1990’s

[8] See review of the Nightbreed theatrical cut here. Clive Barker’s Nightbreed was originally released in 1990, dumped onto a handful of screens by the studio and barely marketed. It was a financial failure, and for the director it was also a creative one. Barker was forced by the studio to compromise his original vision, dropping key plot elements, shooting new scenes and an alternate …

[8] Nightbreed, directed by Clive Barker and based on his book Cabal, wants to be a sprawling horror-fantasy epic for the ages. But the multifaceted story is told so quickly and haphazardly in the studio’s cut of the film, the end result is something between whiplash and total discombobulation. As messy as the end result is, I still really admire the sheer ambition behind the …

[4] Ethan Hawke stars in this action comedy about a shy high school boy whose older brother sets him up on a date with the girl next door. While Mystery Date starts out like a John Hughes movie, it quickly transforms into a proto-Tarantino flick when Hawke’s character gets mistaken for his brother, whose been living a shady lifestyle behind the family’s back. Cue the …

[5] While digging a pool, two high school losers (Sean Astin and Pauly Shore) discover a caveman frozen in ice in their own back yard. They introduce him to the twentieth century and take him to school, hoping he’ll improve their cool factor. And after that, I’m not really sure what Encino Man was about. It was probably trying to be about the caveman teaching …

[8] This British independent flick is a far better gay ‘coming out’ movie than most. Glen Berry plays Jamie, a teenager who skips school to avoid harassment during gym class, and Scott Neal plays Ste, Jamie’s next door neighbor. When Ste’s father and brother get particularly abusive, he asks to stay over night with Jamie — and you can probably guess what happens from there. …

[4] Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr star in this action-comedy about American pilots who get caught up in a government-sanctioned opium trade in Vietnam War-era Laos. Once the pilots realize they’re about to be framed by one of their commanders to appease a head-hunting politician, they have to find a way to save their reputations and their lives. Air America is kinda heady stuff …

[7] Jeff Bridges stars in this taut thriller, playing a widower and single father who suspects his next door neighbors (Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack) may be terrorists. Director Mark Pellington works from Ehren Kruger’s tense, devious screenplay (winner of the Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting). Bridges is reliably great, taking paranoia and desperation to a whole new level — you are guaranteed to root for …

[7] The Irwin Allen disaster epic is alive and well in this 1996 summer blockbuster in which evil aliens threaten to destroy Earth, leaving it up to a rag-tag team of politicians, soldiers, and scientists (plus a drunken crop-duster and a pole dancer!), to save humanity. The writing and directing team of Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin (Stargate, Godzilla) almost strike the perfect tone for …

[5] Bird on a Wire is a big, goofy Hollywood action spectacular with two likeable stars at its center. Mel Gibson plays an FBI informant in witness protection and Goldie Hawn plays an old flame he left at the altar when the feds reassigned him a new identity. Now they’re reunited and on the lam from a dirty fed and his hit men. This is …

[3] I want to be nice to this movie because so many of my friends adore it. But I’ve pondered this review for over a month and can’t put it off any longer. I don’t like this movie. Like, at all. I’m not even sure how to review the damned thing. Did I enjoy watching it? No.  Do I appreciate it? Parts of it.  Peter …

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