Directed by Lewis John Carlino | Starring Andrew McCarthy, Rob Lowe, Jacqueline Bisset, and a mountain of bad decisions Let’s set the scene. It’s 1983. Reagan’s America is revving up, everyone’s pretending to like jazz, and Hollywood is hell-bent on producing teen sex comedies where the “comedy” is questionable and the “sex” comes with a … Read More “Class (1983): A Coming-of-Age Faceplant in a Suit and Tie” »
Directed by Vic Sarin | Starring Kirk Cameron, Brad Johnson, Chelsea Noble, and a budget that repented halfway through production Imagine the end of the world—but with less fire, less brimstone, and way more awkward stares into the middle distance. That’s Left Behind: The Movie, a low-budget, high-piety exercise in cinematic repentance that somehow makes … Read More “Left Behind: The Movie (2000) — Apocalypse Not Now, Just… Nevermind” »
Directed by Vic Armstrong | Starring Nicolas Cage, Chad Michael Murray, Cassi Thomson, and the slow death of cinema The world ends—not with a bang, not with a whimper—but with Nicolas Cage piloting a plane, blinking furiously as his career ejects itself mid-flight. Left Behind (2014) is a film so breathtakingly incompetent, so spiritually bankrupt … Read More “Left Behind (2014): The Rapture Leaves Us… and We’re Fine With That” »
Directed by Penelope Spheeris | Starring Jim Varney, Cloris Leachman, Erika Eleniak, and Diedrich Bader’s hair If you’ve ever thought, “What this world really needs is a big-screen adaptation of a 1960s sitcom about rural yokels hitting the oil jackpot,” then congratulations—you are the exact person this movie was made for. The rest of us? … Read More “The Beverly Hillbillies (1993): Clampetts Go Hollywood… and the Rest of Us Suffer” »
Directed by Nick Castle | Starring Walter Matthau, Mason Gamble, and the faint ghost of your patience If you’ve ever wondered what it would feel like to watch a 95-minute hostage situation where an elderly man is psychologically tormented by a bleach-blonde goblin child while Christopher Lloyd lurks in the bushes like a homeless Nosferatu, … Read More “Dennis the Menace (1993): A Crime Scene Disguised as Family Entertainment” »
Directed by Howard Deutch | Starring Ray Liotta, Kiefer Sutherland, and a whole lotta surgical smirking Some movies are underappreciated gems. Others are earnest misfires. Article 99 is that rare beast that feels like a made-for-TV pilot someone accidentally fed steroids to and then left in a VA hospital breakroom next to a vending machine … Read More “Article 99 (1992): Bureaucracy, Bedpans, and a Plot That Flatlines” »
Directed by Robert Zemeckis | Starring Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, and Mary Steenburgen’s wobbly affections So here we are. The third and final chapter of the Back to the Future trilogy. The DeLorean is rusting, the time circuits are glitching, and the jokes are older than Doc Brown’s liver spots. Back to the Future … Read More “Back to the Future Part III (1990): Doc Brown Goes West, and the Franchise Rides Into a Ditch” »
Directed by Robert Zemeckis | Starring Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, and a plot held together with chewing gum and Pepsi product placement Ah, Back to the Future Part II—the cinematic equivalent of taking acid in a Spencer’s Gifts. This movie had the unenviable job of following a near-perfect original and decided, boldly, to answer … Read More “Back to the Future Part II (1989): Time Travel, Trump Biff, and Tired Sequels” »
Season 1, Episode 4 | Directed by Howard Deutch | Starring Lea Thompson, Brett Cullen, and a lot of lipstick Welcome to the Crypt, where morals are twisted, endings are mean, and every story feels like a back-alley Twilight Zone with a hangover. In the fourth episode of Tales from the Crypt’s debut season—“Only Sin … Read More “Tales from the Crypt – “Only Sin Deep” (1989): Beauty Fades, Bad Acting Is Forever” »
Directed by Jenny Bowen | Starring Lukas Haas, Lea Thompson, Dylan Baker, and a whole lot of staring into space If The Wizard of Loneliness sounds like a Harry Potter prequel written by Sylvia Plath, you’re already in the right headspace. This 1988 film, adapted from a novel that probably made high school students hate … Read More “The Wizard of Loneliness (1988): A Moody, Brooding, Coming-of-Boredom Tale” »
