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Debaser Film

Darkman

I remember really liking Darkman back in the day. Watching it now, there’s still a lot to like in it — and for me it’s really all of the manic sequences that pop up throughout, my favorite being the one where he dances around with the tin hat, which feels so Evil Dead 2/Army of Darkness-ish. What I like are the Raimi-isms you get, and the rest is a bit of bore — the first 30 minutes or so of the movie are especially slowgoing, and it was really only in the second half that I was getting into it. It was fun to revisit though.

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Debaser Film

Predator 2

I decided to kick off my 1990 movie marathon with this for some reason. I seem to remember that it didn’t get a great reaction when it originally came out, mostly because of the lack of Arnie, but I think it was interesting to do something so different for the sequel, and to use a completely different setting (city instead of jungle). I didn’t remember the Robocop-like media parody though. The film came out in 1990, but it’s set in the far future of 1997, with everyone seemingly having a gun (and futuristic guns at that), and Morton Downey Jr. hosting an exploitive tabloid news show. As for the movie itself, it was alright, but I think it’s mostly let down by the direction — there’s an action sequence set in subway cars that’s especially annoying because it’s constantly strobing and you can’t tell what’s going on, and it lasts 5-10 minutes.

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Film

Like it’s 1980

I’ve decided to fold out on my 1980 movie marathon at only five movies. I was planning on watching about a dozen, but considering that I watched the first one in February and it’s now August, I figure it’s time to move on. As with all of my other year-based marathons (1967196819771978198519861987, 1988, and 1989), I am glad I watched those movies, but for some reason I just haven’t been in the mood to watch more, even though I had stuff like Superman II, The Blues Brothers, and The Shining on my list (although for Shining, I did watch it fairly recently, so wasn’t particularly interested in revisiting it again so soon). So next up I move to 1990, which I’m actually quite excited about, and just quickly drawing up a list last night I already had about 40 films (I imagine I’ll end up watching 20-30). But here are my thoughts on the five films from 1980 I did watch, which you can also find under this tag.

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Debaser Film

Caddyshack

Well, this is one of these revisits that I feel went against my fond memories of the film. Can’t say I really enjoyed it as much as I thought I would. I think the biggest offender is Chevy Chase, whose character here just annoyed me — nothing he does makes any sense, and even worse, it’s just not really funny. Murray is wacky, but it’s not all that funny either as it’s too cartoony. Sure, it has its moments here and there, but overall it was a disappointment.

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Debaser Film

Smokey and the Bandit II

I had a good time when I re-watched the first one not that long ago, and this one was pretty fun too. Sure, it’s dumb and ridiculous and over-the-top, but that’s what makes you want to watch it. They sure don’t make movies like this anymore — which is maybe for the best, or maybe not. Either way, I’m a bit surprised at how much I’m enjoying this 1980 re-watch so far.

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Debaser Film

Airplane

How’s this for a double bill — after watching Saturn 3, I immediately followed-up with this. I guess I needed a silly comedy as a chaser, and Airplane does indeed fit that bill. I wasn’t expecting much from this re-watch, but instead was pleasantly surprised by just how much I ended up laughing — I feel like when I revisited a Naked Gun film recently, it didn’t feel as enjoyable. It’s maybe because I watched this film so many times as a kid, so the jokes felt like such a pleasant nostalgic flashback. Surely. (And stop calling me Shirley.)

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Debaser Film

Saturn 3

After kicking off my 1980 movie marathon back in February with the original Friday the 13th film, it’s taken until now to watch another movie from 1980, and for some reason I decided to start by watching something I had in fact never watched before. I definitely remember the VHS box, with that imposing robotic silhouette, and I did like sci-fi even back then, but I guess I was never interested enough to watch it (and it was considered a bad movie). So curiosity got the best of me, and I gave it a watch, and I’m glad I did. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a good movie, but it’s an interesting — and definitely weird — one. It’s the execution mostly that fails, but I could see this as being a pretty neat story if it was presented as a graphic novel. It’s also funny to see Harvey Keitel playing a character like this — and I’d say, badly — but I don’t regret at all spending time on this.

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Debaser Film

Friday the 13th (1980)

So here we go, the start of my movie marathon for 1980 — my plan right now is to watch 10-15 movies. I’ve been watching a lot of Friday the 13th movies over the last couple of years (all of the ones released between 1985 and 1989), and so I figured it was about time to watch the one that started it all. I honestly can’t remember if I ever watched it — it’s possible I did at some point, but I had no real memory of it. As I was watching it, I kept thinking, man, it’s amazing that this is what marked the start of such an iconic franchise, since for the most part it’s a pretty bad movie. But then that final sequence happens (the one in the middle of the lake), and that’s when the magic — and the birth of a franchise — happens. But yeah, for the most part, it’s not a very enjoyable film to watch (even with Kevin Bacon in the mix), and although it gets more exciting once Mrs. Voorhees shows up, her performance unfortunately drags it down (or is just too laughable). But hey, it does make me curious to watch the second one, and I guess that’s what all good franchises do, make you look forward to the next one.

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Film

Like it’s 1989

It took a while to complete it — and I blame Star Trek V for that — but I’m now done with my latest year-based movie marathon (following 1967196819771978198519861987, and 1988) with the below list of 21 movies released in 1989. Why 21? I do usually like to keep it to a round number (10 or 20), and had planned to stop at 20, but then the day I was going to write this post I read a feature in Empire magazine about the madness that was the making of Tango and Cash, and felt like I needed to watch it — it’s also fitting that it came out at the tail end of 1989 (end of December), and so is considered to be the last 80s blockbuster. Below is the full list of the movies I watched, with links to each mini-review I wrote — you can also find them all through the “1989” category. What’s next? Next year I will be hitting 1990, but before that I plan on revisiting 1980 — this whole movie marathon endeavor started with 1985, so I still have the first half of the 80s to revisit.

  1. Back to the Future Part II
  2. Batman
  3. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
  4. Black Rain
  5. Christmas Vacation
  6. Dead Poets Society
  7. Do the Right Thing
  8. Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
  9. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
  10. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
  11. Lethal Weapon 2
  12. License to Kill
  13. Major League
  14. Mystery Train
  15. Patlabor: The Movie
  16. Police Academy 6: City Under Siege
  17. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
  18. Tango and Cash
  19. The Abyss
  20. The Killer
  21. The Wizard
Categories
Debaser Film

Tango & Cash

I was supposed to be done with my 1989 movie marathon at 20 films (finishing up with Dead Poets Society), but then this morning I read a feature in the latest issue of Empire magazine about the fiasco that was the making of Tango & Cash, and so I just had to watch it. It’s also a movie that came out at the very end of 1989, and so is considered the last blockbuster movie of the 1980s. Was it worth it? Hmmm… Not really, it’s not really good, and that’s the reason I hadn’t included it in my initial selection of movies to watch for that year. But I don’t regret watching it, as it was still fun to see what was described in the article actually happen in the movie — basically, the entire third act, which was pretty much written on the fly.