'Star Trek: Beyond' makes the case for more 'Star Trek' films

When Star Trek was rebooted by J.J. Abrams in 2009 it was a game-changing event, and while there was some grumbling among diehards in the fanbase, the general consensus was that the film had effectively paid homage to the past (both on film and TV) but also took the franchise into the future.

I was not a detractor of Star Trek: Into Darkness, but I understand why that film's aggressive attempts to intertwine itself with the legacy of the series' greatest film -- The Wrath of Khan -- rubbed some audiences the wrong way.

Now here comes Star Trek: Beyond, the first film featuring the Chris Pine-Zachary Quinto era cast not to be directed by Abrams.

He is a producer on this one but he's handed over the reins to Fast & Furious guru Justin Lin. And Lin does a great job of transporting the ensemble camaraderie of the F&F films to the new Star Trek.

The best thing about the new film is the cast, which three films in has really come into its own. Quinto's deadpan Spock is still a delight, as is Chris Pine's cocksure Kirk. And Karl Urban, getting more to do this time around as Bones, scored some funny lines with his extended DeForest Kelley impression. They all seem to be a little liberated not having to establish their characters and relationships anymore. And this one labors less to pay homage to the projects that proceeded it, and that's a good thing.

Still, this movie is very much in the same vein as the first two in that it's paced and stylized much like a mainstream summer blockbuster, which will likely turn off audiences seeking a more cerebral sci-fi experience. Lin stages some nifty action set pieces, but far too many are also somewhat forgettable and drowned in CGI.

Unlike superior action films like Captain America: Civil War and The Force Awakens, the action in this movie doesn't feel driven by story or character. Instead it seems to be more about appeasing audiences who may be less interested in the Spock-Uhura romance, or Kirk's crisis of faith.

That said, it's not a bad film. It's just like the new Ghostbusters, in that it is a bit of a disposable one. It has a few nice moments of grace, even sweetness -- but it doesn't have the sophisticated social commentary that great Star Trek films like The Undiscovered Country did.

Chris Pine

But there's still time. This new one has been well-received enough by audiences to justify another sequel (although, sadly, the premature death of Anton Yelchin, means Chekov will either need to be recast of killed off). And this cast has yet to deliver their certifiably classic entry, unless you count their first, which I do.

I have never been a hardcore Star Trek aficionado. I watched the early films as a child and liked them -- even if the quality did seem to ebb and flow between even and odd editions. And I recently started delving into the original 1960s TV show.

On a certain level, the TV show doesn't lend itself to film. It is the very definition of episodic, very talky and almost always about something else than what the plot portrays. Still, Hollywood figured out how to make Star Trek work for the cinema, by goosing up the effects and piling on the action.

What has been missing, to a certain extent, from the new films is the soul. But the good news is that the cast is game and capable -- especially Pine, who has a lot of old school movie star charm -- and all they need is a script that dares to make some not-so-subtle allusions to our real world.

'Never Seen It' episode 6: Taking shots at Bigelow's 'Blue Steel'

In the most recent episode of our unapologetically self-indulgent podcast -- "Never Seen It" -- my wife (!) Elizabeth Rosado and I separately watched the 1989 cop thriller (remember when that was a genre?) Blue Steel.

Starring a de-glammed Jamie Lee Curtis, the movie is of note largely because it was directed by director Kathryn Bigelow.

This film hails from her pre-prestige filmmaker days. It arrived prior to her breakout hit Point Break, and hasn't exactly achieved cult status although its not without its fans.

Check out the video below to hear our thoughts on this pretty violent, highly-stylized movie, which contains an over-the-top villainous performance from the late Ron Silver, which may or may not be good.

Should his role have been re-cast with Andy Garcia? And should I actually re-write this entire movie to create a definitive version? These burning questions are answered and more in this edition. Keep listening -- and share you feedback, but just the positive stuff because we can't stop/won't stop.

'Concussion' and a breakdown of Will Smith's career to date

Like a lot of people I skipped Will Smith's NFL brain-injury drama Concussion when it was in theaters. I wanted to want to see it, but the reviews were mixed and while I like him just fine as an actor, Smith's presence alone isn't usually enough to make me look past a film's faults, which might be part of why he's in a slump.

It's hard to believe that he's been a massive movie star for about 20 years now. Although 1995's Bad Boys was a breakout hit, it was really 1996's Independence Day that turned him into a box office superstar. He actually hasn't had a larger domestic success since -- but for years he was as close to a sure thing as there was at the movies.

In fact, you can make the case that he supplanted Tom Hanks as America's favorite inoffensive movie star. At first, his big screen persona was essentially an extension of his role as The Fresh Prince. He was cocky, funny, brash and playful -- and it served him well in big hits like Men In Black and Enemy of the State.

He tried to be taken more seriously as an actor with 2001's Ali. A noble failure in which Smith delivered a very good impersonation of the champ but didn't convey a lot of his depth. For me, that has been Smith's principle problem as a dramatic actor, and it's not entirely his fault.

He is such a distinct, recognizable movie star that he can't really burrow his way into a role and entirely disappear. So in movies like Concussion for instance, where he does a decent job of affecting a Nigerian accent to play a saintly forensic pathologist, the effort behind the performance is all too evident.

Meanwhile, he allowed his more patented star turns to become few and far between while he focused on nurturing the career of his kids, which clearly has rubbed a lot moviegoers the wrong way. He passed on a part that could have been a game changer for him, the lead in Django Unchained, instead appearing in another forgettable Men In Black sequel.

His last great role, in my opinion, was 2007's I Am Legend, which allowed him to show some darker shadings but was never less than a showcase for his charm and presence. The following year's Hancock was very flawed, but it too allowed a little grizzle to permeate his usually upbeat delivery.

Concussion is not a terrible movie, and it's very well-intentioned -- but it needed to be a lot more exciting to land. The filmmaking is largely uninspired, and while Smith is certainly engaged, he doesn't give you much of a reason to care about his hero other than he's right and the NFL is wrong.

At 47, he is still very young and has a lot of time for a course correction -- and I suspect his ensemble turn in next month's Suicide Squad will at the very least provide a boost to his commercial standing.

Still, he appears to be in the same position Tom Cruise was in following his couch jumping, Matt Lauer-debunking public meltdown. His off-screen behavior has started to affect audiences attitudes towards him. Whether it was warranted or not, Smith's decision to boycott last year's Oscars was considered ungracious by some, and tabloid gossip about his personal life has unfortunately generated more buzz than any of his recent movies.

Cruise has managed to regain his footing by returning to his roots with the Mission: Impossible franchise. But for Will Smith his pathway may not be as easy. He may have missed an opportunity by sitting out the new Independence Day reboot -- but if the film is as bad the reviews suggest, it may have been for the best. I don't really see how the Men In Black and Bad Boys series have much gas left in the tank either.

What he may need to do -- and this may sound nuts -- is to follow Keanu Reeves' lead. Although it was only a small hit -- his John Wick singlehandedly re-established him as an action star and reminded audiences who liked him why they did in the first place. If Smith headlined a similarly taut, accessible action thriller, it might prove too irresistible for moviegoers who grew up with his mid-90s antics.

Then again, some audiences may have grown to old to want to "get jiggy with it."

The new 'Ghostbusters' is fun, and that's probably all that matters

I saw the new Ghostbusters film and you know what? The sky isn't falling. It's a funny movie. It doesn't threaten to eclipse the original, I don't even think it necessarily surpasses the second one, but for a lot of younger audiences who may not even have seen the first film, it'll do just fine.

It's overlong, doesn't have enough character development and gets too bogged down in CGI nonsense (especially in the somewhat unimaginative finale). But I have to admit I enjoyed it, not even begrudgingly. The new Ghostbusters have great chemistry and the movie does generate some of the same feel-good silly vibes of the classic version, although, sure, it does feel a little more forced.

To be clear, right off the bat, this is more of a remake than a reboot. I didn't agree with all those naysayers who tried to suggest that The Force Awakens was just a carbon copy of A New Hope, but they'd have a point with this one.

In some cases, full concepts and scenes from the original are recreated with mild alterations. And while I appreciated the attempt to pay homage to fans of the '84 and '89 iterations, there were times where it was more distracting than delightful.

I would have preferred it -- probably -- if this film had existed in the same universe as those movies, but it's a minor quibble. That would have had its imperfections too. And while some of the cameos from original cast members work better than others (Bill Murray's is oddly serious), this movie in no way hurts the legacy of what came before. In fact, some could argue it's reverent to a fault.

It's sort of a fascinating, self-defensive kind of movie. There are some very sly digs at the movie's small but vocal chorus of mostly male haters, and there are more deliberate hero shots in this one than you'd ever see in the Ivan Reitman-directed editions. But the New York City (technically Brooklyn) crowd I watched it with, loved it, especially the women -- and that made me really happy.

At the end of the day, perhaps Ghostbusters is slightly transitive -- like James Bond -- in the sense that every generation could in theory have their definitive version. For instance, on a certain level I don't feel like this Ghostbusters was necessarily intended for me. It definitely skews younger and the comic rhythms are much less naturalistic, as is the style these days.

Kate McKinnon -- whose loosey-goosey, at times Jim Carrey-esque performance, will either be the standout or the most polarizing aspect of the movie depending on the audience -- seems to embody the different aim of this version the most, although all four female leads are very funny and play very well off each other.

McKinnon sort of incorporates aspects of the Murray, Aykroyd and Ramis characters from the originals into an unpredictable stew. Kristen Wiig does wonders with the uptight straight-woman role, Melissa McCarthy gets to do some of her patented physical humor and Leslie Jones probably surprised me the most by softening her delivery a little bit and playing something more than a one-note role.

Chris Hemsworth is also inspired in a ridiculous performance as an insanely stupid hunk the women hire to be their receptionist. Some of the best oddball humor of the script revolves around his character.

All in all, I wouldn't say this movie touches Bridesmaids or Spy for sheer hilarity but its head and shoulders above director Paul Feig's overrated The Heat. It is a light, breezy summer comedy that will make you smile and probably little else.

The thing is, even Ghostbusters II was essentially a less terrific remake of the first movie. This too doesn't need to exist for any reason other than to make money through merchandizing (and the product placement in this movie is not subtle). The criticism that there is nothing particularly fresh about it is fair, but is there anything fresh to say about something that was already done to perfection 32 years ago?

But as I have long argued, this was inevitable because of commerce, and if it had to happen this is probably the most interesting iteration we were ever going to get. And now that I've seen it, I feel like my predictions have come true. It's good, not great, but it's a light comedy remake so as far as I'm concerned it doesn't need to be a game-changer.

My top 10 female comic performances (off the top of my head)

Teri Garr in Tootsie

The completely silly uproar over the all-female cast of the new Ghostbusters, which opens today, has had me thinking about my favorite female comedic performances.

First off, there are too few outright comedic roles for women. In fact, I am sad to say that in most of my favorite movies in the genre, women are either marginalized completely or have thankless girlfriend/wife roles, which serve simply to either advance the plot or provide the male lead(s) with some extra motivation. These characters are usually sweet and implausibly patient, but rarely if ever get to deliver a funny line, let alone be at the center of the action.

Still, some pretty glorious female comedy has managed to break through in the 100-plus years of Hollywood. Here are 10 great gems that popped into my head, although I reserve the right to either expand this list or revisit this topic at a later date.

10) Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment (1983) - While this performance is arguably a dramatic one, it's so full of excellent, light comedic touches I could not keep it off my list. The eccentric MacLaine plays the rare domineering mother who elicits sympathy from an audience and watching her find love with an irascible Jack Nicholson when she least expects it is a real delight. An Oscar winning performance that is rich with different shadings both funny and heartwarming.

9) Winona Ryder in Heathers (1988) - Before she moved on to more generic leading lady roles, Ryder was the ideal surrogate for sardonic iconoclasts everywhere. In this film and in Beetlejuice, she is the witty cynic, standing apart from the action commenting on the absurdity around her. But while in Beetlejuice she is playing a type, here she is a more fully fleshed out person who at least sees some of the seductive appeal of the popular high school crowd, before she destroys it in the most macabre way.

8) Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin (1980) - By the time this movie rolled around Hawn had already perfected playing sweet, somewhat dimwitted but still adorable heroines. But her character here is a bit of a departure. She plays a bratty daddy's girl who discovers her inner grit and desire not to be tied down in the most unlikely place -- the military. Hawn's performance in this film has been oft-imitated, but this still feels fresh.

7) Katherine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby (1938) - I still remember the first time I saw Hepburn's speed demon performance in this screwball comedy back when I was studying film in undergrad. I was stunned with how liberated she was and how modern her presence felt in a movie that came out of Hollywood's golden age, which didn't exactly provide a lot of opportunities for women to demonstrate their range. Here Cary Grant is her straight man foil, and she gets the biggest laughs.

Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles

6) Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles (1974) - This incredibly talented comic actress was a favorite of director Mel Brooks, and it was hard to choose between her work here and in Young Frankenstein, they're essentially interchangeably brilliant. But this western spoof has her show-stopping number "I'm Tired" (she scored an Oscar nom for the performance) which is a tour-de-force in crude comedy. Kahn has sadly been consistently overlooked and underrated.

5) Reese Witherspoon in Election (1999) - A breakthrough for director Alexander Payne (Sideways, About Schmidt) and its star. Witherspoon is famous for her more mainstream comedies like Legally Blonde, but she actually gave one of the best performances of her career as the overachieving nutjob Tracy Flick, who wages a figurative holy war to win a race for class president in her high school to the chagrin of one of her teachers (a note perfect Matthew Broderick) in this unsung black comedy.

4) Kristen Wiig in Bridesmaids (2011) - Melissa McCarthy scored the Oscar nod and had the showier role, but in a film packed with funny women, for me, Kristen Wiig was the standout. She gave the most nuanced performance as someone struggling to come to grips with the reality that her best friend is entering a new phase of her life, marriage, ostensibly without her. The drunken airplane meltdown is one of the most hilarious moments in movie history.



3) Renee Zellweger in Nurse Betty (2000) - Before her career got somewhat derailed, Zellweger was a fresh and interesting new face. Her best role is in this little seen masterpiece about memory loss and mistaken identity, where she plays a plucky waitress at a diner who inadvertently gets plunged into a dangerous bit of criminal intrigue. Zellweger gives an exceptionally endearing performance, but also shows off some great comedic timing too.

2) Teri Garr in Tootsie (1982) - In what could have been a one-note role, Garr nearly steals this classic movie playing Dustin Hoffman's friend who briefly becomes his pseudo girlfriend. She plays  a wonderfully vivid, insecure, emotional and energetic actress -- whose reaction to the central reveal of the movie (that Hoffman has won a role she sought by dressing up like a woman) is a thing of beauty. Honorable mention goes to Garr's bizarro (in a good way) cameo appearance in Martin Scorsese's After Hours.

1) Diane Keaton in Annie Hall (1977) - Woody Allen has written a lot of great comedic roles women (including most recently Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine), but he may never top this one -- which won Keaton the Oscar. Although Keaton has been pretty much playing versions of this same character throughout her career, I have little quibble with this, especially since Annie Hall is such a nuanced and neurotic personality. This romantic comedy works only because her character grows on you, and by the final scenes you come to realize that you fell in love with her too.

Sound of cinema: My top 10 favorite film composers of all-time

Ennio Morricone

I am a huge fan of film scores and soundtracks. In fact, I might just love movie music almost as much as I am aficionado of cinema itself.

I am not much of a crier in my everyday life, but a well-placed, moving score can really bring on the waterworks (Clint Eastwood's heartbreaking Million Dollar Baby music always gets me). I truly believe a great soundtrack can elevate a movie, and sometimes a bad one can mar one.

There are classic one-offs, like Nina Rota's memorable work on The Godfather, but this blog is not about those. This is about artists who had a sustained -- and in some cases -- still ongoing body of work that is formidable by almost any standard.

10) Elmer Bernstein and Jerry Goldsmith (tie) - I hate to do ties, and this is a bit of a cheat for me but these two legends are kind of interchangeable to me. I don't mean that as a knock, but they both are responsible for lush, romantic scores that speak to Hollywood's golden age, and both seamlessly could modernize their sound -- Bernstein with his playfully serious themes for comedies like (Ghostbusters) and Goldsmith's evocative work on big budget fare (Alien). To me, they both personify composer class at its finest.

Best scores: Goldsmith - Chinatown, Bernstein - The Grifters

9) John Carpenter - A bit of an outside the box pick for sure, but hear me out. Although Carpenter only did a handful of minimalist keyboard driven scores for his own films (including his iconic Halloween), his signature sound is not only phenomenal but highly influential. He changed the way scary movies sounded for a generation and his recent releases -- Lost Themes and Lost Themes II -- finally see him getting the credit he's long deserved for being a musical genius.

Best score: Escape From New York

John Williams

8) Lalo Schifrin - This composer's slinky, jazzy, but also funky rhythms perfectly evoke his late 1960s, early 1970s heyday. If he had done nothing but write the classic Mission: Impossible theme he would have probably made this list, but he also leant his talents to a number of brooding '60s and '70s hits (like Bullitt and Dirty Harry), and seemed to put the most sentimental inclinations of Hollywood scores of the past to bed forever.

Best score: Enter the Dragon

7) Cliff Martinez - The frequent collaborator of Steven Soderbergh's and Nicolas Winding Refn has slowly been building up quite a reputation, boasting three modern classics with his work on Drive, Only God Forgives and The Neon Demon. Also worth checking out is his underrated work on the equally undervalued 2002 remake of Solaris. He's doing amazing stuff with synths and moody propulsive beats (see Spring Breakers), that have had me noticing his name more and more when I go to the movies.

Best score: Drive

6) John Barry - The man behind the James Bond theme. That's kind of all you need to know. He went on to do many respectable scores, but for my money, he never surpassed the incredible work he did on the 007 series. Remarkably, he tailored each score to the specific tone of each movie -- from the spacey Moonraker to the grittier Goldfinger and From Russia With Love. The music of the Bond films is just as important as the stunts and the actor in the lead role.

Best score: On Her Majesty's Secret Service

5) Hans Zimmer - Today, Zimmer is best known for his bombastic, muscular scores for thinking man's action films like Inception, but his resume is actually much more diverse. For instance, he also penned the music for against type films like Rain Man and 12 Years a Slave. Still, it's pulse pounding, brassy work for Christopher Nolan which has single-handedly redefined the sound of the summer blockbuster. His work on The Dark Knight trilogy in particular is unparalleled.

Best score: The Dark Knight (with James Newton Howard)

4) Danny Elfman - The former Oingo Bingo front-man has worked with other director's but his partnership with Tim Burton is one of the most successful in all of movies. His playful, mischievous sound is almost instantly recognizable in movies like Beetlejuice and Pee Wee's Big Adventure. But he also does macabre mayhem better than just about anyone. In recent years he's moved further away from his earlier work to embrace a more mainstream style, but I will always associate him with nursery rhyme gone to seed style of his Simpsons theme.

Best score; Batman

3) Bernard Herrmann - This late composer is most famous for his many collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock. Apparently quite belligerent and difficult behind the scenes, that didn't stop him from producing some brilliant scores for the master filmmaker, from Psycho, to North By Northwest and the beautifully haunting Vertigo. He also scored what is widely considered to be the best movie ever made -- Citizen Kane. But my personal favorite score is his last, Taxi Driver, which he completed just says before his death in 1976.

Best score: Taxi Driver

2) John Williams - Most music snobs (and even many movie lovers) roll their eyes at the mention of Williams, who is best associated with accessible, almost pop scores for some of the most beloved hit movies of all time. His work for Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and others may not always be sophisticated but it has an emotional power that is unmistakable. His work on Star Wars, ET, Indiana Jones, Close Encounters, Jaws and Superman isn't just popular because its easy on the ears -- it's also a perfect compliment to the visuals. And his remarkable body of work should not be reduced to those legendary scores either. For instance, his music for Catch Me If You Can, Nixon and many more is just as accomplished.

Best score; The Empire Strikes Back

1) Ennio Morricone - The man. The legend. The Italian composer first captured the attention of American audiences with his epic, rock-influenced scores for Ennio Morricone's early spaghetti westerns and he spun that success into dozens of other terrific soundtracks in the genre. Morricone distinguished himself with achingly beautiful music that often even upstaged the action in many of the films in which it appeared. In his later years, he calibrated his style to suit sprawling gangster films like The Untouchables and Bugsy, and took some risks with his ominous work on The Thing, some of which was re-purposed with the Oscar-winning score for The Hateful Eight. This guy, and his countless hours of music, is a treasure.

Best score: Once Upon a Time in the West

'Never Seen It' episode 5: Indulging in 'An Affair to Remember'

Younger audiences may best know the 1957 Deborah Kerr-Cary Grant romance An Affair to Remember as the movie that serves as inspiration for one of the major plot points of the1993 hit Sleepless in Seattle, and it remains one of most beloved films of its genre nearly sixty years since its initial release.

It's also a movie that me and my wife, Elizabeth Rosado, had never seen before -- and since we're in a romantic mood these days we thought we'd check it out for the latest installment of our "Never Seen It" podcast.

For those of you joining us for the first time, the idea is we both watch a movie neither of us has ever seen before separately (we did break this rule with the Vin Diesel film XXX) and then share our thoughts for the first time on a podcast that we record a usually an ungodly hour.

Check out the YouTube below to here our honest and sincere reaction to this legendary weepie.

I probably shouldn't like 'The Neon Demon' but I kind of loved it

When Drive came out in 2011, it was love at first sight for me. The moody homage to movies like Thief and The Driver was a masterpiece in my opinion, the best movie of that year and I was psyched to see whatever its director, the cocky Nicolas Winding Refn, would do next.

His follow-up, the pretty much critically reviled Only God Forgives, was decidedly less accessible and yet I dug it, despite the fact that it was pretty indulgent and almost aggressively not audience-friendly.

By the time The Neon Demon rolled around I was starting to question my fandom.

Was Refn just a talented hack with a knack for sensuous visuals, or was he still a filmmaker worth following? After watching The Neon Demon, which will surely turn off most viewers as it has most critics, I must admit that I consider him and his work an irresistible guilty pleasure.

The movie is ostensibly a bleak satire of the fashion industry, but I don't think it has anything especially profound or original to say about that admittedly fascinating world. Instead, Refn has created a totally whacked out horror movie that could make for ideal midnight movie fare. A totally audacious and stunning-looking experiment in style over substance.

Veering wildly from black humor to gross-out gags, this is not a movie I could recommend to many people, in fact I can totally understand why a lot of audiences will/would hate it (if you despised Only God Forgives, steer clear). But I was on board with Refn's vision from the very first gorgeous frames.

He is aided tremendously by his mostly female, waif-like cast (and Keanu Reeves in a very good, out-of-character supporting role). Elle Fanning is a revelation. She builds on the promise she showed in Super 8, using her expressive face to play both naive sweetness and cunning sexuality. She is matched by Jena Malone, who nearly steals the movie with a performance that asks her to take some shocking risks that might humiliate a lesser actress.

The whole film is beyond absurd and if you're looking for something that makes a whole lot of narrative sense this isn't the movie for you. This is Refn doing a riff on Brian De Palma's aesthetic of pure cinema -- visual eye candy collides with Cliff Martinez's throbbing, erotic score -- to create a real dream like atmosphere that had me riveted.

The Neon Demon

Refn really likes to call attention to himself, he slathers the film with his name as prominently featured in the credits as his stars. Clearly he is a director interested in making a statement and being taken seriously, and I admire the fact that instead of making the Hollywood blockbusters he was surely offered after the critical success of Drive, he instead chose to let his freak flag fly and pursue his preoccupations.

His films are not kind to women to say the least, and a case could be made that this film traffics in misogyny, although I was impressed to see that his co-writers and cinematographer were all women. And his tendency to revel on particularly queasy violence has always been a little unsettling to me. But these are minor quibbles when I watch something that truly surprises me.

There are film I saw this year that I liked better but I sure had a lot of fun watching The Neon Demon, although I can't for the life of me figure out how he got a movie this bizarre financed! Say what you will about Refn and his films, he is one of the few directors I can think of right now who is cultivating a signature style (those dread-filled pregnant pauses!) and creating his own cinematic worlds.

'Fair Game' and a requiem for the cheesy '90s thriller genre

Last night, inspired by a particularly hilarious How Did This Get Made? podcast I finally watched the 1995 debacle Fair Game. The movie, which was a big budget attempt to turn Cindy Crawford into the next Julia Roberts, and establish William Baldwin as the next Keanu, is incredibly bad but also wildly entertaining -- and it made me a little nostalgic for '90s cheese.

I'm talking about the plethora of subpar, nominally erotic thrillers which seemed to be in an endless supply following the breakout success of the legitimately good Basic Instinct in 1992. Movies like The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Sleeping with the Enemy, Single White Female, Jade, Body of Evidence, Sliver, The Specialist and yes, Fair Game.

These movies almost all had abrupt and arguable unnecessary nudity, ridiculous one liners, a jarring amount of senseless violence and plots so labyrinthine and convoluted that it's almost as if the filmmakers deliberately want audiences to have no idea what is happening on screen -- or what, if anything, the title means.

Fair Game is like the Mona Lisa of this type of movies. It has no cliche that goes unexploited -- from the slow motion dive away from an explosion, to the impractical sex scene amid a chase -- and yet, like so many other films in the genre it has a sort of audacious hubris that I admire.

The makers of this movie (including 90's-action super-producer Joel Silver) have no patience for subtlety. They figured we have two hot stars here let's get them wet as often as possible (literally and figuratively) and keep them and the movie moving even if coherence gets sacrificed in the process.

We almost never get straight ahead thrillers anymore -- we barely still get traditional action. And when we do they are pretty tame and innocuous. I sort of miss the days when the pre-release hype about a movie was about how graphic the sex scene was, or whether or not the stars had kinetic chemistry. Now, it's just -- what did it do on its opening weekend.

Of course, Fair Game was a miserable failure financially too. It short-circuited William Baldwin's career pretty much for good, and Crawford, as stunning as she is here, wisely realized that acting isn't her forte. There's one scene in particular, where she is tasked with seducing a stereotypical nerd which suggests that she has never acted flirtatious in her entire life.

But now, this movie can be enjoyed in a totally different context. It requires active participation. When a movie depicts a character being shot in the penis and then the neck, after which their toupee gets ripped off (and yes, that happens in this movie) you can't not have an audible reaction.

Nothing in Jurassic World provoked that kind of reaction from me. Virtually nothing happened in that movie that I didn't anticipate. Sure, Fair Game doesn't make a lot of sense -- I never understood the plot -- but at least it has a certain relentless enthusiasm.

Ahh the nineties. It was just a kinder, simpler time.

Flashback 1986: My top 10 favorite movies from 30 years ago

Hey there loyal readers -- it's been a while, but I am sure you will forgive me since I was off getting married and then on honeymoon.

Now I am back and freshly tanned, and eager to get back into the swing of things with this movie blog. That said, I have probably never been this out of the loop in terms of pop culture -- I haven't been keeping up with the summer movies at all (I just don't think any of them appeal to me). Although I am holding out some hope for the new Jason Bourne movie, and Suicide Squad does intrigue me.

So I haven't watching anything new lately -- mostly just catching up on older films I've wanted to revisit, or new blu rays that I have indulged myself with.

But to get back into the groove -- for now -- I thought I'd do another one of my top 10 lists. This one looking thirty years back to 1986.

It's a tough year for me as there are a lot of films I really like that wound up on the bubble. For instance, the underrated erotic thriller 9 1/2 Weeks just missed the cut for me. I think it contains one of Mickey Rourke's great early career performances but this is a place for favorites.

That said honorable mentions also would go to Pretty in Pink, Star Trek IV, Manhunter and At Close Range. Now, without any further caveats, here is my top 10:

10)  The Hitcher - Critics savaged this undeniably opaque and sparse horror film, but I am obsessed with it. Rutger Hauer, in an unforgettable performance, plays the demented hitchhiker who proceeds to torment a whiny drifter (played by the appropriately pathetic C. Thomas Howell) who initially picks him up on the side of the road but then abandons him when he becomes unbearably creepy. A strange, somewhat trippy film which almost benefits from not making a lot of narrative sense.

9) Platoon - While it's probably just my fifth favorite Vietnam war film (the top four would be Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, The Deer Hunter, and Casualties of War), it's still an excellent movie, made more personal by the fact that it's loosely based on director Oliver Stone's actual experience as an infantryman. Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe light up the screen as diametrically opposed father figures for the protagonist, played adequately as an audience surrogate by Charlie Sheen.

8) Something Wild- When people opine about how Melanie Griffith became a thing I would point them no further than this quirky gem from director Jonathan Demme. Before bad roles and surgeries torpedoed her career she was the manic pixie dream girl before it became a tiresome trope. And Jeff Daniels is her equal as a mild mannered guy who needs to be dragged out of his comfort zone. A fun and unpredictable romantic comedy that kicks into high gear when Ray Liotta shows up as a particularly sadistic villain.

7) The Fly - Jeff Goldblum does an incredible job here under heavy make-up in the supremely icky but fascinating allegory of the HIV-AIDS crisis from director David Cronenberg. This sci-fi gross-out became an unlikely hit and turned Goldblum into an even more unlikely sex symbol, but its the heart at the center of the film that helps it still hold up, even more than the state-of-the-art special effects. Geena Davis is luminous as the love interest, but make no mistake, this movie can give you nightmares.

6) The Color of  Money - Director Martin Scorsese's follow-up to the 1961 classic The Hustler, is unjustly maligned in my opinion. Sure, it's a faster, flashier movie, but Paul Newman is still dynamite in the lead role of "Fast" Eddie Felson and so is Tom Cruise, who is more vulnerable than you'd expect in probably his last role without top billing. Their generation clash, the hard rocking soundtrack and Scorsese's whiplash editing make this an 80's tour-de-force.

5) Ferris Bueller's Day Off - Easily my favorite film to come out of the John Hughes factory. This comedy had a huge influence on me as a younger person. Clearly, although Matthew Broderick's titular hero was a bit of self-serving, self-involved jerk, you still looked up to him and kind of wanted to be him. And the movie's attempts at depth, while earnest, land because they come with an element of truth, even if the movie stretches its credibility on a regular basis. A great coming-of-age movie.

4) Aliens - One of the best sequels of all time, and a reminder of what director James Cameron is capable of when he tamps down some of his more pretentious inclinations. A truly riveting action film that expands on the mythology of the first film while providing even more of a showcase for its star, Sigourney Weaver. Once this movie kicks into high gear it easily becomes one of the most relentless action movies ever made -- and that's a good thing.

3) Hannah and Her Sisters - This is one of Woody Allen's most satisfying and refreshing films (it's no surprise that it was one of his few crossover box office hits). Although he plays a small, funny and pivotal role in it, the movie is a showcase for women and he creates three very complex, plausible sisters who are fully fleshed out and exceptionally portrayed. And Michael Caine delivers an Oscar-winning turn that is similarly sublime. A real masterpiece.

2) Three Amigos - One of my all-time favorite comedies, that was a huge touchstone for me growing up. My two siblings and I used to play 'Three Amigos' in our backyard (my brother and I fought passionately over who got to be Chevy Chase). It's essentially a one-joke movie (vapid silent film adventure movie actors get mistaken for the real thing), but it's told so well and with such goofy delight, its irresistible. The performance of "My Little Buttercup" should be in any time capsule of American comedy.

1) Blue Velvet - One of the greatest, most daring and haunting movies ever made. This David Lynch masterpiece has only grown in stature in my mind over the years. It is not for everyone's tastes -- but viewers who are willing to be taken on a journey and who can handle uncompromising (and yes, sometimes uncomfortable material) will not be disappointed. It sort of defies summation but what this film is about is the dark heart that lurks within perhaps all idyllic American towns. And boy does Lynch rip it out with this one.