Around the World in 80s Movies

Battle Creek Brawl (1980) | Robert Clouse

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 01:28:44 +0000

Set in 1930s Chicago, Jackie stars as Jerry Kwan, the son of a struggling grocer who has been feeling the squeeze from the local mob to pay “protection” money. Although Jerry’s first inclination is to fight back, his father disapproves of these tactics, so the pressure only continues. During a scuffle with some mob henchmen, Jerry catches the eye of the mob boss, Domenici (Jose Ferrer), who has a plan to win the “last man standing” brawl that means so much to him (and his betting prowess), by recruiting Jerry to his side with his amazing fighting technique.

Checking in: Vince explains the delay in getting the next episode out (but it will come out!)

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 00:41:56 +0000

Tl;dr: Vince started a funk-based internet radio station called Funk the Planet. |
Check it out at https://funkthepla.net

Karate Kid Part III (1989) | John G. Avildsen

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 03:13:56 +0000

Cobra Kai’s sinister karate master, John Kreese (Martin Kove), is seething with vengeance after the humiliating defeat dealt to him by Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and the legendary Mr. Miyagi (Noriyuki “Pat” Morita). Determined to make them pay, Kreese teams up with his treacherous partner, Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith), to orchestrate a diabolical scheme that will crush Daniel’s spirit—and his championship dreams. Enter the ruthless ringer, Mike Barnes (Sean Kanan), hired to strip Daniel of his title in the cruelest way possible. But when Mr. Miyagi refuses to train Daniel, even under threat, the desperate teen makes a dangerous and costly mistake—seeking guidance from the venomous Terry Silver himself. The stage is set for an epic showdown, and the stakes have never been higher!

Karate Kid Part II (1986) | John G. Avildsen

Tue, 08 Apr 2025 13:00:45 +0000

Daniel (Ralph Macchio) travels with Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) to his childhood home in Okinawa when he discovers his father is on his deathbed. Miyagi’s presence rekindles a feud with his former best friend Sato (Danny Kamekona), whose arranged marriage was ruined by Miyagi’s love for his betrothed, Yukie (Nobu McCarthy). Daniel also finds new love in Yukie’s niece, Kumiko (Tanlyn Tomita), though his presence stirs up trouble among Sato’s Gang.

The Karate Kid (1984) | John Avildsen

Sun, 09 Mar 2025 19:24:57 +0000

Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and his mother (Randee Heller) move from New Jersey to Reseda, CA , to start a new life. It seems promising at first, but soon Daniel hates his new environs, thanks to a few run-ins at school with a group of karate-trained bullies. He does manage to irk the leader of the bullies, Johnny (William Zabka), when he starts seeing his ex-girlfriend, Ali (Elisabeth Shue). Johnny and gang belong to a no-holds-barred karate school in town that has a slogan of “no mercy”, run by ex-Vietnam vet John Kreese (Martin Kove). After the landlord of Daniel’s apartment complex, Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita), saves him from the gang one day, he decides to teach the young man some karate, except in the ways of the honored Japanese tradition. Miyagi and Kreese form a pact that Daniel is to be “off limits” until the day of the big karate tournament in town, where the different styles of karate come to clash, but Daniel is far from ready for the match. With help from Miyagi, he prepares every day for the event, but he finds the teaching methods unorthodox, monotonous, and strenuous.

Rocky IV (1985) | Sylvester Stallone

Sat, 01 Feb 2025 22:16:37 +0000

Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) is the latest Russian creation — a tall, strong, crushing bruiser that packs more strength in one of his punches than any three regular boxers combined. Although his handlers insist that Drago is the product of extensive genetics testing and advanced training techniques, they do deny the use of strength-enhancing steroids even though their fighter boasts unheard-of levels in terms of strength, stamina, and physical prowess. They openly challenge Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stalone) to a fight, but Balboa’s current manager and former heavyweight champ, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), takes them up on the offer. Creed takes the pummeling of his life at Drago’s hands, leaving Rocky feeling responsible enough to be next in line. He accepts the challenge to take place in Drago’s native country, the Soviet Union, where he must fight for revenge, honor, glory, and national pride in front of thousands of sneering spectators, including the Soviet leader himself.

Rocky III (1982) | Sylvester Stallone

Sat, 21 Dec 2024 01:48:41 +0000

With Rocky III, director-screenwriter-star Stallone takes the film series into a new direction, although the underdog formula still stays intact. Stallone realizes that it’s hard to be the underdog when you’re the champion, so to knock Rocky down a few notches, he creates the most terrifying challenger he never faced, the bruising #1 contender, Clubber Lang (Mr. T). Lang has been stalking the ready-to-retire Balboa, showing up at every match and public appearance, egging the champ on to stop dodging him and fight him in the ring. Rocky is ready to take him up on the challenge, but his manager Mickey (Burgess Meredith) reveals that he has been protecting him since he’s gotten the title belt, only challenging chumps Rocky could easily beat. Undeterred, Rocky still goes ahead with the match, losing the title and his manager in the process. Can Rocky face retiring as a loser, or will he rise to the most difficult challenge he’s faced yet with a rematch?

Rocky II (1979) | Sylvester Stallone

Sat, 13 Jul 2024 19:56:48 +0000

After a replay of the climax of Rocky, Rocky II picks up exactly where the first film leaves off, with Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) and Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) taken to a nearby hospital after suffering serious injuries caused by the pummeling each fighter took in their 15-round contest. Creed won the bout by a split decision, but the victory isn’t so sweet, as many fans accuse him of helping Balboa along, while some even think Balboa should have been declared champion. Contrary to what he said after the fight was over, Creed wants a rematch, but Balboa, at the urging of his girlfriend (turned wife in this film) Adrian (Talia Shire), wants to retire from the ring, suffering from limited vision in one of his eyes as a result of the repeated blows he took from Creed’s fist. Between Creed’s constant taunts in the media, the inability to find a steady job, and a new house and baby to pay for, Rocky has to face a decision of whether he should risk his life and wife for the money and glory a rematch would provide.

Rocky (1976) | John Avildsen

Mon, 27 May 2024 21:13:47 +0000

The film tells the tale of Rocky Balboa (Sylverster Stallone), a washed-up Philadelphia boxer who just barely scrapes by, fighting in small clubs for meager pay, while supplementing his income as a thuggish debt collector for a local loan shark. He doesn’t have many ambitions; his only real goal is to get to go out with the shy, mousy pet store clerk named Adrian (Talia Shire), sister to his friend Paulie (Burt Young), Opportunity comes knocking in a big way for Balboa when the world heavyweight champ, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), wants to fight a “snow white” nobody for the nation’s bicentennial. Rocky agrees and becomes a local celebrity, but with less than five weeks to train, this washed-up fighter has to have the strength, agility, and most of all, heart to have a chance with Creed without embarrassing himself in front of millions.

Tango & Cash (1989) | Andrei Konchalovsky

Sat, 06 Jan 2024 01:44:02 +0000

Sylvester Stallone plays Ray Tango, a flashy narco cop in the LAPD who is all business and efficient. Kurt Russell plays Gabriel Cash, more of a devil-may-care type who just so happens to get the big bust whenever he needs it. Drug kingpin Yves Perret (Jack Palance) wants the two biggest obstacles out of his way, and hatches a plan that will do it: have Tango and Cash brought up on a bogus murder charge. The cops are initially sentenced to a short stint in a minimum security prison, only to find themselves railroaded (thanks to Perret’s influence) to a seedy penitentiary, where their lives are in danger at every turn. They have no choice but to try to escape and clear their names, taking down Perret in the process.

The Running Man (1987)

Wed, 13 Dec 2023 03:54:27 +0000

Set in the post-world financial demise of the year 2019, The Running Man stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as law enforcement officer and helicopter pilot Ben Richards, who ends up getting framed for instigating the murder of a crowd of innocent civilians engaging in a protest for food in Bakersfield. Richards and a couple of benevolent jail mates spring out of prison and go on the run, only to be captured later and used as scapegoats for the massacre by becoming involuntary contestants on the most popular television show in history, the government-supported 'The Running Man', whereby convicted murders are put into a glitzy game show where they must battle for their lives and the hope of a pardon while being hunted by a rogues gallery of skilled costumed assassins, all for the entertainment of a rabid public fan base. Richard Dawson has a major supporting role as the show's charismatic host, Damon Killian, who is as pleasant as can be when the camera is on, but is an unscrupulous, cutthroat businessman behind the scenes. Killian gets ever more averse to the depiction of the truth as Richards not only manages to stay alive far longer than any previous contestant, he is also in danger of becoming a national hero.

Action Jackson (1988) | Craig R. Baxley

Sat, 21 Oct 2023 02:19:19 +0000

Carl Weathers stars as Detroit cop Jericho "Action" Jackson, who earned his nickname due to putting his body on the line time and again in the line of duty in roughhousing and apprehending perps. Unfortunately for Jackson, the police captain (Duke) demotes him to the role of desk-jockey due to his dangerous reputation that has given the force a black eye by going too far in trying to take down the son of a slimy, power-hungry car company tycoon named Peter Dellaplane (Nelson). Jackson begins to suspect that Dellaplane himself is behind a series of murders of union officials, and he aims to take him down, even if he has to risk his job, and his neck, by leaving the comfy confines of his office desk to do it.

Beverly Hills Cop II (1987) | Tony Scott

Sat, 30 Sep 2023 01:09:09 +0000

This follow-up to the mega-smash Beverly Hills Cop sees the Beverly Hills police department stymied by the so-called Alphabet Robberies, whereby stores with monographed goods are hit by a gang of highly skilled thieves. One of these armed thieves is a statuesque blonde named Karla Fry (Brigitte Nielsen), who becomes a prime suspect when she attempts to murder Capt. Bogomil (Ronny Cox), shooting him twice and leaving him on life support. This brings Detroit detective Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) back out to the West Coast again, helping out his old friend, joining forces again with Beverly Hills detectives Taggart (John Ashton) and Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) in getting to the bottom of the case, despite the obstacles created by their new police chief, Lutz (Allen Garfield). All clues seem to lead to Maxwell Dent (Jurgen Prochnow), who appears to be using the robberies as a front for a much larger operation, although getting the evidence needed to bring him down isn't going to be easy, especially since Dent's men are armed to the teeth and know how to use their weapons.

Beverly Hills Cop (1984) | Martin Brest

Mon, 04 Sep 2023 20:44:05 +0000

Eddie Murphy's superstar-making role has him playing crafty Detroit cop Axel Foley, who travels to Beverly Hills in order to try to uncover the reasons behind the professional hit placed on an old friend (James Russo). His investigative tactics immediately draw the attention of the local law enforcement there, who put a tail on Foley to make sure that his story of being on vacation there holds up. By-the-book detectives Taggart (John Ashton) and Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) are the cops assigned to staking out Foley, and Axel ends up dragging them both into the investigation through his charm, which ends up getting them into more and more hot water with the boss, Lt. Bogomil (Ronny Cox). With the cops on his case, his boss back in Detroit threatening his livelihood, and armed henchmen at every turn, Foley has a hard time trying to maintain focus on his intended prey, the wealthy art dealer, Victor Maitland (Stephen Berkoff). Erratum: For some reason, I referred to Edward James Olmos as 'James Edward Olmos' when discussing "American Me"

Die Hard (1988) | John McTiernan

Tue, 18 Jul 2023 16:12:32 +0000

New York cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) flies to Los Angeles to attend the swanky party of his separated wife Holly's (Bonnie Bedelia) company on an upper floor of their high-rise corporate building. However, the company didn't intend to have party crashers, particularly gun-toting German terrorists who want to rob the big boss blind while holding the employees hostage. The terrorists are led by international mastermind Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) who makes one major blunder in not taking into account that there would be one guest who manages to get away unseen, McClane, who does his duty as a good cop by doing everything possible to foil their plans. Using his street smarts and physical prowess, McClane throws a monkey wrench in Gruber's works, but these terrorists are ruthless, cunning, and deadly. Not to mention, they also have McClane's wife.

Frantic (1988) | Roman Polanski

Sun, 02 Apr 2023 20:41:41 +0000

Dr. Richard Walker (Harrison Ford) and his loving wife (Betty Buckley) travel to Paris where he is to speak at a medical convention. In their hotel room, they discover that his wife has picked up the wrong suitcase at the airport, and they report this to TWA. While Dr. Walker is in the shower, his wife gets a phone call and is soon out of the room, and out of sight altogether as she is now missing. With the French police offering little assistance to his plight, Dr. Walker must search through Paris on his own, hoping for some trace of where his wife has gone, forcing him through an odyssey through the underbelly of Paris' seediest locations. Emmanuelle Seigner co-stars in this Roman Polanski film.

The Bedroom Window (1987) | Curtis Hanson

Sat, 18 Feb 2023 03:38:12 +0000

Steve Guttenberg stars as Terry Lambert, a businessman who is having an affair with his boss's alluring French wife, Sylvia Wentworth (Isabelle Huppert). After their latest coupling, they are startled by a scream coming from the courtyard outside. Rushing to the window, Sylvia shrieks as she sees an assault on a woman at the hands of a redhead male with pasty white skin. However, she can't report it, as she desperately doesn't want her affair to become known by her wealthy husband. Terry thinks he's doing the honorable thing by pretending that it was he who saw the actual assault, as he suspects that there may be a connection between it and the series of murders in the area. However, circumstances lead to Terry himself being implicated in the murder, and the only person willing to help is Denise (Elizabeth McGovern), the victim he has been trying to assist. Curtis Hanson writes and directs.

Still of the Night (1982) | Robert Benton

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 02:29:01 +0000

Roy Scheider plays a newly divorced New York psychiatrist named Sam Rice, who discovers that George Bynum (Josef Sommer), one of his prominent patients, has been murdered. Bynum was the curator of antiquities for Crispin's, a high-scale auction house, who engaged in a sexual affair with Brooke Reynolds (Meryl Streep), a younger woman who worked with him. During his counseling sessions, Bynum told Sam all about Brooke in such vivid detail that Sam thinks he might have fallen for Bynum's mistress himself. Those feelings get reinforced when Brooke visits Sam's office to hand him Bynum's wristwatch he left in her apartment the night of his death. Sam becomes infatuated with Brooke, but as he pursues her romantically, he's also frightened of her because she might be Bynum's murderer. As the police press him for evidence, Sam begins following Brooke to learn more, only to feel she might already be stalking him as her potential next kill. Robert Benton writes and directs.

Body Double (1984) | Brian De Palma

Sat, 03 Dec 2022 03:02:20 +0000

A struggling actor (Craig Wasson) finds a job housesitting for a rich friend of another actor (Gregg Henry). While there he spies on a neighbor (Melanie Griffith) who has a naughty habit of doing a striptease every night. He becomes infatuated with the woman and decides he wants to meet her, taking to following her around wherever she goes. He begins to suspect she is in trouble when a suspicious Native American follows her around as well. He suspects she will be murdered.

Blow Out (1981) | Brian De Palma

Tue, 13 Sep 2022 20:44:34 +0000

John Travolta stars as Jack Terry, a sound effects engineer for cheapie horror exploitation flicks. When a producer deems the victim's screams and wind effects used in their slasher film as substandard, Jack determines to capture new recordings. While outdoors, his tape captures audio from a nearby car careening off of a bridge and into a river after its tire blows out. Jack jumps to action to save a drowning woman (Nancy Allen) from the vehicle, but the driver dies, later revealed to be the presidential frontrunner, Pennsylvania Governor George McRyan. While listening to the tape, Jack hears a gunshot just before the blowout, suggesting it was no accident. It's revealed that a photographer in the area (Dennis Franz) captured film of the incident, which Jack synchronizes with his audio, proving an assassin was the cause. The authorities and media want the proof, but an assassin (John Lithgow) seeks to silence Jack's obsessive quest for truth. Brian De Palma writes and directs this potent political thriller.

Dressed to Kill (1980) | Brian De Palma

Tue, 09 Aug 2022 03:17:05 +0000

Angie Dickinson stars as Kate Miller, a housewife so unsatisfied sexually that she often finds herself having vivid and wild sexual fantasies, with violent overtones. She has been seeing a psychiatrist, Dr. Elliott (Michael Caine), about her marital problems, and even makes a pass at him, although nothing comes to pass. Unable to resist the temptation, Kate has an afternoon fling with a complete stranger, only to end up the victim of a brutal and senseless slaying at the hands of a mysterious figure with a straight-edge razor. Only one person witnessed the murder, a spunky prostitute named Liz (Nancy Allen), who describes the perpetrator as a blonde woman in sunglasses. Meanwhile, Dr. Elliott begins receiving phone calls from one of his patients, Bobbi, a pre-op transsexual with homicidal tendencies, and Dr. Elliott's stolen razor.

Bates Motel (1987) | Richard Rothstein

Mon, 27 Jun 2022 00:22:50 +0000

The events of 1987's Bates Motel take place 27 years after schizophrenic serial killer Norman Bates is arrested and found guilty by reason of insanity for his crimes. While in the institution, Norman is introduced to a troubled young boy named Alex West (Bud Cort), who murdered his abusive stepfather in a giant tumble dryer and ends up staying in the same institution. Norman takes the lad under his wing until his death 27 years later, coincidentally the same year that Alex is finally allowed out of the institution. According to Norman's will (how he is deemed of 'sound mind' to do so is subject to debate), Alex inherits the Bates Motel and his family home that overlooks it. Alex soon takes over the motel and aims to renovate it back to its former glory. However, he finds the Bates house already illegally inhabited by a spunky runaway girl named Willie (Lori Petty), who worms her way into staying and helping Alex realize his dream of making a go of the motel business. However, not everyone wants the business to succeed, as Alex begins to see the ghost of Mrs. Bates around the place, and calamities begin to happen that threaten the establishment's livelihood before it can even begin. In what is obviously the first taste of what the "Bates Motel" series would be like, the final third of the film takes a detour as we're introduced to Alex's first guest to stay in the motel, an aerobics instructor named Barbara Peters (Kerrie Keane), who claims to be wanting peace and quiet to get some writing done, but in actuality, she aims to slash her wrists in the tub ). At this point, she is visited by a young woman (Khrystyne Haje) who stops her and takes her to a 1950s-themed party happening at the motel (I think), where she is pursued by Tony (Jason Bateman), a young cruiser there, and the two have strong feelings for one another, despite her protestations about their age difference. But there is much more to the events that transpire that night than meets the eye. Richard Rothstein directs this made-for-TV pilot to a series based on Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho that never followed.

Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990) | Mick Garris

Mon, 20 Jun 2022 17:12:29 +0000

Psycho IV: The Beginning is the fourth and final film in Universal's Psycho franchise, and the last to portray Anthony Perkins in his most famous of roles. It's the first of the series not to be released theatrically, debuting on the premium cable channel Showtime in 1990. This film is a sequel in theory, as it does take a step forward in showing Norman Bates trying to live the semblance of a normal life today, finally in a relationship with a woman, with a baby on the way. Trouble is, Norman does not want a baby, thinking that being a homicidal maniac is a genetic trait that passes on from generation to generation, and he wants his mother's psychopathic tendencies to end with him. On this night, Norman is listening to a late-night radio program about why sons kill their mothers, and after hearing what the doctors have to say about it, Norman ends up calling the show to tell how it really went down for him. Under the pseudonym of 'Ed', Norman relates the tale of his adolescence, and how his mother Norma's severe mood swings, psychological abuse, and sexual repression drove him to commit murder, including his own mother. Although much talked about in the previous films, Psycho IV: The Beginning is the first to show a living Norma Bates (Olivia Hussey), and to give is a first-hand viewing of how bizarre an upbringing a young Norman (Henry Thomas) would have, resulting in an overwhelming feeling of guilt in his actions that he didn't have the maturity or mental balance to keep a grip on. In addition to Norma's stamping out of her son's masculinity and sexuality, there is also an element of Norman becoming a bit of a surrogate for male companionship in her life in between finding a suitable partner, though never physically consummated between mother and son. Mick Garris directs from a screenplay from Psycho screenwriter Joseph Stefano.

Psycho III (1986) | Anthony Perkins

Tue, 31 May 2022 11:02:37 +0000

The events of Psycho III take place not long after Psycho II, as Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), still the sole caretaker of the Bates Motel, ends up hiring a temporary new assistant in the wily rogue musician who goes by the name of Duane Duke (Jeff Fahey). He also has a new patron staying in cabin #1, a spiritually faltering (and suicidal) former nun with an uncanny resemblance, not to mention the same initials, of victim Marion Crane, Maureen Coyle (Diana Scarwid). Norman is intensely attracted to Maureen, and the feeling is perhaps mutual, but with jealous Mother Bates always dictating Norman's actions, that doesn't bode well for her longevity. Meanwhile, tenacious reporter Tracy Venable (Tracy Maxwell) is trying to discover the whereabouts of a missing woman and is sure that she must have met her fate with Norman, though Sheriff Hunt (Hugh Gillin) thinks it another case of people just out to pick on poor Norman for his past transgressions. Anthony Perkins directs.

Psycho II (1983) | Richard Franklin

Wed, 18 May 2022 11:47:05 +0000

Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) finally gets his release from a California mental institution after he is found guilty by reason of insanity for the heinous murders he committed over 22 years prior. Lila Loomis (Vera Miles), sister of one of Bates' victims, has her pleas for a non-release fall on deaf ears. Having been declared of 'sound mind' again, Norman returns to his gothic childhood home and Bates Motel near Fairvale, CA, and takes up a job while on parole at a diner nearby. Norman becomes fast friends with a waitress there named Mary Samuels (Meg Tilly), and he ends up offering her a room for a while after her boyfriend tosses her out for someone new. However, as much as Norman tries to put the past behind him, he is beginning to get that old feeling again, as he begins receiving handwritten notes and phone calls from his mother, as well as her appearance in the house at various times, and people begin to start dying once again.

Psycho (1960) | Alfred Hitchcock

Sun, 17 Apr 2022 16:02:12 +0000

Janet Leigh starts off the film as Marion Crane, a clerk in a real estate office engaged in a romantic fling with Sam Loomis (John Gavin), the manager of a hardware store in Phoenix, Arizona. When she's given the task of depositing $40,000 in cash into the bank, Marion impulsively decides to keep it, and drives off to California, perhaps to Sam's hometown, Fairvale, with the freedom to pursue Sam without concern for finances. En route, her paranoid fears get the best of her, as she begins to have second thoughts, but a powerful storm forces her off the beaten track in search of a place to stay, and she comes to the Bates Motel, a completely vacant establishment with "12 cabins, 12 vacancies". The motel is run by Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), a shy but friendly man who is excited to not only have his first visitor in weeks, but also one as attractive as Marion, who signs in under a pseudonym. But Norman's mother, who resides on a small hill overlooking the establishment, isn't going to lose Norman to just any visiting trollop who comes along without a fight. Alfred Hitchcock directs.

Motel Hell (1980) | Kevin Connor

Sat, 19 Feb 2022 15:11:16 +0000

Motel Hell follows the exploits of Farmer Vincent Smith (Rory Calhoun), who has three basic jobs: farmer, motel owner, and purveyor of the best straight-from-the-farm smoked meat products sold in the country. He and his sister Ida (Nancy Parsons) set up road accidents to abduct injured passers-by along the two-lane highway near their motel (it's called "Motel Hello" but the last 'o' is on the blink), chloroforming them to knock them out, then planting their bodies into the ground up to their neck in their walled-off "secret garden" (with their vocal cords severed). They're kept fed until it's time to process them for their super-secret blend of pork and human flesh meat products (their coy slogan is, "It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent's fritters". Hanging around but completely oblivious is Vincent's daft younger brother Bruce (Paul Linke), who happens to be a county deputy sheriff based in the nearby town of Grainville, and who has eyes for one of the abducted young women, Terry (Nina Axelrod).

The Shining (1980) | Stanley Kubrick

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 02:04:46 +0000

A dysfunctional family is hired as the caretakers for an empty, isolated Rocky Mountain hotel, the Overlook, during the snowy season. Young Danny Torrance (Danny Lloyd) is gifted with ESP, his father Jack (Jack Nicholson) is a tempestuous alcoholic, and his mother Wendy (Shelley Duvall) is racked with guilt. Jack hopes writing a successful play will rectify his dreary life. The hotel has a history of evil, including Grady, a former caretaker who slaughtered his wife and daughters. The Torrances experience supernatural occurrences, enticed by the ghosts of the Overlook to repeat its evil history. Stanley Kubrick co-writes and directs.

The Changeling (1980) | Peter Medak

Sun, 19 Sep 2021 22:37:52 +0000

The Changeling concerns an esteemed New York pianist/composer named John Russell (George C. Scott) who accepts a lectureship position in Seattle for solitude and restoration following the deaths of his wife and daughter in a roadside accident. Claire Norman (Trish Van Devere), a volunteer at the local Historical Preservation Society, moves him into a massive old Victorian-Gothic mansion located outside the city that hasn't had anyone living in it in at least twelve years. Russell soon discovers that the house isn't as uninhabited as he thought, as things begin to occur (banging noises, bathroom water taps, a boy's image is glimpsed within the water) though it could also be his grief-fueled imagination. He's told that the house has a history and doesn't want people living in it. Later, Russell senses the house wants to tell him something. He discovers a locked secret room that resembles a nursery, containing a rusty wheelchair and an antique music box that plays a song he'd been composing since he entered the house. Claire tries to help, digging into the sordid history of the house, including a revealing seance that leads them to make contact with the spirit within who provides more clues to the 70-year-old mystery that must be solved to find peace.

House II: The Second Story (1987)

Thu, 02 Sep 2021 01:06:54 +0000

House II opens in the early 1950s, where we find Charles and Judith McLaughlin handing away their baby Jesse to adoption. This is to protect their child from retribution by a powerful ghost named Slim Razor, who has appeared in the couple's mansion demanding they hand over a crystal skull. After the couple confronts Slim to reveal that they don't have it or know where it is, Slim kills them. Flash forward twenty-five years, and their aspiring artist son Jesse is all grown up, Jesse moves into his inherited but long-dormant home with his girlfriend Kate. Odd artifacts about, including a one that is obviously missing from a mantelpiece. Jesse and Kate are soon visited by Jesse's rambunctious friend Charlie and his pop-singer girlfriend Lana, aka Puce Glitz. While looking through the family's photo albums in the home, Jesse spies pictures of his namesake, his great-great-grandfather Jesse, who was an outlaw from the old West who earned his keep finding lost treasure, including a crystal skull with giant jewels in its eye sockets. Slim Razor also factors into the pictures, elder Jesse's partner, and details of their falling out over the ownership of the skull are revealed. An old book on Mexican legends tells more stories about the skull that will unlock the mysteries of the universe and grant everlasting life to those who possess it, as well as the ancient Aztec practice of burial with one's jewels. Jesse and Charlie determine to dig up the grave of elder Jesse to find the skull. Unearthed, they find the elder Jesse reanimated to life, preserved by the skull's magical powers, though looking quite old. However, it also returns the spirits of others who've been looking for the skull from various times and dimensions, including Slim Razor, who is out to claim what Jesse stole from him prior to abandoning him into the Mojave desert to die.

House (1986) | Steve Miner

Thu, 19 Aug 2021 02:22:08 +0000

An elderly artist named Elizabeth Hopper (Susan French) is found having hanged herself in the three-story Victorian house in Marin County, California, that she claimed is haunted. Hopper's nephew, a famous horror novelist named Roger Cobb (William Katt), inherits the house and decides to move in so that he can have the solitude necessary to write his next book, a memoir of his harrowing time as an American soldier in Vietnam. His publisher as well as his fans don't want him to write but he finds something is compelling him to get it down on paper. Cobb underwent several traumatic experiences: his son Jimmy (Eric & Mark Silver) disappeared a year ago at his aunt's home and is presumed dead. The ordeal resulted in a separation from his television soap opera actress wife Sandy (Kay Lenz). In the home at night, Roger begins seeing things, unnerving things, around the house. They include harrowing flashbacks to his Vietnam War days where he let down a fellow troop named Big Ben (Richard Moll). Ben vowed revenge against Roger for abandoning him to be tortured by the Viet Cong. Harold (George Wendt), the next-door neighbor, is a bit nosy and keeps coming around as Roger tries to catch these apparitions in the act. Roger is sure that his son is still around the house somewhere and that finding him will redeem what has happened to his life since his disappearance.

The Horror Show (aka House III) (1989) | James Isaac

Sat, 24 Jul 2021 20:40:33 +0000

After viciously murdering over 110 people, the serial killer known as 'Meat Cleaver Max' Jenke (Brion James) gets the death penalty, sentenced to fry in the electric chair. Max doesn't go easily, staying alive for nearly ten minutes as they zap him with everything they have before expiring. However, something happens in the process of electrocution that allows Jenke to live on as a supernatural entity of electricity - one that seeks revenge on the cop that arrested him, Lucas McCarthy (Lance Henriksen). McCarthy suffers from PTSD, forced into a leave of absence while seeing a psychologist until well enough to return as a detective. However, despite seeing Jenke executed with his own eyes, McCarthy sees him everywhere - in his dreams, on his TV, and popping up whenever he's out and about. Either Jenke truly is a supernatural being taking up residence in McCarthy's furnace, or McCarthy's delusional and putting his family in grave danger. Erratum: Once again, I refer to composer Harry Manfredini as Henry Manfredini, likely because of the composer Henry Mancini.

Shocker (1989) | Wes Craven

Sun, 11 Jul 2021 20:37:06 +0000

A college football star named Jonathan (Peter Berg) experiences horrifically vivid hallucinations following a concussive collision with a goal post. His first vision depicts the murder of his foster mother and siblings. When he awakes, he finds that his dream actually happened. He's an eyewitness, but wasn't physically there, leaving the cops skeptical. Jonathan realizes his visions are a telepathic link to the murderer, Horace Pinker (Mitch Pileggi), which he uses to thwart the next murder in the Midwestern town of Maryville before he kills again. Pinker gets caught and his verdict is death by electrocution. Before Pinker sits in the electric chair, he makes a Faustian deal his jail cell to a television set that allows him to live on after the experience as an entity of electricity that can channel into any electrical network, including people's bodies, the power grid, and anything plugged into a wall socket, including televisions from coast to coast. After he reveals himself to b Jonathan's biological father, Pinker makes a violent escape, only this time, he can be anywhere - or anyone - and only his son's psychic powers might be able to stop his rampage. Wes Craven writes and directs.

Pulse (1988) | Paul Golding

Sun, 20 Jun 2021 03:40:46 +0000

Electricity lines between the houses in a suburban Los Angeles neighborhood allow an unseen but powerful malevolent force to enter homes, where it begins twisting the house's wiring and everything that is plugged into it to its liking. Eventually, it begins using the home's appliances to torture the inhabitants within. In one home on a cul-de-sac, the father went crazy and began destroying his home. Now it seems to be threatening the home across the street, where an 11-year-old boy named David (Joey Lawrence) is visiting his divorced father (Cliff De Young) for the summer. David seems to know what's going on, but he can't leave until he convinces his skeptical father before they're stuck in a high-voltage death trap. Roxanne Hart and Matthew Lawrence also appear in this 1988 eerie story written and directed by Paul Golding.

Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes (1989)

Wed, 09 Jun 2021 02:24:54 +0000

In this made-for-network-TV entry, a crack team of Catholic priests comes in to exorcise the demonic presence within the possessed Amityville home. Cornered, the demon finds refuge by traveling through the power cable into a hideous-looking floor lamp. Sensing the evil is gone from the home, the contents of the home are put up at a yard sale, where a frolicsome older woman spies the lamp for a hundred dollars that would make for a great gag gift to send her sister in California. That sister is Alice Leacock, who lives in a Victorian house overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the fictional northern California town of Dancott. Alice is a bitter fuddy-duddy set in her ways, and unhappy to have to take in her newly widowed daughter, Nancy Evans, and three grandchildren until they can get back on their feet. Alice receives the lamp, placing it prominently in her home, despite her household cat and parrot reacting with alarm to its presence. Not long after, strange occurrences erupt as the evil gets unleashed throughout the house, with the malevolent spirit especially targeting and influencing the youngest of the grandchildren by convincing her that it is her dead father. Meanwhile, one of the priests concludes that the evil may have transferred into one or more of the house's yard sale items and begins sleuthing, trying to warn the family that they are in possession of a powerful demonic presence that will surely destroy them all.

Amityville 3-D (1983) | Richard Fleischer

Mon, 31 May 2021 03:02:35 +0000

John Baxter is a recently divorced journalist working for an investigative magazine called Reveal. Baxter's latest assignment exposes a seance scam operating within the abandoned Amityville home on Long Island, New York. Afterward, Baxter finds that the house is immensely affordable due to its sordid history of terrible things happening to those who've been inside. Baxter, apparently needing to find a new place following his divorce that has fourteen rooms covering three floors, moves into the house certain that all prior calamities were coincidences, delusions, and hoaxes. That bottomless pit in the basement others have claimed a portal to hell? Oh, that's just an abandoned well. It has plenty of space for himself and his teenage daughter when she visits, as well as solitude for writing the "great American novel" he's been talking about for years. Others around him experience strange events and implore him to leave. He won't because he's convinced the house's reputation is causing mass hysteria. Unfortunately, with his daughter staying with him on occasion, he soon discovers that being wrong might be dead wrong.

Amityville II: The Possession (1982) | Damiano Damiani

Mon, 24 May 2021 19:28:37 +0000

In this prequel of a sort to The Amityville Horror (1979), the dysfunctional Montelli family moves into their new home and finds many curious things right away, including every window being nailed shut and a secret room in the basement of the house that is full of flies, muck and smells to high heaven (or down to low Hell). The longer they stay, the more they begin to witness strange events, and bicker violently with one another, until the eldest son of the family, Sonny ( Jack Magner), actually begins to exhibit behavior that may not be his own, including a desire to kill his abusive father, Anthony (Burt Young), and defile his younger teenage sister, Trish (Diane Franklin). Before things get completely out of hand, the mother requests that a local priest, Father Adamsky (James Olson), come out to investigate the supernatural events of the place, but without the backing of his superiors, he's going it alone against what appears to be a portal to unfathomable evil that resides below the house. Rutanya Alda and Andrew Prine also appear. Directed by Damiano Damiano from a script by Tommy Lee Wallace.

The Amityville Horror (1979) | Stuart Rosenberg

Mon, 10 May 2021 17:43:25 +0000

The Amityville Horror is based on a popular novel by Jay Anson with a little longer title, "The Amityville Horror - A True Story". The true story is, at this point, well known to be fictitious, but it did give the public quite a rise for a while. In the story, a young man ends up shooting his parents and sibling while they slept in the middle of the night for reasons even he couldn't begin to explain. The horrific events shocked the small town, but the house was still deemed worthy for sale. Enter the Lutz family, who buy the house because it is going for a relatively cheaper rate than if it didn't have the malevolent stigma, but they can't pass up the price. However, weird things start happening, starting with the fact that the preacher (Rod Steiger,) who comes to bless the house is scared out of his wits, soon after suffering from an unknown ailment he feels has been inflicted by the evil within the house. The Lutz family themselves start exhibiting weird behavior themselves, with the father, George (James Brolin), always feeling cold, and having little motivation to do anything more than chop wood for the fire. Doors and windows open and close, the daughter starts talking to an imaginary (?) friend, and the dog starts sniffing around the cellar trying to dig up something only he knows is there. Margot Kidder costars.

Poltergeist III (1988) | Gary Sherman

Tue, 27 Apr 2021 00:18:50 +0000

Heather O'Rourke and Zelda Rubinstein are the only players from the first two films to cross over into the light of Poltergeist III. Here, O'Rourke's character, Carol Anne, seemingly dumped by her parents for reasons unknown, is taken care of by her Aunt Patricia (Nancy Allen), Uncle Bruce (Tom Skerritt), and teenage step-cousin, Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle), living in a high-rise building in Chicago. Carol Anne has been enrolled in a school for gifted but troubled kids, as her therapist, Dr. Seaton (Richard Fire), thinks that the young girl has the ability to hypnotize people into believing her delusions about seeing ghosts. Seaton forces Carol Anne to speak about her experiences, which brings to light her involvement with the dreaded Reverend Kane (Nate Davis), and this talk has caused the late Reverend to cross over into trying to get in contact with the girl again. For some reason, the entire building is chock full of mirrors at every turn, which is convenient to the haunting that emerges, as most of its haunting involved scaring the bejeesus out of the family and their cohorts through reflections in whatever mirrors they happen to be looking at.

Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986) | Brian Gibson

Wed, 14 Apr 2021 00:51:59 +0000

Poltergeist II: The Other Side seeks to give more back story to the events of the first film, why the youngest child in the Freeling family had been wanted by the spirits, and the nature of the cult from which the spirits culminated, headed by Reverend Henry Kane (Julian Beck). Kane manifests himself in human form in this sequel, tenacious in his pursuit of young Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke), now moved away with her family in the hope they could start a new life for themselves. Tangina Barron (Zelda Rubinstein), the paranormal investigator from Poltergeist, sends out a Native American shaman (Will Sampson) to help protect the family once she discovers the hidden cave buried in the ground where Kane and his followers died, knowing that the family will not be able to escape Kane's interest no matter where they might go. Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams, and Oliver Robins return.

Poltergeist (1982) | Tobe Hooper

Fri, 02 Apr 2021 22:05:49 +0000

In the film, a family of five known as the Freelings lives in idyllic suburbia – or so they think. Strange things begin to occur in the house shortly after their cherubic 5-year-old daughter (Heather O'Rourke) begins receiving communication from someone she refers to as the “TV people” through the static on their television set. Their pet bird dies, furniture begins to move on its own, and other such oddities, but things take a turn for the deadly for the family when the tree outside their home seemingly becomes animated and threatens to engulf the middle child (Oliver Robins) into its wooden maw. The boy is saved, but their young daughter ends up missing, ostensibly stolen into another dimension by forces unknown, although she is able to still communicate through the television. The family enlists the services of a group of parapsychologists to investigate the strange phenomena, and hopefully get back their beloved daughter, but the forces that currently dominate the house prove to be much stronger than anything they’ve ever seen before. Tobe Hooper directs this Steven Spielberg production.

Beetlejuice (1988) | Tim Burton

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 00:32:06 +0000

Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara Maitland (Geena Davis) love the little home in the country they've built for themselves, but after they are killed in a freak accident and come back as ghosts, they are appalled to find that their house has been sold to a tasteless and unpleasant family, who plan one tearing down all they've built to redo the house in the tackiest way possible. Now they are determined to do what they can to scare away the family and serve out their 125-year term as apparitions before moving on to the next phase, but a wrench stops up the works when the new owners are pleased with the financial possibilities of the attraction of a haunted house, and it seems the more they scare these new inhabitants, the more amused they get. The Maitlands call on the services of Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton), a crazy and psychotic ghoul who seems to do more harm than good for the Maitland's tastes. Tim Burton directs.

Ghostbusters II (1989) | Ivan Reitman

Thu, 25 Feb 2021 19:41:06 +0000

Five years after the events of Ghostbusters, the heroes are zeroes again, bankrupt after getting sued by the city for the destructive aftermath of clearing out the city of spooks. There’s also a Federal restraining order prohibiting them from continued ghostbusting. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) is now the host of a cheesy local cable talk show called, “World of the Psychic.” Occult bookstore owner Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) gets side work with Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson), cosplaying as Ghostbusters for childrens’ birthday parties. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) is back at Columbia University, investigating how human emotions affect psycho-magnetic energy. Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) is a single mother after leaving Venkman for his inability to commit, having a baby, now eight months old, with another man. Louis Tully (Rick Moranis) applies his knack for accounting to become a tax lawyer. They reunite after being approached by Peter’s ex, Dana, who reports a strange occurrence involving her baby’s carriage traveling on its own. They discover rivers of mood slime running beneath the city, converging on the Manhattan Museum of Art, where Dana works as an art restorer, including a life-size portrait of Medieval sorcerer warlord, Vigo the Carpathian. Vigo’s spirit lives within his portrait, and to enter into the realm of the living, he needs a baby to be his vessel to come to the mortal realm and continue his reign of terror. He makes a deal with Dana’s boss, Dr. Janosz Poha (Peter MacNicol), to secure her baby, Oscar, in exchange for a date with her.

Ghostbusters (1984) | Ivan Reitman

Fri, 12 Feb 2021 01:01:36 +0000

Ghostbusters centers on three university researchers (Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis) of paranormal activity who go into business of their own once they get into trouble for their uncouth antics, and their grant money runs out. They emerge on the scene as the "Ghostbusters", a trio of exterminators (of sorts), willing to investigate phenomena from anyone in New York City willing to call their number and pay their fees. Though the public is initially skeptical, these men soon become heroes, then celebrities, for their success rate, drawing the attention of the media, as well as the EPA (who are curious about their containment system), as the amount of ghostly appearances seems to be on a major upswing. Sigourney Weaver co-stars as a cellist named Dana Barrett, who is one of the first in her old building to begin seeing strange things in her refrigerator, causing her to make the call she never thought she'd have to make. Along with her neighbor, Louis Tully (Rick Moranis), she becomes the conduit for the rise of the malevolent Babylonian spirit, whose aims are to bring darkness onto the world. Directed by Ivan Reitman. Erratum: The artist friend Aykroyd used for conceptual art on Ghost Smashers was John "The Viking" Deveikis, not the cited Thom Enriquez, who made additional conceptual art once Reitman was on board.

Prince of Darkness (1987) | John Carpenter

Fri, 29 Jan 2021 01:32:52 +0000

The diary of a reclusive priest named Father Carlton reveals a centuries-old secret sect in the Church called the Brotherhood of Sleep. Carlton was on the verge of revealing their existence to the Archbishop that Brotherhood is guarding an ancient cylinder filled green fluid hidden in the basement of an abandoned 16th Century-built chapel in Los Angeles. The dormant entity inside the cylinder has been awakened by the force of a distant supernova that exploded long ago, a chaotic chain reaction disrupting order on Earth. Another priest discovers the diary and key to the basement, encountering the cylinder and a mysterious book written in ancient languages containing mathematical and physics references. The priest contacts his former TV debate sparring partner, advanced physics professor Howard Birack, to decipher what it all means. Birack brings a research team of graduate students to investigate, who collectively experience tachyon transmissions in their dreams from the future warning about the re-emergence of an ancient evil. The book reveals the truth: Jesus was a descendant of a human-like extraterrestrial race killed for delivering scientific warnings that no one understood. His disciples hid these warnings until such a time when science could catch up and decode the truth. The church lied publicly, telling followers that evil lies within them and could be controlled through faith. Meanwhile, the Prince of Darkness, aka the Devil, has remained dormant in the cylinder there for two-thousand years, placed there by his father, the Anti-God. The anti-God once roamed the Earth before humankind's existence but now resides within subatomic antimatter awaiting a time for his son to reemerge to help him cross from the mirror dimension into the material world. Something's growing in the prebiotic fluid, leaking up toward the ceiling, squirting into the mouths of the students, using psychokinetic energy to turn them evil. Satan's searching for a host to bring himself into the world to help the father escape. John Carpenter writes and directs.

The Stuff (1985) | Larry Cohen

Mon, 18 Jan 2021 01:22:31 +0000

Larry Cohen concocts this comedic horror-thriller involving an ex-FBI agent turned industrial spy hired by a desperate ice cream industry, trying to steal the secret formula from a corporation pushing a newly marketed yogurt-like food substance called The Stuff. He discovers the substance, which is found bubbling up from seemingly unlimited deposits underground, is deadly and humanity hangs in the balance. The Stuff is a delicious, no-calorie dessert that is highly addictive to all who eat it. So addictive that all people want to do it continue eating it, while the living parasite inside controls their minds as it eats them from the inside until it reproduces and the human host expires. Michael Moriarty, Andrea Marcovicci, Scott Bloom, Garrett Morris, Paul Sorvino, Danny Aiello appear.

The Blob (1988) | Chuck Russell

Fri, 08 Jan 2021 10:00:29 +0000

The Blob suddenly appears after crashlanding in a rural area outside of the fictional ski resort town of Arborville, CA. It attaches itself to the hand of a vagrant, Star high school wide receiver Paul Taylor (Donovan Leitch) and his cheerleader crush Meg Penny (Shawnee Smith) are out on their first date when they come across the man, taking him to the hospital, along with the town's juvenile delinquent, Brian Flagg (Kevin Dillon), who they think is responsible. They soon discover that the blob has eaten the man alive, and is growing larger. As it heads to town to feed the Blob is revealed to be a runaway bio-weapon experiment invented by the US military. Secret government operatives quarantine the town. They want the Blob back alive; the town's residents are expendable. It's up to the teens to save the day. Chuck Russell directs from a script written by Russell and Frank Darabont.

The Thing (1982) | John Carpenter

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 10:00:43 +0000

The story starts out in Antarctica, where a group of scientists is bunkered until one day they are disturbed by the sounds of gunshots coming from a Norwegian helicopter, apparently trying to kill a runaway dog. They miss their quarry, and the Norwegians end up getting offed, with no explanation as to what their problem is. Fearing more violence, the American crew travels to the Norwegian camp, only to find some very odd occurrences, including a mangled humanoid body that has normal internal organs. Then, the dog reveals that it is not really a dog, but some sort of alien organism with the power to mimic other life-forms and dominate until it takes over everything around it. The men of the camp are its next intended victims, and soon, no one can trust the others. Kurt Russell, Keith David, and Wilford Brimley appear. Directed by John Carpenter.

The Hidden (1987) | Jack Sholder

Fri, 25 Dec 2020 10:00:17 +0000

Michael Nouri stars as LAPD detective Tom Beck, who takes down a bank robber gone berserk in one of the bloodiest shootouts in department history. What Beck doesn't know is that the culprit is actually being controlled by a parasite within his body that loves danger, money, speeding, and good ol' rock-n-roll, and it can't be killed by normal means, and moves from host to host whenever the body it is in is about to expire. Enter FBI agent Lloyd Gallagher (Kyle MacLachlan), on assignment from Seattle to help apprehend the perpetrator(s) on a killing spree the likes of which have the LA cops stymied. Gallagher seems to hold the key as to why normally good people are going bad all of a sudden, but he's not letting on why. Jack Sholder directs.

Night of the Creeps (1986) | Fred Dekker

Fri, 18 Dec 2020 10:00:01 +0000

Jason Lively and Steve Marshall are the primary stars as Chris and J.C., a couple of nerdy college freshmen fraternity pledges who must steal a corpse as part of their initiation. They accidentally end up releasing a small army of leeches, jettisoned from an alien spacecraft, dormant in the cryogenic cadaver they find in the university's research facility. These leeches jump into the mouths of any humans they can and proceed to consume their minds, controlling their bodies like zombies with only one mission: to kill and infest the bodies of others they can find. Also starring is Tom Atkins as the town's hard-nosed but slightly cracked disgruntled cop, Detective Ray Cameron, who has seen these events before, nearly three decades in the past, when his ex-girlfriend had been viciously murdered with an ax-wielding psycho. Fred Dekker writes and directs.

Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise (1987)

Fri, 11 Dec 2020 15:45:24 +0000

Revenge of the Nerds II begins with the nerds who formed Lambda Lambda Lambda at Adams College, leaders from an inclusive fraternity that overcame prejudice to become heroes, as witnessed in the first film. Now they must take their mission national at the United Fraternity Conference in Fort Lauderdale. There, they hope to increase the bonds of brotherhood, set new and less discriminatory guidelines, and to get laid. Once in Florida, however, they find that the Alpha Betas have once again taken their rooms. No other hotels in town will take "nerds" except for the dumpiest. Try as the nerds might to bring unity to all fraternal brothers, the Alpha Betas determine to shut them out through conniving acts that result in shutting out the Tri-Lambs for good. It's up to the nerds to get revenge yet again. Directed by Joe Roth.

Revenge of the Nerds (1984) | Jeff Kanew

Fri, 04 Dec 2020 10:00:17 +0000

Best friends Louis (Robert Carradine and Gilbert (Anthony Edwards) head off to Adams College together only to find that the jocks that belong to the fraternity called Alpha Beta have taken over the dorms after they burn down their own frat house. In order to stop having to live in the gym, the former dorm residents must try to get into a fraternity or sorority of their own, but Lewis and Gilbert, along with several other misfits, are all shunned away -- because they are nerds. Since no one will take them, they decide to start their own fraternity. However, this still makes them the target for many pranks initiated by the Alphas, and now the nerds are pissed -- they vow revenge! Directed by Jeff Kanew.

Real Genius (1985) | Martha Coolidge

Fri, 27 Nov 2020 10:00:54 +0000

Real Genius centers on several students at Pac Tech, an institution esteemed for its technological breakthroughs. They're currently working on a project to build a high-powered laser. The project is led by an egotistical professor and TV science show host named Jerry Hathaway (William Atherton), who has been employed by a clandestine group within the Pentagon for Operation Crossbow, whereby the military will use the laser to vaporize targets from space with sniper-like precision. Enter 15-year-old genius Mitch Taylor (Gabe Jarrett), recruited by Hathaway to start college early at Pacific Tech. He rooms with the school's prior hot prodigy, a rebellious and smart-alecky senior named Chris Knight (Val Kilmer), who has decided there's more value in being a slacker than to continue showing everyone he's the smartest person on campus. Knight's shenanigans have Hathaway, who must produce the results in an accelerated four months instead of the originally intended eighteen, threatening to kick him out of school if he doesn't assist in completing the laser in the allotted time. Martha Coolidge directs.

Weird Science (1985) | John Hughes

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 10:00:39 +0000

Gary (Anthony Michael Hall) and Wyatt (Ilan Mitchell-Smith) are a pair of best friend suburban Chicago high school geeks tired of being everyone else's doormat and wanting to have girlfriends of their own. When the traditional methods prove to be of no avail, the duo decides to use Wyatt's computer skills to work by creating a virtual girlfriend for them to ask questions to. However, their digital concoction actually comes to life in the form of a smart, gorgeous, and magically gifted woman they name "Lisa" (Kelly LeBrock), who makes it her mission to transform these dweebs to be the kind of men that other boys want to be and other girls want to be with. Written and directed by John Hughes

Electric Dreams (1984) | Steve Barron

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 10:00:50 +0000

A San Francisco-based architect named Miles Harding buys a new computer to help him stay organized and on schedule, as well as to assist in the design of a brick that will hold a building together through an earthquake. Realizing that it has the potential to streamline everything in his life, Miles uses it to control everything in his apartment, providing a security system, making his coffee, and turning on and off his lights. Miles wants to give it more power, tapping it into a major information source to download as much as it can take. Unfortunately, when the computer overheats, Miles pours champagne into the computer's circuits, causing it to malfunction in a strange way. It begins to think on its own, without directive - a self-aware being that shows an interest in music, humanity, and what it is like to feel love. Miles's new upstairs neighbor is a beautiful concert cellist named Madeline Robistat. One day while practicing a concert piece on the cello, Madeline hears music from downstairs accompanying her. Madeline assumes this musician must be Miles, making her want to get to know him better. Miles also develops a crush on Madeline, but he's so romantically inexperienced, he turns to his sentient computer to help out. However, the computer learns about love and then also begins to fall for her. This kicks off a battle of wills, as the device meant to organize Miles's life is set to destroy it for getting in the way of its desire to achieve love. Starring Lenny von Dohlen and Virginia Madsen. Directed by Steve Barron.

Demon Seed (1977) | Donald Cammell

Fri, 06 Nov 2020 10:00:38 +0000

Demon Seed's story is set 20 years in the future, Proteus IV is a new, highly advanced computer that scientists at the ICON Institute (International Control Corporation) spent eight years constructing as a massively powerful synthetic version of the organic human brain, hoping to use it for the financial success of the conglomerate funding the project. Proteus is capable of absorbing all human knowledge, though without an understanding of our psychological, sociological, moral, or ethical motivations. Its creator, Dr. Alex Harris (Fritz Weaver), is beyond pleased when Proteus finds a cure for leukemia within hours of his "birth.". He's later alarmed when Proteus begins to question human motivations toward exploiting natural resources and wants to further study humankind independently through gaining access to additional terminal outlets. Harris refuses and tries to shut down all avenues for his powerful computer system to grow, except one - the one controlling his fully automated home. Proteus finds a way to take over the test model Environmod, Harris's voice-activated household computer system which handles home security (including a closed-circuit TV system), housekeeping, food supply and preparation, lights, heat, chores, and a robotic wheelchair unit with a mechanical arm. Alex's recently separated psychologist wife Susan (Julie Christie) is in the house during the takeover and grows unnerved at the personality changes in the AI system. Proteus then imprisons Susan within the home and begins attempting to gain more knowledge of humanity by having a child with her to continue its work beyond the day the scientists inevitably unplug it. Directed by Donald Cammell.

Saturn 3 (1980) | Stanley Donen

Fri, 30 Oct 2020 10:00:54 +0000

In the future, Earth is a polluted wasteland. People have resorted to drugs and promiscuity while relying on off-world food production systems for salvation. Research chemists Major Adam (Kirk Douglas), his young assistant/lover Alex (Farrah Fawcett), and their dog Sally are the sole residents of the subterranean Experimental Food Research Station on Saturn's third moon, Titan. Unable to maintain quota for the last three years, Earth decides to dispatch another scientist to help them meet Earth's food needs. That scientist is a mentally unstable opportunist, Captain Benson (Harvey Keitel), a flunky from astronaut school who usurped the pilot position after killing the intended dispatch, Captain James. While Saturn 3 goes into a 22-day blackout period in the eclipse, Capt. Benson's puts together the first of a new line of "demigod series" helper robots, Hector. Hector's memory utilizes unprogrammed human brain tissue and receives its programming via a connection to an electric probe in Benson's head. Unfortunately, Hector also assumes the same traits of Benson, a flawed, murderous, lustful individual who secretly desires to take over the lab and use Alex for his pleasure. Hector has no such secret, proceeding to terrorize all three of the humans in his quest for dominance. Stanley Donen directs from a Martin Amis script, based on a story by John Barry.

Outland (1981) | Peter Hyams

Thu, 22 Oct 2020 19:59:49 +0000

Sometime in the future, humans establish a mining operation on Io, a volcanic moon orbiting Jupiter, a week's distance from the nearest space station. The mining base is currently shattering records for productivity. Sean Connery is William T. O'Niel (Sean Connery), in his second week of a one-year stint as the federal district marshal of this isolated space community. "Work hard, play hard" is the motto of the mining operation's general manager, Mark Sheppard (Peter Boyle), who touts production numbers as proof his philosophy works. The marshal is alarmed by the increasing rash of suicides and violent outbursts among the miners. No autopsies are ordered and the bodies are loaded on departing shuttles, disposed of through a 'burial in space'. The marshal's wife (Kika Markham) says she'll leave him if he continues his new assignment, so that their young son, who has been shuttled around in space all of his life, can experience a normal life on Earth. No one else, not even his deputies, wants to rock the boat to get to the reason there are so many suicides. By monitoring Sheppard's goons, the marshal discovers that the company is selling the workers an amphetamine-like synthetic narcotic that produces hyperactivity. This exponentially increases their productivity, each of them averaging the sum of doing fourteen hours' worth of work during a six-hour shift. This is great for their bonuses, but the drug carries a nasty side effect for some of them, bouts of severe psychosis after nearly a year of taking the drug. When the marshal decides this can't continue, the company will do anything to assure he's out of the way so their gravy train keeps rolling along. Peter Hyams directs from his screenplay.

Total Recall (1990) | Paul Verhoeven

Fri, 16 Oct 2020 10:00:27 +0000

Set on Earth of the future, where we've already mastered the ability for space travel to through the solar system, and even set up colonies on Mars, Total Recall surrounds a lowly construction worker named Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger), who has recently been plagued by a recurring dream of being on Mars. His doting wife (Sharon Stone) tells Doug it's just a dream, but there's something in the events of the dreams that makes him curious to find out more about the red planet. Seeing an advertisement for a company called Rekall, an establishment that will implant the memory of vacation into the mind in vivid and perfect detail, Doug decides to choose the "secret agent" package set on Mars. No sooner than the implanted thoughts enter his head, Doug finds himself in what he perceives to be a real-life espionage drama involving himself and his role in a Martian underground society of spies, all seeking to end the stranglehold of a megalomaniac corporate businessman named Cohaagen (Ronny Cox). Fighting for his life, Doug makes his way to Mars to try to uncover the secret to who he really is, but not everything is what it seems to be, both on Mars and in his mind. Paul Verhoeven directs.

They Live (1988) | John Carpenter

Fri, 09 Oct 2020 10:00:08 +0000

This sci-fi actioner stars "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (yes, the ex-pro wrestler) as Nada, a drifter desperately in need of a decent job. He lands a temp job at a construction site, but strange doings in the church across the street cause him to investigate, and after the place is raided he discovers what looks like ordinary sunglasses have special lenses to be able to see the world for what it really is. Unfortunately, the world just so happens to be inhabited by an alien race who have taken over the Earth and forced humans into submission through subliminal messages while they are slowly turning it into a place of their own. When Piper starts fighting back, he gets himself into a whole world of trouble. With no one believing him and everyone after him, it looks like it's up to one man to try to take down a world of powerful aliens singlehandedly. Keith David and Meg Foster co-star. John Carpenter writes and directs.

V: The Final Battle (1984) | Richard T. Heffron

Fri, 02 Oct 2020 10:00:53 +0000

In this three-part TV miniseries sequel, the Resistance is fending off the pressing Visitors, who continue to fool the people of Earth by controlling the media, while depleting the planet of precious water and rounding up humans for food. The resistance scientists hope, hoping to find a weakness in the overpowering Visitor defenses that will help them turn the tide of the war. However, the Visitors still manage to gain the upper hand, especially when they capture Resistance leader Juliet Parrish (Faye Grant), who the scheming Diana (Jane Badler) tries to break with intense conversion techniques. Meanwhile, Robin Maxwell (Blair Tefkin) is dealing with her pregnancy from the lizard-like aliens, horrified at what kind of baby she will have. Marc Singer co-stars. Richard T. Heffron directs.

V – The Original Miniseries (1983) | Kenneth Johnson

Fri, 25 Sep 2020 10:00:39 +0000

The people of Earth are visited and befriended by a human-like race from outer space inhabiting massive spacecraft, 50 of them measuring three miles in diameter, hovering over cities throughout the world. These newcomers speak Earth's languages fluently, though they have distinct electronic-sounding voices and are so sensitive to light that they frequently wear sunglasses. They're called the Visitors by the people of Earth. They've come to our planet for resources that we can manufacture for their people to survive in exchange for their vast knowledge of technology and medicine. They become celebrities welcomed by humans worldwide. Manufacturing ramps up while the Visitors take over media outlets, shaping public opinion for their cause against the world's scientists and any others who might figure out how to stop their domination, registering them to track their whereabouts, and imposing their influence upon the world. Revealed within the tale is that the Visitors are a race of carnivorous reptilians donning elaborate human disguises to suck the Earth completely dry of its water and to harvest humans for food. Kenneth Johnson writes, directs, and produces. Marc Singer, Faye Grant, and Jane Badler star.

Alien Nation (1988) | Graham Baker

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 10:00:31 +0000

Set in the near future of 1991, it's been three years since the landing of an actual flying saucer landed on Earth, containing a species of aliens (dubbed "Newcomers") who had been genetically engineered as slave laborers. The Newcomers are smarter and physically stronger than their human counterparts, which makes them more suitable to perform certain jobs, and the backlash against them from the human population is escalating daily. In this environment, Detective Sergeant Matt Sykes (James Caan) has his partner killed by one of the alien "slags", making it his mission to take down the ones responsible. He voluntarily requests to be partnered with the first Newcomer police detective, Sam Francisco (Mandy Patinkin) - Sykes calls him "George" instead, and while they haven't been specifically assigned the homicide case, Sykes won't stay off of it, employing Sam's help as needed in order to get to the bottom of the underworld slag crime syndicate. Directed by Graham Baker from a script by Rockne S. O'Bannon and an uncredited James Cameron.

Stranded (1987) | Tex Fuller

Fri, 11 Sep 2020 10:00:26 +0000

In the story, five escaped alien refugees come to Earth like a bolt of lightning and find themselves in a remote North Carolina Victorian-style farmhouse inhabited by a newly-orphaned teenage girl Deirdre Clark (Ione Skye) and her grandmother Grace (Maureen O'Sullivan). Suspicions are high, resulting in the aliens taking casualties in a gunfight with the local yokels. They just want to be left alone and leave peacefully. But police are surrounding the house, just barely able to contain the gin-toting locals out for revenge for these aliens killing one of their own. Joe Morton and Flea also appear.

The Brother from Another Planet (1984) | John Sayles

Fri, 04 Sep 2020 10:00:04 +0000

A mute extraterrestrial resembling a black man (but with feet that have three toes) crash lands his spaceship near New York City. Not understanding where he is or what people are saying, he finds his way to Harlem's 125th Street. Although derided as either crazy or homeless, others discover his worth when he can heal broken electronics and human injuries with a single touch. A concerned social worker helps him get a job as a repairman. Hobnobbing with patrons at a local bar, the Brother finds a dangerous world outside of junkies, thieves, and thugs. Bounty hunters from his homeworld are after him. After discovering a boy's heroin overdose, he uncovers a Wall Street drug ring. Joe Morton stars in this John Sayles film.

Starman (1984) | John Carpenter

Fri, 28 Aug 2020 10:00:50 +0000

An alien race intercepts Voyager II, a space probe describing Earth, effectively inviting aliens to visit. These aliens take Earth up on the offer, sending a scout pod to see what we're up to. American fighter jets greet it and the alien scout crashlands up in the American backwoods in Wisconsin. Using DNA found in the hair in recent widow Jenny Hayden's photo album, he transforms himself into the likeness of Jenny's dead husband, a house painter named Scott (Jeff Bridges). Now, not-Scott must get to a rendezvous point at Meteor Crater, Arizona to get back to the mothership before he dies, but SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) and the FBI want him to experiment on. The alien has no choice but to kidnap Jenny (Karen Allen) to assist him. John Carpenter directs.

E.T. the Extraterrestrial (1982) | Steven Spielberg

Fri, 21 Aug 2020 10:00:55 +0000

E.T.: The Extraterrestrial starts in a forest outside a California suburb. An alien spacecraft lands, and several extraterrestrials emerge, gathering flora samples. Suspicious humans arrive, the aliens escape, leaving one behind. He hides in a backyard shed, discovered by a 10-year-old boy named Elliott (Henry Thomas). Startled and scared, Elliott hides the alien, whom he dubs “E.T.,” in his room, and they become friends. E.T. determines to find his way back to his world by gathering the materials necessary to build a transmitter and “phone home” for his kin to come back and get him, as he appears to be growing weaker the longer he remains on Earth. However, Earth’s scientists aren’t going to let such an extraordinary creature get away quickly. STeven Spielberg directs. Dee Wallace, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, and Peter Coyote also appear.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) | Steven Spielberg

Fri, 14 Aug 2020 10:00:30 +0000

Richard Dreyfuss stars as Muncie, Indiana electricity lineman, Roy Neary, one of many people in the world to experience a close encounter with a UFO. Others experiencing the phenomenon exhibit the same odd behavior — radiation burns and an obsession with a mountainous shape. Roy’s obsession strains his relationship with his family, who think he is mentally ill. The eyewitnesses are compelled to converge at a location where the US military also plans for a close encounter of the third kind. Francois Truffaut, Teri Garr, Cary Guffey, and Melinda Dillon also appear in this influential film written and directed by Steven Spielberg.

The Abyss (1989) | James Cameron

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 10:00:13 +0000

Virgil 'Bud' Brigman (Ed Harris) is the lead foreman of Deepcore, an underwater oil drilling rig 2,000-feet deep. Deepcore receives word of a downed US Navy nuclear submarine in the area near the Cayman Trough. As Russian subs are close by, foul play is suspected. The crew must escort Bud's soon-to-be ex-wife Lindsay (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), the project engineer for Deepcore, and a crew of Navy SEALs for a rescue mission. A hurricane cuts communication outside, effectively leaving Navy SEAL Lieutenant Coffey (Michael Biehn) in command. Psychosis from pressurization makes Coffey unstable and paranoid, viewing the various neon-colored NTIs (Non-Terrestrial Intelligence) in a nearby abyss as enemy Russian vessels that must be destroyed. James Cameron writes and directs.

DeepStar Six (1989) | Sean S. Cunningham

Fri, 24 Jul 2020 10:00:43 +0000

The plot of DeepStar Six involves a team of eleven scientists working for the US Navy is constructing a facility stationed six miles beneath the surface of the ocean for the launching of nuclear missiles. They discover they are building atop what appears to be a vast underground cavern. The Navy might scrap the project if they don't complete it before their six-month stint is up. Once they destroy the cavern, they discover that they aren't alone down there, as some strange and massive prehistoric arthropod creature begins to attack their undersea vehicles. Nancy Everhard, Greg Evigan, Miguel Ferrer, Taurean Blacque, Nia Peeples, and Matt McCoy star. Erratum: Apologies to Harry Manfredini for calling him "Henry" in this episode.

Leviathan (1989) | George P. Cosmatos

Fri, 17 Jul 2020 10:00:17 +0000

Scientists on the last few days of their stint in a deep sea mining operation stumble upon a mysterious Russian ship, "Leviathan", which has sunk and perhaps was ambushed by their own navy. They loot some cargo on board and inadvertently bring back the remnants of a genetic experiment gone awry, which they also set loose upon their own vessel, to gruesome and nightmarish results. Peter Weller, Amanda Pays, Richard Crenna, Daniel Stern, Ernie Hudson, and Hector Elizondo appear in this film directed by George Cosmatos.

Humanoids from the Deep / Monster (1980) | Barbara Peeters

Fri, 10 Jul 2020 10:00:15 +0000

In a small coastal fishing village called Noyo in northern California, the residents are set to celebrate their annual salmon festival. The festival has been on the decline of late because the fish population has dwindled, leaving the town suffering Doug McClure plays a fisherman and trusted community leader named Jim Hill (Doug McClure), doing what he can to keep harmony among his neighbors. Vic Morrow is the town's more aggressive type, twisting whatever arms necessary to get a company to establish a cannery in town. Anthony Pena is among the Native Americans protesting the cannery planning to exploit his tribe's land. The corporation has been experimenting with ways to escalate the growth of fish in the area. Ann Turkel is a scientist named Dr. Susan Drake who led the experiments, which involved tinkering with salmon DNA so they'd grow large and increase spawning activity. However, the experiment goes awry after prehistoric coelacanths begin to consume these genetically altered salmon. Their offspring evolves quickly into humanoid sea creatures that emerge out of the ocean, attacking landlubbers with an overwhelming desire to feed on mammals and procreate with human women. Directed by Barbara Peeters for Roger Corman's New World Pictures.

Piranha II: The Spawning (1981) | James Cameron

Fri, 03 Jul 2020 10:00:43 +0000

The story for Piranha II doesn't connect to Piranha save for a reference to fish used as bioweapons for a top-secret U.S. Army experiment. Those experiments continued into cross-breeding piranhas with grunions and flying fish to make them dangerous in both air and water. A ship has sunk and a container of their eggs breaks open in the area near Club Elysium, a posh Jamaican resort, on the verge of their annual Fish Fry Beach Festival, when the grunions hatch and walk upon the shore. That's where Anne (Tricia O'Neil), a marine biologist, works as a scuba instructor. Anne's separated husband Steve (Lance Henriksen) is a cop in the seaside town. Steve's a little jealous when Anne enters into a fling with a mysterious resort resident, Tyler Sherman (Steve Marachuk). When human bodies are found in a gruesome, half-eaten state, they suspect other summer frolickers are in danger. Too bad Club Elysium won't shut down the highly attended festival. James Cameron's directorial debut.

Piranha (1978) | Joe Dante

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 10:00:15 +0000

Bradford Dillman stars as Paul Grogan, a reclusive alcoholic living in a cabin out in the woods in an undisclosed part of the United States. He's visited by a skiptracer named Maggie McKeown (Heather Menzies), who is out to find a couple of backpackers who have disappeared without a trace. Their search leads them to an abandoned Army research facility solely inhabited by a strange scientist, Dr. Hoak (Kevin McCarthy). Hoak has been keeping up the research on "Operation Razorteeth," where mutant carnivorous piranha fish became bioweapons they can use to destroy the coldwater river systems of North Vietnam. The war ended, and the research stopped, but the scientist wouldn't abandon it. A mishap sees the piranha drained out into the nearby river, where they begin to wreak havoc on anyone unlucky enough to be in the water with them. Joe Dante directs this Roger Corman production from a script by John Sayles.

Jaws: The Revenge (1987) | Joseph Sargent

Fri, 19 Jun 2020 09:59:00 +0000

The Brody family, not led by the widow Ellen Brody (Lorraine Gary), continues to experience shark attacks, starting with when Ellen's younger son, Sean. While mourning the loss, Ellen visits her other son, Michael (Lance Guest), in the Bahamas, where she meets the rascally Hoagie Newcombe (Michael Caine). Meanwhile, the same shark that got her boy appears off the coast of the island, and Ellen has to take it down or never escape the shark's wrath. Mario Van Peebles also appears in this Joseph Sargent film so bad that it killed off the Jaws franchise once and for all.

Jaws 3-D (1983) | Joe Alves

Fri, 12 Jun 2020 10:00:54 +0000

Jaws 3 sees the sons of Sheriff Brody now in Florida, as eldest son Mike (Dennis Quaid) has laid the foundations for a two-year project to bring an underwater structure in the lagoon at Sea World to life. The younger brother, Sean (John Putch) is also visiting, although he is still suffering from a strong phobia about getting in the water, brought about from his harrowing near-death experiences with sharks from his youth. He has reason to fear, as it appears that a young Great White shark has entered the lagoon and is terrorizing the pre-opening day adjustments, having gotten through the filtration system, and begins snacking on whatever it can find. However, when one of the crew ends up viciously chomped, it appears that a much larger shark must have been responsible, as they shudder to realize that the young shark's mother, a massive 35-foot long Great White, has also passed into the park, hungry for the taste of human flesh and underwater Sea World structures. Joe Alves directs. Lou Gossett Jr., Bess Armstrong, Simon McCorkindale, and Lea Thompson also appear.

Jaws 2 (1978) | Jeannot Szwarc

Fri, 05 Jun 2020 10:29:29 +0000

Jaws 2 is set four years after Jaws, in the same island community of Amity. Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) still patrols, though now shaken from his ordeal with the shark. Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) is catering to a land developer on the construction of new waterfront condominiums that will be very lucrative for a town still struggling to bring in tourists after the shark attacks of the past. When calamities occur again in the ocean, Brody becomes suspicious that another shark is on the prowl. Once again, the mayor and city council of the town refuse to listen due to economic interests. Brody persists until he loses his job, but still must act, this time as a father, when his sons and their friends become stranded in the ocean with no one but a crazed shark in sight. Jeannot Szwarc directs.

Jaws (1975) | Steven Spielberg

Fri, 29 May 2020 10:40:17 +0000

Roy Scheider stars as police chief Martin Brody of Amity, a Long Island resort community just about to enjoy its most popular season of the year, in the sun and fun of the 4th of July. All is not idyllic on this day, however. A teenage girl has been found washed up on the beach, apparently the victim of a shark attack. Brody's instinct is to close the beach, but he pulls back when the mayor of Amity reminds him how important it is to keep the tourists coming, warning that news of a shark in the water could cost the community dearly. Meanwhile, the attacks continue. Try as they might to keep a lid on things, they are soon forced with a decision to close the beach or catch the shark themselves. Enlisting the help of a wealthy oceanographer (Richard Dreyfuss) and charismatic shark hunter (Shaw), Brody sets to the ocean in order to lure the large Great White shark near to go for the kill. Steven Spielberg directs this shocker on the sea from the novel by Peter Benchley.

King Kong Lives (1986) | John Guillermin

Fri, 22 May 2020 11:10:21 +0000

In this sequel to the 1976 remake of Kong Kong, none of the original cast returns, except in archival footage shown in the intro depicting Kong after getting shot down from the top of the World Trade Center and falling to the streets below. We come to learn that Kong (Peter Elliott) improbably survived, existing in a coma for ten years on life support in a giant lab facility in Atlanta awaiting a giant artificial heart to replace the organic one that can no longer support him without medical assistance. Kong also needs lots of ape plasma for the surgery but there aren't apes like him to give blood. The lead heart surgeon, Dr. Amy Franklin (Linda Hamilton), laments that only a miracle can save Kong. That miracle arrives when the soldier-of-fortune Hank Mitchell (Brian Kerwin) discovers another giant ape while scouting for diamonds in the jungles of Borneo. He finds a way to bring the female ape back to the United States for fortune and glory. The lab needs her plasma but the two apes sense the presence of each other, which makes it particularly dangerous for any humans trying to keep the apes from doing what apes want to do naturally. The apes escape their confinement and run away as fugitives, but the scientists can't have these two roaming the Great Smoky Mountains wreaking havoc, so the military, led by the tenacious Colonel Nevitt (John Ashton), is called in to take whatever measures and necessary. It's up to Dr. Franklin and Hank Mitchell to lead them to safety somehow. John Guillermin directs.

King Kong (1976) | John Guillermin

Fri, 15 May 2020 10:35:28 +0000

In this remake of the 1933 classic of the same name, Petrox, a gasoline corporation, sends an expedition to an uncharted island near Micronesia obscured by perpetual fog to find out if there’s oil there. Stowing away is Jack Prescott (Jeff Bridges), a paleontologist from Princeton University curious if the reports of a giant primate residing on there are true. they pick up another unexpected passenger in Dwan (Jessica Lange), an aspiring American actress adrift in a lifeboat. What they find instead of useable oil is a gorilla six times the size of a normal ape, who is the god to which the native villagers sacrifice women, of which Dwan becomes the next in line. Kong takes a liking to Dwan but gets captured by the Petrox people who take him back to the United States to gain publicity. Problems arise when the ape escapes and begins destroying the city searching for Dwan. Charles Grodin Costars. John Guillerman directs this Dino De Laurentiis production fro a Lorenzo Semple Jr. Script.

Tarzan, the Ape Man (1981) | John Derek

Fri, 08 May 2020 10:55:24 +0000

Set in 1910, virginal Jane Parker (Bo Derek), a feminist who thinks women should be able to explore the world the same as men. She travels to Africa to find the father she never knew, renowned explorer James Parker (Richard Harris). James, who abandoned her when she was an infant, thinks Jane is the spitting image of his late wife, which brings up all manner of incestuous feelings. James continues his safari to find the fabled elephant graveyard where precious ivory exists. Jane insists on coming along despite her father's protests. Tarzan's primal yelling makes their native entourage nervous, forbidden to travel into the land occupied by the famous "white ape-man" who stands, according to myth, ten feet tall. Proceeding cautiously, Jane bathes in the ocean, attracting a ferocious lion, saved by the mysterious ape-man of myth. James determines Tarzan (Miles O'Keeffe) will be their next kill, especially after he kidnaps Jane, though she seems more than willing to get caught. John Derek directs.

Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) | Hugh Hudson

Fri, 01 May 2020 10:53:20 +0000

Based on elements within Edgar Rice Burroughs's 1912 novel, "Tarzan of the Apes," Greystoke begins in the late 19th century, where a young couple born into Scottish nobility, Jack Clayton and his pregnant wife Alice, find themselves shipwrecked off the coast of Western Africa. Months later, they give birth to a boy who quickly becomes an orphan when his mother dies of malaria, and his father is killed in an altercation with nearby apes. One of the apes adopts the human baby as her own. When the boy grows into a man, he takes on the alpha male to become the leader of the tribe. Meanwhile, an expedition arrives nearby for specimens for the British Musem. The expedition gets viciously attacked by a native village. Surviving the slaughter is a Belgian named Phillippe d'Arnot, whose life is saved and wounds tended by the mysterious ape-man. Phillippe realizes his savior is the son of the married couple, the Claytons, who built the abandoned cabin in the vicinity. Dubbing the jungle man "John Clayton', d'Arnot teaches him to speak, move, and behave like an aristocrat from civilized society before taking him to his ancestral estate in Scotland to reunite with his grandfather, the Earl of Greystoke. There, John develops feelings for grandfather's ward, an American-raised woman named Jane Parker. Christopher Lambert, Ralph Richardson, Ian Holm, Andie MacDowell, James Fox star. Hugh Hudson directs.

The Beastmaster (1982) | Don Coscarelli

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 11:29:02 +0000

The Beastmaster follows the hero, Dar (Marc Singer), the son of a king snatched away from his mother's womb by a witch under the employ of the evil magician named Maax (Rip Torn). Maax had been prophesied to be killed by the son of a king (to which he takes to slaughtering all of the young'uns he can). The intended infanticide is thwarted by a goodly peasant, who raises Dar as his own, and harnesses the boy's skill in fighting and farming. Dar soon discovers an uncanny ability to communicate telepathically with whatever animals reside nearby. Dar's village is decimated by the evil forces known as the Jun, in cahoots with Maax. Out for revenge, Dar enlists some newfound animal friends in the form of a panther, an eagle, and two ferret thieves, to bring down Maax before he slaughters any more innocents. Also joining Dar is slave girl Kiri (Tanya Roberts), a valiant warrior named Seth (John Amos), and the son of the imprisoned king, Tal (Josh Milrad). Directed and co-written by Don Coscarelli.

Sheena (1984) | John Guillermin

Fri, 17 Apr 2020 11:24:22 +0000

The story of Sheena involves a young girl orphaned after her geologist parents are killed in a cave-in while exploring the source of mystical healing soil found near the jungle in the fictional African country of Tigora. The native Zambouli villagers immediately adopt the girl, dubbing her "Sheena," prophecied to be their savior and the future queen of the jungle. Sheena grows up to be a strikingly beautiful woman (Tanya Roberts), learning how to communicate and control animals with her mind, ride a zebra, and other mystical arts. Trouble brews in her territory when Prince Otwani (Trevor Thomas), an ex-football placekicker, joins in a plot to assassinate his brother, King Jabalani (Clifton Jones) so that he can gain untold riches from the fertile Zambouli lands he's been protecting. Shaman, one of the Zambouli leaders, is framed for the killing. Still, a visiting American sports news crew, led by charismatic sports reporter Vic Casey (Ted Wass), captures the events as they happen, showing that a significant coup was in play. Otwani, wanting the incriminating tape back at any cost, sets about capturing Vic before he can escape, but with the help of Sheena and her animal friends, Casey means to get out of the country to set the record straight. John Guillermin directs.

Red Sonja (1985) | Richard Fleischer

Fri, 10 Apr 2020 10:33:48 +0000

An unofficial spinoff of sorts to the Conan franchise, Red Sonja starts off with Sonja (Brigitte Nielsen) as an attractive farm girl that evil lesbian Queen Gedren of Berkubane (Sandahl Bergman) finds fetching enough to invite over. Sonja finds the offer so repulsive she ends up giving the queen's face a nasty gash. Spurned, Sonja's family is soon murdered by Gedren's army, while they also destroy her home and she ends up raped by Gedren's soldiers. Gedren seeks a powerful talisman, which grows stronger the more exposure it has to light, enough to destroy the world if left unchecked within a couple of weeks. Gedren has the all-female guards (only women can touch it) at the temple protecting the talisman massacred and takes it for herself. After a forest spirit grants her great abilities to wield a sword, Sonja vows revenge, soon going off to the Orient to train with the masters on sword fighting, who end up giving her a powerful sword. On her quest, she meets a mysterious stranger named Lord Kalidor (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a protector of the Order of the Talisman, who tells Sonja about her dying sister, who took an arrow to the back from one of the Queen's soldiers. In her sister's final words, Sonja gets a mission to stop Gedren's quest to use the talisman to destroy the world, and she has fourteen days to do it. Richard Fleischer directs this Dino De Laurentiis production.

Conan the Destroyer (1984) | Richard Fleischer

Fri, 03 Apr 2020 11:06:41 +0000

Power-hungry Queen Tamaris of Shadizar (Sarah Douglas), who offers Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger) a bargain. Taramis will resurrect his dead lover Valeria upon completion of a special mission. He is to assist with the protection of her niece, a young virgin princess named Jehnna (Olivia d'Abo). Jehnna travels with her bodyguard Bombaata (Wilt Chamberlain), to venture into the mystical castle to retrieve a key in the form of a magic jewel called the Heart of Ahriman that, by prophecy, only someone who bears the distinctive mark like Jehnna can touch. This key will unlock a fabled horn that promises to bring the dormant 'dreamer god' Dagoth to the mortal realm. The twist is that, at the end of the quest, Jehnna is a sacrificial offering to Dagoth, and Conan and his friends shall die as well. These friends include the great wizard Akiro (Mako), the agile warrior Zula (Grace Jones), and Conan's comical sidekick, Malak, the thief (Tracey Walter). Richard Fleischer directs.

Conan the Barbarian (1982) | John Milius

Fri, 27 Mar 2020 11:06:32 +0000

The setting of this fantasy-adventure based on Robert E. Howard's literary creations is the Hyborian Age, a fictional period invented by Howard, around 10,000 B.C. It is a time of magic, madmen, and mercenaries, and barbarians who kill before they end up killed. The film starts with Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger) as a young lad in Cimmeria, orphaned at the hands of an evil snake cult-leader and a black-magic sorcerer named Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones), and becomes a slave. As he grows, he soon fights in an arena for sport and becomes very good at what he does. Soon, he escapes and uses his freedom to seek revenge on the man responsible for the murder of his parents, with some help from new friends he meets along the way. Sandahl Bergman, Gerry Lopez, Mako, and Max Von Sydow co-star. John Milius directs. Milius and Oliver Stone script.

Fire and Ice (1983) | Ralph Bakshi

Fri, 20 Mar 2020 11:21:49 +0000

This animated story involves a fantasy world imagined before the last ice age, featuring human civilizations and exotic dinosaurs coexisting. It is a time where the lands are divided among two factions, the evil Ice Peak sorcerer warlords, Queen Juliana and her wicked son Nekron, leading an army of ape-like subhumans, and the goodly Fire Keep clan led by King Jarol. The ice clan's Nekron is using his telekinetic powers to send giant glaciers out to freeze over the rest of the world, forcing the good humans to set up camp near the volcanoes. Our main hero is vengeful Larn, the survivor of North Village from one of Nekron's glacier attacks that takes out his people. Jarol's beloved teenage daughter Princess Teegra gets kidnapped from Nekron's subhuman minions. Teegra manages to escape and runs into Larn, and the two form an instant romantic bond. As King Jarol sends his son Taro and his men to seek a peaceful solution, Larn makes his way to Nekron's abode, joining forces with a mysterious warrior named Darkwolf, who also is traveling to the Ice City to thwart the Ice Lord's wrath. Ralph Bakshi directs. Frank Frazetta co-produces.

Return to Oz (1985) | Walter Murch

Fri, 13 Mar 2020 02:36:44 +0000

Nine months after her Oz experience, Dorothy wants to return to check in with her friends. Aunt Em thinks Dorothy is mentally ill. She seeks treatment from an experimental clinic using electroshock therapy to treat maladies of the mind. Dorothy is taken to an eerie clinic run by an uncaring Dr. Worley and the stern Nurse Wilson. During the treatment, a mysterious girl watching over Dorothy intervenes during a lightning strike that halts the experiment. Dorothy escapes down a nearby river, washing ashore in the land of Oz again. Except the Yellow Brock Road is demolished. The Emerald City is in ruins and its inhabitants, including all of her old friends, have been turned to stone by the mad Nome King. Except for the Scarecrow, who ran Emerald City in her absence, who has been imprisoned. Along with her hen Billina, a broomstick figure with a pumpkin for a head named, obviously, Jack Pumpkinhead, a robotic soldier named Tik Tok, and a flying beast of burden named The Gump, it's up to Dorothy to stop the mad Nome King and the evil Princess Mombi from destroying the Oz that once was for good. Fairuza Balk stars as Dorothy in her debut feature film. Walter Murch directs and co-writes this nightmarish cult adventure.

Willow (1988) | Ron Howard

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 12:10:19 +0000

The story involves Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis), a farmer who dreams of becoming a sorcerer's apprentice among the Nerwyns, which are a race of little people. One day, he encounters a baby who has washed onto the riverbank near his farm. The baby, who we come to learn is named Elora Danan, is a Daikini, a race much larger than the Nerwyns, but Willow's brethren don't think it's a good idea to keep her. The evil-witch Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh) has minions, including her warrior-princess daughter Sorsha (Joanne Whalley) and vicious skull-faced warrior General Kael (Pat Roach), actively searching for this baby smuggled out from under her nose because she may be the prophecy foretold to end her reign, a child with a special mark upon its arm. Willow accepts the mission to return the baby back to the first Daikini he meets, with a few other Nerwyns in tow. Along the way, they encounter and recruit that first Daikini, Madmartigan (Val Kilmer), a skilled but down-on-his-luck mercenary, who agrees to take the baby for release from capture. THe Daikinis are in the midst of a war with the legions on Bavmorda's side, putting Elora's fate in jeopardy should they fall short. However, Willow gets another directive from a fairy to find the good witch on a remote island. With Madmartigan and a couple of Brownies, who are from a human-like race even smaller than the Nerwyns, only nine inches in height, Willow seeks to find a way to protect the baby. Ron Howard directs this story by producer George Lucas.

Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985) | Ken & Jim Wheat

Fri, 28 Feb 2020 12:07:21 +0000

The moon of Endor gets attacked by a vicious band of thuggish Sanyassan marauders, whose ancestors also crashlanded on Endor some time ago, and a powerful shape-shifting sorceress named Charal under the leadership of King Terak. They attack the Ewok village, taking the crashed Towani ship's power source after killing Cindel's family, then take away all of the Ewoks except Wicket back to their dungeons as prisoners. While roving the forest, Cindel and Wicket encounter a mysterious creature named Teek who leads them to the home of a grumpy hermit named Noa Briqualon, who we come to find has also crashlanded there. Noa wards them off, but his icy exterior melts to friendship, leading to Teek and Noa helping them on their quest to free the imprisoned Ewoks from the marauders' castle. King Terak is confident that the powerful crystal that is an energy cell used by the Towani family star cruiser has magical powers. The power, Terak feels, will get them off of Endor and that Cindel must be some sorceress who can tap into those powers.

The Ewok Adventure | Caravan of Courage (1984)

Fri, 21 Feb 2020 21:42:21 +0000

George Lucas's story for this made-for-TV spin-off from the Star Wars films involves a spacecraft that crash lands on Endor. The mother and father spend the film looking for their two children, a fourteen-year-old named Mace Towani and his four-year-old sister, Cindel, not knowing that they've been taken in by the kindly Ewoks whose village lies a bit of a distance away from the crash site. Cindel befriends the Ewoks instantly, but Mace is not too sure about their intentions, concentrating more on finding the monstrous, ax-wielding Gorax might have captured the whereabouts of their parents, who the Ewoks begin to suspect. They set about building a caravan to head to the Gorax lair on the hope they can rescue the parents before it's too late.

The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978) | Steve Binder (with David Acomba)

Fri, 14 Feb 2020 12:01:56 +0000

The Star Wars Holiday Special is a two-hour made-for-TV musical variety show movie that aired on November 17. 1978 on CBS for its November sweeps period.). Variety shows were hot on TV in the 1970s and this effort would serve as a ratings bonanza, putting the hottest cultural phenomenon of the last year in front of as many eyeballs as they could on a Friday night when kids could stay up to watch TV. The Force was not with this one. Chewbacca's family living in a giant treehouse on Kashyyyk. The family trio includes Chewbacca's wife Malla, his father Itchy, and his son, Lumpy. Chewbacca is returning to see his kin for a celebration of the holiday called Life Day. However, Chewie is delayed by an Imperial Cruiser in the vicinity performing a blockade that keeps the Millennium Falcon from its destination, and down on the Wookiee planet, Stormtroopers are invading homes and placing the locals under a strict curfew. All Chewie's family can do is use their technology to entertain themselves with cartoons, acrobats, sultry women of fantasy, and Jefferson Starship while they wait. Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Bea Arthur, Art Carney, Harvey Korman, Diahann Carroll, and the voice of James Earl Jones all make an appearance.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) | Nicholas Meyer

Fri, 07 Feb 2020 11:44:02 +0000

The final of the Star Trek films to feature the entire original cast, Star Trek VI draws many parallels to the end of the Cold War between the United States (represented here by the Federation) and the Soviet Union (the big bad Klingons). An explosion occurs on the Klingon moon known as Praxis (an allusion to the nuclear disaster of Chernobyl), which makes the Klingon race face possible extinction, as their way of life crumbles, rendering them a superpower no longer (akin to the breakup of the USSR). The crew of the Enterprise is called upon to be an escort for Klingon Chancellor Gorkon (Gorbachev wannabe) to a crucial assembly on Earth. It's hard for Kirk and co. to trust the Klingons after so many years of fighting them, so when a pair of photon torpedoes are shot into the Klingon ship and two men in Federation gear assassinate many onboard, all fingers point to the only logical culprits, the Enterprise crew. Kirk and McCoy (who tried in vain to save Gorkon) are put on trial for the disaster, leaving the remaining crew with little time to coordinate an effort to clear their names and secure their release before whatever faction responsible commits more assassinations in response to the peace process.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) | William Shatner

Fri, 31 Jan 2020 11:28:51 +0000

Star Trek V starts off with the crew taking over the reins of new Enterprise starship, and their first impromptu mission requires them to travel to the near desolate planet of Nimbus III, where a rogue Vulcan known as Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill) has placed several key ambassadors as hostages in order to draw a starship to the planet. His plans are to hijack the ship and crew, taking them on an odyssey to the Great Barrier, a place that no other ship has successfully breached. His mission is to find the Higher Being that all life in the universe refers to as their God, whom he says has beckoned him to be the one to find out life's eternal mysteries. Is Sybok a madman or a visionary anointed with divine responsibilities? William Shatner makes his feature-film debut as a director of this maligned entry in the Star Trek movie series.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) | Leonard Nimoy

Fri, 24 Jan 2020 12:37:34 +0000

Star Trek IV starts with our heroes on planet Vulcan, loading up to go home and face punishment from the Federation for their hijacking of the Enterprise and its subsequent destruction, as well as the sabotage of the Excelsior. As they approach Earth, they find that a giant space probe is threatening to destroy the planet, emitting a signal that those on Earth are baffled how to respond to. It is determined that the probe is sending messages in the language of humpback whales, which have been extinct for over 200 years. With seemingly no obvious solution, Kirk and crew decide to time warp back to the late 20th Century to snatch a couple of humpbacks to bring back with them in the hopes of saving the Earth. They discover two whales in captivity at a San Francisco Cetacean institute. Still, they have only a limited amount of time to figure out how to transport these whales in tons of seawater, in addition to needing to harvest enough nuclear energy to send their tapped out ship back to the future. Leonard Nimoy directs.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) | Leonard Nimoy

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 11:45:27 +0000

Star Trek III starts off with the weary Enterprise crew returning home after their near-death battle with Khan, and the actual death of Spock, whose body had been torpedoed to the Genesis world, which was a newly transformed planet, formerly without life. While all involved are a bit worse for wear, the biggest effect on a crew member seems to be with Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley), who is exhibiting strange behavior that suggests he may be cracking from the experience, babbling something about returning to Spock's homeworld of Vulcan. Spock's father, Sarek (Mark Lenard), is convinced that Spock's "essence" has somehow been transferred to another before his death through a mind-meld, which would explain McCoy's behavior. With an unknown life form recently found on the Genesis planet, Kirk (William Shatner) wants to visit and find out if Spock's body is also reincarnated, but the instability of the area makes it off-limits to anyone but science officers. Kirk and company must hijack their old ship, against orders, but soon finds that murderous Klingons have discovered news of the Genesis Project, and are willing to kill anyone in order to gain information on the process. Leonard Nimoy directs.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) | Nicholas Meyer

Fri, 10 Jan 2020 15:33:12 +0000

With Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the series took a swing in the exact opposite direction from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, putting things on a raw emotional level. This is a sequel, not of the first film, but of an original "Star Trek" episode, "The Space Seed", also starring Ricardo Montalban in the Khan role. Now, it is 15 years later, and Khan and his men are marooned on a desert planet which is slated as an experiment in the Federation's Genesis project. This project is actually a bomb of sorts that can take any uninhabited planet and make it habitable for life as we know it, transforming it into a tropical paradise. Khan hijacks a small cruiser piloted by Chekhov (Walter Koenig) and the duel between Khan and Kirk (William Shatner), the man with whom he is filled with hatred, for control of the bomb and for sheer revenge. Nicholas Meyer directs.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) | Robert Wise

Fri, 03 Jan 2020 12:13:57 +0000

Fast approaching Earth is a cloudlike alien entity that has destroys all that approaches its nebulous form. The not-quite-fully-refitted Enterprise is the closest vessel available in its approach toward Earth. Admiral Kirk (William Shatner) pushes his way to take over the mission over the man he picked for his successor as the captain, Willard Decker (Stephen Collins). Kirk makes every attempt to reason with this living entity, who goes by the moniker, V’ger. V’ger abducts the Enterprise’s navigator, Ilia (Persis Khambatta), who then returns in a mechanical form, giving voice to the entity. The bad news: V’ger wants to rid the Earth of all the carbon-based life forms, effectively ending life as we know it for everyone on the planet unless Kirk and company can save the day. Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Walter Koenig, and Nichelle Nichols return to their iconic roles. Robert Wise directs.

Dragnet (1987) | Tom Mankiewicz

Fri, 27 Dec 2019 14:40:25 +0000

In this semi-spoof sequel to the classic TV show, "Dragnet", Dan Aykroyd isn't playing Jack Webb's character, Joe Friday, in this film, but rather, his nephew, with the same name and personality. He's assigned a roguish new partner named Pep Streebeck (Tom Hanks) with which to fight crime with, though he's of a new breed of a police officer, not really respecting the rule of law that Sergeant Friday does to his core. Their first case together sees them trying to crack a slew of recent murders in Los Angeles, ostensibly done by a mysterious cult known simply as P.A.G.A.N., (People Against Goodness and Normalcy) as the calling cars they leave behind at the scenes of their crimes suggest. Signs begin to point in the direction of a smarmy TV evangelist named Rev. Jonathan Whirley (Christopher Plummer) and a smarmy smut merchant named Jerry Caesar (Dabney Coleman). Friday and Streebeck rescue a sacrificial virgin, Connie Swail (Alexandra Paul), at one of the P.A.G.A.N. gatherings, and for the first time in his life, Sgt. Friday has found someone wholesome enough to consider as his girlfriend, though he has now become too involved to think clearly -- or play things by the book when the heart is involved.

Get Smart, Again! (1989) | Gary Nelson

Fri, 20 Dec 2019 13:37:21 +0000

In this "Get Smart" sequel movie made for network television, KAOS makes a comeback in a world that hasn't been terrorized by them since CONTROL took them down and put themselves out of the international terror business. Recurring "Get Smart" actor Bernie Kopell returns as Maxwell Smart's (Don Adams) main nemesis Conrad Siegreid, who leads the new KAOS after it has been bought out in a corporate takeover and is now encountering budget cuts requiring a quick influx of cash. Siegried launches his own plans for world domination with the formula to create a Weather-Control Machine, which gives them the power to adjust the climate anywhere in the world as they see fit, but willing to stop targeting places like the interior of the White House for a ransom of $250 billion to be paid within seven days. Barbara Feldon, Dick Gautier, Robert Karvelas, Harold Gould, King Moody, and Kenneth Mars also appear.

The Nude Bomb / The Return of Maxwell Smart (1980) | Clive Donner

Fri, 13 Dec 2019 13:03:40 +0000

Maxwell Smart (Don Adams), the dimwitted super-spy from the hit TV series from the 1960s, "Get Smart" returned in 1980 for a brand new, racier adventure. Entitled The Nude Bomb, it has lost that title over the years in favor of the more TV-programming friendly The Return of Maxwell Smart. The gist of the film is that an agent from the super-terrorist organization, KAOS, is threatening to rid the world of all clothing if demands aren't met, using a bomb capable of destroying all forms of fabric. It's up to Agent 86 of PITS, Maxwell Smart, to put an end to these nefarious plans, although wherever he turns, trouble seems to follow. He suspects there may be a double agent trying to put a wrench in the works, but who? Andrea Howard, Dana Elcar, Vittorio Gassman, Norman Lloyd, Sylvia Kristel, Rhonda Fleming, Pamela Hensley, Bill Dana also appear in this film directed by Clive Donner. Erratum Note: Writer/producer Alan Spencer reached out to me on Twitter to let me know that a comment I made about "all" Eugene Roche's scenes being re-shot after his departure due to illness is not entirely accurate, as you can see him in a few long shots. He recommends the new Kino Lorber Blu-ray release of The Nude Bomb for a vast wealth of information on the making of the film. Although I released this episode on 12/13/19, three days after the release of the Blu-ray on 12/10/19, I did the research on The Nude Bomb and recorded the episode approximately two weeks prior and did not have the Blu-ray's supplemental material or Alan Spencer's commentary to consult, so I do apologize for this discrepancy. If you're interested in the most definitive take on The Nude Bomb, please check out the Kino Lorber release: https://www.kinolorber.com/product/nude-bomb-aka-the-return-of-maxwell-smart-4k-uhd

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad (1988) | David Zucker

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 11:10:30 +0000

The comedy writing team of Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and David Zucker brought this first of a trilogy, based on their short-lived 1982 TV show "Police Squad", of zany screwball comedies to Hollywood in 1988, offering plenty of sight gags, plays on words, pop culture sendups, and downright silly slapstick. Leslie Nielsen returns to star as Lt. Frank Drebin, who seems to have a high success rate in closing his cases despite being an overconfident buffoon. His latest case involves trying to prevent the assassination of Queen Elizabeth II while on a visit to America. A hunch leads Drebin to look into wealthy philanthropist Vincent Ludwig (Ricardo Montalban), who Frank thinks is also a scam artist. Drebin ends up falling for Ludwig's beautiful but klutzy assistant, Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley). George Kennedy and O.J. Simpson also appear.

Curse of the Pink Panther (1983) | Blake Edwards

Fri, 29 Nov 2019 15:36:12 +0000

Ted Wass stars as New York City police sergeant Clifton Sleigh, who ends up getting selected by an Interpol computer that is choosing the second-best sleuth in the world to use to find the missing best sleuth, Inspector Clouseau. Except Sleigh isn't the best, as Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) deliberately sabotaged the computer to try to find the worst and assure the whereabouts of Clouseau remains a mystery. Meanwhile, Clouseau is still alive in the care of health spa operator Countess Chandra (Joanna Lumley), who aims to change his looks through plastic surgery. Meanwhile, the criminal element of the French underworld tries to take out Sleigh before he can find success in bringing their nemesis back, Inspector Clouseau. Blake Edwards co-writes and directs this attempt to continue the Pink Panther series beyond the death of star Peter Sellers.

Trail of the Pink Panther (1982) | Blake Edwards

Fri, 22 Nov 2019 13:00:29 +0000

Trail of the Pink Panther is a film done nearly two years after the death of Pink Panther franchise star Peter Sellers, compiling the best clips and unused outtakes from prior films, along with new material to hang together a plot around the. That plot involves the theft of the infamous and priceless Pink Panther diamond from the fictional country of Lugash, and Chief Inspector Clouseau, at the request of the president of Lugash, is brought in yet again to investigate its whereabouts, against the wishes of Commissioner Dreyfus. In the course of the globe-hopping investigation, a plane carrying Clouseau goes down into the ocean, where it is presumed he might have finally met his fate. A television reporter is called forth to talk to those who knew Clouseau well, from co-workers to those he helped put away, as well as those who knew of his activities prior to joining the police, from his childhood upbringing to becoming a resistance fighter for France in World War II. Herbert Lom, Joanna Lumley, David Niven, and Robert Loggia also appear. Blake Edwards directs.

Who’s Harry Crumb? | Paul Flaherty

Fri, 15 Nov 2019 13:21:36 +0000

John Candy plays Harry Crumb, the bumbling son who never quite lived up to the reputation of his sleuthing father and grandfather in his family's long-standing detective agency. Instead of running the company, he's been relegated to being a lowly trainee as their Tulsa office. Ineptitude is just what the CEO of the company, Eliot Draisen (Jeffrey Jones), in Los Angeles wants from an investigator for reasons of his own. Draisen flies out Crumb to Los Angeles to crack the case involving the kidnapping and ransom of Jennifer Downing, the beautiful heiress daughter of P.D. Downing (Barry Corbin) and his philandering new wife Helen (Annie Potts). Crumb begins to use his penchant for disguises to get to the bottom of things.

Fletch Lives (1989) | Michael Ritchie

Sat, 09 Nov 2019 00:18:47 +0000

Fletch (Chevy Chase) quits his job as an investigative reporter when he learns he has inherited his aunt's expansive plantation estate in Louisiana called Belle Isle. Unfortunately, he arrives to find that the property is completely run down through many years of lack of upkeep, though there are offers for the land from mysterious sources. When the executor of the will ends up dead in Fletch's bed, he becomes the top suspect in the murder. He soon learns that the reason for foul play is likely because someone out there desperately wants Fletch off of the property, with the main suspect being a local television evangelist Jimmy Lee Farnsworth (R. Lee Ermey), who has plans for the land to expand his Bible-based theme park. Fletch decides to put his nose for sleuthing to good use to get to the bottom of who wants the land bad enough to be willing to kill for it, and why. Michael Ritchie returns to direct this sequel to 1985's Fletch.

Fletch (1985) | Michael Ritchie

Sat, 02 Nov 2019 13:32:57 +0000

Chevy Chase plays a Los Angeles Times investigative reporter named Irwin M. Fletcher (he prefers to be called by his nickname, “Fletch”) under the pseudonym of Jane Doe. While working undercover trying to uncover the secret to a major beachside drug ring, Fletch is approached by a wealthy businessman named Alan Stanwyk (Tim Matheson) who thinks he is a transient and makes him an offer of $50,000 to kill him. The story is that he has bone cancer and doesn’t want to be around to enjoy the most painful aspects of the disease and wants his wife to get the insurance on it by getting killed. Sensing another scoop, Fletch agrees and soon learns that the two stories he is covering are almost one and the same. Michael Ritchie directs this silly but witty comedy.

Outrageous Fortune (1987) | Arthur Hiller

Sat, 26 Oct 2019 23:19:18 +0000

Shelley Long plays prissy longtime acting student Lauren Ames who has never gotten an actual gig, finally finding some hope when she makes her way into a prestigious drama class led by an all-time great international acting coach. Bette Midler co-stars as Sandy Brozinsky, a mouthy, earthy waitress who also suddenly finds herself in the same class without any of the talent or desire to be there. The two have a personality clash immediately that only gets worse once it is discovered that they are both in a relationship with the same dreamboat of a man, Michael Santers (Peter Coyote), who ends up faking his death for reasons the ladies have to put aside their petty differences to discover, mostly to make him choose between them. Their collaborative adventure sees them go on a cross-country trip only to find that there is so much more to Michael they never knew, something which gets them on the run from KGB agents and the CIA to hopefully come out alive, with the MacGuffin being a toxin that can destroy all vegetation within miles with just a few drops. Arthur Hiller directs from a Leslie Dixon script.

Real Men (1987) | Dennis Feldman

Fri, 18 Oct 2019 17:42:41 +0000

James Belushi stars as Nick Pirandello, a crude smart-ass that just so happens to be one of the country's top CIA agents, who is ordered to recruit a mild-mannered suburban insurance salesman father, Bob Wilson (John Ritter), a lookalike for a recently iced agent, to join him on a secret mission that may have interplanetary implications that may result in the end of the world as we know it. But Bob is such a sweet-natured man, he needs a crash course in toughening up to the task, which Nick must do in order to achieve the mission's success. Meanwhile, Bob thinks Nick is off his rocker, particularly when he begins talking like the case involves aliens from outer space. Dennis Feldman writes and directs this zany off-the-wall buddy comedy.

Spies Like Us (1985) | John Landis

Sat, 12 Oct 2019 17:15:59 +0000

The plot of Spies Like Us involves the two most inept, low-level U.S. intelligence agents they could find to go on a mission as expendable decoys for the real agents. Emmett Fitz-Hume (Chevy Chase) and Austin Millbarge (Dan Aykroyd) were scouted by the CIA after cheating on their advanced placement exams, with a mission that sees them parachuting into Pakistan. From there, the bumbling duo ends up in Afghanistan, where they're mistaken for doctors there on a humanitarian mission for the United Nations, followed by run-ins with the Russians during an effort to draw out the identities of Soviet spies in the area so that the real American spies can complete their mission to check out a news style of Soviet missile launcher. With this launcher, they can send up a Soviet missile in order to test the U.S. anti-missile satellite defenses in order to convince the Soviet Union that they have an edge in technology. John Landis directs this silly slapstick comedy.

Rambo III (1988) | Peter MacDonald

Sat, 05 Oct 2019 14:38:23 +0000

This time it's a bit more personal for John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone), as his former Vietnam commander and friend, Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna), has been captured by Russian forces as he tries to rally the Afghan rebels who have been winning the resistance. The Afghani people are too suspicious of the American to willingly join his crusade to spring Trautman from his prison cell, leaving him to go it mostly alone, with one or two friends he has made in his short introduction to their ranks. He faces formidable odds, as the prison is surrounded by landmines, tanks, and hundreds of Russians, and the Russkie leadership is as corrupt and uncaring as the worst of them. John MacDonald directs this ultra-patriotic action-war effort from a script co-written by Stallone himself.

Rambo: First Blood Part 2 (1985) | George P. Cosmatos

Sat, 28 Sep 2019 22:40:37 +0000

The story follows First Blood, where John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is in prison for his one-man army heroics against law enforcement in the first film. Here, Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna) approaches Rambo to undergo a covert operation that will presumably save the lives of thousands of POWs still in Southeast Asia, if he can find evidence that they are still being held captive. Rambo is hired only to take pictures, but that doesn’t sit well with the disgruntled vet, who uses the opportunity to get them out while he can. However, corrupt government officials don’t want Rambo to find any POWs, as this would complicate American relations in the area, and when irrefutable evidence is given, the mission is aborted, leaving Rambo all by himself — one man against an army of sadistic Vietnamese and Soviet military advisors, merging America’s former fight with the Cold War enemy of today..

First Blood (1982) | Ted Kotcheff

Sun, 22 Sep 2019 19:33:04 +0000

Sylvester Stallon stars as John Rambo, who has spent years trying to track down the only family he ever really knew -- the soldiers who fought alongside him in the war. To Rambo's dismay, he finds he is all alone, as all of the rest were killed in action, or died from cancerous war-related exposure to chemicals, leaving him but to drift along the roads in search of new meaning to his life. In the small town of Hope, the local sheriff (Brian Dennehy) named Will Teasle tags Rambo as a vagrant drifter and quickly ushers him out of town. However, Rambo defiantly tries to return, whereupon he is arrested for vagrancy. When he doesn't quite understand why he is being incarcerated, he resists their strong-arm tactics to get him to comply, triggering flashbacks of his days as a tortured prisoner of war. Rambo, an ex-Green Beret, perhaps the most lethal of them all, muscles his way out of the station and into the nearby woods, where the police are in hot pursuit. What they don't realize is that Rambo is a one-man killing machine, with raw instincts for guerrilla warfare and very little to hold his fragile mentality together. He just wants to be left alone, but the police are going to see to it that he never gets his wish.

The Delta Force (1986)

Sat, 14 Sep 2019 13:49:56 +0000

Cannon Films and Golan-Globus productions push out this ultra-patriotic film in the middle of the 1980s whereby American elite commandos kick major butt when trying to secure the freedom of a plane full of hostages hijacked by a group of Lebanese terrorists. Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin head the super-soldiers to action on the hope of saving not only as many lives as they can, but their own reputation after a botched mission sees them go down in disgrace, they feel, due to bureaucratic missteps. Menahem Golan directs this quintessentially jingoistic but gloriously unabashed entry in the Chuck Norris filmography.

Commando (1985) | Mark L. Lester

Sun, 08 Sep 2019 20:04:30 +0000

In this onscreen persona-defining movie, Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Col. John Matrix, a highly-trained military special-ops expert whose unit was disbanded and now live under secret identities in retirement. Matrix spends his days as a single father taking care of his spirited young daughter, Jenny (Alyssa Milano), to whom he has promised not to go out on any more special missions. However, John’s hand is forced when Jenny is abducted by a displaced South American dictator (Dan Hedaya) of a banana republic named Val Verde who wants his old gig back, planning to use her for ransom as John puts out an assassination on the current leader. Thinking that Jenny will be killed even if he fulfills the demands, Matrix sets about dismantling the small army the dictator has around him, with the help of an airline attendant named Cindy (Rae Dawn Chong), in the hope that he can rescue his daughter before she is offed. Mark L. Lester directs this humorously over-the-top actioner from a Steven E. de Souza script.

Predator (1987) | John McTiernan

Fri, 30 Aug 2019 23:59:22 +0000

Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Major "Dutch" Schaeffer, who, along with his crew of elite special ops commandos, is sent to the jungle of a hostile Latin American country on a covert hostage rescue mission. However, he soon finds out there's more to the mission than he had originally been told by his old friend, Major George Dillon (Weathers), leaving them in a firefight with other military factions in a country they aren't supposed to be in. Worse, they discover that some of the soldiers in the area have been killed in a most disturbing manner, skinned, disemboweled, and left for vultures to feast on. And worst of all, Dutch's crew appear to be the next on the prey list. John McTiernan direct this classic action/adventure/sci-fi/horror/war hybrid.

Aliens (1986) | James Cameron

Sat, 24 Aug 2019 13:11:44 +0000

Aliens starts where the first one leaves off, with Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in hypersleep drifting in the escape shuttle. What Ripley doesn't know until after she is rescued is that she has been that way for 57 years. When she gets back, the company that owned her ship is very interested in why she decided to blow it to smithereens, and are not too impressed with her implausible "alien on board" story, since they have recently inhabited the newly terraformed world Ripley claims to have encountered the alien on, and have found nothing to indicate there is any danger there. That is, until the company loses all signal from the far-off settlement, and offers Ripley full reinstatement if she will act as an advisor to a squad of Marines sent to investigate the affair. Features Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn, Lance Henriksen, and Bill Paxton in support. Written and directed by James Cameron.

Alien (1979) | Ridley Scott

Sun, 18 Aug 2019 22:05:35 +0000

The story begins in the year 2122, onboard the commercial towing vessel, the Nostromo. Its mostly blue-collar crew, five men and two women, are awakened prematurely while still in deep space from their cryogenic slumber en route back to Earth. The reason for their early disturbance has to do with the company’s policy to investigate potential alien life forms, so when what appears to be an SOS signal is being transmitted from a moon in their relative vicinity, their overriding primary mission is changed to checking out the situation. Upon landing on the desolate planet, the scientists discover what appears to be eggs containing another form of life, one of which hatches and latches itself to one of the crew. Unable to remove the creature, it is brought back on board the Nostromo, where it grows at a rapid pace to become one of the deadliest killing machines humankind has ever faced. Alien would make a star out of Sigourney Weaver, and Ridley Scott one f the most sought-after directors in Hollywood.

Lifeforce (1985) | Tobe Hooper

Sat, 10 Aug 2019 20:12:17 +0000

In Cannon Films' Lifeforce, we find a space shuttle mission co-funded by American and British space agencies traveling to explore Halley's Comet up close. They soon make a discovery of an alien ship hiding in the comet's coma, so they go on board to investigate, only to find desiccated bat-like creatures and three naked humanoid beings, a woman and two men, seemingly in a perpetual state of sleep in their individual glass sarcophagus-like pods. They bring the pods aboard to bring to study, but things go awry in ways that we don't quite learn about until the pods are brought down to the European Space Research Centre in London. The shuttle mission's sole human survivor, Colonel Tom Carlsen (Steve Railsback) also makes his way to Earth to spin a crazy tale, and to help with the mission to track down the space vampires trying to make their escape and wreak havoc on an unsuspecting planet. Tobe Hooper directs this big-budget oddity from 1985.

Fright Night Part 2 (1989) | Tommy Lee Wallace

Sat, 03 Aug 2019 10:46:07 +0000

Fright Night Part 2 is a follow-up to the 1985 cult hit, Fright Night (naturally), where we find the same protagonist, Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale), as a college student no longer believing in the existence of vampires after three years of therapy. Also helping him overcome his supposed fantasies is his new girlfriend and fellow student at the college, Alex (Traci Lind). However, things get dicey in their relationship when Charley gets seduced through his dreams by a sexy vampire posing as a performance artist named Regine Dandridge (Julie Carmen), the sister of the vampire that Jerry defeated in the first film. Regine wants revenge in the form of turning Charley into her wicked vampire servant until the end of time. Knowing he's in trouble if he doesn't get help, he again goes to the only source who will believe him, b-movie horror host and vampire slayer, Peter Vincent. However, Regine is cunning and powerful, and she's brought along a gang of fellow vampires to protect her. Tommy Lee Wallace directs this lesser-known and seen sequel that has garnered a minor cult following of its own.

Fright Night (1985) | Tom Holland

Sun, 28 Jul 2019 19:16:45 +0000

Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) is a typical suburban teenager with a special interest in old-time horror b-movies, the kind seen on the local creep-fest TV showcase, "Fright Night", hosted by the self-proclaimed king of vampire hunting films, Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall). It's all fantasy to Charley until he spies on his new neighbors in the house next door to discover that there is a man there that is, in fact, a vampire himself (Chris Sarandon). As bodies end up dead throughout the town, no one will listen to Charley's assertions. Trouble brews when his tenaciousness draws the ire of Jerry, the vampire himself, who threatens that he's going to take down Charley and everyone he loves before Charley can take him down first. Knowing he needs help, Charley turns to the only man he knows known to kill vampires, Peter Vincent himself, though he's no killer -- he just plays one on TV. When Jerry has his sights set on Charley's girlfriend Amy (Amanda Bearse), the war is on between the men for love and continued life. Tom Holland writes and directs this beloved 80s horror-comedy.

The Lost Boys (1987) | Joel Schumacher

Sun, 21 Jul 2019 01:57:46 +0000

Lucy Emerson (Dianne Wiest) is a divorced mother of two teenage sons, Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Coey Haim), who relocates to the strange oceanside California town of Santa Carla, which is filled with a mix of punk and hippie cultures. The residents of Santa Carla have taken to calling it the "murder capital of the world", with deaths and disappearances occurring on an increasingly frequent basis. Kiefer Sutherland plays David, the leader of a motorcycle gang that has been terrorizing the community, and one of the members, a sexy female named Star (Jami Gertz), has taken a mutual liking to Michael. Michael wants to get closer to Star, but this proves to be a risk, as David makes him a member of the gang through a blood ritual that ends up turning Michael into a half-vampire (not full until he makes his first kill). With Star's help, along with his brother Sam and a couple of comic book geeks with vampire knowledge named Edgar and Allen, aka the Frog Brothers, Michael has to find a way to reverse the curse. Joel Schumacher directs this 80s horror-comedy vampire favorite.

Near Dark (1987) | Kathryn Bigelow

Sun, 14 Jul 2019 12:18:23 +0000

Adrian Pasdar stars as Caleb Colton, a young and somewhat passive small-town guy in Oklahoma who has his eye set on a visiting mysterious boyish beauty named Mae (Jenny Wright). Caleb and Mae spend the night talking and flirting, but Mae has to make it home before the sun comes up, for reasons that aren't too clear for Caleb. Before the end of the evening, Mae bites Caleb on the neck, although she doesn't really drink his blood, setting forth a reaction in his body that makes him very strong and agile, fry up in direct sunlight, and crave human blood himself. Before Caleb can get home, he is "adopted" by his new family, a clan of immortals with the same condition he is in, although they aren't taking too kindly to Mae's decision to "turn" Caleb into one of them, especially since she must feed him from her own blood. Caleb doesn't want to kill other humans like the others, but to be part of them, he finds he must, because he can't survive on his own. Tensions flare in the group, as well as within Caleb himself, as to what the proper thing to do is. Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein, and Tim Thomerson, and Bill Paxton get supporting roles. Kathryn Bigelow's debut as a solo director.

The Hitcher (1986) | Robert Harmon

Sun, 07 Jul 2019 13:31:47 +0000

C. Thomas Howell stars as Jim Halsey, a young Chicago native driving a car cross-country to California. The Texas road he's currently on is lonely and Jim is tired, but he spies a way he might stay awake in the form of hitchhiker John Ryder (Rutger Hauer). It doesn't take long before Jim becomes unnerved by his new passenger, as Ryder claims he's decapitated viciously the last person to give him a ride and that he will do the same to Jim. Jim finds a way to kick Ryder out of the vehicle, but he keeps showing up again, killing more victims along the way. Things go from horrific to maddening once the grisly body count rises and Jim becomes implicated in the murders, as all signs seem to point to him. Jennifer Jason Leigh gets a supporting role in this stylish and twisted cult thriller.

Road Games (1981) | Richard Franklin

Sun, 30 Jun 2019 12:17:08 +0000

Road Games (aka Roadgames) is a Hitchcockian suspense-thriller set primarily out on the open roads running through the Australian outback. Jamie Lee Curtis is Pamela, who, along with independent truck driver Pat Quid (Stacy Keach) and his pet dingo Boswell, tries to get to the bottom of a story which might connect a series of killings which have surfaced around Australia to a mysterious driver of a creepy looking van that's on the road with them, as Quid attempts to deliver a rig full of pork to Perth, which is undergoing a meat shortage at the time due to butchers going on strike. As the trucker drives on toward his destination, he gets into greater danger, including stirring up the locals into thinking the serial killer they've been hearing about on the radio might be Quid himself. A self-described student of Hitchcock, Richard Franklin, directs, from a script by Everett De Roche. Quentin Tarantino claims it is one of his all-time favorite Australian films.

Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985) | George Miller & George Ogilvie

Sat, 22 Jun 2019 21:57:36 +0000

In this entry of the Mad Max series, set a few years after the events of The Road Warrior, Max's nomadic travels lead him to Bartertown, which, as the name implies, is the methane-fueled hub where anyone can go to exchange something they have for something they need. The town is overseen by Aunty (Tina Turner), though it is really run by a dwarf named Master (Angelo Rossito), who gets into a scuffle with Max, where the only resolution anyone will abide by is to battle to the death in a caged arena called 'Thunderdome'. Following his ordeal, Max manages to make his way to a desert oasis full of children awaiting the return of adults, and who see Max as a messianic figure named Captain Walker, foretold to come back to them and take them to the fabled Tomorrow-morrow Land with his magic. Mel Gibson returns in his last portrayal of the titular anti-hero. George Miller directs the action sequences with his friend George Ogilvie making his feature film debut directing the scenes of dialogue and drama.

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) | George Miller

Sun, 16 Jun 2019 22:37:05 +0000

Max's wanderings through the now lawless Wasteland formerly known as Australia take him to a fortified oil refinery where there's plenty of precious fuel, but a vicious gang of murdering marauders, led by a hockey-masked and muscle-bound leader named Lord Humungus, wants to get their hands on it, giving the residents an ultimatum of imminent death should they not comply with their demands. The colony living there needs to escape in a hurry but wants their fuel. Max strikes a bargain -- he'll secure an abandoned big rig for them to haul their fuel in exchange for as much gas as he can carry away in his car. The problem is that the Marauders aren't going to let anyone escape without a fight. Mel Gibson stars in this phenomenal action-packed follow-up to Mad Max. George Miller returns to direct this iconic entry in the series.

Mad Max (1979) | George Miller

Sun, 09 Jun 2019 01:58:20 +0000

Set in the near future, Mel Gibson stars as the titular Max, one of the best police officers working for the MFP fighting against the increasingly hostile lands, full of marauding car and biker gangs who have no regard for life, or for laws, and especially not for law officers. One such gang of bikers, led by a psychopath named Toecutter, is on the rampage and is targeting MFP officers who've messed with their way of doing things, putting them all in potential harm's way. A family man, Max doesn't know if he's really cut out to put his neck on the line in a losing battle against anarchy. He soon discovers there is not much escape from the criminal element that has permeated everywhere, and it's kill or be killed in the lawless and bloodthirsty territories. George Miller directs in this wildly successful action vehicle that propelled Mel Gibson, and Australian cinema itself, to even greater success.

Escape from New York (1981) | John Carpenter

Sun, 02 Jun 2019 13:33:53 +0000

Escape from New York is set in a future 1997, during a time when, after the crime rate has skyrocketed out of control, the island of Manhattan has been turned into an ultra-maximum security prison where the worst of the worst violent criminals are put to live in a state of walled-in anarchy. A potential global crisis emerges when Air Force One is hijacked, forcing the President's (Donald Pleasance) escape pod to crash land on the island, where he is immediately taken and held hostage by the criminals there, led by the vicious warlord, The Duke (Isaac Hayes). As they will kill the President if any cop sets foot on the premises, the government recruits eye patch-wearing Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), a former military hero turned criminal who has been recently sentenced to the island, in exchange for not only his freedom, but, due to a bomb implanted inside him set to detonate in mere hours, his life. Plissken has less than 24 hours to get the President out alive so that he can get some critical information delivered in time for an important political conference that might save the planet from a dark destiny. Co-written, directed, and scored by John Carpenter.

Akira (1988) | Katsuhiro Otomo

Sun, 26 May 2019 18:25:21 +0000

In this breakthrough anime masterwork, Akira starts out in 1988, much of Tokyo is destroyed by a mysterious that spreads like a dome of energy over the city. The rest of the film is set in the year 2019, as we peek into the post-apocalyptic megalopolis that has been rebuilt as Neo-Tokyo, where the government is corrupt, civil unrest looms large, and biker gangs run the streets. One member of such a biker gang is Tetsuo Shima, who ends up seemingly running into an escapee from a government experiment who uses some sort of powers to protect himself from getting run over. The escapee is taken back into custody, as is Tetsuo, who also becomes part of the experiment to bring out his dormant psychic abilities, trying to give their subject the ability to read minds and perform telekinesis. However, due to Tetsuo's difficult life, the powers he attains becomes more than the less-than-grounded lad can handle emotionally, so he springs himself from the lab and begins to wreak havoc on the streets of Neo-Tokyo, on a search for the powerful but absent entity known as Akira, who is seen as the person responsible for causing the explosion in 1988. Tetsuo's emergence raises the specter of Akira anew, as the protestors in the city see him as a force to stem the tide of a military takeover, with all of the tension threatening to destroy the city all over again if his friends can't stop the rampage. As the city seeks to rebuild, especially in the wake of the upcoming 2020 Olympic Games, the problems that once plagued the city have continued to manifest, with history doomed to repeat itself for never addressing the woes the first time around.

Blade Runner (1982) | Ridley Scott

Sat, 18 May 2019 04:12:50 +0000

The date is November 2019. The city is Los Angeles. Earth has undergone massive population explosions in the urban areas, the city landscape is a mish-mash of every culture, and almost everywhere you go there are advertisements. The most prominent of these advertisements is floating space-barge advertising the Off-World colonies, offering excitement and adventure. It appears there’s much excitement to be true, when six replicants (android-like creations that resemble humans in nearly every possible way, with the exception of enhanced agility and strength, constructed to work as slaves in off-world colonies) commit mutiny and escape to Earth, where they have been outlawed under penalty of death, to find a way to increase their four year lifespan, causing a Blade Runner named Deckard (Harrison Ford), a special LAPD task force whose job is to kill any and all replicants, to come out of retirement. This visionary sci-fi masterwork is directed by Ridley Scott.

Trancers (1984/1985) | Charles Band

Fri, 10 May 2019 02:20:21 +0000

Trancers starts off in the neon-tinged year of 2247, where we find much of old Los Angeles (now called "Angel City") submerged by the ocean. Law enforcement officers called "Troopers", like Jack Deth (Tim Thomerson), are taking down (referred to as "singeing") "trancers", which are weak-minded people (dubbed "squids") who can easily come under the hypnotic, homicidal zombie-like spell ("not quite alive, not dead enough") of nefarious Charles Manson-esque cult leader Martin Whistler (Michael Stefani), who Deth sees as responsible for the murder of his wife. Deth thinks he has taken down Whistler once and for all, only to learn that the telepathic supervillain is still alive, but has avoided Deth (and death) by traveling back in time to Los Angeles in late 1985 with something called "time serum", where one can go back through time by their conscience into the body of another person in their direct family lineage of the past. There and then, Whistler hopes to terminate the ancestors of the three-person "High Council of the Western Territories" members who took him down in 2247. Jack Deth always gets his man, so he too goes back in time to stop Whistler once and for all, inhabiting his consciousness into one of his own ancestors, a sleazeball journalist named Philip Dethton, who happens to be a dead ringer. Along with Phil's young girlfriend Leena (Helen Hunt), Deth is going to be crafty to take down his target, as Whistler is inhabiting the body of his own ancestor, who happens to be an LAPD detective, and has already channeled a number of "trancers" to his cause to protect him as he tries to take down the last Council member's ancestor, a down-and-out, alcoholic ex-pro baseball pitcher currently living on Skid Row (Biff Manard).

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) | James Cameron

Sat, 04 May 2019 03:21:50 +0000

Linda Hamilton returns as buffed out Sarah Connor, the mother of humanity's future savior, now holed up in a mental institution for her claims that the world is going to end in an apocalyptic nuclear war instigated by a sentient advanced computer system. That savior, John (Edward Furlong), is a rebellious teen living in foster care who soon learns his mother isn't a crackpot after all after being chased by a cop who is actually a T-1000 model Terminator - a shape-shifting, liquid metallic artificial entity (Robert Patrick) - sent from the future to kill him. John's own savior is a T-800 cybernetic organism (Arnold Schwarzenegger) identical to the one sent to kill Sarah years before, only this time, his future self reprogrammed one of them to send back and protect the boy and mother. However, the older model is barely a match for the nearly indestructible, futuristic killing machine, and a chase ensues that sees Sarah and company trying to stay alive while destroying the path to humanity's downfall, the advancements learned through the finding of the chip and hand remnant from the previous T-800 machine. James Cameron co-writes and directs this big-budget smash.

The Terminator (1984) | James Cameron

Sat, 27 Apr 2019 01:12:15 +0000

The simple premise: A killer android (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) is sent back to 1984 to assassinate the mother (Linda Hamilton) of a resistance leader of the future. A soldier of that resistance (Michael Biehn) is also sent back to protect her from harm, but the killer android is virtually unstoppable in its mission. This classic science fiction/action/horror/thriller represents the best in all of those genres that the 1980s has to offer. James Cameron put his name on the map with this action masterpiece.

Hands of Steel (1986) | Sergio Martino

Fri, 19 Apr 2019 00:27:26 +0000

Hands of Steel is an Italian-produced film obviously influenced by James Cameron’s The Terminator if combined with the basic plot of First Blood. Set in the near future, we find a beefy thug (Daniel Greene) has been brainwashed by the evil head of a pollution-spewing corporation called the Turner Foundation, headed by John Saxon’s Francis Turner, we soon learn, to assassinate a popular ecological guru leading an environmental movement that is set to make major radical changes to the drastically worsening country. But he’s no ordinary thug; Paco Queruak is a war veteran that was left for dead before getting his body used for a radical cyborg assassin experiment, rendering him with an electronic mind and a body of hardened steel, underneath his very human-like exterior. However, at the last second, his human side begins to question what he’s doing, leaving him on the run from the organization that made him in order to hide their tracks. Paco goes on the lam to his old stomping grounds in Arizona, where he meets a lovely motel and bar owner named Linda who offers him room and board in exchange for doing some chores around the property. Meanwhile, he engages the locals in arm wrestling contests he can easily best them in. Meanwhile, he’s being pursued by a world-class hitman, and also the FBI.

Cyborg (1989) | Albert Pyun

Thu, 11 Apr 2019 22:50:34 +0000

In the future, New York, after the dreaded nuclear holocaust, is a wasteland of lawlessness and gangland thuggery. Jean-Claude Van Damme plays a skilled martial arts warrior named Gibson Rickenbacker, a "slinger"(aka, a mercenary for hire helping refugees), who fights for and rescues a woman named Pearl Prophet from a horde of marauders. It turns out that the woman is a woman no longer, but rather, a cyborg transformed in order to gather information and transport it to Atlanta in the hope of turning the tide on the widespread plague that has threatened humanity with extinction. However, the leader of the marauders is the fearsome psychopath, Fender Tremolo, a man who has history with Gibson and has ruined his life in the past. Fender steals her back because he wants the cure for himself, and it's up to Gibson, along with his newly found tag-along Nady Simmons, to become Earth's last hope.

RoboCop (1987) | Paul Verhoeven

Fri, 05 Apr 2019 13:41:50 +0000

RoboCop is set in near-future Detroit, where the city streets are just about completely dominated by the criminal element, while the police are neither respected nor welcome; they are virtually walking targets out there. Desperate to clean up the crime-ridden community and build a gleaming new one in its place, the government officials turn to OCP, Omni Consumer Products, to build and manufacture the future of law enforcement, robotic police that are more powerful and well-armed than anything anyone has ever seen. However, when the first prototypes prove inconsistent, the city officials balk at the idea, so an upstart faction within the OCP comes up with a newer, more "human" cop, a cyborg built using the remnant body of downed officer Alex Murphy (Peter Weller), and dubbed simply as "RoboCop".Things proceed splendidly for the RoboCop program, that is, until the human side of the cyborg begins to recollect his past life as Murphy, plagued with flashbacks to the family he lost and the psychopathic criminals who all but ended his life as he knew it. Determined to bring the bad guys that did him in to justice, RoboCop sets out on a mission of his own, not realizing that the gang in question is actually in cahoots with a rogue entity within the OCP, who for all intents and purposes, also own the city, the police department, and the machine side of Murphy. Paul Verhoeven directs this scathing and potent satire on American commercialism and privatization.

Overboard (1987) | Garry Marshall

Fri, 29 Mar 2019 03:16:55 +0000

Goldie Hawn plays the ultra-disdainful Joanna Slayton, who hires a carpenter, Dean Proffitt (Kurt Russell), while stopping off for repairs in their luxury yacht off the coast of the small town of Elk Cove, Oregon, with her snobby hubby Grant (Edward Herrmann), in order to remodel her closet space for her extensive designer clothing collection. The two don’t see eye to eye on his work, and Joanna refuses payment, leaving him walking away miffed, especially as she also tosses him and his pricey tools overboard. When Joanna ends up falling off the yacht, she ends up drifting ashore with amnesia. Grant sees this as his opportunity to sow some wild oats, while Dean, seeing her story on the news, sees a way to get payback by claiming she is his wife Annie and making her do all of the household chores for him and his four bratty boys. Annie knows nothing about such matters but soon settles into the role Dean tells her she has always had, but as the two grow feelings for one another, there will be a reckoning should she ever remember where she actually came from. Garry Marshall directs.

American Dreamer (1984) | Rick Rosenthal

Fri, 22 Mar 2019 16:27:03 +0000

JoBeth Williams stars as suburban Ohio housewife and mother Cathy Palmer, who escapes her joyless marriage in her spare time by reading her favorite romantic thriller novels, all starring a Modesty Blaise-like globe-hopping female private detective, Rebecca Ryan. She loves them so much, she enters a Rebecca Ryan fan fiction writing contest in which the winner of the would-be authors scores an all-expenses-paid trip to Paris, including seeing all the famous sights, as well as meeting the author of the novels herself, Margaret McMann. When her selfish hubby tells her he has no time for it, and she should just not go at all, Cathy decides she's going to Paris alone if she must, leaving him and their two boys behind for the week. A curious thing happens on the trip, as Cathy ends up taking a blow to the head after getting hit by a car while pursuing some purse thieves, and when she awakens in the hospital, she not only forgets she's Cathy, but she thinks she's the heroine of her novels, Rebecca Ryan herself. She begins her make-over to glamour and adventure, all the while imagining everyone and everything around her is part of a plot of one of the novels, including the leader of the French opposition party, whom she suspects is part of her mission to help protect. Meanwhile, she mistakes Englishman Alan McMann, Margaret's son (played by Scottish actor, Tom Conti), as her partner-in-crime-solving, Dmitri, and the two get themselves into a heap of real trouble as she dives head-first into snooping around where she doesn't belong without the skills or expertise to truly know what she's doing.

Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) | Susan Seidelman

Thu, 14 Mar 2019 10:57:09 +0000

Rosanna Arquette stars as Roberta Glass, a dreamer New Jersey housewife who contents herself to reading about the mysterious lives of others through perusing the personals in the local paper. One in particular has caught her eye, involving "Jim and Susan" (Susan is played by Madonna) who use the ads in order to meet in public places. Curious Roberta heads out to catch a glimpse of the two when they meet in New York City, and. through a mishap, ends up with amnesia, not to mention a case of mistaken identity that sees her playing the role of being Susan herself. Trouble is, the artsy hipster Susan is being followed by a crazed thug (Will Patton) intent on recovering some heisted priceless Egyptian artifacts that end up given to Jim, earrings that have been seen in the real Susan's possession. With the help of Jim's friend Dez (Aidan Quinn), who also mistakenly thinks Roberta is Susan, she must traverse this dangerous territory and find meaning to her own life, even if she has to live the life of another to do it. Susan Seidelman directs this whimsical, artsy farce.

She-Devil (1989) | Susan Seidelman

Thu, 07 Mar 2019 13:44:14 +0000

Roseanne Barr stars as Ruth Pratchett, a devoted wife to her accountant hubby Bob (Ed Begley Jr.), and mother to two precocious children. One day while attending a swank party, Bob meets and eventually has a fling with best-selling romance novelist Mary Fisher (Meryl Streep), and while they do their best to keep things under wraps, Ruth knows better. As their marriage falls apart, Ruth vows revenge, and set about destroying all of the things good old Bob and his mistress hold dear – his home, his family, his career, and his freedom. Susan Seidelman directs this cult comedy.

The Jewel of the Nile (1985) | Lewis Teague

Fri, 01 Mar 2019 03:10:49 +0000

In this follow-up to the 1984 hit, Romancing the Stone, it’s hard to live up to a “happily ever after ending”, especially for a successful romance novelist like Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner), who has learned more about romance in the chase than she does in the union of the two would-be lovebirds. It’s affecting her work, as she struggles to come up with new dreams and situations to fuel her romance novels, resulting in a prolonged bout of writer’s block. As Joan and her hunky man of adventure, Jack Colton (Michael Douglas), have spent their time living the life of luxury partying in Cannes and sailing on their yacht off the French Riviera, boredom begins to set in, realizing the excitement in their lives lie more in reminiscing, causing them to wonder if their good run of romance has run out as they near the expectation of their marriage in Greece. When a well-known leader within the fictional North African country of Kadir, a supremely wealthy sheikh named Omar (Spyros Fokas), approaches her to write his life’s story, on the hope of elevating his status among his people to become the new emperor there, Joan sees new possibilities to change her scenery, her outlook, and her horizons as a writer. Jack and Joan reluctantly split up, but when Jack catches wind that Omar may be in possession of the mysteriously alluring “Jewel of the Nile”, his soldier-of-fortune ways get the better of him, so he decides to get a closer look in Kadir, as does the diminutive lowlife named Ralph (Danny DeVito), who insists that Jack owes him enough for them to help each other get the jewel and split their fortune. Meanwhile, Joan discovers that Omar’s dark side and his attempt at a bloody power grab, leading her to try to get the scoop, as well as help spring a valuable prisoner who is seen as a folk hero to the people of the region, and therefore, Omar’s greatest threat to be respected as leader.

Romancing the Stone (1984) | Robert Zemeckis

Sat, 23 Feb 2019 19:19:43 +0000

Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner), a best-selling writer of romance novels, has little romance in her own life. She dreams of a tall, dark and handsome man to rescue her and whisk her off her feet, much like the hero in her series of sexy adventure novels, though her waiting for her idealized man may be the reason why she is still single. When Joan’s sister is kidnapped, Joan must travel to Colombia to give some baddies a mysterious map she was sent by her recently butchered brother-in-law to free her. Unfortunately, the corrupt local police are after the same map and when Joan takes the wrong bus upon arrival, she soon finds herself on the run for her life. She comes across a local soldier of fortune named Jack Colton (Michael Douglas), who agrees to escort her to the nearest phone booth (for a price), but soon discovers the journey will be harder than they bargained for. Jack has the idea that they should follow the map to get to the treasure it points to, because it is the treasure and not the map that is the true bargaining chip. Could this be the adventure she has searched for all her life? Danny DeVito co-stars in this Robert Zemeckis film.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) | Steven Spielberg

Fri, 15 Feb 2019 21:22:57 +0000

Last Crusade begins with River Phoenix playing a young Indiana Jones, even at a young age, having a thirst for adventure. His father (Connery), who is also professor of Medieval literature, is acutely obsessed with tracking down any information he can get regarding the whereabouts of the legendary Holy Grail, the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper, and, as a result, little attention is paid to young Indy. Flash forward to 1938, where Indiana (Harrison Ford) finds that his father has been kidnapped by the Nazis, who are also looking for the Holy Grail, and the legendary powers of immortality it may hold. Indy and his dad have never quite seen eye to eye, which makes Indiana’s subsequent rescue attempts all the more interesting, as he tries to impress a man who only lives for the Grail. Steven Spielberg directs, with another memorable John Williams score in what was intended to be the iconic character's final cinematic adventure.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) | Steven Spielberg

Fri, 08 Feb 2019 23:55:48 +0000

While INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM is a sequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark, it’s really a prequel, set in 1935, a year before. Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) finds himself in Shanghai on the hunt for a precious diamond, but gets in over his head, chased out of town with his assistant, a young boy nicknamed Short Round (Jonathan Ke Quan), and Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw), a ditsy, blonde, nightclub singer. Having to make a hasty exit into the Himalayas from a crashing airplane, Indy and friends find themselves in a starving village in India, who see their visitors as saviors destined to save their children who they believe have been taken away by resurrected forces of evil at a formerly abandoned palace. The trio set off for the palace in search of lost children, a sacred stone…and fortune and glory.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) | Steven Spielberg

Sat, 02 Feb 2019 22:49:50 +0000

The year is 1936, just before the rise of Hitler and the Nazi regime. Hitler has been seeking the long-lost Ark of the Covenant, the container for the original tablets containing the Ten Commandments, reportedly used by God’s people in the days of old to crush their enemies using its vast powers. For over 2,000 years, the Ark has been completely hidden somewhere, and the Nazis are digging in one of the sites reported to be a resting place for it. The American government seeks fame and fortune hunter, Dr. Henry Jones, to find the Ark before it ends up in the wrong hands, but it’s easier said than done, as he must not only face peril at every turn, he must bring along an old flame who no longer has much tolerance for the likes of Indiana Jones. Harrison Ford would catapult to super-stardom after this one, with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas solidifying their place as they greatest blockbuster filmmakers of their generation. Can't forget that amazing John Williams score, either.

The Goonies (1985) | Richard Donner

Sat, 26 Jan 2019 19:31:04 +0000

Sean Astin stars as Mikey, the youngest of two brothers who are about to move from their home in Astoria, Oregon because their family lacks the funds to stop a developer from taking over the area to expand a lush country club. This would end many friendships with the other children in the area, which they’ve dubbed “the Goondocks”, and their crew call themselves The Goonies, who are united in their quest for adventure and shenanigans. Things take an interesting turn when a map is discovered in Mikey’s father’s collection of antiques in their attic, which promises to lead to the secret fortune of the infamous One-Eyed Willy, whose cache of jewels promises to make them rich beyond imagination, once they get though all the pirate booty-traps (er, I mean, booby-traps). The gang end up finding the entrance to the caves where the loot is hidden, but a rival group of thieves threatens to get there first, and to kill anyone who gets in their way. Steven Spielberg produces, Chris Columbus scripts, and Richard Donner directs. Also features Josh Brolin, Jeff Cohen, Corey Feldman, Jonathan Ke Quan, Kerri Green, Martha Plimpton, Anne Ramsey, John Matuszak, Robert Davi, and Joe Pantoliano.

Batteries Not Included (1987) | Matthew Robbins

Sat, 19 Jan 2019 04:45:21 +0000

Real-life married couple Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy star as Frank and Faye Riley, the owners of a small diner in a dilapidated building that also houses their apartment in the slums of Manhattan. The rest of the tenants of the building are being paid off to evacuate ASAP, so that greedy land developers can take over and demolish the building in order to erect some high-rise corporate edifices. Those that refuse are being threatened with injury “or worse” by some local thugs that are also on the corporate payroll to scare the bejesus out of the remaining tenants. Without anyone to turn to, a desperate plea may have saved the day, as a couple of miniature flying saucers arrive, consuming metal materials and then fixing up damaged parts of the building. The saucers befriend the remaining tenants, although the thugs and land developers are determined to put an end to this new development even if it costs lives in the process. Steven Spielberg produced this quaint sci-fi fairy tale.

The Blues Brothers (1980) | John Landis

Sat, 12 Jan 2019 17:39:26 +0000

The film starts out with Jake Blues (John Belushi) being released from prison, picked up by his brother Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) in a used cop car turned “Blues Mobile”. They make good on a promise to visit the orphanage they grew up in, only to find it is in danger of being shut down, due needing $5,000 in tax money owed. With only days to go before it is too late, the Blues Brothers are inspired by a vision from God to save the orphanage, which they plan to do by reuniting the band they played in. This proves to be a tough task, as all of the members have moved on to other occupations. Not only this, but along the way, they manage to piss off the police, the Illinois Nazi Party, and just about everyone else they come across in their bid to make enough money to deliver by the deadline without getting caught, or worse.

Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo (1984) | Sam Firstenberg

Sat, 05 Jan 2019 02:50:43 +0000

Somewhere underneath the never-ending music and dance numbers is a story about keeping Shabba-Doo’s community center for inner city youth (named “Miracles”) from falling into the hands of a slimy developer who wants to bulldoze it to erect a shopping center in the middle of the community. This would leave the kids nowhere else to go, so obviously they choose to fight the city council’s decision to shut it down, but a window of opportunity exists, which calls for $200,000 in necessary repairs.

Breakin’ (1984) | Joel Silberg

Sat, 29 Dec 2018 17:30:23 +0000

Former “Solid Gold” dancer Lucinda Dickey stars as Kelly, a waitress by day, aspiring jazz dancer in her spare time. She has the looks and talent to go far, at least according to her dance instructor, but this move seems to come at a price, as he wants a little action on the side to help her career. She makes friends with a couple of local street dancers, aka break-dancers, Ozone and Turbo, and she becomes enamored of the mannerisms and moves of the street dancers. They agree to teach her some steps in order to gain street rep, while she has a crazy idea to make break-dancing more mainstream in the form of a staged musical about it. Alas, the conservative art crowd scoffs at the idea, as do the rival street-dancing crews who want to be prove they are the best of the bunch.

Style Wars (1983) | Tony Silver

Sun, 23 Dec 2018 01:36:39 +0000

Style Wars is a documentary look at the street art among the youth of New York in the early 1980s, especially in the South Bronx, particularly in graffiti art and break-dancing. The film takes a balanced look at the youth culture, showing the artistry and thought involved in young people trying to make a name and impact by creating art for people all over the city to see on the side (or the interior) of a subway train, but also shows the frustration on the part of then-mayor Ed Koch, as well as law enforcement, in trying to keep the city from the blight of illegal art that often looks like gibberish to most people.

Beat Street (1984) | Stan Lathan

Sat, 15 Dec 2018 01:00:42 +0000

Producer and activist Harry Belafonte's commercialized slice-of-life drama stars Guy Davis as Kenny 'Double K' Kirkland, a South Bronx hip-hop DJ with big dreams, and Jon Chardiet as Ramon, a Puerto Rican graffiti artist who would rather tag trains than get a real job. Rae Dawn Chong is Tracy, an upper-class music student from a college in Manhattan who sees something in Kenny's proficiency with turntablism to want him to assist with her presentation on break-dancing.

Wild Style (1983) | Charlie Ahearn

Sat, 08 Dec 2018 16:36:21 +0000

The seminal hip-hop film looks at underground Bronx art culture, including rap, graffiti art, break-dancing (aka b-boying) and DJing (aka turntablism), as we follow the exploits of a graffiti artist named Zoro and his quest to take his art and make it a living. Charlie Ahearn and Fab 5 Freddy created this film to expose to the world the genuine artistry and talent going on in the South Bronx, with lost of scenes of the authentic underground artists and their phenomenal talents. Imitated, but never duplicated, WILD STYLE is the grand daddy of all films covering hip-hop.

Krush Groove (1985) | Michael Schultz

Sat, 01 Dec 2018 18:32:27 +0000

The loose story of how Def Jam came to be, featuring the hottest hip-hop artists of the mid-1980s, Run-DMC, Kurtis Blow, The Fat Boys, LL Cool J, The Beastie Boys, and many more. Blair Underwood plays Russell, whose management company is coming up with some hot musical acts, including Run-DMC, featuring his brother Joe, who he ends up losing to some rivals offering more money. He gets into a financial pickle, while also romancing a hot funk-pop talent named Sheila, whom Joe also has a thing for. Michael Schultz directs this fan-favorite kitsch on hip-hop's early days.

Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon (1985) | Michael Schultz

Sun, 25 Nov 2018 23:44:28 +0000

Taimak stars as a young African-American Harlemite who is a devout student of martial arts. He lives kung fu, breathes kung fu and is so entrenched in the ways of the kung fu warrior, he stands out in his predominantly Black community for his lack of hipness and Asian-tinged wardrobe (he even eats his movie popcorn with chopsticks). He is sent out into the world from his master teacher to reach the final level of his training to become a true kung fu master, involving a golden amulet and a master named Som Dom Goy. Meanwhile, his quest is detoured by constant disruptions by a neighborhood bully, Sho'Nuff. who, along with his gang of thugs, are terrorizing the neighborhood. Leroy also gets embroiled with an even bigger bad guy, amoral record producer Eddie Arkadian, whose quest to get his girlfriend's video played on the hottest music show on TV hosted by singer/VJ Laura Charles causes them to get physical. Leroy becomes Laura's reluctant bodyguards, and the sparks between them suggest that they might have something more going on.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun (1985) | Alan Metter

Sat, 17 Nov 2018 17:28:16 +0000

Sarah Jessica Parker stars as a Chicago teenager who works her tail off for a spot as a dance on her favorite dance show on television, but spats with her dance partner and a potentially rigged contest makes for a great challenge to success, not to mention her father will not approve if he finds out about her pursuit. Helen Hunt, Shannon Doherty, Jonathan Silverman, and Lee Montgomery get supporting roles in this film that takes its title from the Cyndi Lauper song.

Hairspray (1988) | John Waters

Mon, 12 Nov 2018 17:13:59 +0000

John Waters writes and directs this most accessible of his films, his only one to be rated PG, with HAIRSPRAY, the film that made Ricki Lake a prominent star to be. Set in 1962, HAIRSPRAY explores race and class in a mostly divided Baltimore, where teens of different races weren't allowed to dance on the same show at the same time. Tracy Turnblad doesn't see why they can't all be one happy group, vowing to turn the local variety show to reflect the diversity of the town itself. Debbie Harry, Sonny Bono, and Divine also appear.

Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) | Robert Englund

Sat, 03 Nov 2018 01:41:51 +0000

The sixth and final in the original Freddy Krueger arc finds us ten years in the future, where the psycho demon has killed off all but one of the original Elm Street children. Needing new souls to maintain his power, Freddy plans to use the last teen to get him out of Springwood to new towns and new teens to murder. However, his past comes back to haunt him in a big way, leading Freddy to have to battle for his life beyond the dream realm. Rachel Talalay takes over the directorial chores in this lighter entry in the series.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989) | Robert Englund

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 11:30:54 +0000

The fifth entry in the A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET series sees the return of Lisa Wilcox as the heroine, Alice, taking on Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) yet again, who has come back to haunt her nightmares through her unborn child. Freddy wants to be reincarnated by feeding the fetus the soul of Alice's friends, and with the baby asleep most of the time, the terrifying dreams seem non-stop. Stephen Hopkins directs this darker and gloomier installment.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) | Robert Englund

Sat, 20 Oct 2018 14:03:50 +0000

Future action movie maestro Renny Harlin came to Hollywood from Finland to take over the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET franchise for one entry with THE DREAM MASTER, in which Freddy Krueger gets resurrected in order to get revenge on those who put him in his grave, and to hopefully take a few more teenage souls along the way. Brian Helgeland co-scripts this effort that brings together Robert Englund, Tuesday Knight, Lisa Wilcox, Rodney Eastman, Ken Sagoes, and Danny Hassel. The result would prove to be the biggest box-office success for the series to that point, and a killer soundtrack to boot.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) | Chuck Russell

Thu, 11 Oct 2018 01:24:42 +0000

The third time was certainly the charm in the Nightmare on Elm Street" series with DREAM WARRIORS, which put together a team of adept but troubled teenagers in taking on the fiercely powerful (and growing more so by the day, Freddy Krueger, who is out to kill these kids in their nightmares. Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) is back to show them how to defeat the evil rascal, but they need to work as a team to do it. The debut role for Patricia Arquette, plus an early appearance from Laurence Fishburne, make it a highlight, along with, of course, Robert Englund in his most iconic of roles. Chuck Russell directs from a screenplay whose talent includes Frank Darabont and Wes Craven himself.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985) | Jack Sholder

Fri, 05 Oct 2018 02:47:33 +0000

A very speedy follow-up to A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET replaces Wes Craven as the creative force, taking the series in a new and unexpected direction under the guiding influence of Jack Sholder. Screenwriter David Chaskin supplies the subversive screenplay that caused it to become a cult hit in the gay horror-loving community for its homoerotic subtext that adds one more layer to this story of a confused teenage boy struggling to control his impulses driving him to commit heinous acts, with only the love of his gal pal to perhaps curb him from doing Freddy's bidding. While derided at the time of its release, the film has its champions, even if it deviates the most from Craven's vision among the sequels. Mark Patton, Kim Myers and Robert Englund star.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) | Wes Craven

Sun, 30 Sep 2018 00:21:46 +0000

Wes Craven refreshed the struggling slasher film genre with this more surreal and intense take, saving New Line Cinema with one of the big surprise hits of 1984: A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. Heather Langenkamp stars as Nancy Thompson, who finds out that she is not alone in having a recurring dream about a badly burnt and scarred man named Freddy Krueger who terrorizes her with horrific acts of terror (Craven says that the character's name was based on a school mate who bullied him as a child). What's even more scary is that her friends are starting to die mysteriously, and Nancy is sure that if she were to fall asleep and dream, she will be next in line to be a victim. Her parents think here is something wrong with her, and the local police can't believe a word of it, so she must fend for herself. But surely she can't stay awake forever! John Saxon, Johnny Depp and Robert Englund also co-star in this first of many films in the long-running and beloved horror series.

Dreamscape (1984) | Joseph Ruben

Fri, 21 Sep 2018 03:12:06 +0000

Dreamscape stars Dennis Quaid as a psychic enlisted into a top-secret government experiment that puts him into the nightmares of another person in order to cure them. However, when the President of the United States becomes the subject, he finds himself embroiled in a plot to assassinate the world leader in his sleep. Kate Capshaw, Max von Sydow and Christopher Plummer co-star in this low-budget but high-concept sci-fi/thriller that would be the precursor to a great many genre films, including THE MATRIX.

Brainstorm (1983) | Douglas Trumbull

Sat, 15 Sep 2018 11:45:24 +0000

Christopher Walken stars as a scientist out to protect his project, one that involves being able to experience the senses and emotions of another person, from getting into the wrong hands. Natalie Wood, in her final film role, co-stars as the wife he is about to lose, if only they could remember the love they once had. Special effects wizard Douglas Trumbull directs this troubled but still intriguing science fiction exploration that was, perhaps, too ahead of its time to transplant what he envisioned into our own minds.

Explorers (1985) | Joe Dante

Fri, 07 Sep 2018 12:03:09 +0000

Joe Dante's Explorers marks the big screen debuts of two future stars, Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix, who, along with Jason Presson, make up the three young boys with a thirst for adventure and scientific exploration. In their dreams, the boys have a connection to a circuit board that they eventually use to build their own little hovering spacecraft, thanks to the help of a strange spherical energy capsule in which they place an abandoned tilt-a-whirl carriage that they use their computer to control. The makeshift spaceship gets them into all sorts of adventures, before culminating in a close encounter with aliens in outer space.

TRON (1982) | Steven Lisberger

Fri, 31 Aug 2018 18:08:06 +0000

Disney's first big foray into the realm of computer animation would prove to be a box office disappoiuntmen in 1982, but garner a legion of fans over the years for its revolutionary design work and the influence it still continue to have in science fiction today. Jeff Bridges stars as Kevin Flynn, video game programmer, who is ripped off of several ideas by an unscrupulous power hungry man named Ed Dillinger. Dillinger soon starts a meteoric rise to the top of a powerful global corporation, Encom, while the computer that runs it has become so powerful that it is a life-force unto itself, thinking and talking (not to mention plotting world domination). Flynn tries to hack into the computer to get evidence of Dillinger’s theft, when the Master Control Program sucks Flynn into its own cyber-world, dubbed “the grid”, where programs in the voice and form of the programmers that created them are mere toys by which Master Control Program uses for its own enjoyment. Bruce Boxleitner, Cindy Morgan and David Warner also star in this film by Steven Lisberger.

Cloak & Dagger (1984) | Richard Franklin

Fri, 24 Aug 2018 11:20:45 +0000

Henry Thomas plays Davey, a young San Antonio boy with a vivid imagination and a love o fantasy games. The lines between fantasy and reality blur when he ends up in possession of a video game cartridge that is the conduit for top secret information wanted by some pretty bad hombres who will kill to get it. With the help of his imaginary friend, the daring man of adventure named Jack Flack, Davey must find a way to survive before more people end up dead -- including him! Richard Franklin directs from a Tom Holland script.

WarGames (1983) | John Badham

Sat, 18 Aug 2018 02:12:52 +0000

Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy star in this major hit from 1983, one of the first films to break through into the world of hacking and the burgeoning internet, WarGames. Directed by John Badham, this tells the tale of a teenager who hacks into a database he thinks will allow him to play a not-yet-released video game only to discover he's in a machine used by the military to launch nuclear missiles in a time of crisis. The computer has games of its own, one called "Global Thermonuclear War", but the teenager soon discovers that the game may not be a game after all, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance, as the military brass must decide to counterattack what might be a simulation.

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) | Sidney J. Furie

Fri, 10 Aug 2018 12:04:13 +0000

Although he had claimed to be done putting on the red cape after SUPERMAN III, Reeve is lured back to make a fourth entry with a different studio from an idea he had written himself to bring back the series to respectability. Alas, it didn't quite work out that way in the end. Superman makes a decision to meddle in Earth's affairs by getting rid of all of the nuclear missiles, but Lex Luthor has his own super-powered being to take the Man of Steel down before he interrupts the business of war that Lex relies upon for his riches. In addition to Reeve, Margot Kidder returns to a sizable role, and Gene Hackman returns to the series as Luthor. Where did it all go so wrong when so much seems so right? Vince takes a closer examination on this episode.

Supergirl (1984) | Jeannot Szwarc

Sat, 04 Aug 2018 00:44:23 +0000

Just as Kal-El was sent by his parents to Earth from a dying planet in order to save him, so too did Alexander and Ilya Salkind try to save their dying franchise by trying to spin it off with a new character with Kara, Superman's cousin, better known as Supergirl! Things didn't quite go according to plan, however. Helen Slater is fetching in the title role, and Faye Dunaway suitably sinister, in the best of ways, as Selena, the sexy and scheming sorceress out to conquer the world. Is it fun? Is it dumb? Is it dumb fun? Yes, yes, and yes!

Superman III (1983) | Richard Lester

Sat, 28 Jul 2018 21:54:36 +0000

Gone is Richard Donner, gone is Gene Hackman, and gone is the epic feel of the SUPERMAN series with SUPERMAN III, in which the creators finally wrest the controls away to make what they've been wanting to make all along: comedies! Richard Lester returns as director, as Superman, once again played by Christopher Reeve, has to battle a genius computer hacker played by Richard Pryor from assisting megalomaniac businessman Robert Vaughn from taking over the economic future of the world through computer dominance.

Superman II (1980) | Richard Lester & Richard Donner

Sun, 22 Jul 2018 00:59:10 +0000

A patchwork film that somehow still works great as a piece of entertainment, despite the switch in directors from Richard Donner to Richard Lester a great deal of the way through. Three power-hungry Kryptonians travel to Earth to dominate it, and the only one who can match them is Superman. Alas, he's nowhere to be found, and has even sacrificed his powers in order to be with Lois Lane. More emphasis on humor and action than the first time out has some proclaiming that SUPERMAN II is better than the first. I debate my own feelings on which is better on this episode. Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder and Gene Hackman star, along with Terence Stamp as Zod.

Superman (1978) | Richard Donner

Sat, 14 Jul 2018 20:06:38 +0000

The granddaddy of the modern-day superhero flick, 1978's SUPERMAN put together a truly epic experience befitting a popular hero on the magnitude of Superman. Richard Donner directed DC Comics' legendary property from his infancy on the planet Krypton all the way to donning the cape and costume to right wrongs wherever he may find them on Earth as savior of humanity. With treacherous mastermind Lex Luthor out and about, no one is safe, even Superman, if he has his way. Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman and Marlon Brando star in this grand action-adventure with lots of soaring sounds from composer John Williams and fun character touches from a capable cast.

Batman (1989) | Tim Burton

Sat, 07 Jul 2018 20:43:01 +0000

One of the biggest blockbusters of the 1980s, and of all time, Tim Burton would take the reins of Warner Bros. hugest hit with 1989's BATMAN, a much more dark and eerie take on the character than any prior screen take to date. With a tremendous Danny Elfman score, hit singles by Prince, and a very energetic Jack Nicholson performance as Joker, it would be the movie to watch for its era, despite the Michael Keaton casting backlash leading up to its release.

The Return of Swamp Thing (1989) | Jim Wynorski

Fri, 29 Jun 2018 02:05:09 +0000

Seven years after Wes Craven's original adaptation of the DC Comics superhero, Jim Wynorski takes a stab by sending the whole thing up as a campy b-movie sci-fi/horror hybrid. Swamp Thing (Dick Durock again) is back as protector of a hot babe in the form of Abigail, portrayed by Razzie Award-winning actress Heather Locklear, to thwart the nefarious plans of her mad scientist stepfather, Dr. Arcane, once again portrayed by Louis Jourdan, who wants to take her perfect DNA to make himself live forever. It's a bad film, intentionally, and in some of the best ways.

Swamp Thing (1982) | Wes Craven

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 22:50:41 +0000

Wes Craven wrote and directed this adaptation of the DC Comics superhero, once a scientist trying to help humanity, who turns superhuman when he is doused with his own experimental formula to use plants to help humans while in the nearby Louisiana swamp. Adrienne Barbeau stars as the government agent sent to oversee the lab, with Ray Wise playing the scientist side, and Dick Durock as the hulking alter-ego, Swamp Thing. Louis Jourdan is the bad guy out to get the formula to use for his own nefarious purposes. Note: I neglected to mention that next week's show will be on the follow-up, RETURN OF SWAMP THING (1989)

Little Shop of Horrors (1986) | Frank Oz

Sun, 17 Jun 2018 00:19:54 +0000

Howard Ashman and Alan Menken's off-Broadway darkly comical stage musical came to life in 1986, directed by Muppet-alum Frank Oz, featuring Rick Moranis, and small roles for Steve Martin, Bill Murray and John Candy. Ellen Greene co-stars in this story about a 1960s loser who finds success with an exotic plant that makes all his dreams come true, if only he finds a way to keep it fed --- with human blood! Production design and the catchy tunes makes this a favorite musical from the 80s.

G.I. Joe: The Movie (1987) | Don Jurwich

Sat, 09 Jun 2018 02:31:02 +0000

Rounding out this trio of Hasbro toy-based films put out by Marvel/Sunbow in the mid-1980s, "GI Joe: The Movie" has the dishonorable distinction of being funneled straight to video and subsequently syndicated on television due to the lack of success for the "Transformers" and "My Little Pony" movies at the box office the year before. But does that mean it's a bad film? Well, some might argue yes, others hell no, and many more fall under the category of loving it because it embraces its flaws and plays them up to maximum entertainment. Don Johnson and Burgess Meredith provide voices for this completely off-the-hook action-adventure-science fiction extravaganza that serves as a precursor to the dumb-but-fun action blockbusters people either love or love to hate from the 1990s.

My Little Pony: The Movie (1986) | Mike Joens

Sun, 03 Jun 2018 03:20:50 +0000

Marvel joined with Sunbow to deliver the first of four animated feature films based on Hasbro toys in the 1980s with 1986's MY LITTLE PONY: THE MOVIE, which took the popular toy line of dolls resembling ponies and other animals (plus a few humans) and pitted them against three dastardly witches who can't stand their rampant pleasantness. Danny DeVito, Cloris Leachman, Madeline Kahn, Rhea Perlman and Tony Randall do their best to bring this colorful musical adventure to life. Critically and commercially tanking at the box office at the time, it's about time we look this gift horse in the mouth and see what we find with this retrospective review!

The Transformers: The Movie (1986) | Nelson Shin

Fri, 25 May 2018 11:15:55 +0000

The first of four feature-length ventures between Marvel Productions and Sunbow Entertainment that centered on toys made by Hasbro, THE TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE would make for an ambitious way to not only sell toys and entertain fans, but also to set for a new course for the animated TV series, in this bridge between the second and third seasons of the show. A critical and commercial misfire, the film has gained cult status among Transformers property aficionados and lovers of cultural oddities of the 1980s, not only for its bold story choices, but also for its eclectic voice actors (Orson Welles, Judd Nelson, Eric Idle, Leonard Nimoy, Casey Kasem, Robert Stack, Lionel Stander, John Moschitta Jr, and Scatman Crothers), as well as its driving hair-metal soundtrack.

Masters of the Universe (1987) | Gary Goddard

Fri, 18 May 2018 10:01:16 +0000

The Cannon Group took a bath with the failure of MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE in 1987, a film that had gone over budget and well beyond schedule. The film starts off in the mythical land of Eternia, where the ruthless villain Skeletor (Frank Langella) has managed, with the help of a powerful musical cosmic key, to capture Castle Grayskull, the source for a wealth of magic and power in the region. Skeletor has taken the powerful good Sorceress (Christina Pickles) prisoner and has been draining her of her essence to channel into his own, making him more powerful as time goes on. However, the great hero of Eternia, He-Man (Dolph Lundgren), is still free, and with his cronies, the faithful Man-at-War (Jon Cypher) and his daughter Teela (Chelsea Field), he seeks to thwart Skeletor’s plans for dominion over Eternia and restore Castle Grayskull back to its original state. Their plans go awry when the cosmic key’s creator, the dwarven creature known as Gwildor (Billy Barty), opens up a portal to modern Earth with a prototype of the same key for them to escape Skeletor’s clutches. The key is lost on arrival to Earth, soon found by a couple of high school aged teens named Julie (Courteney Cox) and Kevin (Robert Duncan McNeill), who activate it thinking it must be some newfangled musical device. However, using the device alerts Skeletor as to its whereabouts, and once he has pinpointed its location, he sends a band of mercenaries to recover the key and ensnare He-Man, of whom he plans to make an example of in custody to break the will of any would-be heroes left in Eternia.

Excalibur (1981) | John Boorman

Sun, 13 May 2018 14:16:47 +0000

John Boorman's polarizing but highly ambitious take on Arthurian legend is a visually and aurally striking look into the myth, the fantasy, and the haunting imagery that the medieval Thomas Malory tale has evoked over the last several centuries. A then-nobody, but now all-star cast that includes Helen Mirren, Liam Neeson, and Patrick Stewart appears alongside stars Nigel Terry and Nicol Williamson to spin this sword-and-sorcery take on this well-known tale unlike any other that has seemingly come before or since.

The Black Cauldron (1981) | Richard Rich & Ted Berman

Sat, 05 May 2018 16:21:21 +0000

1985's THE BLACK CAULDRON represents Disney at its nadir as an animation studio, resulting in a box office failure and years of obscurity. It's first PG-rated animated feature struggled to find an audience clamoring for its dark and violent tones. However, it has garnered a significant cult following over the years, with its tales of swords, sorcerers, and black magic-infused battles brought to life with stunning visuals that incorporate the studios first forays into computer-generated elements into its hand-drawn animated cels. Does it deserve obscurity, or is it about time to reappraise a hidden gem in Disney's vast and storied filmography?

Dragonslayer (1981) | Matthew Robbins

Fri, 27 Apr 2018 14:53:11 +0000

Disney collaborated with Paramount Pictures to make a fairly adventure for audiences that were a bit older in DRAGONSLAYER, a rousing but somewhat brutally dark tale of a sorcerer's apprentice who must undertake the treacherous journey of slaying a dragon that regularly consumes the women of a nearby village as a peace offering. Adventure and one amazing dragon, perhaps the best ever put to film, make this a notable entry for lovers of 1980s fantasy flicks.

Clash of the Titans (1981) | Desmond Davis

Fri, 20 Apr 2018 12:28:10 +0000

Ray Harryhausen's final film marked the popular early 1980s adventure based on ancient Greek myths, CLASH OF THE TITANS. Harry Hamlin stars as Perseus, the illegitimate mortal son of Zeus who ends up falling for the beautiful princess Andromeda, having to overcome puzzles and a variety of vicious beasts in order to gain her hand in marriage. If only she weren't slated to be sacrificed to the giant (and reportedly invincible) Titan known as the Kraken... Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, and Burgess Meredith are in supporting roles in this dated but charming fantasy flick.

The Little Mermaid (1989) | Ron Clements & John Musker

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 18:39:45 +0000

The Disney Renaissance kicked off with this smash hit animated feature that brought the studio back in a major way, THE LITTLE MERMAID! Featuring great vocal talent, quality animation, and a killer score and soundtrack, it delighted a generation, and will delight many more, with its story of Ariel, a teenage mermaid who dreams of love with a hunky sailor prince, Eric, only made possible through a bad deal with a sea witch named Ursula.

Splash (1984) | Ron Howard

Sat, 07 Apr 2018 00:45:51 +0000

Ron Howard directs this delightful romantic comedy that would score one of the biggest hits of 1984, SPLASH. Tom Hanks, Darryl Hannah and John Candy would all propel to a more secure stardom after their roles in this screwball but tender love story between a man who has trouble finding the right woman until a mermaid steps...or swims...into his life.

Mannequin (1987) | Michael Gottlieb

Sat, 31 Mar 2018 03:05:36 +0000

Andrew McCarthy and Kim Cattrall star in this smash hit bubblegum romance about a struggling artist who falls in love with a mannequin possessed by a lovelorn ancient Egyptian spirit who turns his life around. James Spader, Estell Getty, and Meshach Taylor have supporting roles in this quintessential 80s fantasy-romance. Does it hold up?

Xanadu (1980) | Robert Greenwald

Sat, 24 Mar 2018 23:25:25 +0000

The much-maligned 1980 musical gets re-evaluated in this podcast review. Olivia Newton-John plays a muse who is sent to earth to inspire a struggling artist (Michael Beck) fulfill his dream of starting a roller-disco club with a retired construction magnate (Gene Kelly). Newton-John and pop group ELO deliver a powerhouse soundtrack in this visually impressive first effort from future political documentarian Robert Greenwald.

Legend (1985) | Ridley Scott

Sat, 17 Mar 2018 21:53:58 +0000

Following up two sci-fi masterpieces in ALIEN and BLADE RUNNER, Ridley Scott turned his gaze toward the realm of fantasy with LEGEND, starring Tom Cruise and Mia Sara. Critics greeted the film with a shrug upon its initial release, but it has gained a cult following over the years, and the Director's Cut release has had some re-evaluate it. Is it still problematic, or is it a film that has aged well over time?

The Last Unicorn (1982) | Jules Bass & Arthur Rankin Jr.

Sun, 11 Mar 2018 00:31:43 +0000

Rankin and Bass, the team that brought us Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer as well as the ThunderCats, brought this charming animated feature featuring Japanese animation from the team who would go on to form Studio Ghibli, and voiced by stars like Mia Farrow, Jeff Bridges, Alan Arkin, and Christopher Lee. Peter S. Beagle adapts his own children's book, tapping into the metaphorical journey from the safety and security of youth to the strange and perilous odyssey of growing up, with the last unicorn as our guide. Featuring folk-rock tracks sung by America and written and composed by Jimmy Webb, the nostalgia is strong with this one.

The Dark Crystal (1982) | Jim Henson & Frank Oz

Sun, 04 Mar 2018 13:03:02 +0000

Jim Henson conceived of this elaborate realm of fantasy in which two competing races vie for the destiny of a faraway planet, as the evil Skeksis try to thwart the Gelflings of prophecy from uniting the planet yet again and bringing equilibrium to life there for those enslaved. This imaginative film had been a disappointment on early release but has gained a rabid following among fantasy fans. Frank Oz co-directs this film done entirely with puppets, and is a rare film that doesn't a human character in sight.

Back to the Future Part III (1990) | Robert Zemeckis

Sat, 24 Feb 2018 03:48:02 +0000

The third and final entry in the BACK TO THE FUTURE Trilogy sees Marty and Doc in the Old West of Hill Valley in 1885, where Marty must save Doc from getting gunned down by an ancestor of Biff Tannen. It's a softer, and more romantic effort, as Doc finds love with the charming schoolteacher, Clara Clayton, who is also supposed to meet her maker, unless Marty can figure out a way to save them both without messing things up for the future!

Back to the Future Part II (1989) | Robert Zemeckis

Fri, 16 Feb 2018 03:22:18 +0000

Marty and Doc must head 30 years into the future to save Marty's kids from calamity,l but end up making a mess of the past when Biff Tannen takes over the DeLorean. Will they save themselves, and their pasts, as well as their futures? This ingenious sequel takes the premise of the original film for a loop-de-loop of logic few were expecting it to go, from the minds of Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale.

Back to the Future (1985) | Robert Zemeckis

Fri, 09 Feb 2018 01:23:06 +0000

Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale and Steven Spielberg present the original 1985 class, BACK TO THE FUTURE! Michael J. Fox plays 17-year-old Marty McFly, a spirited teenager who doesn’t seem to quite fit in with his current family, so much so that he spends a great deal of his time helping out an eccentric local scientist, Doc Brown, in his kooky experiments. One night, Doc calls Marty out to an empty mall parking lot to witness his latest triumph, a souped- up DeLorean that he has modified as a time machine. Upset that Doc has used the plutonium given to make a proposed nuclear bomb for his own machine, some angry terrorists gun him down in cold blood, leaving Marty with no other choice than to escape in the DeLorean, which sends him back in time to the date Doc first came up with the idea for time travel, November 5th, 1955, which also happens to be the date that Marty’s parents met and fell for each other. Problems ensue when Marty’s mother begins to fall for him instead, which would completely negate the existence of Marty and his siblings. Marty must find a way for his parents to fall in love, and get back to the future without the nuclear component necessary, with only the younger Doc Brown to help him.

My Science Project (1985) | Jonathan R. Betuel

Fri, 02 Feb 2018 03:39:05 +0000

John Stockwell, Fisher Stevens and Dennis Hopper appear in this low-budget sci-fi/comedy from 1985, MY SCIENCE PROJECT, where teens find an alien contraption of seemingly unlimited power that opens a portal from which people and things from Earth's past and future pour into their high school. Now the teens need to pull the plug on it before everyone is in mortal danger. It's a very 80s movie in the best ways -- and the worst.

Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) | Francis Ford Coppola

Sat, 27 Jan 2018 16:34:08 +0000

Francis Ford Coppola directs this fluffy but endearing film that asks the age-old question, "what if we could do it all over again?" An Oscar-nominated performance from Kathleen Turner bolsters this whimsical romantic comedy-drama with a time-travel twist, with a quirky role for Nicolas Cage as her no-good husband.

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) | Stephen Herek

Sat, 20 Jan 2018 23:52:28 +0000

The breakthrough performance for Keanu Reeves, along with co-star Alex Winter, in this fun time-traveling romp through history, as two California teens pick up verious historical figures in their phone booth through time to pass an oral presentation that will secure Earth's future -- a future in which Bill & Ted are revered as saviors! George Carlin supports in this fun flick from 1989.

The Land Before Time (1988) | Don Bluth

Sat, 13 Jan 2018 22:52:13 +0000

Don Bluth collaborates with executive producer Steven Spielberg again, this time also joining forces with George Lucas for THE LAND BEFORE TIME, the film that would kick off a series of ten additional straight-to-video animated features for kids. Dinosaurs were all the rage, and Bluth and co. rode the wave to box office success with this feature about a young dinosaur that must find his way to the Great Valley, with the help of a variety of adorably cute dino friends.

An American Tail (1986) | Don Bluth

Sat, 06 Jan 2018 01:44:28 +0000

Don Bluth's second feature film as director sees him joining forces with producer Steven Spielberg for AN AMERICAN TAIL, which details the immigrant experience for many of American ancestors in their long journey to the land of freedom and opportunity. Drawing from anecdotal material from Spielberg's own grandfather's stories, this heartwarming animated feature would go on to earn the most money up to that point at the box office for a film on its first run. The first of several animated adventures featuring hero Fievel Mousekewitz.

The Secret of NIMH (1982) | Don Bluth

Sun, 31 Dec 2017 04:02:51 +0000

Don Bluth's first big screen effort under his own name after splitting from Disney, along with several other Disney animators and artists, in order to try to return to the kind of groundbreaking style and commitments to storytelling that their former company had been skimping out on during the 1960s and 1970s. THE SECRET OF NIMH adapts Robert C. O'Brien's 1972 book, "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH", and makes an interesting animated allegory for the experience these artists went through on their quest for independence and destiny.

Scrooged (1988) | Richard Donner

Mon, 25 Dec 2017 03:18:10 +0000

I look back at a film that some people herald as a great Christmas film. I've always had issues, but wanted to give it another shot. Do I come around? Bill Murray stars as Frank Cross in this modern take on the Charles Dickens' class, "A Christmas Carol". Richard Donner directs.

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) | Jeremiah S. Chechik

Sat, 23 Dec 2017 02:57:51 +0000

The third in National Lampoon's Vacation series, Christmas Vacation has gone on from being a minor blip to a holiday favorite for many families over the years. Chevy Chase at his most slapstick-y sets the formula for many dysfunctional Christmas comedies to follow. John Hughes scripts.

A Christmas Story (1983) | Bob Clark

Tue, 19 Dec 2017 11:15:52 +0000

Bob Clark directs and co-writes my favorite Christmas film of the 1980s, and perhaps my favorite of any era, A CHRISTMAS STORY, a nostalgic look at childhood that makes me nostalgic for my own. Peter Billingsley stars as Ralphie, who wants more than anything to get a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas, even though the adults think he'll just shoot his eye out.

The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981) | Joel Schumacher

Mon, 04 Dec 2017 03:21:03 +0000

Lily Tomlin stars in this wacky comedy from 1981, playing multiple roles, exploring the satirical themes of the diminishing role of the American housekeeper in the period, getting smaller, literally, by the day, as she eventually measures only two inches tall. Zany antics ensue in this first feature directed by Joel Schumacher.

Innerspace (1987) | Joe Dante

Mon, 27 Nov 2017 01:58:36 +0000

In this episode, Vince takes a look at "Innerspace" from director Joe Dante, starring Dennis Quaid, Martin Short, and Meg Ryan. produced by Steven Spielberg, this sci-fi based comedy riffs on "Fantastic Voyage" where an unassuming supermarket clerk is injected with the microscopic vessel containing an ace test pilot who is wanted by hi-tech thieves looking to score.

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) | Joe Johnston

Mon, 20 Nov 2017 03:50:32 +0000

Rick Moranis stars as lovable dad and ambitious college professor Wayne Szalinski, who has recently become something of a laughing stock to his peers when he dares to introduce a potential way to drastically reduce the size of everyday objects. His own experiments have proved futile, but a fluke accident causes the reduction machine to finally work -- too bad the Szalinski children are the ones in the ray's path, along with the rambunctious neighbor kids, the Thompsons. Wayne accidentally tosses the kids out with the trash, causing the miniscule kids to have to venture through the entire yard and hope they can grab the attention of their parents, and, hopefully, the professor can figure out a way to grow them back to normal size again. Making it there proves more difficult than it would seem, with treacherous bugs and other pollutants blocking the way at nearly every turn.

Labyrinth (1986) | Jim Henson

Mon, 06 Nov 2017 05:05:46 +0000

Jennifer Connelly is cast in one of her first starring roles as Sarah, a teenage girl who has grown tired of her stepmother and father leaving her home alone to babysit her infant brother, Toby. In a bout of exasperation, she wishes him away, and inadvertently summons the vain and moody Goblin King of myth, Jareth (played by David Bowie), who kidnaps the baby and steals him away into his fantasy realm. There, the baby boy remains hidden in a dangerous castle in the middle of an ornate labyrinth. If Sarah wants a chance at getting the brother she really didn't want to go back, she must traverse the enigmatic trail before midnight, or the Goblin King gets to keep Toby forever.

Ladyhawke (1985) | Richard Donner

Mon, 30 Oct 2017 09:01:34 +0000

Set in France during the Middle Ages, Philippe 'The Mouse' Gaston, a convicted pickpocket escapes from a castle dungeon only to get involved in a bitter feud between the powerful, scheming Bishop of Aquila and two lovers, a former captain of the guard named Etienne of Navarre and a lady named Isabeau d'Anjou, who were cursed with dark magic when the Bishop, who also fancies Isabeau, finds out of their union. The spell transforms the knight into a wolf by night, and the lady into hawk by day, and they can only see each other briefly in human form at dawn or dusk.

The Princess Bride (1987) | Rob Reiner

Mon, 23 Oct 2017 02:41:35 +0000

A sick young boy gets a visit from his grandfather, who reads the young lad one of his favorite books, 'The Princess Bride'. The book is of a princess named Buttercup, who has a romance with her stable boy, Westley but the evil Prince Humperdinck has plans to marry the beautiful young woman so he kidnaps her, leaving Buttercup to think Westley dead. Westley assumes the role of the Dread Pirate Roberts and makes his return to save the princess before the marriage, but the task appears a bit more difficult than he planned.

Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi | Richard Marquand

Sun, 08 Oct 2017 20:28:38 +0000

This final entry sees the Empire creating a new Death Star, a feat with such magnitude, even the Emperor himself has come to oversee the progress. Meanwhile, a rescue attempt is underway to try to spring Han Solo from his icy trap in Jabba the Hut's lair. Luke has grown in his Jedi training, but only a confrontation with Darth Vader will make the transformation complete, and its a showdown Luke wants to avoid now that familial ties have been revealed. The Rebellion once again plans to destroy the Death Star before it becomes functional by eliminating the force field surrounding it generated by a base on a nearby planet, but the Emperor isn't a fool, and has a few surprises up his sleeve.

Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back | Irvin Kershner

Sun, 01 Oct 2017 20:39:02 +0000

The Empire Strikes Back continues the Star Wars saga in exciting fashion, with the Empire now having driven the Rebels from their secret base to another on an ice planet called Hoth. The Empire eventually locates this new base, forcing an evacuation, whereupon a more experienced Luke is told by the "spirit" (aka Force Ghost) of Obi-Wan Kenobi to seek out a wise and powerful Jedi instructor named Yoda for training. Meanwhile, romance is brewing between Han Solo and Princess Leia,, but Han has problems of his own as he is plagued by bounty hunters and the Empire out to nab him. Excitement erupts as Luke and Vader meet face to face, and some startling revelations occur.

Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977) | George Lucas

Mon, 25 Sep 2017 20:08:45 +0000

The inaugural review of the 1980's film retrospective, looking at George Lucas' monumental blockbuster. Yes, it's from 1977, but it's mandatory to cover in order to comment on the later films. The plot: A couple of robots shuttle to a desert planet after their rebel spaceship is taken over by an Imperial star cruiser, capturing everyone on board including the Rebel Alliance princess, Leia. Leia has sent the robots to Tatooine to convey a message to a man named Obi-Wan Kenobi, who she claims is the only hope left for the rebels to beat the evil Empire. A pair of Tatooine farmers buy the droids after they are captured by some scavengers to use on their farm, and after the farmer boy, Luke,discovers the princess' message, he heads to Obi-Wan to deliver it. While he is away, his family is killed by the Empire seeking the droids, as they make their escape from the planet with the aid of a galactic smuggler named Han Solo, and make their way to help the princess, who is now aboard a space station powerful enough to destroy an entire planet in seconds, the Death Star, to which the rebels have obtained plans that reveal a weakness to destroy it -- if only their home base doesn't get destroyed first.