Movie Review - Teen Witch

All Louise wanted was to get Brad’s attention… and luckily for her she’s a descendant of Salem Witches!

Another movie my best friend sent me to borrow (for the purposes of 8o’s rewind post/content of course) and what’s so sad is that until I rewatched it the only part I could vividly remember was the Top That rap segment.  Louise is the typical teenage girl at school who isn’t popular, has the worst life, never gets the hot guys, and everything always goes wrong for her.  All of this changes when she realizes she’s actually a witch and has powers… and then to keep the plot going, she starts setting out to make herself be as popular as she wants to be.  I know, the write up of the plot makes it sound bad but remember; it’s an 80’s movie!  Quite frankly, as basic as the plot is (and yeah, you can follow point a to point b with just what I’ve said and guess what happens at the end… maybe), I’m glad to have rewatched it because it was very enjoyable.

It’s got the basic romance and teen angsty elements that most of the films of that time had, it’s got witches and spells and spells gone wrong… and 80’s clothes, style, and music.  What’s not to want to see there?  I leave you with not only the official movie trailer (and Lord, 80’s trailers were so baaaad) and the clip of the afforementioned Top That rap scene.  Check it out sometime!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Movie Review - The Worst Witch

Mwahahaha… I LOVED this movie growing up!

Long before Harry Potter, there was Mildred Hubble, the star character of the 1987 film The Worst Witch (played by Fairuza Balk).   Granted the movie was more for kids with a plot that only went as high as standards dictated main stream kid movies should get, but it’s a fun movie that even my kids today enjoyed watching.

I used to wait impatiently for Halloween and try to catch this on TV.  My best friend got to catch it repeatedely on HBO but I?  Alas, I only managed to catch it maybe twice in entirety in my entire childhood so getting to borrow it from her has really been a treat!  The movie follows the crazy hijinks of Mildred Hubble, who is (as the title suggests) the worst witch at  her witch school, who is harrassed by her teacher Miss Hardbroom (played by Diana Rigg).  This movie also stars the illustrious Tim Curry as the Grand Wizard… who I give you a clip of singing his main song in the film.

A final jewel in this film, it stars Charlotte Rae of the Facts of Life fame who plays both the Headmistress of the school and her evil twin sister who’s out to try and reclaim what she feels is her rightful place as Headmistress of the school.  I’d give the ending away but… I’d rather you check it out.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Conan the Barbarian Remake

found on riskybusiness blog

Roland Kickinger will be taking the role as Conan in the Nu Image/Millineum film Conan the Barbarian, a remake of the 80’s classic. This Kickinger guy is like a replica of the governator. He’s an Austrian born body builder turned actor, he played the T800 in Terminator Salvation and now he’s Conan. Wow.

Popularity: 1% [?]

“Kiss My Converse” Sam Jackson in Remake of Last Dragon

“Kiss My Converse.” Samuel L. Jackson is scheduled to play the Shogun in a remake of the Last Dragon.

The folks at Geek Actually had this to say, “Have We Reached the Bottom of the Remakes Barrel? Crap, the original was total crap! It was a stupid Motown film trying to cash in on the 80s martial arts craze”.

While I would agree that the 80s remakes are going a little crazy in Hollywood essentially remaking EVERY popular 80’s show and movie, I disagree with

Geek actually’s craptastic view of the original. It is a classic for me. Me and my friends can still recite the lines from the movie.

O.k. it was cheesy with some bad acting, but the Last Dragon had something that most 80s shows and movies didn’t have at the time… a black superhero. Most black heros in movies targeting the black audience were pimps, drug lords and macks. Just look at Superfly. The 70s did have Shaft who was a detective. I’m not saying there were NO good guys who were black in the 80s (B.A. Barracus, Action Jackson and others), I’m just saying there weren’t many.

And even fewer had actual super powers.

The Last Dragon also paid homage to Bruce Lee and martial arts films which were ALWAYS popular among kids.

http://geekactually.com/2008/10/30/have-we-reached-the-bottom-of-the-remakes-barrel/

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=50134

Popularity: 11% [?]

5 Characteristics of 80s Movies High School/College Villains

Uncoached.com address a serious issue that plagued the 80s.. the 80s high school/college movie villains.

Whether or not they have funny hair or drive a Corvette, all these guys have a defining quality that bonds them all. Put it this way, you will inevitably see at least one of these characteristics on a high school or college villain in an 80 ’s movie. I’m not saying you’ll see them all in every guy, but these 5 are pretty static.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Jerry Reed Dead

Jerry Reed died recently at 71.

As an urban kid, I didn’t get much exposure to the rural, truck driving, country & western, red state types. I don’t know how close Mr. Jerry Reed was to that stereotypical rural white dude, but when I saw him on Smokey & the Bandit I thought we was cool as hell.

From the slick cryptic CB talk to the relaxed laid back style, he was like a diesel cowboy with all the right moves.
I saw Smokey & the Bandit in the 80s so for me it is immortalized. Jerry Reed is immortalized. Just to show my ignorance of the ‘other side of America’ I had NO idea that Jerry Reed was a country music singer before he turned into an actor.

Apparently, Reed starred in the 1998 Adam Sandler film, The Waterboy, as Red Beaulieu, the movie’s chief antagonist and the head coach for the University of Louisiana Cougars football team. I actually really liked that movie Waterboy, but didn’t realize that Reed was in the movie. For me he’ll always be Smokey, the diesel cowboy, running Interference for the Bandit to the title track, “East Bound and Down” (which he sang). Amazingly talented guy.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Flight of Navigator Review (no video)

Written by:
Mark H. Baker writer
Michael Burton writer
Matt MacManus writer

A young boy chases his dog into the woods, falls in a ravine. He loses consciousness for a few seconds. When we comes to and runs back to his home, he finds that his parents are not there. He is 8 years in the future. He is still 12, but his family and the world are 8 year in the future (1986). How did he get 8 years into the future? And can he return?

This is one of my favorite movies of the 80’s. It plays on the fantasies of a 12 year old boy having control of a highly advanced space craft. The boy is Joey Cramer. Cramer played in a few other 80s movies. Flight of the Navigator has a group of very familiar faces: Cliff De Young, Veronica Cartwright, Howard Hesse, and Sarah Jessica Parker. Paul Rueben actually did a voice over in the film. One thing I noticed is that of the 40 or so credited actors only about 6 have still active and doing movies and TV regularly, so only 15%. I wonder if this means there is only about a 15% chance of the serious actors making it.

Aside from the story, Alan Silvestri’s music to Flight of the Navigator is my favorite thing about the movie. Looking through is extensive body of work, I can see hes done a lot of my favorite movie music: Polar Express, Forest Gump, The Bodyguard, Back to the Future II, Predator, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the Abyss and many others (he’s done over 100 movies).

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006293/

Popularity: 8% [?]

80s Movie Review: Flight of the Navigator

Written by:
Mark H. Baker writer
Michael Burton writer
Matt MacManus writer

A young boy chases his dog into the woods, falls in a ravine. He loses consciousness for a few seconds. When we comes to and runs back to his home, he finds that his parents are not there. He is 8 years in the future. He is still 12, but his family and the world are 8 year in the future (1986). How did he get 8 years into the future? And can he return?

This is one of my favorite movies of the 80’s. It plays on the fantasies of a 12 year old boy having control of a highly advanced space craft. The boy is Joey Cramer. Cramer played in a few other 80s movies. Flight of the Navigator has a group of very familiar faces: Cliff De Young, Veronica Cartwright, Howard Hesse, and Sarah Jessica Parker. Paul Rueben actually did a voice over in the film. One thing I noticed is that of the 40 or so credited actors only about 6 have still active and doing movies and TV regularly, so only 15%. I wonder if this means there is only about a 15% chance of the serious actors making it.

Aside from the story, Alan Silvestri’s music to Flight of the Navigator is my favorite thing about the movie. Looking through is extensive body of work, I can see hes done a lot of my favorite movie music: Polar Express, Forest Gump, The Bodyguard, Back to the Future II, Predator, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the Abyss and many others (he’s done over 100 movies).

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006293/

Some of Alan Silvestri’s Music:

Popularity: 7% [?]

Ghostbuster2: 80s Rewind Review

Well I guess we’re gonna have to take control!
Bobby Brown’s GhostBusters song stands out to me more than anything else when I recall GhostBusters 2. Not Viggo, or the river of Slime, or Sigourney Weaver and not even the Statue of Liberty Walking through New York City.. Bobby Brown’s song. And the video looks cool too, although it looks more like an ad for New York City tourism.

I have to say it: Ghostbusters 2 is just not as good as part 1. There.. I said it. I do recall that it had way more hype and anticipation than Ghostbusters 1. For one thing, there were no Terror Dogs. After seeing Dan Akroyd (the writer of Ghostbusters) speak on the DVD its easy to see he is the mad genius behind the whole thing. Harold Ramis (co-writer) mentions in the commentary on part 1 that Dan had originally wanted it to be about a future in which “ghost busting” is like a bug exterminator type job, blue collar and common place. Its easy to see that Dan was very much held back in his creativity.

Speaking of commentary, you won’t see that or any other extras on the GhostBusters 2 DVD, which, for me, makes it unbuyable. Correction, it has something on there about the GhostBuster’s cartoon but thats about it (unless you count scene selection).

I always thought the Statue of Liberty bit was corny (unlike the Stay PUft Marshmallow Man in part 1, which was somehow brilliant). The bad guy was kind of cool, but then he’s defeated by “NYC happiness” as soon as he’s about to put his foot in New York City’s collective ass (let me just say - New York City happiness is like saying “holy war” or “compassionate conservative” - a meaning contradiction. The cast was great (you can’t go wrong with Bill Murray & Rick Moranis) but the plot seemed too commercialized for me.

Another thing that really sucked to me was the GhostBusters II Run DMC rap. It is embarrassingly weak especially considering that I idolized these guys after Tougher than Leather.

Whatever is said about GB2, the GhostBusters franchise still captures the imaginations of people all over the world:
Return of the GhosterBusters
GhostBusters 3: Ghostbusters in Hell
GhostBusters Exteme

Popularity: 8% [?]

“Red Dawn” (August, 1984)

I was only slightly older than my 10 year-old 5th grade son when Red Dawn hit the theaters. It was a “big kids” movie, the first to be released in theaters with a PG-13 rating in fact. I remember the movie poster being so cool with the parachutes coming down over a sleepy Anytown, USA. A young kid with a wild imagination I had day dreamed it up happening at my school and me and my friends taking up arms and beating back the Russians and “the Spanish dudes” (I don’t think I knew what a Cuban was back then). Anyway, I thought the movie was badass and full of some very cool scenes. I couldn’t wait to see the scene with the kids rising from their hiding places in the grass and wasting a bunch of pursuing Russian soldiers. That’s still one of the best parts in the movie to me. That and the dad hollering, “Avenge me!” from behind the cyclone fence at the war camp.

So I watched the movie again the other day and got flooded with a ton of memories. It’s still a great movie in the “popcorn movie” sense, but the huge leaps of logic and screenplay guffaws will ask that you check your 80’s basic world military pecking order arrangement and good common sense at the door before taking a seat. The day firkin’ Cuba catches the USA with its collective pants down and proceeds to invade us and march clear up to Illinois ravaging and pillaging all the way , monkeys will promptly fly from my arse.

So go ahead and rent it, you’ll enjoy it at least as much as a re-showing of “American Ninja” or “The Toxic Avenger”.

Popularity: 8% [?]

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