Jesse Walsh (Mark Patton-Come back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean) moves with his family into the Elm Street House. Almost immediately Freddy Kruger shows up in his nightmares. But this time Freddy Kruger (Robert Englund A Nightmare on Elm Street) haunts more than his dreams. He wants to possess Jesse and take his revenge. Though obviously in the pre-stages of Freddy possession, everyone, including Jesse's family, just thinks he's weird or on drugs. Gnarly things keep happening such as a bird exploding in the living room, ungodly heat creating glistening shirtless scenes, and kitchen appliances flashing up spontaneously combustion. No, nothing wrong here, it's just Jesse being weird. Lisa Webber (Kim Meyers) is totally hot for Jesse. But she knows he's slow to pick up on her advances and totally stalks him until he finally acknowledges the love connection. However, she sees that he's not only shy, but he's got some baggage. However, Lisa's not scared, she's on a mission. Will love win. Will Lisa get inside the heart of man who's body is possessed by a child killer? Find out in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge Rated R
Also starring Robert Rustler (Weird Science), Christie Clark (General Hospital) and many more.
Scott Howard (Michael J. Fox: Back to the Future franchise) is just an average teenage boy right?
Wrong, he’s a dweeb fer sher who doesn’t know when he’s got it made. Though the
super foxy Boof (Susan Ursitti: Zapped),
totally has the hots for him, Howard is in love with the beautiful, but opportunistic
cheerleader Pamela (Lori Griffin: Cheerleader
Camp).
It’s not until his hormones kick in that he transforms from
dork to hunk and catches the eye of Pamela. Why? The family secret howls out
loud: Howard is a werewolf and everyone wants him including, geeks, yuppies,
the basketball team, Pamela, his best friend and the evil principal. The loser
Howard can’t get anything right. But as a wolf, he howls, surfs on a truck,
slam dunks basketballs, steals the staring part in a play and makes out with
Pamela (yes, in full wolf personality). Soon this new man’s best friend is
riding high on fame, but can it last?
“Hey, hey, hey , hey….oooooohoooooohooooo!” yeah, you know
the song, and if you recognize the opening lyrics of “Don’t You Forget About
Me”, then you remember the totally awesome mega cult hit The Breakfast Club.
The
Breakfast Club stars Molly Ringwald (16 Candles) as Claire
Standish, Judd Nelson (St. Elmo’s Fire) as John Bender, Emilio Estevez (St. Elmo’s Fire) as Andrew Clark, and Ally Sheedy (St. Elmo’s Fire) as Allison Reynolds.
All do an awesome job excelling in political incorrectness while
portraying the very teens one might find in a 1980’s school. Though the thought
of an entire movie filmed in a library can be off putting, each performs
solidly as lost souls gathered on a dismal Chicago March Saturday. Soon this
incoherent group discovers that a Brain, a Princess, a Criminal, a Jock and a Basket
Case can do way more as a group than as individuals. Their mannerisms and expressions
throughout the movie are perfect. Even individual dance moves in the famous
“make up dance” scene betray their individuality. You can imagine each one with
their particular click dancing in the same manner during the prom. Also,
Gleason performs most excellently as the gnarly Principal Vernon, bent on
punishing the “children”.
Memories of teen angst hit me after watching this movie for
the 2d time 27 years later. “Yeah, that’s the way it was”, I found myself asking,
“Who didn’t relate to at least one of the characters?” I remember shortly after
my 1985 viewing how my friends and I comparing ourselves to someone or maybe
even a few of the dentionees. It wasn’t hard then and it was just as easy now.
And not to mention the awesome crush I had on Molly Ringwald.
Memorable quotes include:
Claire : Do you know
how popular I am? I am so popular. Everybody loves me so much at this school.
Bender: Poor baby.
Clark: If I lose my
temper you're totaled, man.
Bender: Totally?
Clark: Totally.
Bender: Does
Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?
Vernon: Don't mess
with the bull, young man. You'll get the horns.
Sound track was incredible with the hit singles:
“Don’t You Forget About Me” Simple Minds
"Fire In
The Twilight" Wang Chung
The Breakfast Club
is rate R for language, drug usage and other politically incorrect stuff.
Summer Rental (1985). John Candy (Splash,
Trains, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Canadian Bacon) stars as Jack
Chester, an air traffic controller. He is under a lot of stress and barely
avoids a major air catastrophe by mistaking a fly for an airplane. The solution;
take his family on a much needed vacation.
However, location isn’t everything. The Chesters soon learn
that trying to get good old dad to relax is going to be one catastrophic event
after another. Men try to date his wife and daughter, a preppy yachtsman
challenges him to a race and so many more adventures await.
Summer
Rental also stars Kerri Green, Joey Lawrence, John Larroquette,
Karen Austin, and Richard Crenna
Summer
Rental is an excellent and fun fabulous 80’s movie. This movie
takes you from the boiling room pressure cooker of an FAA control tower to the supposedly
tranquil beach vacation.
Awesome soundtrack includes Footloose and Axel F.
Yeah, you’ve heard them before and now you can hear them on Summer Rental. See it now.
The Wild Life is a fantastic teen movie from 1984. I thought of the movie shortly after reviewing Weird Science and remembering Mitchell Smith, who plays the raspy voiced Wyatt. In The Wild Life, Smith portrays Jim Conrad a teen loner who easily identifies with a misunderstood Vietnam Veteran (Randy Quaid). In 1984, I was a teenager myself and remembered how cool Conrad’s character had seemed. He smoked, drank and cussed, all before his 16th birthday and wasn’t accountable to anyone.
Eric Stolz (Mask, Some Kind of Wonderful) plays Bill Conrad a high school grad on the way to college man. As he transitions to the collegiate life, he breaks of with his girlfriend Anita (Leah Thomson of Back to the Future, Red Dawn), gets a new apartment, and becomes interested in his younger brother Jim’s well being; all in the name of responsibility.
However, he just can’t quit best friend Tom Drake (Chris Penn of Footloose, All the Right Moves). When they rent an apartment together, it’s anything but responsible.
After remembering the movie, I tried hard to find it online, in video stores and among friends. The Wild Life is available in VHS, Laser Disk and Beta from some online sources. I found a copy to review and discovered an enjoyable flick. The reason that it is not widely available on DVD is the similar reason facing many movies being converted to DVD; licensing. So, in the name of awesomeness, Eddie Van Halen, composer of the soundtrack, please release the rights and make this movie available. If not… “it’s casual”.
Great lines include:
"It's casual"
"As soon as they see you're afraid, you're dead."
Warning: This movie may lead to more headbutting. Many learned to do so the first time it came out.
Weird Science is a classic 80s teen angst movie with mega opportunities to get inside the character’s heads. But, what else would you expect of a John Hughes movie. Especially with the alumnus Anthony Michael Hall (Breakfast Club, Vacation, Sixteen Candles).
Hall plays Gary Wallace and Ilan Mitchell Smith (The Wild Life) plays Wyatt. Together they are two spazes who don’t seem to fit in anywhere. No friends other than each other and only fantasies for girlfriends, they follow the course and do what any red blooded American boys would do; they create their own girlfriend. Now they are on top of the world and The Dudes to know. But, such fame comes with a price.
Kelly LeBrock plays Lisa, the bogus duo’s creation. Instead of following any lame orders, Lisa takes over their plans and their future of spectacular popularity in a “model knows best” role. She takes them to the right clubs, the best parties, dresses them in awesome clothes and puts them in righteous cars (Ferrari and Porsche). On their way to instant popularity, they have to learn a few lessons and stand up to parents, bad guys, bikers and rogues.
Weird Science also stars Robert Downey Jr., Bill Paxton and an incredibly young cast of future Hollywood heroes.
Incredible dialog includes:
Wallace describing the woman he wants to create:
“I want her to live. I want her to breath. I want her to aerobicize.”
Eightees culture includes All Dave All the Time with David Lee Roth, DataLife 3x5 floppy disks, references to Phil Donahue, and the Memotech computer. The classic battle of computer geniuses is well captured as Wyatt battles the Air Force for computer energy dominance over the dial up modem connection.
I rate this movie four alligators for great theme, cast and Oingo Boingo’s theme song of the same title.
Bad language and brief nudity gives this movie a PG-13 rating.
1985’s Gotcha stars Anthony Edwards (Top Gun, Revenge of the Nerds, Fast Times at Ridgemont High)is Jonathan, a quick witted, LAcollege student , but innocent in the game of love.He has the best hair ever and his biggest past time is a game called Gotcha, a club where he and other members play an assassination game against each other with paintball guns.
Jsu Garcia (Nightmare on Elm Street) is Manolo, the ladies man who knows how to have a good time. They are best friends and travel to Europe during a break in classes. Beginning in Paris, France, the two young men start their European adventure. However, unlucky at love Jonathan suddenly breaks his streak when he falls for the beautiful but mysterious Sasha Banechek, Linda Fiorentino (Vision Quest).Suddenly, Jonathan no longer needs Manolo and the two part company, bogus. Jonathan totally follows Sasha blindly, and starts the most radical adventure of his life.
It’s not long before Jonathan is in trouble-duh. The fine Check Sasha plays him like a Rubik’s Cube earning his trust before shattering him like fine Prague crystal. She drags him through Berlin with a mysterious message of “meet me at Café Friedrichstrasse,” as his only warning to get out of dodge.
Great 80’s songs such as Nick Kershaw’s Wouldn’t it Be Good, Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Relax and Two Tribes, Bronski Beat’s Small Town Boy and of course the theme song Gotcha play throughout providing choice music.
There is some fine 80’s memorabilia and vintage products. TWA jet at the airport, main characters sport awesome Vaurnet sunglasses, almost everyone wears preppy sweaters all the time. The Berlin contrast to Paris classically in a Cold War Spy vs. Spy kind of way.
I’ve seen this movie four times and related well to Edward’s character. The first time I saw it was right after I got out of the Army and moved away from Germany. My first thoughts after seeing it were, “that’s me”. I spend three years stationed in Germany. Every weekend I was on a train travelling Europe and experiencing some pretty fascinating times including having guns pulled on in a case of mistaken identity in Monte Carlo, hearing a murder confession in a Vienna Jazz club, attending an ambassador aids’ party, and enjoying the company of German royalty.
Gotcha has some very funny scenes. My favorites included the Pernod exchange, the first meeting between Jonathan and Sasha, when Jonathan crosses the border back to West Berlin, when he sees his first Burger King since the spy experience and the trip with the punk band.
