After the horrors of the Halloween special, it’s business as usual for my movie odyssey as I try to compile the list of films that have, in one way or another, made significant impact on me. I’m making no excuses for some of the films that have already been featured and for the ones that are yet to come, not all of them are great classics and some will divide opinion, but for most there are specific scenes and moments that outrank the movie as a whole which is why some of the more dubious films are included. One such film is on this list, where the movie isn’t all that great but there are some moments that have meant it has stuck with me. Anyway, I’ll leave you to figure out which one it is. In the meantime, we’ve got work to do…
BULL DURHAM (1988)
I’m not the biggest fan of sports but I do enjoy a bit of baseball, even though I have no idea of the rules or scoring. Sports movies are a tricky thing to get right, they’re usually uplifting stories of the underdog fighting back against the odds and can often get quiet sickly and saccharine. Sometimes, though, a sports movie comes along that is a little bit edgier. Bull Durham is one of those. Kevin Costner stars as an aging baseball pitcher (there’s lots of those in the world of cinema) who is brought in to help Tim Robbins‘ younger pitcher get to grips with the game. Both men fall for the sultry Susan Sarandon, who is the team’s groupie and has a habit of hooking up with one young player every season. It’s a hugely entertaining film regardless of whether you understand the rules of the game or not.
WATCH IT FOR: Trailer
GHOST (1990)
I remember going to see this film at the cinema with a friend and, once it had finished, we left the screening surrounded by people in tears. As two fifteen-year-olds we had no idea why. It was a pretty decent movie about a ghost with unfinished business. It wasn’t until I was much older that I ‘got’ Ghost. Sam (Patrick Swayze) and Molly (Demi Moore) are the perfect couple who have recently moved into their unbelievably swish penthouse and seem to have everything they need. One night, though, Sam is gunned down in an apparent mugging where his spirit is left to wander the earth until he figures out who killed him. Viewing this film with a more mature mind and after having gone through grief it really resonates and becomes a completely different movie to the one I originally saw. Whoopi Goldberg provides an Oscar-winning performance as a fraudulent psychic who just so happens to be the only one who can see and hear Sam and damn near steals the whole film.
WATCH IT FOR: Whoopi!
APOLLO 13 (1995)
Making films about true life events can sometimes falter due to the public knowing how things turn out. What skilled filmmakers like Ron Howard do is to tell the familiar story but from different perspectives. Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon and the late Bill Paxton star as the astronauts on the ill-fated “routine” flight aboard NASA’s Apollo 13. There is limited media interest in this mission as the moon landing has already occurred, until something goes terribly wrong aboard the shuttle. The drama on the ground is amplified as we get up close and personal with the astronauts in a tense situation trying to survive.
WATCH IT FOR: “Just breathe normal”
ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE (1994)
Jim Carrey has made a career out of playing crazy, slightly unhinged comic characters but none quite like Ace Ventura. He’s a detective that only takes cases involving animals and the biggest case of his career has just landed in his lap. The Miami Dolphins mascot, a dolphin called Snowflake, is stolen and Ace must investigate to find out who would steal a dolphin and why. Courtney Cox, Sean Young and Tone Loc provide support but this is Carrey’s showcase. It’s a riot and I don’t care what anyone else thinks, I love it.
WATCH IT FOR: Ace in Snowflake’s tank
STRIKING DISTANCE (1993)
By the mid-nineties, Bruce Willis had got the maverick cop act down to a tee. In this thriller he plays Tom Hardy, a former detective, demoted to the river police, who is on the hunt for a serial killer preying on women Hardy knows. It’s your standard action thriller fare with Willis phoning most of the film in but among the predictable stuff there are some memorable moments. Sarah Jessica Parker provides the token female support in a boys’ own action film that also features Tom Sizemore and Dennis Farina.
WATCH IT FOR: The opening car chase
TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY (1991)
I’ll be honest, I’m not a huge fan of the Terminator movies but there is something very special about this, the first sequel to James Cameron‘s 1984 original. Arnold Schwarzenegger returns as the cyborg (an exact lookalike of the original sent to kill Linda Hamilton‘s Sarah Connor) who is sent back from the future to prevent the murder of John Connor (Edward Furlong) by an advanced cyborg, the T-1000 (Robert Patrick). Cameron ramps up the action and uses the then state-of-the-art visual effects technology to provide us with a breath-taking rollercoaster of a movie.
WATCH IT FOR: “Do you know John Connor?”
MRS. DOUBTFIRE (1993)
The very much-missed Robin Williams was clearly having a ball playing Daniel, the divorced father forced to dress as an old lady in order to see his kids. The way he lives and breathes Mrs. Doubtfire shows what a great talent he was and only emphasises the sadness of his early passing. Sally Field plays his ex-wife who has since started dating Pierce Brosnan‘s smarmy Stu. Lisa Jakub, Matthew Lawrence and Mara Wilson play the three kids Daniel is so desperate to see but really, this is all about Williams and his tour-de-force performance.
WATCH IT FOR: “Could you make me a woman?”
THE JEWEL OF THE NILE (1985)
This sequel to the 1984 original sees Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito return in an adventure to find a fabled jewel. While not quite as good as the first film, The Jewel of the Nile does have some good set-pieces and manages to keep up the pace but it lacks the charm of the original. It’s still good fun, though and does feature the hit song “When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going”.
WATCH IT FOR: Jet Escape
SPACEBALLS (1987)
Not content with spoofing virtually every film genre already, Mel Brooks shifts his attention to the Star Wars universe with this cult comedy. Bill Pullman, John Candy and Rick Moranis star in this out of this world parody. Brooks’ skill at taking the well-known and slightly skewing it is evident here as he rips on every space movie ever made. While not universally loved as much as his earlier classics, Spaceballs does hold up as one of the best of his forgotten films.
WATCH IT FOR: Merchandising!
AIR FORCE ONE (1997)
I remember watching The Late Show with David Letterman when Harrison Ford was doing the promotional rounds for this film. Letterman dubbed Ford “Ass-Kicking President” and it’s not hard to see why in this action thriller from Wolfgang Petersen. Ford plays President James Marshall who’s plane (Air Force One) is hijacked by Gary Oldman and his band of terrorists. Marshall is an ex-soldier, though, so puts his military training to good use to get his plane back.
WATCH IT FOR: “Get off my plane!”
And, another edition bites the dust. Certainly a couple of greats there and at least one that shouldn’t really be on anyone’s favourites list but I like it, so there! As the nights begin drawing in my attention naturally shifts towards the festive season. There will be a Christmas Special on it’s way, I’m just sorting out what’s going in, and a couple of extra Movie Heroes entries, too. If you like what you see here, and have liked my previous posts, then please do get in touch, I’d love to hear from you and feel free to share the love. Until the next time…
“Houston, we have a problem”
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