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Debaser Film

Stripes

This was one of my favorite movies — or at least comedies — when I was a kid, and it’s funny to watch it now and see that it has a pretty decent amount of nudity. It’s still pretty fun, with a great cast, and yeah, some things haven’t aged particularly well (that ol’ 80s sexism that constantly pops up as I re-watch these movies), but I still got a nostalgic kick out of most of it, and it was fun to see how a lot of the scenes ended up feeling so familiar, even though I’m sure I haven’t watched this since back then (which is probably a sign that I watched it quite a few times).

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Debaser Film

Friday the 13th Part 2

As I was reminded during the opening recap of this movie (and strangely enough, it’s quite extensive, at like 5-10 minutes), the ending of the first film — that sees Jason jumping out of the water to attack the girl in the boat — is a fantastic sequence, and although most of this film is a bore, I really did get a kick out of the similarly presented climax shot. The fact that I wasn’t expecting it made it that much better (and surprising). I’d say that the last half hour or so of this is decent, as we get to the business of what Jason does best, but it takes a while to get there, and that early journey isn’t really that interesting. But again, kudos on that ending.

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Debaser Film

For Your Eyes Only

When I do these movie marathons I usually don’t include the Bond film from that year, since I re-watch them so often, but it had been a while since I had watched For Your Eyes Only, so as I kicked off my 1981 movie marathon, I was in the mood to watch it. I’ve usually considered this to be one of the better Moore films, and I think I still feel that way. The soundtrack is godawful though, which really ruins a lot of the scenes, and the villain is pretty boring. It’s interesting how many parallels I noticed to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service though — on top of the visit to the gravesite of Bond’s deceased wife, we get action on a beach, ski and bobsled action, and he teams up with a criminal not unlike his “father-in-law.” OHMSS is of course the better film.

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Debaser Film

Raiders of the Lost Ark

I figured I’d be taking a longer break after finishing my 1990 movie marathon, but I’ve been itching to get going on 1981, and this Saturday morning, Raiders of the Lost Ark felt like a perfect way to start it. I think I can say that this is probably my favorite film of all time, or at least my favorite action/adventure film. Every single time I watch it I still enjoy it immensely, and I can barely find any faults in it. I also just love this setting so damn much, and that’s why I’m pretty bummed that the next Indiana Jones film they’re making is again going to star Harrison Ford as Indy, since I imagine the setting will be something like the 70s so that it makes sense with Ford/Indy’s age, and that’s not what I really want with this series. I want an old school adventures set in the 40s with the Nazis as the villains, and so that’s why I would much rather they do a reboot.

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Film

Like it’s 1990

Well, here we go, another year-based movie marathon done (previously 1967196819771978, 19801985198619871988, and 1989), this time for 1990. I started it quite a few months ago, stopped for a while (in part for my October marathon), and then started up again in December to finish it now. There are still a few films that I was originally planning on watching, like Flatliners, The Two Jakes, and Miller’s Crossing, but I felt like it was time to stop and move on to something else — I actually started watching Miller’s Crossing, but for some reason wasn’t getting into it at all, even though I used to consider it a fave. So I end it at 25 movies, which I think is a decent number — and I’ll say it was a pretty good year for films, and I quite enjoyed the vast majority of what I watched. Next up I’ll be taking a little break from marathons to catch up on various newer releases, but the next marathon will be for 1981, and I already have a long list of things I want to watch. Below, the list of all the movies from 1990 that I watched, with links to my short write-ups (or just go to the “1990” tag to see them all together).

  1. Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams
  2. Another 48 Hours
  3. Back to the Future Part III
  4. Child’s Play 2
  5. Dances With Wolves
  6. Darkman
  7. Days of Thunder
  8. Die Hard 2
  9. Edward Scissorhands
  10. Goodfellas
  11. La Femme Nikita
  12. Misery
  13. Nightbreed
  14. Predator 2
  15. Presumed Innocent
  16. Robocop 2
  17. Tales From the Darkside
  18. The Exorcist III
  19. The Godfather Part III
  20. The Hunt for Red October
  21. The Russia House
  22. Total Recall
  23. Quigley Down Under
  24. Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael
  25. Wild at Heart