"CATCH YOU FUCKERS AT A BAD TIME?"

Posts Tagged ‘Robert Rusler’

Thrashin’

Monday, February 24th, 2025

Note: I wanted to review all the best picture nominees this year but I haven’t even reviewed DUNE PART ONE and I’m just not ready to do a good job of PART TWO yet so please accept as a placeholder this review of a different movie with one of the same cast members.

If you saw my review of DANCIN’ – IT’S ON! a few weeks ago you saw me learning of the magical existence of David Winters, a dancer in the original Broadway run of West Side Story and choreographer of Elvis movies who later became a director of b-movies including SPACE MUTINY. One of the things that came up in my research was that when he directed the 1986 skatesploitation movie THRASHIN’ the producers wouldn’t let him cast pre-21 Jump Street Johnny Depp, and he was so mad about it he went off and founded a new production company so that he would have more control. Well, obviously after I read that I knew that THRASHIN’ – it’s on!

Josh Brolin (whose only previous movie was THE GOONIES) plays Corey Webster, a “Valley Boy” who goes to stay in a friend’s motor home in L.A. while he prepares for a pool skating competition and a downhill race called L.A. Massacre. His buddies Tyler (Brooke McCarter, THE LOST BOYS), Radley (Josh Richman, RIVER’S EDGE, director of Guns N’ Roses “Live And Let Die” video), and Bozo (Brett Marx, BAD NEWS BEARS movies) call themselves The Ramp Locals. They bring him to the different hangouts, they clash with a rival skate crew called the Daggers who kind of act like a gang, and he falls in love-at-first-sight with Chrissy (Pamela Gidley in her film debut, soon to play the title character in CHERRY 2000). At first it seems like Corey is trying to steal the girlfriend of scary Daggers leader Tommy Hook (Robert Rusler, WEIRD SCIENCE, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2), but luckily she turns out to be his sister. Unluckily he’s one of those SCARFACE type brothers who’s creepily possessive of his sister and forbids people from dating her. (read the rest of this shit…)

Sometimes They Come Back

Friday, May 7th, 2021

May 7, 1991

I don’t think I’ve ever included a TV movie in a summer movie retrospective, but this came up on a summer of ’91 list and I figured why not? After the opening weekend for A RAGE IN HARLEM and ONE GOOD COP, some people checked out a new Stephen King movie on the CBS Tuesday Movie Special. It aired against a Roseanne episode that introduced Shelly Winters as Nana Mary, the fourth episode of a short-lived sitcom called Stat, and a thirtysomething about Hope (Mel Harris) volunteering at a homeless shelter.

One could reasonably assume that a Stephen-King-based TV movie in the ‘90s would be a Mick Garris joint, but in fact it’s a different notable horror director: Tom McLoughlin of FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI: JASON LIVES fame. He also did ONE DARK NIGHT and, come to think of it, co-created She-Wolf of London with Garris. This one comes from a King short story first published in Cavalier in 1974, and later included in Night Shift. It was adapted by Lawrence Konner & Mark Rosenthal, whose all-over-the-place filmography at this point included THE LEGEND OF BILLIE JEAN, THE JEWEL OF THE NILE, SUPERMAN IV: THE QUEST FOR PEACE, and DESPERATE HOURS. (read the rest of this shit…)

Weird Science

Monday, August 3rd, 2020

August 2, 1985

I’m no expert on the films of John Hughes, but I’ve seen enough to know WEIRD SCIENCE (which he wrote and directed) is pretty different from the other ones. It’s still a teen movie, like he was known for at the time, but it’s his only foray into science fiction unless you count his screenplay for JUST VISITING (the 2001 flop remake of LES VISITEURS) for involving time travel.

It feels a little off to call WEIRD SCIENCE sci-fi though. It’s more like computer magical realism, I think. We’ll get to that in a minute.

Much like EXPLORERS, we have two oft-bullied nerds, the main character Gary (Anthony Michael Hall, following SIX PACK, VACATION, SIXTEEN CANDLES and THE BREAKFAST CLUB) and computer genius best friend Wyatt (Ilan Mitchell-Smith, HOW TO BE A PERFECT PERSON IN JUST THREE DAYS, DANIEL, THE WILD LIFE). Going by the actors’ ages, Gary and Wyatt are about 2 or 3 years too old to be Explorers or Goonies. So they’re different in that they do not dream of adventure; they are entirely consumed by horniness. And the girls they like to stare at in school ignore them, so Gary’s big idea is to make a woman. He’s inspired by seeing BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN on TV (colorized! what the fuck!?) and figures his smart friend should be able to do something like that with his fancy computer machine. (read the rest of this shit…)