“Well, Clarice, have the lambs stopped screaming?” – Silence of the Lambs
I had a professor who devoted an entire class to the movie Silence of the Lambs. It was a Hannibal lecture.
While I think we have one more year (I’ll have to check) in the 1980s to do, we’re jumping into 1991. Once again, the rule of no sequels takes out a decent movie or two, in this case Terminator 2, which some (not me) like better than the original. T2 is much bigger and has better special effects, but, whatever. It’s not on the list.
You’ll also not see some more popular movies from the year. That’s okay, I either didn’t see them, or didn’t like them, like that crapfest of nihilism, Thelma and Louise. Awful movie except the part where the feminists die. That was good.
Warlock – When I met The Mrs. we quickly realized that we both liked Julian Sands for this very same movie. It’s about . . . well what it’s about isn’t horribly important since the plot is silly – an evil warlock from witch-burnin’ time travels to the present followed by a witch burner. The witch-burner goes on a buddy road trip chasing the titular warlock. (I love saying titular.) It ends pretty much like you’d expect. It might have even been better if it was a sequel to Ghostbusters, but then it wouldn’t be on the list.
Julian Sands looks like David Bowie gave him a makeover.
L.A. Story – I liked it when I first saw it, but on a second viewing it seems a lot shallower. Steve Martin is good, but restrained, and part of what throws me off on the later viewing is the horse-faced Jessica Parker, who I have learned to loathe. Best part? Steve Martin having to prove his credit score to get a restaurant reservation.
You could cook a lot of liver and fava beans on that many burners.
The Silence of the Lambs – As far as genius films go, this is one of them. From start to finish, the tension and connection to the characters is built up, with the real star of the show being a serial cannibal. Good times! Technically, this could be considered to be a sequel of the earlier film, Manhunter, but I make the rules, so it’s in.
If Looks Could Kill – I love this movie. It’s stupid. The plot is written in crayon. It depends on stupid coincidences. But it works for me. And apparently just for me, because everyone scoffs at this movie. Scoff away! Oh, and it features lots of central bankers being assassinated, so it has that going for it.
Toy Soldiers – This particular movie is also very silly, and is mainly on the list because I believe that there was a time in the 1990s when it was required by federal law that Toy Soldiers be available at any time to anyone who had basic cable. This movie was on all the time. The cast was awful, the plot was silly, but it did have R. Lee Ermy and his eyebrows in it.
Apparently in this version, Bill Murray plays a cat. Like he did in Garfield.
What About Bob? – This is Bill Murray as I imagine him in real life, if he didn’t get mad at people. Murray plays a psychiatric patient who gets very clingy with his therapist, and in the span of a weekend becomes more beloved to the therapist’s family than the therapist is. Richard Dreyfuss plays the therapist by, I believe, just by being Richard Dreyfuss. If you couldn’t tell, I don’t like Richard Dreyfuss
Backdraft – Backdraft was a very good movie that could have been great, but just missed because of the muddled morality of the ending plus the good guy and the bad guy dying sorta pointlessly. As usual, director Ron Howard throws his brother Clint Howard in a role, because Clint Howard uses his amazingly large brain to psychically control Ron. Not a re-watcher, but one that was a good summer movie.
Hudson Hawk – This is easily the most ill-advised movie that Bruce Willis has ever been in, where he plays a burglar who sings a lot with his crime partner, Danny Aiello on the way to assembling Leonardo DaVinci’s lead into gold machine for secret evil dudes. Did I mention that Willia and Aiello sing? Oddly, a movie this stupid has to have someone that likes it, and in this case, both The Mrs. and I enjoyed it.
And it looks like he killed her. Also, the corgis look suspiciously plump.
Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead – most memorable scene? A kid is using a shotgun to shoot plates that his brother is throwing off the roof. When finished, he says, “The dishes are done, dude.”
Hot Shots! – Charlie Sheen back in the days when he was funny instead of borderline insane in an Airplane! style movie spoof of Top Gun and Rambo. Funniest foreshadowing? A pilot with the callsign “Dead Meat”.
Doc Hollywood – Michael J. Fox before his Parkinson’s, and Julie Warner who I keep mixing up with the actress Finn Carter who was arrested in Vegas for credit card fraud. It would be funny if Finn had stolen Warner’s credit cards, but I doubt it. Plot? It’s essentially and nearly exactly the plot for Pixar’s® movie Cars. But Doc Hollywood’s not animated and cars don’t perform plastic surgery.
That one girl has got a crazy eye.
The Addams Family – As a fan of the television show (there’s a reason we named our son Pugsley), I was dreading that this wouldn’t be very good. It was good, and the cast simply was mostly perfect. Oh, we didn’t really name him Pugsley, but we do very much call him Pugsley. I’m glad Child Protective Services never found that out.
The Last Boy Scout – The start of this movie was just amazing – a football player, drenched in rain, starts running down the field and pulls out a Beretta 84FS in .380ACP and shoots the players that are about to tackle him. Now, there are two problems with that scenario. First, you’d probably want more stopping power than a .380, I’d think a .45ACP as a minimum. Second, is there even a rule against using guns during a game? I mean, the worst thing might be a 15-yard penalty for unnecessary roughness plus an ejection. I’ve since found out that pretty much everybody involved in the whole movie hated each other, which makes me like it all the more since I feed off of the pain of others.
This is a lame list. The quality of movies was in steep decline since the 1980s, and, really, on this list only Silence of the Lambs is a classic. When do I think it started to go wrong in a big way, based on seeds set in earlier decades?
The 1990s.
LA Story has two funny parts I recall; one obviousd, one in the background. The background is that the hotel on the beach is name Pollo Del Mar. The obvious one is when he’s driving down the freeway and realizes it is the first day of spring (or something) and yells for his passenger to get his gun out of the glove box and he starts randomly shooting out the window.
Martin wrote this, he’s a very good writer, as well.
“When finished, he says, ‘The dishes are done, dude’.”
Actually, he says “man” and not “dude.” 😃
And yeah, pretty lame year for movies.
Thank you! Still the best scene of the film.
Toy Soldiers is the opposite of Taps (1981), Tom Cruise’s first movie.
Taps is a magnificent movie.
I enjoyed it. Need to give it another watch. It’s been decades.
It really is.
That was a pretty awful year for movies, other than Terminator 2 and Silence of the Lambs, although Doc Hollywood is still pretty funny. It was my first year of college and I don’t recall seeing many movies in the theater, looks like I didn’t miss much.
You didn’t.
Hudson Hawk is one of those movies where people say it’s terrible, and I can see and understand why they think it’s terrible, but I still like it anyways.
Exactly.
And why didn’t you mention your novel “The Mayor of Christ Mountain”?
I’ve never been good at shameless self-promotion, but I will not turn down an invitation. I’ll mention it on today’s.
I’m encouraging it. I enjoyed it!
One of my favs from 1991 – “The Perfect Weapon” starring Jeff Speakman. He is an actual Black Belt in multiple styles IIRC. The usual plotline. Think…how the Karate Kid should have ended. Oh…and there is a young Mariska Hargitay looking fantastic.
I had to look up Mariska – interesting. Only saw her in one film – Leaving Las Vegas.
I’ve only seen a few of the movies on your list. I looked at the IMDB list of movies released in 1991, and it looks like I didn’t miss very much. The description for Rock-A-Doodle caught my eye: “In order to defeat the wicked Grand Duke of Owls, a young boy, transformed into a cat, teams up with a group of barnyard animals to find the rooster who can raise the sun.” Now that one I’ve got to see!
The guy who wrote Cyrano de Bergerac also wrote the bit that this was based on, though Chanticleer has been a character since before the Canterbury Tales.
I searched and can’t find lists for 1980, 1981, and 1988.
Agreed. That gives three more 1980s!
I have fond memories of The Addams Family, went to see it in the darkest days of my divorce with both my son and brother in law, neither of whom I have been able to see nearly enough in my life. Other than that, a pretty bland year for movies. I remember seeing Paradise with Don Johnson and his then wife Melanie because I was (and still am) a total Miami Vice fan. I also went to see V.I. Warshawski because Kathleen Turner was in it, but let’s face it, she was on the downhill slide in her sexy sexy career by then. She went on to do Serial Mom within a few years, fercryinoutloud. I’ve been reading about Coppola’s upcoming 2024 movie Megalopolis, the coverage of which has mentioned his deceased wife’s 1991 documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, which I didn’t see at the time but would be curious to watch now.
But the best movie from 1991 is Flight Of The Intruder. The court marshal scene with Fred Thompson is an essence of what America is supposed to be about:
“You took an oath, Mr. Cole. You, too, Mr. Grafton. You took an oath to defend the constitution and obey the orders of the officers appointed over you. It’s the same oath that every officer in the navy has taken for damn near 200 years. And during all that time, the military has obeyed the civilian elected government. Now, they might not have always been right, or wise… or even smart, but they were elected. Any other way and the United States would be nothing more than another two-bit military dictatorship.”
And today we’ve got rumors of a Pentagon mutiny refusing to support White House policy in shipping and shooting long range missiles into Russia from Ukraine to try and prevent World War 3. How times change.
“And today we’ve got rumors of a Pentagon mutiny refusing to support White House policy in shipping and shooting long range missiles into Russia from Ukraine to try and prevent World War 3.”
The oath is to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. You can’t tell me the Biden regime isn’t an enemy of the Constitution and the Nation.
Bingo.
I like that one better than Top Gun cuz the main character saw thru the bullshit and bombed the shit out of the shitbag commies missile locations.
Oh and I still like Toy Soldiers. Its “Red Dawn” but if the school was a prep school for brats.
Yup, that movie ties into a relationship for me, with a (now) ex.
Only movies I am re-watching are They Live, and The Road
You forgot Red Dawn.
These are the ones I could find, so 1980, 1981, 1986, and 1988 are missing.
https://wilderwealthywise.com/it-came-from-1982/
https://wilderwealthywise.com/it-came-from-1983/
https://wilderwealthywise.com/it-came-from-1984/
https://wilderwealthywise.com/it-came-from-1985/
https://wilderwealthywise.com/it-came-from-1987/
https://wilderwealthywise.com/it-came-from-1989/
https://wilderwealthywise.com/it-came-from-1990/
https://wilderwealthywise.com/it-came-from-1991/
https://wilderwealthywise.com/the-dystopian-movie-post/
Thanks for call in me on this! I was wrong, and I’m missing 1980, 1981, and 1988.
1986 is here:
https://wilderwealthywise.com/friday-movies-because-i-said-so-1986-in-review/
Ye Saints and Martyrs, John. Looking at the 1991 Listing on Wikipedia, it was a pretty awful year. Beyond what you posted here, Terminator 2 (one of the few sequels that was as good or even better than the original) and Beauty and The Best came out that were memorable (say what you want about now Disney, then Disney had a great run of animated movies). Most of the ones listed and even most of the ones you listed are not ones I would probably watch again (Well, maybe The Addams Family – the casting was perfect).
In other words, all that is old is new again.
I was going to say … didn’t the Disney renaissance start at the turn if the decade? B&tB was the best movie of 1991.
If it were not for the memes I’d say it would outlast SotL. Lotta potential based wierdness in it too. But save that for the livestream.
I skipped the Disney, not for what they were, but for what they became. Additionally, there’s a point that can be made that those movies encouraged the female narcissism that’s killing us today.
L.A. Story (along with Bowfinger) are bookends of Steve Martin’s quietly brilliant take on Hollyweird plastic “culture”. Good pic, and good pick.
Toy Soldiers: your first clue Sean Astin had some talent. Good silly fun.
Backdraft: Spot on review. Decent flick, which stumbled facefirst into a fire at the end.
I have some wee experience with the D.P.: https://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2008/10/halloween-at-universal-studios-pt-2.html
Hot Shots! Yes. Of course. Kevin Dunn and Charley Sheen smoking a helium pipe FTW. Jon Cryer as Washout with walleye vision. Ryan Stiles, when he was nobody, as Mailman. “I think I ate some of your uncle.”
But you missed Flight Of The Intruder, as already noted. John Milius at his best since Red Dawn.
And forget budget size:
You skipped City Slickers? C’mon, man. Classic status. Period. It killed.
Career Opportunities. More John Hughes brilliance. And OMG, Jennifer Connelly.
Soapdish.
The Rocketeer. Alan Arkin. Timothy Dalton as the perfect Nazi bad guy. Oh, and OMG, moar Jennifer Connelly!
Point Break: the only good movie Kathryn Bigelow ever made, which she’s tried (and failed) to surpass ever since. Especially if we include the atrocious The Hurt Locker.
But yes. The severe drop off in quality from the 1980s was when the rot set in. Then it festered and spread.
Bigelow also made “Near Dark,” which was excellent.
I liked Jennifer Connelly in Mulholland Falls and The Hot Spot. Yowza!
I loved Bowfinger – I think that is clearly the best movie he ever made. Genius.
Story is 10/10 amazing. Thanks!!!
I only saw Flight of the Intruder once, and was on a 24″ television screen on a wonky VHS tape. I enjoyed it, but it’s been 35 years.
City Slickers omission was intentional for (waves hands) reasons. If I had to pick one, I’d pick The Cowboy Way.
I’ve never seen Career Opportunities. Now on my list. The Rocketeer could have been so good. It was just . . . missing something.
Point Break almost made the list. WTF happened to Lori Petty????
Hollywood wacktardation soaked in.
Same problem with Mary Stuart Masterson.
And I know, City Slickers was Big Hollywood.
But it went from great to iconic when Billy Crystal rode his horse to the Oscars.
And Jack Palance won one.
I had thought of it as well, but had no idea how it had aged. But Aesop is correct: it got Jack Palance an Oscar and introduced a whole new generation to him.
He deserved it before then.
Unlike some of the other lists, I’ve actually seen most of the movies on this list. The one thing that struck me as I went through your list, however, is that with the exception of The Addams Family, I’ve only ever watched them once. (And the only reason I’ve watched The Addams Family more than once is because my kids liked it when they were little).
Yeah, not a great year.