I watched the Waxworks double feature today. It's not really SF but there is time travel and Frankenstein in the second movie. You get both movies on one disc. That's the cover below. Since all my dvds are in boxes, still no shelves, I tend to watch out of a box when I want to see a movie. Mostly that's because I'm too lazy to go digging through the stack of boxes. It's amazing that with so many movies I can't often find something I want to watch without having to move a bunch of boxes. Last night I wanted to watch Wet Hot American Summer, in the very bottom box in the corner of the room, with Janeane Garofalo and David Hyde Pierce. It's a 2002 movie that was directed by David Wain who recently directed Role Models. RM looked promising when I saw the trailers, and I picked up WHAS because it had Janeane in it and it looked like it could be fun. It is. Rude and silly, too. I really like it when camp councelor Paul Rudd tosses kids out of the van when he's unhappy with their questions. It's ok, he slows down pretty much. No one gets seriously hurt in the movie. There's a bit of romance and some over to top comedy. Wain had been involved with The State and Stella tv shows. I didn't become a fan of either but this had the right mix of zany and heartfelt. Plus the big bonus of science winning the day and saving the camp from the falling Skylab. Since I had been in the W to Z box of dvd's and I was looking for something to watch with lunch I picked this double feature. I got a late start today. I did laundry, then I got groceries at the Cub and a new coat at Target. Turns out we had watched Waxwork Oct 8, 2005 at Friday Night Movies. Here's that.
Waxwork, our second feature is a 1988 film written and directed by Anthony Hickox, and it's mixed bag of things. Joe said he enjoyed it more than he thought he would but it wasn't as good as he remembered. I too saw it years ago but I don't remember anything about it at all. A couple of college girls get invited to a midnight sneak preview of a new Waxwork museum by curator David Warner. They bring two guys including our hero, played by Zach Galligan. As our characters step into the displays they are transported to the fantasy and murdered. Zach and the cute but gummy Debroah Foreman escape. Sperhauk thought she has too much gum showing when she smiles. Our couple find help from Patrick Macnee, Zach's relative Uncle Exposition. He tells them that once the displays are finished all the evil will be unleashed on the world. They have to stop it. More people are sucked into the displays and murdered. There is a level of of homage going on here, but often it is obscured by the so-so filmmaking. Kind of like a Hammer film, kind of like a Universal monster film, kind of like an Italian horror film. There is a big fight at the end that has to be seen to be believed. See, it really does drag on that long. Generally, the whole movie drags on too long. Dolls is nice and compact at 77 minutes, but Waxwork at 100 is bloated. I had picked this up because Waxwork II has Bruce Campbell, albiet briefly, and it was 6.99. Unfortunately, you get what you pay for and the quality is fair but not great and the movies are full screen. There are no extras at all. Still, it made me laugh. - Oct 8, 2005 Friday Night Movies 27.
Back to the present: You might remember Deborah Forman as Julie in Valley Girl. She played the romantic interest for the Nic Cage character. It's pretty dated now and Nic is no punk. Still it's an ok romantic teen comedy. I'm sure I have a copy but haven't watched it in a while. I'll keep an eye out for it while I have those boxes exposed to the air. Deborah Foreman has a new website. She doesn't act much after 1991. Wikipedia said she had a Graphics business and sold hand painted furniture. Now she gives Yoga and Pilaties classes for 50 bucks an hour. That's Hollywood for ya.
I had forgot that besides the fun scenes with Bruce Campbell in Waxwork II: Lost In Time, and Bruce is the only reason that I have this dvd, there are small but nice cameos by David Carradine and Drew Barrymore. The second movie continues pretty much right after the first movie ends. This time Zach, and a new Sarah, travel through time to fight the bad guy and stop him from destroying the world with evil. Those evil guys suck, huh. Not as good as the first movie, which is not admittedly great, nor is it more entertaining than Hickox's second film Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat. That was goofy fun that had it's heart in the right place. And that heart had a stake in it. David Carradine and Bruce Campbell head a fun cast in a story of a town full of vampires. It beat 30 Days of Night by 15 years. And while I haven't seen 30DON I kind of knew from the trailer that S:TVIR would be much more fun to watch. It just came out on dvd for the first time last Sept, 2008. I should keep an eye out for a copy.
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