Category: 1980s

Terry O’Quinn is wonderfully menacing as a man who desires and expects his family to be the perfect, All-American ideal. He probably should have stuck to ones without a teenage daughter though. It’s a good 1980s light horror film with just enough jump scares and twists to hold the tension. O’Quinn’s acting really sells his character and the movie, wide-eyed and innocent when he needs to be but changing at the drop of a hat when something threatens his façade. It also has some beautiful Pacific Northwest scenery, even when it’s obvious that British Columbia is standing in for Washington state.  

During World War II an experiment to render a Navy ship invisible to radar crosses with a related experiment being conducted in 1984, resulting in the ship being sucked into a time vortex and two of the ship’s sailors being thrown into the future. It’s the type of movie that’s best if you don’t question it too much. It’s an awful-fun mix that includes dated special effects and American militarism all presented in a way that screams 1980s science fiction. In better hands, it probably could have been a big budget summer blockbuster. 

I find John Ritter exceptionally likable and have an affinity for his role as Jack Tripper. I keep trying his films hoping to find one that lives up to his promise. This really isn’t it. After being caught cheating on his mistress and wife, his life spirals into drinking and more womanizing. I enjoyed seeing Zap from American Gladiators in an acting role and there is a rather amusing scene involving glow-in-the-dark condoms, but the rest is sadly John Ritter as a man-child regretting what he ruined.

An epic in duration and time portrayed, Once Upon a Time in America portrays the interactions between a quintet of gangsters and sets up a mystery that spans the decades. As distasteful as I find the glorification of children as low level gangsters, I enjoyed the clever and intriguing time transitions during the first part of the film and also the bonding and camaraderie of the characters as young boys. When they reach adulthood is where the story loses me, every action made by the characters is grosser than the last and the mystery unveils to an unsatisfying end. Robert De Niro and James Wood as the leaders of the bunch have nothing but disdain for each other as adults and brutalize the women in their lives as if to one up each other. It’s almost a shame that the cinematography is so gorgeous and Ennio Morricone’s score is as beautiful as always.