Basic Instinct (1992)

Basic Instinct (1992)

[8] Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop, Soldier of Orange) directs this sexually super-charged Hitchcockian thriller about a San Francisco detective (Michael Douglas) investigating a seductive writer (Sharon Stone) about a murder case that plays out similar to one of her novels. As…
Nightbreed: The Director’s Cut (1990/2014)

Nightbreed: The Director’s Cut (1990/2014)

[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…
Nightbreed (1990)

Nightbreed (1990)

[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…
Mystery Date (1991)

Mystery Date (1991)

[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…
Encino Man (1992)

Encino Man (1992)

[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…
Beautiful Thing (1996)

Beautiful Thing (1996)

[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…
Air America (1990)

Air America (1990)

[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…
Arlington Road (1999)

Arlington Road (1999)

[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…
Independence Day (1996)

Independence Day (1996)

[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…
Bird on a Wire (1990)

Bird on a Wire (1990)

[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…