“The girl of my dreams is a vegetable!”
The Scoop: 1988 PG, directed by John De Bello and starring Karen Mistal, John Astin, and George Clooney
Tagline: The vegetables of doom return! They’re bad and this time they’re really stewed!
Summary Capsule: The nasty tomatoes are back, and a new (80s) generation rise up to fight the menace. Plus, there’s this really cute babe.
“I’m the guy that keeps Mr. Dead in his pocket.”
The Scoop: 1985 PG-13, directed by George Miller and George Ogilvie and starring Mel Gibson, Tina Turner, Angelo Rossitto, Paul Larsson, Angry Anderson, Helen Buday, Frank Thring and Robert Grubb.
Tagline: Hold out for Mad Max. This is his greatest adventure.
Summary Capsule: A futuristic parable involving Max, some kids, Tina Turner in chain-mail, and lots and lots of pigs. Read the rest of this entry »
“Look at yourself. You couldn’t drive a wheelchair.”
The Scoop: 1981 R, directed by George Miller and starring Mel Gibson, Bruce Spence, and Michael Preston
Tagline: In the future, cities will become deserts, roads will become battlefields and the hope of mankind will appear as a stranger.
Summary Capsule: A car-driving anti-hero defends a small community in post-apocalyptic Australia
“Think I got eyes in my butt?” “That’s where your brains are.”
The Scoop: 1988 R, directed by Donald Petrie and starring Annabeth Gish, Julia Roberts, Lili Taylor, and Vincent D’Onofrio
Tagline: Discover a movie which hits home about love, friendship, dreams and life. A movie that you’ll be talking about long afterwards. Experience something special, something romantic, something honest.
Summary Capsule: 3 girls, in limbo between high school and college, learn about life, love and damn good pizza.
A familiar term nowadays amongst TV watchers is the ‘Firefly effect’ – in other words, getting really into a new show only for it to be cancelled with breathtaking rapidity. When grumbling about this, though, it’s important to remember that it is not a recent phenomenon; it’s been happening since the invention of the TV and/or radio. A show will gain a loyal fanbase who are just itching to see what happens next, and then, out of the blue – nothing happens next, because the show is gone.
This is always a pity, but the mere fact that it has a loyal fanbase will keep it alive, if not active, thereby attaining the rarified status of ‘cult’. My question, therefore, is this – does the Firefly effect still apply when the show in question has been off the air for years, and I never saw it during its initial run?
Ah, well. I’m gonna review it anyway. Read the rest of this entry »
“I just want them to know that they didn’t break me.”
The Scoop: 1986 PG-13, directed by Howard Deutch and starring Molly Ringwald, Jon Cryer, James Spader and Andrew McCarthy
Tagline: He’s crazy about her. She’s crazy about him. He’s just crazy.
Summary Capsule: John Hughes pens a love triangle between a cowardly rich boy, a poor girl, and a raving loon. Er, Duckie.
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“Killian, here’s your Subzero, now plain zero.”
Scoop: 1987 R, directed by Paul Michael Glaser and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jesse Ventura, and Richard Dawson
Tagline: The year is 2019. The finest men in America don’t run for President. They run for their lives.
Summary Capsule: Arnold is decked out in BananaGearTM and forced to participate in a brutal game show.
“Nothin’ like a good piece of hickory.”
The Scoop: 1985, R, Directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Clint Eastwood, Richard Kiel and Michael Moriarty.
Tagline: Hell has come home.
Summary Capsule: The Man With No Name saves a mining settlement with no hope.
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“My lady, I am a hero, and heroes know that things must happen when it is time for them to happen. A quest may not simply be abandoned; unicorns may go unrescued for a long time, but not forever. The happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story.”
The Scoop: 1982 G, directed by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr. and starring Mia Farrow, Alan Arkin, Tammy Grimes, Angela Lansbury, Jeff Bridges, Christopher Lee, Brother Theodore, Robert Klein and Rene Auberjenois.
Tagline: There’s Magic in Believing!
Summary Capsule: A unicorn seeks to discover the whereabouts of the rest of her kind. Tragedy and adventure follow. Read the rest of this entry »
“Don’t expect it to tango. It has a broken back.”
The Scoop: R 1985, directed by Stuart Gordon and starring Jeffrey Combs, David Gale, Barbara Crampton and Bruce Abbott.
Tagline: Herbert West has a very good head on his shoulders… and another in a dish on his desk.
Summary Capsule: Mad scientist just wants to reanimate the dead in peace, but a series of events leads him into a bloody, luminescent green confrontation with all the other (many) mad scientists at his university. Read the rest of this entry »
