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Alligator II: The Mutation
July 5, 1991 ALLIGATOR II: THE MUTATION is a surprisingly decent sequel – especially considering it was made for TV! It didn’t register as that when I was watching it (and there does seem to have been...
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Problem Child / Problem Child 2
On the 4th of July weekend in 1991, a whole lot of people went to see part 2s. #1 at the box office was the brand new game-changing action masterpiece TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY. #2 was the previous...
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Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure / Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey
BILL & TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE (1989) is one of those beloved comedies you take for granted. I hadn’t seen it in 20+ years, so I was kinda afraid it might not hold up. It’s kind of hard to put...
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Mobsters
July 26, 1991 MOBSTERS. Guys who are in mobs. Young ones. Famous ones. Doing mob stuff. What more do you need? According to rookie director Michael Karbelnikoff, story provider Michael Mahern and...
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V.I. Warshawski
July 26, 1991 Kathleen Turner is… V.I. WARSHAWSKI, a Chicago private detective who falls into a case when an ex hockey player she picks up at a bar dies in a suspicious explosion during an inheritance...
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Hot Shots! / Life Stinks
July 31, 1991 HOT SHOTS! is the story of one Topper Harley (Charlie Sheen, THE ROOKIE, NEVER ON TUESDAY), legendary former jet pilot for The Navy. When Lieutenant Commander Block (Kevin Dunn, BLUE...
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The Dark Backward
Before I start one of these retrospectives I research the movies that came out during that summer and put together a schedule. But in the course of doing 1991 I keep stumbling across movies that seem...
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Doc Hollywood
August 2, 1991 Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate watching DOC HOLLYWOOD 30 years later. But jesus christ, this type of movie. Michael J. Fox (CLASS OF 1984) stars as Dr. Benjamin Stone, an arrogant...
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Body Parts
“Fuck you and all your bullshit! I WANT THIS FUCKING ARM OFF!” August 2, 1991 BODY PARTS is an Eric Red horror joint that is much better than I thought I remembered, though it has become more macabre...
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Double Impact (30th Anniversary Review)
“All right, you want some real action, tough guys? Let’s do it.” August 9, 1991 While the summer was dominated by the expensive studio action spectacles TERMINATOR 2 and POINT BREAK, there were plenty...
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The Blue Lagoon / Return to the Blue Lagoon
In my study of Summer of 1991 and especially it’s part 2s, I didn’t think I could skip RETURN TO THE BLUE LAGOON. But I had never seen the first film – 1980’s THE BLUE LAGOON – so I had to watch that...
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101 Dalmatians / Rover Dangerfield
Earlier this year I did a week of rock ’n roll related animated features, including Don Bluth’s ROCK-A-DOODLE, which was released on August 2, 1991 in the U.K. (though not until the following April in...
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Bingo
You may have thought I was done with the weird dog movies of summer ’91 after the ROVER DANGERFIELD (plus 101 DALMATIANS re-release) review last week, but if so you forgot all about the live action...
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The Commitments
August 14, 1991 THE COMMITMENTS is the story of a wannabe music manager in Dublin convincing his friends (all white) to put together a soul cover band. The conceit is that ’60s soul music is beautiful...
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Dead Again / Defenseless
August 23, 1991 saw the release of two American suspense thrillers by notable overseas directors. Best reviewed, highest grossing and first alphabetically was Kenneth Branagh’s DEAD AGAIN, starring...
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Mystery Date / Pure Luck
August 16,1991 The only thing I remembered about MYSTERY DATE was that Gwar was in it. It’s a once-crazy-night movie where this kid Tom (Ethan Hawke, EXPLORERS) nervously takes out his crush Geena...
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Showdown in Little Tokyo
“Y’know – this is a weird part of town.” August 23, 1991 SHOWDOWN IN LITTLE TOKYO is a movie I have long enjoyed (here is a pretty dumb review of it I wrote 13 years ago). It’s a buddy cop movie...
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True Identity
August 23, 1991 As we’ve discussed earlier in this series, the summer of ’91 was pivotal for the emerging Black film movement of the era. BOYZ N THE HOOD was the seismic event, but we also had Bill...
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Barton Fink
“He’s poor, this wrestler! He’s had struggle!” It used to be that August was a time for studios to release a bunch of movies they thought were bad or didn’t have high expectations for. You know, they...
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Summer of 1991 closing remarks
Thank you for joining me and/or being patient with me during these last few months of S91: JUDGMENT SUMMER, my look back at most of the summer movie releases of 30 years ago. (If you actually didn’t...
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