Friday Flix: November 1992

It’s a month of blockbusters! Three of the movies this month rank as the number one, two and three highest grossing movies of the year! Have you seen all three?

Good action, Gothic horror, Disney animation and a mediocre comedy. I’m sure I’ll be in the minority when it comes to the comedy movie this month. I just didn’t like it.

Grab a slice of pumpkin pie and let’s look at the movies released in November 1992.

Movies from November 1992

Passenger 57

Wesley Snipes was a big action star in the 1990s. He started out in comedies with Wildcats and Major League. His early 1992 movie, White Men Can’t Jump was a huge success.

Passenger 57 is pure action and solidified Snipes as an action star that would last for the next decade on the big screen and longer in the straight-to-video market.

Always bet on black!

Snipes plays John Cutter a airline security expert who is on the same flight as terrorist Charles Rane. Rane is escorted by FBI agents who are transferring him to Los Angeles. Also on the plane are Rane’s henchmen who kill the FBI, free Rane and hijack the plane.

Cutter isn’t about to let them take over the plane. He sets out on a high octane mission to kill the terrorists and save the passengers.

Passenger 57 is great action movie set on a plane. It doesn’t get the accolades like Air Force One but it’s a great movie.

In Living Color did a parody of Passenger 57 called Passenger 227 with Jackée. It’s worth watching.

You can watch Passenger 57 on Paramount+

Bram Stoker’s Dracula

I love horror movies from the 80s and 90s. If they are about vampires they move to the top of my list. What could be better than the original vampire himself, Dracula!?

The cast is amazing; Gary Oldman, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves, three Oscars and a Golden Globe between them all. If that’s not enough, the movie is directed by Hollywood powerhouse Frances Ford Coppola, best known for directing The Outsiders. No? He also directed a few movies called The Godfather too. Coppola is the winner of five Oscars, six Golden Globes and many other awards.

The talent involved with Bram Stoker’s Dracula is immense. Can they all work together and make a great movie? Maybe.

Oldman is fantastic as Count Dracula, Hopkins is always good on screen and does a fine job playing Van Helsing. Ryder is a joy to watch playing Mina the love interest of Dracula. Reeves plays Jonathan, Mina’s fiance.

The story revolves around Dracula’s love for Mina, who looks exactly like Dracula’s first wife Elisabeta. The very reason Dracula became a vampire was to avenge the death of Elisabeta and meeting Mina helped him fulfill his destiny. Or so he believes.

This movie had great potential and lived up to most of it. It falls somewhere in between good and great. The look of the movie is excellent, the cinematography, costumes, set designs all look amazing. The acting is mostly good.

Oldman is over the top as Dracula, which isn’t bad but gets tiresome as the movie goes on. I thought his look as Dracula was a bit… different. I’d prefer to see a scary version of the vampire. Reeves plays his part a little stiff, it’s partly due to his character who is a stuffy Brit, but it’s also Reeves’ acting style.

This could have been a masterpiece for the ages but falls a little short.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula was heavily advertised in the 90s. There were ads on billboards, magazines, comic books and all over TV and movie theaters. There’s even a video game adaptation.

If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth watching. It’s not a horror move in the scary, gross out sense. It’s Gothic horror, the kind that doesn’t show the scary bits, it lets your imagination run wild.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula was nominated for four Academy Awards; Best Costume Design, Best Sound Editing, Best Makeup and Best Art Direction. It won three of the four Oscars, losing Best Art Direction to Howard’s End.

You can watch Bram Stoker’s Dracula on Amazon Prime.

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

Home Alone was a funny, entertaining movie. In 1992 Chris Columbus tried to catch the same feeling with Home Alone 2. Unfortunately the movie is a bad clone of the first movie.

Kevin gets in trouble and sleeps in the attic. Check.

Family oversleeps and rushes to the airport. Check.

Kevin gets separated from his family and is alone. Check.

The Wet Bandits are in the same city as Kevin. Check. (How the two most inept criminals escape from prison is beyond me. And running into Kevin 1,000 miles away in New York is amazing…)

Keven befriends a scary old person and teaches them a life lesson. Check.

The booby traps in Home Alone made sense, heating up a door knob, greasing the staircase and paint cans on rope. In Home Alone 2 they are so over the top as to be unbelievable.

I’m not a fan of this sequel. Movie goers in 1992 had a different opinion though.

Home Alone 2 opened at #1, kicking Bram Stoker’s Dracula out of the spot. Home Alone 2 made over $31 million opening weekend, breaking the record set by Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Home Alone 2 would hold the record until 1994 when the vampire Lestat broke the record with An Interview with a Vampire.

Overall Home Alone 2 made over $359 million and is the third highest grossing movie of 1992.

You can watch Home Alone 2: Lost in New York on Disney+

The Bodyguard

This wasn’t my first choice, sometimes you gotta compromise and see the love story. Thankfully there’s some action in the movie too. Overall it turned out to be a good movie.

Kevin Costner plays Frank Farmer a retired secret service agent and now private bodyguard. He is hired to guard superstar actress and singer Rachel Moran, played by Whitney Houston. While Farmer is protecting her they start to fall in love.

Threats are made on Rachel’s life and Farmer must protect her from crazy fans and psychotic stalkers.

The Bodyguard was written by Lawrence Kasden. Name sound familiar? He also wrote Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Silverado and many more.

The Bodyguard is a good movie that audiences loved and critics hated. The Bodyguard would get the last laugh on critics though. It went on to gross over $410 million and is the second highest grossing movie of 1992. The soundtrack did even better.

Whitney Houston’s cover of “I Will Always Love You” was an instant success and the soundtrack sold over 1 million copies the first week it was released. In total it has sold over 45 million copies and is the best selling soundtrack of all time.

The Bodyguard soundtrack also won the Grammy for Album of the Year. Beating out R.E.M, Billy Joel and Sting.

The Bodyguard was nominated for two Academy Awards; Best Original Song for “I Have Nothing” and “Run to You.” Both lost to Aladdin’s “A Whole New World.”

In Living Color did a parody of The Bodyguard too. Whatever happened to that show?

You can watch The Bodyguard on Netflix and HBO Max.

Aladdin

A Disney movie to wrap up the month. Not just any Disney movie though, one of the best they’ve ever made. And one that helped save the Disney animation studio.

We talked about the perils of the Disney animation studio with the June 1997 movies. The Disney Renaissance began in 1989 with The Little Mermaid and continued until 1999 with the release of Tarzan. During that period Disney released 10 animated movies. Nine of the ten movies made over $100 million at the box office. The Lion King was the biggest earner and Aladdin is second on the list.

The one reason Aladdin was a smash hit was the genie. Well more for who voiced the genie, Robin Williams. Yes, it’s a good story but Williams knocked it out of the park with the genie. Disney was a double winner with Williams, he agreed to do the movie for scale pay, which was $75,000. Williams made $800,000 for his previous movie, Good Morning, Vietnam.

Williams worked for scale on one condition, his name, image and voice not be used for marketing the movie or merchandise. Disney agreed and then just as quickly used Williams voice to sell toys and other merchandise. Williams was understandably upset and vowed never to work for Disney again.

Williams did work for Disney one more time on the direct-to-video Aladdin and the King of Thieves. We’ll see Williams two more times in 1997.

Aladdin was nominated for five Academy Awards; Best Original Score, Best Original Song for “A Whole New World” and “Friend Like Me”, Best Sound and Best Sound Effects Editing.

It won for Best Original Score and Best Original Song; “A Whole New World.”

You can watch Aladdin on Disney+

Other movies released in November 1992

Here are the rest of the movies released in November 1992. There weren’t a lot.

I included Saved by the Bell: Hawaiian Style as an honorable mention. It’s a made-for-TV movie and a fan favorite here on The Retro Network. Confession: I’ve never seen it.

I’ve seen bits and pieces of Malcolm X but haven’t sat down to watch the entire movie. Maybe someday.

If you’ve seen any of the movies below let me know in the comments. I know I should watch Saved by the Bell. I’m sure it’s streaming somewhere.

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

Slow month for movies. Nothing to get overly excited about. Aladdin was a huge hit thanks mostly to Robin Williams. If someone else played the genie the movie wouldn’t have been a smash hit.

Hopefully Hollywood can close out the year with a couple of great movies.

What are your favorites from November 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 time we’ll look at November 1997.

Until then the balcony is closed.