Rainman

I watched the classic movie Rain Man today. I'm currently writing a screenplay so I am going back and watching every movie I can that has won the Oscar in that category, and plan on watching all of the nominees that I can as well. Overall I would say I liked the movie. I'll give it 3.5 stars. Lets be honest, there is at least 972 movies in the last 20 years which feature a self centered protagonist doing something wrong for monetary gain, and then realizing the error of his ways. This sort of emotional epiphany is one of the most overused clichés in hollywood, right up there with the "triumph in the face of racism/sexism/general adversity (a.k.a. every movie Cuba Gooding Jr. does anymore)" flick. But this is definitely one of the better ones, as the plot is not overly contrived (as is often the case), the story flows well (as is often not the case), and the acting is of course stellar. Not to mention it features one of my favorite past times, beating suckers at gambling. It's not a very realistic portrayal of black jack card counting (contrary to the casino's assertion in the movie card counters beat 6 deck shoes all the time) but as that is far from the point of the movie I'm willing to let it slide.
While I do not think the screenplay would hold up to some of the winners of the past 15 years (American Beauty, Pulp Fiction, Gosford Park, etc.) given that it was 1988 I can see why it won. In the 80's movies were almost as bad as the music, and this was movie was head and shoulders above just about anything in that decade, which is also true of any movie not starring Patrick Swayze. But now that we've escaped the gravitational pull of that decade long cultural black hole that was the Reagan/Bush era I just don't think I can give this movie 4 stars, so 3.5 it is.