1992 in general was a big year, it was the first year I lived on my own. I moved away from a small town in the Midwest to the bustling metropolis of Denver, Colorado.
One thing the bigger city offered was tons of movie theaters! As a movie buff I loved it. The best theater I found was a small, rundown theater in the seedy part of town that showed old martial arts/Kung Fu movies! It was heaven. I went to movies all the time.
Even with seemingly unlimited options I didn’t see all the movies below. Sometimes I went to see movies over again, like The Last Boy Scout or Highlander II.
Movies from January 1992
Kuffs
I saw this one in the theater. Christian Slater was coming off a couple big years in 1990 and 1991, starring in Young Guns II, Pump Up The Volume and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. He was the hot young star.
Kuffs was another shot at carrying a film that didn’t work as well as Pump Up The Volume. Until this movie Slater was mostly in serious, non-comedic roles, The Legend of Billie Jean, Gleaming the Cube and the ones mentioned above.
There’s some good comedy in this one and Slater does a good job in the role. It’s nothing that will keep you coming back 30 years later though.
Of note the film stars Milla Jovovich early in her career and is the film debut for Ashley Judd.
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
This is a good thriller.
Rebecca De Mornay plays the deranged nanny perfectly. I can’t go to deep into the plot without giving it away. And if you haven’t seen the movie, you should.
De Mornay plays a nanny that terrorizes her new family. Why would she do it? Does she have an ulterior motive or is she just psychotic? You have to watch to find out.
The movie debut at #1 knocking Hook out of the top spot. How Hook was ever #1 is beyond me.
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle stayed at #1 for four weeks before getting bumped out of the spot by Medicine Man.
Freejack
This movie is a wreck!
I had high hopes for it going in, it stars Anthony Hopkins, Emilio Estevez, Mick Jagger and Rene Russo. It was produced by Ronald Shusett who also produced Alien and Total Recall.
With all the star power it was still a terrible movie. It could have been good but turned out to be a cheap revision of other science fiction films.
No need to watch this one. It was bad 30 years ago and it’s bad today.
Freejack is streaming on HBOMax, if you want to give it a try.
Juice
Juice is the debut film for Omar Epps and Tupac Shukar. It’s about friends growing up in Harlem and the struggle with gangs, police and family.
I only saw it once, from what I recall it was a good movie. It did well at the box office but didn’t catch on like other movies in the genre.
Boyz N the Hood and New Jack City are better movies in this genre but Juice is a strong contender.
It also stars Samuel L Jackson and Queen Latifiah.
Juice is streaming on Hoopla.
Love Crimes
This movie seems like a disaster. The trailer is strange and ends saying the two stars are the hottest video rental stars.
OK, do you want me to see it in the theater? Or wait until it’s available to rent?
It’s directed by Lizzie Borden..not the axe murderer or the band. Seems like a joke but it’s not, that’s her name. She realized the movie was bad from the start and wanted her name taken off the credits.
According to a statement from Borden, Harvey Weinstein threatened to ruin her career if she removed her name. I’d say keeping her name on the movie ruined her career. She directed one more movie in 1994 and nothing since.
Sean Young was nominated for a Razzie for Worst Actress. She didn’t win.
I never watched this movie and I never will. If you did let me know how bad it is.
Into the Sun
This is one of those bubble gum action comedy movies, no real substance. I saw this one in the theater and quickly forgot about it. When I saw it, it seemed like it could be a sequel to Iron Eagle.
Reading about the movie I discovered most of the aerial footage is unused footage from Iron Eagle! Maybe that’s why it feels similar
Anthony Michael Hall’s star power wasn’t enough to make this a blockbuster movie.
It was worth watching in January 1992. It’s a good movie that you can watch, enjoy and move on.
Shining Through
I love a good World War II movie, unfortunately this one falls flat.
With stars like Michael Douglas, Melanie Griffth and Liam Neeson this should have been a much better movie. It’s poorly written, poorly acted and not enjoyable.
Melanie Griffth was nominated for two awards, the Golden Camera award for Best International Actress and a Razzie for Worst Actress. What? How can you be nominated for best and worst?
She won both!
The Razzies were good (or bad) to this movie. Shining Through was nominated for five Razzies, winning three of them, Worst Actress, Worst Director and Worst Movie.
The other two nominations were Worst Screenplay and Michael Douglas for Worst Actor. Douglas won an Oscar in 1987, he shouldn’t be that bad!
Voyager
Never seen it, never even heard of it til now.
Sam Shepard is a great actor. He portrayed Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff, earning him an Academy Award nomination.
Siskel and Ebert gave it “Two Thumbs Up” if that sways your opinion.
Watching the trailer I can say this wouldn’t have appealed to me in 1992. I needed more action back then. Still do.
If you want to give it a try, Voyager is streaming on Tubi TV.
Hurricane Smith
Action Jackson Down Under!
Carl Weathers should have been a bigger action star than he was. Given the right material he could have carried his own movie franchise.
Action Jackson was his chance. It was a box office success, although the critics didn’t like it. But really, do critics ever like action movies? Action Jackson was sold to Sony, then Warner Brothers and any hope of a franchise died.
Hurricane Smith was a Warner Brothers movie. If they had any sense they would have branded it an Action Jackson movie. They didn’t and the movie never gained an audience.
Hurricane Smith was the last true action movie Weathers made. He moved on to movies like Happy Gilmore and voice acting.
I was able to catch this in the theater. It was a decent movie. Action Jackson is better and it’s available on Tubi TV. Hurricane Smith isn’t available anywhere.
Twin Dragons
This is more of an honorable mention. It was released in January 1992, which qualifies for this list, but only in Hong Kong. It wouldn’t be released in America until 1999.
I watched some Jackie Chan movies at the rundown Kung Fu theater but wasn’t able to really enjoy his work until 1996 when Rumble in the Bronx was released in America.
I had a couple of bootleg VHS tapes of his movies, but they were in Chinese. I had no idea what they were talking about. I just enjoyed the spectacular display of martial arts.
If you like Jackie Chan movies or martial arts movies you should watch Twin Dragons. It’s currently available on Tubi TV. Drunken Master is also on Tubi TV and is another Jackie Chan movie worth watching.
That’s a look back at the movies from January 1992. As with the other January’s it starts a little slow but the year picks up quick.
Next month we get one of the highest grossing movies of the year. I helped contribute by seeing it three times in the theater. Party on!
Have you seen any of the movie from January 1992? What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.
If you want more movies from 1992 check out Box Office 30! They are currently covering 1992 and some of the movies mentioned above.
Next week we’ll look at January 1997.
Until then the balcony is closed.
I haven’t heard of so many of these but I want to discover them. Shining Through is one of my wife’s favorites and while I wasn’t a huge fan at first, I enjoy it now for the story.