The Last Boy Scout (1991)

I used to watch the Bruce Willis-Damon Wayans action flick, The Last Boy Scout (1991) repeatedly as a 15 year old, positioning it as a ‘gritty’ R 18+ rated alternative to Die Hard even though I was often rewatching a TV edit that whittled away all the F-words and excessive blood-letting. Over the successive decades, […]

Cast A Deadly Spell (1991)

I remember Cast A Deadly Spell (1991) being advertised in a comic book as a kid and getting it confused in my memories with CD-rom PC games with film noir/movie elements like Under A Killing Moon. Cast A Deadly Spell has been written about as a horror neo-noir, a post-war detective story in a parallel […]

All-American Murder (1991)

“Any more surprises? Before I open the oven and find my Aunt Harriet?” I distinctly remember hearing that line from Christopher Walken’s character, detective Decker, in the video ads for All-American Murder (1991), a direct-to-video thriller that soon became a cult favourite to me for only one scene. That scene is when Walken’s character is […]

What happened was… (1994)

The moment when someone makes a joke in conversation to another person, catching them off guard, not getting a laugh in return, then immediately says to explain, “I was joking.” It’s a cringeworthy moment, two people not having a connection or not being able to read each other. This moment happens continually during The Awkward […]

Smoke (1995)

There’s a feeling of comfort I get from Smoke (1995). It’s an indie drama that has serious moments about loss, grief, bad luck, the chaotic nature of the universe, and so on. But it also radiates a sleepy feeling of the third hour of hanging out with friends or the activity that animates around you […]