Remember the 1980s? They had movie stars then. Burt Reynolds was the hot-shot hero with a good ole boy's heart. Richard Pryor was the clown who mined laughter from his own black rage. Molly Ringwald was the teen queen who knew that growing pains could hurt like an all-over, seven-year toothache.
By 1987, though, things had changed: shooting stars can be falling stars too. And sometimes audiences can get along very nicely without stars at all. Only three of the year's ten top box-office hits could be called star vehicles, and each of them fronted a performer who seemed a corrupted...