Prime Time: The Wraith (1986)

I'm not sure how everyone else encountered it, but The Wraith is a film I will always remember as a fond VHS favourite. The cooler poster design, the one that had the titular character standing beside his awesome car, the taglines, and the fairly impressive cast all made a strong impression on me, and the younger me had no idea that it was basically a reworking of one or two atmospheric Clint Eastwood movies.

There's a gang of assholes, led by Packard Walsh (Nick Cassavetes). Walsh wants to be with the beautiful Keri Johnson (Sherilyn Fenn), but she keeps resisting his advances, which is hard to believe when you see what a charmer Walsh is. The gang of assholes like to spend their time bullying people, racing cars, and generally being assholes, much to the chagrin of Sheriff Loomis (Randy Quaid). A new guy in town (Jake, played by Charlie Sheen) gets some attention, but not as much as "The Wraith", a black-clothed mysterious driver who turns up in a very impressive car, some kind of one-of-a-kind Dodge Interceptor. Without saying anything, this driver is challenged to race, which allows him to start picking off the gang, one at a time.

Written and directed by Mike Marvin knows exactly how to throw plenty at the wall for enough to stick. You get the attractive cast, the supernatural aspect of it all, the set-pieces (they might be limited by the budget and resources, but they're there), and the shiny, speedy car. Certain moments are very cheesy, not least of them being the moments of closure at the very end of the film, but if you accept it for all it is aiming for then you should still manage to have a good time. Perhaps Marvin could have learned further into the horror, and added some more gratuitous creepy moments in between the races and confrontations, but he generally does well at balancing the tone in a way that keeps focus on the teen appeal around the heart of the story. Having said that, I wouldn't be averse to a ramped-up remake.

Sheen is good enough as the handsome new guy in town, Fenn is as lovely as ever, and Cassavetes is a great alpha douchebag. The gang all under the leadership of Cassavetes is full of fun little turns, with special mention going to Clint Howard. Well, I suppose I mean to give special mention to Clint Howard's hair. Quaid is enjoyably chewing the scenery as the exasperated sheriff, and Matthew Barry is okay as a young man who doesn't realise that he has already known "The Wraith" in another guise.

The racing scenes are decently shot, the soundtrack has a couple of surprising hits in the mix, and the cast all at least have fun with their roles, even if they are not delivering the best possible performances. If you have fond memories of this from the VHS experience, as I did, then revisiting it won't leave you disappointed. It holds up surprisingly well, perhaps because it never tried to sell itself as anything more than an entertaining teen tale of ghostly vengeance. Which is all you get.

7/10

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Scary Movie 3 (2003)

Written by Craig Mazin and Pat Proft, and directed by David Zucker, Scary Movie 3 tries hard to undo all of the bad work that led to the second instalment in the franchise being such a stinker. It's interesting to note that things seem considerably improved thanks to the removal from the series of anyone with the Wayans name.

The plot is absolute nonsense, blending The Ring with Signs and mixing in plenty of references to Eight Mile, The Matrix movies and The Sixth Sense. Anna Faris returns as Cindy, the nominal heroine of the franchise, and Regina Hall is Brenda Meeks once more, but this time they are joined by Simon Rex and Charlie Sheen, two actors who do much better with the comedic material than anyone named Wayans. Rex and Sheen play two brothers living on a farm, with the former wanting to make his name as a renowned rapper and the latter just wanting to be left in peace after a personal tragedy revealed during the movie.

Although I enjoy this instalment more than any other in the series, including the first movie, it still suffers from the fact that it crams in so many juvenile, lowbrow gags amongst the better moments. The Eight Mile scenes, in particular, are both amusing and absolutely on target, while so many of the other gags are thrown onscreen to see what sticks and what doesn't. The good news for all involved this time is that many of them stick.

Zucker is an old hand with this stuff, and he does fine by the material. The script may not win any prizes but it's so much better than the awful movie that preceded it that, well, maybe it should.

Faris is as likeable as ever, Hall is a lot of fun as Brenda and both Rex and Sheen are great additions to the franchise. The cast also includes Jeremy Piven, in a small but enjoyable role, Anthony Anderson and Kevin Hart having a lot of fun, Queen Latifah, Eddie Griffin and George Carlin helping to gently mock the world of The Matrix, and Leslie Nielsen as an incompetent President Of The United States.

Is it a movie I will seek out to rewatch again and again? No, none of the Scary Movie comedies will ever top my list of viewing priorities. This third outing, however, is one that I can always enjoy watching if I chance upon it while it is being shown on TV.

7/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scary-Movie-Collection-DVD/dp/B001ECPV6Q/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1377373211&sr=8-11&keywords=scary+movie

Red Dawn (1984)

Red Dawn is another film from the '80s that many people view with fondness. It could be to do with the ridiculously entertaining plot - America is invaded and a bunch of teens become formidable guerrilla warriors. It could be to do with the cast, which includes a lot of great youngsters with support from dependable old hands such as Harry Dean Stanton, Ben Johnson and Powers Boothe. Or it could just be the very, well, eighties-ness of it all. Having somehow never seen the film until now, I don't have the rosy tint of nostalgia to cloud my judgment. I can still enjoy Red Dawn and I can still see why so many would have enjoyed it more when it was released in 1984 but I can also see the many negative points.

Starting off with a laughable amount of title cards that get viewers up to speed, Red Dawn quickly gets the action started when a bunch of American schoolkids are alarmed, to say the least, by invading Soviet forces.
They head for the hills, at first just thinking of survival but soon coming up with tactics to use in a concerted effort to fight back.

It's, essentially, a war movie set on American soil with lots of young heartthrobs in the cast. Patrick Swayze is the older, brave member of the group while the likes of C. Thomas Howell, Charlie Sheen, Jennifer Grey, Lea Thompson, Darren Dalton and Brad Savage look up to him. Then there are those old hands I already mentioned in supporting roles, as well as Lane Smith, Ron O'Neal and Frank McRae, though the latter is onscreen for merely a minute or so.

This may not be the finest film from director John Milius but it's worth a watch for a number of reasons. First of all, there's the subject matter. Yes, it's dumb and gung-ho for most of the runtime but there are also a surprising number of dark moments that aren't expected in a film about teen freedom fighters. Secondly, the cast. Of course. Thirdly, this is an early film in the interesting career of Kevin Reynolds. I like Kevin Reynolds (oh yes, I liked Waterworld - a lot) and the movies that he's involved with always tend to have enough sheer entertainment in the mix to keep me happy throughout.

Red Dawn is a film that was, undoubtedly, best viewed in 1984 but you can still watch it now and, after checking that nobody else can see you, allow yourself to pump your fist in the air and shout "Go Wolverines!".

6/10

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