Batman’s boffo loomed large over the 90s, and Hollywood spent most of the decade scrambling for the next big superhero blockbuster franchise. They clearly didn’t know what worked. But they read down the checklist at least as far as Art Deco aesthetic and a classic IP grandpa would approve of. While Underoos A-listers like Superman … Read more
Many people had no idea Touchstone pictures was owned by Disney back in the day. And this wasn’t by accident. Then-Disney CEO Ron Miller created the label in 1984 so the mouse could release PG-13 and R-rated films without putting the castle on the poster, and thus keep Mickey far away from any F-bomb radiation. … Read more
Every now and then a movie comes along that was so clearly assembled from a checklist of things that sell, you can almost picture the meeting. A John Carpenter screenplay? Put his name on the poster. A cool-looking supercar? Put that on the poster too. Tommy Lee Jones, Linda Hamilton, Robert Vaughn? Recognisable, affordable, and … Read more
Warlock arrived on Home Video this week in 1991, after it premiered at Cannes in May of 1989. It opened in the UK and Australia that June of that year, then disappeared for eighteen months before finally getting a lukewarm US theatrical release on January 11th, 1991. New World Pictures went broke during the delay, … Read more
It all started out in 1984 as a Groundlings sketch by Wendy Goldman and Judy Toll. Then it became a play. That play ran for a year instead of eight weeks. Then Ivan Reitman saw a review in the LA Times, bought the rights, and handed the project to his wife Geneviève Robert as her … Read more
You take some X-Files, blend it with Splash, add a dash of The Terminator, and you got yourself a cocktail designed to get you tipsy enough to overlook its baser instincts. Director Roger Donaldson (who also made Cocktail, appropriately enough) knew exactly how to shake it. The A-list credentials were all in place to legitimize … Read more
1988 was a big year at the box office. Not 1989 big, but the studio slate was loaded with heavy hitters like Big, Roger Rabbit, Die Hard, Coming to America, and yes, even Crocodile Dundee II. So what chance did a poorly reviewed comedy about a talking horse set against the high-stakes world of stock … Read more
Alan Smithee was one of the most prolific directors of the 80s and 90s. His filmography includes Stitches (1985), Let’s Get Harry (1986) and he had a very busy year in 1990 with Gypsy Angels, The Shrimp on the Barbie, Catchfire and Solar Crisis. Morgan Stewart’s Coming Home (1987) is one of his better 80s … Read more
Tom Cruise caught fire in 1983. That scene where Cruise slides into frame in his tighty whities while Bob Seger blares about Old Time Rock and Roll became one of the most iconic images of the 80s. It echoed through the decade. Only that’s another movie. And I’m not talking about The Outsiders either. Before … Read more
You remember that optimism? That early 90s feeling that the future was just around the corner? We were at the tail end of a thousand-year stretch of rapid progress, and we’d just fast-forwarded through a century that took us from the horse and buggy to orbiting the earth by space shuttle. And half of those … Read more