Ready Reviewer One

HARRY AND THE HENDERSONS (1987)



Did you know the guy who played Predator also played Harry Henderson and both movies came out a month apart? Crazy! Anyway, this movie is fucking great. It should be considered one of the great Spielberg productions, but as I said in my Young Sherlock Holmes review, Spielberg fatigue had definitely set in at this point and it was a box office flop. In fact, everything Spielberg released in 1987 flopped, including his own directorial work Empire of the Sun. You can just imagine how badly he needed Roger Rabbit to succeed in `88. Anywho, this movie is surprisingly deep for a so-called silly family film. I can just picture Dracula, fresh out of the womb with a smoking pipe in his mouth saying, "I only watch Russian cinema." The movie tackles heavy themes such as animal rights, environmental protection and the current 2018 hot topic gun control. You have PG Cooper over here doing video essays on baby boomer movies like Eraserhead while he can be targeting that Generation Z audience with Harry and the Hendersons.

You think I'm joking PG Cooper? Let me break it down for you.

John Lithgow plays a gun store owner. He's out hunting with his family and runs into Bigfoot. There's a chance for him to kill Bigfoot or at least injure him and turn him into King Kong. He doesn't cause he realizes Bigfoot has feelings. So he takes Bigfoot home and makes him part of the family. But Bigfoot clearly doesn't belong in the suburbs and he gets himself into trouble. The town freaks out and business at the gun store starts booming as everyone wants a gun to protect themselves from Bigfoot. I'm not making this up PG Cooper. This all happens in the movie. Then John Lithgow gets fed up and tells everyone, "no guns for you." Only responsible adults should own firearms and it should be a pistol or rifle, nothing militaristic. Again, PG Cooper, this all happens. Knowing he's alone in all this, he helps Bigfoot go deep into the forest and away from humans. The movie ends with a classic Spielbergian tearjerker and an Academy Award for Rick Baker. Bravo.

So PG Cooper, get to work. I want a video essay by Monday. Hashtag March4Life. And you Dracula. Leave the Goonies alone. To quote the great Cyndi Lauper, The Goonies R Good Enough.

Get the fuck out.  Hook is an awesome movie, warts and all.  You know what, no.  No warts.  The story completely works for me.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)



30 years before Steven Spielberg & Doomsday united 1980’s pop culture for a Hollywood blockbuster, Spielberg & Robert Zemeckis tackled a different sort of nostalgia.

Roger Rabbit is about a 1940’s private eye in Los Angeles, played beautifully by Bob Hoskins, investigating the death of Marvin Acme, the man who owned Toon Town. The film is notable for its groundbreaking hybrid of live-action & animation and for its team-up of competing cartoon characters from the 1930’s & 40’s.

This isn’t a movie you can appreciate as a kid. This isn’t Space Jam. The plot and characters went over our head. We just liked it cause it was interesting to watch. 1940’s noir meets Tex Avery. There isn’t anything like it. But watching it as an adult you get the satire, and in my case anyway, end up loving it.