Category: 1990s

A late 90s comedy starring Chris Farley and Matthew Perry as a bungling pair of explorers trying to beat Lewis and Clark to the Pacific Ocean and directed by Christopher Guest sounds like it would feature at least regular chuckle-able moments. Sadly that’s not the case. It mostly feels like it has a lot of missed potential. I read a review suggesting that Farley and Perry were miscast and would have been better if their roles were switched. That at least sounds like it would have been a much more interesting movie. For years I’ve avoided this and Wagons East! for similar reasons. I love John Candy a million times more than I care about Chris Farley, so Wagons East! is probably going to end up on The List.

I haven’t read the book, but this seemed unusual for a Stephen King as there isn’t any horror or suspense. Instead we have a mystery: is Dolores a murderer and if she is, why did she do it. Love some Kathy Bates and she did a great job portraying Dolores at different ages. It was […]

The preternaturally talented young writer providing voice-over for their coming-of-age story is a tad overdone and this doesn’t add anything new to that trope and is largely forgettable (particularly with that title). The best parts of the story were the flashbacks of the teenage Fairuza Balk’s memories of her mother. On the other hand, the […]

Presumably when watching an Alan Smithee film, you have already been forewarned. It’s entirely possible I watched the non-disavowed version, but if I did, it should have also been disavowed. Jodie Foster plays a woman who witnesses a mob hit who later bizarrely falls in love with the hitman hired to take her out. Some of that may be spoilers, but it doesn’t even matter. Jodie Foster is the best part of this, looking really beautiful and occasionally acting so as well, but the writing for her character is often beyond ridiculous particularly as Dennis Hopper closes in on her. Brief appearances by Catherine Keener, Charlie Sheen, Bob Dylan, and the amazing Vincent Price don’t even help this train wreck.

Seeing any still images of Mel Gibson or Robert Downey Jr. from this movie, you’d have no idea it was set during the Vietnam War. Not having any previous knowledge of the actual Air America and its activities in Laos during that era, this film offers a slight history lesson in its fictional story. A prime example of both actors’ early 90s careers, there is a bit of unevenness in the story, not managing to figure out how to balance its comedic and dramatic tones in the ways Good Morning Vietnam was able to do just a few years earlier. It still manages to be fun, particularly in some entertaining aviation scenes.

An incredible cast and what could be an engaging story, Buffalo ’66 does little with its parts. Newly released from prison, Vincent Gallo’s Billy kidnaps Christina Ricci from her dance class on his way to his parents’ house. In her, he finds the love he craves from his parents, the whole adventure wrapped up intimately with the history of the Buffalo Bills. Billy is incredibly unlikable and there’s little reason for Ricci to fall for him sans pity. Visually, it looks like someone dug up a VHS tape of home movies from the 80s, which I suppose is a stylistic choice. The pretentiousness of the framing and scene choices often feel like someone trying too hard to hold onto their indie street cred.