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20 years ago - November 3, 1995

Fair Game
By the mid-1990s, Cindy Crawford had it all: she was the world’s highest paid supermodel, host of MTV’s House of Style, wife of Richard Gere, and star of some steamy Pepsi commercials. But full length movie roles are a different animal. In Fair Game she stars as an attorney on the run from the KGB along with a Miami detective played by William Baldwin. Baldwin had two high profile hits with Backdraft and Sliver in the early 1990s. Unfortunately, this big budget action flick was a bust. Critics shot down the movie and Crawford, who was eventually nominated for a Razzie Award for herself and with Baldwin as Worst Screen Couple. Fair Game opened at #4 behind Copycat (with Get Shorty continuing at #1) with $4.9 million at 1,949 sites and only managed $11.5 million in the US.

Home for the Holidays
Jodie Foster’s second movie as director stars Holly Hunter as a single mom who goes to her parents’ house for a Thanksgiving full of drama and family sniping. Charles Durning and Anne Bancroft play her parents, Robert Downey Jr. her brother, and Claire Danes as her daughter. Steve Guttenberg and Dylan McDermott play supporting parts. Critical reviews of the performances were fairly strong, and I remember enjoying the conspiratorial relationship between Hunter and Downey. Home for the Holidays opened at $4.0 million at 1,000 sites (the best average of the opening movies) and eventually earned $17.5 million.

Gold Diggers: Secret of Bear Mountain
Anna Chlumsky and Christina Ricci star in this young adult adventure about two girls who follow in the footsteps of a female miner who was lost in the search for gold. Chlumsky had starred in My Girl and My Girl 2 by this point, and Ricci had co-starred in The Addams Family and its sequel. The movie did not have quite the adventure of The Goonies and received mild critic reviews. Gold Diggers opened at #9 with $2.5 million at 1,297 sites and went on to earn $6.0 million.

25 years ago - November 2, 1990

Jacob’s Ladder
This psychological horror film stars Tim Robbins as a Vietnam vet who is experiencing hallucinations and traumatic experiences as he tries to find out a potential cause from other war veterans. More than just a typical scarefest, this movie impressed critics and has had a lasting effect on movie fans. Jacob’s Ladder opened at #1, displacing Sibling Rivalry in its second week, with $7.5 million on 1,052 screens. It went on to earn $26.1 million.

Graffiti Bridge
In 1984, Purple Rain became a big hit in theaters and on the music charts. Prince and Morris Day returned for this sequel, which Prince directed. He stars as The Kid, who is now fighting for control of club Glam Slam. Unlike the first movie, the sequel bombed, opening at #8 with $2.4 million at 688 sites. It eventually earned just $4.5 million compared to the $86 million gross of the first movie. Prince later received Razzie nominations for Worst Actor, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Picture. To date this was the last role for Prince in a movie, though he did appear as himself in an episode of New Girl in 2014.

Waiting for the Light
Releasing in limited release at 149 sites this weekend, Waiting for the Light is a comedy that stars Shirley MacLaine as an eccentric aunt to Teri Garr and her two kids in the 1960s. Critics were unimpressed, and Waiting for the Light barely charted at the box office, earning less than a million dollars during its run.

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