Cinematic Throwbacks: October 1981/1991/2001/2011

1991:

Ricochet is absolutely batshit insane. I know I have likely said this before on these blogs, and will likely say it many more times, but they just don't make them like this anymore.

This is a movie I should not have been watching at 13. But I did, and I have always been a huge fan. I think originally I just got into it because it had cool action, a memorable villain, and Denzel and Ice-T were cool. But over the years and many other viewings I've come to just adore how gloriously over the top the whole thing is.

It was produced by Joel Silver, and written by the same writer as Die Hard. It even shares the same news reporter character as that film. But where Die Hard had a sheen of class, Ricochet is pure sleaze. This is a sleazy, dirty movie. And it's unbelievable that it starred Denzel Washington. Denzel had just won his 1st Oscar less than 2 years earlier. I don't know if he was taking an early stab at action movie stardom or what, but his movie star charisma was already off the charts. 

And he is given a great foil in John Lithgow, who was kicking off a great run of 90s villains. This was the era of thrillers where the villain was always impossibly omniscient. Watching Lithgow's revenge plan play out involves so many things going so precisely right that you can't possibly not enjoy the absurdity. This movie does have a sense of humor about itself for sure. 

This is a movie in which Lithgow and Jesse Ventura have a prison sword fight. This is a movie in which Lithgow hires a prostitute to basically rape a drugged Denzel on tape AND give him an STD. This is a movie where Denzel runs down a street wearing only a bathrobe. This is a movie where Lithgow and his accomplice go to some kind of S&M club, where an obese woman is dancing naked on a table, to watch TV for news updates.

It's insane. And it culminates with what was always one of my favorite ridiculous climaxes, where Denzel pretends to commit suicide on live TV by blowing up a building, then lures Lithgow to an abandoned tower where they have a fistfight until Ice-T electrifies the tower to zap Lithgow, and then Denzel throws him off the tower onto a giant metal spike. What a fun ride. 

Okay, truth be told I am not a huge fan of House Party 2. The first House Party, which will be one of the last movies I do on this if for some reason I'm still on this in 2030, is basically a perfect fun movie. It's just a good time. 

For some reason, when they made House Party 2, they decided to make it one big buzzkill. They made going to college seem like pure hell.

So in this sequel Kid is about to start college, but Play is down on him for that, to the point that Play is almost a villain in this. He legit says and does terrible things to Kid. Kid also encounters one obstacle after another to pad the run time. Worst of all is the movie has him break up with Tisha Campbell for no reason whatsoever. There's also a wretched character played by Queen Latifah in one of her first acting roles, who probably has something to do with said  breakup.

The movie does set aside its moralizing and speechifying finally for the party sequence, which is basically the last third of the movie. And this is pretty fun. The soundtrack is great (it was one of the first cassettes I owned). There are fun callbacks to the first movie. But it just makes you wish you were watching that movie instead.

Fun fact: This movie was #1 at the box office the weekend the Twins won the World Series. Less fun fact: It's been 30 years since we won a major 4 title.in this town. 

2001:

Unlike Ricochet, everyone knows this Denzel film. Training Day was a big hit, won Denzel his 2nd Oscar, and has one of his best known characters, full of famous quotes and memes.

And Denzel is no doubt mesmerizing in this. Some people got upset that he won an Oscar for a genre movie like this, but the performance is undeniable.

But also nominated for this was Ethan Hawke, and damn is Hawke great in this too. It's such an awesome back and forth with these two all movie long. 

This may not hold up as well when you know the film, but first time out you really do not know until very late in the film that Denzel is a flat out villain. He keeps you (and Hawke) off balance the whole time. We see him do bad things, but he always seems to reel you back in. 

The film is just hugely entertaining and rewatchable. The dialogue is great (David Ayer really built a whole career off this). The acting beyond the leads is really memorable. The action is excellent. Antoine Fuqua was a known director before this, but this really set just career off too.

I loved how that, even though the movie is exceptionally dark and nihilistic at times, ultimately Hawke defeats Denzel because he is actually a good guy who does good things throughout the course of the film that pay off for him in the final act. 

Romantic comedies have never been my thing at any point of my movie fandom. But I have liked some, and do wish the genre was not basically dead.

Serendipity has some of the genre tropes that can kind of bug me, but I think this was one of the last ones of these that really worked. 

The convoluted plot has John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale doing the meet cute thing, but then she insists that they must leave it to fates that they will meet again. Years pass, each are now engaged, but neither have really stopped thinking about the other.

Okay, I'm not a big fan of the premise, but this worked for me cause of the super enjoyable stars. Cusack was by this point a veteran of the genre and could do this in his sleep, but this was one of the last times he ever seemed to be enjoying himself on screen. And this was really the movie that sold me for good on Beckinsale, who couldn't be lovelier. Every time she flashes that smile I forgave her character for being a complete lunatic. 

There's also some fun supporting bits from Jeremy Piven (pre-heel turn), Eugene Levy and Molly Shannon. It's a sweet, funny movie. 

I'm not sure when I first watched Donnie Darko. It wasn't in theaters. Almost nobody watched it in theaters. This was one of the last movies to grow a cult the old fashioned way, through video  store rentals.

So what is this movie about? Hell, I don't know. Jake Gyllenhaal (in his big breakout) is a high school kid in 1988 who can maybe time travel. And maybe he is being guided by a large talking rabbit. And maybe he is already dead. There are memorable side characters played by Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze, Maggie Gyllenhaal in her 1st movie, and Jena Malone (back when she was playing an ideal high school girlfriend in a bunch of things).

It's a fun movie to theorize about. I felt the same about director Richard Kelly's follow-up Southland Tales, which got absolutely roasted for many of the same things this one got admired for. It's an engrossing visual and musical film, with some great 80s tunes. It comes off like a dream, which I guess it may be. 

2011:

The film that gave us Elizabeth Olsen. It would be notable for that alone, but the overall film is pretty great too, a disturbing mix of drama, horror, thriller, and strange comedy. 

Olsen is a young woman who has just run away from a cult and is staying with her sister (Sarah Paulson) and husband. They don't know she was in a cult. She might not even know that. But she is clearly traumatized.

The film is a mix of uncomfortable, awkward scenes with the sister, and flashbacks to the days in the cult. John Hawkes is awesome as the cult leader.

What's interesting about the film is that Olsen is not presented in a very sympathetic way. Sure she is a victim of abuse (the cult includes rape) but she is also shown aiding in the abuse of others, and is very hostile towards her sister. It's even sort of left open whether or not she deep down prefers life in the cult. The ending itself is very open ended. I remember seeing this in a sneak and some guy was very audibly upset at the ambiguous ending.

The film didn't make that big of an impact, aside from launching Olsen (she is Wanda in just a couple years). It didn't get any major awards love (Olsen and Hawkes should have been locks), and didn't make much money. And the director didn't make another film for many years. 

Margin Call is a fictionalized story about a group of investment bankers who discover the 2008 stock market crash right before it happens, and about the steps they and their company take to limit their personal damage.

There are many things in the world I do not understand. Near the top of the list is anything dealing with stocks and finance. But this film manages to thread the needle of not being a jargon-filled impenetrable wall, while also not dumbing down the story or the characters.

It's actually a really gripping and absorbing drama, carried off by a top notch ensemble including Stanley Tucci, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto (has Hollywood just given up on him?), and, yes, Kevin Spacey. Sorry, he's great in this. This film put director J.C. Chandor on the.map, kicking off a run of terrific film from him (although he's been MIA for a while). His Wiki page says he is doing a Kraven The Hunter movie soon. 

Other non-deep dive flicks:

1981:

-The Evil Dead: Never got into these movies, sorry. 

-Halloween 2: The least sucky of all the first run Halloween sequels. I guess this is no longer canon. 

1991:

-The Man In The Moon: The debut of Reese Witherspoon. 

-Ernest Scared Stupid: I know I watched this one a ton back in the day. 

-Cool As Ice: They once made a movie with Vanilla Ice in the lead. On purpose. 

2001 (for the record I know I saw all of these movies but remember very little about any of them):

-Joy Ride: Thriller with Paul Walker and Leelee Sobieski, who I was still on the bandwagon for at the time. 

-Bandits: Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett. A surprise dud. 

-Corky Romano: Chris Kattan got his one shot at movie stardom. It did not go well. 

-Mulholland Drive: This David Lynch TV show turned movie got a lot of acclaim. I thought it was garbage. But it did launch Naomi Watts into stardom. 

-My First Mister: Leelee Sobieski again, co-starring with Albert Brooks. I honestly remember nothing about it. 

-Thirteen Ghosts: Lame horror movie. Shannon Elizabeth was good in it. Annoyingly marketed as "Thir13en Ghosts" 

-From Hell: Johnny Depp in a Hughes Brothers directed Jack The Ripper movie. And it shockingly sucked. 

-The Last Castle: Robert Redford has to escape a prison run by James Gandolfini. 

-Riding In Cars With Boys: Drew Barrymore when she was still a movie star. Brittany Murphy was delightful as her friend. 

-K-PAX: Kevin Spacey was a space alien...or something. Jeff Bridges was in it. Man I have a real blank spot for remembering October 2001. I must have spent all my time listening to Britney. 

-On The Line: This one I actually might not have ever seen. They tried to make Lance Bass a movie star. 

-Bones: Snoop Dogg starring in a horror movie. 

2011:

-Real Steel:

-The Ides Of March: Pretty solid political thriller as I recall. Clooney, Gosling, Hoffman. 

-The Thing: I honestly did not even remember that they remade this, uh, thing. And it starred MEW? 

-The Big Year: Steve Martin, Owen Wilson and Jack Black in the only birdwatching comedy ever made. It wasn't funny as I recall. 

-Puss In Boots: Liked the character. Mixed on his movie. They got another one coming.

-The Rum Diary: The far less successful 2nd time Johnny Depp did a Hunter Thompson movie. I recall thinking it wasn't bad. At least things worked out splendidly with Depp and co-star Amber Heard. 😬

-In Time: One of the many failed attempts to make Justin Timberprick a movie star. Unfortunately this particular one had potential without him. 

-Like Crazy: Romantic drama with Felicity Jones in, I think, the first thing I ever saw her in.

Coming in November:

Kind of a light month, surprisingly. But some of 2011's very best turn 10. Monsters Inc. turns 20. And My Girl turns 30, so I guess it's time to reminisce about my mammoth crush on Anna Chlumsky.