Dragon Forever (1988) – DVD

April 15, 2001Posted in1980s, Authors: Bill Chambers, Comedy, DVD, Hong Kong, Jackie Chan, Martial Arts, Romance

Dragons Forever
飛龍猛將
Fei lung mang jeung
***/**** Image C Sound A –
starring Jackie Chan, Samo Hung, Yuen Biao, Corey Yuen Kwai
screenplay by Szeto Cheuk Hon
directed by Sammo Hung & Corey Yuen

by Bill Chambers To my mind, the formation of “the three kung-fu-teers”–Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, and Yuen Biao–was more of a shock than their eventual break-up. The latter two are portrayed as the former’s punching bags in Chan’s autobiography, I Am Jackie Chan, whose early chapters recount the Dickensian power structure at the China Drama Academy, known colloquially as the Peking Opera School. The school’s unforgiving master sanctioned his older pupils (collectively, “Big Brothers”) to administer swift, cruel punishments to the younger students; the wrath of Hung, the biggest Brother of them all (in body mass as well as reputation), seemed measureless and reserved explicitly for Chan and Biao. At least in Jackie’s memory.

Do the Right Thing (1989) [The Criterion Collection] – DVD

February 14, 2001Posted in****/****, 1980s, Authors: Vincent Suarez, Directors: Spike Lee, Drama, DVD, FFC Must-Own, The Criterion Collection

****/**** Image A Sound A- Extras A+
starring Danny Aiello, Spike Lee, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn
written and directed by Spike Lee

Mustownby Vincent Suarez SPOILER WARNING IN EFFECT. I was one of the few Caucasians who defied the tabloid pundits and ventured into a New York City theatre to see Do the Right Thing in the summer of 1989. Seated beside me were not rioters, but a tiny African-American child very much like the sidewalk artist appearing both in the film and on its posters. Her mother and I got a kick out of her enthusiastic dancing to the strains of the Public Enemy tune that drives the credit sequence, and she spent the next two hours bobbing in her seat, softly singing “fight the power” whenever Radio Raheem’s box would blare its anthem.

When Harry Met Sally… (1989) [Special Edition] + Prelude to a Kiss (1992) – DVDs

January 8, 2001Posted in1980s, 1990s, Authors: Bill Chambers, Comedy, Drama, DVD, Esoterica, Romance

WHEN HARRY MET SALLY…
***½/**** Image A Sound B Extras B+
starring Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher, Bruno Kirby
screenplay by Nora Ephron
directed by Rob Reiner

PRELUDE TO A KISS
***/**** Image B Sound B
starring Alec Baldwin, Meg Ryan, Kathy Bates, Ned Beatty
screenplay by Craig Lucas, based on his play
directed by Norman Rene

by Bill Chambers Meg Ryan, the Princess of Perk, gets a makeshift career retrospective this month with the DVD releases of three high-profile gigs: When Harry Met Sally…, Prelude to a Kiss, and The Doors. I’m forsaking any further mention of The Doors to focus on the first two–delightful, whimsical films, unlike The Doors–and Ryan’s romantic-comedy stranglehold. Call it the curse of the button nose: the actress, who is more talented than anyone, myself included, is willing to admit, seems out of her element by a country mile in pictures that don’t require her to meet cute and kvetch over the subsequent courtship. And now that she’s pushing 40, Ryan is becoming to chick flicks what Stallone and Schwarzenegger were to actioners after Clinton got elected: we’re sick to death of seeing her in these Nora Ephron-type movies–yet, as Proof of Life, um, proved, we also don’t want to see her in anything but.

The Fly/The Fly 2 [Fox Double Feature] – DVD

September 12, 2000Posted in1980s, Authors: Vincent Suarez, Canada, Directors: David Cronenberg, Drama, DVD, France, Horror, Romance, Sci-Fi, UK

THE FLY (1986)
***½/**** Image A Sound B
starring Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, John Getz
screenplay by Charles Edward Pogue and David Cronenberg
directed by David Cronenberg

The Fly II (1989)
*/**** Image B- Sound B
starring Eric Stoltz, Daphne Zuniga, Lee Richardson, Harley Cross
screenplay by Mick Garris and Jim & Ken Wheat and Frank Darabont
directed by Chris Walas

by Vincent Suarez

“Long live the new flesh.” — Max Renn, David Cronenberg’s Videodrome (1983)

“I must not know enough about the flesh. I’ve got to learn more.” — Seth Brundle, David Cronenberg’s The Fly (1986)

“I want it out of my body … now!” — Veronica Quaife, David Cronenberg’s The Fly (1986)

SPOILER WARNING IN EFFECT. David Cronenberg’s most memorable and profound films are a unique blend of fascination, celebration, inquisitiveness, and horror with regard to the possibilities of the flesh. Hollywood’s most memorable and profound monster movies (Bride of Frankenstein, King Kong (1933), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)) are a similarly mystical mingling of romance, repulsion, and overwhelming sympathy with regard to the creature. It’s no wonder, then, that Cronenberg’s The Fly is essentially the genetic splicing of his trademark obsessions with these hallowed genre conventions. In making the material his own, the pathos generated by Cronenberg’s fusion of elements raises the film’s status from mere remake of the campy 1958 original to masterpiece.

F/X (1986) + FX2 (1991) – DVDs

June 15, 2000Posted in1980s, 1990s, Action, Authors: Bill Chambers, DVD, Thriller

F/X
**½/**** Image C+ Sound B-
starring Bryan Brown, Brian Dennehy, Diane Venora, Cliff DeYoung
screenplay by Robert T. Megginson & Gregory Fleeman
directed by Robert Mandel

BUY @ AMAZON.COM

FX2
**/**** Image B+ Sound B
starring Bryan Brown, Brian Dennehy, Rachel Ticotin, Joanna Gleason
screenplay Bill Condon
directed by Richard Franklin

BUY @ AMAZON.COM

by Bill Chambers F/X is only 14 years old, and yet it seems to be in a forgotten language like those modern-dress Shakespeare adaptations. I'm risking hyperbole here because practical effects are a dying art in the face of CGI. Today's motion-picture illusionist is primarily a computer animator, a trade that just doesn't lend itself to the sort of ingenuity the movie celebrates. The Tom Savinis of this world are rapidly becoming an endangered species.

The Hidden (1987) – DVD

May 15, 2000Posted in1980s, Authors: Vincent Suarez, DVD, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

***/**** Image A- Sound A- Extras B
starring Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Nouri, Claudia Christian
screenplay by Bob Hunt
directed by Jack Sholder

by Vincent Suarez The plot elements of screenwriter Jim Kouf’s (here hiding his identity behind the pseudonym Bob Hunt) science-fiction thriller The Hidden are so basic, so endemic to the genre, that the shape they take is largely dependent on the era in which they find expression. In the golden age of sci-fi, the 1950s, this tale of a malevolent alien being–with political aspirations, no less–transforming a bevy of formerly benign human hosts into murderers would have perfectly complemented “Red Scare” allegories like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. 20 years later, director David Cronenberg’s oft-explored themes of biological horror would have melded nicely with the gorier aspects of the alien’s existence. Today, the sci-fi/detective ingredients of the story might make for a classic episode of “The X-Files”. As it stands, Jack Sholder’s eerie and effective The Hidden is very much a product of its time, the late-1980s, in ways that are both flattering and detrimental.

Back to School (1986) – DVD

April 17, 2000Posted in1980s, Authors: Bill Chambers, Comedy, DVD, Sports

**½/**** Image D+ Sound B-
starring Rodney Dangerfield, Sally Kellerman, Burt Young, Keith Gordon
screenplay by Steven Kampmann & Will Porter and Peter Torokvei & Harold Ramis
directed by Alan Metter

by Bill Chambers Rodney Dangerfield, alas, still gets no respect. Recently the comic was denied membership to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, allegedly on the basis of his profane turn as an abusive father in Natural Born Killers. (Gee, I thought demonstrating range and talent would be two guarantees of an actor’s admittance into the Oscar-voting body.) The poor showings for his last two screen outings, Ladybugs and Meet Wally Sparks, have perhaps permanently sealed Dangerfield’s fate as a Vegas stand-up.

Revenge of the Nerds/Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise [Fox Double Feature] – DVD

March 6, 2000Posted in1980s, Authors: Bill Chambers, Comedy, DVD, Revenge, Teen

REVENGE OF THE NERDS (1984)
***½/**** Image A- Sound B+
starring Robert Carradine, Anthony Edwards, Ted McGinley, Bernie Casey
screenplay by Steve Zacharias & Jeff Buhai
directed by Jeff Kanew

REVENGE OF THE NERDS II: NERDS IN PARADISE (1987)
½*/**** Image A- Sound B+
starring Robert Carradine, Curtis Armstrong, Bradley Whitford, Courtney Thorne-Smith
screenplay by Dan Guntzelman & Steve Marshall
directed by Joe Roth

by Bill Chambers One's great, the other ain't, and that's the truth, Ruth. Revenge of the Nerds, too often lumped in with the T&A comedies that flanked its theatrical release (Up the Creek, Porky's Revenge, et al.), is a cinematic gem of exemplary construction–one of the best, most empathetic teen movies with which John Hughes was not affiliated. Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise, alas, sequelizes the trashy rep of its predecessor rather than the reality.

The Breakfast Club (1985) [Widescreen] – DVD

September 2, 1998Posted in1980s, Authors: Vincent Suarez, Comedy, Drama, DVD, John Hughes, Teen

***/**** Image A- Sound A-
starring Emilio Estevez, Paul Gleason, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson
written and directed by John Hughes

by Vincent Suarez Oh, how I wish I could hate The Breakfast Club. Maybe it’s because I was a geeky high-school senior in 1985, when the film was released, and I defiantly loathed anything that smacked of cool. Perhaps it’s because writer/producer/director John Hughes has been responsible for some of the most inane (e.g., Dutch, Curly Sue, Baby’s Day Out) and unnecessary (e.g., Flubber, Miracle on 34th Street, 101 Dalmatians) films in recent memory.