LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Rock of Ages” revels in the big hair and tight leather pants of a very specific place and time: the Sunset Strip in 1987, when bands like Guns N’ Roses and Poison got their start. But a lot of great movies came out that year, too. Here are five of them; I would have included “The Princess Bride” but I already find reasons to mention it every other week:
— “Full Metal Jacket”: One of Stanley Kubrick’s best — and I really should find a reason to compile that list one of these days — this Vietnam War drama lulls you in with its humor in the first half, then blows you away with its brutality in the second. Kubrick follows a group of Marines through boot-camp training, under the verbally abusive but hilariously profane watch of their demanding drill sergeant, played by R. Lee Ermey in the persona that would become his signature. But then they must take what they’ve learned and apply it in pressure-cooker urban warfare situations. “Full Metal Jacket” is raw and visceral in its details, yet surreal and dreamlike in its mood. And it provides an early glimpse of the intensity and immersion we’ve come to expect from Vincent D’Onofrio, committing himself completely here to the role of the slow-witted private nicknamed Gomer Pyle.
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