Mortal Kombat (1995)

From the moment the insistent, “dun dun dun” beats of “Mortal Kombat”‘s infamous theme song begins in the opening credits, every child born in the 1980s feels a little stir in their belly and a rush of adrenaline. That kind of heavy reliance on bombastic, overwhelming stimuli is exactly what’s needed for a one-on-one fighting game adapted into a fairly big-budget studio movie: The kids in the audience aren’t particularly interested in character development, narrative flow, or the exploration of heavy, symbolic themes. They want to see their favorite characters from the game duking it out on some cool sets with new powers and gadgets, and boy does the movie deliver in that regard. The set design is inventive and gorgeous to look at (reminiscent of the emphasis on style over substance that accompanied music videos of the era, like Madonna’s “Express Yourself” and Janet Jackson’s “If”), the costumes are faithful to the video game’s branded designs without being unimaginative, and the actors know what movie they’re in, and they carry an “let’s have fun with this” vibe that extends to the audience. Ultimately it’s not exactly a masterpiece or anything, but it’s definitely a light, fun watch once in a while.

Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)

Lifeforce (1985)

There’s so much crazy shit going on at all times in Tobe Hooper’s “Lifeforce” that you almost feel the need to check your temperature to make sure you’re not having a feverish hallucination. There’s a bit of everything in this tale of space vampires that gradually becomes more of a zombie apocalypse thing, not to mention a whole lot of gratuitous nudity (most of it courtesy of the gorgeous Mathilda May) and some truly bonkers practical effects that occasionally pop up on screen like springboard Halloween skeletons waiting around the corner of a funhouse. It’s all just way too much for one movie to sustain, but there’s no denying that, while the movie isn’t particularly good from a structural perspective, it’s at least deliriously entertaining. Hooper’s tendency to overwhelm his narratives with sensory overload is on full display here: Much like his other Cannon Films output (“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2” and “Invaders from Mars”), “Lifeforce” is a veritable assault on the senses by the time it arrives at its climax, with so much sound and fury that you’d almost think you’re watching a “Mad Max” movie were it not for the aforementioned space vampires. So grab a beer, smoke up a bud and pop this one on: It’s an altered states entertainment bonanza for the right crowd.

Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)

I’ll be honest, after a decade and a half of Borat impersonations and the proliferation of the character’s comedic ethos in social culture, I fully expected my first watch of the movie since its release to be a bit of a drag. But in anticipation of watching the much-hyped sequel I wanted to refresh my memory, and I was delighted to discover that this is still screamingly, absolutely hysterically funny. The shock-comedy antics that made the movie itself a watercooler moment upon initial release haven’t lost either their edge nor their comedic value, in particular the infamous naked hotel fight that still managed to make my jaw drop to the ground even so many years later. The Pamela Anderson angle which drives the movie’s plot is a bit dead-on-arrival because it’s so clearly shoehorned in, but at least she’s a good sport when she makes a late-movie cameo. Although Sacha Baron Cohen is the driving force behind the movie’s long-lasting impact, the real star of the show is the state of American politics in 2006: This movie was made in response to white-hot anger at the flagrant political hypocrisy and social ignorance of Republican voters, and it makes for the best kind of comedy because it manages to push your buttons, confront the corrosively extremist beliefs of Republican voters and provides enough cultural fodder to force a re-alignment of one’s political stance, all while managing to keep the laughs front and center. It’s subversive, brave, confident and often downright gonzo.

Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)

Return to Oz (1985)

“This is a *children’s* movie?” That’s the rhetorical question that was going through my head just about the entire time I was watching this much-belated, sorely underappreciated sequel to 1939’s immortal “The Wizard of Oz.” Make no mistake: This is a bleak, almost nihilistic dramatic fantasy that doubles down on some of the darkness introduced in the first movie when it comes to Dorothy, who seems routinely mistreated by all those around her. Here, she begins the movie in a depressed state, missing her friends in Oz while her family believes she’s having a mental breakdown so they send her for… electroshock therapy! That’s only the beginning of the perilous journey she embarks on this time around with a new coterie of companions as they discover that Oz has been taken over by the malevolent Gnome King. The journey itself is littered with moments that would be more appropriate in a horror movie, including disembodied heads and a constant, palpable threat of death that follows the characters everywhere, which gives the movie a rather unforgiving edge. Ultimately, that harder edge is big part of what makes the movie so compelling and engaging: It really feels like anything could happen because director Walter Murch is willing to ‘go there.’ He’s not encumbered by a light touch in favor of his young audience, instead choosing to double down on the movie’s darker themes and its more grotesque, often nightmarish creature design, and while it’s not entirely appropriate for his intended audience, it sure is compelling as a grown-up. Fairuza Balk is perfect as Dorothy, capable of registering both vulnerability and steeliness in the same line delivery, and it’s a pleasure to see her navigate the narrative so confidently despite her young age. So, while it may not be a good choice for kids, it’s a wild ride for mature audiences.

Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

There are few movies that exist beyond criticism, but “The Wizard of Oz” is definitely one of them. From the moment the MGM logo appears on screen, the movie washes over the audience like a warm hug from a loving family member… although, as an adult, it’s hard not to notice the rough edges. Not so much the movie itself, but more the harsh reality of rural life in its time-period: The adults aren’t particularly mindful of Judy Garland’s Dorothy, which is actually a bit heartbreaking to see. This is compounded by the now-infamous on-set poor treatment of Garland by virtually everybody (from studio heads to aher adult co-stars) so it’s hard not to feel a certain harshness there. All of that context, in the end, makes the narrative all the more impactful: The movie’s main theme (which is lifted from L. Frank Baum’s classic children’s book) is self-sufficiency, so watching Garland/Dorothy struggle and learn how to stand up for herself hammer that home for the sake of its young, influenceable intended audience. The rest of the movie itself is, of course, a magical experience: The gorgeous black-and-white cinematography is downright striking in the first quarter, and when Dorothy arrives in the Land of Oz, the movie’s sudden colorization is overwhelmingly beautiful, enforcing the connection between Dorothy and the movie’s audience as they explore this fabulous dream-like world together. Good luck getting through “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” without becoming a blubbering, tear-stricken mess.

Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)

But I’m a Cheerleader (1999)

Director Jamie Babbit’s bubbly, incisive satire of gay conversion camps (which are, in reality, physical, emotional, psychological and sexual torture) is impressive for many different reasons, but the most notable one is that it manages to acknowledge the aggressive oppression of those types of places and making its primary narrative revolve around it. It’s satire, so of course it’s being sent up and exaggerated for comedic purposes, but the intent is clear: This is an abominable practice that should be outlawed and its practitioners should be held accountable. It’s a neat hat trick that Babbit manages to move around, and she’s helped a great deal by one hell of a leading cast: Natasha Lyonne is downright perfect in the lead role, able to communicate her character’s confusion at acknowledging her sexuality in defiance of a casually deceptive family unit. Additionally, Clea DuVall is similarly luminant, bringing her considerable screen presence, rock star charisma and sincerity to a role that could easily have been rather rote and cliched in the hands of a lesser performer, and her chemistry with Lyonne is entirely believable. The movie’s scant 85 minutes pack a surprising punch despite the movie’s glossy look and its jubilantly juvenile humor, and unexpectedly registers as a tender love story, a coming-(out)-of-age tale and a deceptively vicious take-down of its satirical target.

Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)

A Cry in the Dark (1988)

This is an emotionally challenging and thought-provoking dramatization of the tragic, gruesome death of two-month-old Azaria Chamberlain on a family camping trip at the hands of a wild dingo in 1980 in Australia, and the ensuing media frenzy that led to a hyper-publicized trial and eventual murder conviction of her mother, Lindy. Meryl Streep’s superlative performance works primarily because of how subtle it is: This is a performance made up of a thousand nuances, and it’s all the more remarkable by how eerily identical it is to the real-life Chamberlain’s body language and speech patterns. The story itself is almost nihilistically grim, showing the extraordinary, cruel coldness of an indifferent universe, which is heightened by the fact that it’s based on a shattering real-life tragedy that was followed by a witchhunt by an impatient, downright irresponsible media appraturus commodifying a grieving mother’s emotional suffering to sell tabloid headlines to a sexist, ignorant public. It’s downright emotionally grim at times, but it’s a rewarding cautionary tale about media irresponsibility.

Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)

Watching this documentary about 1980s genre cinema staple Cannon Films, it’s hard to believe this is even a studio that really existed. I mean, we’re talking about a studio that sold movie posters to distributors then developed the actual movies being sold, with the plots being invented on the fly. We’re talking about movies shot as sequels being released ahead of their predecessors. We’re talking about a studio head (Menahem Golan) constantly professing his love of cinema, apparently without understanding what makes cinema so poignant. With the help of several former employees and collaborators (which include Dolph Lundgren, Alex Winter, and Bo Derek, among others), the tale that is told is one of hubris and naivete, of abuse and detrimental cost-cutting ventures that risked people’s safety and ruined their careers. It’s pretty dark in some ways really, but luckily director Mark Hartley has the right approach, informed by a love of lived-in ’80s genre movies, so the tone is somewhere between snappy and nostalgic. There are several fascinating talking-head interviews from a variety of interesting performers, directors and former studio heads, and the many Cannon films featured throughout still have the same disreputable appeal they’ve had since their original releases so there’s a certain nostalgic thrill to the experience. It’s an entertaining, informative and illuminating peak at one of the VCR era’s most prolific studios whose cinematic output littered video store shelves for decades, ready to be plucked by generations of burgeoning movie fans.

Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)

Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf (1985)

“How?” That’s the one-word question I kept asking myself while watching this alleged sequel to Joe Dante’s underrated, understated original. How in the world did this happen? I mean, the first movie is a strong, classy affair, the kind of slow-burn spookshow that calmly, consistently builds to a memorably nihilistic climax, but this? This makes “Exorcist 2” look contained and coherent by comparison. Now, with that out of the way, let’s get down to business, which is to say: This movie is absolutely awesome in the most bonkers, coked-out way imaginable. It’s in every frame of the movie from the beginning: The music is Eurotrash dance-pop masquerading as punk rock, there’s half-dressed werewolf orgies, a befuddled Christopher Lee wandering through the proceedings in a half-daze, and werewolves that look more like monkeys than anything else, really. Simultaneously set in Los Angeles and the Balkans, the movie’s geography is difficult to lock down because its Los Angeles looks suspiciously like Czechoslovakia, and with the movie’s narrative so steeped in local customs once in the Balkans, the audience is transplanted to the second half with little time or context, trying to piece together what, exactly, is happening. That being said, even if the narrative had painstakingly walked us through the changes, it still wouldn’t make any sense because the movie is little more than a barely-related patchwork of undercooked ideas that don’t add up well together (like the aforementioned werewolf orgies, which are sexy to exactly no one). It’s just so bonkers and schizophrenic, so poorly acted by leads Annie McEnroe and Reb Brown, and just so feverishly hallucinogenic that it’s worth a shot for the ‘wtf’ factor alone, and seriously, this one is memorable as all hell… just for all the wrong reasons.

Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)

Matinee (1993)

For a film buff watching “Matinee,” it’s no surprise at all to see Joe Dante’s name as director. Dante, who directed “Gremlins”, “The Howling” and “Explorers” (among others), has a Spielbergian touch with genre cinema, able to punctuate his movies’ inner worlds with heavy doses of nostalgia while acknowledging the difficulties of everyday life with an empathetic sensibility. That heartfelt touch is evident throughout this sorely underappreciated minor classic, which features one of John Goodman’s most charming performances as a gimmicky B-horror director in the ’60s who arrives in a small town for a screening of his latest opus just as the Cuban missile crisis is heating up, and the impact that those two seemingly unrelated events have on the town’s teenagers. It’s a gloriously entertaining and often laugh-out-loud valentine to genre movies of yonder, which, in the face of hyper-conservative moral-majority restrictions on content, turned the moviegoing experience into a bit of a carnival show in order to compensate for the lack of meaningful action on the screen. Dante seems enamored with nostalgia-tinged remembrances throughout, from the excitement of being on precipice between childhood and adulthood, to the bond among young friends faced with apocalyptic doomsday scenarios but forced to continue along as though nothing were happening, to the pain of missing an active duty parent, but ultimately, “Matinee” is about loving the moviegoing experience. So, fans of genre cinema will be in hog heaven here, but anyone who has a soft spot in their heart for movies will adore it as well.

Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)

Maximum Overdrive (1986)

You know how you sometimes hear, “oh that movie is crazy, it’s hard to believe it was even made” and you’re sure whatever movie being discussed just can’t be *that* crazy? Well this is the movie that’s *just* as crazy as you’ve heard. The madness starts from the very moment the movie starts, with opening credits accompanied by static green text letting you know that there’s a comet passing near Earth that’s affecting machines in a malevolent way, and then we’re off to the races: Lawnmowers tear people to shreds, concrete rollers graphically flatten little leaguers, soda machines maul their customers, etc. That’s before the score by AC/DC rattles your speakers, lead Emilio Estevez shows up like he wandered in from another set entirely, Yeardley Smith shrieks her nonsensical dialogue, and a bunch of other characters wander in and out of the narrative while you’re busy trying to pick your jaw from off the ground. As a director, Stephen King doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing, with incoherent shots followed by poorly framed ones and no sense of suspense or tension, it’s all just a bunch of stuff that happens in front of your disbelieving eyes… and it’s a blast because of it. There’s nothing else quite like this, it’s like a bunch of unrelated elements that don’t mesh well but it’s all just so fascinating that you can’t take your eyes off it. There are few movies that feel like what a cocaine binge looks like it would feel, but this is one of them and for that reason alone you should watch it immediately.

Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)

Mean Girls (2004)

I know that the racial and social politics of “Mean Girls” have aged poorly, but at the risk of sounding insensitive, it doesn’t impede my ability to enjoy this uber-entertaining comedy over and over. Lindsay Lohan’s performance here is impressively dexterous, able to go from light comedy to surprisingly compelling drama (however adolescent it is within the movie’s context), and she’s surrounded by a winning supporting cast that knows how to extract all the comedic potential out of every scene. The finished product is the type of comedy where every scene feels necessary, where every line is delivered perfectly by the entire cast, and the fluid editing makes the whole thing an easy, undemanding delight to sit through. There are various references to adolescent angst-apalooza entertainment throughout (most obviously is 1989’s “Heathers,” which feels like a darker, edgier older sibling to this modern classic in retrospect), grounding the movie in a relatable reality for the audience even as its visual presentation is glossy and its cast impossibly attractive. It’s one of those movies that’s rife with already-classic lines that are still uber-effective even though they’ve been subsumed into pop culture via countless memes (think “stop trying to make fetch happen” and “too gay to function,” among many, many others), and it never fails to entertain me or cheer me up, depending on the situation.

Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)