Cinematic Throwbacks: February 1992/2002/2012

1992:

My Saturday Night Live fandom has ebbed and flowed over the years, but for me my favorite era will always be that late 80s/early 90s era. Sandler, Farley, Spade, Rock, Nealon, pre-sellout Dennis Miller on Update. It was an iconic time. 

So iconic that it was the era of SNL that started to get movie spinoffs. This was a big thing for about a decade, and I did like a couple of them, but nothing ever came close to matching Wayne's World. There was really no reason to think this skit was the one that had to become a movie, but they found a way. 

This was definitely one of my formative comedies. You can see in it the seed of all the comedies to come (many starring SNL alum) that were as much about the absurdities and goofy asides as the actual plot. There are a hundred little bits of this movie that I quote or reference. 

This movie was actually a really big deal at the time. Look no further than how it sent a 15 year old Queen song to the top of the charts. Guarantee you cannot listen to Bohemian Rhapsody and not do the head bang.

It launched the movie career of Mike Myers, whose self aware, wink at the camera style was already fully formed. He's obviously hilarious in this, but man is Dana Carvey every bit as good. Carvey never hit on the big screen beyond this, but he is equally hysterical. 

How did Hollywood fail to find anything to do with Tia Carrerre? She is awesome in this. Plenty of other people pop up in small roles or cameos. It's just a really funny movie that, despite being very dated, holds up. Gotta still be one of the 10 funniest movies of the decade. 

2002:

Monster's Ball has a permanent place in film history because Halle Berry's performance made her the first black actress to win a lead Oscar. But aside from that I don't really think the film has stayed that relevant.

It's kind of a strange film. For one, Berry is barely even in it for at least the first third. Before then, the film is about the 3 generations of white trash, two of whom are working at the nearby prison. Billy Bob Thornton lives with his ailing dad and clearly miserable son (Heath Ledger). Everything about that household reeks of abuse, which comes to a head during the execution of a prisoner (Puff Daddy...really).

Then the film flips and becomes mostly about the slowly developing friendship, then romance between Thornton and Berry. Tbh it always struck me weird that Thornton's character, who opens the film as a pretty clear racist, winds up with Berry. But the film sells it pretty well.

This is a film carried by its performances. Berry is fantastic. Thornton runs the gamut from intense to sweet. Ledger is indelible. 

2012:

By 2012, found footage movies had pretty much run out of gas, but then came Chronicle, one of the more ingenious examples of the format.

It's a superhero origin found footage movie. Three high school kids stumble upon an object out in the woods, which gives them super powers.

I just love how the story builds. The 3 kids were not originally friends, but they become close and have a lot of fun both in learning their powers and exploiting them for mostly harmless fun. But then there is a turn and things really escalate into a very dark finale. This isn't a superhero movie with a triumphant ending. 

You have to accept the premise of all of this being filmed, and at a point the film kind of just stops focusing on it. But it is handled very well. The fx work is mostly quite good, especially for a smaller budget. You can see why director Josh Trank was quickly scooped up to do what became the failed Fantastic Four reboot.

Of the 3 leads, Michael B. Jordan was already known a little before this, but if you ever wondered why we had Dane Dehaan in a bunch of movies for a period of the 2010s, this is why. He is absolutely great in this, creating one of the most sympathetic and compelling supervillain arcs ever. 

Okay, Safe House is not a remarkable movie. It's actually pretty forgettable, but I do own it, so it gets the rewatch treatment.

Ryan Reynolds mans a CIA safe house, which on a day to day basis is boring and nothing happens. But then a mystery figure played by Denzel Washington is brought there, and almost immediately the safe house is attacked, sending the 2 stars on the run, sometimes from each other. 

Reynolds is good. Washington is of course good, though you do wish he would take it over the top some. There is some good action, helmed by Daniel Espinosa, who directed the upcoming Morbius. 

The plot is as generic as it gets. And the movie spends a great deal of time trying to make you think a particular CIA bigwig is the villain when it is obvious that is just set up for another one to be the bad guy.

Other non-deep dive movies....

1992:

-Mississippi Masala: An early Denzel Washington starrer. 

-Medicine Man: Sean Connery was living in the jungle or something. I dunno, I saw it I think. 

-Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot: An infamous Sylvester Stallone comedy bomb.

-Memoirs of an Invisible Man: A Chevy Chase bomb. His career would soon become invisible too. 

2002:

-Queen of the Damned: I had huge expectations at the time, given that this was Aaliyah's last film. I didn't like that her last role was as a villain, but she was no doubt striking in this. Too bad her character was not actually the lead, and instead we got a bunch of boring Stuart Townsend as Lestat. 

-Slackers: One of the absolute worst teen comedies of all time. I'm surprised Jason Schwartzman ever made it back on screen after this. 

-Collateral Damage: A pretty forgettable Schwarzenegger action flick that had been delayed cause of 9/11. 

-Super Troopers: I never joined the cult of this movie. 

-John Q: Denzel takes hostages at a hospital to force them to give his son a transplant or something. I recall not really liking this much. 

2012:

-Journey 2: The Mysterious Island: The Rock, um, taking a journey to an island. Vanessa Hudgens was in this, so that's cool. 

-The Vow:

-Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance: A really lousy sequel to a movie that I did like. 

-This Means War: A very bad action romcom with Reese Witherspoon.

-Gone: Kidnapping thriller with Amanda Seyfried, I think. I saw it but remember nothing about it. 

-Wanderlust: Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd comedy. This too I saw but do not remember. 

Coming in March...

The Godfather turns 50. That's a long time. 

White Men Can't Jump turns 30.

The great Blade 2 turns 20.

And both The Hunger Games and The Raid: Redemption turn 10. 

Some good ones. Not a Safe House in the bunch.