Tremors (1990)

Number Rolled: 89

Movie Name/Year: Tremors (1990)

Genre: Horror

Length: 96 minutes

Rating: PG-13

Director: Ron Underwood

Writer: S. S. Wilson, Brent Maddock, Ron Underwood

Actors: Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross, Reba McEntire, Robert Jayne (as Bobby Jacoby), Charlotte Stewart, Tony Genaro, Ariana Richards, Richard Marcus, Victor Wong, Sunshine Parker, Michael Dan Wagner, Conrad Bachmann, Bibi Besch, John Goodwin, John Pappas

Val and Earl are two do-it-all handymen from Perfection Valley. After a rather disgusting incident, the two men decide to pack it all in and leave town for a more populated area where they might be able to get more work. Murphy’s law has other plans for them. They stumble upon a cute college student researching seismology and some very frightening deaths. Eventually, the way out of town is cut off and they are forced to stay with the other residents, attempting to survive the onslaught of weird creatures coming up from the dirt.

This is one of those movie I would say I’d never seen, and the person I was talking to would gasp as if I’d just said a “yo mama” joke. (That reference works since this is a 90’s movie. I swear.) It’s a creature feature, so I never really thought anything of it. I figured, if anything, it was probably one of those movies so bad that it made you laugh milk out of your nose. I get it now. This movie was awesome. As a creature feature it’s right up there with the “Jurassic Park” series.

Sometimes I’m a fan of Kevin Bacon and sometimes he annoys the hell out of me. In this, it was the former. Kevin Bacon makes one hell of a hick. Fred Ward was just as believable – so was the story. One of my favorite things was when the college student finally asked why they kept asking her for the answers. Movies tend to offer the assumption that every student far along in the studies of their major can translate their knowledge to everything else. This movie didn’t do too much of that.

I understand why this is a cult horror movie, it simply blew my mind. It was a B-movie that grasped my attention just as much, or more, than most movies I see in the theater’s now-a-days. I’m not taking any points off for graphics, mainly because this was a 90’s movie with a low budget and they managed to get things looking amazing anyway. If anything, I give them MORE credit.

In the end, I feel like this movie stood the test of time, which isn’t always easy.

Overall Opinion – 5/5

P.S. As I was half-way through this movie, just as one of the creatures burrowed out of the ground, an enormous centipede crawled just above my TV and scared the hell out of me. The producers should have paid that bug. I haven’t screamed like that while watching a movie since I was thirteen.

Cry-Baby (1990)

Number Rolled: 57

Movie Name/Year: Cry-Baby (1990)

Genre: Comedy

Length: 85 minutes

Rating: NR

Director: John Waters

Writer: John Waters

Actors: Johnny Depp, Amy Locane, Susan Tyrrell, Polly Bergen, Iggy Pop, Ricki Lake, Traci Lords, Kim McGuire, Darren E. Burrows, Stephen Mailer, Kim Webb

Cry-Baby is like taking the cheesiest version of Grease you can imagine and making it cheesier. It’s fried cheese covered cheese with cheese dipping sauce. Predictable, impossible, hilarious and awesome.

               

Johnny Depp never ceases to amaze me in his acting. I think he could pull off absolutely anything that is thrown at him. Regardless of what it is, era, genre, good guy, bad guy, just doesn’t matter. He has been in much better and much more serious movies, but he was just as good and seemed to put just as much effort in this movie. He is a true professional. I also wonder if he might be immortal because he’s just as hot today as he was back then. Perhaps he’s just so good that he’s convinced time itself that he’s younger.

The music is quite catchy, from softer tunes like “Sandman” to harder ones like “Highschool Hellcats,” each has its amusing little place in the movie.

Granted, it’s not a movie that’s for everyone. You have to like kitschy musicals or you might as well just flip on by this one. It’s good, but it’s not your usual everyday movie. Because it’s such an exclusive thing – as cult as it might be – I had to take away a point. But don’t take that to mean that I personally wouldn’t suggest this movie to every person I think might like it.

Overall Opinion – 4/5

Problem Child (1990)

Number Rolled: 13

Movie Name/Year: Problem Child (1990)

Genre: Comedy

Length: 81 minutes

Rating: PG

Director: Dennis Dugan

Writer: Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski

Actors: John Ritter, Amy Yasbeck, Michael Oliver, Jack Warden, Michael Richards, Gilbert Gottfried

I don’t care what anyone says. I loved this movie when I was a child and I love it even more now that I’m an adult. Granted, Gilbert Godfried is ridiculous and his voice makes me want to punch a kitten – but he is a very minor aspect of the movie. John Ritter played his part VERY well and Michael Oliver was fantastic – especially for a kid.

This movie shows an orphan with behavioral problems after being consistently abandoned by the people he is supposed to be able to trust. He acts out in horrible ways, while a family that was conned into adopting him attempts to cope. With a storyline like that, this movie could have easily been crap as a comedy and spectacular as a drama. Luckily, Dennis Dugan, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski knew what they were doing. Putting it from the viewpoint of Junior, the orphan child, was also a very big risk that paid off.

In the end, the story is deeper than one would expect from a comedy of this sort, but almost expected of the director, Dennis Dugan, if you look at the films he worked on after this one such as: Big Daddy, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, The Benchwarmers and Grown Ups. All comedies that are relatively to extremely funny but with underlying lessons and deeper meanings than there seems.

All in all, I love the entire Problem Child series. Also, I’d love to know what became of Michael Oliver. Even IMDB pulled up nothing. Where is he now?

Overall Opinion – 4.5/5