Ultimate 80s Blogathon Wrap-Up: 80s Dance Movies Triple Feature

We’re on our last post.  Today, Drew and I will be closing out with another of our reviews on 80s flicks.

Seeing as no one picked any dance movies and I wanted to end this in a grand way to wrap this blogathon up, I decided to do a quick triple feature on three dance flicks of 1980s: Flashdance, Footloose and Dirty Dancing. I’ve done full reviews for both Footloose and Dirty Dancing here before and you can seek it out if you want to read more in detail on how I feel for those movies.  Its obvious that I love a whole lot. Dance movies have always had a draw to me and its quite sad that its only in the recent years that I’ve really seen Dirty Dancing and Footloose in entirety but there is no doubt that they trump any modern dance movies quite a bit.

Before I get ahead of myself, let’s check out these three features! 🙂

FLASHDANCE (1983)

Director: Adrian Lyne

Cast: Jennifer Beals, Michael Nouri, Lilia Skala

A Pittsburgh woman with two jobs as a welder and an exotic dancer wants to get into ballet school.-IMDB

Flashdance might not be the best out of the three dance movies that I have here from the 80s, but it was the first out of the pack.  If you didn’t know what leg warmers were, this movie was the right place to start.  Its something of a fashion statement of a movie more than it was a great movie of its sort.  I’m going to be honest that I don’t prefer the story here but Flashdance was full of 80s charm from the music and the dancing to the style.  It embodied that time really well.

I’m a late mid-80s baby.  To say I know a lot about this era is hard to say but some of the best dance films are done in this decade (excluding Grease).  While Flashdance failed mostly because I didn’t enjoy the character herself, I did like the dance and the music and the style of it.  The story of Flashdance is also one that first gives some sort of giving a purpose to inspire its audience to stay motivated for what matters.

FOOTLOOSE (1984)

Director: Herbert Ross

Cast: Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer, John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest, Chris Penn, Sarah Jessica Parker, John Laughlin

A city teenager moves to a small town where rock music and dancing have been banned, and his rebellious spirit shakes up the populace.-IMDB

Footloose is  a step up from Flashdance.  It dials it back down to a small town scenario with a big town boy.  Kevin Bacon is one of my favorite actors (even more after I saw him in his recent Cop Car).  The young Kevin Bacon as Ren fighting on behalf of his fellow classmates for prom and the freedom to dance is really a great story.  Its about fighting teenage stereotypes, being responsible, and fighting authority.  Footloose is a fun and serious movie.

The thing with Footloose is that its not a whole lot about dancing.  There’s scenes here and there and some of the most memorable parts of the movie is the choreography that becomes rather expressive and fun.  But, Footloose gets one thing on point and that’s delivering us some cheesy scenes and dialogue.  In the true heart of the 80s, how can we not point it out? 😉

DIRTY DANCING (1987)

Director: Emile Ardolino

Cast: Jennifer Grey, Patrick Swayze, Jerry Orbach, Cynthia Rhodes, Jack Weston, Jane Brucker

Spending the summer at a Catskills resort with her family, Frances “Baby” Houseman falls in love with the camp’s dance instructor, Johnny Castle.-IMDB

I’m not going to lie! Dirty Dancing is my favorite dance movie of all time.  One reason has to be that Patrick Swayze is so handsome.  He was the 80s man with a crazy filmography that framed the style so well from his hair to his daring nature.  He embodies Johnny so well.  This is a love story, pure and true, even if its finding and chasing what you want.  Its about stereotypes yet again with different social groups and dividing the rich and the poor.

Its set in one location essentially but its able to speak very well as to the themes they want to cover.  Dirty Dancing becomes a little more daring.  Its takes the sexy dance choreography in Flashdance and the uptight/breaking free/stereotypes sort of story in Footloose and combines it to get to another level. Its able to use the plot to drive us to fall in love with the cast and their chemistry.  Iconic dance choreography, memorable quotes, touching and inspiring story: its hard not to fall in love and have the time of your life over and over again watching Dirty Dancing.

Overall…

Three movies, very similar angles with different back stories but all related to dance and dreams and fighting for whats right.  While the latter two are much more iconic and great to me than Flashdance, all of them have their mark in 80s cinema.  Who can forget Flashdance and the sexy opening scene? Or Baby seducing Johnny along to “Love is Strange” and imitating Mickey and Sylvia? How about Ren teaching a very awkward Willard how to dance with the Walkman down the school corridor?

The 80s brought us a lot.  Between John Hughes and his teenage drama/comedy, and the cheesy action flicks, some over the top romantic comedies that we couldn’t help but love, its good to know that there’s also some feel-good inspiring pieces in the form of dance movies.  I just love them! If you haven’t seen these, you should! 😉

Have you seen any (or all) of these movies? Do you  like dance flicks? 

Remember to keep your eyes out for Drew’s wrap-up review a little later today! 🙂

Halloween Marathon: Tremors (1990)

If you recall, a few weeks ago, I posted up the podcast with my co-host David over at That Moment In where we have a random chat about Tremors.  If you missed it, you can find it HERE!

While I don’t watch a whole lot of Kevin Bacon movies, the few that I have seen has proved that he is a great actor with a widespan of skills for many different characters. Tremors was mentioned to me a few times before but the most impactful was during a Q&A session for Cop Car at the Fantasia Film Festival this year after the captivating thriller called Cop Car.  You can check out that review right HERE!

No more link-ups! Let’s head into the review! 🙂

Tremors (1990)

Director: Ron Underwood

Cast: Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross, Reba McEntire, Robert Jayne, Charlotte Stewart, Tony Genaro, Ariana Richards, Victor Wong

Natives of a small isolated town defend themselves against strange underground creatures which are killing them one by one.-IMDB

Tremors is definitely a treat in the creature feature genre.  In Netflix, its categorized with the cult classics.  Interesting because I guess I can see why it would be there. However, it is one of the more fun creature features despite its age and campiness.  The characters excel at balancing the humor and the fun aspect.  While it takes a little while to get the story going in the fun and adventure area, it does work well in building its story as we follow the main characters, Val (Kevin Bacon) and Earl (Fred Ward) discover the threat that has been hitting obscure areas in town.  As the characters add more, we get some more sophisticated characters that add to the group and turn this into a fight against the creature for survival as they put their heads together and add a little boom here but discover that the creature is actually quite intelligent.

Is Tremors scary? No, that it isn’t.  But then, a lot of creature features aren’t exactly that scary.  They may have been when I was younger, like Deep Blue Sea but this one has some tense moments even though it never holds long enough to make it feel too endangering to the characters. Maybe that isn’t true because with the modern creature features, we always expect someone to die in whatever way and when we can’t determine when and how they will die and just how the creature is, there is a sort of underlying fear.  Definitely the beginning hit that horror territory more than the second half.  As we hit the second part, it really lands into the adventure part as they find creative ways of evading this creature lurking under the ground.  Its entertaining and its hard to not want to cheer the characters on at this point.  My favorite is definitely when they think up the whole pole vaulting escape plan. While it is fun, it is also rather fast paced as they try to outwit and outrun the creatures.

While Tremors is a lot of fun, there are some unnecessary and forced bits.  Its never enough to make me roll my eyes or get frustrated.  In the end, it still delivers a satisfying and enjoyable horror comedy creature feature enveloping all the subgenres I typically like.  Its fun and adventurous, and the characters and their cheesy outdated dialogue. Sometimes its that sort of dialogue that resounds and makes it even more entertaining. Its definitely one I wouldn’t mind rewatching especially if its watching Kevin Bacon’s funny reactions and dialogue and then the gun toting couple and the super campy creature effects.  Like it a whole lot!

Have you seen Tremors? Do you like it? Are a fan of creature features?

TMI Podcast: David and Kim’s Random Chat about Tremors (1990)

Welcome to the next episode of That Moment In‘s podcast where me and David discuss in a casual little chat the horror sci-fi comedy Tremors made in 1990 starring a young Kevin Bacon.  One that I only saw for the first time and David has quite a bit of admiration of. Our first in October’s selection of Halloween-focused podcast shows.  Tremors might not be exactly a mainstream horror but to me it is a creature feature and that’s one of my favorite subgenres.

Thanks for listening and we hope you enjoy! 🙂

Fantasia Fest 2015: Cop Car (2015) & Black Eyes (Short 2015)

Now that Fantasia (for my rundown) is done and I had the weekend to recuperate a little (so very little), I can put my energy into getting last week’s movies reviewed and done! Moving along, the next movie is a break from horror and we jump into a thriller hosted by director Jon Watts and actor and co-producer Kevin Bacon. I mean, the Kevin Bacon, (you know, Footloose) was here in Montreal at Fantasia! Consider me excited! 🙂

We started with the world premiere of a short called Black Eyes. Its features the same boy that is in Cop Car.

Alex discovers Alice trying to commit suicide. When she hesitates he offers another path. Using special effects makeup, the kids pretend to die and become zombies.-IMDB

Black Eyes started a little weird.  The chemistry was a little awkward but it turned out to be really fun and kind of a little dark humor given the premise of it all. When it ended, I liked it quite a bit.

Cop Car (2015)

Canadian Premiere

Director/Co-writer: Jon Watts

Cast: Kevin Bacon, Hayes Wellford, James Freedson-Jackson, Shea Whigham, Camryn Manheim

Two boys, Travis (James Freedson-Jackson) and Harrison (Hayes Wellford), run away from home looking for an adventure. They come across a cop car in the middle of nowhere and they even find the keys for it. They end up driving off with it to have some fun except what they didn’t  know is that this car belongs to the sheriff (Kevin Bacon) and he will do anything to get it back.

Cop Car is an intriguing thriller.  There is a lot of sounds and not so much dialogue. The deserted location makes for a nice emphasis on the small town boys.  Still, in between the physical nothingness, there seems to be something to read between the lines.  Like, what I noticed is that the adults are much more quiet.  They are deceiving and cunning.  None of the adults in this are saying the truth when they open their mouths.  There’s always a hidden agenda.  But against the boys, Travis and Harrison are young and simple and maybe even a little naive.  They want to seem like big boys but you can read them like an open book.  Its a movie that asks for the audience to read body language a lot, especially with Kevin Bacon’s character as the sheriff.  He almost has no lines but you can read his character more and more as the plot thickens.  That in itself makes this very engaging to watch.

For sure, you will wonder how the young boys are able to drive the cop car but lets put that aside as we suspend that disbelief. Even the director didn’t  want to ruin that magic when asked during the Q&A session.  You know, I didn’t even think about that while I was watching this.

What we have here is a great look at a talented small cast that can take a rather simple script and make it engaging. Allowing the audience to connect with the young boys as we watch them make some decisions and try new things that might make you fear for them.  Travis and Harrison, played by James Freedson-Jackson and Hayes Wellford respectively, are very fun to watch.  They are young boys and they want to look for adventure.  This might not be the adventure they are looking for but their characters are genuine and convincing.  They sometimes make you laugh because of the sporadic choices or the silly outbursts or their clearly inexperienced ways to deal with certain situations.  As they come across the sheriff and other characters, you watch them grow as the things get more intense and the situation becomes more serious.  At the same time, we watch their characters also shape up to be something more than what was in the beginning.

Now, time to look at Kevin Bacon. I’ve taken a few days (its like a week after I saw this movie) to kind of let the hype of being in the same room as someone as famous as Kevin Bacon die down.  The Q&A session was fantastic.  Kevin Bacon and Jon Watts are really great at answering the questions.

Before I get carried away, Kevin Bacon as the evil sheriff who is a little ruthless and deceiving and just all kinds of bad.  His character didn’t talk much but because he is such a good actor, he was able to show us through this body language and his expressions/reactions just the calm and collected guy he is trying to portray, a facade he has when he is in public while slowly as the situation intensifies, the real him pops up more and more.

Overall, Cop Car is a simple story but one that uses a great mix of sound, location and a minimal amount of characters to make it all work.  The character development and how we, as the audience, grows to care for the characters, is a huge plus.  It is well paced and at a very nice 88 minutes runtime, Cop Car gave us an increasing dose of tension and thrills as the plot thickens and a few surprise reveals. The kids may have taken the car for a joy ride but its one for all of us as well.

**Following that thought on the Q&A before, I wish that I could publish that one (and I’ll try to figure out how to make a Youtube video or something with snippets of the Q&As).  It was pretty nice.  People asked Kevin Bacon about the meaning of life (which we all laughed) and the difference between independent films and big budget films (filming done in 9 days versus 9 months and his words, “you don’t get paid”).  While Jon Watts got questions about “how he thinks it’ll differ for him in the experience of going from directing Cop Car to Clown to the upcoming reboot of Spiderman (he doesn’t know) and why he likes using kids in peril as central characters.  It was a pretty fun and memorable Q&A session. Sadly, I was seated pretty high up that my picture of them was so small and blurry, I didn’t post up the picture here but I’m still cursing myself for not bringing the DSLR.**

Halloween Marathon: Friday the 13th (1980)

We’re getting down to business! The first movie of our main feature: Friday the 13th! I’ve only ever seen Part 2 of the franchise so I have a general idea of this first one is about because my boyfriend told me a bit about how it all starts before.  I’m not exactly sure I was a huge fan of Friday the 13th but if its held up for 12 movies, it must have some redeeming features 😉 Lets see how it all started!

Director: Sean S. Cunningham

Cast: Betsy Palmer, Robbi Morgan, Adrienne King, Jeannine Taylor, Kevin Bacon, Harry Crosby, Laurie Bartram, Mark Nelson

Camp Crystal Lake has been closed for a few years after a boy drowned followed by murders that occurred on the land.  However, ignoring the rumors that its cursed, it is about to be reopened.  Two more weeks before the camp officially opens, the teenage counsellors arrive to the camp site to help set up the final arrangements. Right before a heavy rain storm hits, they realize that one by one they are attacked and murdered.

I always find it hard to review these “classic ” horrors.  You can’t really use the same set of expectations.  Friday the 13th is different from the Halloween series.  Maybe its because it hasn’t held up with the years thats gone by since then but it doesn’t seem to pack the same punch as the other did.  However, thats not saying that it wasn’t good.

Friday the 13th uses clever camera work to never show who is the person doing all the killing. When that creepy moment shows up, it cues the repeated double note background sound effects and the camera follows the characters like its someone spying or creeping up on them.  At the same time, as the movie goes along, there is some interaction with the mystery killer before they are killed and also shows that its someone unknown but doesn’t look threatening either.  Aren’t those the scariest types?  Thats only sometimes, because it also pulls out to have a third person view also.  One of the big moments was seeing Kevin Bacon show up on screen and being shocked to see that he was involved in this.

I do have to admit that I expected a lot more from Friday the 13th.  I really don’t know why.  Maybe its because Halloween was so awesome.  Sure, the music had me a little creeped out at times but for the most part, it was pretty predictable.  You could tell when it would be a fake scare and when it was going to be the real deal.  The only question was where that killer would pop out from and how they’d do the killing.  The cast wasn’t that great.  I do have to say that some kills were a little shocking.  The beginning of Friday the 13th was underwhelming but okay.  It started to drag a little bit but it injected enough creepy moments to keep me awake and alert.  The best part is the finishing act once the killer reveals themselves.  I’m all about spoiler free here but I’m sure the majority of you already know who it is.  Now that was full on nutso and then with the final bit and the crazy twist.  Now that really made me forget all the meh parts in the beginning.

Overall, Friday the 13th was good.  It wasn’t quite what I expected when it first started but it did end brilliantly.  Sometimes, endings do make up for the beginning and I think it applies to here.  They had a good eerie creepy setting and for the most part, with the double note sounds it worked well to create the right atmosphere.  Although the cast isn’t anything special, even if I was surprised by Kevin Bacon’s appearance, its an good start to the series.

I have seen Part 2 but I’ll still have to rewatch it to refresh my memory.

Have you seen Friday the 13th? What do you think of it? Does it have some nostalgia moments for you? 

Balto (1995)

It’s winter and man, was it extremely cold last week.  Also, I have plans to go see the international dog sled races in a few weeks. So what better time to pick to see this.

Director: Simon Wells

Voices: Kevin Bacon, Bridget Fonda, Bob Hoskins, Jim Cummings, Phil Collins

Based on the true story behind a American hero, as the box and posters for this animation says.  Its about the amazing story of Balto (Kevin Bacon), a half wolf who lives in Nome, Alaska in 1925.  In this animation, which my guess is loosely based since his companions are a goose who doesn’t fly south called Boris (Bob Hoskins) and two polar bears who can’t swim called Muk and Luk (both by Phil Collins).  When the children of Nome, Alaska start getting hit be an epidemic during a snow storm, they run out of medicine and the closest they could get the medicine delivered was to Nenana, Alaska.  With the brutal weather, the train could not bring it and the planes could not fly it out to them.  They only way was to send out their best dog sled team to go get the medicine.  In Nome, the best dog was pretentious Steele (Jim Cummings) who was the champion dog.  Steele, along with his pack of dogs tried every way possible to stop Balto from not only getting the girl dog, Jenna (Bridget Fonda) but also to stop him from overshadowing him.  When the team finally sets out, Steele gets the team lost coming back to Nome and after an accident, he ends up getting stranded in a lower landing.  Knowing this, Balto ignores the hatred from the other dogs and the humans in the town and goes to find the lost team in the storm in order to get back the medicine in time to save Rosy (who is the owner of Jenna) and the other sick children.

I saw this movie when I was younger and I even owned the VHS of it. This movie holds a lot of nostalgia for me.  When I upgraded it to DVD, this animation still held high up.  Its a very touching story filled with a lot of fun and funny dialogue.  Muk and Luk is the entertaining clowns of this show.  Boris being the responsible but sometimes hot-tempered role but also the one that looks out for Balto and sometimes acts as a mentor to remind him of the important things.  The voice work here is pretty above average.  They are all very vibrant and really fun throughout the whole animation.  The story may be loosely based on a true story but it does bring out how a dog can be loyal and faithful to the people and the place he belongs to.

This animation is a great one for some family fun.  Balto is a very meaningful story and for that, its worth a viewing.  He even has a statue in Central Park, which I did try to find last time I went in 2008, but unfortunately, we got lost so never found it.  Hopefully one day, I’ll eventually get there.

I know this is an older animation and I don’t hear people talking about it much.  I just wonder if a lot of people have seen it.

Have you seen it? Did you like it?