Tag: 1980s

Comedies

Uncle Buck

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Image: Uncle Buck, 1989

If you’re planning a family visit this holiday season, then you might be in the mood to watch everybody’s favorite movie relative: John Candy. In Uncle Buck (Disc/Download), the actor makes a killer breakfast, looks great in a bowling shirt, and knows how to talk dirty to a washing machine. He also puts the “fun” in funcle.

Written and directed by John Hughes, this film features many Hughes hallmarks such as the mid-western suburban setting, a great soundtrack, and precocious children. Gabby Hoffmann and Macauley Culkin steal every scene they’re in, always game to participate in whatever crazy scheme their uncle has cooked up. It could be pancakes the size of a kiddie pool, or microwaved socks, or a trip to the horse track; every day is a new adventure. Where the film’s conflict emerges is in his relationship with surly teen niece Tia (Jean Louisa Kelly). They butt heads because she wants to grow up too fast, while he doesn’t want to grow up at all. Honestly, this guy is a saint for putting up with her scowl for as long as he does. I’d have left her to Bug.

The cozy scenes of colder climates have me longing for a bourbon cocktail, and what better than a “buck”? This style of drink traditionally has a spirit + citrus + ginger beer, and it’s a fantastic base for experimentation. The possibilities are limitless, but in honor of Uncle Buck’s most hilarious scene, I recommend trying this Buck Melanoma cocktail.

Buck Melanoma

2 oz bourbon

¾ oz lemon juice

3-4 fresh blackberries

½ oz maple syrup

4 oz ginger beer

In the bottom of a shaker, muddle the lemon juice, blackberries, and maple syrup together. Add bourbon and ice and shake to chill. Double strain into a highball glass filled with fresh ice and top with ginger beer. Stir gently to combine.

John Candy’s improv skills save Uncle Buck from being too formulaic, and they also distract from some of the broader physical comedy moments. My ego took a bit of a bruising when I realized I’m now older than Buck, but that’s okay. You can be a dreamer and a sillyheart at any age. Cheers!

Action/Adventure/Heist · Uncategorized

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

LizLocke2 Comments
Image credit: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, 1984

A much-anticipated trip to experience the Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland prompted this week’s watch; the second installment of Spielberg’s Indy trilogy that I’ve always referred to as “the gross one”: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Disc/Download). As a child, I couldn’t get past the monkey brain scene, but as an adult, I made it all the way through pits of fire and creepy crawlies, and a sprawling underground city of child slave labor. When I tell you I have earned that trip to Disneyland, believe it.

Although my favorite Indiana Jones movie will always be Last Crusade, the sheer weirdness of Temple of Doom bumps it up to second place in my eyes. Imagine, you create a character that looks like he came straight from the Golden Age of Cinema, a hero adults and children can all rally around, and then you… send him into a whirlpool of black magic and voodoo cults. You serve him eyeball soup and raw beetles. You give him a heroine who, while stylish and beautiful, is fairly annoying throughout the entirety of the film. If not for Short Round and the fabulous production design, there wouldn’t be much to recommend in this movie. However, the relationship between adventurer and precocious child is every bit as fun as the one between adventurer and precocious old man in Last Crusade. This movie takes the viewer on a circuitous, bizarre ride, but it manages to keep Harrison sweaty and shirtless for a satisfactory amount of time. And at this particular moment in my life, that’s enough for me.

Make no mistake, the banquet scene is still gross. It helps if you have a cocktail and a blindfold, and preferably an empty stomach. While watching Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, I recommend drinking this Temple ‘Tini.

Temple ‘Tini

1 1/2 oz Dark Spiced Rum

1/4 oz Banana Liqueur

1/4 oz Vanilla syrup

3/4 oz Cold Brew

3 dashes Ginger Bitters

Gummy snake (garnish)

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with a gummy snake.

Although the Disney Imagineers built a ride inspired by the production design of Temple of Doom, I really wish they had instead focused on the Shanghai nightclub where this story begins. Like Rick’s Café, Club Obi Wan looks like the perfect place to sip a cocktail amid the chaos of war, or crowds of screaming children. A missed opportunity, Disney. Cheers!

Sci Fi · Uncategorized

Starman

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Image credit: Starman, 1984

If typical romantic fare has you rolling your eyes with boredom, and you just cannot stand to see How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days show up in your watch suggestions yet again*, then maybe you’re ready for John Carpenter’s Starman (Disc/Download), a bonkers sci-fi romance featuring a naked Jeff Bridges, a creepy CGI baby, and love on the run.

Starring Karen Allen as the recently widowed Jenny Hayden, and Jeff Bridges as the alien who crashes into her Wisconsin backyard and adopts the physical body of her recently deceased husband (thanks to an old photo album, a lock of his baby hair, and some truly bizarre special effects), this movie has similar visual elements to other campy Carpenter classics like They Live, The Thing, and The Fog, but it also manages to tell a moving story about grief and connection. Although I laugh pretty hard at Bridges’ halting alien voice, my heart twists when Jenny is forced to reckon with this terrifying stranger who happens to look exactly like the love of her life, as though even the memories of his face and smile aren’t sacred anymore. Carpenter may be known for horror, but honestly, I can’t think of anything scarier than the place our heroine inhabits at the start of this movie.

A fun element to this story is the collection of “energy balls” our alien uses to start fires, heal the dead or dying, and send interplanetary messages. Basically, any task you would need a bit of magic to accomplish. I don’t have any of these silver balls myself, but I do have a bottle of Fireball Whiskey. While watching Starman, make a little magic of your own with this Fireball Old Fashioned.

Fireball Old Fashioned

1 part Fireball Whisky

1 part Bourbon

2-3 Dashes Angostura Bitters

½ tsp Sugar

Orange twist

Muddle sugar with bitters in the bottom of a glass. Add ice, bourbon, and Fireball, and stir to combine. Twist the orange peel over the glass, then drop in.

This movie definitely has some soap opera elements to it, which is probably why I like it so much. Yes, there are the typical scary government guys chasing Bridges to a crater in Arizona, and the standard bumbling scientist who realizes it’s better to let the interplanetary traveler go home than see him get hurt on Earth, but there’s also a terrific pie scene and a secret alien baby that may or may not turn up in a sequel. It’s been forty years, and I am ready for that sequel. Cheers!

*Note to Netflix/Hulu/Amazon, et al.: I do not want to watch How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. It’s never going to happen, stop trying to make it happen.

Comedies

The Big Chill

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Image credit: The Big Chill, 1983

If you ever get nostalgic for 1960s music and political ideology, then definitely check out this movie… set in the 1980s? This week, Cinema Sips is diving into The Big Chill (Disc/Download), which is unfortunately not about frozen cocktails. Rather, it’s about recapturing the joy and camaraderie of youth, and rocking out to classic Motown hits. Sign me up!

I’ll admit, when I first watched The Big Chill as a teenager, I didn’t get it. All these whiny middle-aged people having affairs and trying to make jogging a thing—not my cup of tea. But as an adult who is now squarely in the age range of these characters, I enjoy it a lot more. I don’t think you can really “get” The Big Chill until you’ve experienced grief, and/or drifted away from the friends you had in college. You have to have lost something before you can find it in this movie. Jeff Goldblum is the standout in an ensemble cast of college buddies reuniting at a funeral, and if you thought he was charismatic in Jurassic Park, you will enjoy him even more in this. They gave his character all the best lines, and the best drugs. 

This group of mourners seem to go through an awful lot of white wine, which is understandable given all the issues they’re still working out. Impotence, loneliness, infidelity, depression- pass the Sauvignon Blanc. You could certainly keep it simple with a bottle of wine, or you could mix it into something perfect for long conversations around the coffee table. While watching The Big Chill, I recommend drinking a Heard It Through the Grapevine cocktail.

Heard It Through the Grapevine

3 oz Dry White Wine

1 oz Ginger Liqueur

1 oz Lemon Juice

3 dashes Orange Bitters

2 oz Ginger Beer

Lemon/Basil Garnish

Combine wine, ginger liqueur, lemon juice, and orange bitters in a shaker with ice. Stir to combine, then strain into a glass filled with a large ice cube. Top with ginger beer, and garnish with a lemon wheel and sprig of basil.

There’s something that happens when you reach your thirties and forties, when you start losing people at a rate you never could have fathomed ten years earlier. Suddenly it’s parents, grandparents, friends, aunts, uncles, etc. The wedding circuit is replaced with the funeral circuit. We start gathering and taking stock, wondering when it will be us in that box, and what will people say about the life we’ve led? Wondering if this will be the last time we see any of these fellow mourners again. Maybe a movie about frozen cocktails would have been a little more uplifting, but The Big Chill gives me the community, and the perspective, I didn’t know I needed. Cheers!

Comedies

Valley Girl

LizLocke1 Comment
Image credit: Valley Girl, 1983

This week, let’s stop the world and watch a totally rad slice of SoCal life, Valley Girl (Disc/Download). If you ever wondered whether Nicolas Cage was a teen heartthrob, I am here to tell you, YES he was, and NO, his onscreen chest hair was not normal. But we love him anyway.

I thought I’d heard all the high school slang worth hearing after repeat viewings of Clueless, until I watched its 1980s precursor. As the “Juliet” of this Romeo & Juliet-inspired love story between Valley Girl and a Hollywood Punk, Julie loves to use choice phrases like “Gag me with a spoon” and “Like, fer-SHUR” during trips to the mall, the beach, and meals at the local diner. When she meets her bad-boy “Romeo”, Randy (Cage) at a party, he’s everything she shouldn’t want—he doesn’t wear pastels, he’s not likely to be voted Prom King any time soon, and his hair has a lot of product. But god, can he kiss. Seriously, young Nicolas Cage knew how to do a Hollywood Kiss, and forty years later, it still affects me.

But back to the slang. The language is what makes this film so endearingly funny, and I can’t help but think of how I’d use these words in my own life. These days, I’m in desperate need of a chill pill, but alcohol will have to do. You might think using a whole egg in a cocktail is grody, but I say that’s bogus. I use egg whites frequently, so like, why not a yolk? While watching Valley Girl, I recommend drinking this My Parents Are Gonna Flip! cocktail.

My Parents Are Gonna Flip!

2 oz Silver Rum

1 oz Pineapple Juice

1 oz Coconut Milk

1 oz Lime Juice

½ oz Simple Syrup

1 chopped strawberry

1 Whole Egg (yolk + white; no shell)

Strawberry Garnish

Muddle chopped strawberry in the bottom of a metal shaker with lime juice and simple syrup. Add ice, rum, pineapple juice, coconut cream, and egg. Shake vigorously for at least one minute to emulsify. Strain contents out into a separate glass and dump out the ice in the shaker. Put the liquid contents back into the shaker and shake hard again for 2 minutes to make it extra frothy. Strain into a glass filled with fresh ice. Garnish with a strawberry.

Another standout element to this movie (beyond Nic Cage’s make-out skills) is the soundtrack. With hits from The Psychedelic Furs, Men at Work, The Plimsouls, and Modern English, the track list will transport you to a time when popped collars were all the rage, and peanut butter sushi was served as an hors d’oeuvre. One more time, for emphasis—Gag me with a spoon!!!

Action/Adventure/Heist · Children's

The Goonies

LizLocke1 Comment

Image credit: The Goonies, 1985

As a child of the 1980s, I feel a certain responsibility to honor the inexplicable love my generation has for The Goonies (Disc/Download). I may have come along too late to really understand why this movie was and is such a big deal (I was only two when it premiered), but nevertheless, people still go nuts for this group of extremely loud kids and their Pacific Northwest pirate adventure. Let’s pour one out and deconstruct.

Conceived by Steven Spielberg, directed by Richard Donner, and written by Chris Columbus, this movie was practically guaranteed to be a blockbuster. These guys know storytelling. The fact that the plot is 100% ludicrous doesn’t really matter—we must keep watching to see if these kids can find the pirate treasure hidden under an Italian restaurant, escape the criminals trying to murder them, and save their family homes from foreclosure. Where things unfortunately fall apart for me is with the character of Sloth, which seems like a lame excuse for special effects and makeup in a movie that doesn’t really need them. I would even argue that we don’t need the Fratelli family at all—there’s enough action surrounding the booby-trapped treasure hunt to keep things exciting. The whole movie is one giant Rube Goldberg machine full of adventurous production design that makes you feel like you just played a game of chutes and ladders, under a steady PNW drizzle.

Having never seen this before in its entirety (I know, I KNOW!!), I was delighted to find so many tiki influences. The pirate ship, Chunk’s Hawaiian shirt, all the skulls and buried treasure—it’s like Don the Beachcomber died and went to Oregon. On that note, let’s try a cocktail that’s perfect while counting your doubloons, the Pearl Diver.

Pearl Diver

1 ½ oz Gold Puerto Rican Rum

¾ oz Demerara Rum

½ oz Gold Jamaican Rum

1 tsp Falernum

¾ oz Lime Juice

1 oz Orange Juice

¾ oz Gardenia Mix (people with more time on their hands might want to make their own. I am not that person)

1 cup ice

Fresh orchid (for garnish)

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend for about 15 seconds, then strain through a wire mesh into a Pearl Diver glass filled with fresh crushed ice. Garnish with orchid.

Even though I don’t hold an abiding love for The Goonies like a lot of people my age, I recognize its impact. It was a movie that appealed to the youth market, but adults could feel comfortable enjoying it too. Perhaps that’s what’s given it so much staying power— ‘80s kids may have grown up, but we’re still looking for an adventure. Cheers!

Comedies

Fletch

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Image credit: Fletch, 1985

Y’all have no idea how much I struggled this week to find a movie that fully captures 1980s comedy. I went through a lot of picks, suffered through Girls Just Want to Have Fun, realized St. Elmo’s Fire was NOT the comedic Brat Pack follow-up to The Breakfast Club I thought it would be, before landing on that tall, tan mainstay of the ’80s, Chevy Chase. If you mistakenly thought the National Lampoon’s movies were the peak of his career, then let me introduce you to Fletch (Disc/Download).

Like a precursor to Jeffrey Lebowski and Doc Sportello, Irwin M. “Fletch” Fletcher spends his days bumming around the beach, pissing off cops, and becoming embroiled in rich white lady drama. Except the difference here is that Fletch actually has a paying job, as an investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times. He’s undercover trying to expose a drug ring when the wealthy Mr. Stanwyk (Tim Matheson) attempts to hire him for a murder/suicide indemnity plot. I can practically hear Billy Wilder’s laughter from beyond the grave. Using a variety of disguises, Fletch manages to sniff out the real criminal plot, involving the LAPD, a secret wife in Utah, and an ex-con named Gummy. It’s a wild neo-noir comedy full of hilarious one-liners, nods to classic film, and Chase’s trademark deadpan humor. Truly, I never thought this mainstay of my Saturday afternoon movie binges could pull off a Homeless Brody Jenner look, but the man is a chameleon.

Speaking of looks, Fletch has a lot of them. Everything from surgeon, to hillbilly airplane mechanic, to Lakers basketball player, to rollerskating spiritual leader. But my favorite disguise of all is Country Club Fletch, who wears his little white shorts and polo shirts like he was born to them. Let’s toast “Fancy Fletch” with this take on a classic Royal Bermuda Yacht Club daiquiri, a drink I like to call the Proper Attire.

Proper Attire

2 oz Aged gold rum

3/4 oz Falernum

3/4 oz Lime juice

3/4 oz Paula’s Texas Orange liqueur

Lime Wheel and Pineapple leaf (for garnish)

Combine Rum, Falernum, lime juice, and orange liqueur in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with lime wheel and pineapple leaf.

It makes me happy to know this movie has been in talks for a modern reboot because the character of Fletch is a joy in any era. But when it comes to representing the 1980s, you really can’t do better than the original. The Harold Faltermeyer score, the angry old Republican country club villains, dobermans as a security system… we really did have it all. Cheers!

Comedies

The Breakfast Club

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Image credit: The Breakfast Club, 1985

I’m halfway through my journey through late-20th century pivotal movie years, and after falling in love with the 1960s, then being terrified by the 1970s, it’s now time to turn my focus to the 1980s. Was it all greedy capitalists and neon clothes like nostalgia projects like Stranger Things and The Wedding Singer would have us believe? Was there an element of rebellion against the dark grittiness that preceded the era? Let’s turn to 1985 for answers, beginning with the maestro of teen angst, John Hughes.

For anyone who has ever spent a summer in Texas, The Breakfast Club (Disc/Download) will feel extremely familiar. Sitting in the air conditioning, fearful of being burned alive by stepping outside, you start to believe you’re one of these bored kids in high school detention all day. Although I can empathize with them, I’ve still never been blown away by the film as a whole. I understand it’s trying to be one of those movies where character development is more important than plot (the kind of film Richard Linklater makes so well), but I walk away from this feeling like the five main characters never really developed or changed. It’s fun to see Judd Nelson take on the authoritative Vice Principal, less fun to see him bully his classmates. Relationships and alliances are formed almost on a whim, and I frankly don’t buy that any of these people will speak to each other again when detention ends. But they had one unusual day together, and I guess that’s enough sometimes.

Speaking of unusual, Ally Sheedy makes a pretty weird cereal sandwich during the course of detention, so this week, let’s have a brunch drink fit for a teenager with terrible dietary habits. While watching The Breakfast Club, I recommend drinking this Captain Crunch Milk Punch.

Captain Crunch Milk Punch

1 1/4 oz Bourbon

1/2 oz Dark Rum

2 oz Milk

1/8 oz Vanilla Extract

1/2 oz Simple Syrup

Captain Crunch Cereal (for garnish)

Combine bourbon, rum, milk, vanilla extract, and simple syrup in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, about 30 seconds. Strain into a glass filled with fresh ice, and garnish with Captain Crunch cereal.

It’s extremely tempting to watch this movie and then ask the question, “Which one was I?” I suppose I was half-Princess / half-Brain, but maybe there was a dose of Basket Case in there too. The Breakfast Club is a movie I revisit every few years to see if it appeals to me more as I get older, and at this point the answer is still no. However, I like it enough to keep trying. On that note, save me a spot in Detention 2025, kids. Cheers!

Dramas

Staying Alive

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Image credit: Staying Alive, 1983

Two great things came out of the year 1983—me, and this week’s Cinema Sips pick, Staying Alive (Disc/Download). I know what you’re thinking: isn’t this the movie where John Travolta does hip thrusts next to Jamie Lee Curtis? The answer is no, that’s a weird little flick called Perfect. Which, I admit, is what I thought I would be watching when I put on Staying Alive. Nevertheless, my accident turned into a happy one when I realized I might be the only person on the planet who thinks this is a decent sequel to Saturday Night Fever. Allow me to make my case.

First, I think we’re far enough away from that Bee Gee’s disco fever dream to admit that while SNF had some gritty, hard-hitting moments, it was still John Travolta in a tight white leisure suit strutting his hips on a light-up floor. It’s cheesy as hell. So when Sylvester Stallone directed him to shake those hips again in a Broadway chorus line, why was that suddenly too cheesy? Any fan of Showgirls will be wowed by Tony Manero’s big Broadway debut in “Satan’s Alley”, and yacht rock fans will delight in the soundtrack, featuring the vocal talents of Cynthia Rhodes of Dirty Dancing fame. Honestly, I want to believe that Penny left the trauma of her back-alley abortion behind in the Catskills and reemerged twenty years later as a successful Broadway dancer. This all seems totally plausible to me.

Back when I covered Saturday Night Fever, I paired it with a Brooklyn cocktail, a lower borough version of the Manhattan. But now that Tony’s moved downtown, it’s time to class things up with this brandy version. While watching Staying Alive, I recommend drinking a Metropolitan cocktail.

Metropolitan

2 oz Brandy

1 oz Sweet Vermouth

½ tsp. Simple Syrup

2 dashes Angostura Bitters

In a cocktail shaker with ice, combine all ingredients. Shake well, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a twist of lemon, if desired.

Maybe I have an overly generous view of Staying Alive because I’ve been where Tony is (hell, at the time of writing this, I am Tony). I’ve crossed some hurdles in the road toward publication, but I still have a few more to go. Like Tony, I’m hustling, trying to make sure my dream stays alive. It can be a hard thing to accept the fact that not everyone can be “one of those people” who encounter success incredibly early in their lives. To feel like you’re not good enough, never going to be good enough, because it didn’t happen fast for you. Tony and I really have to work for it, but man—do we have potential. Cheers!

Comedies

Coming to America

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Image credit: Coming to America, 1988

There’s a rumor I’ve heard, and maybe you’ve heard it too. Apparently, a long time ago, in a land not so far away, Eddie Murphy used to be funny. You’ll forgive me if I’m skeptical—after all, I grew up in the era of The Nutty Professor. I know Eddie as the strange guy in the fat suit.  So when my husband sat me down and told me the comedian had starred in a really great 1980s rom-com called Coming to America (Disc), I decided to take a chance. And shock of all shocks—I loved it!!!

Although there are a few absurd disguises in this (Eddie as an old Jewish man? Pass.), for the most part Murphy keeps his juvenile gimmicks in check. As Prince Akeem, he’s surprisingly earnest for a man who has rose petals thrown at his feet wherever he goes. This royal yearns for true love instead of an arranged marriage set up by his parents, so he and man servant Semmi go to the most logical place for a future king to find his mate—Queens, NY! Once there, he finds shelter in a literal crime scene, a job at the local knock-off fast food joint (McDowell’s anyone?), and a sweet romance with the boss’s daughter. Rather than reveal his true identity, he pretends to be a poor immigrant student in order to ensure that his lady loves him for who he is instead of what he has back in Zamunda. Aside from some cringe-worthy scenes in a barber shop, this is a solid A+ rom-com that left me smiling from beginning to end.

Prince Akeem goes to great lengths to find his queen, but luckily you don’t have to. Just make this aptly named cocktail and pretend you’ve got Royal Bathers waiting for you in the shower. While watching Coming to America, I recommend drinking a Queen’s Park Swizzle!

Queen’s Park Swizzle

2 oz Aged Rum

½ oz Lime Juice

½ oz Simple Syrup

2-3 dashes Angostura Bitters

5-6 leaves Fresh Mint

Muddle mint in the bottom of a glass, dragging it up to coat the sides with oils. Add the rest of the ingredients and fill the glass 2/3 full with crushed ice. Use a swizzle stick to mix, until the outside of the glass becomes frosty. Fill the glass the rest of the way up with crushed ice, and garnish with more fresh mint.

If you’re curious about this film’s recent sequel (the oh-so-cleverly titled Coming 2 America– 🙄), don’t feel like you’re missing much if you decide to skip it. While it’s fun to watch some of these actors again, it in no way justifies having to sit through another Sexual Chocolate song. Randy Watson can stay back in 1988. Cheers!