I've Totally Seen That Movie Before

The Lost Boys (1987) Director:  Joel Schumacher Cast: Jason Patric, Corey Haim, Dianne Wiest, Barnard Hughes, Edward Hermann, Kiefer Sutherland, Jami Gertz, Corey Feldman, Jamison Newlander Writers: Jan Fischer, James Jeremias, Jeffrey Boam Synopsis: After a painful divorce, Lucy (Wiest) moves from Phoenix with her two teenage sons, Michael (Patric) and Sam (Haim) to Santa Carla, California. The town is plagued by a number of bad elements and is referred to as the "murder capital of the the world" due to a high concentration of vampires secretly living in the area. Not long after arriving in town, Michael meets David (Sutherland), the leader of a young group of vampires, who tries to get him to join the gang. With the help of his new friends Edgar (Feldman) and Alan (Newlander) Frog, Sam must kill the elusive "head vampire" and free his brother from the curse of vampirism. First Impressions: I didn't see this movie until a couple years...

Rob Roy (1995) Director:  Michael Caton-Jones Cast:  Liam Neeson, Jessica Lange, Tim Roth, John Hurt, Eric Stoltz, Brian Cox, Andrew Keir, Brian McCardie Writers: Alan Sharp Synopsis: In the early 18th century, the Scottish cattle farmer Rob Roy MacGregor (Neeson) seeks to improve the fortunes of his town by borrowing a large sum of money from the local noble, the Marquis of Montrose (Hurt). When the Marquis' treacherous ward, Archibald Cunningham (Roth) and factor, Killearn (Cox), steal the money and murder his friend Alan (Stoltz), Rob must find a way to settle his debt with the nobleman. Montrose offers to lift the debt if MacGregor will speak out against another noble, the Duke of Argyll (Keir), Rob refuses and is made an outlaw.  First Impressions: I saw this movie in the theaters when I was about 19 years old. I remember seeing a TV spot for the movie and was immediately interested because at the time I was very interested in historical ...

Batman Returns (1992) Director: Tim Burton Cast:  Michael Keaton, Michelle Pfeiffer, Danny DeVito, Christopher Walken, Michael Gough, Michael Murphy Writers: Bob Kane (Batman characters), Daniel Waters, Sam Hamm Synopsis: The Caped Crusader (Keaton) is back and this time he's pitted against amoral billionaire Max Shrek (Walken), who devises a plan to run Gotham by partnering with the Penguin (DeVito), who he convinces to run for mayor. In addition, Batman must also stop the unstable Catwoman (Pfeiffer), who seeks revenge against Shrek for trying to kill her. First Impressions:   I saw this movie in the theaters when it was released back in 1992 and I remember enjoying it for the most part. However, while I found the movie entertaining, it didn't have near the impact on me as did Burton's first go-round with the Dark Knight. Since then I've only ever seen this movie a few times and only watched it once since I purchased it on DVD. As ...

Batman (1989) Director:  Tim Burton Cast: Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl, Pat Hingle, Billy Dee Williams, Michael Gough, Jack Palance Writers: Bob Kane (Batman Characters), Sam Hamm (story, screenplay), Warren Skaaren (screenplay) Synopsis: Batman (Keaton) tries to stop the Joker (Nicholson) from poisoning the citizens of Gotham and interfering with the city's 200th anniversary celebration. The caped crusader is helped by the peppy photojournalist, Vicki Vale (Basinger) and his loyal butler Alfred (Gough). The Dark Knight soon learns a painful truth about the Joker's connection with his dark past and the film culminates in a showdown between Batman and the Clown Prince of Crime atop a cathedral bell-tower. First Impressions: I was 13 years old when this movie came out and remember being so excited to see it. I quite enjoyed the film, so much so that the following Christmas my brother gave me a copy of it on VHS as a gift (th...

Ronin (1998) Director: John Frankenheimer Cast: Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone, Stellan  Skarsgård, Sean Bean, Skipp Sudduth, Michael Lonsdale, Jonathan Pryce Writers: J.D. Zeik, David Mamet Synopsis: A woman named Deirdre (McElhone) hires a group of mercenaries, including former intelligence operative, Sam (De Niro); the fixer, Vincent (Reno); former KGB computer specialist, Gregor (Skarsgård); wheel man, Larry (Sudduth); and former SAS soldier, Spence (Bean). The team's objective to to steal a mysterious attache case to prevent it from being sold to the Russians. Things don't always go as planned, however, and the team is forced to deal with betrayal from within and without. First Impressions:   I saw this film in the theaters upon it's release in 1998. I was about 22 years old at the time and smack dab in the middle of my pretentious "cine-file" phase. At the time, I quite enjoyed this movie because it was a solid spy ...

Open Range (2003) Director:  Kevin Costner Cast: Robert Duvall, Kevin Costner, Annette Bening, Michael Gambon, Michael Jeter, Diego Luna, James Russo, Abraham Benrubi Writers:  Lauran Paine (Novel), Craig Storper (Screenplay) Synopsis: Boss Spearman (Duvall), along with his crew Charley Waite (Costner), Mose Harrison (Benrubi) and Button (Luna) free graze their cattle across the prairies of the West. When they are forced to wait out some bad weather they come into contact with the town of Harmonville, which is run by the cattleman Denton Baxter (Gambon) and his corrupt sheriff Marshall Poole (Russo). Baxter isn't fond of the idea of free grazers and tries to scatter or steal Spearman's herd, which leads to members of Spearman's crew getting injured and killed. As a result, Spearman and Charley, who only wanted to be left in peace, are drawn into an eventual showdown with Baxter and his men.  First Impressions: I saw this movie when it was releas...

First Blood (1982) Director:  Ted Kotcheff Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Brian Dennehy, Richard Crenna, Bill McKinney, Jack Starrett, Chris Mulkey, David Caruso Writers:   David Morell (based on the novel by), Michael Kozoll (screenplay) Synopsis: Former Green Beret and Vietnam vet John Rambo (Stallone) wanders into a small town in the Pacific Northwest, where he is arrested for vagrancy by corrupt sheriff Will Teasle (Dennehy). After suffering abuse at the hands of Teasle's deputies, Rambo snaps and escapes custody, injuring several deputies in the process, and flees into the nearby hills. During the manhunt, deputy Art Galt (Starrett) is killed in a helicopter accident. The death pushes Teasle over the edge and he becomes consumed with finding Rambo. Colonel Trautman (Crenna), Rambo's former superior officer, is brought in to help the local authorities bring him to justice.  First Impressions: This movie came out in fall of 1982, when I wa...