Cinematic Throwbacks: May 1980/1990/2000/2010

1980:

Wow, it's only been 40 years since the last Star Wars film that most of the fanbase didn't want to bitch about ad nauseum. 

One of my favorite little bits of movie trivia is that Empire began principal photography literally the day after I was born. It had to have been the most hotly awaited sequel of all time given what a phenomenon A New Hope was. 

It's the best of the original trilogy, really by far. A New Hope drags a lot, and the opening half hour of Return of the Jedi is a slog.

Empire just flies. Easily the best paced of the OT, with no lulls of consequence. Great first act with the Hoth battle. Great 2nd act with Luke training with Yoda. Great 3rd act with the Luke-Vadar fight. And just iconic stuff everywhere in between. We meet Yoda, Lando and the senate. And we get a twist/cliffhanger ending that had to have blown minds in 1980.

Empire works so well in part for a major reason the prequels do too. The bad guys win. It has stakes that matter. And this film also escaped being rendered useless by Episode 9. 

1990:

Back To The Future was probably the first franchise that.mattered to me. I wasn't into Star Wars until later. Never cared much about Indiana Jones. 

Part 1 I watched a crazy number of times on cable. The release of part 2 was a pretty big deal to me, and then at the end of 2 was the trailer for 3. 2 and 3 filmed back to back.and opened about 6 months apart.

Part 3 has always felt like the runt of the litter. I still feel that way. It's not a bad movie by any means. It's actually a lot of fun, but it doesn't have the scope or skill of the first 2.

Also, it's largely a western, and that's a genre that has never been one I've been into. So many of the genre tropes just don't do it for me. 

It does wrap up the trilogy well. There has been various talk in the years since this movie that they would maybe make a part 4, or even a remake, but nothing has come.of it, and I hope it doesn't. Not that they can't, but this franchise was very much a product of its time, and I don't think it would have the same impact if, say, 2020 Marty McFly were shuttling between 1990 and 2050. 

2000:

Gladiator was a comeback movie for Ridley Scott and a star making role for Russell Crowe. It was a big hit. And it won best picture and actor. That last part is particularly memorable for me, as Gladiator was my first exposure to a now ubiquitous trend of any film that wins best picture facing instant widespread backlash. Seriously, until it won an Oscar, NOBODY hated on this film. Then it wins and the knives come out.

But the years have validated the win. This was Scott's return to form after a very shaky 90s (his filmography between Thelma and Louise and this is brutal). Crowe was on his way with LA Confidential and then The Insider, but this one elevated him to movie star. It's a big time movie star performance that kind of bridges 2 eras of leading men. He is never less than riveting.

And this movie also really shot Joaquin Phoenix into prominence. He wasn't an unknown by this point, but his roles had been in smaller movies. But he was a fantastic villain, finding that perfect balance between being just detestably evil but also having just enough humanity still there to not be a cartoon.

The film has aged wonderfully. .I think it helps that this was one of the last movies of its type to do big battle scenes using predominantly real sets and real people (there IS CGI but it is woven in seamlessly). All the supporting characters are vivid. Hans Zimmer's score is excellent. There's very little fat on this movie, even at 2 1/2 hours.

The film was kind of a one off for the genre. It had been basically dead since then 60s  Then this film happens and we really didn't get many such films in its wake (good ones, anyway). Troy was good. I didn't like 300 but a lot of people did. Even Scott went to the well again a couple times with Kingdom Of Heaven and Exodus but neither were very good. Some might say Game Of Thrones but that has fantasy elements. I think the true gladiator movie is due for another revival. 

Prior to the rewatch for this blog, I probably had not watched Road Trip in a long time. It always hung around in my DVD collection despite never really being a favorite of mine. 

Nowadays this movie's legacy is probably launching the career of director Todd Phillips, who went on to make Old School, the Hangover movies,  and Joker. At the time it was actually sold largely on the presence of one Tom Green. 

Ah yes, Tom Green. Truly a relic of turn of the century pop culture. I was a fan. I was all in on the guy back then, from his MTV show, the Bum Bum Song (still a bop) and then this movie and Charlie's Angel's. We were still a year from the Freddy Got Fingered debacle nuking his career instantly.

I still think he is damn funny in this movie ("UNLEASH THE FURY" remains a go-to quote) and the best thing in it. The movie is hit and miss these days. DJ Qualls remains funny. Seann William Scott was basically just doing a slightly more mature Stifler here. The movie really underused the always mega cute Amy Smart (who is now back on Stargirl).

The movie hasn't aged as well as something like the first couple American Pies, cause the focus really is only on the grossout gags and sex jokes, and not the characters. And there's some very outdated fat shaming jokes. But it also came before that horrific nadir of the grossout genre that was 2001. This at least has some laughs and some actual effort behind it. 

2010:

Iron Man 2 is when the Marvel Cinematic Universe became real. It was the 3rd film in the MCU, but the first that really made the greater world building a major feature. This film introduced Black Widow. Nick Fury was a major character, not just a post-credits tease. War Machine became a thing. Cap's shield made a cameo.

It's a movie I really enjoy. It's still among my favorites of 2010. But amongst the entire MCU it's probably down in that bottom third. 

It has some issues. A lot of the Tony character growth from the first movie is rolled back to facilitate the plot. Sam Rockwell is a bit much as Tony's tech rival. Mickey Rourke is under-utilized as the main villain (his 2 big scenes as Whiplash combined last maybe 5 minutes). There are still some plot points that don't really work (I still don't understand how Tony creates his new arc reactor power source). 

And 20 some films later, the fact that Tony spends about half this film trying to nail Natasha is weird.

But again, I like the movie a lot. Downey fires off tons of great quips. Rourke has some memorably weird scenes (I vant mah boyd). Don Cheadle steps in as Rhoadey and you never miss Terrence Howard. Black Widow's first big action scene still makes me tingly in all the right ways. The climactic set piece with all the pseudo Iron Man drones is terrific. 

It's not the 1st MCU film I would choose to watch, or even the 10th,  but I think it's been underrated over the years. 

Coming next month: Looks like we got Total Recall (the original), Die Hard 2, Gone In 60 Seconds, Shaft and Toy Story 3. Plus maybe some others. And maybe it won't take til the last day of the month to get done.