Friday Flix: September 1992

As the weather turns cooler it’s always nice to watch a good movie in a warm theater. Does September 1992 offer anything worth watching?

Yes it does, it’s a good month for movies. Horror, action, thrillers and comedies abound. Horror movies are always nice to get in September, they’re a good warm-up for the Halloween season. Audiences usually pack the theaters for action, adventure flicks and this month is no different.

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

Movies from September 1992

Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth

A short five years ago (last week to us) we saw the original Hellraiser hit movie theaters. In 1992 we get the third movie in the trilogy franchise. The trailer says the final battle but there are nine movies in the franchise, this wasn’t the final battle.

Hellraiser II was a decent sequel, does Hellraiser III continue the trend?

In Hellraiser II Pinhead is trapped in the Pillar of Souls. In Hellraiser III a night club owner, Monroe, buys the pillar and puts it in his club. Monroe has a night of pleasure with a woman and upon completion hooked chains fly out of the pillar and drag the woman to the pillar, feeding Pinhead. Monroe and Pinhead form a partnership to free Pinhead and in return Monroe will gain power and, of course, unending pleasures.

Hellraiser III is better then Hellraiser II and it was marginally more successful at the box office. Hellraiser III made over $1 million more than Hellraiser II. Overall it’s an OK movie, nothing great. It does provide essential lore for the Hellraiser universe.

The soundtrack is pure heavy metal. Motorhead recorded an excellent remake of Ozzy Osbourne’s “Hellraiser” for the soundtrack. There’s no mistaking Lemmy’s gravely vocals. Clive Barker directed the music video with Lemmy and Pinhead playing a game of poker.

Like the two movies before the special effects in Hellraiser III are fantastic. I’m a big fan of practical (non-CGI) effects and the Hellraiser franchise uses it extensively. As great as Pinhead is, who doesn’t love Pistonhead!

Sneakers

A star studded cast in a movie with lots of publicity. The movie was billed a techno thriller and tried (to hard) to sell it. The studio even released material for the movie on a floppy disk. At the time I was starting down the Computer Science path and this movie was right up my alley.

The movie is full of big name stars; Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix, David Strathairn, Ben Kingsley, Mary McDonnell and Stephen Tobolowsky. All are perfectly cast for their roles.

Bishop (Redford) leads a team of security specialist who break into bank system to test the security level. After one job Bishop is approached by the NSA asking his team to steal a box that can decrypt any encrypted computer system.

Sneakers is a great heist movie with a decent amount of computer hacking. There’s a lot of technical jargon thrown about but the ‘hacking’ is more social engineer than real hard core computer hacking.

Stephen Tobolowsky (Ned Ryerson from Groundhog Day) plays a great part and Dan Aykroyd is the stand out for me. He plays a conspiracy theory nut who knows the answer to everything. Faked Moon Land, JFK, aliens, he knows the truth to it all. Knowing what I know about Ayckroyd today I don’t think his character was to far off his actual beliefs.

I saw this a few times in theater and bought it on VHS. I still own a copy today, only not on VHS. It’s a great movie that holds up well.

Captain Ron

Kurt Russel is an American icon. He started acting in the 1960’s, when he was 12 years old and hasn’t stopped. Martin Short started out in the 1970’s on Second City TV and then on Saturday Night Live before making movies. Both have amazing careers.

Unfortunately this movie isn’t one of the highlights.

Kurt Russel plays Captain Ron, Martin Short plays… Martin. Martin inherits a yacht from uncle and takes his family down to St. Something to get the yacht and sell it.

In a turn of events the yacht is a run down wreck and not fit to sell. Captain Ron is hired to sail it to Miami. From there it’s a normal early 90’s comedy.

Russel and Short are great actors but there’s not much in this movie to get excited about. Go watch Overboard instead.

Singles

Singles takes place in Seattle at the beginning of the Grundge music craze of the early 1990’s. It’s a movie for Gen X’ers about their peers as they transition into adulthood.

When I saw this movie in the theater I enjoyed it. It seemed to speak to each Gen X viewer individually. Something director Cameron Crowe is extremely good at when he makes a movie. Singles stars Bridget Fonda, Matt Dillon Campbell Scott and Kyra Sedgwick.

Janet (Fonda) a coffee shop waitress is attracted to Cliff (Dillon) a musician in a grunge rock band called Citizen Dick. The other members of the band are the real members of Pearl Jam. Steve (Scott) and Linda (Sedgwick) are a couple trying to decided if they should take the bigger step to exclusivity.

The movie revolves around the couples as the navigate life and dating.

One of the bigger impacts of Singles was the inclusion of Grunge music and bands. Pearl Jam released their first album, Ten, in August 1991. The album wasn’t an instant success, it took awhile for word to spread. Singles may have helped. Album sales picked up in late 1992 and it hit #2 on the Billboard charts.

The Singles soundtrack is as good as the movie (or better) featuring mainly bands from the Seattle Grunge scene; Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and more. Interestingly Nirvana is nowhere on the album. There are lots of rumors swirling about but nothing concrete. Kurt Cobain said he was asked to be a part of the movie but turned it down, no reason given.

Maybe it was because Cobain viewed Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder as sellouts for their commercial success. I could speculate all day but in the end one of the best Grunge bands isn’t on a Grunge music soundtrack.

I haven’t seen Singles since the 90’s, I don’t know if it holds up for new audiences. I’m sure if I watched it, it would bring back some great memories of the early 90’s.

School Ties

School Ties stars some of the biggest names in Hollywood, before they were big. Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Chris O’Donnell, Randall Batinkoff and Cole Hauser star in this post World War II drama.

David Greene (Fraser) is awarded a football scholarship to the prestigious St. Matthew’s Catholic boarding school. As the star quarterback he makes friends with the other boys in the school and his teammates until they find out the ‘truth’ about him.

Greene is Jewish and when the other boys, who are all Catholic find out they quickly turn on him. Friends become enemies and the hatred toward Greene grows immediately.

School Ties is an interesting look at racism set ten years after the world learned about the atrocities of the Holocaust.

I rented this one when it was released on VHS. Had I, or anyone, known the main cast would go on to be some of the biggest stars in the late 90’s and early 2000’s more people might have seen it in the theater.

School Ties was a box office failure making less than $15 million on a $18 million budget.

You can watch School Ties on HBO Max.

The Last of the Mohicans

The best for last. I love this movie.

The Last of the Mohicans is based on the novel written in 1826 by James Fenimore Cooper. There are a dozen or so movie adaptations of the book but this one is the best.

The movie is set in 1757 during the French and Indian War. It focuses on Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis), the adopted son of a Mohawk chief. Hawkeye and his brother Uncas agree to escort two British woman (Madeleine Stowe and Jodhi May) to an Army fort in what will become New York.

Director Michael Mann delivers a beautiful movie with sweeping landscapes and raw, gritty battles. It’s a love story wrapped in an exciting adventure movie. Day-Lewis and Stowe have excellent chemistry making the romance even more emotional and believable. Wes Studi is the main antagonist and plays the role the perfectly. He is a treat to watch anytime he’s in a movie.

The battle scenes, especially the hand to hand combat are raw and visceral making you wonder if they were really hitting each other.

The Last of the Mohicans is a fantastic movie that everyone should watch. Unfortunately it’s not available on a streaming service.

Other movies released in September 1992

Still haven’t seen Blade Runner. Some of the others look and sound familiar but I’ve never sought them out to watch.

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 September 1992. Only one horror movie this month. Maybe they are saving them all for October. For me The Last of the Mohicans is the clear winner although Sneakers is good and right up there at the top.

What are your favorites from September 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 September 1997.

Until then the balcony is closed.