Friday Flix: August 1992

What a month for movies. I thought there were a lot of movies released in August 1987, but August 1992 has even more. There are twenty one movies released in August 1992 and some great, lasting movies too.

One of the best westerns of the 1990s hit theaters this month. A great thriller, a bad horror movie and two, yes two martial arts movies. One is a cult classic, the other stars a man who left us to early. There’s also a Nick Cage movie. You know it’s a good month if Nick Cage is on the silver screen.

Let’s look at the movies playing in the theater in August 1992.

Movies from August 1992

3 Ninjas

Let’s start with a guilty pleasure. I love 3 Ninjas!

Rocky, Colt and Tum-Tum visit their grandfather, Mori, every summer. Grandpa is a ninja master and trains the boys in the art of ninjutsu. One day Mori’s old business partner, Snyder shows up and the boys use their ninja skills to defeat his ninja henchman.

The Snyder is an arms dealer and the subject of an FBI sting operation. The lead FBI agent happens to be the boys father.

Snyder concocts a plan to kidnap the boys and get the FBI off his case. He uses his nephew, Fester to attack and kidnap the 3 Ninjas.

Can Rocky, Colt and Tum-Tum defeat Fester, Snyder and his evil ninjas?

3 Ninjas wasn’t a critical success but moviegoers made it a financial success. 3 Ninjas made over $29 million on a $2 million budget. Due to its success three sequels were made. The final sequel, 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain stars Hulk Hogan and Jim Varney.

3 Ninjas is a fun movie and cult classic. However, if you were to sit down today and watch it for the first time I’m not sure it would hold up. Watch it and let me know what you think.

Unforgiven

Unforgiven sits in the top two Westerns of the 1990s. I’d say Tombstone is the best but Unforgiven is a close second…or maybe tied for first.

Unforgiven stars Clint Eastwood (who also directs), Morgan Freeman and Gene Hackman. Eastwood plays Will Munny, an outlaw turned farmer raising his kids after the death of his wife. In the town of Big Whiskey, Wyoming a drunken cowboy slashes a prostitute and the sheriff (Hackman) let’s the man off easy. The working girls are upset and put a $1,000 bounty out on the cowboy.

A young (aspiring) outlaw visits Munny and convinces him to team up and claim the bounty. Munny agress, enlists the help of his old partner, Ned (Freeman) and head to Wyoming.

Unforgiven is an excellent movie and western. It’s the last western by Eastwood and the perfect ending to his western movie career.

Unforgiven opened at number 1 and stayed on top for three weeks. It was knocked out of the top spot by Honeymoon in Vegas.

Unforgiven was nominated for nine Academy Awards; Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Eastwood), Best Supporting Actor (Hackman), Best Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing and Best Sound.

It won four Oscars; Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Hackman) and Best Film Editing. Eastwood lost the Best Actor Oscar to Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman.

If you haven’t seen Unforgiven you need to watch it. It’s a fantastic movie.

You can watch Unforgiven on Fubo TV and HBO Max.

Single White Female

This movie solidifies why you should never have a roommate. Or at least not some stranger from an ad in the newspaper.

I’ve had a few roommates over the years, one was always behind on bills, one stole my CDs, thankfully none of them tried to kill me.

Single White Female stars Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh. I was a big fan of Fonda back in the 90s. She stopped acting in the early 2000’s. Fonda is part of the acting dynasty Fonda family, her grandfather is Henry Fonda, her father is Peter and her aunt is Jane Fonda.

In Single White Female Allie (Fonda) places an ad for a new roommate and Hedy (Leigh) answers the ad. Things start out good with them until Hedy turns into a psycho and becomes obsessed with Allie. Hedy slowing turns into an Allie clone, dressing like her getting the same haircut and tries to steal her boyfriend.

Single White Female debuted at number 2 at the box office, behind Unforgiven. Jennifer Jason Leigh won the MTV Movie Award for Best Villain. Did you know Bridget Fonda is married to Danny Elfman? I had no idea.

You can watch Single White Female on Amazon Prime.

Rapid Fire

Another martial arts movie, this one intended for an adult audience.

Rapid Fire stars marital artist Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee. This was a must see for me in the theater. There was no way I’d miss this one. It’s Lee’s second American film after 1991’s Showdown in Little Tokyo with Dolph Lundgren.

Lee plays Jake Lo and man who witnessed a murder and is under federal protection until he can testify against the murderer. The plot is decent but you watch a Brandon Lee movie for the martial arts and this doesn’t disappoint.

The fights are great and they were filmed in the era before tight shoots and fast cuts. The wide shoots and continuous fights showcase Lee’s martial skill. It’s obvious he was trained by a master like his father.

Sadly, this was Brandon Lee’s last full movie. Lee was killed while filming The Crow in 1993. The Crow was finished using a stand-in and released after Lee’s death.

I’ve watched the evolution of martial arts movies over the years and always wonder how (or if) it would be different had Bruce and Brandon Lee lived longer. There are still some great martial arts movies being made today, unfortunately not many are made in America or they end up straight to streaming.

Nowadays audiences see fight scenes in Marvel movies and think they are seeing true martial arts. They’re not. But try telling a kid Black Widow or Capt America is a horrible martial artist. I’ve tried, it falls on deaf ears.

You can watch Rapid Fire on Starz.

Honeymoon in Vegas

Another Nick Cage movie! It also stars the late, great James Caan and a bubbly Sarah Jessica Parker.

Honeymoon in Vegas is like the comedy version of Indecent Proposal. Jack (Cage) vows never to get married but his girlfriend Betsy (Parker) desperately wants to get married. In a moment of weakness Jack agrees to get married and they fly off to Vegas.

While in Vegas Jack loses $65,000 to professional gambler Tommy (Caan). Tommy agrees to clear the debt if Betsy will spend the weekend with him. She reluctantly agrees and the hi-jinks begin. Tommy and Betsy fly to his vacation home in Kauai where he convinces her to marry him instead of Jack.

Meanwhile Jack flies to Kauai trying to find Betsy and get her back, only to discover Tommy and Betsy have flown back to Vegas. Jack gets back to the mainland and catches the only flight to Vegas he can find. A plane full of Elvises, the Utah chapter of the Flying Elvises, a skydiving team of Elvis impersonators.

Jack skydives onto the Vegas strip dressed as Elvis, finds Betsy and ruins Tommy plans.

Honeymoon in Vegas is a fun, lighthearted movie. Back in the early 2000s Kellogg’s cereal put DVDs on their boxes as a promotional gimmick. I don’t remember what cereal I bought, most likely Raisin Bran, but it came with Honeymoon in Vegas.

Pet Sematary Two

There’s little need for a Pet Sematary sequel, especially if it isn’t written by Stephen King.

Edward Furlong shot to stardom as John Connor in 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Pet Sematray Two is his second movie and the last movie I can name that he starred in. I wouldn’t say Pet Sematary hurt his career but it sure couldn’t have helped.

Pet Sematary Two also stars Anthony Edwards and Clancy Brown. Edwards was a year away from starring in the hit TV show E.R. and Brown was adding to his long list of movies and TV shows, usually cast as the villain.

Edwards is widowed and Furlong is his son. At some point they move to Maine next to the Pet Sematary. Furlong learns about the burial ground and decides to re-bury his mom in hopes she will return to life.

The special effects are good in this movie, not much else is though. It mostly rehashes the original movie.

I haven’t seen it since I rented it back in 1992. Watch the original, it’s better.

You can watch Pet Sematary Two on Starz.

Other movies released in August 1992

Here’s the big list of other movies released in August 1992. I’ve heard good tings about Diggstown but have never seen it. The rest of the movies look OK. Nothing in the list that jumps out and makes me want to track it down

If I missed something good let me know in the comments below. Otherwise these will stay on my ‘haven’t seen’ list.

That ends our look at August 1992. There were some good movies this month. My favorite or at least the one I’ve seen the most over the years is Unforgiven. I really enjoy Rapid Fire and 3 Ninjas. Pet Sematary Two is bad. There’s no reason to watch it, unless you are a big Edward Furlong fan.

What are your favorites from August 1992?

Let us know in the comments below. Or tag us on Twitter. The main channel is @TRNSocial and I’m @MileHighSamurai

Don’t forget to check out Box Office 30! They are currently covering 1992 and some of the movies mentioned above.

Next week we’ll look at August 1997.

Until then the balcony is closed.