Movie Reviews- Old School Edition

No, not the Vince Vaughn/ Will Ferrell movie of a few years ago.
I recently had a fit of nostalgia and added a bunch of 80's movies to my Netflix Queue. Some were as good as I remembered, some were not.
Murder By Decree- Sherlock Holmes versus Jack the Ripper. 1880's London. Foggy streets. Very atmospheric. Christopher Plummer was an excellent Sherlock Holmes, and James Mason was well-cast as Watson. Unfortunately, I felt the movie as a whole was somewhat overlong and I found the plot to be just a bit more confusing and convoluted than it needed to be.
Scanners- Yes, this is that movie with the "exploding head". The premise is simple...there are people in the world with strong telepathic powers (the titular "Scanners"). Some are good. Some are bad. Stephen Lack, who played the "good guy" scanner turns in a fairly wooden performance. Michael Ironside, as the bad scanner, was excellent (this is the role that really established his career). The film does drag a bit in the middle. The scanner versus scanner telepathic battle at the end is still cool, though.
Time After Time- Another Jack the Ripper movie. This time he goes up against the legendary writer H.G. Wells. it seems that "Jack" steals the time machine that Wells had actually built and flees from 1880's London to present-day San Francisco. Wells follows him, and then the fun begins. The acting is excellent and the movie itself is very entertaining...funny, suspenseful and romantic. Watch this if you get a chance.
Rumble Fish- Very stylish, very arty. In black and white except for the "rumble fish" of the title. Sometimes a bit too stylish and too arty, but damn if it doesn't still work. Matt Dillon and Diane Lane are very young in this. You can also see Mickey Rourke before the onset of bloated self-parody, as well as pre-stardom Nicholas Cage and Laurence Fishburne. The score, by Stewart Copeland of The Police, is still edgy and cool.