Ask me for a Kevin Bacon career highlight, and without hesitation my first answer will always be Tremors (’90). “Valentine McKee”, Bacon’s lively, none-too-bright yokel in cowboy boots and a jean jacket, is his most fully-rounded, emotionally-winning character ever. I re-watched Tremors six or seven years ago and loved it all over again.
Bacon and Fred Ward were a great shitkicker duo in that Ron Underwood film. Tremors was called a failure because it only made $16.7 million after costing $10 million to produce, but it wasn’t a wipe-out. And it did catch on at Blockbuster, and it gradually spawned a few Tremors sequels. I saw the first one (Tremors 2: Aftershocks) and quickly got off the boat. The others were probably just as bad.
Jett, Dylan and I watched the original Tremors over and over when it hit laser disc in ’96. (They called it “Sand Monsters”.) Not long after I introduced Jett to Kevin at a post-screening reception. A proud moment.
I had first met Bacon in early ’82 (40 years ago!) when I was assigned to interview him for Us magazine. The topic du jour was his breakout performance as “Fenwick,” the nihilistic kid who knows all the game-show answers, in Barry Levinson‘s Diner. Every film journalist loved that little movie, and Joe Popcorn mostly went “meh” — it only managed $14 million domestic.
All to say that I found the above Tremors interview fascinating. Bacon was in a shaky position at the time, he says. A career slump, running out of money. But he knew he could have fun with the character.
Right after Tremors on my Bacon scale is Diner (’82). I would never, ever mention Footloose, which I instantly hated. I would then mention Bacon’s wise-ass gay prostitute in JFK, his Marine prosecutor in A Few Good Men and astronaut Jack Swigert in Apollo 13. I also liked him in Paul Verhoeven‘s The Hollow Man (’00), HBO’s Taking Chance (’09) and Amazon’s I Love Dick.
Bacon posted this Facebook video a day or two ago. (I think.) The first part is perfect as New York City is never, ever boring.