Without A Clue (1988)

Full of laughs but light on mystery, this comedy posits that Ben Kingsley's Dr Watson is the real great detective of 221B Baker Street - he merely attributes his genius for solving mysteries to the mythologised Sherlock Holmes of his stories - while his colleague who presents himself as Sherlock Holmes to the adoring London public is an out-of-his-depth, drunken, womanising dolt played by Michael Caine. 

★★★☆☆

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Amadeus (1984)

I have no idea whether the rumour Salieri murdered Mozart was borne out of some kernel of truth or was completely fabricated by Pushkin in the play he wrote in the 1830s, but that play was turned into an opera and then in 1979 Peter Shaffer's play came out, written as far as I know without credit to those earlier works, and then this sumptuous Academy Award-winning period drama based on Shaffer's play was released in 1984 (filmed on location in Prague (in the Estates Theatre, for example, where Mozart conducted the premiere of his Don Giovanni and where I recently watched The Marriage of Figaro, leading to my wanting to watch this again)) and now one thing is certain: the Italian Salieri's career has been entirely eclipsed and now, thanks to this movie, Salieri will always be remembered second as a composer and first as the Austrian composer's murderer, whether that is true, only slightly true, or not.

★★★★☆

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Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

A high schooler skips school and despite the dogged efforts of a suspicious Principal and irritated sister who try to catch him out, he enjoys his day-off with gay abandon, roping friends into elaborate schemes, street parades, restaurant outings, in a John Hughes comedy as entertaining today as it was on its release in 1986, an enduring favourite for perfectly capturing the joys of unfettered youth.

★★★★☆

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