Cinematic Throwbacks: September 1996/2006

1996:

Adam Sandler officially ascended to bona-fide comedy star with his consecutive hits Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore. And later graduated to one of the biggest movie stars period with The Wedding Singer, The Waterboy, and Big Daddy in succession. In the middle of all these hits is the almost completely forgotten Bulletproof.

Bulletproof is classic 90s buddy action comedy stuff. Sandler is a low-rent criminal. Damon Wayans, top billed since it was still 1996, is an undercover cop who befriended him but then has to bust him. Plot stuff happens, and Wayans get shot by Sandler. Sometime later, Wayans has to escort Sandler to trial so he can testify against his criminal boss (James Caan), and Bulletproof becomes a chaotic road movie as they try to get from A to B.

Bulletproof didn't break any new ground. Some of the dialogue is bad. But it works because of a couple of reasons.

One is that it was directed by Ernest Dickerson, the Spike Lee cinematographer whose directing career started great with Juice and the criminally underrated Surviving The Game. His action skills really elevate those parts of this movie.

And the Wayans-Sandler pairing is a lot of fun. I don't really know why Wayans just never clicked as a movie star that much. As for Sandler, this is the only one of his 90s comedies that was rated R, so he was able to tap into more of his raunchy side. I listened to his comedy albums a lot back then, and they were not family friendly.

But Bulletproof was overlooked. It wasn't a hit at all and never gets brought up as one of the best in the Sandler canon. But I like it more than a lot of Sandler movies that made a lot more money. 

Theaters in the years after Pulp Fiction were filled with knockoffs. Just take a crime plot and a big cast, make them intertwine a bunch and presto!

Obviously, it wasn't that simple. Most of these Tarantino wannabe films were not good. But one big exception was 2 Days In The Valley.

This has the framework of a wannabe, but it has its own unique, easygoing, almost casual vibe. The film has violence, but it's never outrageous or graphic. It has a lot of comedy. The film was written and directed by John Herzfeld, a total journeyman filmmaker.

The sprawling cast includes a couple crooks (James Spader, Danny Aiello), a couple cops (Jeff Daniels, Eric Stoltz), a couple sexy gals (Teri Hatcher, and a new actress named Charlize Theron) and a handful of other major characters. Great dog, too.

It carved out its own niche in the genre. The plot's twists resolve in a satisfying way. I enjoy all the performances. Theron comes out guns blazing in the kind of performance that was obviously the debut of a future star. Aiello is also a standout, and I really loved his charming little romantic subplot with Glenne Headly.

This was another September 1996 movie that got overlooked, however. Herzfeld didn't become a big name. Other than putting Theron on the map it didn't make much impact on anyone's career. It just came and went, but you can't be an overlooked gem if you killed it at the box office. 

2006:

Here we have one of my favorite little underseen, underappreciated movies of the whole 2000s.

The Last Kiss is not a sequel to Garden State, but one could be excused if they mistook it for one. It also stars Zach Braff as a man in that stage between the reckless exploration of youth and the arrival of full-time adult responsibilities. It's full of that catchy indie rock-style music that was big at the time. And it co-stars an irresistible brunette actress. 

But this wasn't a Braff creation. I believe he did have input on that soundtrack, but as an actor he was a hired gun here. The film was actually directed by actor Tony Goldwyn, and written by Paul Haggis, who was a big deal at the time cause he had written Million Dollar Baby and Crash, and also directed the latter. 

It's an ensemble dramedy, with Braff and his crew of friends (including Casey Affleck) all in that aforementioned stage of life. They all have their different female situations. One is still hung up on an ex. Another is in a purely sexual relationship. Affleck's character is married and has a child, but the relationship is deteriorating. And Braff is the most settled in, with a loving and newly pregnant girlfriend (Jacinda Barrett, who is just terrific). There is also a subplot involving Barrett's parents (Tom Willinson and Blythe Danner) going through their own late in life marital issues.

Mostly it's about Braff, who early in the film meets a younger woman played by the absolutely irresistible Rachel Bilson. And he starts to stray, at least in his head at first. 

Look, don't cheat on your girl, but who could resist Rachel Bilson at the absolute peak of her powers? Her character definitely fits into that manic pixie dream girl archetype. All we know about her is that she's in college. But again, it's 2006 Rachel Bilson. This was late in the run of The O.C. and there were few actresses I would take over her at the time. 

It's a well written movie, with strong performances from everybody. Most of the characters in it are not that likable, but they aren't supposed to be.

This movie wasn't much of a hit, and Braff as cinematic leading man had a pretty quick expiration date. But I have liked his presence in the movies over the years, both in front of and behind the camera. 

Other non-deep dive flicks...

1986:

-Blue Velvet: Probably the best film David Lynch ever made. Insane Hopper.

-Crocodile Dundee: Never seen this, but it was a big hit cause the 80s were weird. 

1996:

-Feeling Minnesota: Lot of great flicks made IN Minnesota in the 90s. This wasn't one of them, but it did have Keanu Reeves and Cameron Diaz in her prime. 

-The Rich Man's Wife: Silly thriller with Halle Berry.

-Maximum Risk: One of the bi-annual Jean-Claude Van Damme flicks. 

-The First Wives Club: A big hit, but exactly the kind of movie that then-17 year old me was not interested in. 

-Last Man Standing: Forgettable Bruce Willis flick. 

2006:

-Gridiron Gang: One of The Rock's better starring vehicles, where he starts a football team at a youth detention center. Follows a lot of formula but does it well. 

-Idiocracy: Well, we're living in it. 

-The Wicker Man: The reviled Nicolas Cage movie where he screams about the bees. 

-Hollywoodland: Ben Affleck earned back some cred in this drama where he played the actor who played Superman in the old serials. 

-The Black Dahlia: One of that year's big disappointments, Brian DePalma's noir thriller with Scarlett Johansson.  

-School For Scoundrels: A pretty bad Billy Bob Thornton comedy that was also the first indication Jon Heder wasn't going to have a post-Napoleon Dynamite career. 

-The Last King of Scotland: Forest Whitaker won his Oscar for this. 

-Bandidas: Somehow a movie with Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz as sexy bank robbers didn't make a billion dollars. 

2016:

-Deepwater Horizon: Very good docu-drama about the titular oil rig explosion. This is one that sucks me in on cable all the time, cause the explosion itself and everything leading up to it is very gripping. Terrific cast too. 

-Snowden: Oliver Stone's solid but safe movie about Edward Snowden. 

-The Light Between Oceans: A disappointment from Derek Cianfrance, whose previous couple films had been fantastic. 

-Sully: I liked Clint Eastwood's film starring Tom Hanks as the pilot who landed that plane in the river, until I found out Clint literally invented that whole plot about the NTSB going after Sully.

-Morgan: Kind of Ex-Machina light, where Anya Taylor-Joy is a robot. 

-Blair Witch: For some reason they tried a reboot years later. 

-The Magnificent Seven: The often remade story got a new polish as a solid Antoine Fuqua action flick led by Denzel Washington. 

-Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children: Tim Burton directed this fantasy adaptation. I haven't seen it since theaters but I recall thinking it was solid. 

Coming in October...

Focus on 2006, where The Departed and The Prestige turn 20. But there's always more.