Way of the Wicked

Way of the Wicked

Matt Kelly Films

May 20, 2014

Horror

DVD
D

Thoroughly unoriginal.  Kevin Carraway directed.

Very Bad Things

Very Bad Things

Initial Entertainment Group

November 25, 1998

Comedy

DVD
D

Lives up to its title, although apparently it gets much worse after the first quarter hour of pointless bickering, anti-Semitism, and cocaine.  (It did allow me to MST3K Jeremy Piven sucking on Ellen, when his character here asked what he did wrong.)  Peter Berg wrote and directed, before Friday Night Lights, Mile 22, and Patriots Day, which all got D's, so at least he's consistent.

True Romance

True Romance

Morgan Creek Productions etc.

September 10, 1993

Well, I guess Romance

DVD
C-

The lack of violence in the first quarter hour is refreshing, especially with a Tarantino script.  Tony Scott directed, before Crimson Tide, etc.

Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay

Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay

DC Entertainment etc.

March 27, 2018

Animation, Action, Sci-Fi?

DVD
D-

Does its darnedest to earn an R-rating, but throws in the word "heck."  Sam Liu directed, the year after Batman and Harley Quinn.

The Name of the Rose

The Name of the Rose

Columbia

September 24, 1986

Historical Drama

DVD
D-

Boring and a little gross.  This is based on the Umberto Eco novel and directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, fifteen years before Enemy at the Gates.

Interview with the Vampire

Interview with the Vampire

Warner Bros.

November 11, 1994

Horror, Historical Drama

DVD
D

Boring and violent.  Of course based on the Anne Rice novel, and directed by Neil Jordan, almost twenty years before Byzantium.

Heathers

Heathers

New World Pictures

March 31, 1989

Crime Comedy, Romance

DVD
B-

An uneven but still entertaining high-school-murder comedy, from the pre-Columbine era.  Ryder gives a capable appearance as a gray-moraled character, while Slater somehow is charming teen rebel and pathetic psychopath in one Jack-Nicholsonian package.  Michael Lehmann directed.

Bed of Roses (1996)

So I guess they smile at some
point after the first quarter-hour

Bed of Roses (1996)
New Line Cinema
January 26, 1996
Romance
DVD
D+

A depressed and depressing lawyer gets flowers from a secret admirer.  I like Masterson better in Fried Green Tomatoes and Slater better in Heathers, and I didn't want to watch them here.  Still, the production values are good, and it's cool to see what Pamela Segall (later Pamela Adlon) looked like in her late 20s, since I enjoy her work as a teen in Grease 2 and Something Special.  She plays Kim, the best friend of Masterson's character, and of course steals scenes even when she's just a voice on an answering machine.

Michael Goldenberg wrote and directed, and over a decade later he would do much better work with the script for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.