Summer is a child's version of heaven, beaches, BBQ, friends, vacations, camping, sleepovers, bike rides through the town, and last but not least movies. There are rules to this list. It has to be obviously 90s, second is that I had to have seen it.Doesn't matter when I saw it as long as I saw it. Third is that it had to be a major release and it had to be new so no re release of Star Wars here, and finally is that it had to be released in the Summer movie season which usually is May- August or September depending on who you ask. Now grab your popcorn and favorite drink, it's time to start this list in a wild way.
Wild Wild West:
Will Smith was the king of summer films in the 90s With Independence Day and Men in Black being his biggest hits. While this one is a guilty pleasure, it wasn't his best. But it was just outside of reality enough to make it fun, but still not too out of control. I consider it a more family friendly Blazing Saddles with not so good humor most of the time.
It was acted fine, the effects were not bad, and I do love Will Smith's song for this movie. The writing really screwed this movie over with bad character writing, pacing, and too many unfunny jokes. I'm okay with out of the norm and bounds of reality humor. But if it isn't funny, it's bad humor and is going to hurt the movie. Though humor is subjective, this movie is still a guilty pleasure due to how campy it is and is at the point of 'so bad it's good' territory. I watch it whenever I come across it.
Terminator 2 : Judgement Day:
We move from guilty pleasure to something actually good. While I'm not a huge fan of the series of films, the most recent ones being the worst easily, this one is one of the rare cases where the sequel is better than the original. James Cameron took what was good in the original, did it more, better, and added more with the sequel, and it worked.
So much so that it has an attraction at Universal Studios Florida and Universal Studios Japan that is still around today while the one at Universal Studios Hollywood closed to make room for another attraction. It serves as a mini sequel to the film.
The action and suspense was cranked up to eleven with the new Terminator. They build up to the final confrontation between the two by having it be more of a chase film with mini fights and then the main one taking up the last part of the movie.
I honestly cannot find a negative thing that I can think of about this movie. The next one though, may make me some enemies with other 90s kids and 90s nerds.
Good Burger:
This movie sucks. I re-watched it recently and my opinion hasn't changed years later. The movie was based off of a skit from All That which is more of a kid friendly Saturday Night Live or In Living Color. But I remember the hype and advertising this film had. This was Nickelodeon's second film so they advertised it in full force with their TV station. Contests, ads, and they themed Nick in the Afternoon for it while at the red carpet release. The result wasn't pretty.
They had quite a bit of talent, outside of Kenan and Kel with big named stars and other All That cast members. But the problem, the biggest glaring issue with the film, is the writing. I noticed while watching it that the film kind of fell off not too far in. Which I'm not surprised due to the fact that the source is a five minute skit. The main story-line was okay, with the story of a competing restaurant and Good Burger going against each other. If they went the surreal route and had a literal 'food war' then I may have liked it more. But it falls into conspiracies and unfunny slapstick humor. Though I will say one of the few things that got a laugh out of me was when Kenan and Kel disguised themselves as women to sneak inside Mondo Burger. They've done it in All That and still pulled off a good bit of humor.
I would have loved a Detective Dan and Fat Cop film. But what we got instead, isn't All That and a bag of chips. This next one really is a blast from the past, you could say it's prehistoric.
Jurassic Park:
A lot of boys loved dinosaurs as a kid, at least the ones I knew back then including myself. But I was scared of this movie as a kid. Jump a few years and I watch it and it's good, I mean, really good. While I probably wouldn't be able to watch it as a kid, cause I didn't like gore and 'scary' stuff as a kid. But there wasn't that much in it after seeing it.
The acting wasn't bad, though some were hamming it up like Goldblum. But with him it gave it some unintentionally funny moments. The effects still hold up to this day and are better than Jurassic World's in my opinion. The story is simple, yet what they do with it, makes it hold up all these years later.
I love how not only was it based on a book, but that the art in the conference room is from the ride that was being worked on while the movie was being filmed. The ride is still around and is a staple in the Universal theme parks.
The ride's story is pretty much the same, though the park is open to everyone and then chaos is let loose mid tour.
Great movie, good ride. Next one though, caused a lot of controversy.
Star Wars Episode 1:
Is it bad to say that I thought this movie wasn't as bad as everyone says? Because it isn't. Don't get me wrong, it's not good, but for all the trash it gets, it doesn't need all of it. So what was good?
The effects, especially the pod race scene. The cinematography and sets are great. The action was nice as well with the final fight at the end of the film. But the best part is the score, it's beautiful, big, and epic. I still play Duel of the Fates to this day.
The bad is the writing, acting, and pacing. The writing is like they took the boring parts of bad Godzilla movies and called it Star Wars. No one cared about trade agreements or politics in films like the writers thought. The acting is rough. While we get some good acting from some of the cast, we also got Anakin, Padme, and Jar Jar. Anakin's actor was just bad, though expected of a child actor. Padme was just boring in my opinion with most of her expressions and voice being deadpan and showing no emotion in her voice, and Jar Jar was just annoying. The pacing I feel is all over the place. It starts at a crawl, picks up, crawls, and switches back and forth the rest of the way until the last act.
But for all the flack that I just gave it, it's not the worst Star Wars film. It's in the bottom certainly, but not the worst.
Summer films can be hit or miss, but they have been and always will be staples. While the recent years have been superhero movies galore, it still stands that there will be hits as well as duds. Have a great summer everyone, and remember Live Life and Live Nostalgic.