Month: June 2022

While under observation of company inspector Keith David, garbagemen Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen find the body of a city councilmen stuffed in a garbage can. The trio try to cover up their discovery while avoiding the killers and an inept pair of bicycle cops. Occasionally funny, the film starts off as a different take on the buddy comedy, but quickly devolves into inanity with David being forced into a Hollywoodized stereotype of an unhinged war vet, an unnecessary romance, and a ridiculous, over the top ending. I like seeing the Estevez brothers working together, but even while their shared screen time is long, it’s not their best pairing.  

Someone is stalking Kathleen Beller, leaving her ominous notes in her locker at school and crank calling her even at the home where she’s babysitting. I had really expected this to be a slasher flick, similar to When a Stranger Calls or Black Christmas , but it’s actually a poignant made for television depiction of rape and the gaslighting and disbelief that almost every single person surrounding Beller have with regards to her concerns. Things aren’t much better now, but it’s incredible what 1970s culture had to offer when this young girl, who anticipates what is awaiting her, asks and then begs for help. Every man in her life, except maybe her new boyfriend who tries to be understanding, is toxic and the women around them support it. 

Two planets are situated in extreme proximity to each other so that one’s inhabitants can look up and see the inhabitants of the other. Kirsten Dunst and Jim Sturgess live on opposite planets, but manage to develop a friendship by meeting at high points on their respective worlds. I had been curious about this for awhile, but bad reviews kept me away. The romance is a really generic take on Romeo and Juliet and the entire premise requires a complete suspension of belief, but it is a really beautiful film with vague ideas that kept it interesting enough.    

Clues left behind by the murderers of his boss lead Detroit cop Eddie Murphy back to Los Angeles to investigate potential corruption at an amusement park. This part of the Beverly Hills Cop series misses any of the appeal of even the second installment . The plot is dumb, the dialogue is stilted, and Murphy’s character is too serious leaving a huge chasm where humor would have previously been. The only plus in the entire film is the location, which is used to at least decent effect.   

Eleven days before Christmas, Earth’s orbit passes through the tail of a comet. The next day, two sisters Catherine Mary Stewart and Kelli Maroney discover they are two of only a few people who survived the event unscathed. A really fun low-end 80s film, it has everything that makes the decade great. There’s plenty of neon, fashion, big hair, montages and shopping malls accompanied by a pretty great soundtrack. It’s really surprising this hasn’t become a well-known classic of the era. 

In the shadow of the 2008 Presidential election and the Great Recession, Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn are hired to rob a mob poker game in imitation of another robbery perpetrated by Ray Liotta, who runs the game, years earlier. Hitman Brad Pitt is called in who in turn calls in James Gandolfini to perform the parts he feels he’s too close to. A violent, cynical, and probably all too accurate portrayal of the United States and its values that spends a bit too much time emphasizing that point, I was mostly surprised to see Pitt and Gandolfini working together two films in a row when I had no idea they shared the screen so often.