A Movie From Every Year Of My Life - 1993

A Movie From Every Year Of My Life

1993

Jurassic Park

I'm feeling like I'm picking all the popular and obvious movies but sometimes movies are popular for a reason. Jurassic Park was a chunk of my childhood, dinosaurs were a chunk of it (Go in the first upstairs cupboard and at the back you will find a shit load of books on Dinosaurs from my youth) along with Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and Sonic the Hedgehog.

So to anyone that hasn't seen this movie... if those people exist... basically John Hammond, the adorable Santa like grandpa played by Richard Attenborough, has figured out a way to replicate dinosaurs from mosquito blood. He is going to open a nature park with the dinosaurs in for the public but before he can he needs the ok from a group of scientists, and off they set to preview the park taking Hammonds grandchildren with them. Inevitably a power failure throws a spanner in the works and the dinosaurs are set free on the island.

Now why do I love this movie?

If I could give one reason why this movie... The music.

John Williams you scored my childhood, and I can revisit it any time I hear the Jurassic Park theme.

Yeah this bit can still make the room a little dusty.

To me the movie, the effects, the themes/message still holds up... not that I rate "still holding up today" as important. A movie looking and feeling a part of the time it was made is all good to me, and I don't really go in for calling movies "dated" because movies are clearly a product of and reflective of the time in which they are made... that said, this really is an all time classic.

As for themes I feel the science vs. nature, the whole "because we can does not mean we should." We are nature then every advance we make is natural... but then the Dinosaurs had their chance and failed. Nature evolves and the world is not the same as it was when the Dinosaurs had their turn on Earth.

This story could be seen as a family friendly version of the Frankenstein story. Man is creator. Man is God.

Money made the characters short sighted... sure John Hammond wanted everyone, rich or poor to experience Jurassic Park, but he hardly had the deal worked out with the suits to that effect. Before the park is open the corporate suits already have heaps of merchandise, and that's where their priorities are.

I also freakin' love the relationships between the children Lex and Tim and Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler. The children idolize them, which I find refreshing and they provide great role models. I love how it is Ellie who gets to go be action woman, and Alan who looks after the grandchildren of John Hammond.

Maybe my choice is obvious but this is pure Saturday entertainment with the family from my childhood, but what would you pick from 1993?

Hasta Luego

@Fake_Shemp

A Movie From Every Year Of My Life - 1992

A Movie From Every Year Of My Life

1992

Aladdin

It was so hard to pass up "Brain Dead" it really was but for nostalgia for me it has to be Aladdin. I remember I had the Aladdin McDonald toys, the dolls with their different outfits, the sticker and coloring books and pyjamas, the Sega game, the handheld game, I got two Aladdin VHS's on Christmas. I fookin' loved this movie and then the tv show, the sequels... not so much.

I remember where I was sitting (End of the row, left half of the seats, 2 thirds down), in which screen (2) which cinema (Odeon, and it's no longer open) when I first saw this with my Grandad. I guess him and my father took me to most of my films as a child, thank you both (even though either will never read this) for helping my love of movies from an early age. A Movie a Week made me a Movie Geek.

What would your pick of 1992 be?

Hasta Luego

@Fake_Shemp

A Movie From Every Year Of My Life - 1991

A Movie From Every Year Of My Life

1991

Terminator 2: Judgement Day 

Frak yeah! One of my all time favourite movies (this and the original... not so bothered about anything after this although I do enjoy the Sarah Connor Chronicles.)

I recently read Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story

Other book stores are available, I read it on a Kindle.

It was fascinating to read, well I am an Arnie fan, about the work that simply went into him shooting a gun whilst riding a motorcycle without blinking. "Reps, reps, reps".

(I was disappointed there wasn't more about Batman and Robin and no apology for it.)

All the decisions that went into making Arnie the badass we have come to know and love, especially after he plays the villain in the first movie. The way our expectations are flipped. We have Arnie returning looking more awesome than the first, being pitted against clean cut Robert Patrick as the cop who is there to "protect and serve". 

I gotta admit that when I was a child the chase scene where he runs like a shark and lunges on the back of the speeding car filled with our heroes The Connors and Arnie, seriously used to scare the frak outta me. 

I love the way they make the T-800 look more and more machine like as the movie goes on but his "character" evolves, if only in the eyes of John Connor.

His sacrifice at the end still makes me cry, heck Miles Dyson's sacrifice makes the room a little dusty too. 

I love Sarah Connor too, lets not forget her bad-assery. She's like a feral cat, protecting her offspring for the good of all mankind. Her emotions squashed so she can complete her goal, keep John alive and in that she's made herself into a killing machine. She needs to find her humanity once more after being broken out of the nuthouse.

They took Arnie's obscure name, went against everything people were telling him and used it to their advantage. They took his "otherworldliness", his "foreignness" and built upon it. His physical presence used to its fullest, I mean he certainly wasn't born to be a Shakespearean actor, but the lines he does deliver are instantly memorable, and instant classics.

(And yes someone has came through my work and said to me "I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle." and yes I indeed did reply "You forgot to say please.")

 I mean look at the poster, its all him, and all you need... is "Schwarzenegger" across the top. 

He became an icon, a personification of the American Dream. It's pretty good for genre fans that he made some good movies along the way, this being my favourite. (Let's face it he's made some awful movie decisions.)

(Whatever I enjoy 'Jingle All The Way'... it's just so bad!)

The character of the Terminator became a part of popular culture, and its great that the movie itself backs it up, actually deserves it's success. The leaps they took in effects are still fantastic to watch all these years later. Thank you James Cameron, Damn I love this man.

Oh and I've also got one of these... cause I'm a geek, if you haven't noticed yet.

1/2 Scale Plasma Rifle, my own is 212 of the 750 run.

I almost picked 'Fried Green Tomatoes', yeah check out my genre credentials, ohhhh yeah!

No I really do love it, but I love the even more gay book, that clearly has Ninny and Idgie as two separate people... something that got blurred in the movie.

But the better movie, I think we can all agree is T2... but what's your pick of 1991?

Hasta Luego

@Fake_Shemp

A Movie From Every Year Of My Life - 1990

A Movie From Every Year Of My Life 

1990

Misery

This was an almost toss of the coin between Misery and Goodfellas, and how did I decide without a coin? I went to IMDB, and saw my ratings for these, turns out I gave Misery a 9, and Goodfellas an 8. So I gotta go with that.

Plus I reckon the book maybe my fav King book but the film is an entity unto itself. I love the addition of scenes with the Sheriff, he brings much needed humour to the confined hell Paul is going through... he gives us a break from the claustrophobic situation at the centre of the movie.

Hasta Luego

@Fake_Shemp

A Movie From Every Year Of My Life - 1989

A Movie From Every Year Of My Life 

1989

The Little Mermaid

This is more nostalgia for me than anything else. I don't like that Ariel falls for the first human she sets her big beautiful eyes on but she's supposed to be a teen right? A fangirl of humanity? So it works as a pairing for me if I check my brain at the door and go with the songs and just enjoy the movie... and surely no female can watch this and not burst into song especially when you hear "Look at this stuff... isnt it neat?"

Is me writing that its more nostalgia than anything else doing the movie short? I guess I'd have to go back and ask child me how good it was...

Adult me - Well lets hop in a TARDIS and go see child me, sounds like fun?
Vwrrop Vwrrop Vwrrop Vwrrop
Child me - Hey a TARDIS.. cooooool
Adult me - Hey me, I'm writing a review for my blog, your blog...
Child me - What's a-
Adult me - Pretend its homework, it doesn't matter.
Child me - I don't wanna do homework, can't I just watch the X-Files instead?
Adult me - Sure I'll just go get the DVDs
Child me - What are DVDs?
Adult me - Oh brother!
Child me - Whoa we get a brother?
Adult me - No, a sister. Anyways what do you think of 'The Little Mermaid'?
Child me - It's lovely, but I wouldn't know right now cause our mother gave away the video to a friend. Who does that?
Adult me - Oh right, I suppressed that memory. Not cool. Don't worry mini-me, you buy it again on VHS and then again on DVD and you will buy it on Blu-ray.
Child me - Why do you need it that many times?
Adult me - I don't know, I came here to ask you why I would do that and love the movie so much.
Child me - Maybe you're yearning for your lost childhood and want to buy it many times to make up for the one time our mother gave it away.
Adult me - Perhaps.
Child me - How've you got a TARDIS anyways?
Adult me - I don't, this, me, you are all words in a blog that the physical form of me is writing right now whilst watching 'The Maltese Falcon'
Child me - That sounds cool.
Adult me - You wouldn't like it yet, you'll first see it when your in a class at uni, you still won't appreciate it then because you're a little tipsy from pints at lunch.
Child me - Eurgh drink is bad.
Adult me - Yeah you think that now too. So the movie, for the sake of me coming all the way here in this construct.. what did you think of it?
Child me - The end makes me feel sad, happy endings to movies do, and I don't know why. The disney logo itself already means my childhood to me, some ominous feeling that its all slipping by, time and I wanna grasp it and never let it go... and then she gave away the movie, she did the same with 'A Christmas Story'
Adult me - It's ok, you've got it on DVD now and watch it every Christmas with your sister.
Child me - Cool, if I can still love movies, I can still love 'A Little Mermaid' all those, your, years later then that's awesome. I'm glad you, we, still get to experience childhood through a movie. I guess the movie is the TARDIS huh?

Hasta Luego

@Fake_Shemp

A Movie From Every Year Of My Life - 1988

There was two animes that stood out straight away for me as my movie of 1988, My Neighbor Totoro and Akira. Whilst one of the first animes I was ever introduced to in my teen years was Akira, I simply enjoy the cuteness of Totoro more.

Or it is that I enjoy the relationship me and my own younger sister have with this movie. I first introduced her to Studio Ghibli with 'Spirited Away', much as I had been, and when she had wanted more I went with Totoro, knowing she'd never, at her then young age, give Grave of the Fireflies or Princess Mononoke a go.

She often blames me if she hasn't seen a movie, and its about time now she should watch more movies from the studio, but she's gravitated to the cute ones, Ponyo included in the former ones I have mentioned.

Let me mark the movie itself on merit, not on just my relationship with it. It's Hayao Miyazaki's most personal film, with albeighit not much of a plot, though that has never bothered me. It's lovely to watch. It's more about the characters, their interactions and the unfamiliar world they inhabit. The two leads, young sisters Satsuki and Mei feel like children.

 The way they move, behave, explore and talk feels so real in this beautifully drawn animated world, and its so joyful to watch, that the lack of tension and plot do not come into my overall enjoyment of the piece.

So which do you prefer Totoro or Akira? Or is there a movie I should have considered from 1988 that is neither of these two?








Hasta Luego
@Fake_Shemp

A Movie From Every Year Of My Life - 1987

A Movie From Every Year Of My Life

 1987

I'm shamelessly stealing taking part in what I've seen other movie nuts on the net do, picking their favourite movie from every year of their life.

I was born in Newcastle, Geordieland in 1987 on Halloween, and I think that's where my literal lifelong affinity with Horror stems from, feels like I was born into it.

So that being "said" my first post for A Movie From Every Year Of My Life, and the movie for the glorious year of my birth is going to be obvious...

Evil Dead II

Why Evil Dead 2? 

It's one of my all time favourite movies... again why?

All Deadites must feel the same passion for this movie, and all the Evil Dead movies as I do. 

Sam Raimi takes what is an overused and generally rather bad horror subgenre... the cabin in the woods and spins it into this demonic possession series that rocks.

I figure if you are still reading then you've seen the Evil Dead movies if not...

A group of kids take a vacation at a cabin in the woods. Woods are full of Demons, Candarian Demons if we wanna get a bit more specific. The Demons possess people, Ash must be super strong willed as they only get his hand. Cue hilarious scenes in which Ash is beat the fuck up by his hand... and then cuts it off. Groovy. (Yeah he goes insane after having to kill his demon possessed girlfriend Linda, which is a literal hoot, with the furnishings joining in with his manic laughter)

In this sequel we are introduced to new characters, the daughter of the couple who's cabin it is. She is also of the Indian Jones persuasion and is returning to the cabin in the woods with her boyfriend and their shit load of luggage. So they pay good old reliable Jake and his girlfriend to drive them out into the woods.

I figure at least the boyfriend, Jake and his girlfriend are there to pad out the numbers to which bad shit will happen to. And that's all well and good and gorey.

Back to Ash.

He returns as sole survivor from the first movie, but due to the guys not owning their own footage, they had to reshoot a portion of the first movie, well they didn't have to but back in the days when films like Rocky II or III etc, would open with the last 5 minutes of the previous film as a way of catch-up, VHS I figure was not as big as the home market is now and people may literally have only seen the previous movie once in the cinema before going to see the next sequel. (None of this "having a Saw Marathon" before the next Saw came out like I did in previous years.) So its a convention of the time.

Why do I love Ash?

Oh Ashley Williams you big chinned loveable jackass. He is the right amount of wimp and hero when nobody else will be with awesome one liners. Thats why I love Ash, he's a normal guy with a girls name. Well a gender neutral name, and that fits with the survivor final girl theme of having a gender neutral name. Sure its not applicable in all cases but I do like how it often crops up... Sidney Prescott, Laurie Strode, Taylor Gentry.

The over the top stooge comedy balances the gore, and makes the gore itself laugh out loud funny. Every shot and angle is interesting with the sound mix adding perfectly to the visuals. This is proof that having little money simply spurns on creativity and imagination.

Do you even need me to rate this? It's top dollar! Awesomesauce.

What's your favourite movie from 1987, or the year of your birth?

Hasta Luego

@Fake_Shemp