Cinematic Throwbacks: February 1983/1993/2003

1983:

I actually just recently watched this film for the first time. I knew the premise, where aspiring comic Robert Deniro gets fixated on late night host Jerry Lewis.

It's very good. Watching it for the first time now I couldn't even come close to missing how much Joker paralleled this. I was surprised though that this was a lighter film than I thought it would be. The Deniro character is more of a relentless pest than dangerous, at least most of the way. The real crazy is his accomplice, played by Sandra Bernhard, who I only knew from a couple annoying performances, but who is actually really good. 

 

1993:

The last good movie to come with the National Lampoon imprint, Loaded Weapon 1 is one of the real underrated spoof movies of all time.

It's mostly just a cop buddy movie spoof, sticking somewhat closely to the Lethal Weapon movies (which themselves had turned rather comedic by this point), with a handful of other wide ranging parodies thrown in there. 

The movie stars Emilio Estevez (then still a fairly big star) and Samuel L. Jackson (then still a rising star). Estevez, rocking an epic mullet, is kind of hilarious. And Jackson is completely in on this. I don't think he has ever been this funny in an actual comedy since. 

Tons of funny stuff going on beyond those two. William Shatner is a lot of fun as the bad guy. There's some great Jon Lovitz and Tim Curry. Lots of cameos too, and a lot of them really work, best of all being Bruce Willis. 

 

This movie opens with Michael Douglas stuck in LA traffic on a blazing hot day. He decides to just say fuck it, abandons his car, and begins a long walk home, during which he has a series of usually violent encounters with a cross-section of people.

Joel Schumacher's film is a mix of comedy, drama and thriller. The Douglas character is definitely a bad guy, but you can kind of relate to his pov in a lot of these scenes. This might have been one of the first times I ever saw Douglas in anything. It's a terrific performance.

Through the film he is kind of sort of being pursued by Robert Duvall, a cop on his last day before retirement. I have no idea why that trope is in the movie, but it's not too distracting. Duvall is a lot of fun. He is paired with the always welcome Rachel Ticotin for a lot of his scenes.

This is not a subtle movie at all. I'm sure that if it were released today it would be seen as incredibly problematic. 

2003:

So in early 2003 we were still in the early days of the comic book movie boom. And 2003 would be the first really big year for the genre, which we may discuss later on in the year.

The first one out the gate was Daredevil, which I'm not sure I had any awareness of as a character at the time.

This movie was a solid hit, but man if you mention this movie today all you hear about is how terrible it is. I don't get it. Certainly Daredevil is not one of the all time great comic book movies, even then. But it's a pretty good movie. Dated, sure, but stylish and entertaining and very well cast. 

Yes that includes Ben Affleck. He himself has sort of badmouthed this movie in the years since, but he's a good Matt Murdock. I think the backlash against him that was going on big time then tainted the reaction to the movie. 

Jennifer Garner was fucking awesome as Elektra. Too bad her spinoff movie was a disaster. Colin Farrell goes gloriously over the top as Bullseye. He's in his own separate movie, but steals this one. And Michael Clarke Duncan was a really good, imposing Kingpin.

It's a very early 2000s movie, from the dark style to the music. There is also.a longer cut of the movie (featuring a whole Coolio subplot) that got released years later that I actually liked LESS. 

Other non-deep dive flicks:

1993:

-Groundhog Day: Okay, hot take here. This movie is just okay. It's fine. I like it, but it has never been one of my favorite Bill Murray comedies. 

-Untamed Heart: Filmed in Minnesota. Early Marisa Tomei. 

-Army Of Darkness: The end of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy. 

-El Mariachi: Robert Rodriguez's first movie, made on the cheap and later basically remade as Desperado. 

2003:

-Cradle 2 The Grave: The director and a bunch of the cast of Romeo Must Die reunited for this action flick. But this didn't have Aaliyah. 

-Old School: I guess this is the month of beloved comedies that I think are just okay. Granted, I only saw this once but it didn't do it for me. 

-Deliver Us From Eva: One of those really mean, hateful romcoms. 

-How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days: Never saw this cause it looked horrifically bad, but it was a big hit. 

-Shanghai Knights: The Shanghai Noon sequel that I don't believe I ever saw. 

-Dark Blue: Solid cop thriller with Kurt Russell. 

-The Life of David Gale: A failed Oscar bait drama with Kate Winslet trying to get Kevin Spacey off death row. 

2013:

-Snitch: Dwayne Johnson gave one of his better performances in this one. It's got a little action but is primarily a drama. 

-Stand Up Guys: An enjoyable, unassuming comedy with Al Pacino and Christopher Walken as a pair of old gangsters. 

-Bullet To The Head: A forgettable Stallone action flick. 

-Warm Bodies: This zombie romcom was kind of.a hit. Peak Teresa Palmer. 

-Identity Thief: A dreadful Melissa McCarthy comedy. 

-Side Effects: Solid Soderbergh drama with some peak Rooney Mara. 

-A Good Day To Die Hard: If I were to make a list of movies that I wish were never made, this would be high on that list. Loved the Die Hard series (yes even the hugely underrated 4) and I hate that it ended on this useless, lazy, cheap piece of shit. 

-To The Wonder: Terrence Malick movie, noteworthy as the last movie Roger Ebert reviewed. 

Coming in March...

Very little of note beyond the 10 year anniversaries of Spring Breakers, Olympus Has Fallen (the GOOD Die Hard movie from 2013) and The Place Beyond The Pines.