Great Movie Re-Watch

The Perfect Weapon (1991)

The Great Movie Re-Watch

The Perfect Weapon (1991)

Director:

Mark DiSalle

Writer:

David C. Wilson

Starring:

Jeff Speakman

John Dye

Mako

James Hong

Dante Basco

Professor Toru Tanaka

Blurb:

An expert in “kenpo” karate avenges his Koreatown friend, slain by a mobster in Los Angeles.

Thoughts:

Obligatory, The Perfect Weapon is one of my husband’s movies. I swear I do like action movies. It’s just that he likes a lot of older ones, and that’s where we’re at.

I’ve seen The Perfect Weapon once before, but I’ve forgotten it all. Thankfully, it’s completely predictable, so I knew exactly what was going to happen. I enjoyed it, mainly because Jeff Speakman was a pleasure to look at, except his hair, which did nothing for me. His chest hair was perfect, though. Seriously men, give me some chest hair.

I also liked that there wasn’t really a romantic subplot. I’ve mentioned before that’s one of my least favorite parts of action movies. However, I would have liked it if there was more than one female character. The fact that she didn’t even say anything in the entire movie made things worse. The only other women mentioned were two mothers, and they were both dead. Come on, that was ridiculous.

The dad in this movie was a complete dick, and I kept cheering when Speakman walked away from him. Who kicks their teenage son out of the house??? What an asshole. I wasn’t a fan of the brother either, but mainly because I only saw his character in Touched By an Angel every time I looked at him.

Speakman was a tiger and was supposed to find the dragon inside of him. Basically, he had no control or wisdom and needed to learn those things. When he didn’t kill the bad guy, in the end, that was supposed to signal he’d found the dragon. The bar was set very low for him, apparently.

The Perfect Weapon was a decent movie, and I can see why my husband enjoys it. The music was perfect 90s, and the intro made me laugh, so all in all, I liked it.

Father of the Bride (1991)

The Great Movie Re-Watch

Father of the Bride (1991)

Director:

Charles Shyer

Writers:

Francis Goodrich

Albert Hackett

Nancy Myers

Charles Shyer

Starring:

Steve Martin

Diane Keaton

Kimberly Williams-Paisley

Blurb:

With his oldest daughter’s wedding approaching, a father finds himself reluctant to let go.

Thoughts:

I believe Father of the Bride is the first movie I’ve watched that was purchased for background watching. It’s a movie I like well enough, but it’s nothing remarkable. The best part, in my opinion, is the house. Everything else is rich people’s problems. Like seriously, spending $150k on a wedding in 1991 is stupid. This is coming from someone who had a super small wedding at a chapel in the mountains for $100 plus the cost of a license. Weddings are not my thing, but the house is that gorgeous.

As a parent of young children, I also don’t understand the whole not wanting to give his kid away. He doesn’t own his daughter, and yet that’s how he acts the entire movie. She’s his, and now he’s giving her to someone else. It’s an odd school view of things that I’ve never shared and found un-relatable. Not that I’m looking to give my kids away or anything, lol

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

The Great Movie Re-Watch

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

Director:

Steve Barron

Writers:

Todd W. Langen

Bobby Herbeck

Starring:

Judith Hoag

Elias Koteas

Josh Paris

David Forman

Brian Tochi

Leif Tilden

Corey Feldman

Michelan Sisti

Robbie Rist

Kevin Clash

James Saito

Blurb:

Four teenage mutant ninja turtles emerge from the shadows to protect New York City from a gang of criminal ninjas.

Thoughts:

If you put a pizza through a grate like that, all of the cheese would slide off, and it would suck. The only way it wouldn’t is if it’s not a fresh pizza, and maybe the turtles are used to that, but surely thirty minutes isn’t enough time for a pizza to be made and cool to that point. Also, stiffing the dude on a tip is a dick move turtles.

Next, what the fuck was going on with Casey Jones’ pants? Seriously, dude, why the fuck are they cupping your junk so tightly? I like you, I really do, but I don’t want to see that until we’ve been married years and you’re joking around. Come on, be better.

April, don’t change. Keep channeling Lois Lane and do your thing. Don’t let the man beat you down. Maybe don’t read your journal as a voice-over. It was kind of weird and out of place.

Danny’s dad was just so-so. He didn’t seem bad, but he wasn’t awesome or anything. So I’ll let the whole call me Dan now dad thing slide. It was borderline eh, though.

This was yet another one of my husband’s movies. It’s the movie he’s most watched in his lifetime, and we tried to watch it with our kids. Like young children, they asked questions the entire time, and the experience was probably not what he had in mind. Still, they’ve seen it and hopefully one day grow to appreciate it the way he would like them to.

Nineteen-ninety-one has three movies of mine, finally, so I’m happy to watch something of mine finally.

The Rescuers Down Under (1990)

The Great Movie Re-Watch

The Rescuers Down Under (1990)

Directors:

Hendel Butoy

Mike Gabriel

Writers:

Jim Cox

Karey Kirkpatrick

Byron Simpson

Joe Ranft

Starring:

Bob Newhart

Eva Gabor

John Candy

Tristan Rogers

Blurb:

The R.A.S. agents, Miss Bianca and Bernard, race to Australia to save a little boy and a rare golden eagle from a murderous poacher.

Thoughts:

I like Rescuers Down Under better than the previous movie. The story is mostly the same, a child is in danger, and they save it, but I like the art style better. The Rescuers still had that dirty-looking art style that I’m not a fan of, and Down Under doesn’t. It’s got a nice anti-poaching message too.

My kids actually watched this one with me, my husband too. This was his movie and one that he’s watched enough time that he can apparently quote. It was adorable.

I have no nostalgia attached to this film, no memories other than the one I just made, and so I don’t have any thoughts about it. Well, thoughts that aren’t just questions about the entire idea of mice saving kids on the other side of the world.

They can’t all be long posts.

Back to the Future Part III (1990)

The Great Movie Re-Watch

Back to the Future Part III (1990)

Director:

Robert Zemeckis

Writers:

Robert Zemeckis

Bob Gale

Starring:

Michael J. Fox

Christopher Lloyd

 Mary Steenburgen

Thomas F. Wilson

Lea Thompson

Blurb:

Stranded in 1955, Marty McFly learns about the death of Doc Brown in 1885 and must travel back in time to save him. With no fuel readily available for the DeLorean, the two must figure how to escape the Old West before Emmett is murdered.

Thoughts:

What would have happened if Marty killed Mad Dog? I’m sure Doc Brown would say the universe would cease to exist, but maybe it wouldn’t. No Biff would be a positive for everyone. Would Marty’s parents still get together, though? Maybe Mad Dog already had his kid, and it didn’t matter. Perhaps the loss of Marty and his siblings is worth the loss of the Tannen line. I guess we’ll never know.

Marty continues to be stupid in this movie, but I didn’t feel like it was more than the other movies. It might have been less, actually. He did learn a lesson, in the end, taught by his ginger ancestor. It took me a second to wrap my head around his great-whatever-grandparents. Seeing his mom married to him was weird for a bit until I worked out the genetics of it all.

Many of the set pieces and story in Back to the Future Part III are callbacks to the previous movies. Some of that is using what you’ve learned about Marty to show how he could live in the old west. Too much of it, though, was lazy storytelling. I like the previous movies, and I don’t dislike the third. I just wish the story had been something different. Getting stuck back in time, again, and dealing with changing their personal history, again, along with all the other little things, was too much fan service for me.

Doc’s relationship with Clara is one of the few new things, and I thought it was sweet. She wasn’t set aside and ignored. She was a big part of the story. Another change from previous movies. Her role mattered. I liked that. Plus, Mary Steenburgen is a great actress and beautiful woman. There’s a fifteen-year difference between the actors, but at the time, she was thirty-seven, so that’s old enough not to bother me.

I’d say Back to the Future Part III is my second favorite of the franchise. I like the first movie because it set up this great franchise, but I prefer the future setting of the second one. So my order would go two, three, one.

They aren’t going to remake this series, Zemeckis has basically said over his dead body. I’m fine with that, but I wish there could be something like it made. Maybe with a minority in the lead because that would certainly make travel to the past more interesting. Also, more women, please.