Kickboxer Series (1989 - 1995)

An American action series directed by Mark di Salle, David Worth, Albert Pyun, Rick King and Kristine Peterson, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme.
A man's brother is injured in a Thai boxing match and he trains with an old man to get revenge. Then it all goes down the toilet.
This series had a great start, faltered in #2, came back with drama/comedy in #3 and then died. I can't believe someone re-booted it (2016, 2018, 2020) after what a disaster #5 was. The first one is a classic. It has style, the viewer cares about the characters and there are extended training scenes. The second was annoying at best, but there was a kid with a King Diamond shirt (image) in the beginning. The third resurrected the series. There was a large sub-plot about kidnapped girls, but the main plot was about the hero, the old man and 2 kids. Sasha Mitchell did a great job in his role as David Sloane. He was expressive and charismatic. He was not so great in #2 and #4. Speaking of #4, it was one of the worst films I've ever seen. The main plot of the tournament would have been fine, but there was this added thing with an abducted wife, a ninja and an EXTREMELY graphic sex scene. If it were not following such crap, #5 would have been terrible. I thought it was really boring. The moral of the story here is to watch #1 & #3, but not the rest. I'm rating the whole series o.k. because of the wildly variable quality.

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)

An American horror directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starring Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins and Gary Oldman.
We all know the Dracula story.
Another good one in a row. Also very easy to mock: Francis For Crappola made Shaft Stroker's Jackula. Casting was perfect on this. Unbeknownst in 1992 was the fact that the leading couple would be paired again in Destination Wedding (2018). I have generally believed that children from this fictional union would be great actors. Visual effects were great, camerawork and editing looked good. I'll stop. I rate this best Watch it!

Home Alone + 2: Lost in New York (1990 & 1992)

American comedies directed by Chris Columbus, starring Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Candy, John Heard and Catherine O'Hara.
A boy's family leaves for Christmas vacation in France, but forget to bring him. While they are away, burglars try to break into the house. Then he gets on the wrong plane and ends up in New York City while his family are in Florida. The same burglars show up.
When I began taking college video production classes, I realized how cool the original Home Alone was. Everything is done straight up, by the book. Every shot is identifiable and everything is planned for clear communication. Casting did a great job. On an interesting note, Catherine O'Hara (Mrs. McCallister) voiced Malicious in Witch's Night Out (1978) and played Delia Deetz in Beetlejuice (1988). The second film was not as good as the first and buggered belief even more. I rate the original best and the sequel adequate.

1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992)

A French Spanish adventure directed by Ridley Scott, starring Gérard Depardieu, Sigourney Weaver and Armand Assante.
Christopher Columbus wants to sail west from Europe, seeking a trade route to Asia, but finds America. Then the problems really start.
Boring. The plot just failed to hold my attention. The characters were alright and I liked that Sigourney Weaver played the queen. Production was very much of the time. Video looked good and had a variety of shot compositions and lengths. Audio was good as well. I could hear everything and there were even leopard/jaguar screams for the American warriors attacking the Spanish conquistadores. I guess it was just too stale a story and too predictable. The viewer doesn't have any chance of wondering what will happen next. The scene with the giant bell was absurd. Christopher was standing in the center, pulling a rope like he was the only one working (image), borrowed Severus Snape's horse and suddenly everything worked. Ridley Scott really took a dive by directing this after Alien (1979), Legend (1985) and Thelma & Louise (1991). As far as I can tell, he came back to glory with Matchstick Men (2003) and that was it for him. I rate this poor because it was not even interesting.

Folks! (1992)

An American comedy directed by Ted Kotcheff, starring Don Ameche.
A man has problems when his mom gets sick, his dad is senile, he lost his job, his wife and kids run away, his sister brings her sons to live with him and he is being evicted from his home.
I would call this a tragi-comedy because nothing good happens until the happy ending. The main character (Tom Selleck) won a Razzie for worst acting, but I didn't think it was that bad. This was certainly written better than The Headsman (2005) and Fair Game (1995). The characters were identifiable and memorable. SAlthough I didn't like the plot, it was clearly presented. Video showed everything going on in an early '90s style and I could hear all of the dialogue. Some of it may have been poorly written and poorly acted, but I could hear it. I've never come down too hard on a film for being too hokey, so I this has not earned my ire. I rate it o.k. because there is much worse stuff to watch and I almost enjoyed it.

Class Act (1992)

An American comedy directed by Randall Miller, starring Kid 'n Play (Christopher Reid and Christopher Martin), Doud E. Doug and Pauly Shore.
As an "urban retelling of Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper", an office mishap switches the school files of a criminal and a dork. They agree to keep the switch going and help one another fit their new roles.
I thought this was entertaining and funny. It may have something to do with Doug E. Doug and Pauly Shore. Pauly shore was actually repeating some lines from Encino Man (1992), complete with pauses and the same lines he was saying on the motorcycle ride into school with Dave. The timeless premise split off into comedic situations in which the wrong guy did something right which the right guy would not have been able to do. Being from my favorite era of films (late '80s to early '90s), I thought the production was handled well. I could hear and see everything very well and it held my attention. I don't feel the need to go on and on about liking this. I rate it good. Watch it.

Seedpeople (1992)

An American Full Moon science fiction horror directed by Peter Manoogian, starring Sam Hennings.
A scientist arrives in a secluded rural town for a meeting about meteorites. One of the residents presents him with a similar item which turns out to be a seed. One of the seeds has sprouted and is taking over people's minds.
This was pretty standard for the company and time. The standalone films made by Full Moon were not usually very good. Most of them (like this one) were under-budgeted, poorly written and had bad acting. The video quality was also usually poor. The only interesting fact was that one of the seed monsters was played by a man with no legs. There is really no more to say about this. I rate it poor and you probably should not watch it.

House series (1986 - 1992)

An American horror produced by Sean S. Cunningham, starring William Katt.
1: A writer moves into his aunt's house where his son disappeared. 2: A man and his wife move into a house which is missing a crystal skull and dig up the man's great grandfather. 3: A killer haunts the house of a police detective. 4: A house that was built over a healing spring is inherited by a man's wife when her husband is killed by his brother, who wants to demolish the house.
The only common themes which tied these films together were title and being produced by Sean S. Cunningham. I really liked the first 2 because the first film was a more serious horror and a horror classic. The second film was a horror comedy, which is one of my favorite genres, but only from the 1980s, which this was. It was even made in the magic year of 1987 (golden age of modern cinema, see other posts). Number 3 had nothing to do with any of the others, mostly because nobody moved into the haunted house to get the film started. However, it did have Lance Henriksen who played Bishop in Aliens and Alien 3. Number 4 brought back William Katt as Roger Cobb, but his character died at the beginning. I rate them like so: 1 awesome, 2 good, 3 bad, 4 bad. I would recommend the first 2, but not the others.

New Dragon Gate Inn A.K.A. Dragon Inn, Xīn Lóng Mén Kè Zhàn (1992)

A Chinese wuxia directed by Raymond Lee, starring Brigitte Lin, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Maggie Cheung and Donnie Yen.
Opposing groups meet at an inn run by a woman. One of the groups is lead by a woman with a flute and they want to rescue children who are political prisoners. Another group is military from the organization that was holding the children prisoner. A lone swordsman also shows up who was the flute woman's boyfriend, but he becomes entangled with the inn owner.
Pretty standard for the genre. The plot was full of holes. The biggest being: where did all those guys on horses go at the end? The main characters were mostly identifiable. I liked the inn owner most, but she tended to get mixed up with sword boy's ex. The reason that I liked the inn owner was that her dialogue and acting were most expressive. The head chef from the kitchen was comic relief and he was acted well too. The sets and costumes looked great, as they should in wuxia films. Camera-work and editing were not to my liking quite so much, though. The style of editing was like a new, American action film. There were lots of close shots and very quick editing cuts. It's possible that early '90s Chinese action films started the style that post-2000s American action films lifted from them. When things slowed down, I could tell that everything was staged and composed correctly. The special effects consisted of impossible jumps with rope rather than real flying. There was also blood and a goat cutting scene with item replacement across an editing cut. Audio was in Chinese, but I found good English subtitles. Dialogue was mixed correctly and the sound effects didn't repeat as much as in older Chinese action films. There were multiple sword sounds to vary the sonic landscape. IMDb lists a rating of 7.3/10, AllMovie lists 0 AllMovie rating with 3.5/5 User Ratings and Rotten Tomatoes lists 78% Audience Score for an average of 55.25%. It looks low because AllMovie possibly did not rate it? Without the zero, it would be 73.6% which I agree with. I rate this adequate. You might want to watch it, mostly if you've seen the original Dragon Gate Inn (1967).

Nemesis (1992)

An American science fiction action film directed by Albert Pyun, starring Olivier Gruner, Tim Thomerson and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa.
A cyborg cop is damaged on a dangerous mission and rebuilt. He is told that a bomb has been implanted in him and he must find a man named Jared who has important information that the cop bosses want.
This was lack-luster at best. The plot was a little desultory and not very clear. The basic problem was that it did not hold my attention. The characters were not developed and the viewer does not even get to know the main character. The video was pretty standard for 1992. The robot and cyborg special effects were actually not too bad. There was a convincing scene in which the main character has his cyborg eye pulled out of his head. There were some really good shots and scenes mixed in, but most of it was jumbled garbage. The main character running with and burying his wolf/dog were some amazing shots. The audio was also standard. The dialogue and music seemed to be mixed correctly. Overall, too much shooting and a confusing amount of who is on whose side, why are we here, what is going on plot murkiness. I rate this tolerable.

Jennifer 8 (1992)

An American mystery directed by Bruce Robinson, starring Andy Garcia, Uma Thurman, Lance Henriksen, Kathy Baker and John Malkovich.
A cop is trying to catch a serial killer. A blind girl who "witnessed" the man before his last killing is questioned and falls in love with the cop.
Terrible, horrible and atrocious. The plot was desultory in it's mimicry of other cop flicks. The characters were unconvincing and the acting was poor at best. The bald police detective who questions the "loose cannon" cop had a cold in one scene! The video led me to think that this was newer than the date would indicate because of close shots, underexposure and fast editing. We do, however, get a split-second, underexposed glimpse of Uma Thurman's boobs. The audio was even worse. Dialogue volume and importance of the lines delivered had an inverse relationship. That is to say, the more important the dialogue, the lower the volume. Andy Garcia's shouting also became incoherent at times. The soundtrack music seemed to fit well though. Overall, poor production value and lack of originality make this torture to watch. I rate it bad. DO NOT WATCH!!!

A Few Good Men (1992)

An American courtroom drama directed by Rob Reiner, starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Kevin Pollak, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Kiefer Sutherland.
A soldier at a military base may have been murdered. A team of three lawyers tries to defend the two soldiers who supposedly killed the other.
This was a pretty standard courtroom flick. The plot followed standard procedure like it was a military order. We had rain and night during difficult times and sunny days when things were going well. The characters fit into the Hollywood mold created for them like G.I. boots. The lawyers drank at the right times in the plot, the people in court got angry at the right times.  The video... You get the idea. Everything was G.I., fit the mold and followed stereotypes carved in stone. I'm not saying that it was all bad, just extremely predictable. This was one of a pandemic of movies made in the late '80s and early '90s that are all courtroom dramas that color inside the lines, so to speak. Overall, yet another game of Lawyers & Lawsuits. I rate it tolerable because it didn't hurt to watch, but there was no originality.

El Mariachi (1992)

An American adventure written, directed and produced by Robert Rodriguez.
A cartel mobster is attacked in jail, but overpowers his attackers and gets free. The mob boss puts out a hit on him, hiring men who don't know what this guy looks like. The hit men are told that their mark wears black and has a guitar case full of weapons. A guitarist enters the same town where the hit men are looking for the mobster and tries to find work as a musician in bars. He is mistaken for the mobster and then the guitar cases get switched.
This was pretty cool. The plot kept developing at a steady pace throughout the duration, with a quicker up-turn at the end. The characters were not extremely well developed, but they were acted well and fit their roles. The video featured a few absurdly experimental camera angles, but was mostly done very well. One scene that stood out was the hotel manager dialing the phone in high speed after he books the musician into a room. "I came across a turtle" was amazing.
The musician waking up on the floor with the dog over him was good too. The audio was generally decent. Non-diegetic music stayed in the background, but the musician's diegetic guitar playing was appropriately loud. I watched a version in Spanish, with English subtitles so I can't really attest to the dialogue. Most of it sounded about right to me though. Long time readers will know what I mean by the undefinable something that I call style. This movie has it. It all just seems to work together so well. All the elements combine to create a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. I rate this awesome. As a bonus, the version that I watched came with a director's commentary that I will definitely be listening to.

Housesitter (1992)

An American romantic comedy directed by Frank Oz, starring Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn.
An architect designs a house and has it built to propose to his High School sweetheart. She turns him down and he tells the story to a waitress who moves into the house. When the architect is about to sell the house, he finds the waitress living there with a fictional story spread around town that they are married.
More lies! Does anyone make movies about telling the truth? The plot held my interest, but I think the characters were very shallow. They were cast relatively well, but some of the dialogue didn't seem as natural as it should have. The video was very bright and clear all the way through. The soundtrack was basically like you hear when playing The Sims. Fake plot, fake characters, overexpose the video and add happy music. That's what I saw. I rate this tolerable because it was alright to watch, but not a very dynamic film.

Toys (1992)

An American comedy directed by Barry Levinson, starring Robin Williams, Michael Gambon and Joan Cusack.
The owner of a toy factory dies and leaves a military uncle in charge. He immediately begins work on military applications of toy technology. The rightful heir must work with his friends to dethrone the militarist.
I liked this way more when I saw it in 1992. The plot was not believable. In fact, it was totally absurd. The characters were extremely stereotypical, although Robin Williams was very good. He's one of those magic men who can shine in any scenario. Most of the dialogue was hokey and none of it seemed natural. There were some very interesting visual elements. The grassy hills was a surreal setting that the machinations of the toy factory expanded upon. The dollhouse room inside the matching real room was genius and I really liked the rolling hills hallway with duck crossing (picture). The audio was not to my liking. I could hear the dialogue, but the soundtrack irked me. The happy workers song and the military "HOO HAH!" was way overdone. Overall, a movie with a cheesy gimmick that was poorly written, but with good visual elements. I rate it o.k.

Demonic Toys (1992)

An American horror directed by Peter Manoogian, starring Tracy Scoggins.
After a police shootout with illegal firearms dealers, people become trapped in a warehouse full of animated toys. The security guard and chicken delivery guy are there, as well as a hobo girl, the criminal and female police officer. They try to make their way out, but the force that animates the toys has it's eye set on the female police officer.
STUPID. This is Full Moon at it's worst. The baby doll's cussing is was stood out the most to me. I could go on and on about how cheesy this is and how badly made and poorly acted, but you've already read that. The thing that I like is the speed metal band, Joker playing on the chicken delivery car radio. Talk about shred! I also liked the girls on tricycles with gas masks. That is what the picture is, but underexposure was part of this film all the way through. Everything was so dark that only highlights stood out in their high contrast editing. Overall, a piss-poor Full Moon flick. They can and do make better than this. I rate it bad. DO NOT WATCH!

Innocent Blood A.K.A. A French Vampire in America (1992)

An American crime comedy horror directed by John Landis, starring Robert Loggia and Anthony LaPaglia.
A female vampire runs into a gang of mobsters who are chased by a detective. We end up with vampire mobsters.
This was not bad, but not good. The premise is entertaining, but the slow moving plot took too long to get there. The characters were decent. I really liked the female vampire and the mob leader. The video was terrible! The correctly exposed shots were few and far between, with black screen to fill the gaps. The audio was decent, but nothing special. Overall, a lackluster flick that should have been funnier. I rate it tolerable.

Captain Ron (1992)

An American comedy directed by Thom Eberhardt, starring Kurt Russell, Martin Short and Mary Kay Place.
A business man who is bored with his life inherits a boat. He takes his family to pick it up and hires a captain to pilot it. The captain turns out to be more interesting than they expected and they have adventures together.
This is one of the movies that I grew up watching on TV. The plot is simple, but effective. The characters are stereotypical, yet entertaining. The audio and video reek of the time period. Upon my re-watch, I noticed that there is a continuity error in the scene with the argument over the guns. The father is shown holding them when they should be on the table. Whoops! Overall, sentimental value over actual quality. I rate this good.

Malcolm X (1992)

An American drama directed by Spike Lee, starring Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett and Delroy Lindo.
The life of the idealist leader, Malcolm X is shown. It includes his criminal career, jail time, conversion to Islam, career as a public speaker and his death.
This was one of the longest and most serious films I have ever seen. I think that the director and leading actor were the absolute best choice in this case. Their familiarity with the subject matter and similarities with the man the story was based on make them the correct men for the job. The plot was long. I had to take many breaks to get through 3 hours and 12 minutes. The characters were identifiable and the main character was extremely dynamic and well-developed. I think that they tried to be as historically accurate as possible while showing possibly unknown personal aspects of Malcolm's life that fill out the story. There were beautiful camera shots included, but also some "forgetting to remove the lens cap" scenes. The picture was a moving shot of Malcolm going down the street very smoothly, like he was floating. Another shot to mention was the KKK members riding into the moonlight in the beginning. The audio was good, with clear dialogue, orchestral cinematic music and pop music of the time period being depicted. I think they did an awesome job making this film. So much so that the racial issues will not be discussed here. My only real complaint is the lengthy duration. Overall, this exemplifies what I'm looking for as far as technical aspects and production value are concerned. I rate it good, but will not be watching it again.

Porco Rosso A.K.A. Kurenai no Buta, Crimson Pig (1992)

A Japanese war comedy anime directed by Hayao Miyazaki, starring Akemi Okamura and Akio Otsuka.
A WWI fighter pilot has been turned into a pig. After rescuing a child swimming team from pirates, his plane is shot down by an American. He enlists the help of his mechanic's granddaughter, who accompanies him as he seeks revenge on the American pilot.
This was actually pretty good. I had been reluctant to watch it because it sounded boring to me, but am glad I saw it. The plot held my attention and the main characters were unique and memorable. Animation style was Miyazaki. There was one scene with a "shot" from a plane circling part of a castle that really impressed me. Animating a changing perspective like that is no easy task. I watched a dubbed version in English and the audio was clear. The soundtrack was pushed far into the background so that dialogue could take over. Hayao Miyazaki is on my list of those who can do no wrong. Overall, it was very well-made and I ended up liking it. I rate this good. If you've been putting off watching it like I was, maybe it's time for a viewing.