Friday Flix: December 1992

Christmas is inching ever closer! Santa is loading up the sleigh, feeding the reindeer and preparing for his trip.

I’m not completely sure what I was doing in December 1992 but it certainly wasn’t going to movies. I only watched three movies in the theater.

Before you get tucked into bed and dream of sugar plums let’s look at the movies from December 1992.

Movies from December 1992

Forever Young

I’m a big fan of Mel Gibson and this movie was on my list to see. It’s not the big, bombastic action movie normally associated with Gibson. It was a big hit at the box office nonetheless.

Gibson plays Daniel, an Army Air Corps pilot on the eve of World War II. His friend and scientist Harry, tells him of his new experiment, chronic freezing.

The next day Daniel is planning to propose to his girlfriend Helen but before he can she is in a car accident and slips into a coma. The doctors tell Daniel she won’t live much longer.

Daniel goes to Harry and begs Harry to freeze him for a year so he doesn’t have to watch Helen die. Harry agrees.

Fast forward to 1992 and a young boy Nat (Elijah Wood) discovers the abandoned chronic chamber, accidentally activates it and Daniel awakes 52 years later.

It’s a good time travel story. Mel Gibson does a great job in his role, Elijah Wood is good and Jamie Lee Curtis as Nat’s mom is always nice to watch on screen.

Forever Young received mixed reviews from critics. The reviews didn’t detract audiences though, Forever Young made over $129 million on a $20 million budget.

Leap of Faith

I saw this once in the theater. I don’t know how it holds up over the last thirty years but it was a decent movie.

Steve Martin plays Jonas Nightengale a traveling faith healer who swindles money out of believers. All while staging ‘miracles’ with staff he employees. He witnesses a real miracle and realizes the harm he’s been peddling all those years.

It’s a decent redemption story with some funny moments. It does shine a light on the faith healer movement which was a big industry in the late 80s and early 90s. The traveling big top show as depicted in this movie is a call back to the 1950s when there were several traveling faith healer shows.

Leap of Faith broke even at the box office and received mostly positive reviews. Roger Ebert gave it three out of four stars.

You can watch Leap of Faith on Fubo TV.

The Muppet Christmas Carol

If you don’t like The Muppets then Bah Humbug to you!

A Christmas Carol was first published in 1843. Since then it’s been adapted for stage and screen approximately 4 trillion times. 1988’s Scrooged might be the most beloved for those on The Retro Network.

Mickey Mouse, Mr. Magoo, Bugs Bunny, The Flintstones, The Smurfs and many more have all made A Christmas Carol adaptation. It’s only fitting The Muppets give it a whirl.

I didn’t see this one in the theater, it was a rental at some point in 1993. Michael Caine as Scrooge does a great job. The Muppets, not so much. There’s some good Muppet humor throughout but overall it’s missing something. Maybe it’s missing Jim Henson.

The Muppet Christmas Carol is the first Muppet production after the untimely death of creator Jim Henson. The movie was directed by Brian Henson, Jim’s son.

If you are a fan of The Muppets you’ll enjoy this movie. While it isn’t the best in The Muppet franchise it is a worthy entry. And it’s a Christmas movie released in December so it gets a few extra points.

You can watch The Muppet Christmas Carol on Disney+

A Few Good Men

What a fantastic movie! Just watching the trailer gets my blood pumping.

Written by newcomer Aaron Sorkin, directed by Rob don’t-call-me-Meathead Reiner (The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally) and starring a Who’s Who of Hollywood; Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, J. T. Walsh and Kiefer Sutherland to name a few.

You can’t handle the truth!

Tom Cruise plays a cocky, young Navy JAG Officer, Daniel Kaffee who is assigned a murder case. Demi Moore and Kevin Pollack are his law partners helping with the case. Kevin Bacon plays a Marine lawyer prosecuting the Marines accused of murder.

While having Cruise, Moore and Bacon in the same movie would be enough for anyone, the real star of the movie is Colonel Nathan Jessup played marvelously by Jack Nicholson. He steals the show in every scene.

Are we clear?
Yes, sir.
Are we clear!?
Crystal.

My only complaint for this movie is the courtroom scenes. I wish it would have made us guess more in the direction Kaffee was going to take. Instead it was mostly spoon fed to us. I’d point to A Time to Kill as exhibit A for court room scenes your honor.

Watch the court room scenes in that movie, they are masterful. The closing argument by McConaughey made everyone’s heart skip a beat. All because we didn’t see it coming.

Thankfully the weak writing of the court scenes are saved by Cruise, Bacon and definitely by Nicholson.

I saw A Few Good Men in the theater multiple times. There wasn’t a lot of good hold overs from October or November and this was a great movie to watch.

A Few Good Men was nominated for four Academy Awards; Best Supporting Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Picture, Best Film Editing and Best Sound. Gene Hackman in Unforgiven beat out Jack Nicholson for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. A Few Good Men also lost Best Picture and Best Film Editing to Unforgiven. It lost Best Sound to The Last of the Mohicans.

A Few Good Men was a huge hit at the box office making over $243 million, making it the 7th highest grossing movie in 1992.

Other movies released in December 1992

Here are the other movies released in December 1992. There isn’t much that jumps out at me to watch. Maybe that’s why I didn’t see them thirty years ago.

I do have Scent of a Woman on my list to watch. Of all the movies Al Picino made, this movie won him a Best Actor Oscar. The Godfather franchise, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, all great movies starring Pacino and yet he wins the Oscar for Scent of a Woman. It must be a great role.

Trespass looks to have potential with Bill Paxton, Ice Cube and Ice-T.

There’s another Eddie Murphy movie and one from Robin Williams. Eddie Murphy has a movie in each December post so far. Will he have one in December 1997?

Robert Downey Jr. received multiple Best Actor nominations for Chaplin; BAFTA, Golden Globe and Academy Award. He won the BAFTA. He lost the Golden Globe and Oscar to Pacino.

You can watch Siskel & Ebert talk about a few of the movies listed below.

If I missed something good let me know in the comments below.