[6] The ‘Nerds’ return for a slightly inferior sequel centering around a fraternity conference in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, where the adversarial Alpha Beta fraternity frames the nerds for a crime they didn’t commit and tries to get them expelled from the fraternal order. Robert Carradine returns as the lead nerd, but Anthony Edwards takes a cameo role (maybe he was busy shooting Top Gun?) this …
[4] Christopher Reeve returns as the ‘man of steel,’ along with several of his supporting players. Unfortunately, the third time is not a charm. The screenplay is a fractured, incoherent mess. We get the Richard Pryor character’s rise to influence, Clark Kent’s return to Smallville, and Superman’s battle with a super-computer all in one movie. Director Richard Lester returns (after directing part of Superman II), …
[5] Albert Finney, Gregory Hines, Edward James Olmos, and Diane Venora star in this thriller about ancient shapeshifters lashing out at New York land developers for encroaching on their sacred ground. The wolf attacks are depicted with steadicam point-of-view shots and colored photography, which isn’t all that cool the first time, much less the second or third. The cast all do great jobs, especially Olmos, …
[6] Razorback is a passable midnight horror movie from Russell Mulcahy, who would go on to direct the cult fave Highlander a few years later. Razorback is about a giant boar that terrorizes the Australian outback. After an American reporter disappears, her husband (Gregory Harrison) goes down under to investigate. He’s aided by an old hunter (Bill Kerr) who has been tracking the big piggy ever …
[7] Dee Wallace plays a TV reporter who escapes to the country after a traumatic experience. Unfortunately, the country turns out to be filled with werewolves! The Howling is a well-made horror flick from director Joe Dante (Gremlins), who likes to mix genuine scares with tongue-in-cheek humor. The werewolf effects, created primarily by Rob Bottin, are pretty darned good. The wolves themselves are gigantic, large-eared …
[7] Producer Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters) wrangled together animation companies from around the world to assemble Heavy Metal, a string of six animated shorts based on the popular adult fantasy magazine. The stories are tied together by a loose framing device involving an ominous green orb that destroys everything it encounters. My personal favorite sequences are “B-17”, which depicts a zombie attack aboard a WWII bomber …
[5] This live-action Disney flick starts off interesting, with a 12-year old boy suddenly finding himself eight years in the future without having aged a day. Turns out he was the target of an alien abduction, and his abductor now needs his help to get home. The last half of the movie sees the boy flying around in a space craft with an incredibly annoying …
[7] Director Kathryn Bigelow (Strange Days, The Hurt Locker) serves up a stylish, brooding vampire tale set in the southwest. I dig Bigelow’s tone, atmosphere, and terrific casting. Bigelow tapped into the Aliens ensemble to cast Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, and Jenette Goldstein as a family of nomadic vamps. Paxton and Henriksen bring much-needed energy to the somber storytelling in a pair of fearless, over …
[7] The sequel is more of the same, but that’s not always a bad thing. There’s enough talent in front of and behind the cameras in the Lethal Weapon movies to warrant at least one or two entertaining sequels. The plot is a bit less compelling, and the love story with Patsy Kensit is haphazardly tacked on, but there’s plenty of action and fun banter …
[8] Mel Gibson and Danny Glover star in this definitive ‘buddy cop’ movie directed by Richard Donner (Superman, The Omen). What sets this apart from its imitators are the well-rounded characters created by screenwriter Shane Black, and the engaging chemistry between Gibson and Glover. Lethal Weapon is a highly polished action flick. In addition to Donner’s slick staging, the film also sports terrific night-time cinematography …
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