Movies still have the power to become cultural events. But it’s not as strong as it used to be before our collective attention span splintered into a trillion directions. It is hard to describe the effect 1996’s Scream had when it was released to someone who hadn’t
If you can say one thing about 80s cinema, it was willing to take chances. 1987’s Mannequin might have been the most ludicrous concept to come to a theater, until Weekend at Bernie’s two years later. Kim Cattrall is the spirit of an ancient Egyptian who somehow gets
There are just director-actor combos that seem to just go together. Alfred Hitchcock had Jimmy Stewart. John Ford and John Wayne. And Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. We’ve talked about their collaborations before with Ed Wood. 1999’s Sleepy Hollow is another one of their perfect pairings. It’
Hollywood is a copycat factory. If there’s a hit movie, you can guarantee there are going to be movies just like it in the years following its release. Raiders of the Lost Ark set the world on fire in 1981, so of course there were going to be clones.
There are times movies can represent the generational divide between audiences. 1984’s Sixteen Candles is one of them. Among its core Gen-X audience, it’s considered a classic. However, among Gen-Z on the internet, it’s considered a crime against humanity. John Hughes learned a lesson on
Before Marvel movies ruled the box office, Batman was the superhero every studio was trying to chase. Todd McFarlane created Spawn in 1992, and it only took Spawn five years to make it to theaters in 1997. Spawn is a marine killed in a double cross and makes a deal
Sometimes all a movie needs to do is be a great time. 1993’s Demolition Man fits that definition. It was Sylvester Stallone’s other big movie of the year, behind Cliffhanger, and was the lesser hit of the two. Wesley Snipes is at his over-the-top best as
1999 was a big year for the evolution of the teen comedy. You had 10 Things I Hate About You tricking young people into watching a Shakespeare adaptation, and Never Been Kissed having a student-teacher romance without all the baggage of how wrong that would be considered a couple
Neve Campbell would have two big movies in 1996. One you all know very well in Scream. The other came earlier in the year, with The Craft. It was a sleeper hit revolving around four teen girls turning to witchcraft to wipe away their perceived flaws. But they all learn
Let’s play a game of what if. What if someone said there’s this great movie about these musicians fighting for fame and trying to outdo each other, and one of them decides to kill the other one? You’d probably think it’s some modern rock thriller. Instead,
There are horror movies, and there are movies that will horrify you. 1980’s The Blue Lagoon falls into the latter category. A 14-year-old Brooke Shields and 18-year-old Christopher Atkins are two cousins shipwrecked alone on an island sometime in the late 1800s. The movie wants
There’s not any doubt Julia Roberts was the queen of the 90s box office. Her power was so strong, she could take on a villain role, and still somehow come off likeable. 1997’s My Best Friend’s Wedding has her looking to steal her male best friend of
1984 was a very crowded year for movies. Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Gremlins, Star Trek III. So, it was inevitable movies were going to be missed. The Last Starfighter is one that got overlooked at the box office. It’s very 1984 in its plot, where
There are times when TV shows go beyond their medium and explode into something else entirely. For audiences of 2026, it’s hard to explain just how huge The X-Files were in the 90s. There’s nothing like it today, and the reboot of 2016 didn’t land with
If you want one movie to blame for the 80s fascination with the teen sex comedy, 1982’s Porky’s is the movie to blame. It was the fifth biggest hit of the year. And even bigger in the early days of the home video market. The movie draws its
There are times movies can be a little too weird for their own good. 1984’s The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension is one of those movies. Peter Weller is the title character who’s a rock star, scientist, surgeon, and just about anything else you can
Airplane! remains one of, if not, the greatest comedy ever made. Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker’s follow-up of Top Secret! in 1984 is also on that list. It’s a send up of both Elvis and spy movies starring Val Kilmer as Nick Rivers. It was Mr. Kilmer’s first
This is going to sound hard to believe. But it’s all true. Carrot Top was once such a big star in the 90s, he got his own movie. 1998’s Chairman of the Board. It’s his only movie, and there’s no mistaking why. Carrot Top, as you
You know what a lot of people say during English class? “I don’t like Shakespeare”. Most people haven’t seen one of Kenneth Branagh’s adaptations. Because if they did, they would have a new love of Shakespeare. 1993’s Much Ado About Nothing will make you a Shakespeare
We’ve talked before about Hollywood executives of the 90s not understanding comic books, and specifically Batman. The Shadow was one of those attempts to capitalize on Batman. Another was 1996’s The Phantom. It’s another example of people running studios thinking Gen-Xers of the 90s were just
Shall we play a game? In 2026, we are faced with the growing intrusion of AI into our lives. In 1983, before the public knew anything about AI, WarGames warned us about the consequences it could pose. At the time, it was more about the Cold War and how easily
Conspiracy theories have always been a part of the American experience. For whatever reason, we like to believe there’s always something sinister behind events. Step back to 1991 for a moment. The country was on the verge of 30 years since John F. Kennedy had been assassinated. And along
There’s a reason criminals fear the night. That reason is Batman. It’s hard to explain in 2026 the impact Batman had in 1989. People were going to movies just to see the trailer, and then leaving before the main feature. All the internet outrage about things now cannot
Raise your hand if you remember My Boyfriend’s Back. Yeah, not many of you. These days, zombies are all the rage in movies and tv shows. But in 1993, they were still something of a rarely used trope. Released by Disney’s Touchstone Pictures brand, it’s a movie