adlon | Stars: Marianne Sägebrecht, CCH Pounder, Jack Palance, Christine Kaufmann
Votes: 15,192 | Gross: $3.59M
22. Cop (1988)
R | 110 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
An obsessive, insubordinate homicide cop is convinced a serial killer is loose in the Hollywood area and disobeys orders in order to catch him.
Director: James B. Harris | Stars: James Woods, Lesley Ann Warren, Charles Durning, Charles Haid
Votes: 6,170 | Gross: $1.88M
23. Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
R | 119 min | Drama, Romance
A scheming widow and her manipulative ex-lover make a bet regarding the corruption of a recently married woman.
Director: Stephen Frears | Stars: Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, Swoosie Kurtz
Votes: 75,129 | Gross: $34.70M
24. Clean and Sober (1988)
R | 124 min | Drama
A hustling drug addict checks himself into rehabilitation to escape trouble with the law and realizes that it's exactly what he needs.
Director: Glenn Gordon Caron | Stars: Michael Keaton, Kathy Baker, Morgan Freeman, Tate Donovan
Votes: 7,232 | Gross: $8.67M
25. Stormy Monday (1988)
R | 93 min | Crime, Drama, Music
A crooked American businessman tries to push the shady influential owner of a nightclub in Newcastle, England to sell him the club. The club's new employee and the American's ex lover fall in love and inadvertently stir the pot.
Director: Mike Figgis | Stars: Melanie Griffith, Tommy Lee Jones, Sting, Sean Bean
Votes: 4,437 | Gross: $1.79M
26. Rikky and Pete (1988)
R | 101 min | Comedy, Drama
Follow the lives of Rikky, a talanted geologist, and her brother Pete, an off-the-wall mechanical genius. To find peace of mind they travel to the outbacks of Australia and meet up with a desert mining town full of zany individualists.
Director: Nadia Tass | Stars: Stephen Kearney, Nina Landis, Tetchie Agbayani, Bill Hunter
Votes: 304 | Gross: $0.21M
27. Frantic (1988)
R | 120 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
In a hotel room in Paris, a doctor comes out of the shower and finds that his wife has disappeared. He soon finds himself caught up in a world of intrigue, espionage, gangsters, drugs and murder.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Harrison Ford, Betty Buckley, Emmanuelle Seigner, Djiby Soumare
Votes: 57,797 | Gross: $17.64M
28. Cocktail (1988)
R | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A talented New York City bartender takes a job at a bar in Jamaica and falls in love.
Director: Roger Donaldson | Stars: Tom Cruise, Bryan Brown, Elisabeth Shue, Lisa Banes
Votes: 91,837 | Gross: $78.22M
29. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
R | 88 min | Comedy, Drama
A television actress encounters a variety of eccentric characters after embarking on a journey to discover why her lover abruptly left her.
Director: Pedro Almodóvar | Stars: Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, Julieta Serrano, Rossy de Palma
Votes: 46,445 | Gross: $7.18M
30. The Accused (1988)
R | 111 min | Crime, Drama
After a young woman suffers a brutal gang rape in a bar one night, a prosecutor assists in bringing the perpetrators to justice, including the ones who encouraged and cheered on the attack.
Director: Jonathan Kaplan | Stars: Kelly McGillis, Jodie Foster, Bernie Coulson, Leo Rossi
Votes: 40,012 | Gross: $32.07M
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