New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

25 YEARS AGO

Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot - February 21, 1992
In between Rocky V and Cliffhanger, Sylvester Stallone took on lighter roles in Oscar and this comedy with Estelle Getty, who was in her seventh and final season of The Golden Girls television series.  Stallone plays a cop who is frustrated at his mother’s constant interference, especially after she gets involved with one of his cases.  Director Roger Spottiswoode previously directed cop comedies 48 Hrs. and Turner & Hooch, but this time was met with overwhelmingly poor reviews.  While Wayne’s World held at #1, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot opened well behind at #2 with $7 million from 1,958 theaters.  Its $28.4 million total was only a slight improvement over Oscar.

Radio Flyer - February 21, 1992
In a flashback narrated by Tom Hanks, ten-year-old Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazzello spend their childhood days avoiding their abusive father but also enjoy great adventures.  Unfortunately the abuse is so bad that they plan to have the younger brother, Bobby, escape in  an airplane made from a Radio Flyer wagon.  Whether it’s an allegory or a simple nostalgic and escapist fantasy, critics were not happy with the outcome.  At 940 theaters, Radio Flyer debuted at #9 with $1.9 million and brought in a total of $4.6 million.

In limited release this weekend, Julie Kavner and Carrie Fisher starred in Nora Ephron’s dramedy This is My LIfe, and John Mellencamp debuted (both as actor and director) in the drama Falling From Grace with Mariel Hemingway.

30 YEARS AGO
 
Death Before Dishonor - February 20, 1987
The only new wide release this weekend was a highly jingoistic action thriller invoking the Beirut Marine Barracks bombing, in which Fred Dryer (of the TV series Hunter) plays a U.S. Marine who responds to a terrorist attack on an embassy in an Arab country.  Paul Winfield, Brian Keith, and Joanna Pacula costar.   Released in 776 theaters, there was little chance it was going to compete against Platoon (#1 this weekend with $8.2 million)  and other wide releases from earlier in the month.  Death Before Dishonor opened at #7 - behind Crocodile Dundee in its fifth month in theaters - with $1.8 million. Dryer returned to Hunter through 1991.

Morgan Stewart’s Coming Home - February 20, 1987
Jon Cryer, of course, had become well known a year earlier as the eccentric supporting character Duckie in Pretty in Pink.  Here he leads as a slightly less eccentric character, a boarding school prankster who is called upon to adopt a squeaky clean image to help his father get re-elected as U.S. Senator.  Lynn Redgrave plays his high strung mother.  It’s no Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but Cryer is pretty entertaining in the role.  On the other hand, the director chose to take credit as the “please-don’t-notice-me” pseudonym Alan Smithee, and critics weren’t fans.  A release at only 28 theaters (and 344 at its widest) meant that audiences didn’t see it until the film showed up on HBO, but this is one of those non-John-Hughes '80s teen comedies that’s still essential for the 1980s completionist.


40 YEARS AGO

Slap Shot - February 25, 1977
Given the anemic selection this week, I wanted to highlight the 40th anniversary of this classic.  Paul Newman stars as Reggie Dunlop, the coach and lead player of minor league hockey team The Chiefs, which is struggling to survive in a town where the main employer, a local mill, is about to close.  Dunlop uses new recruits the Hanson Brothers (real life players Jeff and Steve Carlson, and David Hanson) to get physical and provoke fights, which in turn boosts fan enthusiasm and the morale on the team as they start to win games.  Everything came together for this film: director George Roy Hill had worked with Newman on The Sting and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Nancy Dowd’s screenplay was nominated by the Writers Guild of America, and the acting, characters, action, and dialogue all combined to create a fan favorite.

Come back next week for another installment of Marquee History!

Continued:       1       2       3