It's spooooooky month and we decided to watch one of the most successful spooky sequels, Scream 2! Coming hot off the heels of the original (just 1 year later!), we find Sydney Prescott at college, trying to leave the Woodsboro murders and the memory of her crazy psycho boyfriend behind her, even with the Hollywood version of her story now a major motion picture. But there is a copy cat killer running amok and Dewey, Gail Weathers, and Randy all try to help her (and stay alive) while the body count starts piling up. We talk about how legit EVERYONE is in this movie (even characters from the first who DIED have cameos?!), how it really seems like everybody dies in this one (brutal and poor Syd!), and how Syd continues to be one bad ass bitch even with all that past trauma! Also, what kind of a name is Cotton Weary?!!
As I walk through the valley in the shadow of death ... RIP to Coolio who died last week at the gone too soon age of 59! We'll miss him but continue to jam out to Gangsta's Paradise on the reg and so thought it would be fitting to watch Dangerous Minds this week! From 1995 and starring the gorg Michelle Pfeiffer, Dangerous Minds felt like a movie all the cool kids were watching what with the killer soundtrack and look at the gritty life of kids from the projects in LA and it fell into the popular cinematic theme of teacher saves "bad" kids which Hollywood loves! Well turns out these kids weren't that dangerous at all - and we were slightly underwhelmed! Where were the drugs? The guns? Sure, one kid got shot by a gang member and there was a preggo team but come on ... dangerous? We talk about how the real danger in this movie is the chain smoking - eek cigarettes are so 90s!, who are favorite troubled teen is (Team Raul!) and how we're glad they decided not to use the same title for the movie as the book this is based on - My Posse Doesn't Do Homework. Ouch.
As part of Sequel September, we're covering the second installment in The Karate Kid franchise ... Part II! From 1986, this movie picks up right where the first movie left off, yes that's right - in the boy's locker room! Danielson is fresh off the mats after crane kicking the shit out of Johnny Lawrence! However, Part II takes us on a journey to Okinawa, to wade through a love triangle Mr. Miyagi left behind 40 years ago! Lucky us! So this movie is a bit quieter than the other two in the franchise and has a bit lesson action (though it does have a typhoon!), but pretty much the same amount of Danielson getting his ass whooped by karate assholes and another tricky move by Mr. Miyagi (ooo the drum!). We'll talk a lot about Cobra Kai and the character reversal good old Chozen gets, induct Danielson into the Sweetie Club once and for all, and come to the conclusion that Mr. Miyagi's brand of karate should be called "How To Dupe Some Kid To Do Your Household Chores".
1989's All Dogs Go To Heaven deals with the oh so important subject of canine mortality! Sweety loved this movie so much when she was little and ... we're not really sure why? Sure, she loved dogs. Or maybe she was really into the mob, because essentially this movie is a thinly veiled mob tale about gambling addicts, double crossers, and horse race fixing - but they are dogs so it's way less seedy. There's a couple catchy songs - You Can't Keep a Good Dog Down! - and a really scary scene involving dog hell that made us pee our nearly 40 year old pants. We'll talk about if we think all cats go to heaven (doubtful in this cat hating world!), how cartoon pizza continues to gross us out, and rehash some beloved memories of our family dogs who left us all so long ago - Nikki and Sunny.
According to some, Fast Times at Ridgemont High is the 1980's titular (hehe, pun intended!) high school film. Directed by Amy Heckerling and written by Cameron Crowe, the movie follows the lives of a handful of CA high school students as they navigate the tricky waters of mean teachers, shitty jobs, losing your V-card, and scalping Van Halen tickets. Life is hard, man! The movie is known for a certain red bikini dream/masturbation scene and of course for creating everyone's favorite stoner (pre Travis Birkenstock) Jeff Spicoli. The Sweeties had never seen this movie and glad we finally have! We'll talk about carrot blow jobs, what kind of school takes their bio classes to a morgue, and Jeff Spicoli's cool checkered Vans (and piss poor attitude in regards to school and other people's cars!). And wait, Nicholas Cage is in this?!!
Go Go Power Rangers! After the mega success of the TV show in 1993, the powers that be (Zordon?) decided we all needed a Power Ranger movie, thus The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Movie was born and we saw Kimberly, Aisha, Tommy, Adam, Billy, and Rocky flip for us 10,000 more times on the big screen! Really this is just a long drawn out tv episode where a new baddie (Ivan Ooze!) comes to town to destroy human civilization and it's up to the Power Rangers and their nifty animal/bot alter egos to save the day! Sweety was obsessed with this show as a kid and had a biiiig ladyboner for all things Yellow Ranger! We'll talk about why we think kids loved this show so goddamned much, how we liked that this illustrated to little girls that women can kick ass (though sadly the damsel in distress act was still relied on heavily!), and we discuss what your choice of Power Ranger says about your personality. And we were today years old when learned that Ivan Ooze was played by the same actor who played Belloq in Raider's of the Lost Ark! What a career!
Say Anything, writer/director Cameron Crowe's first movie from 1989 should really be called How to Break Up With Your Dad, becuase holy hella emotional incest! Despite all this, Say Anything is a super cute movie, and dare we say it, an anti-80s high school movie. All the kids are so nice! No one gets beat up (okay maybe Lloyd in the kick boxing ring?). Maybe because it takes place in Seattle? We don't know! But we do know we love Lloyd Dobbler and would date him in a second, what a sweetie! We'll talk about the infamous radio over the head playing Peter Gabriel scene (let down!), how we loved that Lloyd only had friends that were girls, and if we think they made it. Sweetie had a bit of a cough for this one, so sorry for all the lung hacking. Blame it on daycare, yeah yeah.
It's been TOO long since we talked about Star Wars so we thought we were ready to finally talk about the oft dreaded prequels! So here we are with The Phantom Menace! From 1999, we remember the world being crazy excited for these movies. Coming off the heels of the Stars Wars Episodes IV-VI re release in 1997, we had high hopes for these but let's just say George Lucas went a little bit overboard with the CGI, leaving many to claim, where was the Star Wars universe we knew and loved? Well with tons of time gone by (23 years, jesus christ!), we've learned this movie ain't half bad! Sure, Jar Jar has got to GO, the plot is sort of a snoooooze (trade federation, blockade, waaaaat?!), and little Annakin is cheeseball city, but we enjoyed ourselves! Ya got crazy siths, evil double red light sabers, and Queen Amidala's crazy do's. What's not to love?
We were in the mood for a Madonna movie, so went with 1990's Dick Tracy. Starring and directed by Warren Beatty it features Madonna as Breathless Mahoney, a sultry red lipped lounge singer, an over the top Al Pacino doing what he does best mobster extraordinaire, and lots of vivid colors and crazy makeup to make all the gangsters in this 1930s era romp looked pretty gnarly and mean. It also feels like a mini musical with the injection of a few original songs by Stephen Sondheim. We struggled with the plot on this one, so apologies in advance, but mobster movies, ooof confusinggggg. We'll talk about those Warren Beatty lothario rumors (13,000 sexual partners, oh boy!), Sweetie maybe retells an anecdote about being disappointed by Al Capone's Pizza, and we try to play the "What Would Your Mobster Name Be?", but are sorely disappointed with the results.
Tonight we watched Ferngully, the animated classic that taught us all about SAVING THE RAINFORESTS. Whatever happpened to the rainforests, guys? Are they okay? We liked these non-Disney cartoons enough, but really feel that they just miss the mark slightly in terms of their character building, song choice and plot pacing! We'll talk about all the save the earth stuff we were bombarded with as kids, agree that Robin Williams as Batty Koda is like Genie Light, and profess our undying love for Tim Curry and his wonderful voice!
And you thought we were done with mean girl movies ... time for Jawbreaker! From 1999, Jawbreaker is essentially the 90s version of Heathers as it's another dark comedy centered around the drama of high school popularity and, welp, MURDER. Starring Rose McGowan, Rebecca Gayheart and Judy Greer and hey, is that Kenicki from Grease as somebody's dad?!! We'll talk about the unfortunate sitch that is Courtney's prom dress, talk about the history of the jawbreaker candy, and ewww Marilyn Manson is in this! That's so 90s.
Mean girl movie time! This week we watched Heathers, the cult classic from 1988 starring Winona Ryder, Christian Slater and ... a lot of characters named Heather! This movie takes a dark, albeit comedic look at teen suicide and bullying and made us think - wow this movie could never be made now post Columbine. High school is a really f-ed up time for a lot of us, and the 80s depictions of it just seems so ... non chalant. We'll talk about how Sweetie's celeb lookalike for awhile was Winona Ryder and she's very okay about it now, Cliff Notes, and talk about some other mean girl movies that we like.
The Rescue, from 1988, is Sweetie's favorite "kids to the rescue" movie from her childhood! Okay mayyyybe this movie is a touch unrealistic - like is it really that easy to motorboat across an ocean into a police state like that? But it's hella fun (giant waterslide! spy stuff! evil North Koreans!). And look Farmer Hoggett is in this! We'll talk about how we feel bad for Kevin Dillon, what we remember about war from our childhood, and talk about how the lone girl in this movie is given nothing to do. Typical patriarchal bullshit!
Time for another classic Disney romp! This week we watched Robin Hood - from the 70s era of Disney cartoons and wooohoo this movie is as cute as a button! Robin Hood features a foxy fox as the rob from the rich, steal from the poor swashbuckler and a host of other animals to stand in for Little John (okay is that you Baloo?), Maid Marion, Prince John, Friar Tuck and the Sheriff of Nottingham. We'll talk about how much we love Sir Hiss, list other hot animal cartoon characters and discuss if Robin Hood was real or not? Plus what animal would we want to be in an anthropomorphic world?
We couldn't wait to start off 2022 by watching ... Can't Hardly Wait, a late 90s high school movie that has a pretty crazy ensemble cast, a sweet 90s hits soundtrack, and will give you night sweats thinking about how much you loved your JNCO jeans. From 1998, Can't Hardly Wait is a party movie centered around the night after graduation when Preston Meyers tries to woo the love of his high school fantasy life Amanda once he finds out she has just broke up with her long term, dick faced boyfriend Mike. Chaos ensues! The beer is bad! And is Barry Manilow's song Amanda really about his dog? We talk about our experience with high school parties, take a deep dive into the band Smash Mouth, and talk about other bands and singers we are now embarrassed that we were into as kids. Where the party at?!
Merry Christmas from the Sweeties! We're only doing one Christmas movie this year and we picked one we're not too fond of but know a lot of people are obsessed with! From 1983, A Christmas Story was (is?) played all day long on Christmas Day and boy did we hate it! We always felt this movie was schlubby due to its 1940s time period and also couldn't give a fudge about Ralphie and pining away for a bb gun. However, we do understand its place in Christmas cinematic history and how if your family was one of the ones who watched it all day on Christmas, you'd have a nostalgic twinge every time you hear "you'll shoot your eye out kid!". We'll talk about our #1 present coveted on Christmas, why we think this is largely a boy movie, and Sweety does a great impression of if Jack Nicholson played the role of Ralphie's Dad! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
Who knew that Son in Law qualifies as a Thanksgiving movie!? From 1993 and starring 90s cultural icon Pauly Shore, Son in Law is a fish out of water/outsider fixes everyone's problems kind of movie that we are here for! Sure, Pauly Shore's effeminate, hippy/surfer/LA ladies man/gay best friend schtick can be a bit much sometimes, we grew to love Crawl and all his wacky mannerisms. We'll chat about LA in the 90s, mud wrestling, and how Brad from Teen Witch is in this but plays an evil dude. Plus Kelly Kapowski as the town slut/amateur stripper?! Well, thank god I'm a country boy!
This week we watched Tim Burton's alien invasion spoof from 1996, Mars Attacks! Starring literally everyone in Hollywood! In the mid 90s, it was all about aliens and Burton capitalized on the trend by creating this kooky film which pokes fun at some of the campier alien invasion films from the 50s and 60s. Basically martians come to Earth and the dumb dumb leaders are confused about their intentions. We weren't! Anyone with any sense could tell those suckers were trouble, just from their giant exposed brains. We'll talk about some our other favorite alien films, why we think we haven't had an actual alien invasion in the history of the planet (or have we??), and shout out to Sweeti Jimi who chuckled through the entire thing! Ack, ack, ack!