The Spleen, Frau Blucher, the Borg Queen, and a Boy Who Can Fly: 10 More Great Old Movies

Here’s ten more old movies I liked, which I saw, or saw again, in 1999.  Of Enemy of the State, I said “This was fast paced, high adrenaline entertainment… The filmmakers seemed to go out of their way to make their escapist action film mean something as well.”  I loved Stand by Me, but being that I had already talked about it in my journal before, revealing how I identified with each of the four misfit boys, I didn’t say a whole lot this time other than to say “I found the whole thing entertaining and emotionally satisfying.”  Speaking of Stephen King classics, I said of Carrie “I cannot find one thing to complain about this thoroughly absorbing film.”  I had a little bit more to say about these seven:

Tarzan

I’m just a sucker for Disney’s beautifully animated, thoroughly entertaining extravaganzas, and Tarzan more than upholds that tradition.  Despite a few weak periods over the decades (the late forties, the seventies and early eighties), Disney has consistently released and re-released some classic gems, although I do think they end up crossing the line when they use terms like “classic” and “masterpiece” for even some of their more mundane animated features like The Aristocats and The Rescuers.  They may be cute, and have a large fan base of adoring children, but can they really compare with classics such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Bambi?  Terms like “classic” and “masterpiece” should be reserved strictly for the best of the best, and if you were going to divide all the Disney animated films between the classics and the more mundane features, films like Robin Hood and The Fox and the Hound just aren’t going to be on the same list as Pinocchio and The Little Mermaid.  Tarzan, however, would be on the list of classics.

Star Trek: First Contact

Anybody who knows me or has read my journals would know I’m a devout Trekker!

     This is, in my opinion, the best Star Trek film made so far (as of 1999), and definitely the best featuring the Next Generation cast.  It had a great mixture of some Sci-Fi classics from the past, paying homage to Star Trek past, and also to classic Science Fiction stories outside of Trek, all the while being very intelligent and thoroughly entertaining!  My hat goes off to the creators of this story, managing a worthy villain in the Borg, the introduction of the Borg Queen, well played by Alice Krige, the entire First Contact back story featuring James Cromwell as Zephram Cochrane, the inventor of warp drive, and earth’s first contact with aliens, which wisely turned out to be Vulcans.  On top of all that, they managed to have some dramatic scenes involving Data, Picard, and Worf, plus squeeze in the Holodeck and Picard’s favorite Dixon Hill character, cameos by Dwight Schultz as everybody’s favorite Star Trek neurotic, Reginald Barclay, Deep Space Nine’s “little” ship The Defiant, and even Voyager’s Emergency Medical Hologram played amusingly by Robert Picardo.  Add to that a juicy, comic, and dramatic performance by Alfre Woodard as Lily, an “Alice in Wonderland” character out of place and time (“Jean Luc, blow up the damned ship!”), and you’ve got quite a good time at the movies, especially for Star Trek fans!  Did I mention Counselor Troi gets drunk off her ass?

Mystery Men

This was a nice surprise that came straight out of left field.  I recommended this movie to my sister, and on just my word that it was good, she and her husband took some friends to see it.  She said later that she was so embarrassed, because it was awful and juvenile.

            She either missed the hilarious superhero parody aspect of this movie, or didn’t care for it.  I still defend this movie!  Sure it’s juvenile (how could it not be with Paul Reubens of Pee Wee fame playing a superhero wannabe named the Spleen, whose superpower is his powerful farts, rendering his adversaries unconscious).  Yet it’s also brilliant in its own way (how could it not be with Paul Reubens of Pee Wee fame playing a superhero wannabe named the Spleen, whose superpower is his powerful farts, rendering his adversaries unconscious).  It always goes back to the level of the writing, and this, in my opinion, is superbly written to just skewer the hell out of comic book superheroes and the movies they inspire. 

This movie is done in the same comedic vein as that old Saturday Night Live skit that had Bill Murray playing Superman, Dan Ackroyd as the Flash, and John Belushi as the Hulk (accidentally sitting on the Invisible Girl when he goes to take a dump!).  In the SNL parody, Garrett Morris played a superhero called Ant Man, who had the ability to communicate with ants, but was also able to shrink himself down to the size of an ant while still retaining his human strength.  When the Flash hears this, he shouts out, “Hey, Hulk, get a load of this guy!  He’s got the strength of a human!”  This movie has that same kind of quality to it.  It’s a treasured find simply because, first, it’s not very popular, making it a cult film, and secondly, being a cult film that’s rather unpopular with the masses, it’s not really understood or appreciated by most people like it is by me.  Being a fan of Star Trek, I know what that feels like!  Like its main characters, the movie itself is an underdog amongst all the more popular films, and definitely the least appreciated, even though, in my humble opinion, it doesn’t deserve its stigma.

The Boy Who Could Fly

Now dated, this is still a very enjoyable sleeper, a simple story about life and the ways we cope.  In the end, the charismatic Eric (Jay Underwood) could really fly simply because he believed in himself and what he could do, and taught everyone else a lesson in believing in themselves so they can achieve what they only dream of!  I love the moral of this movie!  That’s classic movie making and storytelling, and Eric, despite his withdrawn personality, should be a role model to all of us, just like he was to the other characters in the story.  Do what you dream!

The Sixth Sense

I wanted very badly to see this movie, and it was definitely worth the ticket price.  Everything clicked, from the creepy atmosphere and shocks to Haley Joel Osmet’s great performance to Bruce Willis as the boy’s psychologist to that great twist ending and the direction the story ended up going in, making this more than just a scary supernatural thriller, but an extremely intelligent one.  I mean, how many stories about ghosts (up to the time this movie was made) would have the victim of these ghost attacks actually try to help these troubled spirits?  I just loved it!

A Simple Plan

This was an unexpected treat and sleeper hit!  What would you do if you found a bag full of money?  We’re talking millions of dollars!  This film is a well-written exploration of how money is the root of all evil, and how it brings out the worst in people, stripping them of whatever masks they may have been wearing.  The money here doesn’t so much corrupt anybody as cause the characters to reveal who they really are.  In the midst of trying to keep secrets and lies, these people really end up revealing the truth about themselves, and it ain’t pretty!  The script is excellent, the movie absorbing, and the acting first rate, especially the central characters played by Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thorton, and Brigitte Fonda.  Paxton, in particular, is brilliant in this role of a normal guy caught up in extraordinary circumstances, doing things he never thought he’d do.  This money merely ended up unmasking everyone, including his manipulative wife and tragic brother.  One of the best thrillers of the 90’s!

Young Frankenstein

My favorite “Halloween” movie, and one that I never get tired of, is Young Frankenstein.  Like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, which we watch every year (“Clark, we’re stuck under a truck!”), Young Frankenstein is becoming an annual movie event for Halloween.  It is just so funny!  My three year old niece Emily Rose has cracked everybody up by repeating dialogue from the movie just out of the blue, and she even gets the accents right:  “Poot zee condal bok!” and “Werewolf – There wolf!” and if you say the name Frau Blücher in front of her, she’ll whiney like a horse!  It is sooo cute!  Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is also hilarious, and a Halloween movie staple, yet takes second place to Young Frankenstein.

Images from:

http://technorati.com/entertainment/article/star-trek-45th-anniversary-alice-krige/

http://www.universalstudiosentertainment.com/mystery-men/

http://www.cineplex.com/Movies/Archives/CS79704/The-Boy-Who-Could-Fly/Photo.aspx?id=248322 http://www.aveleyman.com/FilmCredit.aspx?FilmID=21781