Friday Flix: October 1992

October 1992 isn’t a great month for horror movies, but it is a great month for movies. I enjoyed ever movie I watched.

The movies span all genres, action, drama, horror and comedy. One movie even inspired the name for a National Hockey League Team!

Before I head out to the river for some fly fishing, let’s look at the movies released in October 1992.

Movies from October 1992

Pure Country

This is the debut movie for country superstar George Strait. He does a decent job in the lead role but overall the movie didn’t do well at the box office.

Strait plays Dusty, a country superstar who is looking to get out of the limelight and back to his roots. While he sneaks away from his concert tour his manager is desperate to find him. Dusty returns to his hometown, where no one seems to remember him and enjoys the laid back way of life again.

There’s a little bit of action but mostly it’s a romantic drama. If this movie were made today it would be on the Hallmark Channel.

I like the movie. It’s a simple premise and well executed. If you go in with Hallmark Channel expectations you won’t be disappointed.

The soundtrack album, also called Pure Country is Strait’s best selling album of all time.

You can watch Pure Country on The Roku Channel

The Mighty Ducks

Coming off the highly successful and popular Young Guns movies Emilio Estevez trades in his six shooter for hockey skates.

Gordon Bombay is an attorney in Minneapolis and gets arrested for drunk driving. He is sentenced to community service and must coach the Pee-Wee hockey team. When Bombay meets the team he quickly realizes they have little talent.

It’s a bit like a remake of The Bad News Bears only with hockey.

At first Bombay wants nothing to do with the team due to his personal past in hockey. But as he warms up and he and the team start to trust each other they start winning. The team make it to the state championship and must face Bombay’s old coach.

The Mighty Ducks is a fun movie for the whole family. I’ve never watched it with my kids but I think I will this year. I’m sure they will enjoy it.

Two months after The Mighty Ducks was released The Walt Disney Company was awarded ownership of an expansion NHL Team. They named the team “The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim” and had a great Disney style logo. I still have one of the original hats from the 1993 season.

Disney sold the team in 2005 and the new owners renamed them the Anaheim Ducks. They changed the team colors and logo too. They will always be The Mighty Ducks to me.

You can watch The Mighty Ducks on Disney+

Candyman

Did you ever play the game Bloody Mary when you were a kid? You know the one, you go into a pitch dark bathroom, stare into the mirror and keep saying the name Bloody Mary until she appears in the mirror. This movie is like that, only turned up to eleven!

Legend has it, if you look into the mirror and say his name five times he’ll appear and murder you. Grad student Helen (Virginia Madsen) uses her thesis to discredit the Candyman legend only to find out it’s all too true.

He appears to Helen in a parking garage, telling her he must prove his legend is true by killing innocent people. Helen blacks out only to wake up covered in blood next to a decapitated dog.

From that point on the movie really gets strange. Helen is arrested, then tries to work with the Candyman to prove her innocence. Only to fall under his spell again.

One of the most iconic scenes in the movie is when the Candyman opens his coat and we see his exposed ribcage covered in bees. Then the bees start crawling out of his mouth and onto Helen’s face. It’s a sight to see.

The movie had a decent showing at the box office making over $25 million on an $8 million budget. Roger Ebert praised the movie saying “What I liked was a horror movie that was scaring me with ideas and gore, instead of simply with gore.”

The movie is based on a short story by Clive Barker. Baker also created the Hellraiser series. There are four movies in the franchise, if there were five they’d need to change the title.

You can watch Candyman on Fubo TV. (phew, I made it through and only said Candyman four times… wait, Nooooooooooooo!)
https://youtu.be/CeLZMhkFTuU

Reservoir Dogs

The first movie by Quentin Tarantino and man, what a movie.

Reservoir Dogs features a star studded cast with Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi and Lawrence Tierney.

This movie has been analyzed and over analyzed since it was released. It’s a heist movie with great dialog and action. There might be too much emphasis on the dialogue but if you watch any Tarantino movie you know he loves dialogue.

Reservoir Dogs is about a group of criminals called together by a master criminal to pull off a robbery. They don’t tell each other their real names, instead they are assigned color names. It’s a nice bit of comic relief when one of them takes offense with the name Mr. Pink.

Once the movie gets into the robbery, or the aftermath, we never see the robbery only what happens after. What happens after isn’t good. The robbery was a failure, one of the crew was shot and there’s a mole in the group.

As they all start to show up at the rendezvous point things get violent. The crew, who were complete strangers before the job, turn on each other. This is where the movie gets the most criticism, the violence. When it starts, it doesn’t let up.

The scene with Madsen dancing to “Stuck in the Middle With You” as he’s torturing the police offer is usually the scene that most people object too. It’s a great scene, just not for everyone.

If foul language, blood and violence isn’t your thing, then Reservoir Dogs isn’t for you. Or any Tarantino movie for that matter.

I’m a fan of Tarantino movies. I’ve seen them all and enjoy them. The Kill Bill series is my favorite but Pulp Fiction was a great, fresh take on movie making.

Reservoir Dogs made $3 million dollars, which isn’t bad considering it wasn’t in any major movie theater chains. I went to see it at a small art house theater.

You can watch Reservoir Dogs on Starz

Under Siege

A Steven Seagal movie you say…I’m there! The real star of the movie is Erika Eleniak. Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey are pretty good too.

Seagal plays Chief Rybeck, a cook on the USS Missouri. A disgruntled ex-CIA agent Strannix (Jones) and his crew take over the ship with the help of Executive Officer Krill (Busey). There goal is to steal the ships tomahawk missiles in retaliation for the CIA trying to kill Strannix.

XO Krill didn’t do his homework, Chief Rybeck is a former Navy SEAL and will do whatever it takes to stop Strannix and his men.

Under Siege is a great action movie. The final knife fight between Seagal and Jones is a well choreographed dance to the death.

Under Siege is Seagal’s most successful movie. It made over $83 million in the States and over $156 million worldwide. Under Siege was nominated for two Academy awards, Best Sound Effects Editing and Best Sound. It lost to Bram Stoker’s Dracula and The Last of the Mohicans respectively.

There was a reboot in development in 2021, thankfully it’s been canceled.

A River Runs Through It

Last month we saw Robert Redford in front of the camera as a lead role in Sneakers. This month he is behind the camera directing A River Runs Through It.

Starring Craig Sheffer, Brad Pitt and Tom Skerritt A River Runs Through It takes place during the 1920s and 1930s. Norman (Sheffer) and Paul (Pitt) are growing up in Montana raised by their mother and father.

Tom Skerrit plays the father, Reverend John Maclean. The story is told through the eyes of Norman Maclean, who also wrote the semi-autobiographical book of the same name.

Norman is the clean cut brother, while Paul is the renegade always looking for excitement and usually finding trouble. As they grow into adulthood the one thing that bonds them together is fly fishing.

A River Runs Through It is a fantastic movie. There’s a little bit of action but it’s mostly a period drama about family, friendships and of course, fishing.

Siskel and Ebert gave the movie ‘Two Thumbs Up’ but their analysis was wrong. They said the fishing wasn’t important and could have been any activity. I completely disagree. The movie wouldn’t work if it was bowling or archery or [pick your sport]. Fishing is integral to this movie not only as a bonding experience but the life lessons taught through those experiences.

The three men I fished with the most, my grandfather, my dad and my father-in-law are all gone now. But every time I grab my fly rod memories come rushing back. I can hear their advice like a whisper on the wind. There’s something to be said about passing down the love of fishing from one generation to the next.

I love this movie. Watching the fly fishing scenes elicits a calm, peacefulness and a longing to get out on the river. Redford’s narration is soothing as he reads the words from the book.

You can watch A River Runs Through It on Netflix.

Other movies released in October 1992

Here are the rest of the movies released in October 1992. I’ve seen bits and pieces of Mr. Baseball but not the entire movie.

Dr. Giggles is a horror movie and was a box office failure. The Public Eye stars Joe Pesci and had potential but it was also a box office flop.

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

That ends our look at October 1992. Only one (good) horror movie this month. Kind of shameful for the month of October.

What are your favorites from October 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 October 1997.

Until then the balcony is closed.