Cinematic Throwbacks: August 1994/2004/2014

1994:

There were better movies that could be considered the first truly 90s movie. There may have even even earlier ones. But I'm not sure anything came before Natural Born Killers that couldn't have snuck in in, say, 1989.

Oliver Stone's singularly gonzo exploration of modern media's exploitation of violence is not one of my favorite films of 1994. But there had never been anything like it, and I'm still not sure anybody has even been able to make something like it since.

Famously based off an early screenplay by Quentin Tarantino (it was heavily re-worked by Stone), the film stars Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis as Mickey and Mallory Knox, a married couple who become notorious serial killers and media stars.

There isn't a lot of plot here. We actually don't see that many scenes of the Knoxes killing people. I think a Tarantino version would have had more of that. Stone's interest here is more in showing how the media makes stars of these kinds of people.

It might be somewhat lost on somebody coming to this movie today, but back in the mid-90s, we were right there in the middle of peak tabloid news. Sure, the OJ Simpson murder case was fresh news when this came out, but there were all sorts of major news stories in those days about weird criminals or lowlifes. People like the Menendez brothers, Tonya Harding, Jeffrey Dahmer, Lorena Bobbit, and so on became huge media fixations. And became famous, as every sordid detail was broadcast on TV. 

Robert Downey Jr, still clearly very much in his drug phase, plays a crazed TV journalist who wants to interview the Knoxes from prison (they get busted about halfway through the film). Tommy Lee Jones out gonzos everybody as the warden. This is possibly the least subtle film ever made.

One of the film's most memorable scenes is a flashback to Mallory's sadistic, abusive home life, shot like a sitcom with laugh track and all, despite all the gross, depraved things going on. Rodney Dangerfield is amazingly grotesque and evil as Mallory's abusive dad.

The last part of the film is a huge prison riot that breaks out during the big Super Bowl Sunday interview of Mickey.

If you thought Stone's JFK was memorably edited, NBK takes it to a way more esoteric extreme. There is no point in me even trying to describe it.

It may be purposeful that Stone's film condemning media exploitation of violence itself becomes a piece of media that has very graphic violence and often a darkly comic slant.

This was a bold choice for Harrelson at the time. He had gone from Cheers to a few movie roles but was still seen as kind of a charming lightweight. This blew that out of the water. Lewis was a rising star, and I'm not sure it ever rose higher than it did here.

Again, I'm not sure this film would be looked at as some big controversy now. But part of that is because it signaled that a new style of 90s filmmaking was here. 

2004:

Tom Cruise has been one of the biggest movie stars in the world for well over 30 years now. He has perfected a sort of heroic intensity. But he has almost never played a villain.

In Michael Mann's dynamite thriller Collateral, he channels that intensity and conviction into the role of the bad guy, and he is kind of incredible.

First, we meet Jamie Foxx, an LA cab driver just going about his night. He picks up and flirts with a lawyer, played in maybe her last appealing performance by Jada Pinkett Smith. Then he picks up Cruise's Vincent, conspicuous with the gray suit and silver hair.

It isn't too long before we find out that Cruise is a hired killer, running through a list of targets. Foxx gets dragged into driving Cruise around, and the tension of the film is about Foxx trying to figure out how to avoid taking a bullet himself by the end of this whole ordeal.

The finale gets into some standard thriller formula, but a good version of it. But the whole big middle section centered on Cruise and Foxx is dynamic. The film has some sumptuous early era digital cinematography.

A case could be made that this is Cruise's last truly memorable performance. There are no winks, no histrionics. He's a bad guy and a threatening one. You really worry for Foxx. Foxx got an Oscar nomination, and while he was definitely on his way to stardom anyway, this pretty much clinched it that he wasn't just going to be a sitcom guy who did some movies. 

A strong supporting cast includes Mark Ruffalo and Javier Bardem.

2014:

Marvel Studios and the MCU were deeply established behemoths by 2014. But they had gotten there largely using characters that were at least somewhat known by the common, non-comic book reading folk.

So here comes something called Guardians of the Galaxy. What the hell is that? Well, what it was was the MCU's first true risk. But years of big success buys you that chance. 

And boy did it pay off. There has been so much discourse online surrounding Marvel during this era that I might just be pulling takes from other people, but it has been said that this movie really served as the template for how they wanted fhe larger franchise to function.

The filmmaker who got them there was James Gunn, well known in cult movie circles for movies, including the dark superhero comedy Super. He was very much in that vein of smaller director being given a big movie which had served Marvel well and often continues to.

The Guardians consist of Peter Quill (who you may know by his outlaw name Star Lord), Gatorade, Drax, Rocket Raccoon and Groot. All of them quickly became iconic characters. 

They cast this thing great. I know Chris Pratt has kind of worn out his welcome in various ways over the last few years, but don't let that overshadow what a canny choice he was for Star Lord.

Zoe Saldana was a known commodity by now, but she's a perfect Gamora. 

Dave Bautista had barely acted at all. He was a wrestler. Who knew he would prove this good an actor?

Obviously the other 2 are voice actors, but Bradley Cooper does good work as Rocket, and Vin Diesel getting such big credit for Groot's limited dialogue is always worth a chuckle.

It's one of the best formulas in movies, the ragtag group of people coming together to fight a common enemy. That enemy is Ronan the Accuser, who is a pretty dull villain. Thanos is in the movie, lurking in the background a few times.

There is also Nebula, played in another who knew casting coup by Karen Gillan. You'd never guess she would evolve into literally one of my favorites in the whole MCU. Same for the great Michael Rooker as Yondu. Throw in the always great John C. Reilly and the brief.appearance by Benicio Del Toro and you have one of the best casts Marvel has ever, um, assembled. (Had to be done)

The movie is incredibly funny and spirited, and has good action, and does a great job of showing the Guardians bonding into a true team. Each pairing of characters has their own fun dynamic. 

I do think the film gets a little too jokey in a couple of spots that don't need it. I think the second movie is actually a little better at finding that right balance of tones. But it's kind of insane that they got everything this right on the first try. 

Naturally the movie was a huge hit, and really expanded what the MCU could be. They could really do whatever they wanted now.

Other non-deep dive flicks....

1974:

-The Longest Yard: I watched this during the pandemic closures. I recall really liking the climactic football game and nothing else. 

1994:

-Clear and Present Danger: The last of the Harrison Ford Jack Ryan films. I saw this in theaters. Not bad. 

-Airheads: A wannabe rock band takes a radio station hostage to get its music played. A very 1994 comedy, but with a loaded cast: Brendan Fraser, Adam Sandler (stealing the whole thing easily), Steve Buscemi, Chris Farley.

-The Little Rascals: One of the umpteen old TV show adaptations of the 90s. I saw this in theaters and remember liking it but never saw it again.  

-In The Army Now: Pauly Shore joins the army in a shameless ripoff of Stripes. 

-Blankman: A Damon Wayans superhero comedy that I really liked at the time. 

-Color Of Night: A big Bruce Willis bomb. One of those ludicrous post-Basic Instinct thrillers we got a lot of, and for some reasons many had a psychiatrist lead. My teenage self, though, deeply appreciated everything Jane March was doing in this movie. Trust me, I knew the scenes. 

-The Next Karate Kid: I saw this in theaters and really liked it then. This was Hilary Swank years before she became a thing. 

-Killing Zoe: Roger Avary, Tarantino's co-writer on Pulp Fiction, had his own seedy crime movie. 

-It's Pat: No question about it, the WORST Saturday Night Live spinoff movie of all time. 

-Wagon's East: John Candy's died filming this. It was not in any way worth it. 

-Camp Nowhere: Only notable because it may have been the first time I got aggravatingly sick of seeing the trailer for it that summer, and also because it was the movie debut for Jessica Alba. 

2004:

-Little Black Book: Well, here it is. The all time worst movie ever that I still liked because of who is instead of it. The premise has this girl snoop through her boyfriend's stuff, and basically stalk his exes to try to basically dig up dirt on him for no reason. Horrible. This girl is demented. And yet she is also irresistible because she is played by Brittany Murphy at the absolute peak of her adorability powers. Honestly, she could have given Natalie in Garden State a run for her money. I was helpless. RIP you angel sent from heaven. 

-Alien vs Predator: Yeah, this should have been a whole lot cooler. 

-The Princess Diaries 2: Did I even see this? I dunno. Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway was on the soundtrack, so we got that out of it. 

2014:

-Sin City: A Dame To Kill For: A very long awaited sequel to one of my ten favorite films of the 2000s. This brought back a lot of the elements and a decent % of the cast (Jessica Alba brings it, and Mickey Rourke's Marv is forever awesome), but it just wasn't the same. The stories in it were fine, I guess, but unmemorable. The new actors they brought in were fine, I guess, but in the original everyone popped. A fair amount of this was just boring. 

-If I Stay: Chloe Moretz gets in a car accident and becomes a ghost as she is on life support, and we flash back to her life. I saw this for Moretz, but it wasn't a standout in this sick/dying/dead teen subgenre. 

-Get On Up: Chadwick Boseman as James Brown. Pretty standard biopic. 

-Into The Storm: The one attempt between Twister and Twisters to do a big screen tornado movie. It was kind of in found footage style. It wasn't that good. 

-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The franchise reboot produced by Michael Bay and, for some reason, starring Megan Fox as April. The hell were they thinking? 

-Expendables 3: This one was PG13 and brought in Wesley Snipes and Harrison Ford. 

-The Giver: One of those YA flops, although I guess the book it was based on pre-dated a lot of the ones that came out first like Hunger Games. Katie Holmes was in it, so I saw it and never since. 

-When The Game Stands Tall: No idea why they made an "underdog" sports movie about a high school football team that wins 151 straight games, then has to deal with losing one. Oh the horror! 

Coming in September....

Well, we venture into fall, which means the 1994 rewind is about to get unbelievable. The best movie season of all time starts with The Shawshank Redemption and Ed Wood turning 30.