You know you’re in trouble when a movie called Obsessed leaves you feeling emotionally detached. This 2002 made-for-TV thriller, directed by a visibly bored John Badham, wants to crawl under your skin, but ends up tripping over its own clichés and face-planting into the lukewarm bathtub of Lifetime Network mediocrity. This isn’t obsession — it’s … Read More “Obsessed (2002) — A Stalker Thriller That Should’ve Just Left a Voicemail” »
You know a political drama has problems when the most suspenseful part is watching a moderator shuffle his cue cards like he’s playing poker with regret. The Last Debate (2000), directed by a John Badham who appears to have confused “urgent political drama” with “PowerPoint presentation on ethics,” is a made-for-TV movie so dry, you’ll … Read More “The Last Debate (2000) — Journalism Dies in a Marriott Conference Room” »
There’s a special circle of hell reserved for made-for-TV movies that try to disguise themselves as Deep Southern Character Studies™ — where everyone speaks in molasses-drenched metaphors, the cicadas never shut up, and family dysfunction is treated like a sacrament. Welcome to Floating Away (1998), a John Badham-directed misfire that plays like Cat on a … Read More “Floating Away (1998) — Soggy Southern Drama That Should’ve Sank Faster” »
In theory, Nick of Time should work. A thriller starring Johnny Depp, shot in real-time, directed by John Badham — the guy who gave us WarGames, Blue Thunder, and a robot who thought he was alive. Add Christopher Walken as a menacing lunatic in a trench coat and the setup sounds like a slam dunk. … Read More “Nick of Time (1995) — Tick, Tock, This Plot Is a Crock” »
There’s a scene in Point of No Return where Bridget Fonda, fresh off a transformation from junkie street rat to couture-wrapped assassin, strolls into a dinner party in a black dress that could qualify as a federal weapon. In one hand, she holds a stolen moment of domestic normalcy. In the other, a gun. And … Read More “Point of No Return (1993) — Femme Fatale With a Smoky Eye and a Silencer” »
If the late ’80s and early ’90s were a landfill of half-baked action comedies, then Bird on a Wire is the fluorescent mattress at the bottom — loud, inexplicably popular at the time, and full of mystery stains. Directed by John Badham (yes, the same man who gave us WarGames and Saturday Night Fever, back … Read More “Bird on a Wire (1990) — Mel, Goldie, and 110 Minutes You’ll Never Get Back” »
You ever watch a movie that feels like it was made by a focus group of coked-up marketers trying to invent E.T. with a circuit board and a fart machine? Welcome to Short Circuit — John Badham’s 1986 stab at a feel-good, family-friendly, sci-fi comedy that lands somewhere between Wall-E’s lobotomized uncle and a RadioShack … Read More “Short Circuit (1986) — Johnny Five Is Alive, and That’s the Problem” »
Once upon a time — before TikTok rotted our brains and Russia figured out Twitter — there was a simpler, purer world. A world where hacking required actual typing, nuclear war could be triggered by a teenager in a hoodie, and computers made sounds like R2-D2 having a panic attack in a microwave. This was … Read More “WarGames (1983) — How to Almost Start World War III with a Dial-Up Modem and a Bag of Doritos” »
Let’s get one thing clear: Whose Life Is It Anyway? is not the kind of movie you throw on for background noise while folding laundry or swiping through dating apps. It is not light. It is not cheery. It is not here to make you feel comfortable about life, death, or the medical establishment. But … Read More “Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1981) — Art, Death, and Sarcasm in a Hospital Gown” »
It’s easy to dismiss Saturday Night Fever as a glittery disco relic — a polyester-laced time capsule of Bee Gees falsetto and light-up dance floors. And if you’re only watching the first 20 minutes — John Travolta strutting down the street with a paint can and a horned-up smirk — you might think that’s all … Read More “Saturday Night Fever (1977) — Disco, Delusion, and the Death of the American Dream” »
