Cinematic Throwbacks: July 1983/1993/2003/2013

1983:

Few movies better represent the 1980s comedy than National Lampoon's Vacation.

I watched this movie a ton in my long ago youth. In my early days of movie watching, all my favorite people were the comedy stars. Chevy Chase was definitely right there in that group, and this was his quintessential role: befuddled family man Clark Griswold.

Clark is gathering up his family for a cross-country trip to Wally World, which is just like Disney World except the mascot is a moose, not a mouse. And everything that can go wrong on the trip does go wrong. 

Clark is a great character, because he genuinely cares about his family and wants them all to have a great time, but he also has a crazy streak. It plays perfectly to Chase's strengths. When his cheerful facade breaks it is always funny. 

Along the way, we get introduced to Randy Quaid the cousin. I don't think any joke with Quaid in either of the proper Vacation movies fails to land. Shame he's such a real life psycho. 

The 80s-ness continues with Anthony Michael Hall as the first of the Rustys. And a running side plot in which Clark keeps having his eyes drawn to Christie Brinkley. Not sure why. Beverly D'Angelo is way hotter in this movie. And John Candy has a funny extended cameo at the end of the movie. 

Obviously this movie was a big hit and spawned a franchise. I think Christmas Vacation is the best one, but this is a pretty close 2nd. 

1993:

Poetic Justice was the first time I couldn't wait for a movie because of its director. 

By the summer of 1993 I was getting deep into stuff like rap and movies like Boyz N The Hood. And that film's director of course was John Singleton. Poetic Justice was his highly anticipated follow-up.

The other reason this was hugely anticipated was that it was the big screen debut for Janet Jackson. 1993 was a monster year for Janet. She put out her self-titled album, which is one of the best of.all time. At the time this movie came out, "If" was all over the radio and MTV. It was the summer of Janet. 

This film absolutely lived up to the hype for me. It held the title of my favorite movie for a while (that title changed hands a lot back then). I completely loved it.

The reaction to this film might have been the first time I came to kind of distrust critics. It was like they were all mad that Singleton didn't choose to follow-up Boyz with another "important" film. Like how dare he choose to just tell a smaller, quieter story? What does he think he is, a storyteller? Janet got trashed for this too. They said her performance wasn't any good, that she was wooden. 

Time has been kind to the film. People generally recognize this as a very good film now.

A big part of this film's reclaimed legacy is due to the other key figure involved: Tupac Shakur. Tupac was a great actor, but THIS was his best performance. The role of Lucky was originally going to be played by Ice Cube, which is really hard to imagine. It was perfect for Tupac. He got to be everything in this movie that he was in his music. There is no way the film works if he isn't credible in the love story. But his chemistry with Janet is great...even when they're screaming at each other.

And yes, Janet is very good. She was preposterously hot in this era, but it's her warmth and sweetness that really clicks here. Justice is a sullen character but she's never mopey. I really wish she had done more in movies. Only Tyler Perry has ever given her a dramatic part again.

It's once you get beyond the leads that the film is weaker, and why after many repeat viewings I couldn't keep it at #1. The other coupling in the film is Regina King and Joe Torry. Both of their characters are rather loathsome creatures. I think Singleton didn't quite grasp in particular how awful King is. When she finally gets her comeuppance late in the film, it's presented like she didn't deserve it. And she very much did. 

I also kind of hated the Tyra Ferrell character, who is horrible to Janet for no reason.

So those flaws eventually knocked the film down. But this was hardly the only great movie to have one or two bad performers.

Janet and Tupac are both great. Iconic performances.  The writing is really terrific. Scenes like them all crashing the family reunion are classics as good as anything in Singleton's career. The film has one of those classic 90s soundtracks, and that doesn't even feature "Again", one of Janet's absolute best songs, which actually got an Oscar nomination.

Poetic Justice belongs on any list of the most underrated films of the 1990s. 

2003:

Hey it's now been 20 years of people constantly bitching about Terminator sequels.

Make no mistake. The franchise has never again reached the heights of the James Cameron originals. Those were unquestionable game changers for film.

But Terminator 3, which came 12 years after T2, may not have revolutionized cinema, but it is a damn good action movie and one of the decade's most underrated films.

By the time of T3 coming out, Arnold Schwarzenegger's career had hit the skids and he was definitely no longer the box office megastar he was through most of the 80s and 90s. I think him coming back to this well was seen as desperation to get a hit.

Cameron of course did not return. In his place was Len Wiseman, more of a workmanlike action director best known at the time for making Underworld. But he was a good pick. The man can do action.

T3's plot isn't breaking new ground. Taking place about a decade after the previous film, we once again see a pair of terminators being sent back in time. One is Arnold, the other is a female terminator. She's the bad one. And she is here to kill John Connor, who is now played by Nick Stahl, since Edward Furlong had long since become a mess (not that Stahl has had a great run himself).

There is also Claire Danes (when she was still appealing) along for the ride as a woman with ties to John's past and future.

Some of the comic relief moments with Arnold in this movie probably go too far, but I do enjoy them. Arnold has always had an inimitable presence, especially in this franchise. Oddly this wound up being his last film for a long time, as he went into Governator mode that same year.

The female terminator is played by Kristanna Loken, who is fine as far as the action goes, but you wish a real actress had been cast. Imagine a Charlize Theron in the role.

The action in this movie is really great. I gotta say I really appreciate action movies from this era that had not totally given themselves over to cgi. Yeah there's cgi in the film but a lot of the action was done with real stuff. You get a fantastic chase involving a crane, a graveyard shootout, and a couple terminator vs terminator fights. 

The last act of the film is where it all really comes together. There's another race to stop Skynet from destroying the world (the film takes place on judgment day which gives it a great ticking clock tension), but the mission fails. I love the ending of the film, where Stahl and Danes wind up in a bunker as Skynet launches the nukes. I always love an effectively staged unhappy ending. 

Guess few else did. T3 was a very big box office hit, but people mostly just complained about it being a rehash. But screw that. It delivered great action throughout. It may not be a sci-fi classic, but an action classic? Yes. 

Michael Bay tried to go respectable with Pearl Harbor. And what kind of thanks did he get? Critical savagery. 

So he responded by making the most Michael Bay movie that Michael Bay could possibly make, the then long awaited sequel to his debut Bad Boys. That original movie is quaint and quiet compared to this sequel, which is the epitomie of over the top excess in every scene.

I didn't like this as much as the first, which had a lot more wit and comedy and at least a decent plot to hang everything on. I barely remembered the plot here. There's a drug kingpin and, well, that's it. Even 2 Fast 2 Furious had a deeper plot. 

Will Smith and Martin Lawrence slip back into their rapport easily. A lot of the scenes of them bantering feel shoehorned in, but they're fun. Gabrielle Union (who has never looked better) is a solid new addition. But Bay is the star, engineering glossy, wildy over the top action set pieces all over the place. Best is a rather dazzling freeway chase. And he also fashions a 360° shootout. Stylistically this really was a testing ground for a lot of what he would put into the Transformers movies. 

Bay also doesn't hold back on the violence or ickiness. There's a whole sequence of cadavers basically being flung at Smith and Lawrence. Critics despised this movie a lot because of this stuff. But there are people who also think this is Bay's best movie. I certainly don't agree with that, but I sure missed Bay's touch on Bad Boys For Life. 

2013:

The Wolverine seems dwarfed by the movies surrounding it. This movie came 4 years after X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which I thought was okay, but which is widely considered one of the worst modern comic book movies. And it came 4 years before Logan, which was fantastic, and is widely considered one of the BEST comic book movies.

In between is this largely stand-alone movie, featuring only small allusions to previous X-Men movies. So it is doomed to be underrated, but man is it good. 

Directed by James Mangold (who also helmed Logan), this movie sends a reclusive Wolverine off to Japan for a story involving a connection to his past, and a whole Yakuza thing. For much of the film, Wolverine is protecting a woman who is caught in the middle.

The setting is very cool. The action is outstanding, with a handful of really top notch sequences, including one atop a bullet train, and a few excellent fights.

Jackman is his usual terrific self here. The great Hiroyuki Sanada plays a key role. The big revelation here was Rila Fukushima as Yukio, a mutant with the ability to see a person's death coming (and she can handle a sword pretty well). She was so awesome in this that I was hoping to see her in many more X-Men things. Never happened though. They even re-cast the character in Deadpool 2.

The movie does sag a little at the end, with a big fight against the Silver Samurai that's too CGI heavy. And the character of Viper is a big miss.

Still one of the better films in the X-Men franchise. And it has a post credit scene that teased Days Of Future Past, which might be THE peak of the franchise. 

Fruitvale Station is a film dramatizing the final day in the life of Oscar Grant, who was shot dead by a cop on New Year's Day 2009 in Oakland.

It's always a little strange when films about bad things help make careers, but that was the case here. This was the directorial debut of Ryan Coogler, and the major leading breakthrough for Michael B. Jordan.

The film is so simple that it looks easy. It just shows Grant going about his business on what as far as he knew would just be a normal day. There's planning a NYE outing with his girlfriend (the wonderful Melonie Diaz), seeing friends, helping his mom (Octavia Spencer). Just normal stuff. 

Then comes the night, and the fateful trip on public transit, which brings him into contact with the trigger happy (and let's face facts, racist) cop. Obviously nothing in society has improved since as far as cops treatment of black people. You could make the same kind of movie about Philando Castile or Michael Brown or George Floyd.

As simple as the movie is, it is thoroughly compelling in its simplicity. Much of that is due to Jordan's fantastic, empathetic performance. The film doesn't even glorify Grant. It shows his flaws and mistakes. But despite what Fox News says, one does not have to be perfect to not deserve a bullet. 

 

This film should have garnered a lot of awards. Instead it made a couple careers and started arguably the best director-star team of the last decade. 

Other non-deep dive flicks...

1983:

-Jaws 3D: Never saw it. 

-Mr. Mom: Did watch this one a bit back in the day, where Michael Keaton becomes a stay at home dad. 

1993:

-Rookie Of The Year: The movie where the kid becomes a star pitcher for the Cubs. It's still a charming movie, although wow would the pitch clock render the entire climax completely impossible. 

-The Firm: Combining Tom Cruise and John Grisham in 1993 was a guaranteed smash. Have watched this one various times. Amazing cast. Evil Wilford Brimley. 

-In The Line Of Fire: Secret serviceman Clint Eastwood vs terrorist John Malkovich. Haven't seen this since the 90s but recall it being just ok. 

-Son In Law: Watched this a lot during the era when Pauly Shore comedies were a thing. 

-Weekend At Bernie's 2: Watched the original a million times, but boy did it not need a 4 years later sequel. 

-Coneheads: One of the good SNL movies. Really fun supporting cast. 

-Robin Hood: Men In Tights: The Mel Brooks parody that is okay, but is actually a little light on the comedy. 

-So I Married An Axe Murderer: This Mike Myers comedy became a pretty big cult hit but did little for me. Tbh this should get a re-watch. 

-Hocus Pocus: Never saw it, but I guess it has fans cause they made a sequel that seemed to be a big deal. 

-Rising Sun: Forgettable Wesley Snipes-Sean Connery thriller. 

-Free Willy: Even in 1993 how do you make a movie with that title? 

2003:

-Legally Blonde 2: The less successful sequel. I remember very little of this. 

-Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl: The surprise smash hit that started a franchise that frankly sucked after it. Depp was still a revelation here and the movie really launched Keira Knightley. 

-The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The comic book movie that was such a shitty production that it sent Sean Connery into early retirement. 

-How To Deal: A rather forgettable teen movie, but it was the BEST Mandy Moore ever looked. 

-Tomb Raider 2: Hated the first one. Don't think I ever saw this sequel. 

-Spy Kids 3D: Okay, now the franchise started to suck. 

-Seabiscuit: That summer's big Oscar bait movie, with Tobey Maguire and a horse. 

2013:

-Pacific Rim: Guillermo Del Toro's big, loud, and pretty fun giant monsters vs giant robots extravaganza. 

-The To Do List: A bizarre, semi-successful comedy with Aubrey Plaza preposterously playing an 18 year old with no sexual experience. Kind of a crazy deep supporting cast to this one. 

-The Way Way Back: Very entertaining coming of age comedy. Great Sam Rockwell. I was buying the AnnaSophia Robb stock after this one. 

-Grown Ups 2: Somehow the lazy sequel to the lazy Sandler comedy was even worse. 

-Despicable Me 2: Never saw it but it made a lot of money. 

-The Lone Ranger: Probably the biggest bomb of that summer, but I thought it was kind of fun. Depp was unhinged. 

-The Conjuring: The first entry in the horror franchise that I have not watched another film of. 

-The World's End: Simon Pegg and company doing the end of the world thing. Suffered from so closely following This Is The End. 

-R.I.P.D.: A failed Men In Black wannabe with Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges. 

-Blue Jasmine: Cate Blanchett was fabulous in this Woody Allen movie and won the Oscar for it. 

-Red 2: The old guy spy action sequel. I honestly have no recollection of ever seeing it. 

-Smurfs 2: Never saw this for sure, but Britney did contribute "Ooh La La" to the soundtrack. 

-Only God Forgives: The far less successful follow up to Drive for Ryan Gosling and director Nicholas Winding Refn. 

-Romeo and Juliet: Apparently Hailee Steinfeld made a R&J movie. Never watched it but as a Hailee fan I kinda want to. 

Coming in August...

August is always slow. A few notable 10 year olds and a couple notable 20 year olds. I'm sure it will still be August 30th before I hit publish. This is the way.