MANNEQUIN (1987)

A loser dork (Andrew McCarthy), who somehow has an amazing loft despite the fact he can't keep a job for over a week, gets a job at a large downtown department store and soon falls in love with a 5,000 year-old woman (Kim Cattrall) who has possessed a mannequin.  And she with him.  Catch is...only he can see her as a real person.  Everybody else just thinks that he's a weirdo molesting a mannequin, but they tolerate him because he (and his mannequin muse) create new and exciting window displays that bring in some much needed customers.  They also attract the attention of a rival department store boss that wants to know the secret to Andrew's newfound success.

That story is dumb as hell, but...hey!  This is the 1980's we're talking about.  Despite the silliness of it all, MANNEQUIN still works as a goofy, light-hearted comedy mainly thanks to good casting and performances that were wacky, but not too wacky.  For me, the most memorable character was the hilariously flamboyant window dresser Hollywood Montrose (played brilliantly by Meshach Taylor).

Eye-watering 80's fashions, a few funny moments, G.W. Bailey looking like he walked directly off the set of a POLICE ACADEMY movie and onto the set of this movie, music montage with lots of costume changes and 80's dancing, R.L. Ryan from STREET TRASH, Kim Cattrall looking good but not as good as she did in BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, a cute bulldog, James Spader making funny faces.

Overall, MANNEQUIN is an enjoyable 80's timewaster, but it never answers the question as to what would happen if somebody walked in on Andrew and Kim having sex?  Would she instantly seal up and rip his dick off??!

Part 2 - Mannequin: On the Move (1991)

CARANDIRU (2003)

Based on the memoir/novel of Dr. Drauzio Varella, who was a doctor at the real-life Carandiru Penitentiary in Sao Paulo, Brazil from 1989 to 1992, CARANDIRU is the even further fictionalized story of life inside the infamous prison.  Told mainly through the eyes of the doctor, we're also shown multiple flashbacks (mostly showing what the prisoners did to end up in prison) and various things that the doctor probably heard about later on.

In the late 1980's, vastly overcrowded with over 7,000 men crammed into a 70 year-old complex, Carandiru was facing an AIDS epidemic.  That is where the doctor comes in.  He sets up a clinic and begins treating the prisoners.  That in itself is an amazing story (one doctor to take care of over 7,000 men, many of which barely seem one step above being a wide animal), but the emotional cap to CARANDIRU is after spending well over a hour learning about these men...a riot breaks out and the police use it as an excuse to wholesale massacre over 100 men in cold-blood.

CARANDIRU is a well-made film, but despite the impressive photography and strong acting...I just couldn't get into the story.  Yeah, I understand these guys are currently paying for their crimes by being in prison, but most of them seemed completely unrepentant and more than will to continue being of less than zero value to society.  None of these guys would you want to know in real life!  But, maybe, that's not the point of the film.  As far as entertainment goes, I was entertained from beginning to end.

Mild violence, less male nudity than a single episode of "Oz", memorable characters, steady pace and a few cast members that would later on become well-known to American audiences: Wagner Moura from Netflix's "Narcos" and Rodrigo Santoro from HBO's "Westworld".

Worth checking out, but nothing worth getting excited about.