comment #1

DavidF says ...

I have a soft spot for Stockwell the actor (My Science Project is so bad it's good...but really, bad).

I find it hard to imagine him directing. The only thing weirder is that Brian Robbins, the neo-Barbarino on Head of the Class, has somehow emerged as the director of things like Varsity Blues.

Between the two 80s refugees, nary a classic but still...

comment #2

Sean says ...

Jeff, you're conflating two things here. Have you seen "Into the Blue" or "Turistas?" Are they bad, or are they just underperformers? I haven't seen any of Stockwell's films, but I have seen enough directors get knocked for trying to make a genre movie to suggest that maybe the movies are good but just don't have the studios' P&A support.

comment #3

corey3rd says ...

having seen Into the Blue, it was "the Deep for Teens." The only reason to endure the film are shots of Jessica Alba's torso.

comment #4

PaulJBis says ...

I have seen "Into the blue". It was bad, real bad. And I'm also disappointed in the direction that Stockwell's career has taken lately.

comment #5

OddDuck says ...

Yes, Into the Blue was terrible. But Alba somehow made me not care not so much about that. If only we could have a movie comprised entirely of underwater Alba-bikini shots...

But I agree both Blue Crush and Crazy/Beautiful were well made genre flicks that made me think Stockwell had potential. Maybe these had better screenplays, or maybe he simply got lucky with these two.

comment #6

Craig Kennedy says ...

That Alba sure is something. I watched half of the first season of that smoking pile of excrement known as Dark Angel just because she was lovely to look at. Sad but true.

comment #7

The Movie Man says ...

When I think Stockwell, I think the underrated John Carpenter effort CHRISTINE, its dated, but the film is one of Carpenter's creepiest and a not bad adaptation of the book.

comment #8

Colin says ...

For my money, Stockwell's best two efforts are Blue Crush and the TV movie Cheaters. He wrote the screenplay/teleplay for both. Into the Blue was written by the guy who wrote Torque. Turistas was written by a first time scribe. His next film listed on imdb, Villain, is also by a first time scribe.

comment #9

TheLongshot says ...

Yes, but Crazy/Beautiful was written by the geniuses that brought us Aeon Flux and The Tuxedo.

I never made the connection with his acting. So, he's the same guy who was in My Science Project? Wow.

comment #10

Colin says ...

True, Longshot, although they just wrote the story for The Tuxedo, not the screenplay...not that you really could have created a great screenplay out of the basic premise.

comment #11

actionman says ...

My Science Project is one of the best pieces of shit of all time

He did some solid work with crazy/beautiful, Blue Crush, and to a lesser extent with Into the Blue, which is shameless trash but sort of fun (for obvious reasons...)

Didn't see Turistas but thought it looked terrible.

Stockwell is, from what I've heard, is a cool guy...but he's more or less an average director with a slightly above average visual style.

comment #12

christian says ...

unless stockwell wote his films, i'm still not sure about the weird praise jeff plows on him.

a surfing movie with jesica alba is not a portent of great things to come.

and MY SCIENE PROJCT represents the absolute nadir of awful pyrotechnic 80's films. i still recall how much screen time was given to stockwell's friend, the jersey bad boy who you could tell the producers thought was going to be the break-out star of the film. hideous.

comment #13

christian says ...

and i mean "wrote his films" or should i say "rote films"? and MY SCIENCE PROJECT...

comment #14

actionman says ...

"i still recall how much screen time was given to stockwell's friend, the jersey bad boy who you could tell the producers thought was going to be the break-out star of the film. hideous."

dude--that's Fisher Stevens
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001770/
granted he never became a "star," but he's had more work to choke a horse

comment #15

christian says ...

i'm glad he got work, but his performance in MSP, which is obviously from the script, may be the single most obnoxious in 80's cinema -- next to corey feldman in LOST BOYS.

you can tell the producers thought FS was gonna be beloved because they put him in all these scenes during the end credits.

i haven't seen it since it came out and i still the awful memory imprinted on my brain.

comment #16

rocco says ...

He killed in 'Christine'...

comment #17

DavidF says ...

I had no idea so many other people would remember My Science Project and feel bad for steering the conversation that way so heavily. Still, I can't believe the guy who based Fisher Stevens! And don't forget about the ever-hyper Dennis Hopper - which one only appreciates when one is older.

But let none of this distract us from an important fact - this is COUGAR.
If he hadn't been so messed up by the MiGs, Mav and Goose never would have been sent to Top Gun. That makes him an important historic figure. (And indirectly responsible for Goose's death, kinda.)

I haven't seen Blue Crush largely because I haven't stumbled across it some day on TV but, really, I've heard/seen no indications that Stockwell is a major talent on the verge of breaking big. He made a couple of okay films that did okay business but I don't see a phenom or anything else particularly special. Seems a decent guy and that counts for something.

comment #18

DavidF says ...

I had no idea so many other people would remember My Science Project and feel bad for steering the conversation that way so heavily. Still, I can't believe the guy who based Fisher Stevens! And don't forget about the ever-hyper Dennis Hopper - which one only appreciates when one is older.

But let none of this distract us from an important fact - this is COUGAR.
If he hadn't been so messed up by the MiGs, Mav and Goose never would have been sent to Top Gun. That makes him an important historic figure. (And indirectly responsible for Goose's death, kinda.)

I haven't seen Blue Crush largely because I haven't stumbled across it some day on TV but, really, I've heard/seen no indications that Stockwell is a major talent on the verge of breaking big. He made a couple of okay films that did okay business but I don't see a phenom or anything else particularly special. Seems a decent guy and that counts for something.

comment #19

Colin says ...

Apparently, My Sciene Project references Christine:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089652/trivia

And, yeah, I have some fondness for MSP:

http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/discland/archives/2005/12/oc_and_stiggs.php

comment #20

christian says ...

MSP has a great premise and some good 80's efx at the end, but again, the leads are not appealing.

i might have to rent this just to revisit the scene of the crime.

comment #21

Colin says ...

Interesting...apparently Danielle von Zerneck, Stockwell's love interest in MSP, was the caffeinated AD in Living in Oblivion. And what's interesting about Stockwell's characters in both MSP and Christine is that they're both basically supposed to be dumb jocks. I mean, I suppose on some level we're supposed to like them, but I don't really remember any reasons given.

comment #22

Colin says ...

Hmm...and MSP's writer/director Jonathon Beutel also wrote the screenplay for another '80s classica, "The Last Starfighter."

comment #23

Colin says ...

And, heck, while we're at it, what was in the water in 1985?: Weird Science, Real Genius, Back to the Future, and MSP we're all released. I guess this was the year of the teen sci-fi comedy. If only Night of the Comet were released a few months later, it could be added as well.

comment #24

Mr. Peel says ...

Of course, Explorers was also in the summer of '85, but those kids were younger. Weird Science...they don't make 'em like that anymore.

comment #25

LYTrules says ...

I'm surprised by the praise for Blue Crush here.

I loved the poster, and thoroughly enjoyed interviewing Michelle Rodriguez in advance of the film. But when I actually saw the film, I really couldn't muster any enthusiasm for it at all. Even the surfing footage was less than I expected.

Now that Kate Bosworth is becoming a big name, it'll remain a curiosity just for her. But it's nowhere near as good as crazy/beautiful.

comment #26

LOTGA says ...

Turistas was complete shit. I didn't pay for it (I work at a movie theatre) and I still want my eight bucks back.

One friend remarked to me when I told them I was seeing it "Didn't you already see Hostel?"

comment #27

DavidF says ...

If someone organizes a film fest w/ Explorers, Real Genius and Last Starfighter - I'm there. (Let's not even get on a thread of why Val Kilmer should be doing more comedies. The Entourage cameo was progress in this regard).

As for the Mindless 80s Film Fest, heck, throw in Goonies for good measure...and that's not even counting obvious fun like Ghostbusters and Back to the Future.

And to think people bash the mid-80s for being uncultured!

It's kinda like listening to Culture Club and Duran Duran - it ain't GREAT music but it sure is FUN and you need have no regrets about your fond memories...

And, back on topic...Turistas? Really? The world will be a better place when they stop the Wayans bros. from making more movies and this whole Hostel/Saw/Turistas torture porn fad is done.

comment #28

Colin says ...

Well, rumor is that Val Kilmer is doing Real Genius 2 with an eye toward doing more comedies. RG2 could be cool or a disaster, but I certainly support Kilmer doing more comedic performances:

Top Secret!, Real Genius, True Romance, Tombstone, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Every comedic role he's had, he's nailed.

comment #29

Rich S. says ...

Kilmer was also pretty funny (and the only good thing) in Willow.

comment #30

christian says ...

as an unapologetic duran fan, they are still making terrific discs and have always been underrated. plus, they did one of the best bond theme songs ever.

but an 80's geek film fest would just result in trauma for people that may actually think GOONIES was a good movie...that said, i think the last 20 minutes of EXPLORERS with picardo's alien monologue is one of the great moments of 80's cinema...

comment #31

rocco says ...

Goonies may not be a good "film," but it's a great f'ing movie...hating on smart popcorn favorites like Goonies or the witty gem Ghostbusters doesn't automatically make one sophisticated...every comedy need not be 'Being There.'

comment #32

christian says ...

well how about at least entertaining?

smart? when? great? where?

GOONIES qualifies as neither.

comment #33

Doug says ...

If ever there was a summer film, it is "Into the Blue." And when did Sony release it? In the fall.
Ashley Scott is actually the best thing in the film. Her character is much more fun than the role Jessica Alba plays.
I, too, am a fan of Stockwell's "Crazy/Beautiful," "Blue Crush" and "Cheaters."

comment #34

DavidF says ...

And, hey, we shouldn't forget that Stockwell's CHRISTINE co-star Keith Gordon (also, and always, Jason Melon) has also become a not bad director.

I remember he got some acclaim for WAKING THE DEAD but his IMDB listing shows he's done some good episodic TV like HOMICIDE, HOUSE and DEXTER.

Must have been something in the water.

comment #35

The Movie Man says ...

EXPLORERS is a compassionate, bizarre little 80s children's movie that I remember fondly and that has wonderful performances (back when Joe Dante was the master of pseudo-horror films that played to both children and adults and condescended to neither), THE GOONIES is the exact opposite, shrill, loud crap, its time to rectify 20 years of overrating through nolstalgia on that one.

comment #36

christian says ...

great minds etc....

comment #37

DavidF says ...

Shame on the Goonies bashers!
A post-Lucas, ever-so cute Kerrie Green; a pre-Gamgee Sean Astin; a-Bailey-Quarters-cute Matha Plimpton; an almost-as-good-as-in-Stand by Me -Corey Feldman?

What more could you want?
Robert Davi? Check.
Joey Pants? Check.
If that's STILL not enough I give you Anne Ramsey AND "The Truffle Shuffle."

And if that's STILL not enough I give you the great Cyndi Lauper song AND the two-part epic video featuring the then-huge stars of the WWF.

What, I ask you, is not to like?

Admittedly "Sloth" is a bit weird but Goonies was clearly way ahead of the curve on the whole "Pirate Films are Cool" thing.

Isn't the Goonies, like Poltergeist, a film where it's rumoured that Spielberg did more than just producing, despite the credits?

[Poor Jeff. I'm sure he didn't expect the threat to end up here.]

comment #38

The Movie Man says ...

David-the problem with THE GOONIES is the goonies, not the bad guys. I don't know, it feels more like a half-assed, frentic Richard Donner movie to me than half-assed Spielberg. I think Spielberg, even at his worst, would have brought out some more in the kids (though he did HOOK a few years later so who knows...)

THE GOONIES has one moment, when the ship is set free at the end and everyone appreciates its majesty, but, if I recall, even that is cheapened with a Domino's pizza plug but the cliched annoying fat kid.

comment #39

The Movie Man says ...

What the hell happened to Joe Dante anyway?

comment #40

Pwrgirl says ...

I saw TURISTAS in the theater, and it's not bad! A bit gory, but I was never bored. I think he's talented, and pretty good at directing suspense. He just needs to find that perfect script, like everyone else.

PS- I really liked him in CHRISTINE, too;P

comment #41

Colin says ...

The Movie Man, he directed, Homecoming, what many people thought was the best episode of the first season of The Masters of Horror:

http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/discland/archives/2006/07/homecoming.php

He also directed an episode this season called The Screwfly Solution, which I found to be really interesting. It's like a TV scale Children of Men, except instead of women not being able to have children, men's sex drives have been altered such that they're trying to kill them.

And it looks like he's putting together his own horror anthology show:

http://www.horrorexpress.com/news.php?newsid=719

By the way, I agree with the above posters about The Explorers -- it's a terrific movie.

comment #42

christian says ...

my major bad with the GOONIES is the kids are generally unappealing, except for key hu quan, who has the only cool moments in the film.

it's loud, frenetic and unfunny, and i realized i hated the movie during that awful scene with corey feldman explaining all the terrible things in spanish to the housekeeper like a racist little rascals bit. ugh.

i did like sloth, the cyndi lauper tune and the skeleton keyboard. the rest was poor donner trying to come off like worse spielberg.

but chunk was my class president at uc berkeley.

EXPLORERS is a bit of a mess -- where's the fabled director's cut? -- but i love jerry goldsmith's score and like i said, once they get on the ship it's pretty cool. picardo's tv montage monologue is quite funny and amazing.

jeff is saying what the fuck?

comment #43

The Movie Man says ...

Colin-I caught "Homecoming", missed "The Screwfly Solution." I thought "Homecoming" was overrated and way too proud of itself for what it was saying (and this is from someone who agrees with the thesis) but it was still the best of season 1, at least what I saw, but the "masters" set the bar pretty low. I also missed the Looney Tunes movie. I guess the last full Dante seen by me was "Small Soldiers" and that was, with only a few exceptions, distressingly devoid of Dante's personality, it felt like a Dante cover song as opposed to the real mccoy.

Christian-Agreed on skeleton keyboard and Sloth, but you can keep the Lauper song.

comment #44

The Movie Man says ...

Sorry, guys but I guess I'm a bit of a Dante fanboy, love MATINEE. A pitch perfect tribute to the giant bug movies and really sweet without being annoying.

comment #45

Mr. Peel says ...

Loud, frenetic and unfunny are really the only words that need to be used to describe The Goonies.

As for Dante, I agreed with what Homecoming was saying more than I actually liked it. Looney Tunes: Back in Action has its problems but it also has a lot of the fabled Dante anarchy and any fan of his should check it out. It wound up being the final score by Jerry Goldsmith as well.

As for what he's doing right now, I see him all the time at the Arclight. He sat just a few rows in front of me when I saw The Good Shepherd.

comment #46

christian says ...

i adore MATINEE and it's probably the only american film to tackle the pop cultural aspect of bug movies and the fear of the bomb.

SMALL SOLDIERS was a li'l sloppy, but the toy soldiers and monsters stuff was pitch fucking perfect down to the voice casting.

dante needs to do an honest to goodness animated film that's not bugs bunny.

and he made a pretty good cable film called THE SECOND CIVIL WAR, a satire with a great cast including brian keith james coburn and others.

and for the record, i hated GREMLINS. the year of bad chris columbus scripts.

comment #47

Joshua Mooney says ...

I'll give Stockwell a pass for "Turistas." The guy has directing talent. Oh sure, run him down for acting in '80s movies. It was the '80s, hello? Maybe he needs a new agent. Or maybe he doesn't care? Dude's led a rather... interesting life, to be sure.

Dante's dead, right? I mean literally? Oh. Maybe I just heard that.

comment #48

rocco says ...

Maybe I'm just a sentimental guy, but Goonies rocks...the "kids" are the best part about it...genuine youthful innocence. The dialogue was witty without being too obnoxiously precocious.

Christian, no idea how old your are, but for twenty-somethings, it's one of the great escapist comedies.

comment #49

christian says ...

i was old enough to realize it wasn't good: 15.

i've said it before, THE GOONIES was the end of my movie innoncence, where i realized a film i was dying to see turned out to awful. if i was 8, it might be great.

comment #50

The Movie Man says ...

I'm in my 20s and I back Christian up 100% on THE GOONIES, yes, when you're young you probably (and I did) fall for it, but watch it again, its really dispiriting how annoying that movie is.

But, Christian, I can't get behind you on GREMLINS, I love that movie (and its one I've come back to recently so its not filtered through nostalgia.) The script is so-so, the lead is bland, but everything else is so gleefully, bugfucking insane (and this was pitched at children!)

THE HOWLING, GREMLINS, MATINEE, Dante's portion of THE TWILIGHT ZONE are pitch perfect examples of a certain genre tone that virtually no other fairly modern director gets. His movie are somehow postmodern (way before it was hip for ever genre movie to wink at us) and naive at the same time. And GREMLINS 2:DIE HARD WITH GREMLINS is uneven, but has its moments,

comment #51

DavidF says ...

I'm a fan of Gremlins (3rd fave xmas movie after Die Hard and Christmas Story) and I think G2 is something of an underrated film.

It's not a classic but it's a bizarre meta-movie where they clearly told the studio the only way they'd do a sequel if they could do it their way. It's entirely a parody of the first film and its various absurdities and you have to give them credit for going that way - I can't think (off-hand) of anyone who's done the same thing before or since. (Temple of Doom's over-the-top darkness miiight qualify.)

Aside from the Landis-like cameos and the weird Canadian restaurant scene there's a fun Christopher Lee bit (before he became cool again) and John Glover doing some bizarre spin on Trump. The Tony Randall bit is almost too much but then you get a Paul Bartel-Hulk Hogan scene that (IMHO) not only kills the first time you see it but seems to be some kind of perfect synchronicity of cult/pop culture.

And, as The Movie Man said, it's rather fascinating to watch Gremlins (and Temple of Doom) when you're older. You can totally see why they created PG-13 and can't quite imagine films like those being pitched at kids nowadays. Right wing parent groups should take note that our generation has not been psychically scarred and there have been no rashes of crossbow rampages in department stores nor a series of movie theatre explosions (all you need, after all, is a rag a lighter and the theatre's gas main!)

As for Goonies, I love it. I guess I can see why some might not. But I think it's a great fun little film and if you liked it then, I don't think it loses any shine now. If you didn't, that's another matter, apparently.

Plus the DVD has fun commentary track that includes video of all the "kids" as they are now (well, three years ago). There were plenty of worse 80s-kiddie movies made and since lost in the mists of time.

comment #52

The Movie Man says ...

DavidF-Like your thoughts, I'm going to have to revisit Gremlins 2. I remember really liking Glover and Lee, and admiring the crazy, not coasting on the goodwill of the first film at all ambition of the whole enterprise, but can recall little else. I will have to revisit.

comment #53

Mr. Peel says ...

Gremlins 2 is a near-masterpiece. If you hadn't just written a long thread extolling its virtues I would have done it myself.

comment #54

DavidF says ...

Feel free to elaborate, Mr. Peel!
I didn't even mention Phoebe Cates' speech about Lincoln's Birthday, the always-awesome Robert Picardo, the 10-years-ahead-of-its-time predictions about specialty cable channels (ie The Archery Channel), the end-of-the-world video, the Henry Gibson cameo, Leonard Maltin's self-mocking (quoting from his actual review of Gremlins)...it saddens me that there are people out there who either didn't "get" Gremlins2 when it came out or have not seen it since.
It helps if you've seen the first film but it really works either way.

Not only did WB let them do all this craziness, they even let them do the dark-comedy Bugs/Daffy intro.

Meta and self-pardoy might be overdone now but this was meta in 1989, folks.

Plus, they actually made a different version of the Hogan scene for video (with static instead of film burns). THAT is artistic commitment!

comment #55

Colin says ...

I'll jump on the Gremlins 2 banwagon. I loved it as kid, and I watched it recently again b/c my wife loves John Glover on Smallville, so I recommended it. It holds up and then some:

-Okay, wait. What if one of them eats
something at 11:00...

-...but something sticks in his teeth? A caraway or a sesame seed.

-And after 12, it comes out.
He didn't eat it after midnight.

- I didn't make the rules.- Rules?

-What if they're in an airplane
and they cross a time zone?

-It's always midnight somewhere.

comment #56

rocco says ...

DavidF...you are the only person I know besides myself who considers Die Hard a christmas movie...when I tell people it's the best christmas movie of all time, I get a blank stare. Everytime I hear 'Let It Snow" I think of Die Hard. 'It's a Wonderful Life" takes places for about 5 minutes at Christmas, yet it's an xmas classic...conversely, Die Hard is crammed full of christmas spirit and dialogue, yet it's somehow odd to consider it an xmas movie? Come on, aren't most christmases filled with graphic violence, nudity, and excessive gore?

comment #57

christian says ...

bt, joe dante is the cover boy on this month's "directed by" so there he is...

re GREMLINS, while i loved the antics of the gremlins, i thought the film was way too cruel for its aimed audience. its plot holes were so open i couldn't get into it -- harlan ellison has the best most scathing review of the film in his boook of essays "watching"...

and G2 is actually more fun, weirder and less gruesome.

of course DIE HARD is an xmas movie. machine gun ho ho ho...

comment #58

christian says ...

and speaking of 80's weird science, i'm a huge fan of INNERSPACE, one of the best times i've ever had at a movie. i thought it shoulda been a bigger hit. it's like a sci-fi jerry lewis action comedy.

comment #59

The Movie Man says ...

I'm going to have to pick up that Harlan Ellison book this weekend (if I can find it) and both Gremlins DVDs while I'm at it.

That's one of the best descriptions I've ever read of INNERSPACE, never thought of that way but its certainly accurate and Short had to be thinking of Lewis during some of those scenes when Quaid drives his body haywire (I'm especially thinking of the scene that somehow ends up with him dancing or shaking a robotic hand, but its been awhile on that one too.)

comment #60

christian says ...

here's martin short doing one of the greatest jerry lewis parodies ever -- sctv's "scenes from an idiot's marriage":

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DEz2neoofOA