Cinematic Throwbacks: June 1990/2000/2010

1990:

Total Recall was a movie that I watched an extraordinary amount of times on cable in the early 90s. Now, whether a kid at my age SHOULD have repeatedly watched a movie featuring such gratuitous violence, grotesque body horror, and a 3-breasted prostitute is another matter.

I think I came out alright (two breasts is fine with me), and anyway this is just a singularly awesome movie that was really cool then and holds up 30 years later. 

This movie came right in the middle of Arnold Schwarzenegger's run as the king of action movies, and he chose to do this really bizarre action/sci-fi hybrid with Paul Verhoeven, who had just made Robocop. As far as the material goes, this was probably the least safe action flick Arnold ever made.

And for all the crap Arnold gets about his acting, he is legitimately giving a really good, compelling performance here. This is a role that takes some range, and he's up to it. And yeah, we get plenty of his singular line readings that add that dash of camp ("get your ass to Mars")

The movie has a pair of really good over the top villains in Michael Ironside and Ronny Cox (who is basically playing a futuristic Trump). And most memorably a badass pair of actresses. Rachel Ticotin was absolutely one of my early faves, and she really should have had a bigger career (she kept appearing in things but was never a star). The stardom eventually went to Sharon Stone, who here is just that right mix of sexy and scary.

This was one of the last films of its type to rely primarily on practical effects, and they really hold up. The model work is especially cool. The whole thing with the eyes bulging out of heads was freaky then and still is.

They remade this movie of course in 2012, with Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel as Arnold, Stone and Ticotin respectively. It wasn't a bad action movie but it just didn't have that unique vibe the original did. 

2000:

Honestly one of the more underrated action movies of the 2000s. It kind of gets forgotten compared to the next big car themed action movie that came out, and other Jerry Bruckheimer blockbusters of that era.

It's not as good as some of those films, but it's a lot of fun. Nicolas Cage, Robert Duvall, Delroy Lindo, they all know exactly what kind of breezy movie this is. The movie built a lot of its promotion around Angelina Jolie, since this was her 1st movie after winning an Oscar and becoming the next big thing. It seems silly now, but I like Jolie a whole lot more in this then I do in almost everything she made after it.

They oughta draft Cage to reprise his role inside the Fast and Furious universe. 

Samuel L. Jackson was so perfectly cast in this Shaft reboot it's unthinkable they could have ever done it with anyone else. 

This was John Singleton's first real mainstream film, and the most satisfying of his stabs at big box office. This movie is just a really fun watch.

Jackson was the no brainer, but the movie really.shines in its supporting cast. This movie cast Christian Bale and Toni Collette just before they started to break. Bale is basically playing Don Jr. And Jeffrey Wright is iconic as the other main bad guy. For 20 years I have always called Tiger Woods "Tigah Woo" cause of him. And Busta Rhymes is really funny as a Shaft associate  

The movie does feel a bit dated and awkward, what with police brutality against minorities played for comedy, and "it's Giuliani time" definitely meant something a whole lot different then. 

I don't really know why this didn't kick off a new franchise. It did fairly well. Maybe Jackson was too in demand, but he did a LOT of garbage movies in the years between this and the start of the MCU era. Surely he could have passed on Snakes On A Plane for Shaft 2. They finally made a new one last year but it was this weird watered down version and it wasn't very satisfying. 

This will not be the first time I tout the charms of this movie. For years this has been a go-to in answer to the question of what's a movie you really like that most people hate. 

This movie was a box office bomb that got largely bad reviews, but it made my ten best list for the year (not sure if it would still make it, but it might).

This movie is wall to wall silliness, and meta jokes, and intentionally lame puns. Robert Deniro wears a monocle and sports an absurd accent. But the stupidity works for the movie. It's hard to describe. It shouldn't really work at all, but it does. Even the rewatch for this blog had me chuckling again for 90 minutes.

This was also the summer of Piper Perabo. I was buying ALL the Piper stock between Coyote Ugly and this movie, where she is simply irresistibly cute. I thought she was going to be the next Julia Roberts. It never came close, although she did keep popping up in good things from time to time (Looper, The Prestige, Carriers).

2010:

Obviously this film's legacy is launching Jennifer Lawrence. This was her first lead in a movie, and she got an Oscar nomination for it. And then she was off to being one of the biggest stars of the 2010s.

This is another movie I own but had not actually watched in years. It's an excellent film, one that really immerses you in this dreary world. The thing that stood out to me was how quiet a movie it is. Lawrence has done lots of big movie star type acting since, and it works for her, but tbh it feels like her career has stalled out a bit. It might do her some good to do something small and gritty like this again.

This remains the movie that should have marked the end of this franchise. Toy Story 4 was solid, but those first 3 remain peak Pixar. All the pieces came together for this trilogy. 

I would rate 2 and 3 about equally, slightly ahead of the original. 3 has the nice tearjerker ending, while 2 had the better story overall.

Coming next month: Looks like the big ones are Inception (which might get a theatrical re-release 🤞), the first X-Men, the first Scary Movie, Die Hard 2 (which was a July release as it turns out) and the 40th anniversary of Airplane. Surely that movie can't be 40 years old!