1. Die Hard
Year of Release: 1988
Overall Rating: 3.3 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Action
MPAA Rating: R
Director: John McTiernan
Actors: Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, Alan Rickman, Reginald VelJohnson, William Atherton, Paul Gleason
Plot: A terrorist group takes over a L.A. office building on Christmas, and tough New York cop John McLain is the only one who can stop them.
2. Rain Man
Year of Release: 1988
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Barry Levinson
Actors: Tom Cruise, Dustin Hoffman, Valeria Golino, Gerald R. Molen, Ralph Seymour, Jack Murdock
Plot: After his estranged father dies, a young man finds out he has an autistic older brother and takes him on a cross-country journey that will affect both of them.
3. My Neighbor Totoro ( Tonari no Totoro )
Year of Release: 1988
Overall Rating: 3.2 out of 4 stars
Language: Japanese
Genre: Anime/Fantasy
MPAA Rating: G
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Actors: Dakota Fanning, Elle Fanning, Evan Sabara, Frank Welker, Timothy Daly, Pat Carroll
Plot: Two young sisters move to the country to be closer to their sick mother. In the forest by their house they discover Totoro, a forest spirit, and the adventure begins.
4. Grave of the Fireflies ( Hotaru no haka )
Year of Release: 1988
Overall Rating: 3.2 out of 4 stars
Language: Japanese
Genre: Anime/War
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Isao Takahata
Actors: Rhoda Chrosite, J. Robert Spencer, Veronica Taylor, Amy Jones, Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi
Plot: During WWII, a brother and his young sister are forced to survive on their
own after their mother is killed in an air raid and they shun their other
relatives.
5. Mississippi Burning
Year of Release: 1988
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Crime/Drama
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Alan Parker
Actors: Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe, Frances McDormand, Brad Dourif, R. Lee Ermey, Stephen Tobolowsky
Plot: Two FBI agents are sent to investigate the murders of civil rights workers
in the south during the 1960's.
6. Wings of Desire ( Himmel über Berlin, Der )
Year of Release: 1988
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: German
Genre: Fantasy/Drama
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Wim Wenders
Actors: Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Curt Bois, Peter Falk, Hans Martin Stier
Plot: A discontented angel wanders around Berlin, listening to people's thoughts, until he falls in love with a circus acrobat and decides to become human so he can be with her. Based on poems by Rainer Maria Rilke.
7. The Thin Blue Line
Year of Release: 1988
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Documentary/Crime
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Errol Morris
Actors: Randall Adams, David Harris, Gus Rose, Jackie Johnson, Marshall Touchton, Dale Holt
Plot: Using interviews and re-enactments, the film examines the 1976 murder of a Dallas policeman, and the wrongful conviction of one of the two men implicated in the killing.
8. Beetlejuice ( Beetle Juice )
Year of Release: 1988
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Comedy/Fantasy
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Tim Burton
Actors: Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Jeffrey Jones, Catherine O'Hara
Plot: A ghost couple try to scare the new homeowners away. Beetle juice, Michael Keaton, teaches the ghosts how to scare them.
9. Big
Year of Release: 1988
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Comedy/Drama
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Penny Marshall
Actors: Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, John Heard, Jon Lovitz, Jared Rushton, Robert Loggia
Plot: A twelve-year-old boy wishes he were big and the next thing he knows he is an adult trying to make a living while his friends are still in grade school.
10. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Year of Release: 1988
Overall Rating: 2.9 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Comedy
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Actors: Bob Hoskins, Kathleen Turner, Charles Fleischer, Christopher Lloyd, Joanna Cassidy, Stubby Kaye
Plot: A washed-up, toon-hating private eye investigates the murder of Toontown owner Marvin Acme and finds scandal and corruption behind every door.
